Fernando Alonso and McLaren

Last week I stuck my neck out with the following comment in my personal blog.

McLaren needs Alonso as much as Alonso needs McLaren. There aren't too many options for the double world champion. The only place that would look like a promotion is Ferrari but Italians and Spainards are not good bedfellows. Alonso will not go from McLaren, I'm sticking my neck out on this one. Simply because the McLaren car this year is a rock solid package, it has completed every race it has started and except for just two failures during qualifying - Alonso's engine block and Hamilton's tyre, the car has performed incredibly well. I'm doubly sure that the research and development effort of McLaren is immensely being benefitted by Alonso's experience.

The press this weekend has been reporting the same news and looks like I guessed it pretty right, atleast for this season. Today's race in Istanbul should be an exciting one.

Identify this guy

Who is this guy and what is he doing at Nurburgring?

I love these videos

Bill Gates - Coke Commercial (Coca-Cola) - Soapbox on MSN Video

Bill Gates in Doom - Soapbox on MSN Video

(PS: Hez my Boss, be careful what you say about him in front of me)

Late Post - Bill Gates and Steve Jobs @ D5

A few weeks ago Bill Gates and Steve Jobs gave an interview together on D5. While Mossberg is an ass I'm happy that he did bring together the two industry giants on the same stage. I watched it the moment D5 published it on the website and he is the highlights from Youtube. Just search for 'Bill Gates D5' on Youtube for the rest of it.

YouTube - Bill Gates and Steve Jobs highlights at D5

Windows Live Writer

I'm arguably one of the laziest bloggers (as you can gather from the number of my posts). In order to facilitate a recent decision to correct that habit, I decided to take a look at Windows Live Writer as I've heard rave reviews about it. The last two posts on this blog was made from WLW and its awesome. Here are some points I notice about it.

• Its simple and straight forward
• It expectedly has a very much Microsoft Word feel to it
• It can post to almost any blog / blogging service out there in the wide world. I personally tried my MSDN blog, Live Spaces and Blogspot and it came out of top every time.
• I has a very active as well as reactive team working on it, ably supported by a community that has developed very useful plugins for it.

In short I'm expecting to post every other post on any of my blogs from this tool going forward. You can find plugins for the same at the Windows Live Gallery for WLW.

If I have any feature request it is to somehow sync with accessible blogs and be able to edit previous logs. Now that certainly requires a partnership between the blog service and the WLW team, and I'm thinking MSN Spaces team might be a good place to start. Of course if I'm in the dark again and there is a way out, do point me toward it. Another feature might be to download all the previous blogs and then be able to post the same on a different blog. Would be great for Syncing blogs when one is moving over to a new provider. Again if there is any tool that can help someone move from  Blogspot to spaces throw the link my way please :)

Windows Vista - Upgrade pathways

I'd be participating in a support Webcast on Windows Vista Upgrade pathways sometime on July 25th at 10:00 AM PST. I will not presenting it, but might come on voice during the Q & A. I'm happy about doing this as this should be a good opportunity to help customers understand the various Vista upgrade options and especially the common mistakes made. If you need something specific added, feel free to ping me and I'll try and address the same on this Webcast.

EDIT: Almost forgot. You can find the Webcast at this link.

Windows Vista Support WebCasts: Supported upgrade pathways to install Windows Vista

Open Source at Microsoft

So how many people really know that Microsoft does do some Open Source. I'd guess not many. So those of you who find this as new, please go to www.codeplex.com and start your way through.

Formula 1 diary - French Grand Prix

On a personal front the French Grand Prix being conducted for the last time in Magny-Cours was a disappointment for me as a McLaren fan. Alonso started from 10th after facing gearbox problems during qualifying. His gearbox got welded to the engine which had to be cut off and replaced with a new gearbox. A change of engine would have been an easier option but he would have had to start from the end of the grid in such a case.

The two Ferrari's had a perfect start with Massa taking off from 1st and Kimi grabbing the 2nd position in the first corner after starting 3rd from the grid beating Lewis who started 2nd. Alonso managed a flying start getting into 7th position after starting from 10th. Robert Kubica followed Lewis all through the race. The race was thrilling in two sections particularly. The first was Alonso's battle with Nick Heidfeld before his first pit stop, the Spainard clearly had the faster car but Nick's clever driving saw Alonso at his wit's end attempting all sorts of heroic stuff. He would go on to overtake Nick after his second pit stop but lost a lot of time meanwhile.

