| Enhance Skills | |||
| 02:37pm 29/04/2009 | |||
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It is wrong to blame any company and its not the first time. Basically recession is the cycle generates in certain course of time. But here I want to say, Country's government should be strong enough i.e.there should be some rules for companies to follow. Government and other suportives spend lot of money in elections,agriculture or any other areas. But they are inefficient to make some schemes that can give job security. Central and state governments should have some rules or criteria so that any company may not directly lay off their employee. They should have make such plans under which an employee may be safe and can give his 100%. Secondly,I agree that an employee must have multi skills. For example developers will need 10 skills in the next five years: 1.One of the "Big Three" (.NET, Java, PHP) Unless there is a radical shift in the development world (akin to an asteroid hitting Redmond), most developers will need to know at least one of the Big Three development systemsâ.NET (VB.NET or C#), Java, or PHPâfor the near future. It's not enough to know the core languages, either. As projects encompass more and more disparate functionality you'll need to know the associated frameworks and libraries more deeply. 2.Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) Love it or hate it in the last few years, Flash is suddenly being used for more than just animations of politicians singing goofy songs. Flash has also sprouted additional functionality in the form or Flex and AIR. Flashâs competitors, such as JavaFx and Silverlight are also upping the ante on features and performance. To make things even more complicated, HTML 5 is incorporating all sorts of RIA functionality, including database connectivity and putting the formal W3C stamp on AJAX. In the near future being an RIA pro will be a key resume differentiator. 3.Web development Web development is not going away anytime soon. Many developers have been content to lay back and ignore the Web or to just stick to the basics their framework provides them with. But companies have been demanding more and more who really know how to work with the underlying technology at a âhand codeâ level. So bone up on JavaScript CSS and HTML to succeed over the next five years. 4.Web services REST or SOAP. JSON or XML . While the choices and the answers depend on the project, it's getting increasingly difficult to be a developer (even one not writing Web applications) without consuming or creating a Web service. Even areas that used to be ODBC COM or RPC domains are now being transitioned to Web services of some variety. Developers who cant work with Web services will find themselves relegated to legacy and maintenance roles. 5.Soft skills One trend that has been going for quite some time is the increasing visibility of IT within and outside the enterprise. Developers are being brought into more and more non-development meetings and processes to provide feedback. For example, the CFO cant change the accounting rules without working with IT to update the systems. And an operations manager cant change a call center process without IT updating the CRM workflow. Likewise customers often need to work directly with the development teams to make sure that their needs are met. Will every developer need to go to Toastmasters or study How to Win Friends and Influence People? No. But the developers who do will be much more valuable to their employersâand highly sought after in the job market. 6.One dynamic and or functional programming language Languages like Ruby Python F# and Groovy still are not quite mainstreamâ but the ideas in them are. For example the LINQ system in Microsofts .NET is a direct descendent of functional programming techniques. Both Ruby and Python are becoming hot in some sectors thanks to the Rails framework and Silverlight respectively. Learning one of these languages wont just improve your resume though it will expand your horizons. Every top-flight developer Iâve met recommends learning at least one dynamic or functional programming language to learn new ways of thinking and from personal experience I can tell you that it works. 7.Agile methodologies When Agile first hit mainstream awareness I was a skeptic along with many other folks I know. It seemed to be some sort of knee-jerk reaction to tradition throwing away the controls and standards in favor of anarchy. But as time went on, the ideas behind Agile became both better defined and better expressed. Many shops are either adopting Agile or running proof-of-concept experiments with Agile. While Agile is not the ultimate panacea for project failure, it does indeed have a place on many projects. Developers with a proven track record of understanding and succeeding in Agile environments will be in increasingly high demand over the next few years. 8.Domain knowledge Hand-in-hand with Agile methodologies development teams are increasingly being viewed as partners in the definition of projects. This means that developers who understand the problem domain are able to contribute to the project in a highly visible, valuable way. With Agile a developer who can say From here we can also add this functionality fairly easily and it will get us a lot of value or Gee that requirement really doesnot match the usage patterns our logs show will excel. As much as many developers resist the idea of having to know anything about the problem domain at all it is undeniable that increasing numbers of organizations prefer (if not require) developers to at least understand the basics. 