The 1st race of the 2009 F1 season was at the weekend and it was pretty much the perfect weekend for Brawn GP. Its an amazing story – a team which official didnt exist about a month ago. They finished in 1st and 2nd, qualified 1st and 2nd and got a “significant” sponsor deal with Virgin.
I ended up watching pretty much all weekend, waking up early in the morning. I am regreting it abit now and knackered!
Back to the F1….. qualifying was on Saturday and Brawn GP finished in position 1and 2. The Brawn GP cars were a lot faster than the other cars. It wasnt a great qualifying for McLaren who really struggled. Hamilton ended up about 18th after qualifying poorly and moving back 5 places after changing his gearbox.
In the actual race, Jenson Button was in 1st place from start to finish. Brawn GP had the fastest car but the didnt end the race miles ahead of everyone because of a couple safety car “sessions”. Lewis Hamilton ended up finishing 3rd which was very impressive. He actually didnt end up on the podium (that was Trulli in 3rd) but he was deduced 25 seconds after he overtook when the safety car was out – which isnt allowed.
A great start to the F1 season. It will be interesting to see how the season develops if they manage to keep up the pace. Jenson Button has said there is more to come. Teams like Red Bull, Williams and Toyoto showed some good pace and you can not forgot about Ferrari and McLaren. Also several of the teams have the Kers system which Brawn GP dont have so that could effect future races – maybe as soon as Malaysia which has long straights.
Personally very happy as a big fan of Button. Finally hes got a great car!
Its the start of the new F1 season this weekend and I am looking forward to this season the most in a long while. There have been a lot of new regulations so it will be interesting to see what happens with the new look cars e.g. the much smaller rear wing.
The driver line up is pretty much the same but there is the new team Brawn GP. Brawn GP were formed from the Honda F1 team – Honda pulled out a few months ago. They have only official been around a few months but have been doing brilliantly in winter testing. In fact Jenson Button was (and may still be) favourite to win the race. In practice today both Jenson and Rubens have been right up near the top of the times. It will be interesting to see what happens in qualifying in a few hours and in the actually race.
I really hope Jenson Button wins the Champions this season and at the very least is competing for races. He has taken a massive big cut so he can continue in the sport etc. He was being paid £18m but is now being paid £3m. Hes not exactly poor earning £3m but thats quite a slash in pay!
In other Brawn GP news it has been announced that Virgin will be a main sponsor of Brawn GP. Apparently the sponsors colours/livery could be on the car before the race on Sunday. If there is one thing about the Brawn GP car I am not sure about is the colour scheme. Just looked abit unfinished in white with the yellow and black “slash”. If Virgin is the main sponsor maybe it could be a nice red colour – maybe not enough time before Sunday to come up with a nice cool design but maybe for Malaysia next week.
One thing that seems certain at the moment is that McLaren are really struggling with Lewis Hamilton finishing practice in 18th out of 20th place. There is also some controversy with some types using a diffuser which a few teams saying its illegal. Brawn, Toyota and Williams are using some “special” diffuser which teams like Ferrari and Red Bull are saying should not be allowed. This means that the next couple races will be raced under appeal.
I wasnt going to blog about this but what the hell.
Recently United have been playing terrible and its just getting worse and worse. First there was the humiliation of losing 4-1 to Liverpool. Then last weekend we lost 2-0 to Fulham. However, it was more the performance than the result which really hurt. Dont get me wrong, I dont like at all losing 2-0 to Fulham but we played really really bad. Properly the worse I have ever seen United play. The first half we just kept giving the ball away. I was worried when we started with just Berbatov (and Ronaldo) upfront. Berbatov is not the type of player to chase upfront etc.
