Trulli at top for the final Barcelona test

Yesterday was the last day of the Barcelona pre-season test. Trulli was at top of the timesheets followed by Coulthard and Rosberg. So now, the Formula 1 season will kick off at Melbourne in 2 weeks time. Hopefully we'll see something different.

3rd Day of Barcelona:

1. J. Trulli Toyota 01:20.801
2. D. Coulthard Red Bull 01:21.258
3. N. Rosberg Williams 01:21.293
4. H. Kovalainen McLaren 01:21.309
5. M. Webber Red Bull 01:21.368
6. N. Piquet jr. Renault 01:21.443
7. F. Alonso Renault 01:21.454
8. K. Nakajima Williams 01:21.796
9. K. Räikkönen Ferrari 01:21.933
10. L. Hamilton McLaren 01:22.011
11. T. Glock Toyota 01:22.155
12. G. Fisichella Force India F1 01:22.233
13. F. Massa Ferrari 01:22.286
14. R. Kubica BMW 01:22.299
15. S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 01:22.465
16. A. Sutil Force India F1 01:22.521
17. N. Heidfeld BMW 01:22.624
18. A. Wurz Honda 01:24.154
19. J. Button Honda 01:24.275

Barcelona F1 Test: Day Two

The day two of Barcelona testing, Hamilton still on the top of the timesheets ahead of Kovalainen and Raikkonen. The full list as below:

1. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:21.234
2. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes 1:21.434
3. Raikkonen Ferrari 1:21.722
4. Rosberg Williams-Toyota 1:22.309
5. Massa Ferrari 1:22.513
6. Fisichella Force India-Ferrari 1:22.516
7. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:22.558
8. Kubica BMW-Sauber 1:22.625
9. Button Honda 1:22.659
10. Liuzzi Force India-Ferrari 1:22.942
11. Nakajima Williams-Toyota 1:22.977
12. Trulli Toyota 1:23.023
13. Alonso Renault 1:23.112
14. Barrichello Honda 1:23.169
15. Heidfeld BMW-Sauber 1:23.284
16. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:23.323
17. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:23.458
18. Piquet Renault 1:23.467
19. Glock Toyota 1:23.561

Old Style

Anyone interested in Donny Deleeto's service?

1st Day of Barcelona Test

The final pre-season test for this 2008 Formula One season kicked-off at Circuit de Catalunya yesterday. As for yesterday, Hamilton leads the timesheets ahead of Kimi and Schumacher. Below is the complete list from F1 Technical.

1. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:22.276
2. Raikkonen Ferrari 1:22.319
3. M.Schumacher Ferrari 1:22.428
4. Nakajima Williams-Toyota 1:22.724
5. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes 1:22.852
6. Rosberg Williams-Toyota 1:22.974
7. Alonso Renault 1:23.021
8. Heidfeld BMW-Sauber 1:23.075
9. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:23.091
10. Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:23.115
11. Sutil Force India-Ferrari 1:23.188
12. Klien BMW-Sauber 1:23.239
13. Liuzzi Force India 1:23.270
14. Piquet Renault 1:23.442
15. Glock Toyota 1:23.609
16. Kobayashi Toyota 1:23.880
17. Barrichello Honda 1:24.460
18. Wurz Honda 1:24.667
19. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault 1:24.826

Sony DSC-H50 and DSC-W300

Yesterday, Sony announced two new Cyber-Shot digital camera, an ultra-zoom and ultra-compact.

DSC-H50

This is a successor to Sony's DSC-H9 superzoom camera with 9 megapixel and several improvements over its predecessor. Also included Sony's 'smile shutter' and adult- or child-priority face detection. The specs as follows:

• 9.1 effective Megapixel CCD
• F2.7-4.5, 15X optical zoom lens, equivalent to 31 - 465 mm
• Optical image stabilization
• 3-inch, tilting LCD with 230,000 pixels and scratch-resistent UV coating
• Electronic viewfinder (0.2-inch, 201,000 pixels)
• Full manual controls
• Noise reduction now adjustable (low, standard, high) - yay
• D-Range Optimizer "plus" mode brings out details in shadows and highlights
• New "advanced sports" mode applies higher shutter speeds, up to 1/4000 sec, "more frequently than on previous models"
• NightShot feature lets you take photos in total darkness (a classic Sony feature)
• Face and smile detection
• VGA movie mode (30 fps) with sound
• Optional conversion lenses, HD video output cable
• 15MB onboard memory + MS Duo slot
• Uses NP-BG1/FG1 lithium-ion battery; 300 shots per charge
• USB 2.0 High Speed support
• Comes in silver and black

DSC-W300

The most interesting feature is the 13.6MP sensor. Other features are:

• F2.8-5.5, 3X optical zoom lens, equivalent to 35 - 105 mm
• Optical image stabilization
• Ultra-compact body has "ultra-hard titanium coating"
• 2.7" LCD display (230k pixels) + optical viewfinder
• Extra high-speed burst mode shoots 3MP photos at 5 frames/second
• Extra high sensitivity mode boosts ISO to 6400 (not looking forward to this one)
• Same adjustable noise reduction, face/smile detection, D-Range Optimizer plus, movie mode as the H50 above
• Optional conversion lenses and HD video out cable
• 31MB onboard memory + MS Duo slot
• Uses NP-BG1/FG1 li-ion battery; 300 shots per charge
• USB 2.0 High Speed supported

