A Day of Thanks

Sections: Site News Nov 24th, 2005 24 Comments

Since it’s Thanksgiving today, (in the US at least) I thought I’d offer up a quick thank you to all the readers and contributors that have supported MotoringFile over the last three years. We’ve gone through a lot of change over the last month and we appreciate your continued support. And special thanks to Matt Gifford who has handled most of the technical aspects of the site for three years. MotoringFile wouldn’t be what it is today without his help.

Oh and for those who are wondering, I’m writing this from my resurrected Powerbook with a new 100GB hard drive. As it turns out the previous drive (which was actually a Toshiba) is only salvageable through considerable expense. Thus it now occupies a spot on my desk as an oddly sized paper-weight.

Written By: Gabe

http://dcmini.blogspot.com/ DanC

And thanks to you as well.
Day42

Happy Thanksgiving to you Gabe, and to everyone else out there. We have many things to be thankful for!
Chris M

Happy Thanksgiving, Gabe, and thanks for all you do on this great site. It was such a valuable source when I was getting ready to buy a new Mini, and I still check MotoringFile every day, just because it’s fun to read.

I’m getting used to the kerned headlines, too :-)
mike

yeah gabe, thanks.

p.s. use that paperweight to hold down a note to remind you to back up weekly. ;)
http://www.motoringfile.com/ Gabe

p.s. use that paperweight to hold down a note to remind you to back up weekly. ;)

I probably deserve that :)
modboi

Thanks to you too. I check your site religiously everyday.

Chris
Chuck

p.s. use that paperweight to hold down a note to remind you to back up weekly. ;)

Hard lessons are never forgotten. Thanks for all your hard work Gabe!
UJ

Havea a great day, Gabe, and thanks for the usefull information.
Cafeine

I would like to thank Gabe and all MINI lovers for their usefull info…Gabe helped me decide to get a single Remus for my COoper…and till today, i still remember his review…..:P..

I also wanna say thanks to all people that came to MISANo…they made this event an unforgetable experience and hope to see you all in the next…

And of course my parents for buying me the MINI…:P:P:P:P…..
Cuca

Thanks for being the frontman of this great site! :)
O(=^=)O Capn

Were all thankful for St Gabriel.
http://www.newministuff.com mikeythemini

I would just like to echo the above words – thanks for a VERY informative site
Allan

Much thanks goes to you, Gabe, for reliable info about all things MINI (and sometimes not so MINI). Not only do I check the site everyday, Motoringfile is set as my homepage so I never miss a beat.
Vanwall
Have a great Thanksgiving, Gabe & Matt!
```
   BCNU
 Rob in Dago
```
http://www.hubertus.net Philip

Happy Thanksgiving and thanks for this great site. It fuels my MINI enthusiasm every day!
http://bravo5.org/blog blalor

And thanks to you, Gabe, for taking so much time from your busy life to invest in a valuable resource and community for MINIacs! I’m a relative newcomer, but MF has been my bible for nigh on two years, now. I’m looking forward to being able to give back in some way, however small. It’s great to be part of an enthusiastic, vibrant group of people who, apart from being bona fide car nuts, are also compassionate caring people who give back in so many ways.

So, as the saying goes, Let’s Motor!
morknmini

Thanks, Gabe, for putting so much time, energy and creativity into this aesthetic and informative site. Best wishes.

PS: Did we get straightened out about the contraction and possessive forms for “it”? “It’s” is the contraction for “it is”. “Its” is the possessive for “it”. Happy Thanksgiving.
BRUCE HORD

Gabe:

Your hard work and ceaseless thoughtful enthusiasm has made my MINI buying and owning experience one of the best ever and I have been buying cars since about 1953.

I envy you your energy and hope it never diminishes.

No english lessons this evening. Just thanks.

Bruce
Giacomo

LOL……..Man
GuateMINI

Motoring File is the DEFINTE source for MINI information. To think that one person is behind it is very impressive. Thank you.

Your participation on White Roof Radio’s podcast is also a lot of fun.

Please keep it up as long as it is good for you!

Saludos
http://blu-iguana.us J/C

And a Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours Mr. Bridger.

-Juan
Nathaniel Salzman

Here here!

Yeah Gabe, let me add my voice of thanks for keeping MotoringFile up and going. I read it every day and it definately helps feed my MINI mania!

As for your harddrive and data recovery, I’ve had harddrive failure myself on my PC (back before I went MAC) and an IT buddy of mine suggested something that sounded completely rediculous but worked like a charm: freezing the drive.

Most harddrive failures are heat-related. Heat expands the drive disks themselves and they get off track from the reading arms (picture a turntable needle running between the tracks on the record). The interesting thing is that most of the time, all of your data is still intact, your drive simply can’t physically access it. The fix is to seal your drive in a plastic bag (to keep out condensation) and toss it in the freezer for a couple days. The cold makes the drive plates contract back down to their original size and the drive can sometimes actually work for 5-15 minutes until it warms back up all the way. It doesn’t always work and your drive may have another fault not heat-related. But the best part is that it won’t hurt anything to try. The trick with a laptop drive is finding a way to hook it up. If your Powerbook is anything like mine, it’s hard to run the computer with the drive hanging out (at least not as easy as a desktop). If you can hook it up through another sort and grab data off in chunks, you might be able to recover all your critical data. The “freezer” method did work for me (and has worked for other friends of mine) when my drive died.

Good luck with that, with the job search, and thanks a bunch for all you do with MotoringFile.
TSizemore3

The trick with a laptop drive is finding a way to hook it up. If your Powerbook is anything like mine, itÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s hard to run the computer with the drive hanging out (at least not as easy as a desktop)

There are many Firewire & USB 2.0 housings that you can pick up fairly cheaply from some of the computer supply sites or ebay. I use one quite regularly to do backups and move very large files via sneakernet. I put the original 20 GB drive that came with my Powerbook in it when I upgraded to a 60 GB Travelstar.
Giacomo

The Self Preservation Society

This is the Self Preservation Society The Self Preservation Society

Put on your almond rock and daisy roots Brush your Hampstead Heath Wear your Whistle and Flute Lot’s of La-de-da’s and cockney’s ‘ere Look alive and get out of here

Get your skates on mate Get your skates on mate No bib around your Gregory Peck today, hey! Drop your plates of meat right up on the seat

This is the Self Preservation Society The Self Preservation Society The Self Preservation Society (Repeat to fade)

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