Racing Minis at Zandvoort
Photo: Copyright © 2019 Eelke Blok

Henrik Sjökvist: The benefits of centralized contrib hosting

I've recently been saying that one big advantage Drupal and WordPress have over Joomla is the centralized hosting of "third party" contributions (plugins/extensions/modules). Yes, Joomla has the extensions directory, but come actually downloading the software, you get directed to the individual developer's island website to do the download (where you might actually need to first register, are likely to needing to do some digging to find the actual download, etc.). This makes evaluating Joomla contributions a tedious task, but it also emphasises a feeling that the Joomla universe is...

Beachcomber-based Mini Moke rumoured to go into production

Both Autoblog and MotoringFile are reporting that the Beachcomber Concept that was presented at the Detroit Autoshow this year may get the green light. It makes sense to assume that a production version micht be called "Moke", after the not-so-off-road classic-based funcar. From MotoringFile:

We can indeed confirm this having shared a similar conversation over dinner with the good Dr. [Dr Wolfgang Armbrecht, head of Mini brand management] at the Countryman launch last week. As he told Autoexpress, MINI has been blown away by the reaction to the concept and is studying the...

Countryman vs classic Mini: how small is "mini"?

Wowzers. I knew that the new Mini Countryman was really quite big for something called "mini". I also realize that cars need to become bigger due to safety and all that, and that when you compare it to modern day "small" cars (the countryman is no larger than the Kia Soul, another modern, small cros-over), the Mini can't be called "large" (although there are smaller cars out there - and quite  a lot of them too). Also, I know that when car makers try and keep a car smaller than it really should be, the driving fun suffers coughFiat 500cough.

Leftlane News: Spied: 2011 MINI Cooper S without camo

LeftLane News has some pictures of an MCS without any obvious camouflage. The upcoming R56 facelift? I have my doubts. The rear shows absolutely no difference with the current model, except for different exhaust tips, which show a striking resemblance to JCW tips. No different bumper, and no sign of the updated LED rear lights. At the front, we do see a slightly different lower grill. Most notable, it has some distinct air intakes.

Joomlatools: Advising to NOT upgrade to Joomla 1.5.16/1.5.17

Our friends at Joomlatools are advising against updating Joomla to the latest version, 1.5.17, and remain at 1.5.15 (1.5.16 was released in between, but was quickly sperseded by 1.5.17 due to another problem). Version 1.5.16 introduced a mechanism that will disable a plugin automatically when it runs into an error condition.

Instead of throwing an error the plugin is disabled and prevented from executing under normal conditions. This can lead to a site visitor experiencing unexpected behavior or worse the site could go down.

This does seem like something that could...