This was a race where strategy took over when all other tricks drivers had in their bags failed. Sample this, Massa leads most of the race till he stops for his final stop and get's out behind Kimi who is yet to pit for tyres and fuel. Kimi pits and get's ahead of Massa and goes on to win the race, what is that? Absolutely determined driving and good strategy. McLaren's strategy was found lacking in many areas. Getting Lewis to pit the third time for softer tyres and fuel added about 20 secs to his lap time. At one point a charging Lewis had closed the gap between him and Massa to about 8 secs with 20 laps to go.

Pos No Driver Team Laps Time/Retired Grid Pts

1 6 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 70 1:30:54.200 3 10

2 5 Felipe Massa Ferrari 70 +2.4 secs 1 8

3 2 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 70 +32.1 secs 2 6

4 10 Robert Kubica BMW 70 +41.7 secs 4 5

5 9 Nick Heidfeld BMW 70 +48.8 secs 7 4

6 3 Giancarlo Fisichella Renault 70 +52.2 secs 5 3

7 1 Fernando Alonso McLaren-Mercedes 70 +56.5 secs 10 2

8 7 Jenson Button Honda 70 +58.8 secs 12 1

9 16 Nico Rosberg Williams-Toyota 70 +68.5 secs 9

10 11 Ralf Schumacher Toyota 69 +1 Lap 11

11 8 Rubens Barrichello Honda 69 +1 Lap 13

12 15 Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 69 +1 Lap 14

13 14 David Coulthard Red Bull-Renault 69 +1 Lap 16

14 17 Alexander Wurz Williams-Toyota 69 +1 Lap 18

15 4 Heikki Kovalainen Renault 69 +1 Lap 6

16 22 Takuma Sato Super Aguri-Honda 68 +2 Laps 22

17 20 Adrian Sutil Spyker-Ferrari 68 +2 Laps 21

Ret 19 Scott Speed STR-Ferrari 55 Technical 15

Ret 21 Christijan Albers Spyker-Ferrari 28 Accident 20

Ret 23 Anthony Davidson Super Aguri-Honda 1 Accident 19

Ret 12 Jarno Trulli Toyota 1 Accident 8

Ret 18 Vitantonio Liuzzi STR-Ferrari 0 Accident 17

Over to Silverstone next weekend, the circuit where Mika won the GP in 2001 with a 3 pit stop strategy while all/most other cars were on 2 stops.

The picture says it all

Amul undie ad

This ad is a must see for it's sheer brashness

Formula 1 Diary - US grand prix

McLaren have been right on top with their car's performance and reliability this year and the US grand prix was a testimony to their sheer domination. The first four cars that finished were the one's that started from the same positions on the grid. There were two instances where Alonso challenged Hamilton but couldn't get past due to superb driving by the latter. Turn 1 this year didn't provide too many crashes, only 6 cars retired from the race. McLaren go to France from here with 106 championship points in their kitty and Lewis leads the drivers championship with 58 points with Alonso on 48. With some upgrades expected on the car in France McLaren could emerge stronger.

Felipe Massa had a decent race and help up the challenge from fellow team mate Kimi Raikkonen in the finishing stages. Kimi lost 4 places in the starting lap but fought back agressively to gain all of them back. He was also set the fastest lap of the race at 1m13.117secs which could be signs of the Finn fighting back. Nick Heidfeld was driving well until his car simply gave up on him. Ferrari and Sauber have good cars and are the one's that can challenge McLaren. Surprisingly the Torro Rosso Car of Luizi was the fastest in terms of top speed hitting 335 kmph in the straight section from Turn 13 to Turn1.

1 Lewis Hamilton Vodafone McLaren Mercedes 1h39:09.065

2 Fernando Alonso Vodafone McLaren Mercedes +1.518

3 Felipe Massa Scuderia Ferrari +12.842

4 Kimi Raikkonen Scuderia Ferrari +15.422

5 Heikki Kovalainen Renault +41.402

6 Jarno Trulli Toyota +1:06.703

7 Mark Webber Williams F1 +1:07.331

8 Sebastian Vettel BMW Sauber +1:07.783

9 Giancarlo Fisichella Renault +1 lap

10 Alex Wurz Williams F1 +1 lap

11 Anthony Davidson Super Aguri +1 lap

12 Jenson Button Honda Racing +1 lap

Can someone ask the Indianapolis Motoring Speedway authorities to do some publicity and get the stands filled? It's appalling to see stands vacant in the main straight track of the race.

