Small Business Server

So, you own a small business with between 5 and 15 employees and need to buy a server. Which one should you get – Windows based or Mac OS X based? Let’s look at the costs involved, because lets face it, businesses need to make money, right?

BBC F1 TV coverage – Australia

How do the BBC compare to the job ITV did last year? ITV weren’t perfect, but the BBC weren’t that much different. So much for their “huge coverage” they promised. So what was it like?

Bad Timing at the Bank of England

Today the Bank of England reduced interest rates by 1.5%. I have no problem with that – I said to friends a month ago that October’s 0.5% cut should have been 2%, and I know I wasn’t the only finance professional saying that.

Are McLaren trying too hard?

I am worried that McLaren, in throwing everything into winning the Championship this year, have over-improved their car to the point of making it faster, but undriveable. Hamilton described the newly improved car as “blindingly quick” around the Interlagos circuit in Brazil – but he only managed 4th fastest in Qualifying. That indicates a loss of driveability he cannot afford right now.

McLaren trying too hard sounds right too – perhaps Ron is thinking of retiring and the team want this to be his swansong? And after all the hassle with the FIA and last year’s shenanigans, who can blame him if he did want to retire? Personally I hope he stays on, but it also wouldn’t surprise me if he didn’t.

So, what will happen in the race? I suspect Massa will win, because he has to. Hamilton will not make 5th place because he’s just not familiar with a) the new car setup and b) driving not to finish first. Whatever happens, I suspect Lewis will finish in a better position the less time his Dad talks to him on the grid. I don’t know what he says in these moments, but at those races where Anthony Hamilton has spent much time at the last minute with Lewis, Lewis has completely overcooked things and made mistakes all over the place.

The question will be, who will cause Lewis problems on the track? We know all about the racist elements in the sport but thankfully only one of those will be driving. The unbalanced stewards will perhaps make some more silly decisions favouring Ferrari, and Raikkonen will perhaps show people that he really is faster than Massa.

Of course, rain may change all that. There is a good chance of rain during the race, and who knows what will happen then?

Sebastian Bourdais robbed by disgusting Ferrari Stewards idiocy

You have to be sorry for Frenchman Sebastian Bourdais, four-times winner of the US Champ Car series and latest victim of the flatulent FIA Stewards’ Ferrari favouritism at Japan’s marvellous Fujiyama circuit.

Bourdais was in a battle for position on the track with Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, who had seriously cocked up his race in Japan with one error after another. Bourdais did everything correctly, he was outside of the pitlane area, he was on the inside of the corner, and was next to the metal barrier on his right side when Massa drove up on his left, and proceeded to try to drive straight through Bourdais as if he didn’t see him as he aimed for the apex of the corner without any regard for the car which was already in that position.

Of course, Massa hit the side of the Toro Rosso and span, losing point scoring places as a result. As Massa slowly made some places up, the TV screen announced that the incident between him and Bourdais would be investigated “after the race.” Meaning when the TV cameras had gone and the potential for bad PR on the main evening news had dissipated and they could work out which penalty to apply to Massa without hurting his World Championship chances.

In the end, they decided to penalise the innocent man who was driven into. There must be some rule giving a more severe penalty to someone receiving their second stop-go penalty in the same race (he had already driven into the side of Hamilton on Lap 1) so they couldn’t give Massa a second drive-through penalty. Because he had finished in 8th, and the 9th placed man (and a few others) were all within a few seconds of him at the finish because of his most un-World Championlike driving the stewards couldn’t give him a penalty because that would mean taking away a single point from him. Never mind they’d already taken a race win away from Lewis Hamilton in Belgium when they last fiddled when Rome was burning. So, they had to blame someone for the accident, and that left Bourdais.

After all, he was clearly at fault because Massa span and Massa never spins! Cough, cough, don’t mention Silverstone or the first two races of 2008… Oh, and of course, Massa doesn’t make mistakes either – it’s not his fault he continually drives into other cars… after all, he is half blind.

Bourdais carried on to finish in a fine 6th, one place ahead of his team mate, Monza winner and latest wunderkind, Sebastian Vettel. But after the penalty, he was demoted to 10th place!

