Lights Camera Get Set Go......Vrooooom !!

Prologue

The number of comments on my earlier post pretty much summed up how seriously it was taken, without pondering much about it, I have decided to move on and here I come up with yet another post which might not live upto the expectations. However I decided to release the post I composed almost a fortnight ago. Do not let the title of this post trick you, inspite of the lights & camera, I assure you it has nothing to do with Bollywood.

I call myself a sporting enthusiastic, with the Olympics still lingering around in people's mind , I decided to blog about my favorite sport. Surprisingly it’s neither part of the Olympics and nor is it called Cricket.

Nerve wrecking speeds of 300kmph, scorching heat, taxing conditions, G-forces acting on your body, wet tracking conditions (sometimes worst that Indian roads) sub-second speed differences between winning, loosing, life and death. Welcome the Formula1, the most expensive, glamorous, & breathtaking sport.

Ever since Michael Schumacher bid adieu to racing back in 2006, F1 has never been the same, although the likes of Hamilton, Kubica, Rosberg, Kovalainen, Vettel (i ignored Alonso) are like a breath of fresh air, it might take a couple of seasons before they even think of bringing the same kind of charm that Schumachers’ and the Hakkinens' did. No wonder Formula1 is going through a viewership crises, something probably worst than the Ferrari-Mclaren Spy controversy which managed to make all headlines (apart from Rookie Hamilton’s heroics) last season.

The Mclaren-Ferrari battle has managed to revive itself more often off the race track than on it. All the accusations & spy controversies may be compensating for the lack of action on the race track, however FIA has not left any stone unturned to bring back life into this sport which is laudable.

The recently concluded European Grand Prix, held in Valencia/Spain was one such attempt by FIA’s to spice up Formula1. The Valencia Street Circuit made its debut inspite of the fact that Spain had 12 racing tracks apart from this, one of them already having hosted a race this season & 5 others having held F1 races in the past. If only I could wish to trade them for all the cricket stadiums in India.

The Circuito Urbano Valencia a new street circuit, has been provisionally assembled to hold a grand Prix with the intention to attract spice up the boring Formula1 Itinerary. The only other Formula 1 Street Circuit currently hosting a race being Monte Carlo, Monaco. Both there circuits add the much needed blitz, spunk, glamour & drama to the sport. Imagine sipping beer and watching drivers zooming past your hotel balcony. No other racing circuit allows viewers to get so close to the action. The narrow streets built around sea ports, shipping harbour private estates, Hotels, with a scenic water bodies; the race track’s landscape is an absolute visual treat.

A scenic landscape views of the Valencia Street Circuit (click to enlarge)

Building a Street Circuit would take close to around 2 months and further 1 month to dismantle it, It would have to be done every year. If it is worth it, only Formula 1 bosses can answer that. The Street Circuit in Valencia has managed to set an unique record of sorts by hosting 5 races (Formula 1, Formula 3, GP2, Mobile 1 SuperCup & Formula BMW) on a single day. Considering the time, effort and money involved, it is indeed a wise move.

Come September, Singapore Street Circuit would make its formula 1 debut, a 3rd street circuit this season, but what separates this one from the rest of the races ? 1,600 light projectors; power requirement of 3,180,000 watts (my poor bed-lamp consumes 60 watts) producing a illumination of around 3000 lux (It takes 1200 lux to light up a Cricket Stadium), Formula is just going bigger, with the first ever Night Race. After years of speculation about safety, visibility, logistics and technically issues, the FIA has finally decided to go ahead with a night race, which by far is going to be the biggest racing spectacle in the history of Motor sports. Its soon going to be Lights Camera Get Set Go……..

A Night View of the Singapore Street Circuit (Click to see the Race Map)

The very thought of a night race gives me an adrenaline rush a great high. I just cannot wait for the 26th of Septemeber.

A new street Circuit & driving under the lights itself is alien to the drivers on the grid, and to add to it, if the rain gods decide to shower more excitement, there could be rivers making suicidal maneuvers, far more dangerous than those by maniac drunken road drivers, we just might have a cracker of a race in Singapore.

With Vettel pulling off a surprise win in Italy (the last race of the European leg) and 4 races (Singapore/Japan/China/Brazil) to go with Ferrari & Mclaren locking horns in both the Drivers & Constructors championships. Singapore would be a perfect platform for the climax

Before I conclude this post, it is well worth mentioning the fact that India is destined to host a Grand Prix in 2010, after Vijay Mallaya has achieved the impossible by inducting Force India into the formula 1 grid, its time for him to influence the policy makers and make sure we meet the deadline of hosting a Formula 1 race.

P.S: This might sound a boring season review to most of the readers whom I believe are not Formula 1 fanatics by any stretch of imagination, (I seriously hope you guys prove me wrong).

