Flower of Life is one example where geometry and art clash in a blindingly beautiful reaction.
This is what happens.
 |
| Zuko Torchic! |
Using pixel art, I created this Torchic, with a dash of Prince Zuko from Avatar-The Last Airbender. The darker orange colour represent the scars of Zuko. As both Torchic and Zuko are firebenders, it does make a lot of sense.
I used 2 cm x 2 cm paper squares, and painted them individually, and then stuck them on a drawn grid to create the structure. It looks much better the further you are away from it(pixelation).
 |
| James Hunt |
sap: Tom, would you introduce yourself please?
A: Hi All, I'm Tom, James's eldest son and one of the founders of James Hunt Racing.
sap: What inspired you to set up The James Hunt Foundation? Have you shortlisted any charities to donate to as of yet?
Tom: We wanted to give something back to this world as dad had given so much during his life, and create something that would uphold his legacy in the right way. We haven't shortlisted any charities yet, but my brother and I are keen for most of the funds we raise to go to environmental causes, and we know Dad would have approved of that given his fond appreciation for nature and wildlife.
sap: What do you want The James Hunt Foundation to be doing in 5 years time?
Tom: I would like to think we would be raising consistent meaningful sums each year, to be donated to causes that we would have built lasting relationships with by then.
sap: Is there anything you want to reveal about the future of The James Hunt Foundation?
Tom: At this stage all I can say is that we are hoping to be part of a special auction in September where there will be a number of JH related pieces raising money for the Foundation.
Richard Porter(aka @sniffpetrol) confirmed on the Gareth Jones Podcast that Top Gear will be back on air on June 30th.
A mobile phone by definition is,
Of course, smartphones are the new fad, and as I use a Nokia 710 on a daily basis, I know for a fact that it really is very convenient, having the internet at my disposal, anytime anywhere. All those apps, instant messaging, Twitter, Facebook, emails, 9GAG, and I could go on and on, the list of things I can do with a smartphone is endless. Apart from making calls, or sending SMS's, of course. That is something the 710 does not do very well. Nor does the iPhone, for that matter.
mobile phonenounBrit.a telephone with access to a cellular radio system so it can be used over a wide area, without a physical connection to a network.
So by definition, the Nokia 101 is the best mobile phone you can buy right now. It hasn't yet dropped a call, or failed to send an SMS. It has a torch, an MP3 player with radio, a stonkingly powerful speaker which can wake the dead, and sudoku. Oh and it can go on for weeks without needing a recharge. All for about $35.
So by definition, the Nokia 101 is the best mobile phone you can buy right now. It hasn't yet dropped a call, or failed to send an SMS. It has a torch, an MP3 player with radio, a stonkingly powerful speaker which can wake the dead, and sudoku. Oh and it can go on for weeks without needing a recharge. All for about $35.
Of course, smartphones are the new fad, and as I use a Nokia 710 on a daily basis, I know for a fact that it really is very convenient, having the internet at my disposal, anytime anywhere. All those apps, instant messaging, Twitter, Facebook, emails, 9GAG, and I could go on and on, the list of things I can do with a smartphone is endless. Apart from making calls, or sending SMS's, of course. That is something the 710 does not do very well. Nor does the iPhone, for that matter.
There's this simple joy to using the Nokia 101. No internet connectivity, no social networking, no emails, no distractions. No flimflam. Just calling, and sending SMS's. It's a lot like taking a holiday, and its a relief not being connected to the internet all the time. I can only imagine Nokia gave it dual sim functionality so that corporates who use it once, and get addicted to the calmness it brings in their lives, chuck away their Blackberries, and iPhones can replace both their mobile phones with the 101. It's not like the target market audience of this phone have both a work phone, and a personal phone. I highly doubt Nokia were swamped by complaints of the target audience wanting to use both their work and personal sim in one phone. I am quite certain it was included to cater to those who convert over from their smartphones.
To anyone wanting to get away from the rat race, or go to a beach resort to relax, there's no need. Simply replace your smartphone with the Nokia 101, and you shall achieve zen.
I combined a few filters together to create what I call the 'graphic novel' look. The photo used is of the new BMW M5.
With the ///M colours,
Last time, I compared Kimi Raikkonens steely determination to Ayrton Senna's. However, day by day I feel Kimi is the only driver who will not settle for anything less than a win, even in a car which isn't one of the top runners.
When he took a break from Formula 1, it was because he lost his motivation. Not because he got tired of the media or any other personal reason. It was simply because he was sick and tired of driving the uncompetitive Ferrari. If he can't fight for wins, he doesn't see the point of wasting his team. He went rallying, and then to NASCAR. Even in this disciplines, he was one of the fastest drivers on track. Kimi was actually faster than many seasoned rally drivers during testing and was moderately successful in his debut season. In NASCAR, he very nearly broke the lap record during testing. It simply stunning to see Raikkonen excel at any motor racing disciplines he tries his hand at. Many Formula 1 world champions in the past haven't been anywhere near as successful after leaving F1 to try different forms of racing.
 |
| steely determination |
When he took a break from Formula 1, it was because he lost his motivation. Not because he got tired of the media or any other personal reason. It was simply because he was sick and tired of driving the uncompetitive Ferrari. If he can't fight for wins, he doesn't see the point of wasting his team. He went rallying, and then to NASCAR. Even in this disciplines, he was one of the fastest drivers on track. Kimi was actually faster than many seasoned rally drivers during testing and was moderately successful in his debut season. In NASCAR, he very nearly broke the lap record during testing. It simply stunning to see Raikkonen excel at any motor racing disciplines he tries his hand at. Many Formula 1 world champions in the past haven't been anywhere near as successful after leaving F1 to try different forms of racing.