The politics of this are interesting. First of all, Bourdais is French, the only French driver in F1 at the moment, and the FIA offices are in Paris. Ferrari is Italian, and I think most mediterranaean types would not have complained much about Ferrari favouritism from the FIA stewards before, since it was always “Les Anglais, Les Rosbifs” who were being penalised previously. Oh, and Frenchman Jean Todt, erstwhile head of the Ferrari F1 team is rumoured to be being groomed to be the next FIA president after Max Mosley retires next year. Oh yes, and Bourdais has the audacity to have made his name in the US, where F1 has no glowing reputation to uphold to such an extent that they won’t even be going to Canada in 2009 – so they feel safe to treat Bourdais shabbily as they think there will be no come back.

Ferrari, the clowns of Singapore, are clearly continuing to disintegrate and the only question left is will the FIA follow the sinking ship down proclaiming to all and sundry that it was the iceberg’s fault all the while?

PS Spaniard Alonso won. In a French team. What should have been a great news story, is now just an also ran to yet another Ferrari fiddle. Poor Alonso. Poor Bourdais. Poor Formula One.

PPS Is Max Mosley’s man the financial link between Ferrari money and the FIA Stewards‘ Ferrari favouritism?

F1: the pathetic joke that calls itself a sport

There is a rule in Formula One that the drivers are very afraid of. They really should never break this. Just so they know exactly what this rule is, there is another (unwritten) rule for the officials that insists they repeatedly demonstrate to the drivers exactly what it is the drivers should not do.

It’s called “Bringing the sport into disrepute” and while drivers are not allowed ever to break this rule, the officials can and do do this on a regular basis. From sex scandals at the very top of the governing body, to questionable actions and repeated favouritism on the behalf of the FIA Stewards when it comes to applying the laws that are written down.

At Monaco, Kimi Raikkonnen skidded on a damp track at the chicane just after exiting the tunnel, and ploughed into fourth placed Adrian Sutil in the Force India, knocking the talented young driver out of a points scoring position. Did the FIA stewards penalise Raikkonen? No. At the time, Mike Gascoyne, the Force India Technical Director, said that if it were the other way around Sutil would probably have received a two race ban.

The FIA officials explanation? They said that because Sutil overtook three cars under yellow flags he would have got a drive through penalty worth 25 seconds so he wouldn’t have finished in the points anyway. Pardon? That’s a bit like saying you’re allowed to rob the bank if the bank made an accounting error on someone else’s account! Surely they should both have been given penalties – Sutil’s infringement should not mean Raikonnen’s need no penalty. That’s crazy.

At Valencia, right on camera, Felipe Massa broke a law in the pits which at the least should have given him a drive through penalty – GP2 drivers breaking the same law the same weekend at the same track were actually disqualified. But Felipe drives a Ferrari, the FIA’s favourite car. They didn’t disqualify him, they didn’t give him a Stop and Go, they didn’t even give him a drive through. For the first time ever, they decided to “investigate the matter at the end of the race”.

Well, at the end of the race Felipe won by 5.6 seconds from Lewis Hamilton. The FIA Stewards decided Massa had done something wrong, but did not apply a post facto drive through penalty by adding 20 to 30 seconds to his race time. No, they said he should pay a fine so small in comparison to his salary (and one probably picked up by his team anyway) that it in reality is not a penalty at all.

Move on to the next race, the Belgian Grand Prix at the famous Spa-Francorchamps circuit in the hills and forest of the Ardennes and a day of mixed weather. Ferraris are renowned for not being able to get heat into their tyres as quickly as the McLarens which also perform better on cold rubber, so when the race started with half the track damp and half dry an interesting prospect for all was in sight.

The last five to ten laps or so were the most interesting, because that’s when it rained. Up until this point Kimi Raikkonnen had done a great job in holding Lewis Hamilton off and had a pretty stable 5.8 seconds advantage. Felipe Massa was nowhere to be seen in third. There had only been one incident involving the stewards when they gave a drive through penalty to Heikki Kovalainen when he was hesitant about overtaking Mark Webber and then slid into him on the greasy track at the chicane on the run up to Les Combes.

So, down came the rain. The race woke up. So did the audience.

In the space of about 4 laps, Lewis Hamilton closed the 5.8 lap gap between him and Kimi until he was right behind him, breaking later for every corner, travelling faster at every apex. There was no way that in the 2 laps of the race that remained Kimi was going to be able to resist being overtaken with such a differential between the cars.

