Presidential wheels

Over on TechRepublic there is an interesting little photo gallery of the official cars of the President of the USA over the years.  You can find the article here

A few notable items from the article are reproduced here.

William Howard Taft was the first president to completely ditch carriages for cars with the purchase of his White Motor Company Model M. The 40-horsepower 7-seater was the first Presidential State Car.

FDR's "Sunshine Special" Lincoln V12 featured a siren, 2-way radio, extra-wide running boards, and grab handles for Secret Service agents and was the first car built specifically for presidential use.

President Nixon ordered a 1972 Continental limousine. The vehicle featured armor plating, bulletproof glass, and 7.5-liter V-8 engine. This was the same vehicle that President Ronald Reagan was entering in 1981 when an assassination attempt was made.  This one is my personal favourite.

Return of the Slot Mag

Seems everything is retro these days.  Wolfrace have got in on the action by re-releasing their popular Slot Mag wheel from the 70s.  When I heard that the Slot Mag had been the winner in a poll run on the wheel maker's website I assumed that “Wolfies” would be dusting off the old tooling and running up some 7x13s in Ford 4 stud to fit Capri or Cortina and so forth.  I hear that they are going to be from all new tooling with sizes up to 18” and probably in a series of offsets to suit modern cars.  Which frankly is odd and wrong.  The thought of a Citroen Saxo or Audi A3 rolling round on 18” slot mags is some form of distorted nightmare, surely...

an approved use of original type slot mags

Of course Wolfrace are late to the slot mag party (and if truth be told they were back in the day) as ET Wheels, American Racing and others have been producing slot mags for a while now in traditional (US) fitments as well as “plus sizes” for modern muscle or the pro-touring crowd.
 
Equally of course the new slots are not a reissue of the old ones, like the Daleks on Dr Who they have had a style makeover and from feedback I have seen so far the jury is still out.

a slot mag Jim, but not as we know it

I like it.  It seems a reimagining of the Centerline Hammer more than a Wolfie, but there were reverse offset look ones back in the day.  And they sucked a bit then too...  From the website it seems 7x15 is the only size they are doing unless more sizes are coming soon.


Find out (a little) more on the Wolfrace slotmag page.

10.10 good buddy

In an attempt to keep up (more or less) with the happenings of FOSS and the desktop OS world at large I decided it was time I got my hands on the latest release of Ubuntu from Canonical which is “my favourite” Linux distro.  I will admit to being critical and sceptical about FOSS on the desktop of the common man (no offence guys) so after years of Microsoft certified (and certifiable) training I am pretty engrained with a certain way of doing things. 

I like Ubuntu 10.10

I thought I best get that one out of the way early on.

Also to get out is that some of the things I like in 10.10 were there in 10.04 as well.  Yes, I know, and those I didn’t know, well, that’s immaterial...

Now any OS has to get a few things right:  security, user friendliness, interoperability being the three I find at the front of my mind.  These also being the three things I have found most of the Linux distros I have looked at in the past to be lacking on in one way or another.  There is an expectation in the FOSS community at large that closed source will not be supported in a utopian FOSS environment.  However most real people don't live there and do actually own an iPod, listen to MP3s and watch Flash content or animation.  Ubuntu makes no bones about wanting to be the popular kid of the Linux school yard and 10.10 seems utterly seamless in its support of these closed format options.  OK you have to enable MP3 support specifically but you get a prompt to do so.  The whole interface feels slick, polished and professional.  This is retail grade software.

Another feature I like is that you have what Ubuntu calls Key Ring or something like that (hey, you want in depth researched and technically accurate info, you are in the wrong place!) which is basically an implementation of UAC type functionality which is neat and well done.  I know a lot of people hate password prompts for “admin level” tasks but its an essential part of keeping a modern OS secure.  Like it or not UAC or whatever you want to call it in your OS is here and here for a reason.

Quite apart from interoperability issues with file formats and so forth a lot of complaints you always used to hear about Linux was the problems with getting drivers to work, or to suit specific hardware, and not even especially esoteric hardware at that.  I have to report that Ubuntu 10.10 had plug & play installed the correct drivers for everything I've attached to it thus far. Its as slick and straight forward as plugging in a device under Windows 7.  Plug in, wait a few seconds while the driver is installed, then use the device.  It shouldn't impress me because this is basic stuff, but its basic stuff that needs to work and doesn't do so equally well across all platforms...

I installed the Netbook Remix of 10.10 on an aged Acer Travelmate laptop and Ubuntu was able to correctly select, install and configure screen, trackpad, keyboard drivers integral web cam and also those for external USB devices such as pen drives, a compact Cherry keyboard and USB wheel mouse. Suitably reassured I attached my HTC HD2 (Windows Mobile / SenseUI) mobile phone to it. Instantly I was presented with a dialogue box asking if I wanted to open the folder or import photos from the device using the Shotwell Photo tool.  At the risk of repeating myself, it works just like you'd expect it to under Win7.  Except quicker. Even on the high spec desktop I use in the office you get a delay while that bubble pops up to tell you new hardware has been found and searching for the correct drivers, installing said drivers and than now your hardware is ready to use.  Now the delay of like 5 seconds while it does this is no big deal.  But it is symptomatic of the differences between the two OS. If I'd not left it at home I'd have tried out my HTC Hero as well to see if the FOSS-ish Android phone hooked up as easy.