The reason why these races are so exciting is because every driver has the same car. So there are no excuses the driver can make. Formula 1 cannot have have standardized equipment because innovation in technology and design is a major aspect of the sport, apart from the wheel to wheel racing. However, with rising costs, and with bigger teams pulling away from the smaller teams on the track, there has to be some level of standardization. DTM, Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters now has standardised rear wings. Not only does this level the playing field, but it also forces designers to work on the other parts of the car, hence forcing them to become more creative. You can't standardised any aero parts on a Formula 1 car, as the aerodynamic package is what differentiates a McLaren from a Sauber. But if parts such as wheels, brakes, or even the nose cone were to be standardised, it would bring the teams closer together, and more importantly, force the engineers and designers to become more creative.
 |
| X-Ray of a Toyota Formula 1 car. |
It's quite easy to target Pirelli and blame them for ruining Formula 1 with all the tyre changes, but Pirelli were told to make those tyres, so there is no point in blaming them. But when Pirelli started to change the compound and construction of their tyres mid season so that teams like Red Bull and Mercedes don't suffer as much, it completely ruins Formula 1. If the new tyres degrade slowly and benefit certain teams, the whole point of degrading rubber is lost. Every team is given the same set of tyres and they have to deal with it. Lotus, Force India and McLaren have built their cars specifically to handle the degrading rubber. But if Red Bull and Mercedes, teams with astronomically large budgets complain, and Pirelli listens to their complaints and goes about fixing the tyres, then it ruins the very competitive nature of Formula 1.
It wasn't justifiable to give Pirelli shit with the original set of tyres. They did a brilliant job to make the races unpredictable. But when they start making mid season changes to suit the needs of certain big budget teams, then they definitely deserve every insult thrown at them. With the viewing figures for Formula 1 dropping day by day, this change is another blow. Eric Boullier, team principle of Lotus F1, put it perfectly, "Just imagine for a moment that, because a football team can't run as fast as its opponent, the dimensions of the pitch are changed at half time!"
It wasn't justifiable to give Pirelli shit with the original set of tyres. They did a brilliant job to make the races unpredictable. But when they start making mid season changes to suit the needs of certain big budget teams, then they definitely deserve every insult thrown at them. With the viewing figures for Formula 1 dropping day by day, this change is another blow. Eric Boullier, team principle of Lotus F1, put it perfectly, "Just imagine for a moment that, because a football team can't run as fast as its opponent, the dimensions of the pitch are changed at half time!"
 |
| An awesome adventure game |
 |
| Jonathan Kittaka(right), creator of the artwork and Sean Hogan, brains behind programming and music at Taco Bell. |
sap: How does it feel to have made Anodyne?
Sean: Satisfying? It's nice to finally have realized a large game idea, and have this finished game that I can show to others and have them play!
sap: Do you think Anodyne's unique launch plan attracted more gamers than it usually would?
Sean: Yeah, the pirate bay gives you a lot of advertising to an audience that would likely never see your game! I would definitely do something like it again.
Renault has always been slightly weird, in a good way. They've ventured into niches no one has ever thought of, made cars that seemed crazy, and has a typical heart over head attitude towards making cars. Their hot hatchbacks have redefined the very meaning of the hot hatchbacks, and their Formula 1 campaign has been very successful. In short, they're having a good time now. So they've lent a few engineers some money and given them free reign.
After 10 months, this is what they came up with. The Renault Twizy F1. Renault Twizy is a brilliant little electric powered city car that shows a new direction is electric mobility. It's a smartly designed car strictly for in-city usage. It is of course, slow and won't break any records.
After 10 months, this is what they came up with. The Renault Twizy F1. Renault Twizy is a brilliant little electric powered city car that shows a new direction is electric mobility. It's a smartly designed car strictly for in-city usage. It is of course, slow and won't break any records.
I built a Lego Mindstorms rover/car as a test base for different programs and test manoeuvres. I took inspiration from another build, called NXT-GT. As I did not have a lot of parts, I had make a lot of modifications. It is possibly the best car shaped design, and is a perfect test mule for any program or hardware testing. I experimented with different designs but this really was a perfect design.
It is quite large and wide though, and the three motors really weigh it down. But because the rest of the body is very light, it's the best compromise.
It is quite large and wide though, and the three motors really weigh it down. But because the rest of the body is very light, it's the best compromise.
The Bahrain race was a good one. Lots of overtakes, and certainly a lot of position changes. The pole-sitter, Nico Rosberg fell to 9th place by the end of the race due to excessive tyre wear, and Romain Grosjean ended up 3rd after starting from 11th on the grid. Kimi Raikkonen, who started in 8th place finished 2nd, 9 seconds adrift of race winner Sebastian Vettel. There was a lot of drama on track, with Romain Grosjean and Sergio Perez, both back on form, and fighting for position. Sergio fought with his team-mate and drove Alonso off track. Romain fought with every driver on the grid with his slightly skewed strategy.
 |
| @Reuters |
There used to be a time when the graphics of a game would define how good it was. Every year a new game would be launched with better, more realistic graphics, and everyone knew that there had to be a point where the hardware simply wouldn't be able to cope up. There are computers which can beautifully run those heavy processor intensive games, but the average gamer cannot afford those systems. Even gaming consoles have a limit to which they can play the more graphic oriented titles.
Here's something interesting I found on my frequent trips to 9GAG,
There is a saturation point where we simply will not be distinguish the virtual world from reality. I have no doubt that in the next few iterations of the Gran Turismo series, cars will look so realistic that one will simply not be able to make out if it's real or virtual. It will be fascinating and wonderful to have a game which is indistinguishable from reality. But it might not be necessarily fun.
Here's something interesting I found on my frequent trips to 9GAG,
 |
| Art of triangles-9GAG |
There is a saturation point where we simply will not be distinguish the virtual world from reality. I have no doubt that in the next few iterations of the Gran Turismo series, cars will look so realistic that one will simply not be able to make out if it's real or virtual. It will be fascinating and wonderful to have a game which is indistinguishable from reality. But it might not be necessarily fun.