Lewis Hamilton's first GP win

In April I quoted Lewis talk about getting his first GP win sometime this year and I was looking at one after the championship fights were settled. Last week in Montreal Lewis tasted success by clinching the first place for McLaren. It was a flawless drive for Lewis and the opposite for Fernando who kept spinning many times. Lewis Hamilton is already leading the championship points and Ron Dennis should be one happy man. Now if only Fernando Alonso take full advantage of his team and car, McLaren will be one unstoppable force this year. Ah, do I smell constructors championship for McLaren?

Formula 1 Diary - Malaysian Grand Prix

The second race of the 2007 season kicked off in style. The first corner saw Alonso take the lead and close fight between Hamilton and Massa for about 8 laps till Hamilton established his place in the 2nd position. McLaren's race all the way with a one-two finish which saw Ron Dennis back on the podium for the Constructor's trophy and Alonso and Hamilton take 1 and 2 respectively. The last 10 laps of the race were scary with Kimi Raikkonnen closing in on Hamilton and almost was going to take off the 2nd position.

1 Fernando Alonso Vodafone McLaren Mercedes 1h32.14.930

2 Lewis Hamilton Vodafone McLaren Mercedes +17.5 secs

3 Kimi Raikkonen Scuderia Ferrari +18.3 secs

4 Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber +33.7 secs

5 Felipe Massa Scuderia Ferrari +36.7 secs

6 Giancarlo Fisichella Renault +65.6 secs

7 Jarno Trulli Toyota +70.1 secs

8 Heikki Kovalainen Renault +72.0 secs

9 Alex Wurz Williams F1 +89.9 secs

10 Mark Webber Williams F1 +93.5 secs

11 Rubens Barrichello Honda Racing +1 Lap

12 Jenson Button Honda Racing +1 Lap

13 Takuma Sato Super Aguri +1 Lap

14 Scott Speed Toro Rosso +1 Lap

15 Ralf Schumacher Toyota +1 Lap

16 Anthony Davidson Super Aguri +1 Lap

17 Tonio Luizzi Toro Rosso +1 Lap

18 Robert Kubica BMW Sauber +1 Lap

253mph - Just Watch It!

An amazing video... By the end of it, you will be left with butterflies in your stomach... The background music is amazing... best with headphones...

Bugatti Veyron at top speed
Uploaded by Flabber

Formula 1 Diary - Australian Grand Prix

The inaugural race of the year turned out to be closely fought and full of suspenses and surprises. The biggest one being rookie Lewis Hamilton getting a position on the podium in his debut F1 race. It turned out to be a particularly good start for the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team as Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton took 2nd and 3rd places respectively. The 1st place was bagged by Kimi Raikkonnen driving his first race for Ferrari.

1) Kimi Raikkonen Scuderia Ferrari 1h25m28.770

2) Fernando Alonso Vodafone McLaren Mercedes +7.242

3) Lewis Hamilton Vodafone McLaren Mercedes +18.595

4) Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber +38.763

5) Giancarlo Fisichella Renault +66469

6) Felipe Massa Scuderia Ferrari +66.805

7) Nico Rosberg Williams F1 +1 lap

8) Ralf Schumacher Toyota +1 lap

9) Jarno Trulli Toyota +1 lap

10) Heikki Kovalainen Renault +1 lap

11) Rubens Barrichello Honda Racing +1 lap

12) Takuma Sato Super Aguri +1 lap

13) Mark Webber Williams F1 +1 lap

14) Tonio Luizzi Toro Rosso +1 lap

15) Jenson Button Honda Racing +1 lap

16) Anthony Davidson Super Aguri +2 laps

17) Adrian Sutil Spyker F1 +2 laps

Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 Released

Windows Server 2003 R2 has been out for close to 2 years now and the next update to Windows Server, Service Pack 2 has come out. Another update that has come out is the Service Pack 2 for Windows XP 64-bit. Most regular users of Windows Update will notice that this pack is more of a collection of most updates available on Windows Update rather than a revolutionary update that it was for when Service Pack 2 was released for Windows XP 32-bit editions back in 2004. However there are some changes that happen on installing the service pack, notable new features being SNP and XMLLite. There are also several changes to current features such as Windows Deployment Services in Windows Server 2003 R2. More information about the release can be found in the release notes at KB article number 914961 .

Pray for me brother

An awesome endeavor is all I can say for the new track/intention of A.R.Rahman and others involved in the Pray for me brother initiative. The track is apprently going to be used as an Anthem for the removal of poverty initiative of the UN and it also involved Nokia who will be releasing it in a mobile compatible format for all mobiles and Universal Music will be releasing the album. I'm gonna buy a copy to do my bid. Will you :) The lyrics and more info can be found at Roshan's blog. http://ramblingsoul.com/2007/01/25/lyrics-pray-for-me-brother/ Here is the video for the track and a live version performed on New Year day at Mumbai.

