Can you believe that it has been about a year and two months and I just got my first oil change in the 2008 BMW X5?
The dealer says to bring the vehicle in for it’s first service at either one year or 15,000 miles. I didn’t here the “one year” part. I was going on the mileage and it only reads a bit more than 13,000. Why the one year? Does oil get old if the car just sits? I mean, I drive it enough, just not a lot. Whatever.
A few days ago, I called the service manager and asked about bringing it in. He said that I should and we set up an appointment. The nice part is that BMWs come with a maintenance plan for four years or 50,000 miles, whichever comes first. They handle all maintenance issues except for gas and tires. That’s makes the checkout at the dealer somewhat fun. You don’t even have to open your wallet. All you do is sign a few forms that describe the service that was performed and leave.
So here’s what happened. I pulled up to the dealership last Friday. Since I had never been there before for service, I had no idea where to leave the car. I walked inside and asked someone. They told me to pull the car right up to the big service door and it would open automatically. I thought that was neat. I got back in the car and pull it into the service bay. I parked the car and a few guys ran over to me. They pulled my paperwork and took my key. They plugged the key into the computer and downloaded all the information that was recorded on it. Don’t ask, I have no idea. Apparently, the car is a big computer that records all sorts of information, such as average MPH, MPG, seat settings and all sorts of stuff. It’s for them to know and for me not to care.
Anyway, I let them do their thing and I had a seat in the waiting area.
One thing I wasn’t aware of was the fact that there was a wireless connection in the waiting area. I could have brought my laptop to get some work done. Next time. Instead, I read a few pages of the book I brought along. I was probably better off doing that anyway.
There was also a guy walking about asking everyone if they needed a ride into Hartford. He had a shuttle and really wanted to drive someone someplace. If I had something to do, I may have taken him up on his offer. Since I am a fairly boring person, I sat there and waited.
I did start chatting with the young fella next to me though. He was 25 and interested in business. My eyes lit up when I saw how eager he was to learn. I sat there for about an hour teaching him about all sorts of things. He was all ears and made me feel very important. He must have read Dale Carnegie’s book, “How to win friends and influence people.”
2008 BMW X5 oil cap
Let’s get to the fun stuff. What does the dealer do for the first maintenance visit?
- Standard scope: basically hooks a machine to the PCM/computer and asks the car what it needs
- Brake fluid service: brake fluid flush
- Microfilter service: swap out the microfilter that filters the cabin air
- Low mileage annual oil service: change oil and filter
- Windshield cleaner: add windshield wiper fluid
- Wash and vacuum: I thought that was nice
The car was filthy and the wash and vacuum was the cherry on top.
There was also some software download that needed to get done, but would have taken another two hours. I was told that they could take care of that next time. Since 15,000 miles is almost here, I will have to go back for another service. That’s right around the corner. As the service guy put it, I’ll get another free oil change. I would prefer they not call it “free.” It’s more like, “included.”
I am a backup maniac. I backup and then backup the backup. Then, I seal up the backed up backup, stick it in a safe and plunge the safe in concrete. Even with all that, I will probably lose data eventually. I didn’t get like this overnight. I’ve had…let’s say…experience.
You know, it’s strange – with all the people out there who rely so heavily on all their computer files, very few of them ever back up anything. The worst part of it is that the majority of them work on laptops. I used to work with a girl who was in sales. One day, she came into work all upset that her laptop crashed and she lost all of her data. There was nothing she could do. When I say she lost everything, I mean the computer repair dude handed her back a laptop with wires hanging out of it. It was toast.
I said to her, “Oh don’t worry, just go grab your backup and we’ll load it up for you.” Her blank stare was priceless. I mean seriously, how long did she think her computer was going to last? It was bumped and bruised for years. Whatever. I knew she didn’t back up anything, I was just being a wisea$$. It was easy to pick on her because she had some pretty wild political views. I didn’t take too kindly to that.
