and for code_martial (in response to http://code-martial.livejournal.com/183623.html), a little statement :)



I'm not going to be able to sleep now.

So, finding a place these days are made easier by using Google Maps and/or Wikimapia. I found a couple of places I needed to go to in Bangalore using Wikimapia. Although there is significant noise thanks to the numerous people who seem to love marking out their houses, it still works. I successfully plotted a driving route to a place using both and well, managed to reach it fine. The route back wasn't as easy (thanks to a zillion one-ways) but that worked out as well. w00t!

In other news, Ferrari finally managed their first 1-2 of the season today at what is touted to be the last race ever at Magny-Cours. Seems the new aerodynamics package that both Kimi and Massa were confident about really turned the tables on McLaren this weekend. w00t!

A close friend got engaged and another got married and I was lucky enough to make it to both :)

Had a lazy weekend, looking forward to the week ahead....

The best part of all the 3 days, was raceday. Why? Because that's when you realise that you're normal and you see how many other people are atleast just as crazy or even more crazy that you are about the sport. The whole atmosphere was awesome. So many motorsport fans in one place....

I was wearing my Ferrari shirt as I came down for breakfast that day at the hotel and everyone looked at me like I was part of the team. Hah, felt good ;) The same thing on the monorail, random people would smile...a fellow Ferrari fan from some corner of the globe would nod or wave. And everyone in general knew what the deal was all about.

The rest of the snaps are being uploaded, a few hundred more to go...I'm off to sleep now.

Just as I thought I'd gotten over Sepang, vyshnavi kindly sends in an email with this link : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xi1EQBVA2Lc

And the memories came rushing back. As did the sounds. I still can't get over the V8s.

I'm going to own a Ferrari someday. That's a promise to myself that I really intend to keep.

And so we were heading back home from work by taxi and I managed to snap this beauty on the road :)

A couple of days later, I saw a red Spider 360 convertible on the same road, but didn't have the cam with me.

Oh well.

Life's been good (and busy) on the whole, tons of new pics up at http://flickr.com/photos/fox2mike/

Awesome race. The Ferrari was the faster car through the weekend and well, although Alonso managed to steal P1 from Schumi, I guess he's been shown who the boss is. It was nice to see the old Ferrari pit-stop trick work to perfection after quite sometime. And they've now done it twice in a row...which is good. Massa drove a decent race and did well to keep Kimi off his back towards the end.

The joy on Schumi's face after the race explains why he's still in F1. I'm sure he'll continue to be here as long as he feels he can win, or as long as he's fit. I think it'll be the former more than the latter and as it is right now, I don't see him getting "tired" of winning at all. In fact, I guess 2005 was just the kind of break he needed...a year with one win to get his zest back for this season. Excellent.

This season is really starting to get all exciting now. Go Ferrari!!

A quick follow-up to the last post...

So you're stuck somewhere and badly need to help your dad with something on the computer at home. I've been in this situation quite a bit and well, I've usually ended up trying to troubleshoot over the phone with minimal success. Enter x11vnc. Here's a quick guide on getting it working on Gentoo.

remote denotes the box I'm using to reach my desktop on the machine home.

1. emerge x11vnc tightvnc. Substituting tightvnc with vnc will do as well, but I like some security, which is made slightly easier using tightvnc.


2. Run vncpasswd in your home directory. This creates a /home/shyam/.vnc/passwd and you will have to enter a password not longer than 8 characters in length, which I found a little surprising. Oh well.
   
3. On home, run x11vnc -rfbauth /home/shyam/.vnc/passwd -display :0. Adjust display as required (0 or 1..)


4. From remote run vncviewer home and enter the password you setup when prompted. Voila, you're in and seeing the desktop now.

A couple of points:

• For VNC to work correctly, home has to have the X Display active. From what I've seen, when I vnc into home with X running but I'm on the console, the vnc display is all distorted.


• By default, VNC traffic is not secure. It is advisable to tunnel it over ssh if you're using it from an insecure network/across the internet. With tightvnc it becomes very simple. All you need to do is vncviewer -via remote home and tightvnc sets up the ssh tunnel automatically.

Missed Barcamp, but had a relaxing weekend for the most part. Schumi showed Alonso who the boss is and I'm extremely happy for him :)

TDF first. Lance Armstrong rocks. Words cannot express how far he's come after winning his battle with Cancer. Way to go Lance, you are an inspiration for the millions out there.

F1. In the years Ferrari + Michael were champions (consecutively, 1999-2004) how many mechanical failures did the car have? Probably less than 10 on the day of the race, across both cars. 15 at most. Now that is consistency. No wonder they were able to hold on as champs for the period they did. Personally, I feel that if Rory Bryne had designed the F2005 and had Bridgestone done a wee bit more homework, Ferrari would be really competing for the title this year as well. Mclaren/Mercedes really need to take a leaf out of Ferrari's consistency book if they ever want to win another title in F1. The Mclarens have the pace, the aerodynamics, the tyres, the drivers. Everything but an engine that won't run the full race or blow up in practice. Wake up dudes. Fast.

Schumi did all he could with an underperforming car, holding back Giancarlo as long as he could :)

Yes, I jumped again when Kimi's car went kaput. Only for a second, but I had to celebrate.