At what used to be known as the “bus stop chicane” Lewis went past Kimi on the outside. Kimi kept it tight on entry, then squeezed Lewis on the exit on the greasy track so there were only two possibilities for the British driver: hit Raikkonnen, or go off the track and cut the corner. Not wishing to be accused of “causing an avoidable accident” (as Raikonnen had not been at Monaco) Hamilton opted to cut the corner, then allowed Raikkonnen to move back into first place.

Raikkonnen started weaving to prevent the man from Stevenage from getting past. In the space of less than a La Source second, Raikkonnen weaved, Hamilton dodged, Hamilton passed. This was racing, one of the best passing moves in racing history, taking me back to that superb move of Mansell on Senna when he passed the great Brazilian at the Hungaroring in in the flash of an eye in 1987 or the move of Hakkinnen on Schumacher at Les Combes in 1999. Yes, it was that good.

Apparently the FIA Stewards (Frances’s Nicholas Deschaux, Surinder Thatthi of Kenya and Belgian Yves Bacquelaine) believe that remaining in second after cutting a corner at a chicane to avoid an accident gave Lewis an advantage he wouldn’t otherwise have had. Therefore they gave him a penalty. Not a fine, a 25 second penalty – not enough to let Alonso finish on the podium of course, but not so much that would mean Hamilton only lost one place. So, the odd 25 second penalty was applied. McLaren have announced they will appeal. So they should.

So now we have yet another means by which the FIA bring their own sport into disrepute. Man, have they got a thing against McLaren! And do they looooove Ferrari… but they certainly don’t apply justice.

Why is that? Answers on a post card please not including bent stewards, bribery, gambling scandals, institutional corruption, or blackmail. Pettiness of individuals I can accept. Incompetence I can certainly accept. Jealousy, meanness, and racism too. What do you think?

Incidentally, the BBC website hit a record for the number of people posting complaints about this injustice. Next year, the BBC take over the contract for F1 TV coverage. Will they have any audience left? At this rate, the FIA will have killed off interest in their own Championship.

Ping Pong Olympics

The 2008 Olympics are tainted, and Jacques Rogge, the IOC boss seems to be blinded by the fog of stupidity (or institional greed)  to see it.

Never mind the many political protests that others have so eloquently voiced elsewhere, here I just want to point the finger at how the IOC’s own statements seem to be completely out of touch with reality. It’s as if the IOC are trying to pretend there is nothing wrong when not only is there a rather too obvious Peking pong hanging over the games, but information that is in any way critical is being censored and surpressed.

Beijing air ’safe for athletes’ (“for events lasting less than an hour”)

Which websites has China blocked?

Beijing unblocks BBC Chinese site (Chinese Wikipedia still off limits)

China relaxes internet censorship for Olympics (“At the moment the channel for reporters to use the Internet is fully open” – says China)

In the internet age, dinosaurs like Jacques Rogge (who probably still has his secretary type his letters for him) really need to stop spinning deeply unpopular news that is so easily double checked on the internet. The more the IOC opens its mouth, the more foolish they look.

At least we know the IOC has the right logo – the Chinese authorities are clearly running rings around them. In Peking, that’s about the only thing that is clear…

So-so Alonso blames the world

Hockenheim. Alonso blames his car for “a lack of traction” after messing up again.  Err, Nando, that’s called lack of traction control – you know, the computer control thingy that last year let you plant your big fat foot flat on the floor every corner and still give you perfect control.

Well, this year they banned it, so your car won’t do all the hard work for you anymore. You have to use calm control to keep the wheels from spinning. You know, that thing that young Nelson does so well. Calmness. It’s like, err, not losing your temper every five minutes because someone didn’t give you Prima Donna status every time they looked at you.

After your tirade of abuse against McLaren last year, and against Renault the year before, everyone knows your temper is not easy for you to control. It’s got you into a lot of fine messes, hasn’t it? You left after a big row with Briatore at Renault. Then you left under a cloud after falling out with Ron Dennis. Now you are being beaten by yet another rookie teammate – again – you’re back to blaming the car.

Like when you were overtaken at Hockenheim, you clearly lost your rag and tried to retaliate. Fuelled by your  childlike temper tantrum you attmepted to pass the passer, but instead got all crossed up and out of position so much you lost another two places. Just like that.

So, is this lack of traction the same lack of traction your teammate has to deal with when he comes second then? Now, where was it you finished – ah yes, same as two races before, behind your rookie teammate. Another temper tantrum no doubt.