This race is bought to you by Pirelli tyres. Spicing up F1 races since 2012.
No really. If it wasn't for the Pirelli tyres, this race would have been extremely drab and boring. More accurately, it was the choice of tyre compounds that made the difference. Pirelli bought the Soft and the Medium compound tyre to China. Quickly it became clear that the Soft compound wouldn't last all that long, and it was a situation similar to that in Australia, where the Supersoft tyre also degraded quickly.
Qualifying was relatively smooth. Until Q3 began. Till the last 3 minutes, no one went out on track. Some didn't. No one wanted to race the race on the Softs as they would barely last a couple of laps on race day. In a thrilling couple of minutes, Alonso, Hamilton, and Raikkonen set blisteringly fast times, all within a second. Lewis got pole position though, by three tenths of a second. Impressive. Although the top 7 all set times, they were on the softer compound. Button, Vettel, and Hulkenberg elected to start on the more durable Medium compound. So they were many different strategies to be played out and many different setups. With the varied pace of the cars, sparks were going to fly. Jules Bianchi once again, outqualified his team-mate by a massive margin of 0.757 seconds.
No really. If it wasn't for the Pirelli tyres, this race would have been extremely drab and boring. More accurately, it was the choice of tyre compounds that made the difference. Pirelli bought the Soft and the Medium compound tyre to China. Quickly it became clear that the Soft compound wouldn't last all that long, and it was a situation similar to that in Australia, where the Supersoft tyre also degraded quickly.
 |
| Hamilton leads Raikkonen |
Qualifying was relatively smooth. Until Q3 began. Till the last 3 minutes, no one went out on track. Some didn't. No one wanted to race the race on the Softs as they would barely last a couple of laps on race day. In a thrilling couple of minutes, Alonso, Hamilton, and Raikkonen set blisteringly fast times, all within a second. Lewis got pole position though, by three tenths of a second. Impressive. Although the top 7 all set times, they were on the softer compound. Button, Vettel, and Hulkenberg elected to start on the more durable Medium compound. So they were many different strategies to be played out and many different setups. With the varied pace of the cars, sparks were going to fly. Jules Bianchi once again, outqualified his team-mate by a massive margin of 0.757 seconds.
OpenEmu is a open source emulator that will play pretty any game you played 'back in the day'. My 'back in the day' games were the Pokemon games.
Now the only way to play Pokemon on a Mac is with GameBoy emulators. VisualBoy is a very good option, with the ability to fast forward time and use various cheats. But it is slightly unstable, and the cheats and the fast forwarding option does spoil the game because you will inevitably use them. It's like a cake on a table, in a room full of other people. You don't simply ignore the cake. You will eat every bit of it. Then you will become violently sick because the cake was poisoned. The cheats and the fast forwarding is the poisoned cake. It ruins the game and you can't help but use them.
Enter OpenEmu. Not only will this emulate any sort of Nintendo device, it is stable, and it doesn't have anything extra. Open app, play the game. Thats it. No fuss. The best part is that it looks like an official Apple app. It's like a mini iTunes for emulators and games. It is beautifully designed.
Now the only way to play Pokemon on a Mac is with GameBoy emulators. VisualBoy is a very good option, with the ability to fast forward time and use various cheats. But it is slightly unstable, and the cheats and the fast forwarding option does spoil the game because you will inevitably use them. It's like a cake on a table, in a room full of other people. You don't simply ignore the cake. You will eat every bit of it. Then you will become violently sick because the cake was poisoned. The cheats and the fast forwarding is the poisoned cake. It ruins the game and you can't help but use them.
Enter OpenEmu. Not only will this emulate any sort of Nintendo device, it is stable, and it doesn't have anything extra. Open app, play the game. Thats it. No fuss. The best part is that it looks like an official Apple app. It's like a mini iTunes for emulators and games. It is beautifully designed.
There are quite a few articles on the internet, and in print giving reasons for Apple's meteoric rise to success. Those articles are very long, and the writers of those articles use big words because they think it makes them look sophisticated and highbrow. It gives me a headache, and big words only makes it seem as if you're trying too hard. Put simply, the only reason why Apple rocketed to success is because they had a radically different design direction to their rivals.
Design here isn't used in an aesthetic sense. Before Apple, or Steve Jobs, everyone assumed users of technology were just as smart as the people who made them. Steve Jobs assumed the users of his products were morons, and designed them in such a way so that even the most technologically challenged person could use them. Jobs called his design direction intuition.
Design here isn't used in an aesthetic sense. Before Apple, or Steve Jobs, everyone assumed users of technology were just as smart as the people who made them. Steve Jobs assumed the users of his products were morons, and designed them in such a way so that even the most technologically challenged person could use them. Jobs called his design direction intuition.
AutoShot. I couldn't resist naming an elementary AppleScript script. It was too good a name to pass up.
Autoshot automatically takes screenshots of your Mac while you play your game, or work on your project, so you can document your work or play, without having to press the combination of keys to take a screenshot. There are full fledged apps out there that might do this, but this is a simple script that can do the same. You can decide the delay between each screenshot, and for how long should the script take the screenshots.
Here is the code incase you want to edit it anyway. I took bits of code from places, as I'm slightly rusty at this. To change the format of the image, simply edit the ".png" bit.
The download link for the app that doesn't need AppleScript editor. Its a standalone app, so it'll run the script on simply running the app.
Autoshot automatically takes screenshots of your Mac while you play your game, or work on your project, so you can document your work or play, without having to press the combination of keys to take a screenshot. There are full fledged apps out there that might do this, but this is a simple script that can do the same. You can decide the delay between each screenshot, and for how long should the script take the screenshots.
