Top Gear - First Cars

I'm a big, big fan of the BBC auto show Top Gear. It's funny, witty, and incredibly cool. This week, they drove a Lamborghini Murciélago through the deserts of Abu Dhabi, and raced it against a Mercedes Benz McLaren SLR 722 (i.e. a "Hypercar"). :-)

In the next segment, the hosts tried to pick the perfect "first car" for a teenager. Mine was a gray 1983 Pontiac Bonneville. This was in-line with the cars the hosts picked. ;-) The Pontiac had a V6, AC that worked in the Spring and Fall, wipers that quit (at least twice) in rainstorms, and was that dull gray that disappeared in fog. Unfortunately, my parents did not spring for the optional 8-track player when they bought it new in 1982.

It made it through high school, but gave up the ghost only a month later, the night before a trip to Thailand. We had to have it towed, get home, pack, and get up at 3AM to catch our flight. Wonderful way to start a vacation abroad! ;-)

I liked my car, for all its foibles and quirks, however. It was free, it worked, and it was big enough to fit me plus several friends.

It was, however, a pretty remarkable contrast to my first "new" car, after college. ;-)

I catch up on Top Gear via the excellent FinalGear.com (not affiliated in any way with the "real" shows). Grab a torrent for any episode of Top Gear from FinalGear's torrent archive. Usually I can have a torrent downloaded to my PC, and streaming to my Xbox 360 by 9PM Central Time the same day the show aired.

Wait Wait Don't Tell Me - In Austin

Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! was recorded in Austin this week. The show's great! It sold out at Bass Concert Hall last Thursday.

Go listen to the full show here. Be sure to play the "Who's Carl This Time," and "Not My Job" segments!

Thanks NPR for providing a slick Media Player on your site!

Active Energy Manager & POWER6

My friend and coworker Anirban Chatterjee (click the link to go look at one of his demos!) in IBM's Austin, TX Executive Briefing Center asked if I wanted to help create a short video explaining how EnergyScale and Active Energy Manager are married together to create more efficient servers. The video below is the output. AC's the first speaker. I'm the 2nd speaker. ;-)



For more detailed information on how to implement Active Energy Manager on POWER6-based systems, take a look at our whitepaper on IBM.com.

Essence of Inspired Design

Who needs an Insight or a Prius when you can have the Infiniti Essence? It's a hybrid, rear-wheel drive, and absolutely gorgeous. I wonder when this will show up as a production car?

Because someone, somewhere needs 17.4 ft of car for one person

The Geely GE is a Chinese "interpretation" of the Rolls-Royce Phantom.

The car has a super-long wheel base, and sports a single seat in the back for the passenger / head-of-state / megalomaniac who owns it.

Really?

My car's just shy of 4 years old (purchased April 30, 2005 w/ 6 miles on it!). I still have a year left on the loan, and assuming all goes well, I'll keep it about a year or two after that. So in 2011 or 2012, I might be in the market for such a fine knock-off as the one above. Or maybe I'll just stick with Japanese cars...