9.Development hygiene A few years ago many (if not most) shops did not have access to bug tracking systems version control and other such tools it was just the developers and their IDE of choice. But thanks to the development of new integrated stacks, like the Microsoft Visual Studio Team System and the explosion in availability of high quality open source environments organizations without these tools are becoming much less common. Developers must know more than just how to check code in and out of source control or how to use the VM system to build test environments. They need to have a rigorous habit of hygiene in place to make sure that they are properly coordinating with their teams. Code cowboys who store everything on a personal USB drive donot document which changes correspond to which task item and so on are unwelcome in more traditional shops and even more unwelcome in Agile environments which rely on a tight coordination between team members to operate. 10.Mobile development The late 1990s saw Web development rise to mainstream acceptance and then begin to marginalize traditional desktop applications in many areas. In 2008 mobile development left the launch pad and over the next five years it will become increasingly important. There are of course different approaches to mobile development: Web applications designed to work on mobile devices RIAs aimed at that market and applications that run directly on the devices. Regardless of which of these paths you choose adding mobile development to your skill set will ensure that you are in demand for the future. Can anyboday have more suggestions about to secure the jobs during difficult period? |
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| F1 Monza | |||
| 04:03pm 03/09/2005 | |||
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Writing this after the second free prac and before qualifying. Home the Macaas dont blow any engines and have a good race. Watch this space. |
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| 2005 driver line up | ||||
| 04:17am 30/07/2004 | ||||
Ferrari : MS and Rubens Williams : Webber & ??? Mclaren : Kimi and JPM BAR : Button and ??? Renault : Alonso and Fisi Toyota : Ralf and ??? Jaguar : Not Announced Sauber : Not Announced Jordan : Not Announced Minardi : Not Announced If i have made a mistake there please point it out. so whos going to be filling these empty seats do we think ? With Heifeld having been asked to test the williams last week, it wouldnt surprise me to c him partnering webber next season, BMW might be pushing williams toward Heidfeld since he is a german, but i dont think they is much doudt in his abbilites anyway and he would do well at williams. BAR havnt renewed Sato's contract as far as i know, but i dont see why they wouldnt, plus it would help relations with Honda. Many people are predicting that Trulli will be at Toyota next year, which i carnt see any problems with at all. it will be ashame if Da Matta were to leave F1 cause of this tho. I hope jaguar give Klein another year in F1 and maybe take on another experienced driver. Many people are predicting DC to be in a jaguar next year. Sauber have deffenatly got one spare seat for next year, but i think they should probably have 2 since i dont really rate Massa at all. Dont have a clue who would go there, heard something about an F3000 driver who ferrari are looking to replace MS long term. Lucci i think it was. If Heidfeld were to leave for Williams, i think eddie would keep Pantano on for another year at least and maybe give a chance to another youngster, maybe put glock in the car for a year. Finally Minardi, they generally have different drivers every season, so who knows. Any one know anything i dont or like to make predictions ? |
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pleased| Stupid F1 - The Grand Prix Forest Gumps | ||||
| 12:28pm 29/05/2004 | ||||
They may be driving sophisticated machinery, but sometimes F1 drivers forget to put their brains into gear. Here are some of F1's more stupid moments.. Email Us Chat Forum Mail article Print article 10. Andrea deCesaris was once trying to lap a backmarker who got in his way while he was being hotly pursued. The flamboyant Italian, famous for going an entire season without finishing a race (in 1987), was so angry with the guy that he waved his fist. When he put it back in the cockpit to change gear, he missed a gear and was promptly overtaken by the car behind him. 9. Nigel Mansell was so far ahead in the Canadian GP in 1991 that on the last lap he decided to wave to the fans at the Casino Hairpin. His car immediately came to a halt. Afterwards it was diagnosed as an electrical problem that caused this embarrassing failure, but there are those in the team who maintain that in taking his hand out of the cockpit, the perennially clumsy Mansell turned some of the electrics off... 8=. At the first race of the 2002 season Giancarlo Fisichella came into the pitlane to practise pit-stops. He pulled up outside the Renault garage, but his mechanics didn?t seem interested. They weren?t interested because he?d changed teams over the winter and was