Pretty much everyone was terrible. The only players who have slight positives (only slightly) were Van Der Sar and properly Park. If the result wasnt bad enough we had 2 players sent off. The 1st red card was for Scholes who handled the ball in the penalty box. It was a good saved actually but I think it was just an automatic reaction but he had to go. The 2nd one was more controversial. It happened right at the end of the game and Rooney threw the ball “towards” the ref. I think (but not sure) that Rooney grabbed the ball and threw it fast and hard towards Johnny Evans back towards the half way line (from the penalty area) to quickly get the game restarted. However it did go close to the ref and I think the ref thought Rooney was aiming for him (although the ball did go straight to Evans feet). When Rooney was given the ref he was shocked but then did his usual Rooney rant and stump etc. On the way off the pitch he punched the corner flag.
Either way United at the moment are playing really bad. Ronaldo has gone back to his 1st season performance (but worse) by falling over all the time, pleading at the ref. He has been caught a few times but because hes moaning all the time the refs are not giving him anything.
The last 2 games have resulted in: 3 red cards, 1 goal scored, 6 goals conceded, 0 points! (We are still a point and a game ahead of Liverpool).
It is not the international break – which may be a good thing?? Gives the players rest, time to think and re-group. However they may want to get the play Premierleague game ASAP (against Villa) and get the terrible performances out of their head. It was also slow down the momentum for Liverpool who have had a great couple of weeks.
Just showed how important some players are. Gerrard has played really well recently and so have Liverpool. Ronaldo has been poor and so have United.
Well I havent been blogging very consistantly so heres something I should have blogged about a few days ago. It was my birthday on Friday. Its my first birthday since I have “gone freelancing” so I thought I may be able to get away without doing work. Didnt work out like that with work to be done both on the Friday and also the Saturday. Oh well!!
Friday I actually went back home to my parents place and my Mum made me a lovely steak! Mmmm. On Saturday, I went out for a meal and drinks. The meal was in Ha Ha Bar and Grill in Spinningfields (Manchester). The food was pretty good. I think everyone enjoyed themselves. I had a Seafood Gratin for starter – still not sure what it was but was some sort of seafood “medley” in a pot with cheese and breadcrumbs with some toasted bread. The main I chose was pork chops which were very tasty. I wasnt planning on having dessert but everyone else was so went for Chocolate Brownie – to be honest it was too sweet. My friend opposite had a big T-Bone steak which looked lovely! At the end I opened up presents which included aftershave, body wash pack and some cufflinks. Before the meal I also got a keepfit DVD and one of those abs belt things. Is that a hint that I smell, am scruffy and need to get fit??
Afterwards we went to Dukes 92. Had a drink or 2 there – sat outside under the heaters and was nice and pleasant. Apparently Vernon Kay was in the bar too but I missed him – even though he is about 6″4!! After Dukes 92, we moved on to Deansgate Locks to meet some other friends who were out for someones birthday. We went to Loaf – not been there for years!! It was pretty good and different sort of music with 3 different “areas”. Bumped into a couple gym instructors from my gym and they made me promise I would be in the gym on Monday!! Hehe. Also in the bar was Vernon Kay again – he was following us!! This time I did see him – he certainly is very tall. He was there was some other people and I am guessing its his brother who is also tall and looks quite like him.
Anyway, after a few hours we all decided to call it a night. After a few hours of sleep, I then played football……. in hindsight I should have just stayed in bed!
Yesterday when I woke up I found out that I had about 20 new followers in about an hour. Normally it would take me at least a week to get that many new followers (or even longer). In the end during the whole of 25th March I had about 120 new followers.
It turns out that was mentioned in an article on Freelance Switch. It was an article aimed at anyone new to Twitter and some people to follower – “50 Freelance Followers on Twitter“. I was listed under the Designed & Developers and since my twitter username starts with “a” it was right near the top
Thanks Freelance Switch!!
If you want to follow me go to my Twitter page and click follow – @andrewyee.
The F1 World Championship will now be decided by the number of wins rather than points. Back in November 2008, Ecclestone proposed the plan to settle the F1 title by number of wins. The current points system will still operate if there is a tie between 2 places with the same number of wins.