Ricoh R8

On February 19th, Ricoh Co Ltd announced the new R8 digital camera with lots of new features as the specs below:

• 10 Megapixel CCD
• F3.3-5.2, 7.1X optical zoom lens, equivalent to 28 - 200 mm
• Sensor-shift image stabilization
• Smooth Imaging Engine III processor
• 2.7" LCD display with 460,000 pixels
• Slender, stylish metal body comes in three colors: black, two-tone, and silver
• Unique 1:1 "square" aspect ratio (also seen on the GR Digital II and GX100)
• Levels (brightness/contrast) and white balance can be adjusted right on the camera
• Face detection AF/AE/WB
• Records movies at 640 x 480 (30 fps) with sound
• 24MB onboard memory + SD/SDHC/MMC card slot
• Uses DB-70 lithium-ion battery; 270 shots per charge
• USB 2.0 High Speed support

Alonso impressed with BMW's form?

Nick Heidfeld, BMW, Valencia, 2008 pre-season testing, 3 | BMW Media

Renault and former McLaren driver, Fernando Alonso said that BMW could be a treat to McLaren's campaign this year.

"Two or three weeks ago they were a little bit behind, quite close to us,"

"But things can change so quickly, and now they are almost on a par with McLaren."

"BMW is the team that has surprised me the most in the past two or three tests,"

He also admits that Ferrari is ahead of the rest in the field but he does not agree that Ferrari will surely wins the championship.

Source: F1-Live

RIP HD DVD

The format war is over. Blu ray wins against HD DVD and Toshiba may give up its HD DVD business. This means stock clearance.

The reasons behind Blu-ray's apparent triumph over HD DVD are complex, analysts said, as marketing, management maneuvers and other factors are believed to have played into the shift to Blu-ray's favor that became more decisive during the critical holiday shopping season.

Source

Mac OS Leopard Wallpaper

Below are three official wallpaper for Mac OS Leopard. The aurora for Leopard (purple) and Leopard Server (blue), and grass. The last one is the background image of Time Machine that can be used as a wallpaper. Click on the link below the wallpapers to see the actual size.

1024x768 | 2560x1600

1024x768 | 2560x1600

1024x768 | 2560x1600

1024x768 | 1280x800

Tech-Related Behaviours

These comics resembles human nowadays in the techno world. Too passionate about the technology. LOL

New Generation Kids

New Force India VJM-01 Launched

The new Force India's 2008 Formula One Championship challenger was launched yesterday at the 'Gateway of India' at India.

Named as VJM01, the car is the same as the one used at the end of last season by Spyker, the Spyker F8-VII. But it sports a new color scheme of white and gold.

The Kingfisher brand will be the prominent sponsor following the buyout of Spyker by Vijay Mallya that owns the Kingfisher brands.

Adrian Sutil and Giancarlo Fisichella will be driving for Force India in this year's season. While the third driver will be Vitantonio Liuzzi.

The first run for the VJM01 will be at Barcelona starting 25th February for testing before the start of first race in Melbourne on 16th March.

Jealousy on MacBook Air

That new Apple MacBook Air is really thin compared to other Apple's product.

Honda RA108 Wallpaper

Here are four wallpapers of Honda RA108 Formula 1 car. Original photos of RA108 from Honda F1 and added red bold line below as the new RA108 use some red color on its body and also on Honda Racing F1 Team's website.

Click on image to view full size (1280x960) wallpaper

PC Weenies 6th Feb 08

Nice comic and topic, Krishna!

Yeah!

It's true if the robots can think itself, we succeed on our research on artificial intelligent (AI). But thats gonna take a long time and zillions of rules and information. For your information, I'm studying Intelligent System for my degree. Basically it's about how to implement AI techniques in a computer system.

Microsoft is Going to Buy Yahoo!

Hmm... Microsoft is going to buy Yahoo! The news.

Sony Alpha A300 and A350

Alpha DSLR-A300

• 10.2 effective Megapixel CCD
• Supports all Minolta/Sony Alpha-mount lenses with a 1.5X focal length conversion ratio
  
• Sensor-shift image stabilization
• Live view on a 2.7-inch, tilt-able LCD display (with 230k pixels)
  • Sony uses a secondary CCD near the viewfinder to provide the live view; they did things differently than Olympus did with the E-330, though -- there's a tilting mirror instead of a prism, so the viewfinder is still bright
  • Due to the design of the live view system, the camera can use phase detection AF at any time; no mirror flipping necessary!
• Optical viewfinder has 0.74X magnification and 95% coverage
• Dust reduction system uses image stabilizer to shake dust off the sensor
• Full manual controls; ISO goes to 3200, shutter speed range is 30 - 1/4000 sec
• Can shoot up to 6 RAWs or an unlimited number of JPEGs at 3 frames/second
• 9-point center cross AF sensor
• Hot shoe for external flash
• CompactFlash Type I/II slot
• Optional battery grip
• Uses NP-FM500H li-ion battery; 730 shots per charge with LV off, and 410 shots with LV on
• USB 2.0 High Speed supported
• Ship with an 18 - 70 mm lens this April for $800

Alpha DSLR-A350 (same as A300 but plus these three features)

• 14.2 effective Megapixel CCD
• Burst rate drops to 2 frames/second
• Shipping in March for $800 body only, or $900 with the 18 - 70 mm lens

via DCResource