now driving a Jordan. They quite rightly pointed out that he?d do better stopping at the Jordan garage. (Luckily for Fisi he wasn?t the first modern F1 driver that had happened to?) 8=. Jean Alesi didn?t gain any friends at the Benetton team at Melbourne in 1997. He missed his scheduled window for fuel. He didn?t come in. The team got on the radio and screamed for him to come in. He didn?t come in. They even stuck F-U-E-L on his pitboard. He didn?t come in... He ran out of fuel. 7. The 2002 US GP at Indianapolis and Michael Schumacher leads from the lights till the very last few centimetres of the race. He?s followed all the way to the flag by team-mate Rubens Barrichello. The cars flash across the line and... inexplicably it's Barrichello?s name that comes up as the winner. After the race Schumi can?t decide if he meant to give Rubens the race or whether he was just trying to engineer a very close photo finish. In fact everyone really thinks he forgot where the finishing line was and eased up too early. 6. The 2003 Brazilian Grand Prix - one of the most treacherous Brazilian GPs of all time. Six cars go off on one corner. Then Mark Webber has an enormous accident in his Jaguar enough to bring out the Safety Car. Piling round the back of the circuit is Fernando Alonso in the Renault. He passes one double waved yellow flag (it means slow down, be prepared to stop, there might be marshals working on the track) he passes another, and another, and another. Then he hits the wheel of Mark Webber?s Jaguar which is lying on the track and brings the race to an end. 5. At the start of the crucial 1986 Mexican Grand Prix, Championship leader Nigel Mansell forgets to select a gear. He?s last off the grid. One race later he has his famous blow-out and loses the World Championship. 4. Alex Yoong. 3. 1995 and David Coulthard is leading the Australian Grand Prix. Coming into the unrestricted pitlane he bounces his Williams-Renault into the barriers - and retirement. David blames the problem on a stuck throttle. Yeah, right, DC. 2. Italian Vittorio Brambilla wins the 1975 Austrian Grand Prix. The ?Monza Gorilla? is so pleased he takes both hands off the streering wheel to celebrate victory as he crosses the line?and he crashes the car. 1. 2004 and a closely fought Monaco Grand Prix is being led under the Safety Car by Michael Schumacher. He?s anxious to get away quickly after the restart because he?s a pit-stop down on closest rivals Jarno Trulli and Jenson Button. Then, going through the tunnel, round a bend, in low grip conditions because of lack of downforce, and in the dark, he decides to jam his brakes on to get some heat into the tyres. The following Juan Montoya has nowhere to go and collides with him. Back in the pitlane, an angry Schumacher takes his Schuberth helmet off and hundreds of millions of fans worldwide can see that he has donkey ears on. |
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accomplished| F1 Joke | |||
| 08:31pm 18/05/2004 | |||
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Gregorio was the ultimate F1 fan. He had all the videos and went to all the races. Unfortunately, he passed away and went up to heaven. When he arrived at the gates of heaven he came across St Peter. "Greetings Gregorio, we have been expecting you" St Peter said. Gregorio asked St Peter... "What is heaven like then?" St Peter replied "All the greats are here, Fangio, Gilles Villeneuve, Jimmy Clark, Ayrton Senna and they all race here on the replicas of the great tracks." "Senna racing with Villeneuve and Clark? This is my idea of heaven!" Gregorio exclaimed. "Exactly!" St Peter replied. Gregorio settled into heaven very quickly. He loved watching the racing, the cars had turbos and wide tyres. The racing was all he might have hoped for until he found something that disturbed him. One day he came upon a track with a lone red Ferrari pounding round lap after lap with blinding speed. He could not believe what he saw! It looked as if the driver was wearing a helmet just like Michael Schumacher's. And the driving style was exactly the same as his German hero's. Gregorio was confused. After some nights of troubled sleep he went to see St Peter about what he had seen that day. He described the scene he had seen and protested.. "But Michael Schumacher is not dead! How can he be here?" St Peter looked around to make sure nobody was listening and whispered to Gregorio. "Keep this quiet as I could get into trouble with the Big man for telling you this.." Peter glanced around some more... "You see that car... that was God... he thinks he is Michael Schumacher!" |
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| Formula1 One Liners | ||||
| 12:07pm 17/05/2004 | ||||
