hertenberger.co.za

The Ferrari 599 GTB replaces the 575M Maranello, of which 5700 were produced. With a V12 engine and almost 620 hp, it’s a classic Ferrari. So who cares how fast it reaches 100 km/h.

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Schumacher’s victory on home soil provided a great advance in cutting down Alonso’s World Championship lead even further. Alonso was fortunate to advance to fifth place after Webber dropped out of the running. The German summer caused various mechanical issues, while Massa chased Schumacher from start to finish. McLaren managed a podium finish with Räikkönen ending the race in third place.

Ferrari’s first and second place ensures that the constructor’s championship narrows as well. There is a fair bit of excitement left in the remaining races!

Current championship standings:

Position Driver Country Team Points 1 Fernando Alonso Renault 100 2 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 89 3 Felipe Massa Ferrari 50 4 Giancarlo Fisichella Renault 49 4 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 49 6 Juan Pablo Montoya McLaren-Mercedes 26 7 Jenson Button Honda 21 7 Rubens Barrichello Honda 16

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My frustrations at trying to install Ubuntu on my notebook are still not at an end. Since the last attempts, I’ve still struggled to understand the reasons for me being unable to repartition the 80GB hard drive. The error regarding a structural problem in the file allocation table is still present, so Partition Magic cannot progress past the 18% mark. But XP runs without a hitch. Makes sense for a buggy OS!

My latest attempts have been to get hold of the excellent Hiren’s BootCD and try some of the tools on there. The first has been the creation of a Ghost image of the used partition. That’s about 30GB and took…

…more than 7 hours to complete! My reasons for creating the Ghost image are (hopefully) to enable quick restoration of all applications and the operating system…if the restore time is similar to the backup time of the partition, then I’m just as well re-installing everything in any case! My data is backed up regularly, so that doesn’t worry me too much.

There are numerous partition editing tools on the BootCD, so I’m hoping that one of them will do the trick!

BTW: this is not a Linux issue! Don’t need comments from the Micro$oft faithful indicating how complex Linux is!

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Having scarcely broken ground with the actual construction of the Gautrain tracks, plans are underway to add a high-speed railroad link between Johannesburg and Durban.

It’s not clear how much new construction will be required, as railroads already link major cities in ZA. All in all, this is a very positive development. Considering the ease with which one can travel by train between major cities in Europe, this would be an excellent, and hopefully cheaper, alternative to air travel.

Beeld

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WorldSpace is a satellite broadcaster, offering audio channels that can be received by using a special WorldSpace satellite receiver. The receiver is stationary and requires an aerial to ensure decent reception. A subscription fee is payable to enable reception of the desired bouquet of channels.

In the USA, companies such as XM provide receivers for digital satellite radio signals that may be fitted in cars. In fact, most automobile manufacturers in that country provide satellite receivers in-car as a standard option. With WorldSpace seeking permission to broaden its signal distribution base from ICASA, ZA folk may also have access to clear satellite radio wherever they go. According to motoring.co.za, the request to ICASA will be complete by the end of July.

motoring.co.za

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This is not the Zulu or Xhosa version of the popular board game! Hasbro are updating the perennial classic and removing all cash from the game. Instead, players will make use of a debit card with a magnetic strip to keep track of their finances.

In collaboration with Hasbro, Visa designed and specified the debit cards and card machine that is included with the game.

Keep the wife away from this one…and make sure the kids don’t develop the habit of spending plastic too early on.

Sky News

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I’ve had more than a month to play around with Fitaly, a re-designed entry method for Windows Mobile devices. Textware Solutions’ Fitaly is installed by downloading the necessary CAB file, then presents itself as another option in the entry methods menu of Windows Mobile.

There is no question that using Fitaly is a mindbender! As expected, my initial attempts at text entry took forever. Anyone having spent even a little time with a computer keyboard has somehow adjusted his or her mind to the location of the QWERTY keys, regardless how strange that may seem at first. Encountering Fitaly is an exercise in frustration, not because it’s impossible to use, but that your brain has to force itself to remap the location of letters normally expected elsewhere. I used Fitaly for two weeks for all entries I made. In most cases, I was able to complete 75% of words very quickly, but then had to hold back whilst hunting for the next letter. There’s no doubt that the entry speed one can achieve improves with practice and patience. Though after a month, I am still nowhere close to the promised fifty words per minute.

Fitaly provides some real timesavers, such as providing punctuation and numbers on the same screen as the main keyboard. That means that switching the mode of the keyboard is not required. Overall, that is about the only feature I’m really comfortable with and enjoy using. For the rest, Fitaly means I need to rethink how I enter text every time I use it. On a mobile device, where my text entry requirements are really low, that’s simply not worth the effort. If I was using the JAMin to make copious notes, Fitaly may well be a worthwhile addition to my software selection. But I consider the amount of text entry I make unworthy of the USD 29 purchase price and the mental gymnastics I have to perform when using it.

Considering my nationality and the fact that the second keyboard row spells out the team that put my German team out of the World Cup, I’d say that’s another reason I’d prefer not to stare at the Fitaly keyboard for any length of time

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Five new stadia are to be built for the 2010 World Cup, with a host of refurbishments planned for existing facilities. New stadia will be built in Polokwane in Limpopo, Mbombela in Mpumalanga, in the Nelson Mandela Metro in the Eastern Cape, in KwaZulu-Natal’s Ethekweni Metro, and in Cape Town.

The Green Point stadium in Cape Town is to be completely refurbished and fitted with a retractable roof. The seating capacity of Soccer City in Johannesburg is to be increased from 75,000 seats to over 105,000 seats and a complete overhaul is planned for SAFA’s headquarters in central Johannesburg, which will double as the FIFA headquarters during the tournament.

With the first planned electricity disruptions happening due to the moving of substations to make way for the Gautrain track, it seems that ZA is getting a move on with the necessary infrastructure development!

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I left this post for a date later than this machine’s availability date, hoping that my bank balance would miraculously swell to the proportions necessary for me to afford one. Unfortunately, I’ll need to save some more.

In order to pay tribute to Sterling Moss’ memorable victory at the Mille Miglia in 1955, Mercedes-Benz have created the 722 Edition of the already awesome SLR. Moss drove a 300 SLR, together with his co-driver Denis Jenkinson. The number 722 refers to Moss’ start time in the race, 07:22 in the morning.

The engine of the 722 Edition generates 478 kW and propels this supercar from 0 to 100km/h in under 4 seconds.

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13 may be lucky for some…Mercedes-Benz’s Mixed Tape series has made it to its thirteenth edition. Providing a new set of free, downloadable music every two months, the Mixed Tape series is very popular and a lot of its content has been migrated to Apple’s iTunes music store.

The artists are generally unknown, but you’ll be surprised at the variety of tunes you’ll encounter. Give it a listen!

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