Here is the code incase you want to edit it anyway. I took bits of code from places, as I'm slightly rusty at this. To change the format of the image, simply edit the ".png" bit.
display dialog "AutoShot: Automatic Screen Capture ScriptGap between each shot(in seconds)" default answer "" buttons {"OK", "Cancel"} default button 1 --Q&A for user, to determine factors of taking screenshotsset beta to text returned of resultdisplay dialog "Period of time for the screenshots to be taken(in minutes)" default answer "" buttons {"OK"} default button 1set zeta to text returned of result --period of time for shots to be takendisplay dialog "Screenshots will be saved on folder named 'AutoShot' on Desktop" buttons {"OK"} default button 1set dFolder to "~/Desktop/AutoShot/"do shell script ("mkdir -p " & dFolder)set zeta1 to zeta * 60 --converting input to secondsset alpha to (zeta1 / beta) --calculating no. of times the screenshot code has to be repeatedrepeat alpha times --Repeat Codeset tTime to do shell script "date +%H%M%S"do shell script ("screencapture " & dFolder & tTime & ".png")delay beta --Gap between each shotend repeat
The download link for the app that doesn't need AppleScript editor. Its a standalone app, so it'll run the script on simply running the app.
I've finally made the Flipp extension for Safari! It took a bit of work, but I finally converted it. HTML for Youtube needs to be enabled to make it work. Although it does have many uses, it can primarily used for learning complex dance moves from youtube, or simply watching Youtube videos in a different way.
Download link
 |
| Before |
 |
| After 'Flipping' it |
Download link
Multi-21 is a phrase which will go down in history as the moment when Vettel established himself as a fast and ruthless racing driver who doesn't stop at anything to win. Multi-21 refers to the command given to both the Red Bull drivers toward the closing stages of the 2013 Malaysian F1 Grand Prix, which orders both drivers to hold position, and cruise to the chequered flag. Webber was leading Vettel to a Red Bull 1-2, when Multi-21 was issued. Webber turned down his engine, and started preserving his tyres, and Vettel too was expected to do the same. Vettel however, had plans of his own.
 |
| Post race reaction. |
Often Kimi Raikkonen has been compared to James Hunt, and their playboy lifestyles do have a few similarities. Both are world champions, and neither of them give a damn about the consequences of anything they say. The playboy lifestyles they lead were in stark comparison to their fellow drivers at their times. But the key difference lies in their core personalities.
 |
| SEX: Breakfast of Champions. James Hunt doing his thing. |
This was a messy race. With the wet track at the start, and rapidly changing conditions, it was a slightly random result. There wasn't too much drama at this race, and it was a boring race to watch. With the faster degrading Pirelli tyres, pit stops decide the outcome of the race, and there is less of wheel to wheel battle.
The only wheel to wheel battle
The only wheel to wheel battle
Although there aren't as many games available for Mac as there are for Windows systems, there are still more than enough games to choose from. Here are some of the games I think are worth buying. I'm not listing it in any specific order. I'll try to update this list whenever I can.
TOCA Race Driver 3: One of the best all round driving games ever. Basically, its Gran Turismo for the Mac. So you can play this game for the rest of your life, and still not complete it.
F1 2012: The best and the most accurate Formula 1 game till date. Although F1 2013 is coming this year, F1 2012 is still a superb game, and the online experience is unparalleled.
The Movies Superstar: This is like Sims, but all about movies. You're basically controlling a movie studio, producing movies, and managing stars. Good fun
Lego Batman 2: Its Lego. And its Batman. Need I say more? Haven't had so much fun in a long time.
Colin McRae Rally Mac: Probably the most realistic rally game there ever was. It is quite a challenge.
Call of Duty 4: The most iconic FPS game of all time, and the one with most hacked servers ever. I think there's more than a million players online by the looks of it, and an infinite number of mods. It's better than Black Ops because of the game's hack-ability.
Call of Duty Black Ops: This another iconic FPS game, but it's a lot more realistic, and you have to work a lot harder while playing it.
Lego Star Wars Clone Wars: Once again, Lego, Star Wars, and lightsabers. Better than the original Star Wars games.
Dirt 2: The rally game next-gen. With the X-games, and rallycross, focus has shifted from proper rallying. Not as cool, but still it's a lot of fun.
Minecraft: It's blocks of pixels stacked on each other. With imagination, you can create anything.
Angry Birds Space: The best Angry Birds version. Much better than the original thing.
NBA Jam: Retro game refreshed and bought back to life. Best played with a friend. This has to be ported to the gaming consoles. So much more fun than the original NBA games.
Real Racing 2: Same as the now iconic iOS version. Not as polished, but still playable.
Anodyne: The product of indie developers, this game had a game-changing launch. The devs put it on pirate bay.org for free, and asked players to donate. And oh boy they did. Brilliant RPG.
Grand Theft Auto Series: Its grand theft auto. Burn everything.
The Incident: Another indie game, this is really very good. Hours of fun.
Video Tennis: This uses a novel method of playing ping pong. It tracks your hand using the webcam to play the game. It works very well.
Sky Gamblers: Air Supremacy: Another iOS port. Multiplayer is epic. Needs a joystick though, to play the game properly.
Galaxy on Fire 2: A space exploration game with good space battles. Great graphics.
Flatout 2: The daddy of smash 'n' race games. Haven't seen speed and violence in a such a great cocktail before.
Tomb Raider: Underworld: It's Tomb Raider. Owe up. You only play the game to look at the girl. Everyone does. She looks great in this game. So it's a no-brainer.
Bus Driver: Great training if you lose your job. It's sort of a realistic bus driving game. I haven't driven a bus, so I have no idea how realistic it is.
Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy: One of the better Star Wars games. Although it is quite old, it is still really good. Deserves a remake though.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic: The most iconic Star Wars game ever. With an option to build your character toward the dark side, or the light side, it is quite a easy decision to make. Join the dark side. Have fun.