Haven’t used that thing called IE for ages now.

Prologue

I am in a state of introspection, and probably should call myself a hypocrite for voicing contrasting opinions in two of my previous posts , firstly I lambasted RGV for his arrogant movie making, and I myself ended up writing a so called arrogant post which almost caused a verbal riot. Neverthless it managed to get maximum hits (literally too), by far in number compared to my earlier posts, May be I should celebrating a box-office success. But I am pretty sure if I should be writing blogs for myself or for people who read them. After flirting with controversies, I just managed to recollect the fact that I have a draft ready from last week on Formula1, which I now feel is stale, thanks to innumerous revisions it has been through. I managed to push its release further, owing to reasons unknown to me. I was wondering where my next post would come from, as always Google comes to my rescue (this time its not work-related).

I wake up on a holiday to see Times of India publish something about Google, surprisingly this news wasn't stale. Google ? Browser ? I had decided I had to get it !! Its called Google Chrome

Google Chrome, one of my friends mistook this as the launch of Google’s famous “Personal Genome Project”, hopefully by the time its out, I would still be blogging. (Wondering how you were not aware of this one – get yourself a copy of “The Google Story”). Fortunately this one is not that complex, Google has finally managed to unleash yet another beta project, this time a browser called “GOOGLE CHROME”

I have been a die-hard fan of Mozilla firefox for a very very long time, ever since I got myself introduced to the Internet way back in 2000-2001 (not a early starter or may be I am), It just took me a couple of years to realize the power of firefox, ever since then it has been Firefox all the way. No wonder when people started asking me “If it was the end of the road for IE ?”, I retaliated saying “ IE ?? IE was never in the picture,It was always between Firefox and maybe Opera or Safari !!". I know there are 2 kinds of people who would oppose me from making such a statement, people who haven’t used anything else apart from IE, and the oversmart ones who would try suggesting Avant Browser, Konqueror, Flock, Epiphany, K-Meleon and AOL Explorer.

I wish I could try convince people and demonstrate the power of firefox, but I have no plans of re-inventing the wheel, a simple google search should bombard you with enough reasons to use firefox for a lifetime, especially when I am standing at the cross roads, wondering if I should shift my loyalties towards Google Chrome.

Is the Google brand name enough to trust Chrome ?
Let me quickly pen down my first impressions on Google Chrome

1) The User Interface: So simple yet so powerful, Just like the Google Homepage & Gmail Inbox. The UI is so light…I feel like flying.

2) Auto-Complete: The URL auto-complete goes one step ahead, Chrome helps you complete your URL with a list of virtually all the websites on the internet, (unlike the other browsers who auto-complete from the browser’s history). This is only possible with Google, thanks to all the crawling google has done for years now.

3) Incognito Window: Equivalent to “Anonymous surfing” on Safari. You can surf all the porn in the world, without leaving any traces of history, webpages or offline content. You don’t even have to clear the history. So Kinky of Google.

4) Restoring Previously opened pages: Firefox’s Restore Earlier opened windows

5) Default homepage – Shows graphical tabs of most visited websites

Couple of other things that took me by surprise.

1) Google not misusing their monopoly by restricting Google as the default search engine, You have option of changing it to Yahoo/rediff/MSN/Guruji (not sure how many of them would take that option too seriously)

2) Surprisingly Chrome’s borrows its Network/Proxy Settings from Internet Explorer, May be Google believes in humiliating competition infront of their eyes, rather than de-throne and rule in monopoly.

I am sure, most people wouldn’t find the browser feature rich, but Google is known for its strategy of throwing in BETA projects at users, and trying to develop them based on users opinions, rather than force users to use something you build. Interesting? More on that on “The Google Story”

Would Google Chrome work ? It’s too early to comment on issues like Stability (No. of times it crashes) & Security (I have no idea what tht means) . On the other hand, having got crashed too many times, I haven’t even bothered to check the developments on IE7. I still occasionally use IE, thanks to most Web-admins who are too stubborn to make agnostic webpages, I also recommend “IE Tab - Switch rendering engine” plugin to the firefox fraternity who face the same problem as mine. The browser war is far from over, with Soon to be launched IE.8 & recently launched Firefox3.0, Chrome is just a baby.

Meanwhile I still continue to await for the day, when the final nail would be banged on IE's coffin, Who is going to do it ? Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome ?

P.S.: My humble request to people is not to label me as geek/nerd, The opinions mentioned in this blog are surely biased; If you want it that way. I hope I don’t get sued by Microsoft for this. May be I am dreaming…May be I am long long away from even dreaming. The opinions in this blog are purely personal, and are definitely not echoed by my current employer, nor my future employers.

- Posted via Mozilla Firefox