Oscar awards - 2007

The OSCAR results are out and Martin Scorsese has finally been awarded an oscar. I stuck my neck out by speculating the winners for the 'Sound mixing' and 'Visual effects' category and appear to have got it right though the 'Best animated feature' award went to 'Happy Feet' while I thought 'Cars' was a good effort. The whole world and some aliens too predicted an oscar to Martin Scorsese which has ended in a double whammy - Best Direction and Best Picture, so no big deal on telling about that one.

(Eq)uality among the sexes - NO THANKS

This is not intended for the general female population over whom I have great respect. This is for a screwed up in the head and everywhere else, 40 something, socialite (un)dressed up(down) idiots who think equality between men and women equals both sexes have to do everything. Its a fucking partnership and if you can't understand that, go to hell(or maybe you are already there) (These) Women who want equality should first do away with a lot of stuff .... - Seperate ladies' queue at everything from Goverment offices to Airport security checks - 33% reservation in the parliment - Dressing up like whores and then complaining about Eve teasing - Stop trying to loose weight and show off your midrib to your socialite friends and the world - oh and I don't mean all the time, please keep fit and all that, JUST DON'T $#^^$^$% do it when you have just had a baby. - And if you don't want to look a bit round cos you have just given birth, stop $#%$@#& around so much and get on the pill - Just don't try to ride an Enfield cos you want to prove you are equal. Ride it if you truly love the ride. Otherwise you end up killing the others on the road. There is nothing wrong in going on a non-geared cute looking scoot(y)er. - There is nothing wrong in not being able to lift 100 kilos. Stop exercising so much that your Oestrogen screws up and you end up looking like 'a man', the same creature that you wanted to out do in the first place. - And hey we don't mind removing our tops in public at security checks, to the beach to the swimming pool. If you are so equal off with the tops and come into the pool. We'll be nice, I promise ;) To end a short clip from the immortal startrek

John Williams and Yo Yo Ma playing live

This is a video of John Williams (on the piano) and Yo Yo Ma (on the cello) playing the theme from the movie "Memoirs of a Geisha" in NBC's "The Tonight Show".

After the end - Finding Neverland

In this series I'll try to bring your attention to the music of movies after they technically get over. Yes, we are talking about the soundtrack that accompanies the credits on screen. This is the least heard/seen aspect of a movie but many a times it turns out to be the most fulfulling in terms of music. This week we'll start with the music that accompanies the end titles of the movie 'Finding Neverland'.


powered by ODEO

Jan A.P Kaczmerak wrote a score that was melodic and orchestrated subtly for the movie about the writer of 'Peter Pan'. The end titles is accompanied by a piano solo deftly played by Leszek Mozdzer. The main attraction of this piece is the simple melody which when played over and over is improvised by the pianist. Scores like these should be written about less and heard more. So go on, list to the music and send your views too.

Ratan Tata - A true Indian entrepreneur

Ratan Tata has been in the news all the time and more so recently with the recent success they had in winning over Corus. What makes this man special? Is it the size of the businesses he oversees? It is the number of areas the TATA group has been able to diversify into? Is it the amount of value he's creating for his shareholders? What is the story about this man that makes him so special and likeable?

Ratan Naval Tata was born on the 28th of Dec 1937. In 1962 he graduated with a degree in Archietecture and Structural Engineering from Cornell University. He came back to India and was sent to work on the shop floor in Tata Steel for 3 yrs. How many of you remember a TV set called Nelco Blue Diamond? Nelco (National Radio and Electronics Company) was his next destination where he was made a Director.

Ratan completed a Management program in Harvard and around that time Emergency was imposed in India which led to a lockout of Nelco. From here Tata went to work in the textile business of the Tata's which had mixed results. The main reason for this was attributed to the labor problems in Bombay then under the astute leadership of Datta Samant, a strong trade union leader.

In 1991 Ratan Tata took over as group chairman of the TATA group and this period saw TATA consultancy services going public and the foray of TATA motors into the passenger car market. The TATA Indica was an ambitious project because no Indian company had designed cars before. The easiest way was to find a foreign partner and manufacture cars under a JV. Ratan chose to take the path that was never travelled.

TATA Indica was launched on Indian roads in 1998 and it met initially with a lot of criticism and was also plagued with defects and other running problems. But to the company's credits everything was sorted out in a short span of time and it's one of the best selling cars of the country today. This was followed by the supremely successful TATA Indigo which still sells like hot cakes. The TATA's are all set to launch a luxurious version of this car named Indigo XL.