TOCA Race Driver 3: One of the best all round driving games ever. Basically, its Gran Turismo for the Mac. So you can play this game for the rest of your life, and still not complete it.
F1 2012: The best and the most accurate Formula 1 game till date. Although F1 2013 is coming this year, F1 2012 is still a superb game, and the online experience is unparalleled.
The Movies Superstar: This is like Sims, but all about movies. You're basically controlling a movie studio, producing movies, and managing stars. Good fun
Lego Batman 2: Its Lego. And its Batman. Need I say more? Haven't had so much fun in a long time.
Colin McRae Rally Mac: Probably the most realistic rally game there ever was. It is quite a challenge.
Call of Duty 4: The most iconic FPS game of all time, and the one with most hacked servers ever. I think there's more than a million players online by the looks of it, and an infinite number of mods. It's better than Black Ops because of the game's hack-ability.
Call of Duty Black Ops: This another iconic FPS game, but it's a lot more realistic, and you have to work a lot harder while playing it.
Lego Star Wars Clone Wars: Once again, Lego, Star Wars, and lightsabers. Better than the original Star Wars games.
Dirt 2: The rally game next-gen. With the X-games, and rallycross, focus has shifted from proper rallying. Not as cool, but still it's a lot of fun.
Minecraft: It's blocks of pixels stacked on each other. With imagination, you can create anything.
Angry Birds Space: The best Angry Birds version. Much better than the original thing.
NBA Jam: Retro game refreshed and bought back to life. Best played with a friend. This has to be ported to the gaming consoles. So much more fun than the original NBA games.
Real Racing 2: Same as the now iconic iOS version. Not as polished, but still playable.
Anodyne: The product of indie developers, this game had a game-changing launch. The devs put it on pirate bay.org for free, and asked players to donate. And oh boy they did. Brilliant RPG.
Grand Theft Auto Series: Its grand theft auto. Burn everything.
The Incident: Another indie game, this is really very good. Hours of fun.
Video Tennis: This uses a novel method of playing ping pong. It tracks your hand using the webcam to play the game. It works very well.
Sky Gamblers: Air Supremacy: Another iOS port. Multiplayer is epic. Needs a joystick though, to play the game properly.
Galaxy on Fire 2: A space exploration game with good space battles. Great graphics.
Flatout 2: The daddy of smash 'n' race games. Haven't seen speed and violence in a such a great cocktail before.
Tomb Raider: Underworld: It's Tomb Raider. Owe up. You only play the game to look at the girl. Everyone does. She looks great in this game. So it's a no-brainer.
Bus Driver: Great training if you lose your job. It's sort of a realistic bus driving game. I haven't driven a bus, so I have no idea how realistic it is.
Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy: One of the better Star Wars games. Although it is quite old, it is still really good. Deserves a remake though.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic: The most iconic Star Wars game ever. With an option to build your character toward the dark side, or the light side, it is quite a easy decision to make. Join the dark side. Have fun.
Mark Webber is due to be replaced in 2014, and so far, none of the drivers at Red Bull's sister team Torro Rosso have impressed. Red Bull would probably prefer to promote António Félix da Costa to the team, or even Jules Bianchi, or Davide Valsecchi. So till they believe the drivers have achieved some level of maturity, they might sign up Kimi Raikkonen for a single year at Red Bull for 2014. This is subject to the fact that Kimi might not continue in Formula 1 in 2014. Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel have a great relationship on, and off the track, so a move might be possible.
But there's one factor that makes Lotus a very good team for Raikkonen to thrive at. Lotus doesn't make Kimi do any PR work, and they don't involve in him team politics either. By shielding him away from the media, and PR work, Lotus can get the best out of Raikkonen, as the 2012 standing show quite clearly. 2012 was probably Kimi's best ever season in Formula 1. Kimi enjoys the privileges he receives at Lotus, and so there isn't much of an incentive to join Red Bull. Kimi prefers to enjoy his racing, rather than be outright successful, so there doesn't seem to be much of a case to join Red Bull. But if Kimi wants to win a championship, then he can do so with Red Bull. Red Bull has the budget, and the resource to do so, and Kimi might be tempted to sacrifice some of his PR freedom at Lotus to win a championship. There's no guarantee that either Red Bull, or Kimi want this move, but who knows what could happen next year.
UPDATE: As it turns out, I wasn't wrong after all. Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz said: "Kimi is cool and fast and always a candidate."So Raikkonen could spend his final year in Formula 1 with Red Bull, reunited with Adrian Newey from his McLaren days. Although it wasn't an entirely a successful relationship, their last year together in 2005 was a very good one. We saw Raikkonen wallop the competition with an extremely unreliable car. Now both men have gotten better over the years, and we could see ultimate dominance once again in 2014?
 |
| Kimi Raikkonen at Red Bull next year? Image by Sutton Images |
But there's one factor that makes Lotus a very good team for Raikkonen to thrive at. Lotus doesn't make Kimi do any PR work, and they don't involve in him team politics either. By shielding him away from the media, and PR work, Lotus can get the best out of Raikkonen, as the 2012 standing show quite clearly. 2012 was probably Kimi's best ever season in Formula 1. Kimi enjoys the privileges he receives at Lotus, and so there isn't much of an incentive to join Red Bull. Kimi prefers to enjoy his racing, rather than be outright successful, so there doesn't seem to be much of a case to join Red Bull. But if Kimi wants to win a championship, then he can do so with Red Bull. Red Bull has the budget, and the resource to do so, and Kimi might be tempted to sacrifice some of his PR freedom at Lotus to win a championship. There's no guarantee that either Red Bull, or Kimi want this move, but who knows what could happen next year.
