Woofcast #153

Robert fills in for Gabe while he is at the Dragon. While he is not here, you can find him doing movie reviews and providing some great business advice. Be sure to check those out! Also, if you have any tips for Robert so he can sneak into the Owners Lounge, comment below.

Show off your Motoringbadges! Let us see your collections. There might be a prize involved.

Todd is starting to hear noises in the GP. Sound effects ensue.

Possible WRR Meet-up at the plant in Oxford. Anyone interested? Oh yea, if you haven’t already, be sure to check out the MINI United Flickr Group.

When we do finally get around to news, we talk first about some MINI United stuff, then the little bit of news from Motoringfile. And if you are one of the MINIs that will be driving through the Chunnel, we have a few recommedations for you.

Any ideas for the abbreviation for the Clubman?

Woofcast #153:

Download | Subscribe | iTunes | 36:55 | 17MB

19 replies on “Woofcast #153”

  1. How’s “cl” for Clubman abbreviations:

    MCcl – MINI Cooper Clubman
    MCScl – MINI Cooper S Clubman

  2. With the original Minis, the equivalent of the VIN used an L to indicate that the car was a long wheel base variant (Traveller/Countryman or van).

    So in BMW style, MCL and MCSL

    From the Great White North…

  3. I have to ask — Why do I always have so many problems getting your podcast? I am in South Africa, and yours is the only podcast that iTunes has a problem with. It invariably only downloads the first couple of minutes of each show then considers it complete. And when I try to download the podcast from the download link, it crashes out after about 2 minutes unless I use a download manager, and when I do use a download manager it takes up to 24 hours to get your podcast. I really enjoy your show, so it is worth the hassle…. but why is it only on your podcast out of about 20 that I get regularly that I have these problems…. HELP… it is driving me nuts.

  4. >Why do I always have so many problems getting your podcast? I am in South Africa, and yours is the only podcast that iTunes has a problem with

    I really have no idea. I’ll try to do some research on this and post my results when I figure it out.

  5. BTW, there was an echo in the background of this podcast. It sounded just like when a person calls into a radio show, but forgets to turn down their radio (if that makes sense).

    I’m waiting for my last batch of MotoringBadges before I post anything (even though I just ordered them).

  6. I forgot to mention that Robert was actually sitting in the middle of the Canada Center when we were recording, hence the echo.

    But really, we heard it too, but couldn’t make it stop. Just one of the things on my short list of things to try to fix.

  7. Re: sending in photos of our Motoring Badge collection

    I sent a photo of my badge collection to you guys a while back, a photo showing them were they belong, on your toolbox, not on your fridge! Come on, this is a car accessory, so dress up the garage, not the house.

  8. Guys,

    I cant believe you fell for the line about driving through the tunnel. It was cruel joke on my part, but I cant believe you didnt question it. That is going straight to the pool room. (thats an ozzie saying)

  9. Sunshine MINIs members would display their motoring badges IF WE COULD GET THEM.

    Could Todd email me?

  10. Yea, Jon, sometimes we aren’t that bright eh?

    Oh yea, we WILL be playing your voicemail on next weeks show!

    Nicely done!

  11. James – Your club badges have re-shipped after the claim was filed for the loss of the first shipment. I also sent a refund because the claim will be paid to me.

    Hope this helps i.e. better late and cheap than never!

    BTW – our loss rate witht he postal service in the last year has been around 4 percent. It seems that more losses happened around the holidays and tax time – probably due to increased mail volumes.

    I’m sure none of this is consolation if *your* order is one of the ones that got lost but we’re doing the best we can.

  12. the voicemail was left to be played. I am revising the thread on MINI2 at the moment to tak account of co pilot seats that are available to you guys, once thats updated would you mind me dropping you another voicemail – you guys are in contact, albeit indirectly with the US Mini contingent

  13. Re iTunes in South Africa:

    Alan, I too, sometimes have incomplete downloads. DB mostly posts the running time, so it’s easy to see if your download is complete in iTunes.

    The reason for incomplete downloads is simple: bandwidth. We don’t have much. An MP3 file is unlike other digital files. It does not need to be “complete” to be playable / usable. A partially downloaded mp3 will still play. So, an incomplete download will not yield an error.

    How to fix? if your download is not complete in iTunes, you need to delete the downloaded file from your iTunes library. Then unsubscribe from WRR and resubscribe. The file will be redownloaded.

    Also consider using a proxy server. If you’re on ADSL use cache.saix.net:8080.

    If you wish (and WRR will allow it) we can mirror the files on mini2.co.za.

  14. >If you wish (and WRR will allow it) we can mirror the files on mini2.co.za.

    While that is a really good idea, that won’t fix iTunes. iTunes still looks here for the file, no matter where it’s posted. Besides, I need to keep track of the downloads for the advertisers and sponsors. Too bad because that is an awesome idea!

    But why is this only a problem with WRR I wonder? I haven’t put up a zip file for a few shows since nobody is really downloading it anymore with the player on the page. Are you able to download that without any problems? If so, I’ll bring back the zip.

    Funny this should come up. I just listened to an interview with the host of the ZA Cast and one of the biggest issues he has is with bandwidth, or lack thereof.

  15. dude. remember, we’re on the southern tip of Africa! Even though we’re the biggest city on the continent, infrastructure is expensive, bandwidth even more so.

    I agree we can’t fix itunes from here, but if we mirror the zips, South Africans would be downloading them off a local server. Could we somehow ping the WRR server as notification of a download when someone downloads from the mirror? I.e. the download link on MINI2.co.za refers to a page at wrr.com which in turn redirects the browser back to the actual download on MINI2.co.za. That way wrr.com tracks downloads from the ZA mirror.

    Sounds like a lot of work, but I’m up for it.

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