Tuesday, June 21, 2005

US Grand Prix - 2005 - The Controversy Continues

Here's an article describing the track's challenges with grinding and resurfacing. After reading this I'd be inclined to say Michelin should have pushed for additional testing somehow. They knew the track had been resurfaced. They knew it was hard on tires (or at least they should have). Granted Bridgestone had the upper hand with data from the Indy 500, but I think some testing (whatever the cost) could have gotten them the data they needed to be competitive. Read Michelin's lame attempt to salvage some reputation. Too bad it is just an excuse for poor engineering.

Monday, June 20, 2005

Giant bust on the US Grand Prix

If you're not a fan of Formula One, you may have missed this news. Michelin pulled their safety certification and 7 of 10 teams did not compete in the 2005 US Grand Prix. My high hopes were dashed to bits on the jagged rocks below.

I've thought a bit about it and here is my opinion.

I blame Michelin. Bridgestone put tyres on their cars that worked. Michelin had more cars and more total track time. Even if they had brought harder compound - fully inside rules, Michelin could have run and probably still beat Mindardi and Jordan. Still a 1-2 for Ferrari but we would have had a race anyway.

What to do

Well for me anyway - I validated I am riding Yokohamas. Still need to check the wife and daughters cars. Wife's got Walmart tires and daughter has what her car came with. I will never buy Michelins again.

Hope

Maybe we'll get some money back - but I'm not counting those chickens.

Here's a few links to stories.

Sunday, June 19, 2005

US Grand Prix - 2005

So I am going to the US Grand Prix tomorrow.

Here are a batch of pictures from today's qualifying session. I put only the better ones - which I think are fairly good. The good news is that Ferrari did not have a good showing. The bad news is neither did BMW.Williams. Let's see if we can do better in the race. Toyota finally scored a pole with Jarno Trulli - an odd individual in my book. Kimi Raikkonen had a good run but not good enough. Here's the full grid for tomorrow. I'm looking forward to a fun day.

Thursday, June 09, 2005

Which Star Wars Character Are You?

I am Emperor Palpatine. This really must be a truthful exam, the last time I took it and this time resulted in the same answer, and there are quite a few questions. Not sure of the mapping (i.e. how many characters can really be represented) but it appears as though it is possible to generate 1.5M end results (35**4). If I had the time (which I don't) I'd try to reverse engineer the questions by writing some html to submit the answers a bunch of times and see what comes back. In my youth I may have tried this. Shoot - I'm still a geek - I took a very quick glance at the code, it doesn't require reverse engineering - it is right up front for all to see, and it is even somewhat elegant. The only possible answers are:
  • Artoo
  • Chewie
  • Fett
  • Han
  • Jabba
  • Lando
  • Leia
  • Luke
  • Obiwan
  • Palpatine
  • Threepio
  • Vader
  • Yoda