Okay, onto my situation. I have websites. I back up all the data I have on the servers quite frequently. It’s a big job and it gets done a lot, but I just do it because it’s important. After the “Oh sorry sir, we don’t really have that backup up” I got from my old friends at “1 and…” hosting company, I decided to get real. I now have a pretty serious setup. Even with a new host and private servers, I still download everything. I don’t care what they tell me. One guy said, “A meteor has to hit this building for us to lose your data.” Yeah, famous last words.
Here’s a piece of advice for any of you who run websites – never trust what a hosting company says, no matter what kind of triple platinum guarantee they give you. When something happens and it comes time to get down, it’s awfully easy for them to tell you they don’t have what you need and to rush you off the phone. Here’s another piece of advice, stay very far, far away from technical support that is based in a foreign country. I don’t want to knock the support, I do want to say that the company doesn’t give these support people any power to do anything. They are basically telephone operators who create support tickets. With the old servers and “1 and…” (I forget the name), I actually had a server down for about two weeks. I just couldn’t get someone to restart Apache. I could have flown to the data center, walked in and restarted the thing myself. You want to talk about stress? Man oh man. It was rough living with me for those two weeks.
Okay, back to my situation. I back up my data from the servers. It’s probably about 15 gigs. Then, I have about 2 more gigs of working files on my desktop. So, overall, I have about 17 gigs that I really don’t trust sitting here on my computer. I back up on a portable drive, another external drive and online, all encrypted. I will say that devising ways to back up data gets quite addictive. Three backups is really enough, but I might have some others hidden.
It goes even further than that. My online backup can’t be in the same city as where my servers are. I know, I know, but trust me, when push comes to shove, it matters. Tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, etc… Remember when I said that the guy from the hosting company told me that a meteor had to hit the building for me to lose my data? Well, during the first week of me hosting with them, a car hit a telephone pole in a main intersection near one of their data centers. They were forced to run on generators for two days. I now have my servers split up between two data centers in two states.
Up until today, I was using MozyPro as my online backup service. They offer a pretty good service with lots of great features. Luckily, I never had to recover any files, but I’m sure they would have done a fine job if I needed them.
A few days ago, I noticed that I wasn’t receiving my nightly summary backup emails. I looked into the reason why and it ended up that my files weren’t actually being uploaded to the backup servers. This was a Friday. I called support and was connected to an obvious foreign country. My face got red. I explained the situation and a ticket was created. Then Monday, I got a response that the ticket was escalated. Two full days had gone by with nothing done. I called support again and got nowhere. My next call was to sales to close down my account. I don’t deal well with outsourced support. I have a long experience with being politely told that nothing is going to get resolved.
Today, I set up an account with Jungle Disk. From what I hear, they are pretty good. My files are being backed up as I sit here and write. I am under no illusion that the support is any better, but I had to do something. If I need to keep jumping to different online backup companies, so be it.
There are a few things that I like about Jungle Disk (run by Amazon, bought out by Rackspace) that MozyPro didn’t give up too easily. First, I can download the software onto any computer and just run it under the same account. I can upload and download on any of my five PCs. I like that. I can even get files from the road. Second, they charge for usage. You don’t need to buy a certain amount of space and then worry about returning unused resources. That’s pretty helpful.
Jungle Disk was very easy to set up and is quite simple to operate as well. It’s also very affordable. To top things off, I trust Jungle Disk because one of my favorite relatives uses it, along with many of his friends. Hey, word of mouth…there ain’t no better way.
So we have been tossing around the idea of having a few guest writers on this blog. How’s that sound? Personally, I would love it if I were one of those people who couldn’t stop talking about my favorite TV show.
I mean, seriously…there are some reality shows that I just can’t shut up about, but for me, those are limited. I am sure there are a heck of a lot more people out there who love TV more than I do. I know I could write a whole post just on that Fifth Gear T-Rex on Rob Dyrdek’s Fantasy Factory. If you haven’t seen it, check out something like it here:
Yup, that T-Rex would certainly have a post of its own.
