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OSX on intel machines

I’ve been an Apple fan since the mid 80s and the days of the Apple II.

To me the Apple II revolutionised the personal computing world and made it possible for the home user to do things that previously only certain corporate specialists would do… and in addition to this, it allowed home users to do creative things, play games etc.

Talking about games, I remember spending hours playing Lode Runner… how nostalgic.

Soon Apple came up with the equally revolutionary Macintosh with its mouse and graphical user interface (GUI). In one fell swoop it made the rival IBM-based PCs look positively old hat. All this was communicated during the Super Bowl with the now legendary Ridley Scott directed advert based on “1984”.

Ever since then, Apple has been a mega cool brand in the technology world. The loss of Steve Jobs during a board room tussle lost Apple a bit of that luster, but Steve Jobs remained visionary and went on to build NeXT and then Pixar before returning to Apple.

Now Apple is back on top of the cool stakes with the mega cool OSX and the iPod.

Since the OSX came out there has been many people who try to make Windows XP look like an OSX. Unfortunately, Apple clamped down on this, but that did not kill the admiration for the OSX.

Of late, there have been news that Apple will be producing an OSX for Intel. This news… or rumour more likely has been gathering a lot of steam. Many WinTel users including me are closet fans of the Mac and OSX… and the rumour of the OSX coming to Intel is just simply too good to miss.

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Technology convergence: internet, entertainment & communication

Google has been in the news quite often of late.

One moment, they are swallowing up the public domain book library. Another moment, they are acquiring something or another… but one thing’s for sure Google has made the internet business work through their advertising revenue model. To date, Google is hoarding up a cash pile of more than a few billion dollars.

Yup. They are that successful. So what next for Google? No doubt some sort of buying spree will ensue. Naturally, this has to be something which Google can continue to add value to its business. So what would that be?

I don’t know, but what about an entertainment / media content based business? The success of the iTunes audio and video downloads shows that there is a market. And the recent “agreement” between the bittorrent community and Hollywood, could possible pave a way for commercial film downloads. What about Google and TiVo?

There are more technology news on this website accessible via the world news link at the top menu.

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Google Base – a new tool?

Google Logo

 

I came across a link to Google Base whilst browsing the Google Blogs recently. It looks like a new way of indexing information on the net. I am not yet sure how it should be used, but would leave it to you to figure that out, whilst I figure it out myself. Here’s an excerpt from Google.

What is Google Base?

Google Base is a place where you can easily submit all types of online and offline content that we’ll host and make searchable online. You can describe any item you post with attributes, which will help people find it when they search Google Base. In fact, based on the relevance of your items, they may also be included in the main Google search index and other Google products like Froogle, Google Base and Google Local.

Quick Facts about Google Base

  • Cost: Free
  • Item types accepted: All types of online and offline information and images
  • Languages: Google Base is currently available only in English.
  • Reach: Items you submit to Google Base can be found on Google Base and, depending on their relevance, may also appear on Google properties like Google, Froogle and Google Local.
  • How it’s different: Google Base enables you to add attributes that better describe your content so that users can easily find it. The more popular specific attributes become, the more often we’ll suggest them when others post the same items. Similarly, items that become more popular will show up as suggested item types in the Choose an existing item type drop down menu.
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A1 GP gets a strong fan today

Tail Happy Racing with Tun Dr M & Sheikh Al Makhtoum

 

Fellow my-KARTers and Tail Happy Racing teammates Yusnee, Azlan and I managed to get some invitations to the Perdana Suite for round 5 of the A1 GP at Sepang on 20 November 2005.

I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to Datuk Mokhzani Mahathir and SIC for extending the invitation to us. We thoroughly enjoyed the hospitality and more importantly the race.

And what an excellent race it was. Again, Team Malaysia demonstrated that they had the potential to be up there with the best by finishing 8th and 5th in the sprint and feature races, respectively. With this consistent finish, Malaysia is now joint 6th in the A1 GP championship after 5 rounds.

Both Fairuz and Alex drove strong races, and especially Alex despite experiencing another problematic pitstop which lost Team Malaysia about 10 secs and potentially 4th place. Alex managed to steal 5th from Team New Zealand on the very last lap drawing cheers from the 10,000 crowd.

Shame that the crowd was not as is should be given the size of the grand stands. It would have been great had their been more hype in the media weeks prior to the race. Sadly, the truth is that there was very little coverage in the local papers. The Star had only bothered to allocate a small panel to report the goings on of the weekend. In other countries there would have been pull out sections.

As it turned out, the Malaysian round of the World Cup of Racing was probably the best race of the season so far. There were battles through all the positions. And the fact that tyre wear was a factor made it even more exciting. Alex and Fairuz both had several sideways moments as they struggled for tyre grip.

The Malaysian weather also made a cameo appearance 4 laps from the end of the race to make things even more interesting.

Aside from enjoying the race, Yusnee did a lot of hard selling for my-KART promoting the round 10 final race to every personality in the Perdana Suite including TV personality Sarimah Ibrahim, Datuk Azman Yahaya, Aminuddin Omar, and Maznah Zolkifli.

All I can say is what a fantastic race and event it was. Let’s hope there will be more corporate sponsorship and support for our own team in the A1 GP. Malaysia is in sixth, and the best Asian. We only need more experience and funds.

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A1GP comes to Sepang, Malaysia

A1GP - Fairuz Fauzy in action

 

Today is the start of the Malaysian A1GP weekend at Sepang.

Malaysia will be Round 5 of the 12 round “winter” racing series – the Racing World Cup of Nations.

It is quite a unique concept which harks back to the the pre-war Grands Prix series (precursor to F1) where (usually European) nations would have an entry with their own manufacturers to battle each other in the premier racing series. Those days, the teams would run in national colours – although those colours have somewhat changed in the modern day A1GP series (eg – Italy was red in the early days and now blue – the azzuris; and Germany was silver, but now follows their national football team colours).

Still the concept is a cool concept and for A1GP to race in the “F1 winter” offers racing fans something to follow when F1 is taking its long break.

As for Team Malaysia, this is really our first time in the motorsports world stage and as such the challenge for Team Malaysia is really getting quickly up to speed with the racing culture, the commitments to deliver results, the teamworking, the technology, the psychology, the PR and everything else.

Against popular opinion, Team Malaysia has done ourselves proud by being fairly competitive. Yes, there are teething issues, yes there is a hint of lack of experience, but being joint 9th and 9 pts off from 4th place after 5 rounds is pretty good. And this is on merit mind you – as Malaysia has constantly qualified within the top 10, and both Alex & Fairuz has done great things to improve on those grid positions. Alex was even up to 2nd in the main race in Germany during the early stages!

So things are looking up for Team Malaysia and hopefully they (we) can build on this momentum and continue to improve and catch the leading bunch of France, Brasil and Switzerland.

So Friday will see Team Malaysia putting the A1GP car thru its paces and hopefully both Alex and Fairuz can use a bit of local track knowledge to push the Team further up the ranks. If weather becomes a factor, let’s hope that it brings Team Malaysia a positive change.

So go Team Malaysia. TheFazz and my-KART are supporting you!