The Drive I've wanted for some time has become a Reality!  I had 
to pay out of pocket, but it's worth it.

I spent the evening writing some backup scripts, and I'm running 
the final version now.  

Our little host is happily backing itself up to 4mm DAT, and I 
am very relieved.   

I have forever sweated the day that a drive would fail, and I'd 
have to restore from a 2 week old backup... My previous method 
was to burn the Server's contents (highly compressed) to CD, and 
this was expensive and time-consuming. 

I had to pay quite a bit to get this drive, and the Donations 
only covered it by half.  If you have it in you, send a few 
bucks, and if not, I'll survive.  I feel better just knowing 
that this little host has a safety net. 

Yours, 

-- Eli Caul
Network Operator/System Administrator/Fiat Enthusiast
Mirafiori.COM, Santa Rosa, California
ICBM Coordinates: 038 25 59 N ; 122 42 50 W ; 100
          Always have at least one Fiat!
            

Wished I had sent it sooner but my little bit went out 2 days 
ago.  Thanks for all your hard work and dedication.

Scott O'Brien
Flower Mound, TX
82 Spider 2000FI
82 VW Scirocco
85 Volvo 244GL

Eli Caul wrote:

: The Drive I've wanted for some time has become a Reality!

Above is the good news!

: I had 
: to pay out of pocket, but it's worth it.

But you should not have to do this! 

The only lame excuse I can offer is that it wasn't clear to me 
that you needed help with the $$$....I suspect I'm not the only 
one that was confused!

: If you have it in you, send a few 
: bucks, 

Now that is clear enough. I am sure you will get a good response 
now!

Peter
Redwood City, CA
1980 Spider 2000
1988 Mazda RX7 

Peter Cripps wrote:

: But you should not have to do this! 
: The only lame excuse I can offer is that it wasn't clear to me 
: that you needed help with the $$$....I suspect I'm not the only 
: one that was confused!
: : If you have it in you, send a few 
: : bucks, 
: Now that is clear enough. I am sure you will get a good 
response 


Peter - You're not the only one who missed the posts in /B/S! 
This started with Kelly Dicker's thread around July 8 and was 
re-hashed recently ("Show me the Money").  This really surprises 
me, that so many people don't read the wunnerful /F/I/A/T /B/S 
section (but then, I read the whole damn page every day 
practically!) Guess it's a good lesson though... maybe funding 
issues don't belong in B/S at all! :) Thanks for chipping in!

John

John Goodfellow wrote:

: This really surprises 
: me, that so many people don't read the wunnerful /F/I/A/T /B/S 
: section (but then, I read the whole damn page every day 
: practically!) Guess it's a good lesson though... maybe funding 
: issues don't belong in B/S at all! :) Thanks for chipping in!
: John

John,

So you are implying that there aughtta be a "Need Money Now" 
section. That way each time a message is posted there we all pull 
out our check books! 8*)

Mike
'77 Spider (Pinto aspirated)
Hot-and-Smoggy-Pasadena, CA

Mike Ulman wrote:
: John,
: So you are implying that there aughtta be a "Need Money Now" 
: section. That way each time a message is posted there we all 
pull 
: out our check books! 8*)
: Mike

Jeez Mike,

Do you think it would work? :) I don't know. I suspect it would 
be ignored after a while if it was there all the time. Also when 
you say "We all" pull out our checkbooks... I'll bet "we all" is 
the same small group of nuts, year after year. In close to a 
month, Eli got a puny 140 bucks! It should have been more like a 
thousand, maybe more.


(Warning: Goodfellow's Ramble begins here) (Eli, tell me to shut 
up at any time! :o))

Maybe Mira really needs a fund-raising comittee. (God I hate 
comittees). Look at the facts. People (the "Mirafiorati" - not 
the casual visitors) seem quite willing to support Eli's efforts 
once they are aware of the need. How do we get the message 
accross? 
We started blabbing in B/S weeks ago about this and again in the 
last few days. Now people are saying "gee, I didn't know it was 
going on!"  How do we get the message accross?

Eli has more immediate administrative and technical problems to 
deal with all the time, ... he just doesn't talk about those 
problems much. Asking forum members for contributions is probably 
after the last thing on his list.

