Friday, March 31, 2006

Tips on drinking more water

Wikihow has an interesting article on how and why to drink more water. link.

My calculations in Metric are as follows
Weight in KgsWater in Litres
501.7
551.8
602.0
652.2
702.3
752.5
802.7
852.8
903.0

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Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Fuel cell based torch

A Hydrogen Fuel Cell powers this torch (via). Called the Angstrom's A2, it gives out 24 hours of continuous light. The folks who make this product claim that it can be recharged in a couple of minutes as against hours for rechargable batteries used in conventional torches. The fine print is that it requires their proprietary "Refueling Station" and some hydrogen. No doubt a cool toy but the questions I want to ask is
  1. Can I take on a plane?
  2. What will it cost?
  3. Where can I get Hydrogen? Not in the neighbourhood store for sure.


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Monday, March 27, 2006

Gist of the Proposed 2008 F1 regulations

Itv-f1 has a list of the proposed technical regulations. link.

Couple of interesting points.
1. Slicks are back. Slicks are part of the racing heritage, but there were number of non-racing arguments made in the late 90s when they were banned. What happened to those arguments today? Are they no longer applicable? Say hello to greater cornering speeds.
2. Weight Penalty for engine and gearbox changes. I for one, don't like the idea, but am willing to see how it works out. Its unlikely we would have a Kimi storming from the back of the grid if he has 15 kgs more.
3. No mention on the CDG that was proposed in October.

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Monday, March 20, 2006

Sepang 2006 GP Winners/Losers

Winners
  1. Massa. Similar to KR's Drive in Bahrain. The thing that really interested me was that he finished ahead of M Schumacher.
  2. Fisi. Good drive from pole. Deserves win. Flawless drive
  3. Alonso. Amazing start and very good race
  4. Jacques V. Good drive to get BMW's first points. Heidfeld drove better, but he didn't finish and that was the key
  5. Renault. Excellent display of speed and reliability.
Losers
  1. Williams. After starting in excellent positions, and showing promise all weekend, to have both cars out is not the way to go. The podium might have been difficult, but they should have had 3rd and 4th
  2. M Schumacher. To be beaten by Massa who started way behind indicates that this is not the same ruthless MS we have seen over the years
  3. Barrichello. They say he was overshadowed by MS in Ferrari. In Honda, he has disappeared. JB is has absolutely crushed him. No other team has 2 cars so far apart.
  4. Kimi. I suppose one can blame Klein, but fact of the matter is that he didn't finish 1 lap. To be a champion I guess one needs a bit of luck as well.
  5. Klein. Not only did he ruin Kimi's race, but he wasted his own opportunity to put one over DC.

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Sunday, March 19, 2006

Above capacity

Every wondered how different vehicles look like when they are overloaded? This site has a number of hilarious examples. link. (via).

Couple of missing vehicles are overcrowed spacecrafts and filled to the brim boats. Pun intended!

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Thursday, March 16, 2006

Rossi challenges Alonso

He suggests a sort of triathalon using MotoGP, Rally and F1 cars. link.

Apparently the aggregate of the times will decide whose the king of the jungle.
That reminds me of the time when Colin McRae challenged Micheal Schumacher for a two way fight on Rally and F1 cars. MS brushed off the challenge saying that he wasn't interested and its likely that Alonso would do as well.

If such a duel were to come about my money would be on Rossi. He has driven in Rally last year (not too successfully), and he has tested in F1 *and* he's a god on 2 wheels. The experiences themselves would give an edge. I'm not sure how close or how far alonso would be though.

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Wednesday, March 15, 2006

free beer

Long long time ago, a Finn decided to give away his code using a license called GPL. This license was supposed to be "Free as in speech, and not Free as in beer". Flash-forward to today, and we get a story from neighbouring Norway about free beer. link.
It almost seemed like a miracle to Haldis Gundersen when she turned on her kitchen faucet this weekend and found the water had turned into beer.
A pint or two would be good!

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Monday, March 13, 2006

Bahrain 2006 GP Winners/Losers

Winners

  1. Alonso. Driving during the second stint was really nice. Not spectacular but he was reeling in MS quite easily.
  2. KR. He started dead last; he finished 3rd; finished higher than his teammate, both Hondas, one Ferrari and one Renault - Wow! If only the team can take care of the pre-race jitters...
  3. MS. He's back, but doesn't quite look as mean as before. I doubt whether the MS of old would have let Alonso squeeze through.
  4. Rosberg. Very impressive debut, bit slow in the first half of the race, but the in laps to the pits were pretty cool.
  5. McLaren. 2 cars in the top 5. I don't remember when was the last time McLaren had 2 cars in the top 5 in the first race of the season

Losers

  1. Toyota. To finish lower down isn't as bad as having to fight with Midland who use their engines - really underperformed
  2. Massa. Podium chance squandered.
  3. BMW. Both Williams and both Redbulls finished ahead, and they are using customer engines.
  4. Button. He says that except for the first 3 seconds the rest of the afternoon was good. If that was really the case, then he should have finished 3rd.
  5. JPM. Started 5th, and finished 5th as compared to KR who started 22nd and finished 3rd. The numbers speak for themselves.


Sunday, March 12, 2006

Swimming ants

I've heard of Fire Ants, Army Ants, Black Ants and Red Ants, but here's a new species - polyrhachis sokolova. link.

They can swim too.

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Does the Ferrari's Wing Wobble?

That's what Pat Symonds says, and he believes that it gives the Ferraris an unfair advantage. link.
This presumably means that other teams will adopt the same systems in the future as if something is legal on a Ferrari, it is presumably legal on other F1 cars as well.
Only a few hours to go before we get to know more about that. There's nothing unusual of Micheal Schumacher being on pole, after all this is his 65th, equal to the one and only Aryton Senna.

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Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Is it important to appear busy?

Is looking busy more important that actually doing work? That's the question asked by this post.

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Sunday, March 05, 2006

100 Greatest Guitarists

This list of 100 greatest rock guitarists suggests that the greatest of them all is Jimi Hendrix. Can't argue against that, but putting Santana at 28 is debatable.

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Thursday, March 02, 2006

Silly Season jumps on Raikkonen and Ferrari

Rumour has it that Raikkonen will move to Ferrari in 2007. Sources - grandprix.com and itv-f1.com

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iPod Hi-Fi

What does it take to convert an iPod into a stereo system? Apple has introduced its new iPod Hi-Fi but a better option seems to be Onkyo's Docking Station.

It may take sometime for the Apple Hi-Fi to come to India, but the Onkyo component is available right here, right now.

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