UPDATE: As it turns out, I wasn't wrong after all. Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz said: "Kimi is cool and fast and always a candidate."So Raikkonen could spend his final year in Formula 1 with Red Bull, reunited with Adrian Newey from his McLaren days. Although it wasn't an entirely a successful relationship, their last year together in 2005 was a very good one. We saw Raikkonen wallop the competition with an extremely unreliable car. Now both men have gotten better over the years, and we could see ultimate dominance once again in 2014?
Kimi Raikkonen won a race that could probably the most exciting and coincidental on in years to come. He qualified on P7, and then using a 2-stop strategy, he cruised to a win. This also tells us how the cars stack up in terms of one lap speed and race pace.
Melbourne 2013 and Abu Dhabi in 2012 were uncannily similar. In both race, Raikkonen on P1, Alonso on P2, and Vettel on P3. In both races, Webber qualified P2, and had a bad start. Another interesting fact is
 |
| @Sutton Images |
Melbourne 2013 and Abu Dhabi in 2012 were uncannily similar. In both race, Raikkonen on P1, Alonso on P2, and Vettel on P3. In both races, Webber qualified P2, and had a bad start. Another interesting fact is
With the Mac App Store expanding day by day, it is becoming increasingly hard to figure out which applications are actually needed. So here's a small list of apps that I use on a day to day basis.
Perian: This is a Quicktime player addon that enables to it play many video formats
MPlayerX: The most dependable and versatile media player out there. Plays everything, and anything.
Media
Perian: This is a Quicktime player addon that enables to it play many video formats
MPlayerX: The most dependable and versatile media player out there. Plays everything, and anything.
I had made a Nokia N9 vector graphic a while back, and I thought of making a tutorial for that. But Nokia has released the new Lumia 920. However, as the N9 and the 920 have similar bodyshells, they're not that different. The N9/920 is also a simple phone to recreate using vector graphics, so it's a great for beginners as it covers most of the concepts of vector graphics. Sketch is a great application by Bohemian Coding which is very simple to use, but still very powerful.
This is the finished product. Although it's not perfect, it's still a great way to explore vector graphics, and how to use Sketch.
This is the finished product. Although it's not perfect, it's still a great way to explore vector graphics, and how to use Sketch.
Formula 1 is the pinnacle of competitive motor-sport. With millions of dollars being spent on research and development to find every tenth of a second on track, it is extremely competitive and even the slightest advantage can translate into wins and ultimately championships. However, ever since Alain Prost retired, and Ayrton Senna passed away, F1 has lost that element of surprise and excitement to keep viewers hooked on to the television. The only excitement comes from charismatic drivers, and thanks to corporate sponsorship deals, even that charisma is being suppressed. Formula 1 is simply too boring.
 |
| Hungary 2007 |
This is the robot that my team and I made for the IRO. Although it didn't win anything, it was by far the fastest robot on the table. Due to a silly mistake of not loading the right program, it just completed half the challenge. For Formula 1 fans, it's a bit like the McLaren of 2012. Blindingly fast, but just not reliable. So many memories attached to this robot. It looks stunning, doing its stuff.
Members of the team, called 'Velocious',
Raghav Nanda(Visit his blog)
Sudip Guha
Salil Parekh(Me)
If anyone wants to contest the source of this picture or take credit for it, buzz off. This is my intellectual property, and I didn't grant you permission to make money off it. But many thanks for taking the picture.
 |
| This was one fast bot. We even wore down a set of tyres in practice sessions |
Members of the team, called 'Velocious',
Raghav Nanda(Visit his blog)
Sudip Guha
Salil Parekh(Me)
If anyone wants to contest the source of this picture or take credit for it, buzz off. This is my intellectual property, and I didn't grant you permission to make money off it. But many thanks for taking the picture.
This is Honda's Civic Estate Concept. Now this is not car that anyone will pin posters of on their bedroom walls. But for those who actually have to spend real money and buy cars, this is very desirable.
For an estate car, this looks fantastic, and this isn't some fancy concept that will never make production. This is the production version, with a few extra bits and bobs added on. The basic shape, and design will carry over to the production model. Although the fancy LED lighting will not. The new Civic looks dumpy and disproportioned, but the estate version sets things right. It looks much more complete, and the Honda promises that it will have a good amount of space in the back as well. If that exhaust and the LED lighting makes it to the production version, people will pay extra for it. Guaranteed. Honda, make it happen.
For an estate car, this looks fantastic, and this isn't some fancy concept that will never make production. This is the production version, with a few extra bits and bobs added on. The basic shape, and design will carry over to the production model. Although the fancy LED lighting will not. The new Civic looks dumpy and disproportioned, but the estate version sets things right. It looks much more complete, and the Honda promises that it will have a good amount of space in the back as well. If that exhaust and the LED lighting makes it to the production version, people will pay extra for it. Guaranteed. Honda, make it happen.
 |
This was a very interesting test session. There is absolutely nothing conclusive that can be derived from the test apart from the fact that the top teams are still fast, and the slow teams are still slow.
Here are the pointers, as usual.
 |
| @Sutton Images |
Here are the pointers, as usual.
- Marussia replaced Luiz Razia with Jules Bianchi as Luiz Razia's sponsors didn't pay up. Jules Bianchi is about a second faster than Max Chilton, so this will not be a fun year for the englishman.
- Caterham did nothing interesting, apart from proving James Allison right by removing their illegal exhaust system.
Lamborghini is back in business, making cars that are too busy tripping on acid and rolling in heroin to give a damn about performance figures. It doesn't really matter if the big wing, or the rudely large diffuser even work. This is what Lamborghini should be making everyday.
This is the Lamborghini Veneno, unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show 2013. Performance stats don't matter. Just look it at. Keep looking at it. Now print it, and stick all over your room.
This is what happened during its conception,
"It's our 50th anniversary, what should we do?"
"Bake a cake?"