Anyway, if you have a lot to say and you like to write, please write a comment letting me know. Show us some of the stuff you’ve written before. Hey, maybe you can make yourself famous. You could even be like this lady…
Woman using a laptop in the snow on the side of a mountain
PS – It doesn’t only have to be about TV. It could be about movies, the internet, radio, or whatever. It just has to be exciting and awesome.
All Winter, I say that I can’t wait for Summer. This is for obvious reasons. I always say that I can make it up to January 15 with Winter and then I’m done. If I can’t grow anything, I am not a happy camper.
This next paragraph really has nothing to do with this post. I just thought I would throw it in here.
Laura and I were eating dinner this evening when I noticed Finnegan Gordon Belle (Flipper Human the cat) laying on the chair next to us. Now, just to give a bit of background on this cat…he is grouchy when he sleeps. He really has no time or patience for people who get in the way of his “resting sessions.”
Well, after I finished slowly (repeatedly) placing my food in my mouth, I decided to walk over and pet the cat. I got a few good pets in. I thought this was nice. What did the cat do in return? He looked up at me, shifted his weight, sat up and bit my hand. Nuff said. I walked away and left him alone. Sure, when he wants to get picked up every other minute of the day, I accommodate him, but when I want to play, noooooo.
Here he is, the bum…
Finnegan Gordon Belle
Man, you can almost see the attitude.
Ok, back to the post. If you haven’t noticed around the blogging world yet, things are a bit slow this Summer. I guess people are outside, enjoying the weather. I am sure all sorts of families are vacationing at the beach and places like that. Gee, even I got in the car a few times this season. Well, let’s just say all this enjoyment hasn’t really helped my reading habits. Blog reading I mean. Yes, it’s sad but true.
In my opinion, if you want to be one of these crazy bloggers, you have to write all the time. You have to wake up and want to bring the camera with you when you get your morning coffee. It truly is a disgusting way to live, but if you’ve ever written in a format like this, you’ll know what I am talking about.
The thing of it is…we computer people LOVE to read what you write. It doesn’t matter what it is. We just want to keep up with your lives. I should actually be writing this to myself because I have been slipping through the cracks lately. I mean, I have been cutting down some small trees on the side of the property, but I don’t think I can bring the camera every time, nor do I think people want to continuously read about it. I’m not even sure what I can take a picture of. I keep asking Laura if it looks any different than it did earlier and she just gives me a sad look and turns her face back and forth, saying…”no, my sweet prince, it doesn’t.”
I sometimes make the joke to Laura that people don’t need to call me to see how I am doing. All they need to do is read this silly thing. It’s kind of not fair because I do a lot of calling. Trust me, let’s not change this arrangement. I like you reading and I like doing the calling. Oftentimes, I feel more comfortable if things are on my terms.
I guess I get a little depressed when I see the internet get light for a while. I think overall traffic takes a hit during the Summer. I never thought I would see the day when I get excited at the prospect of a rainy day in September…when all the kids are back at school and college is in session. Ooohhh, look at all those users checking out my sites. The Christmas season is a whole other story.
It’s amazing. For all the cool things we do in the Summer, we really don’t feel like writing about many of them. Maybe it’s the sunshine. Maybe it’s the guilt of bringing the laptop out on the deck with us and writing, when we really should be looking at the squirrels. Perhaps that’s why some of the best authors like to go up to their chilly cabins to write and don’t do it on the beaches of Barbados. Really now, Barbados is no place to write. Maybe Vail…
My friends, the good news is there are new blogs being formed every day. Just yesterday, an old friend of mine showed interest in making a blog of his own. I hope he does because the world needs more smart writing. I am actually curious about what he has to say. I am sure there are other great blogs that have been started recently that I never knew about. Oh, it’s going to be fun because the blogging season is right around the corner.
So, for those people who have shown interest recently about blogging and why they should get into it, I will explain what I like about the whole thing. Basically, I think this is a place for people to get to know me. I really like the format and I feel comfortable sharing things here. I really don’t care if some trucker from India reads this thing every morning before he has his breakfast. If he finds me entertaining and gets a kick out of the projects that I do, then that’s cool. You know, I bet there are a few truckers who like to read my blog.