The hardest part of getting Ubuntu installed was persuading the laptop to boot up off the USB pen drive, and thats a feature of Acer's BIOS not Ububtu.  If your chosen PC has a CD ROM (the old laptop doesn't) then you shouldn't even have the faff of rearranging the boot order so that USB takes precedence over the hard drive.

I've already hit on performance and that is a selling point of most Linux distros. I ran Ubuntu 10.4 on an older HP desktop as a test rig in the office for a while and I had to say I never saw any performance increase there.  I did a very rough side by side boot from cold this morning between my old Acer lapdog and my spanky quad core Dell Optiplex which runs Win7.  The Acer was booted and I was done going through my Gmail in Firefox before the newer, more powerful machine was up and into Outlook.  I think the Dell even had a few seconds head start on the Acer too.  OK this isn't a fair test as the Acer didn't need to authenticate to a domain etc. but on the other hand it did need to connect to a wireless broadband connection.

As for setting it up, all the stuff you are likely to need (with an exception I will detail in a moment) is bundled with the Ubuntu download package. Once you are up and running (which takes like no time at all once you have created your USB stick with the installer package on it) you will find you have a neat music and media suite called Rhythmbox, which is kinda MediaPlayer/iTunes like (includes such as LastFM and all the usual stuff you'd expect), Open Office, a web cam tool, IM client, Email client, Firefox browser a few simple games and more.  For the majority of home users you are up and running out of the box. I haven't tried connecting and iPod yet and management of an iTunes library could be a fun one if you already have invested in a lot of DRM downloads.  More on this one later if I can be bothered to faff about with it, almost all my music was ripped as high rate MP3 from my own CDs and LPs so I don't have a lot of downloads DRM or otherwise to worry about.

For those who need more than the package installs with there is an app store which is a concept which should be familiar to anyone with a smart phone and it works much the same way.  The app store makes a distinction between those native Ubuntu applications and those which are from the wider Linux community. 

The one thing which I will still be critical on is a matter of security.  Love it or loathe it Windows Defender does a decent job of making sure that PC users install and update antivirus, anti-malware, anti-spyware and firewall software. Ubuntu still leaves this up to your discretion and I think this is a mistake. My personal preference would be for it to suggest (or package) a firewall and other security suite items as well as providing a more of a nag box for downloads of critical updates.  The default in the download centre is manual.  OK, those nasties out there which are expecting to find a windows based PC to infect won't harm my Linux'd Acer but there are still plenty of threats out there and it makes basic good practice sense to protect against these from the get go.  I have installed Firestarter as a firewall and I think I will look at the other ones as I'm a bit “meh” on the config of Firestarter.  The Ubuntu app store has a few options for me to try.  I will also be looking at options to “harden” the version of Firefox which is installed in Linux and other stuff to deal with the Malware, adware, tracking cookies and so forth.  There seems to be plenty of options.

I don't propose to write a getting started guide for Ubuntu here, mostly because I'm still getting started myself, but I will recommend you find one.  If you are a Windows or Mac person then you will find a lot of the terminology and layout different and you will make mistakes. I know I did and luckily I was happy to just reformat and reinstall to start from fresh with what I had learnt I had done wrong.

The question is where does Ubuntu go from here, for me at least?  And how does that affect whether this is a recommendation to run it or give it a miss?  Well, I think its early doors for me to make a call on whether Ubuntu is “for me”.  The file structure/navigation gives me a headache – reminds me of Silicon Graphics workstations back in the day! But the functionality is there, and its pretty easy to find and fiddle with.  Unlike previous FOSS OS I have encountered I feel motivated to persevere with this and I haven't even got as far as the much vaunted cloud based music storage which allows you to access all your media collection from any device you own which is internet connected. 

Canonical have got their sights on making this work for sure.  There are desktop and server remixes available and Canonical are in bed with Amazon for the use of EC2 cloud infrastructure which opens up all manner of opportunities to get a FOSS based private-public blended cloud based solution which not only will appeal to some of the more forward looking SME but also gives you an instant win in buzzword bingo.

I think Canonical have an uphill struggle to get this into the enterprise, and its they who are the private cloud target audience.  Microsoft really has been working hard on enterprise level management tools, the efficiencies of which on operations mean that the cost differences between FOSS (free) and Microsoft (big cash) are less of an issue as there are costs offset elsewhere in the operation which tip the balance. For the smaller business the bar maybe just got raised though.  No longer is it the case that if setting up a new business I would default to MS Small Business Server package and Windows 7 desktops.  Corporate clients will be interested in such options as full disc encryption and some remote management tools (which are doubtless available somewhere in the Ubuntu package) and cloud services, most of which are fully OS independent have to be a part of the mix.