The harsh reality of life says that if we want this environment 
to be able to handle the increasing load (and get bigger and 
better), the host site needs to be upgraded. A new box (computer) 
put online so the existing (ancient technology -P-100) can be 
demoted to backup server duty is needed.  Eli has also been 
fortunate to have Devin, "Master of the Machines" help out at no 
cost. We can't rely on freebies for ever.

If you listen to "Car Talk" on NPR, you know that they have a 
"shameless commerce" division. For people who need to be prodded 
into contributing, little bonuses are offered for a subscription.
Personally, I would love to drive around in my Spider wearing a 
(tastefully done) Mirafiori T-Shirt and Basball cap.

I'm not in the T-shirt business Mike, so don't get me wrong. Just 
thinking along the lines of a reluctant capitalist swine, and how 
to get more money into the coffers. Personally I've sent Eli 
about as much cash over the last 3 years as I've sent to my local 
Public Broadcasting Station. Both are providing me with a service 
I can't imagine getting along without. I think there's a strong 
parallel.

So Mike, and anybody else who's tuned in... What should we do?

(Ramble ends here)
Thanks,
John

John Goodfellow wrote:
: Personally I've sent Eli 
: about as much cash over the last 3 years as I've sent to my 
local 
: Public Broadcasting Station. Both are providing me with a 
service 
: I can't imagine getting along without. I think there's a strong 
: parallel.

When I was a kid, PBS would have operas and "classical music" and 
such so I never thought about it. Recently, I looked at their "On 
Tour" series and there was Ozzy Osbourne. OK, he's not everyone's 
cup of tea but its what I like so I sent in my check, for the 
first time.

I think that if people use Mirafiori then they should contribute. 
If they do not find it personally useful, they shouldn't.

: So Mike, and anybody else who's tuned in... What should we do?

Well, PBS has pledge drives. We have John Goodfellow to round up 
the troops and send the money in. I'm sure that PBS does not get 
their money right off, it takes a bit of coaxing and persuading. 
Same here. Give it a week - I'm sure that $140 will grow to 
several hundred, enough to cover the tape drive at the least. 

Obviously Eli can make this site paid-member only but that would 
certainly take away from the purpose. Surely ad space would not 
be a problem. Say, for X amount of money, give Ed, Bruce, Elias, 
Chris, dan, etc. a given amount of space so that they can 
advertise their sales, merchandise, etc. They'll get good 
advertising and Mirafiori will get the money it needs. This can 
be a seperate section, perhaps just links to their own pages 
(if they have them) to save server space. Would that take away 
from the current retailer listing? Any thoughts, folks? Can you 
see my political leanings showing through?

Mike
'77 Spider (Pinto aspirated)
Hot-and-Smoggy-Pasadena, CA

Let's see what happens now that the slowest member of the 
Mirafiori fan club, me, has finally managed to put a check in 
the mail.  I love the page, try to contribute information, and 
am happy to contribute money as well.

Maybe this will be an inspiration to others to give their 
monetary support if they can afford it.  Don't forget, not 
everybody has a dollar to spare.  I've been there - student, 
divorced, unemployed, broke.  Thank God, none of those apply to 
me right now, hence my ability to be generous.

Oscar Robinson
1966 Fiat 850 Coupe [originally sold by Deutsche Fiat]
1967 Fiat Abarth 1300/124 [owned since new]
1969 Fiat 850 Berlina Special [assembled in South America]
Dallas, Texas

: Personally, I would love to drive around in my Spider wearing 
a 
: (tastefully done) Mirafiori T-Shirt and Basball cap.

Haven't formed an opinion on the fundraising subject yet, but 
should t-shirts come into play, I know a guy (a fellow 
Enthusiast no less) who has his own little clothing co. and can 
make multi-color silk screen apparel.  We talked about doing 
something for Oregon 98 but never got the ball rolling on that 
one.  Any graphic designers out there?

Courtney Waters
'76 128 2-door
'72 124 Wagon
'70 124 Spider
courtney@mirafiori.com
www.mirafiori.com/~courtney