Dave Ambrose

Issue #222 is getting ready to mail. You have until November 3rd to subscribe or renew to ensure this issue gets delivered to your mailbox. https://simplecirc.com/subscribe/model-cars-magazine

It's my personal opinion. I have read back issues for a fair number of model car magazines. Several things stand out to me. They carry a LOT more advertising than we carry now and it was much more detailed and granular. Advertising was an important information path then, now days, we search for products online, so it's not nearly as vital. I also remember a lot of dialog, often conducted in letters to the editor and spread over several issues, to debate what cars would be popular as models. That can have a lot of historical interest, but doesn't really contribute to the modern craft of building model cars. As I recall, many of the columns, were very contemporaneous, and didn't feel all that relevant now. That said, many of the build articles exhibit a high degree of craftsmanship and creativity in both materials and design. It makes for delightful reading. I miss slot cars too, though I was never very good at building them.

We have considered this idea. It has both merits and drawbacks. There are some great articles that are still worth reading. This hobby also has an interesting history that doesn't get the appreciation is probably deserves. Biggest drawback is the amount of work that would be required. While we have a fairly deep archive, reconstructing those early issues for digital publication would be very challenging. Finding an appropriate distribution channel or medium is also a challenge. Removable media other than SD cards are becoming less common, and hosting them online has a different set of challenges. Also, there is a lot of content in the early issues that has very limited relevance for a contemporary audience. At this point, we're putting our energy into publishing a top quality magazine, and running this forum.

We're adopting a pair of cats that belonged to a deceased family member. Meeting half-way in Flagstaff. Pictures when we get back.

Rock and Roll Jelly by Stanley Clark is a good starting point. Actually the entire Modern Times album as that was my usual ride music for the 2-4 hour drive to see my then girlfriend. I'll also take the best of the B-52s.

Whatever it is, it's in the core browser code. Microsoft Edge has the same problem, and it uses the same rendering engine as Chrome does.

Quick update -- We now have some idea of why the problems are occurring, but haven't gotten to the root cause. There is some embedded programming in the forum pages, and Chrome is refusing to execute this even if it's enabled in the Chrome settings. This is some Google thing that they haven't owned up to yet. However, I have a work-around!!! Download and use Firefox. The forum seems to be working perfectly on that browser. When you do the initial startup, it will copy over your saved passwords, bookmarks, etc. from Chrome. It was a seamless experience for me, and to my surprise, it responds better than Chrome. My other work around is to right-click on the button I want to "press" and select Copy link address. Then, go up to the address bar, right click again, and select Paste and go to. . . . This will take you to wherever the button was going to send you.

Quick Update I have made some changes to our security certificates. If I run the extensive diagnostics, they say our security certificates are good. I've noticed that browsers cache those certificates, and clearing the cache vexingly leaves them intact. I'm experiencing some of the same problems as the rest of you plus another set that's more than a little annoying. It looks like there may be another problem with the forum. I'm working on this nearly full time, and will keep doing so until it's resolved. I have a few steps I can take that should improve things by a lot, but I've run into a major roadblock there, and it's gotten way more complicated than it should be. I have discovered a partial work around for the paging problem. On Chrome, I can left click on the next page button, copy the link address, then open that address in a new tab. It's not the most convenient work-around, but it may help some of you. Please be assured that I'm working to resolve this as quickly as I can. The server might be going offline at random times, but I will let you know in advance when I can. Thank you all for your patience and support, Dave

We've had multiple problems reported with the forum. moving between pages isn't working The like button isn't working This seems to have been cause by a recent update to Chrome. We're working on fixing it as quickly as we can. The underlying problem is complicated. If clearing your browser cache doesn't clear the problem. Please try another browser, Safari or Edge don't seem to exhibit the problem. Thanks, Dave Ambrose

Latin spellings were never my strong suit. This is why I gravitated toward astrophysics and computers.

Made a rather unpleasant discovery this morning. A ratus ratus, or some close relative has taken to nesting in my kit stash. Fortunately, they only chewed one box and didn't go after the kit contents. We found the nest and put out traps with peanut button on them. Will see if the peanut better is there in the morning, and if it's gone, we'll set the traps. When I redo the garage, I need to make sure there's some way for the cats to get up there.

It's very important for blind people to hear the cars. We had breakfast in downtown Salt Lake City after GSL, and the place was in an area with lots of EVs. They really make the urban areas a lot more livable just because they're quieter.

What a sweet ride! Love the looks, and quarter elliptical springs on the front end are eye-catching.

We're working on the problem. It's a multistep project, and one of the reasons we're taking the forums offline tomorrow. I don't think tomorrow's work will fix it, but it will lay part of the foundation.

If you have your account number, or the email you registered with us, you can log into the subscription system and change it. You can also send an email to subscribe@modelcarsmag.com and we can update it for you.

Mile High, To elaborate some on Scott's reply, we are very interested in new shows. That said, taking pictures that print well in the magazine takes attention to detail. Please contact me at dave@modelcarsmag.com and we can discuss the specifics.

I have found that I have to copy photos from my iPhone to my PC to embed the photos in postings. I do a lot of image correction with IrfanView, a free program. It will crop, and compress photos well, and will serve you in a lot of situations.

We don't limit the size or number of pictures. Sometimes the poster needs them to flesh out their narrative.

Ah, Facebook. It started out as a way to stay in touch with friends and family, and often seems more like Tom Lehrer's "My Home Town." Occasional family drama aside, it's generally been good for me. I'm in a few FB model car groups, along with astronomy and SCUBA diving. They vary in usefulness. The SCUBA groups are good, especially for timely info. The model car ones are variable. I'd be curious to know which ones people are finding useful.

We’re happy to say Issue #221 is getting ready to mail. You have until August 28th to subscribe or renew to ensure this issue gets delivered to your mailbox. https://simplecirc.com/subscribe/model-cars-magazine

Most likely, your device is infected with something that's hijacking the QR codes. That code should take you straight to the build book.

This might belong under irked too, but I think I'll look at the good side of things. Last October, our utility company detected a gas leak. They have trucks with sniffers checking the neighborhoods every 6 months or so, and the sniffer went off at the end of our driveway. Next day, they come out to diagnose the cause, and find a significant leak in the pipe that feeds the four houses in our little cluster. An hour later, there's heavy machinery and three crews digging up the pipe. The pipe was not in good condition, and they decide to replace it with plastic which is much longer lived in underground conditions. To do this, they dug out a trench for a new feeder pipeline and part of that was in our driveway. This took two 24-hour days to complete, and they filled in the driveway cut-outs with asphalt. Today, they came out to put in permanent repairs. So far, the crew is doing a great job, and they're handling the small curve thrown at them. The original repair blocked off a drainage pipe. We like to complain about the local utilities, but from what I've seen, the frontline workers are conscientious and capable.

We learned today that Mike Scott passed away on July 27th after a three year battle with cancer. Mike won an award at this year's GSL, and his T-Bucket will be featured in the next issue of MCM. His obituary can be found here. Our condolences to his family and friends.

I haven’t checked, but I think they compress extremely well. But that’s always the last step.

File size limitations: Trying to share an astronomy-related project on another forum, and they have a 500k limitation on the entire post. After several iterations of resizing, and reencoding, I fell back to a single picture, and if anyone's curious, they can ask me. It does reinforce the wisdom of removing those limitations here. This board would be unusable with any significant file size limits.