Wednesday, July 13, 2011

71 Years Ago His Mom Made It So

No self respecting geek site would deserve the "geek" reference without wishing a Happy Birthday to Patrick Stewart.  Not only did he play a Star Trek captain well enough to win over tons of skeptical fans with one of the first ever "reboots" of a well known series, he's managed to maintain a wide ranging career despite nearly reaching icon status for his portrayal of Captain Picard.   Regardless of anything else he's done my two favorites are of course the serious Captain and Stan Smith's boss, Avery Bullock. 

Happy Birthday Mr. Stewart.

A DIY Nikon-Compatible Shutter Release

While the video doesn't go into a lot of detail about the construction you can rewind it to see how it was put together.  You could probobably put this together in an afternoon.



In all seriousness, what starts out as a pretty cool thing becomes more amazing as it goes on.  Bonus points for creative use of Compact Flash.  Worth watching the whole thing.

www.f1-geeks.com

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

We Just Need To Use "Really" More Often

Check this out.



Yes, this is our "Wordle".  What does it tell you?  Just look at it?  Doesn't it just lay it out just right for just anyone to analyze?

Yeah... we've got to stop using that word...


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Sunday, July 10, 2011

Blown Diffuser Rules Blow

I've always been a fan of the regulation changes that happen in the off season.  I really liked seeing how things changed and how the teams were going to respond to the changes.  Even those changes seemed to have a hint of intending to slow down a particular team but that was always just hinted.   It did affect everyone.

Mid season changes are offensive.

Particularly when there is no attempt to hide their intent is to slow a particular team.  I don't recall these types of changes being offered up when Shumacher was racking up his seven world championships.  I may be suffering from selective memory, but I'm sure it was never this blatant.

The point of trying to create the best racing combination you can is to, well, create the best racing combination possible.  RedBull's design falls within the rules and their dominance is good for the sport.  I'll have to post that later.  

I know some of you are going to say that I'm just mad because I'm a RedBull fanboy and that I would love it if they penalized Ferrari.  First, I would love it, but it would still be wrong and I'd still be offended by it.  Second, Ferrari is already penalized.  Have you seen

Will Buxton made a comment about the active suspension ban that happened after Williams won the championship with it.   The difference is that happened during the off season.  The rules makers realized the team had put together a winning package and the other teams were trying to catch up.   It was a reasonable (if, as the cynics claim, false) excuse that they needed to slow all the cars down.

Some might argue that the limited testing allowed makes it impossible for the other teams to catch up within a season.  I'll concede that.  The answer would be to allow testing any time during a race weekend, not to change the rules mid season that stifles innovation and penalizes anyone who isn't Ferrari.

You think I've got it wrong?  Comment.


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