Also, I really like to take pictures. Here, I can post them and tell people all about what I was doing. Of course, if you haven’t noticed, I think the stuff I do is reeeeally important.
The best thing is when I help people. I know I have said this before, but when someone gets some use out of what I write, that makes it all worth while. You can imagine the blisters on my fingers from all this writing. Can you imagine that?
Well, it’s getting a bit late now and I fear that I am not making sense anymore. I just want to warn you that the camera comes back out tomorrow and I am going to be outside with it. I am going to take a picture of something and post it here. You just wait…
I think I mentioned in my last post that I wanted to get broadband for my laptop while we are out and about or on vacation.
Basically, I had two choices…either I get the wireless card to connect to the wireless broadband network or use my new Blackberry to do it. Both options give me broadband access on my laptop, but the wireless card route would have required a two year contract, plus the purchase of the card. Also, the access charge was like $59.99 per month or something like that.
I decided to go with the VZAccess software that came with the Blackberry. I called Verizon Wireless support and had them turn on the broadband feature. It is $15 per month with no contract in addition to my existing one. Since it is a feature, I am able to turn it on and off as I please. The guy was like, “Ok, give it 15 minutes and you should be good to go.” That’s it. I installed the software, plugged the phone in and hit connect. It works great.
Both plans are limited to 5Gb per month. I think that should be ok for sitting on the patio of the Spring House on Block Island. I suppose I could occasionally look over to see the waves in the ocean.
I ran out to Circuit City this morning to pick up a new router and wireless card for my desktop computer. We already had a wireless router, but I am afraid that one won’t go the distance in a larger house. Also, I wanted to make my computer wireless like Laura’s and the laptop.
When I got to the store, I browsed through the equipment. I had some stuff in my hand, but then started really looking through everything else. As I understand it, there are a few different speeds and ranges that routers and cards offer. There is the “b” speed that came out first. Then, there is the “g” speed that is now a few years old and a lot faster than the “b.” I thought that was as fast as things got, so that is what I was looking for. After reading boxes for a bit, I realized there is now a “n” speed. This offers 4X the range and 12X the speed of “g.” That’s what I’m talkin’ bout.
I bought the WMP300N Wireless-N PCI Adapter here…
…that came with this massive antenna…
Now, that’s no wimpy little antenna that sticks out of the back of my computer. That sucker sits on top.
The recommended product to go with this card is the WRT300N Wireless-N Broadband Router, which I got too. Now, remember, this router offers 4X the range and 12X the speed of its predecessor. It will also wash your hair in the morning. Here’s a pic…
I hooked everything up and it works well. I like the fact that there is a security feature that stops my neighbors from using my far reaching bandwidth. If you want to connect to my network, you need a long password key. I already set all the computers up with it. I don’t notice any extra speed with my current DSL because I was hardwired into my old router, but once we make the switch to cable, we should see a big jump.
Please write your opinions on this topic, I will try not to argue.
Ooh aah…Not only did I drink my coffee on the porch this morning, I had the opportunity to set up my laptop and drink a beer at the table this evening. I have to tell you, it’s very nice.
There is nothing like surfing the web with a wireless connection on the porch while drinking everyone’s favorite Double Bock. I am actually writing this post out here right now. all I hear is crickets. Laura and I just finished dinner and are pretty pleased with the whole thing. I am not sure if she is more pleased with the fact that I made dinner or if I made her eat out here with me.
Well, here is a picture I took for you…
The oil lamp on the table is the one Laura just got from her grandfather’s house. The two candles are the “Off” candles that I bought for the Tanglewood concert. I was a little forced to start up the laptop tonight because I haven’t ran it in a while and I was feeling a little guilty. I miss it. This will also give me the chance to renew the Norton System Works that it came with. Also, there are a bunch of updates that it needs. Hey, maybe this will be a nightly thing for me. All we need now is the futon, so I can sleep out here.
PS – The picture is a little blurry because it is an almost-night shot. I had my camera on the night setting, which acts really weird.
TYSM I read this one and decided to try it out on my ACER (See, its not always HP with the problems)...