"WHAT? No way. Too mainstream"
"Or lets make a car"
"YEAH! But we we should get really high while doing that. I got some acid tabs!"
"LETS GET THIS PARTY STARTED! FORZA!!"
And this is what happened.
This is the Lamborghini Veneno, unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show 2013. Performance stats don't matter. Just look it at. Keep looking at it. Now print it, and stick all over your room.
This is what happened during its conception,
"It's our 50th anniversary, what should we do?"
"Bake a cake?"
"WHAT? No way. Too mainstream"
"Or lets make a car"
"YEAH! But we we should get really high while doing that. I got some acid tabs!"
"LETS GET THIS PARTY STARTED! FORZA!!"
And this is what happened.
 |
| Unbelievably brash |
 |
| True to the maxim: "Bigger the wing, better the car" |
 |
| Pirelli SuperSofts? Is Pirelli bringing their F1 colour codes to road tyres as well? |
Instead of buying the shiny and plasticky giftwrapper from the shops, use old newspapers to wrap gifts. It's a lot easier, and if you happen to tear it, you can always use another one, without having to go to the shops again, and the shiny plastic one is the most annoying giftwrapping paper to use. Instead of simply using the old newspapers as they are, why not jazz it up a bit? Adding a stencil or two goes a long way in making it look even better than the shiny stuff from the store, and it'll look like you actually made an effort in gifting the person.
First, take old newspapers, and choose according to the size of the gift you're wrapping.
First, take old newspapers, and choose according to the size of the gift you're wrapping.
 |
| Old newspapers. Use the business ones, as they have fewer pictures, and will make the stencils stand out. |
The nice man in the video has no idea what he has just done. Google has pitched their Chromebook Pixel against Apple's MacBook Air and iPad. Now Jonathan Ive is paid lots of money for a good reason. Because he is one of the few designers who uses common sense to design products. The person who has designed the Chromebook Pixel does not have common sense.
 |
| MacBook Pro 13" i7 |
First off, the biggest flaw with this laptop is the name. The official name for this laptop is "MacBook Pro 13" Mid 2012 i7". This is because Apple launches a new MacBook every Tuesday or something. So it has to have a different name corresponding to the launch date to differentiate from it's predecessors. It's a bit like the Porsche 911. Just like the 911, the MacBook evolves generation by generation, never radically changing its design. And just like the 911, the MacBook has around billion variations. So it's a nightmare to pinpoint the version you actually want. Spell something wrong, or say some words in the wrong order, and you get a completely different laptop. However, Porsche figured it out. By giving codenames like '991', and '997', generations can be differentiated. And with names like Turbo, Carrera, and so on, models can be differentiated. The MacBook Pro 13" series has 3 models. 1 retina display equipped model, and 2 non retina ones. The one I will be reviewing is the non retina display one. The non retina display model has 2 variations. On standard configuration, one has 4GB RAM, Intel 2.5 GHz i5 processor, and other one has 8GB RAM, and Intel 2.9GHz i7 processor. Now to simplify the naming, Apple should have taken Prosche's lead and called the i5 model, "Standard", and the i7 model "TURBO V RACING ROCKET FAST TURBO!!!!!!". Because the i7 model is really fast. In a hypothetical laptop drag race, it will do quite well.
Formula 1 started 2013 with the first test in Jerez. With limited testing, every testing session is vitally important, and teams have to make use of every test opportunity they can get. Although it is impossible to judge how the teams have improved over the winter in a test, everyone still tries to make some sense of the lap times. Ferrari set the fastest lap time on soft tyres in Jerez, and Red Bull set the fastest time on the hards. This is the only important fact of the whole test session. Ferrari has recovered, and their car is not a catastrophic disaster as it was last year, and Red Bull is still very fast.
Jerez has an extremely abrasive track surface, so the long runs on a heavy fuel load also do not have relevance whatsoever. The soft tyres barely last for 5-6 laps. So tyre data collection was corrupted somewhat. The other headline facts of the test are,
 |
| Romain Grosjean in the Lotus |
Jerez has an extremely abrasive track surface, so the long runs on a heavy fuel load also do not have relevance whatsoever. The soft tyres barely last for 5-6 laps. So tyre data collection was corrupted somewhat. The other headline facts of the test are,
- Marussia, under technical director Pat Symonds now has KERS and the Coanda exhaust system.
- Caterham is trying to wing this year, and is going to divert all its resources to 2014. They probably want to simply finish in the points this year and keep ahead of Marussia.
- Torro Rosso looks quick, and this improvement is due to their new technical director James Key. Also, the Torro Rosso is called STR8, funnily enough. Torro Rosso might switch to Renault engines in 2014 so that they can use Red Bull mechanicals in the future.
- Sauber has made their smaller sidepods work, and hasn't had any cooling issues. Smaller sidepods mean less drag, so Sauber has had to package their internals very well. Yet. The real test is Barcelona, where the cars will really be driven in anger. But Sauber looks fast as well, and with Nico Hulkenberg at the wheel, they will challenge for podiums and wins.
- Williams ran their 2012 car, so no one knows how fast their 2013 car is. But Valtteri Bottas, another Kimi Raikkonen, had his first taste of how the team works in race simulations.
- Force India looks strong as well, and they have yet to confirm their second driver. It's definitely Jules Bianchi.
- Mercedes had bad time at Jerez. Rosberg had an electrical problem on the first day, and within 15 laps, the Merc was on fire. They had to fix a fundamental electrical design problem, and missed the entire first day of running. The second day, Hamilton binned the car at the fastest part of the track as his rear brakes failed on his 16th lap. Hamilton managed to slow down the car slightly by locking up his fronts, but still smashed the front wing and nose after crossing the gravel trap. And so another day wasted. Meanwhile in the pits, everyone at McLaren were rolling on the floor and laughing. But no one noticed them, as everyone else in the pit lane was also laughing quite a lot. Mercedes recovered on the third and fourth day of the test, clocking on an average of 145 laps each day. Thats a lot compared to other teams who barely did a 100 or so laps. Mercedes also realized that when Hamilton drove hard, the car took quite a beating. When he drove into the pits after along stint, the brakes were smoking, the engine was complaining, and so on.