Back in his Jordan days Ralf Schumacher ran Johnny Herbert off teh track, and then afterwards claimed he gave Herbert space, to which Martin Brundle said, something along the lines of "Well I suppose if your name's Shoe-maker, you're entitled to talk cobblers" ! Patrick Head said that Alan Jones got up half an hour ealy on race day to give him more time to hate Nelson Piquet... At Spa on year a female fan came up to Graham Hill and asked him to sign her blouse. Hill did as he was asked, and then exclaimed " Blimey !! I wish I had a longer name" And not exactly F1, but involving two former F1 WDC's was in Nigel Mansell's Indycar days when he caused an accident between himself and Emmerson Fittipaldi. When interviewed Emmo said in his distinctive accent "Nigel, he crazy !! He try to stop his car with MY brakes! ! There is a whole chapter on murrays 'murryisms' in his autobiography, here are some of the best quotes: "I imagine the conditions in those cars are totaly unimaginable" "Do my eye's deceive me or is Senna's car sounding a bit rough?" "Prost can see Mansell in his earphones" "I've just stopped my startwatch" "And we've had five races this year. Brazil, Argentina, Imola, Schumacher and Monaco." "That was exactly the same place where Senna overtook Nannini that he didn't overtake Prost" "And it's Mansell, Mansell, Mansell, Nigel Mansell!!!" (It was Alain Prost) "The atmosphere is so tense you could cut it with a cricket stimp!" Murray has made some howlers in the past but they've all usually been done to death, which is why I included only a few. Martin Brundle has shown us many examples of his wit in the commentary box..... "The problem with Ralph is that he thinks he is Michael..." "Heinz has tried 57 varieties of getting around the track, and now he's coming into the pits." On Jos Verstappen: "It takes a special effort to get into that gravel trap." In '98 "That Williams looks as if someone has shot a cannon full of sponsor stickers at it." "Wurz always reminds me of Forest Gump to be honest." "Yes, the pistons are having a little talk with the valves in that engine." That ?oldest man? label is an incoming tide you can?t fight I had it, Gerhard Berger had it, Damon Hill had it. As soon as you get the title of ?oldest man in Formula 1? it?s almost like an exit route at the end of the season. You needed a calendar to time his first sector. Apparently there are some drivers on the grid here somewhere... I need to make a note of all these kings I?ve met today! |
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exanimate| Excuse Me... | |||
| 05:14pm 14/05/2004 | |||
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Extracts from actual letters sent to various councils and housing associations throughout the UK: 1. I want some repairs done to my cooker as it has backfired and burnt my knob off. 2. I wish to complain that my father hurt his ankle very badly when he put his foot in the hole in his back passage. 3. .. and their 18 year old son is continually banging his balls against my fence. 4. I wish to report that tiles are missing from the outside toilet roof. I think it was bad wind the other night that blew them off. 5. My lavatory seat is cracked, where do I stand. 6. I am writing on behalf of my sink, which is coming away from the wall. 7. Will you please send someone to mend the garden path. My wife tripped and fell on it yesterday and now she is pregnant. We are getting married in September and we would like it in the garden before we move into the house. 8. I request permission to remove my drawers in the kitchen. 9. ..50% of the walls are damp, 50% have crumbling plaster and the rest are plain filthy. 10. I am still having problems with smoke in my new drawers. 11. The toilet is blocked and we cannot bath the children until it is cleared. 12. Will you please send a man to look at my water, it is a funny colour and not fit to drink. 13. Our lavatory seat is broken in half and is now in three pieces. 14. Would you please send a man to repair my spout. I am an old age pensioner and need it badly. 15. I want to complain about the farmer across the road; every morning at 6am his cock wakes me up and its now getting too much for me. 16. The man next door has a large erection in the back garden, which is unsightly and dangerous. 17. Our kitchen floor is damp. We have two children and would like a third so please send someone round to do something about it. 18. I am a single woman living in a downstairs flat and would you please do something about the noise made by the man I have on top of me every night. 19. Please send a man with the right tool to finish the job and satisfy my wife. 20. I have had the clerk of the works down on the floor six times but I still have no Satisfaction. 21. This is to let you know that our lavatory seat is broken and we can't get BBC2. 22. My bush is really overgrown round the front and my back passage has fungus growing in it. 23. ... and he's got this huge tool that vibrates the whole house and I just cant take it anymore. 24. ... that is his excuse for dogs mess that I find hard to swallow. |
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| JV BMW-Williams 2005? | ||||
| 12:08pm 12/05/2004 | ||||
NO Do I wish it would happen? YES I think it would very interesting. I think JV would be a bit more humble considering no one wanted this season. Well, maybe not. He would still probably be the same old JV, who knows. I do believe he would drive for Williams with a low salary of $3-$4million/year. About what Juan is making. I also think he would have a rekindled desire to win a WDC since he would be driving a top 2 car. It would be very interesting to see and I think JV would do well if he had the right approach and attitude. Kind of like starting his career over again. The question is whether the Williams team is allowing this sort of thing to leak out or purposely put these things out to bring Ralf to his senses. Personally, I would like to see Ralf go to Toyota. I want some drivers that will race and drive hard in the Williams team. Ralf is