If this way of winning championships was applied to all other championships in F1 it would have been quite different. Britain’s first World Champion for example would have been Stirling Moss. Moss won no championship but is widely regarded as one of the best drivers ever in F1 history. Andrew Benson from BBC Sport, blogs about how F1 history would have been different.
I am not sure this would work. Just imagine a championship where the best driver is unlucky and wins just 3 races but finishes 2nd in all the others. Another driver could have won 4 races but in the others either didnt finish or finish in something like 8th place. The 1st driver winning 3 races (2nd in all the others) would have a much higher number of points but under the new system he would not win??? Also, I think its quite possible that the championship could all be over a few races before the end. Would this mean the last 3-4 races could be pointless?? People would not go to the races, TV audiences would drop, sponsors would not want to sponsor in those last races, etc.
Another new plan is the optional budget cap of £30m. If teams operate within it they will have more technical freedom to develop their cars and engines. Those that choose to spend what they like will be forced to operate within the current more restrictive rules.
The thinking is that teams will spend more money. In the world we live today with the global economic problems this is important to F1. It would be interesting to see if a team running under the £30m budget with a powerful engine and more freedom with aerodynamics could produce a faster car than a team working within constaints. However, this is not going to happen as the Max Mosley (FIA president) says that the FIA “will balance the median performances by adjusting the cost-capped cars should this prove necessary”.
Does this mean the FIA could start messing about with the performance of all the cars just to make things remain competitive!??!?! That would be mad! I dont trust them!! The FIA for Formula is like The FA for football!!
We will have to see what happens!! I am really looking forward to this season and very happy that Jenson Button looks like hes finally got a good fast car. (Very early days though). A big fan of Button – much prefer him to win than Hamilton!!
Apple presented the next major update to the operating system running in the iPhone. Even though I dont have an iPhone (want one though!) this is still pretty big tech news. Although, the iPhone is a fantastic device its certainly not perfect! One of the main things lots of people wants was Copy and Paste. This is now in it! Personally I think the iPhone (and iPod Touch – which I have) could also do with supporting Flash – still not happening
Anyway, the new version of the iPhone software (3.0) isnt out yet (out in the summer) but in a presentation they gave details of all the new features etc. It looks pretty good!! You can read more about it on the Apple site including watching the actual presentation (as I type this it is not online yet). Some key features:
Search your iPhone
Cut, copy, and paste
Send photos, contacts, audio files, and location via MMS (only in iPhone 3G)
Read and compose email and text messages in landscape
There is a more details summary list of the new features on thenextweb.com.
For this years Comic Relief, 9 celebrities climbed Mount Kilimanjaro to help raise money for Comic Relief. The celebrities were Gary Barlow (who came up with the idea), Chris Moyles, Ben Shephard, Kimberley Walsh, Cheryl Cole, Fearne Cotton, Denise Van Outen and Alesha Dixon.
Everyone made it to the summit including all the camera crew, doctors, porters etc. In total I think Chris Moyles said there were about 140 in total. Everyone did brilliantly well. Its something like 1 in 3 or 4 usually dont make it so for every single person to make it to the summit is brilliant!
One of the stars of the climb was Fearne who was really ill for a couple days but she pulled through. All the celebs came across as really nice people and from what I have read and heard Chris Moyles (who I am a big fan of) came across well and managed to convince some people who didnt previously like him that he was basically a really nice funny bloke. It was also great that Gary himself made it up. He was suffering from a bad back and at some points during the climb it looked like he wouldnt make it.
While watching the program – which you can still watch again in the iPlayer – we got to hear more of Alesha’s brilliant laugh. She has possibly the best laugh EVER!! Also, Cheryl Cole moaned quite abit – so much in fact that after a few days she had a go at herself and said she was sick of her own voice!! LOL!!
Watching the program you saw that Ben Shephard was really competitive and Denise Van Outen looked great throughout the “adventure” makeup or no makeup. Chris himself lost loads of weight. From the start of his training to return he lost about 2 stones. It was quite a sight at the start of the program when they had the medical you saw the naked big hairy belly of Chris!!