- Ferrari has a good car, and Massa and Pedro de la Rosa drove it in Jerez. Interestingly Alonso did not opt for the Jerez test. As Massa completed lap after lap of aero test, engine test, and other such tests, he could not work on setup. When Alonso drives the car in Barcelona, the cars will be ready to use and Alonso can start work on setup right away, and won't have to do the boring work of checking all the systems and collecting data. Jerez is not a track that has similar characteristics to any of those on the calendar, so it's not ideal to setup a car, or even train on. So Alonso has cleverly opted to only run at Barcelona
- Lotus, under technical director James Allison also has a very fast car. Romain and Kimi, both seemed happy with it. Although they didn't run their passive DRS in Jerez, the car was relatively reliable as well. All teams will bring their final updates and new parts in Barcelona, so Barcelona will be a real test to gauge the speed of the cars.
- McLaren has a very fast car, and Jenson set the most important lap time of the test. He set a very fast lap time on a relatively green track, on the first day on hard tyres. So the McLaren is quick as it was last year.
- Red Bull was running different array of tests throughout the session, and so neither Vettel nor Webber pushed the car hard. But they are definitely quick, and more importantly, very consistent. Their longer runs were the most consistent of any team. So they remain favourites.
Only at Barcelona will we know how fast the cars actually are, and how they have coped with the new faster wearing Pirelli tyres.
 |
| Lotus E21 |
2013 will be one the most competitive years in the history of Formula 1, no question about it. The best part is that 6 or 7 teams will be fighting for podiums, and perhaps even wins. What makes 2013 also unique is that it will be an end of an era, the V8 era, forever. With 2014 switching back to Turbo V6's, and bigger electrical energy recovery systems, 2013 will be a tricky year. All teams need to direct a majority of their resources toward 2014, to ensure that they remain competitive. So most of the updates and development of the car will take place quite rapidly towards the beginning of the year, and will tail off midway, and most teams will shift almost all resources to develop the 2014 car.
 |
| Red Bull 2013 |
This is the launch Formula 1 has been waiting for. What sort of speed machine has Adrian Newey and his merry men designed and built this year? The Red Bull livery is already part of Formula 1 folklore, and you just know that the blue and red colours are now part of history. So looking at the car evokes a similar sort of reaction to what you would experience if you pre-2008 Ferraris. The feeling of domination. For 2013, the already iconic red and blue colours are now mixed with a snazzy purple courtesy of their new title sponsor, Infinity. It looks simply fantastic and now definitely looks very different from a Torro Rosso.
Now the important technical bit.
 |
| Sauber C32-Ferrari |
Sauber's online launch was quite a surprise. First off, the colour scheme looks superb, and it is one the best looking cars in 2013. As it says on the tin, the Sauber uses Ferrari engines. Now Nico Hulkenberg might have signed up for Sauber so that he might get noticed by Ferrari, and could potentially replace Massa in 2014.
Sauber has made quite a few changes to the new car.
A screenshot of Paul Di Resta's Twitter feed shows that he welcomed Bruno Senna to Force India. The tweet was deleted minutes later. However, one smart Twitter user, @nismoroger took a screenshot, and if Force India did indeed hire Bruno Senna, it would've been a catastrophic decision. Bruno Senna was a fast driver. Until his mother forbade him to continue his racing career in his formative years of karting. after the deaths of both his uncle, Ayrton and his father. He started racing again at the age of 20. So missed on the crucial time to hone his skills, and thus lost his speed. So Bruno Senna could've been a world champion by now, matching Ayrton Senna for speed and maturity. But unfortunately, he missed out. So hiring Jules Bianchi, or even Adrian Sutil, both of which are fast drivers makes sense, and at the launch of VJM06, Force India claimed that they would make their driver decision on the basis of a long term strategy, so I think they did actually hire Bianchi.
UPDATE: Bruno Senna signed for Le Mans and World Endurance Championship with Aston Martin. So obviously, this screenshot is either a photoshop or a misjudgement by Paul Di Resta.
 |
| Ferrari F138 |
 |
| VJM06 |
Ferrari and Force India both launched their 2013 cars today, and there is a unique link between the two teams. Ferrari is pushing Force India to give Jules Bianchi the second race seat alongside Di Resta, and if Force India oblige, they might just get a good deal from Ferrari if they decide to switch to Ferrari engines in 2014. Jules Bianchi is a part of the Ferrari Driver Academy, so quite naturally, Ferrari will want Bianchi to get some vital F1 experience before he probably replaces Massa in 2014. Force India hasn't revealed the identity of the second driver yet, so it remains to be seen what will happen. But I think Force India might opt for either Jules Bianchi or Adrian Sutil.
Luiz Razia has apparently signed up for Marussia, replacing Timo Glock who left via mutual consent, as, to put it bluntly, Marussia is barely able to make ends meet and they desperately need paying drivers.
 |
| McLaren MP4-28 launch |
Today's McLaren launch gave the outside world a good look into McLarens preparation for 2013. This year McLaren celebrates 50 years of its existence, and I suspect they will have a fantastic year. Jenson Button drove into the McLaren Technology Center in the P1, their new road car, and he was simply oozing confidence as he stepped out of that car and into the glare of the cameras. This the Jenson whom we saw back in 2009. Now that the team, and crucially the car is his, he knows he has a fantastic advantage, and a good chance to win the championship. He stressed on the fact that the new car is not only more consistent but also faster than last year. And McLaren did end the 2012 season with the fastest car.