neither of these. The only way he will win a race or get a podium is if his car is nearly perfect and he starts up front. Let's look at Williams options: -Ralf: if he knew what was good for him he would sign for Williams and accept the performance bonus based salary. This is smart for Williams to do this. It will inspire Ralf to drive harder. It is not likely that Ralf will meet all the bonus options unless the car is dominant. So this bodes good for Williams -JV: I don't think it will happen. It will only happen if Ralf is not there and there are 2 seats open. He is a great driver when he is motivated so this is a concern for Williams, if in fact they are talking to him. -Webber: This could go either way. It will go the way where Flavio makes the most money. It will cost Williams a good bit to get him and I don't know if they are willing. It is also hard to say if Flavio will let his driver go to one of his main rivals. I think he wants to bring Webber to Renault when Trulli goes elsewhere so he wouldn't want to have Webber tied up for 3 years at Williams, when that time comes. -Gene: I would like to see him get a shot. If there are 2 seats open at Williams, I think he will get one of them. Because Williams will have to pay a good bit of money to get a top driver at the #1 spot so they will want a cheap #2 driver and Gene fits that mold. -Pizzonia: Gene will get the race seat before him. After his poor performance on qualifying and race days, they will be hesitant to put him in a race seat. There is some unknowns about him when it come down to handling pressure. |
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thirsty| To "Fix" F1 | ||||
| 11:17am 07/05/2004 | ||||
Hey, there's a solution. Instead of changing the F1 cars, Bernie changes the cars driven by F1 fans, to make the series more relevant to what we drive! Thanks Bernie, I'll take my Enzo in red. |
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awake| What's the first place you look? | ||||
| 04:09pm 04/05/2004 | ||||
If its a familiar face I know where to look and where not to, if its an unfamiliar face, I do a through scan and find the best spot to concentrate on in 5 secs flat. |
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calm| American Porn Films banned for 2 months !!!! | |||
| 11:13am 23/04/2004 | |||
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========================= AMERICA?S porn movie industry was shut down last night after a performer admitted he had tested HIV-positive. Adult film star Darren James was given the devastating news on Monday. He had tested negative in three-weekly check-ups since 1998. ========================= If they had some morals they wouldn't have to worry about HIV or AIDS. The situation is no different to how the Aids epidemic spread, people sleeping around, multiple sex partners and believing they could sleep with who they want, when they want. The porn industry is full of shallow people like that, they presume their actors/actresses or as I call them sex addicts won't sleep around outside of their 'work'. With the way pornstars sleep around you couldn't be surprised what std they'd picked up. A little off topic, I know, but I really detest such people. |
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| HILL: SENNA WAS TO BLAME | ||||
| 12:52pm 21/04/2004 | ||||
======================================== Damon Hill believes Ayrton Senna was responsible for the crash that claimed his life 10 years ago. Hill, who was Senna?s team-mate at the time, has dismissed claims that the Brazilian?s car was at fault. Instead he makes the bold suggestion that the Brazilian hero, adored the world over, actually did the unthinkable he made a mistake. ======================================== I think he is probably correct about the fact that the steering rack didn't brake. It was broken in the car after the crash, but so was almost every other component of the car so its not suppressing. Some years ago, there was an independent investigation done into the crash and the results were presented in a magzine and some television programs. It came to the a similar conclusion, the suggested that the sequence of events was something like this. 1. JJ Lheto's crash caused the safety car to be deployed. 2. Once the safety car left the circuit the race resumed but the tyres of Senna?s car had cooled due to the slow running 3. The old Taburello was very fast and bumpy, while accelerating through this corner Senna's car hit the bumps. 4. The floor of his car momentarily grounded causing air flow under the car to cease. 5. The resulting momentary loss of down force combined with the cold tyres caused Senna?s car to overseer. 6. Senna applied some opposite lock to correct the problem. (4,5,6 lasted merely tenths of a second) 7. At the same time the car lifted from the roads surface and down force increased to normal levels. 8. At this point the car griped on the road again but Senna was steering away, not into, the corner which caused him to leave the circuit and hit the wall. Many believed that the steering rack broke because on the on-board camera, you can see the steering wheel move horizontally as Senna tried to steer away from the wall. This however, was not uncommon with the cars and the steering wheel on the Williams did move up/down/left/right by a few inches as was demonstrated in the program. You could argue that it was driver error, as Senna may have kept accelerating throughout the overseer, but we cant be sure, but the conditions were very tricky with the bumps and cold tires. |