The sad thing is, you actually would be a nice person without these temper tantrums. You’d also be more in demand from race teams. You”d get on better with women. You’d have more friends. And you’d definitely have more points. That’s the problem with having grown up a spoiled child: no control. And control is what you need to exert to let your real talent shine through now that traction control has gone. We all know you have it. Just grow up and its all yours.

Heikki tiptoes timidly around while Lewis Wellies it!

They say your biggest rival in Formula One is your team mate. And when your team mate has just got pole at your home GP, you do have to dig deep and pull out something special  if you are not to be eclipsed.

Luckily for Lewis, his Finnish teammate is showing all the signs of being another Fisichella – fast over one lap, but scared of all the other cars and drivers when out on the track. Scared to overtake. Too tentative to try. I mean, look at how Alonso in a far less competitive car managed to keep Kovalainnen behind him for so long that Kimi Raikkonnen was able to score enough points to maintain equal first in the WC standings.

But what of Lewis himself? Just having a weak teammate doesn’t really mean you lap everybody up to 3rd place, and finish 66 seconds ahead of the second pace finisher, a remarkably well disciplined Nick Heidfeld who was once described as “being as fast as Schumacher over a single lap” based on their days in the Mercedes Benz junior DTM team.

Another ten laps and Hamilton could have lapped the field. Everyone. Including second place! Let’s hope he relaxes a bit now, Lewis has been a little over-eager at times this year, and it has cost him.

Perhaps he should take up golf – that’s a sport in which the harder you try to hit the ball, the less well you actually do so. But hit the ball when relaxed, and it seems to go miles with little effort. Don’t give up your day job, though, Lewis – we want you to continue racing for Britain for some years – and to be the first Briton since Sir Jackie Stewart to win more than one World Championship.

Ron Dennis has gone on record as saying that Heikki was in “poor physical shape” when they inherited him from Renault. So it is possible that it isn’t balls but brawn that Heikki is missing.

It certainly seems like it is Brawn that Ferrari are missing though. Stefano Domenicali seems to be overly challenged on the strategy front, and has made many mistakes this year. The Ferrari does actually seem to be the fastest car out there, and in Raikkonnen they have one of the fastest drivers around. But if even Honda can get on the podium when Ross is around, perhaps Ferrari will live to regret their witch-hunt of British employees.

As for Alonso, he was a long way behind, wasn’t he? If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen they say. Time for Alonso to hang up his gloves then and just support the Spanish football team and that Wimbledon winning tennis player who will now take up the mantle of most revered Spaniard. Already Alonso is sowing dissension within the team with his threats of leaving, his veiled attacks on Renault, his lack of team spirit. He does like to be the Prima Donna, though, doesn’t he?

Meanwhile, the two wiser dinosaurs of Formula One, Coulthard and Barrichello both had rather different races. Coulthard, in the same car that his team mate qualified in second place in spun out on the first lap, but he really hates racing in the wet even more than he dislikes his back end sliding around. On the other hand, Rubens Barrichello in a car that frequently qualifies in last place, or not far from it, managed to finish on the podium! A brilliant tactical switch to full wets for the short period of rain saw him lapping some 12 seconds a lap faster than rest of the field at one point, and with Brawn’s brains and Rubens’ racecraft who knows how well Honda could soon start doing.

But the day itself belonged to Lewis. He deserved to win, and his composure towards the end of the race was what he needs to remember the rest of the season. He’s a great driver, but over-confidence and over-driving are things he needs to continuously guard against. He can make a small difference to the performance of his car, but even he has to realise that sometimes scoring those extra points for fourth or eighth is more important than going for a win and perhaps in risking everything, achieving nothing as he has done already three times this year.

The second half of the season could be interesting!

Formula One is Animal Farm

To misquote George Orwell

All teams are equal, but some teams are more equal than others.

Specifically, I’m talking about penalties. Lewis Hamilton got a stop and go penalty for an overtaking manoevre that once completed left him not enough room to do anything but miss the chicane, yet Kimi Raikkonnen got nothing for having a piece of metal dangerously hanging off his car as it traversed France’s Formula One GP race track in Magny Cours at speeds of up to 300 kmh. The offending piece of metal eventually flew off the car and could have killed somebody if it had fallen off in a less convenient place. In past years, drivers have been black flagged for having bits of their car hanging off, or at the very least told to make repairs during a pit stop. Ferrari were once again allowed to flout the rules.

Why, why, why?

If Bernie separates F1 from the FIA, it won’t be a day too soon.