Hey, Quote from the Flav thread: "In 2008 you will also have to use the Electronic Control Units (ECUs) made by McLaren and Microsoft (after they won the FIA tender)" This is to me the absolute death knell for F1 - They'll never be able to get all the cars running at the same time Now, if people here believe RD=Lucifer they've never had to deal with the evil Micro$haft empire - They are really, truly, Lucifer in corporate disguise - Just ask the US Navy, who put a ship to sea a few years back that was controlled my Microsoft S/W - It got out of the harbor before shutting down and required a *tow* back..... Hopefully Flav's protest will be successful and someone else will be able to do the ECU's in addition to the evil empire - If not, I genuinely fear for the future of the sport! Cheers, Ian
Microsoft sucks, McLaren should not be involved either. It should be an outside 3rd party instead of the Mediocre crap coming from Washington State.
I think the most interesting thing here is that McLaren is the other part beside Microsoft. If one team is developing one of the most critical parts of the engine, we can be sure it will exactly suit the team's needs, and nothing else. I am involved in formula car electronics, and no matter what McLaren or Microsoft or whoever will say about standards and so on, EVERY other team WILL have to struggle to get it perfectly working with their cars, while MCL can just lean back. I am speechless. Any other sources for the whole thing?
Microsloth has a long history of making "standards" become incompatible with everything else. Bernie apparently doesn't want motorsports to out-live him.
I hear F1 steering wheels are going to be fitted with small LCD monitors so the drivers can see the blue-screens-of-death.
Oh wow. It will be interesting watching 22 cars cut off at random for no reason and needing to be restarted at various points during each race. Actually guys, this could add a whole new challenge to F1 racing
This was put to public tender last year and MME (I think they're called) won over Magneti Marelli and maybe some other outfits. Marelli supply Ferrari (& therefore STR and Spyker), Renault (and therefore also RBR) and Toyota (also Williams). That's more than half the grid and you never hear complaints about their products or service. So here's McLaren (who for a long time sucked in the electronics dept.) teaming up with Microsoft, who AFAIK never did anything related to engine controls (probably only doing it for marketing reasons) to provide electronics to the whole grid and the FIA chose them. Go figure!
Some will, yes. Others will have to wait while critical updates are being downloaded. Depends on what Service Pack was installed.
And how fast the network connection is. (When I try to change font colors in powerpunt at work, it stops and gets on the network, even though the file is on the local disk. I sometimes wonder if it has to ask Bill's permission to go ahead. ) (Posted mostly to get the spoiler title off the section listing.)
Error Code: RD McLaren Your 2008 Formula 1 has reached END OF SERVICE LIFE. Please refer to the McLaren Gate Manual (all 780 pages, printed early 2007)
Actually I think seriously that it is time to change the TV channel ... motorsport is more contrived than ever. Just not worth watching. Pete
WWF has "real" outcomes compared to F1 I say we give FA and LH chairs to hit each other over the head with
<upshift> !: Are you sure? <y> !: Would you like to archive your old radio comms now? <n> <upshift> !: application is not responding. Terminate transmission control process? [crash] !: you have unused icons on your steering wheel? Run cleanup wizard? <groan> !: upshifting - you may need to restart to take this action. Restart now? The circus comes to the circuits.