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| Help needed with software problems. (Humour) | ||||
| 01:46pm 15/04/2004 | ||||
However, apparently there are conflicts between these two systems, the only solution was to try and run Girlfriend 1.0 with the sound turned off, but to make matters worse, Girlfriend 1.0 is incompatible with several other applications, such as:- Lads Knight Out 3.1, Golf 2 and Playboy 6.0. Successive versions of Girlfriend proved no better, Girlfriend 3.0 has many Bugs and left a virus in the system, forcing him to shut down completely for several weeks. Eventually he tried installing Girlfriend 2.1 as well as Girlfriend 1.0 only to discover when these two systems detected each other they caused severe damage to all his hardware. Sensing a way out, he upgraded to Fianc?e 1.0 only to discover to his dismay that this system required rapid upgrading to Wife 1.0. However, whilst Wife 1.0 uses up all available resources it does come bundled with FreeSex Plus and Cleanhouse 2004. But imagine my friend's disappointment on discovering that not only can Wife 1.0 be unstable and costly to maintain, but also that any mistake he makes are automatically stored in Wife 1.0's Hardrive and cannot be deleted - it then re-surfaces some 9 months later. Wife 1.0 also has an automatic InterDiary Explorer and E-mail Porn Filter, which also runs PhotoSTROP and WHINGE.zip. No option on the Help menu seems to work, leaving him to try and guess the fault himself. The system footprint needs updating regularly requiring Shoeshop browser Pro for new attachments and Hairstyle Express needs to be reinstalled every week. It also refused some of the new Games and attachments he wanted to try, stating they are an illegal operation. When Wife 1.0 attaches itself to Car 1.0 it often crashes or runs the system dry. Wife 1.0 also has a rather annoying pop-up called Mother-in-Law, which can't be turned off. Recently he's been tempted to try Mistress Millennium add-on, but there could be problems. If Wife 1.0 detects the presence of Mistress 2000, it will delete all MS Money files before un-installing itself. What he wants to know is, is this a common problem???? |
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working| FIA tryin to reduce speeds | ||||
| 02:43pm 12/04/2004 | ||||
I believe the first thing to do is to get rid of the tire war and have one spec tire that has been tested by each team prior to the season and let the teams design their chassis to that tire. This would level the playing field on the tire front. The next thing is to drastically reduce the downforce on the cars. This would open up passing opportunities in areas of a track that never see passing. A trailing car can not stay close to the preceeding car on high speed turns because it depends completely on downforce and it needs clean air. If the FIA did these two things I would be very happy and the racing would be very fun to watch. It would even be more exciting than it is now because with minimum downforce the cars will be dancing around more and it will require more driver input which will lead to driver slipups which will lead to more overtaking. |
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| Push Push Push - McLarens Woes | ||||
| 03:44pm 10/04/2004 | ||||
 Adrian Newey Newey is an aerodynamics or a fluids guy. His forte' is aerodynamics and not the mechanical function of the car. This is why he wants to design a "Cup" sailboat, because it is nothing but fluid dynamics that makes the boat fast with exception to the crew. Granted I'm sure he does have some input into mechanical aspects of the car but I would suspect his focus is on aerodynamics. As far as I can tell visually, the -19 is a very sleak car that appears to be efficient. The first of the -19 problems is with a twitchy and unstable car under braking. The drivers have complained of this and Kimi has probably been the most vocal on this. Personally, I don't believe this is an aerodynamics problem but a mechanical grip problem contributed to the suspension primarily. I think this is a real struggle for them and they can't come to grips (no pun intended) with how to set the car up to overcome the problem or maybe the problem can't be overcome. The 2nd of the -19 problems is of course with the engine. It is unreliable and underpowered. Mercedes quite other forms of racing 4 years ago so as to focus more on F1. They should have better results than this. My honest opinion of the Mclaren is this. They simply forgot what was important when designing a race car. They made it aerodynamically sleek, very small car. They designed it for aerodynamics, but they forgot that while it needs to be efficient, it also needs to still be a race car. Newey is the 'chief aerodynamacist' so his function on the team is to handle the basic packaging of the car so that tings are in an area conducive to high aerodynamic efficiency. He is not designing control arms, nor is he running ADAMS simulations to get the suspension sorted out right. After the 18 fiasco, and now this w/ the 19, keeping in mind that the 19 was the first new car out on track, and it can't even finish a damn practice session. I have lost a little bit of faith in the boys in silver. I have no doubt that they will be back, ferrari came back from some bad years 80's and early 90's, but if they want to do it quickly, they should scrap this current design philosophy, go back to a more conservative package, and just make sure everything works well. IT seems that mclaren and to a certain extent williams are on the 'leading edge' as far as design goes (read fooling around with the ridiculous twin keel), but when you go out on the 'leading edge' it takes a while to get things sorted out, if you ever do at all. If you go out and design a fundamentally sound car, it'll likely be bloody fast, and bloody reliable. |