The decision for the home user is a lot simpler.  Question: does this do what I need it to?  And for a large number of people (principally those who are not PC gamers etc.) the answer is going to be yes.  Next project is to roll Ubuntu 10.10 out to Mrs Ku's Lenovo laptop which has shown  disappointing performance even since we moved it on from Vista to Win7.

Its Tucker Time again

As reported on the Hemmings blog and also on the Tucker club forum (how exclusive must that club be?) there is a Tucker which has been unearthed down in Brazil.  This one has been largely molested due to installation of Cadillac drive train (as per the repro Tucker I posted a little while ago) but as with all things, you can restore anything you set your mind and budget to...

Cadillac V-Day video

This one came in by email from a chum and was sufficiently jolly for me to share here.  It appears to be a Shanghai market launch of Cadillac's excellent CTS-V and as I'd linked in the CTS-V wagon on the blog a few posts back I thought y'all might get a kick out of this.  Its a couple of years ago but this stuff still rocks.

I would move there if they do this...

In the words of a UK "news" paper - you can't make this stuff up.  I would make a special visit to go see it if they do name it after the controversially pronounced former mayor.  See the YouTube video up above and join in the snickering.  Yup, it will port Fort Wayne on the map.  Same as I do love the Gaylord Center in Orlando, Fl.  I'mnot sure if "National Gaylord" sounds better or worse.

Sneaky bloomin' insurance

You know we love insurance companies.  And I love Post Office Insurance Services so much I thought I'd mention them by name.  Despite very carefully ticking the box which says "Please do not renew my insurance automatically" when I took the policy out, when I get the renewal offer letter from them, what do I find, a line which says "if you want to accept this quote then you don't need to do anything, for your convenience we will renew this insurance automatically unless we hear from you".

This is not for my convenience,  this is so Post Office Insurance Services can gouge a premium out of me whether I have aranged alternative insurance or not...  This happened to a friend of mine who didn't spot this and ended up with two insurance policies...

While we are on the subject, beware Post Office (and indeed most of these cheap call centre based places) if you think you might want to modify your car at all...  They are all very well for the run of the mill standard cars for standard useage, you phone up and ask about adding coilovers, alloys or even uprated brake pads and all of a sudden "sorry we can't even quote for that kind of modification"

Moral of the story, stick with "proper" insurers if you have a proper car...  Peter James Insurance, Footman James, SureTerm, Adrian Flux, ClassicLine, ...

Bullet proof disc arrays - litterally

I've heard of Americans shooting their TV sets, and even their lawn mowers but understandable as “computercidal” urges are I don't recall hearing too many instances of people actually shooting their computers.  There is one story which sticks in my mind from a while ago about a chap from Salt Lake City, Utah who had enough one day and shot the servers in the place where he works.  Or that should be, the place where he worked.  That story is covered on the Salt Lake Tribune

Anyway an American company by the name of ioSafe would like us all to know that you can shoot its hard drives with a shotgun and they will be OK.  Maybe gun related hardware failures are more common stateside than we would give credit for.  In order to prove this lead-resistant survivability  the company invited a bunch of journalists to come get all Joshua Lee Campbell on their hard drives and see for themselves.  Its a bizarre yet strangely cool stunt.  Read all about it in the Techrepublic report.

 

Yeah, but can you drive it drunk?

 I suspect the answer to the title question would be an emphatic “no” for obvious reasons, but sadly that was about the first thing to come to mind when I saw this.  What “this” is would be SATRE (Safe Road Trains for the Environment) which is a driver-less car project which got the not for public spending approval from the EU at the end of last week.  

Shown above is the first test of the technology outside a simulator, which was carried out at Volvo's Hällered test track near Gothenburg in Sweden in December. The Volvo S60 is being directed and controlled by the truck, which is being driven by a professional driver.   The S60 also has a driver, but he is reading the paper and drinking a coffee and the articles I saw didn't mention his qualifications either in driving, coffee drinking or newspaper reading.  Such points do matter as we'd hate to think of any Health & Safety regs being breached here.

Volvo are in on this one on account of its existing lane assistance and adaptive cruise control car production technology - which monitors and controls the distance between cars - to form the basis of the automated convoy but the project is headed up by British company Ricardo UK.

Volvo technical leader for active safety functions Dr Erik Coelingh told silicon.com (where I lifted the photos and most of the info for this from!) the vast majority of accidents are caused by human error. He also anounded that the sky is blue and that the defecation habbits of wild bears are often related to the proximity of dense woodland areas.  

Official EU suggestions to what drivers may prefer to do than drive

The European Commission estimates that human factors cause at least 80 per cent of road traffic accidents, so automating some of the driving functions should cut down accident rates.  The automated road trains could also relieve traffic congestion due to the smaller gap between vehicles and consistent speed of platoons. Due to more efficient braking and acceleration, the project estimates up to 20 per cent fuel savings, which would also reduce CO2 emissions.

Volvo's Coelingh said more tests will take place in 2011 with more vehicles being added to the road train during the summer.  The expectation Volvo are setting on this one is for there to be public road trains in about 10 years.