Ratan also led TATA to Korea and acquired Daewoo motors heavy vehicles division. TATA Tea acquired Tetley. Tata Teleservices acquired Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) when the Government divested it's stakes in it. Corus was a tough bargain because CSN stepped in and upped the ante. But Ratan says they bought it for a price which was within what they had decided and it surely is a victory for the group.

Ratan Tata is know for his integrity in business and the values that he holds dear to him. An intensely private bachelor, he loves dogs, flying, electronics, technology and cars. Rumor has it that he drives a TATA Indica to work in Mumbai. His next big adventure according to him is to fly the F16 for which he's been invited. A big cheer for the man who makes India proud, who serves as a role model for countless indian and who strongly believes that corporates should give back something to the country.

This interview with Rajdeep Sardesai on CNN-IBN on being conferred the 'Indian of the year' is a must watch.

The most humourous Mac Vs PC debate EVER !!!!

I have been online a long time now and have read/had been in plenty of This Vs Thats. But this certainly has to be the most humourous debate I have read in a while http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=5957 I never thought I'd see a DT artile with so much humour.

McLaren - F1 2007 season

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes F1 team has released pictures of the new car (MP4-22) and the driver for this season. The MP4-22 is by far the best looking car in the lineup for this year, I hope in terms of performance they are able to break the reliability jinx. Day 1 of testing in Valencia saw Alonso retire in the last 5 minutes of testing with a "minor oil leak" but the fact that he did 102 laps and was the first on the track was good news. Day 2 of testing was mildly hampered by wet track conditions but no car problems.

Jax is a big fan of Ferrari and I wonder where his loyalities are this season. Can't wait till the first race, keep watching this space for more.

Launchy | The App Launcher

Sometime back, I came across this nifty little tool called Launchy.

Launchy is a free windows utility designed to help you forget about your start menu, the icons on your desktop, and even your file manager. Launchy indexes the programs in your start menu and can launch your documents, project files, folders, and bookmarks with just a few keystrokes!

The results were really amazing. Since I started using it, I have never opened up Windows Explorer at all to locate my docs. A simple Windows+Spacebar shortcut fires Launchy and I just type the name of the doc I am looking for. Actually I manage to type a few characters in the app as it retrieves the document. The best feature about Launchy is that you can set it to index and retrieve any filetype in your system. For instance, at my home PC, I have set Launchy up to index my mp3 folders. Now any song is just a few keypresses away. The latest release adds a lot of support for stuff like plugins which take the application to a new level. A built-in calculator and a Firefox plugin has made this piece of software warrant a high place in my 'Must Have' tools list. If you consider yourself a power-user or if you are tired of going through a complicated directory structure to locate your documents, you should head over here and download Launchy and start using it immediately. Don’t worry, it doesn’t hog that much memory.

The Wow Continues !!!!

So you have decided to go on the Vista path. There are certain things that you want to do before rushing out to buy the stuff. First check if your system meets the minimum requirements. You might have heard/read a lot of stuff about Vista needing these futuristic machines to be able to use it normally, and most prolly about 95% of them are not true. So what is the 5%? Well for one you do need atleast a 1.5 Ghz processor for normal usage, and faster/better processors for more advanced usage. But practically speaking, now that the Mega/Gigahertz myth has been broken, let's just take an AMD Sempron 64 2.0 Ghz as a base processor or even the 1.6 Ghz Intel Centrino as the Base for Mobile processors. Also for anything other than just browsing the internet with Aero turned off, let's have a minimum of 1 Gb of RAM and a decent graphics card (Ah! c'mon for god's sake you can buy a 'decent' graphics card for less that what it costs to buy a 'decent' pair of trousers) and atleast about 40 Gb hard disk space ....contd.....

The Wow Starts NOW !!!!

The Wow Starts NOW !!!! Yes it does. For those not familiar with the phrase yet, I am talking (raving?) about Windows Vista. The latest iteration of the market leading Windows family of operating systems has just been released to the consumers. For someone who has been closely associated for a long time with Microsoft and its products its a moment of triumph, satisfaction and fulfilment. So for all ya folks with the horsepower and the memory on your systems, let's start the plans for upgrade right away. What's in it for you? Well that depends on who you are and what you want to do with your systems. Are you looking for a 'Basic' safe computing experience on a low to mid config system or are you looking to have a 'Premium' multimedia experience at Home with your Media Centre and rich Aero experience or maybe go for the 'Ultimate' experience, with enough features to mak any geek feel worthy. .....contd......