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nerdy| The 2004 season | ||||
| 09:42am 26/03/2004 | ||||
quote: ---------------------------------------- McLaren seem to be going through a hard time, since the day they decided to start with the development of the MP4/18. The current car has problems with getting the Michelins to work at the rear, while the front lacks downforce. While a change from Hitco brakes to Carbone Industries solved their overheating problems, the bite of the Carbone discs is much more aggressive. As the MP4-19 is already a nervous car, this aspect does not please the drivers! ---------------------------------------- Nothing really new here, but i guess it appears that the Mclaren is a bit twitchy, I suspect it's from them still not completely understanding the twin keel. I still think their roll centers are way the fuck out of wack, which can cause soem really interesting behavior. I'm also not convinced that having the lower control arms shorter than the uppers is the way to go. Soemthing strikes me as not quite right about that. quote: ---------------------------------------- Williams have a totally different approach, with low and flat sidepods, therefore justifying the missing of the downward starting flipup. It appears as if two flip ups are more efficient since this second one has now been added, compared to last year's car. It now seems like Williams have simply been too busy with their tusked nose, and forgot to really develop the car aerodynamically at the back. ---------------------------------------- I thought that was pretty funny ... quote: ---------------------------------------- Even though Williams completed 15585 test kilometres, the car was not as fast as hoped for, particularly slowing down towards the end of the stints, marking too much tyre wear. It also has too much downforce in front compared to that in the rear and it also has poor traction. During testing at Imola the car was 10km/h slower than the Ferrari 100 m after the exit of the final chicane. The reason for that weakness is partly due to insufficient traction control and suspension geometry. ---------------------------------------- This was an interesting statistic as well. If you look at an on car video for one of the ferrari's vs. one of the williams, you can hear very clearly in pretty much every corner the TC engaging on the ferrari, while it is much less evident, even nonexistant on the williams. I just thought it was wierd, but it appears that this is actually a problem for the williams. According to this, the Ferrari must have neat little system going on. As does the renault... quote: ---------------------------------------- The engine now weighs approximately 93 kg and has 910 hp at 18,600 rpm and the piston problems they had in winter testing are now solved. ---------------------------------------- Have to admit i was rather takne by these numbers. But it stands to reason, the bar's were shifting right at about 18600, which makes sense if that's where their power peak was. If this is to be believed completely, i'd recon they hae one of the best 3 or 4 engines. Probably right on par w/ the toyota. It also means that hey have a healthy bit more power than mercedes at teh moment, and also a bit more than the renault. Could BAR be 3rd this year?? quote: ---------------------------------------- Williams FW26 ? 15585 kms over 33 test days Ferrari F2004 ? 5565 kms over 21 test days McLaren MP4/19 ? 13922 kms over 31 test days Renault R24 ? 6745 kms over 17 test days Toyota TF104 ? 10149 kms over 24 test days Minardi PS04B ? 3236 kms over 10 test days Sauber C23 ? 7261 kms over 19 test days BAR 006 ( and 005 concept) ? 5290 kms over 13 test days Jaguar R5 ? 6317 kms over 13 test days Jordan EJ14 ? 3629 kms over 12 test days ---------------------------------------- This was probably the statistic that really got me thinking. Williams and mclaren both put in significantly, we are talking almost 3 times the amount of testing that ferarri did over teh winter. Obviously this can be down to the fact that they unveiled their cars first. But if you look at it, that means that ferrari were able to work out their reliability gremlins, as well as develop the car, complie setup data, and prove components in significantly less time than thier competitors. They are the class of the field, yet they have done only more miles than minardi and jordan. I have been of the opinino for a long time that ferrari are the class of the field w/ respect to testing and R&D, this only further cements that fact. They can do an arse load of testing, as we saw last year, when they tested 5 different drivers at 3 different tracks in the same weeklong test. But they can accomplish a whole lot of testing very