Year: 2005

The Fedora Project have just released version 1.0 of Fedora Directory Server. It is interesting that this announcement comes at a similar time as Sun announcing the open sourcing of Sun Java System Directory Server.

If you take a look at the screenshots, you will realize that these products – iPlanet Directory, Netscape Directory Server, Sun ONE Directory, Fedora Directory and Sun Java Directory Server – are all almost the exact same thing!! Who are we trying to kid here? Inbreeders! The history explains it in a succint manner.

This is a typical example of the (really bad) forking that takes place when it comes to proprietary software. If you think forking and branching of code bases only happens in Open Source Software, you’re horribly wrong.

Basically all this means is that millions of dollars have been spent competing on development of the same code base in order to put the same or similar features into the competing products. At the end of the day Open Source Software became the winner, but at what cost to the corporate entities involved? If only someone realised this, we would not have a fragmented product, but one robust product that everyone has equal control over the development of.

Novell and Microsoft must have been laughing all the way to the bank.

So how aligned am I with the company I work for?

Here’s a comment from Jonathan Schwartz about the release of most of the Sun enterprise software stack for free (sans support and warranty):

From a fading star, Schwartz said, Sun will become the software industry’s “rock star.”

Welcome to my point of view, Jonathan.

Just one question: If Sun is the “Rock Star”, won’t they need more “Rock Star Hackers”, not fewer?

Living in the land of hot summers and mediocre winters, we don’t get to play much in the arena of winter sports, which makes this snowboard simulator just that much more desirable.

I joined the madness at Computicket on Friday evening to wait in queue for a chance to get my hands on some Robbie Williams tickets on Saturday morning. Fortunately luck was with me and I was not one of the many disappointed fans who missed out on tickets when they sold out at about midday. Yes, it apparently took all of three hours to sell every ticket that was going for the Pretoria and Cape Town shows.

Of course the call centre was unavailable and their website – predictably – went down (they want to run Dell hardware, what do they expect?). I covered every angle with a spot in the queue, an internet connection and a cellphone call to the ticket booking centre. I’m actually lucky I decided to stay in the queue and not simply try over the net, as that would have been disastrous. In the end the queue paid off.

Despite the sellout I do suspect that there will still be tickets available as time passes – most people in the queue bought the full quota of 6 tickets, probably with a view to get rid of them later at a premium. I even have a couple of spare tickets myself – what with the concert being about six months away, you never know what could happen in the interim. Hell, in six months I could probably convert someone into a Robbie Williams fan and then sell them a spare ticket!!!

So if you’re reading this and you want a ticket, contact me. I promise nothing, and you’re gonna need a good reason for not being with me in that queue, but you never know, you may catch me in a generous mood.

Tags: music, pop, robbie williams, world tour, tickets

I spent Sunday in the sun on the grandstand at the inaugural Grand Prix Masters race which was held at Kyalami.

What a show it was! Upon arrival, the exotic cars were already screaming around the track, laying down some rubber in anticipation of more excitement to come.

Shortly after that we decided to go on our pit walk, which was something new and interesting – a chance to see these speed machines up close, and perhaps even get an autograph or two from any drivers who may be lingering in the pits. We spent a good half hour to forty minutes taking photos and watching the goings on, firstly at the Grand Prix Masters’ cars and then the F1x2 two-seater racing cars.

I eventually managed to drag my mother away from the pit lane and we headed back to the main grandstand to see the masters come out for their morning warm-up session. Watching these guys flying down that start/finish straight was awesome, and as it happens we were sitting right in the middle of a gear changing zone, so we got to hear these guys chunking their gearbox around, some a little smoother than others.

Shortly after the seniors finished their lap quota, the two-seater F1s came out to play. Boy do these cars scream! They are by far louder than the engines the masters were using. We watched closely as excited and nervous passengers got strapped into the back seat and soon they too were careening around the track, hanging on for dear life in places I’m sure. Kyalami has corners that can pull up to two and a half Gs in those cars. And of course some of the passengers were sticking their heads as far out as possible on straights, waving to the crowd if possible.

After this, there were photo opportunities and other antics during lunch. More photos to come soon.

Following lunch, it was time for the highlight – the first Grand Prix Masters challenge, with Nigel Mansell on pole position, and Emerson Fittipaldi alongside.
They started with two laps behind the safety car and a rolling start in classic style, with the pack tightly bunched. The noise as they passed was incredible. Mansell manged to hold position in first, but every other lap they screamed by with Fittipaldi tickling Mansell’s gearbox. Derek Warwick consistently hunted down Andrea De Cesaris with some hair raising driving and left-right darts down the main straight. Thirty laps flew by in no time and by some luck Mansell was able to keep Fittipaldi behind.

All in all, it was a spectacular race. The drivers entertained all with their extreme competitiveness and their obvious sportsmanship. There was no runaway victory and most of the pack kept a similar pace. These old-timers still have some mettle and I’m looking forward to the next GP Masters race. Alain Prost missed out sorely by not appearing.

After the podium ceremony there was still a lot more racing to come with another F1x2-seater race and a few other formulas after that. Eventually the noise died down, the crowd faded and we decided to leave, our clothes filled with the odor of petrol, perspiration and sunscreen, our ears buzzing to the roar of Grand Prix engines and our teeth smiling at the entertainment enjoyed.

Categories: motorsport, grand prix, f1, race, kyalami, mansell, fittipaldi