One other thing I have to mention from watching the program is what an amazing job the porters do. They climb all the big heavy things, provide support, set up the camp etc. This isnt just for celebs – if anyone goes climbing Kilimanjaro they get the porters. They are all paid so without “tourists” they would be out of a job.
At the end of the day, by going up Mount Kilimanjaro they have helped raise awareness of malaria and its problem in Africa. Some people have been asking how much it all cost for the celebs to climb the mountain – BT paid for it all and every single penny which was raised is going to Comic Relief.
The view when they got to the top was amazing!! Especially when the first group got to the top when the sun was rising. Makes me want to climb Mount Kilimanjaro! I wish the program was longer than 1 hour – maybe there will be a DVD which is longer with lots of extras. I would buy it!!
The amount of money raised was stunning! Radio 1 listeners themselves raised about £1.5m. The total including the money raised from the BT talking clock was about £3.3m. I think the total has increased a lot in the last 24 hours since the program was on TV. BRILLIANT!!!
Comic Relief night
I have watched most of the night. Some of the things I didnt find very funny – for example I seem to be the only one not to get Al Murray or Ricky Gervais (and to a certain extent Little Britain). I did really enjoy The Royle Family which was very funny. It had the brilliant line “Open the window to let the smell of your Dad’s balls out”. LOL!
The Apprentice (although once again Sir Alan made the wrong decision – should have fired Gerald) was good too and surprisingly I liked the James Cordon bit. Not a fan really of Gavin and Stacy and didnt like him on the Brits but I thought the England football team & Smithy bit was pretty funny. I found some of the jokes very funny especially the joke on John Terry and his crying!! As a United fan I loved it! (Making it even better was seeing Becks (United legend) laughing when he told the joke).
Heres the clip:
The total so far is a brilliant £54,690,437!!! Last year the total was a record itself (£40m). Not sure if this was the total at the end of the night or the “whole” total. There is still over an hour to go till the TV program finishes and then you can still donate afterwards.
IE6 really shouldnt be around. Its getting old and just isnt standards complient!! We also now pretty much have IE8. The problem is that IE7/8 is not supported on Windows 2000 so that means most users of IE6 are business users.
The problem with IE6 still hanging around is that clients pressure web designers/developers to get sites working in IE6 and having to use various hacks and tweaks. It wastes time and money!! Microsoft need to sort it and get IE7 working on Windows 2000 – and get IE6 to automatically update to IE7 (or or even better suggest Firefox!!
Clients pressure designers to ‘force’ sites to work in IE6, and designers, not wanting to lose business, comply, using hacks and workarounds. This wastes time and money. Microsoft needs to fix this, designers need to unite, and we all need to move on.
Heres a quote from Jeff Zeldman, standards guru:
“IE6 is the new Netscape 4. The hacks needed to support IE6 are increasingly viewed as excess freight. Like Netscape 4 in 2000, IE6 is perceived to be holding back the web.”
I dont have shares in UK Digital Cameras or anything but just want to recommend a company. I bought a digital camera a few months ago – a Panasonic FS20. It was one of, if not the cheapest place for the camera. A couple weeks ago I noticed that the camera had some sort of dirt/dust on the lens or sensor.
When taking a photo and look at the LCD screen there were several “grey” dots. I contacted UK Digital Cameras who said I could send it back to them, they would have a quick look and if it was repairable under warranty would send it back to Panasonic – or more than likely a Panasonic approved repair centre. (With UK Digital Cameras you can 2 years warranty!!)
Turns out the dust was on the actual sensor which shouldnt happen so it would be repaired. I did have to pair for postage to send it back to them but they paid for the postage to send it to Panasonic and posting it back to me. It was all done very quickly and I now have camera back as good as new.
One test photo was taken on the camera which appears to be a rather messy work-area in the repair centre!!
or even better suggest Firefox!!
