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July 3,2008 (TurnaroundThursday)

One of our RainyDayGarage readers sent us this link yesterday to a heated thread on the BimmerFest discussion board.  We have been known to poke fun at Porsche dealers in the past.  However, this story got some of the RainyDayGarage folks into a tizzy after reading it.  They said we MUST do a post about the outrageous behavior of this BMW dealership

In the thread, many different opinions were expressed by the members of that forum.  Much of it vilifying Flow BMW for the "stazi-like" behavior of the manager.  However, as we followed the conversation to post #877, Don Flow, the owner of Flow BMW dealership, personally posted a response to all of the rancor up to that point.

Mr. Flow then followed up in post #884 to further clarify his position regarding the incident.  We thought the two responses really changed the tone of the entire discussion.  We felt that he so well handled the incident, we decided to make his response the point of today's post.  The point being sometimes an apology can go a long way in turning things around.  Nicely done Don!  Have a great July 4th everyone.  [Permalink] - Wan Chi Lau

 

July 2,2008 (WetWednesday)

Boston got a lot of rain during the last week of June.  This meant the RainyDayGarden really got a wet base heading into the typically drier month of July . 

The orange day lillies started to bloom this past week.  We love photographing the lillies and took their blooming as an opportunity to play around some more with the Nikon D40.  In this outing, we wanted to experiment with the apeture-priority settings and get some experience manipulating the depth-of-field (DOF).  Using the "Auto" mode, the camera will usually pick a combination which will give the best focus for the area of interest.  This typically mean favoring speed over a greater depth-of-field. 

We waited for an bright cloudy day to minimize the contrast.  There were also minimal breeze to disturb the flowers.  By selecting a smaller aperture setting and thus increasing the depth-of-field, we were able to almost get both the bug and the flower in focus.

In general, we found the Aperture-Priority mode quite intuitive to use.  The thumb wheel used to set the aperture was easy to manipulate.  Information about the current settings was available both in the viewfinder and on the rear LCD.  The graphics in the LCD representing the current aperture size were interesting, but not accurate enough to replace the numbers.  Of couse, what is missing with the D40 is a "LiveView" or a DOF preview feature.

We also played a little with the the shutter-priority mode, but were not successful in clearly capturing the bumblebee in flight.   The shot we were after was to have the body in focus and the wings a blur.  A bit more practice and patience may be needed before we can get that shot. [Permalink] - Wan Chi Lau

 

July 1,2008 (TechTipTuesday)

The broken iPod we purchased had its normal share of dings and scratches.  We were looking at various methods of cleaning it up and perhaps buffing out some of the scuff marks.  One of the interns happened upon this rather odd set of directions on how to use a banana (not porn related in anyway) to clean up an iPod.  We were intrigued enough to give it a try.

The steps were simple enough: cut a piece, expose some, apply generously, let sit a minute or so, wipe clean with a cotton cloth.

We have to admit, the iPod was quite shiny after the procedure, but we cannot report that this tip did anything to reduce the amount of scratches on our iPod.

Our fall back plan is to apply the InvisbleShield to the front of the iPod to cover up the nicks and scratches.  We already know how durable the InvisibleShield is.  We are now happy to report the InvisibleShield is also great for covering up defects as well as offering great protection! [Permalink] - Wan Chi Lau

BTW, we have a few winners to announce from June's RainyDayContests.  James Kim from IL was our winner for "I know what landed on your desk."  Ariel Kayne was our winner for "It's a Tesla, baby."  Both answers were, of course, our Featured Product... the Lensbaby 3G.  Winners, if you want to enter again in the future, don't forget to sent a pic of you with your prize to us.  In exchange, we'll take you off the contest filter list and you entries will then continue to reach us instead of being unceremoniously chucked :-)

 

 

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