efficiently, as we see here. I think it's also a testiment to their design philosophy. They must really make sure things are well thought out, and simple before they start building. I jus tthought htat was pretty impressive. Ferrari are in a pretty good position, because they can do less of the, "well [insert favorite team here] is doing it so i guess that means theat we need a similar solution" that is in general what happens to some degree in designing race cars, and do more of the "ok guy's, what do we actually want to accomplish here ... and how are we going to do that" b/c it seems that the teams are reacting to them currently to a certain respect. Which is to be expected when you are on top of a sport for so long ... Anyway, hope you all found the article as interesting as i did. -cheers -------------------- SUV's seem to be an exception when it comes to tires. People don't mind noisy tires on those cars. The knobby, wide-open treads on SUV tires are there for one reason-less grip. SUVs have a nerrow track and a high CG so they tip over easily. A tire with NORMAL grip would be a saftey HAZARD. SUV tires are actually designed for low grip to avoid rollovers. What about braking/driving traction? It looks to me like that would be less also. For me, better tires are those taht generate more grip in all conditions. If your vehicle is so big and unwieldy that better tires are a hazard, maybe that type of vehicle is a poor choice! |
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full| My predictions for the Sepang GP | ||||
| 07:29pm 17/03/2004 | ||||
Qualifying 1) JPM 2) Ralf 3) MS 4) RB 5) Kimi 6) ALonso 7) Trulli 8) Button Dry Race 1) JPM 2) MS 3) Rubens 4) Ralf 5) Alonso 6) Button 7) Trulli 8) Webber Guys to watch - McLaren boys for the spectacular blow-ups. Best Start - Trulli Fastest Lap - JPM Best pit stop - Jordan 6 secs. They will be on a 4 stopper. Race will be three-stopper except for McLaren whose race strategist has absolutely no common sense and is instrumental in the slowing down the cars due to the extra fuel loads. I'd rather have a fast car, which gives me half a chance than have a car, which is slow and makes it into the points, with lil luck. Malaysia is a HP track and Ferrari and BMW have truckloads of it. Renault will struggle, as their engine is not up to the HP mark yet. I think we will witness at least one Honda blow up and we all know who it?s going to be. Sauber will be just outside the points. I am excepting a first corner incident, especially if the Ferrari?s are not up to the pace of the Michelin shod runners; MS has shown he can crack under pressure. Best Overtaking Move - Sato over who-ever-is-unfortunate-to-be-infront-of-h |
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cranky| Why Ralf wont be joining Renault | ||||
| 10:06am 10/03/2004 | ||||
 Thats the start of the 2002 Ozzy GP. I knew that guy was a marine. LOL F1 isint exactly about flying cars, though legend has it that Finns in F1 do fly, ask Kimi. |
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| McLaren - Its time to buckle up guys! | ||||
| 11:28am 09/03/2004 | ||||
Most recent examples of radical ideas going boink are Renault with their wide Vee angled engine (though they showed some good speeds towards the latter half of 03). Similarly the Williams has come up with a great car this year, and their supposedly wild idea has paid dividends. It?s just a matter of getting it right the first time. So the obvious question would be, how did Williams?s get it right and McLaren have messed it up big time? I frankly don?t know, but it could be due to trying too many things at the same time, too many people trying too many things and making too many mistakes, lack of coordination, internal problems within the Engg. Depts.. of the company, PARAGON distraction or simply the right people not being "that" right. OH and lets not forget the favor which Mercedes is doing since 2000 by providing them with extraa fragile or underpowered engines. Its a pity that a team such as McLaren fails to live up to its promise at the very first GP, and I will be very dissapointed if they are beaten this year. Well there are times when it doesn?t go your way, but mark my words, when they get it right, they will be untouchable. And this is may be coming from a desperate fan who wants his team to do well, but the base line is that if I being just a fan can feel so much, I am sure Ron Dennis must have channeled all his resources, especially after the Ozzy GP debacle, and make sure they work 24/7 to achieve what they had set out to achieve in 2004, the F1 WDC and WCC. GO MACAAAAAAAAA ---> |
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contemplative| Ozzy GP | ||||
| 05:54pm 06/03/2004 | ||||
The race as such will be boring. Ferrari will win. Period. Williams will be on the podium and I'll be very surprised in one of the McLaren even manage to complete the race, and even if they do they could be like 7-8. The pit lane is shortened and the speed limit in the pits has been increased so we could well see a 3 stopper. It could be that the guys who qualify at the front (except for MS and RB) are running light. The biggest disappointment was obviously the revealing of the fact that McLaren are genuinely slow this year. DAMN! |
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nileshsane |
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