rovingicams

[rovingicams]

Quietly announced in the afterthought time of day during the Wednesday test sessions was the ruling that the Monaco GP is to be a mandatory two-pitstop race “to improve the spectacle”.

It's almost as if trying to get an almost van-sized racing car past another one in the backstreets of one of the oldest cities in continental Europe is proving more difficult than previously thought. 😉

[rovingicams]

The enthusiasm around The CW broadcasting the Xfinity Series in full this year is amusing to overseas viewers more familiar with a given series being broadcast on the one network in full as a matter of course. 😉

[rovingicams]

Among the various fallacies that surface in the wake of a plane crash, the one I've been most surprised to hear being addressed is the colour of the flight recorders' casings.

For years they've been commonly termed “black boxes”, so much so that crash investigation spokespeople have felt it necessary to begin dropping into their press-conference statements references that flight recorder casings are actually painted bright orange to assist in finding the recorders amidst the wreckage.

As I understand it, a “black box” system originally meant any given system that users just don't understand, or built to be as difficult as possible to tamper with. And in the case of flight recorders, this even extends to the recorders being mounted inside the tailplane of the aircraft. But that said, it's still possible for recordings to be “accidentally” erased or just not kept when they were needed.

Yet even with shots of recovered flight recorders complete with their bright orange casings becoming more and more frequent in plane crash news reports, the “black boxes” myth persists, both in headline captions and reporters' spiel.

Yes, I did notice it again this week. And thanks to a certain loudmouth, it's become even less of a thing than usual. But if one is looking for accuracy, perhaps it's time for “black boxes” to be retired.

These things are Flight Recorders. It's more keystrokes on a headline caption, but a better description of their function.

[rovingicams]

I let you lead me Beyond reality To where responsibility Respectability Personality Have melted away And I drift dissolved In a timeless Formless void And then you try to bring me back? No! Leave me here My mind is finally calm I’m at peace This sweet relief I don’t want to leave

[rovingicams]

An achievement which I clocked-up with a meme adaptation, I couldn't have scripted that if I tried! 😆

[rovingicams]

How it started: • Silverstone • Monaco • Indianapolis 500 • Bremgarten • Spa-Francorchamps • Reims • Monza

How it's going: Millennium Dome (PR launch) Sakhir (Pre-season testing) • Albert Park • Shanghai • Suzuka • Sakhir • Jeddah • Miami • Imola • Monaco • Catalunya • Circuit Gilles Villeneuve • Osterreichring • Silverstone • Spa-Francorchamps • Hungaroring • Zandvoort • Monza • Baku • Marina Bay • Circuit of the Americas • Hermanos Rodriguez • Interlagos • Las Vegas • Lusail • Yas Marina

[rovingicams]

It was 25 years ago today that we survived the first potential disaster in IT: the Y2K switchover, aka the Millennium Bug.

Early IT had not anticipated the need to account for the century in a date in their databases would come about so soon, and the expediency of the old times in only counting the year in two digits (as most people commonly do) because It's Cheaper could have come to bite back as the old computer systems had not been built to tell the difference between 2000 and 1900.

There were projects launched worldwide to incorporate solutions, or at the least workarounds, to mitigate this problem. It was a Nice Little Earner for some, but at the same time an ultimately self-defeating goal: ensure nothing untoward happened at the pertinent time.

And as the people of the world partied into the weekend of Saturday, 1st January 2000, the suitably patched IT systems of the world took the new date in their stride. Nothing untoward happened at the pertinent time – Mission Accomplished.

And because nothing untoward happened at the pertinent time, people broadly assumed it was all a great conspiracy and have since carried that belief forward into every other prevention initiative from fire safety to vaccination.

Oh, those humans. 😉

[rovingicams]

A Guest for Christmas

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by David Hutchison (@roving.i.cams)

[rovingicams]

Build High for Happiness?

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by David Hutchison (@roving.i.cams)

[rovingicams]

Gasly's team radio: “We don't see anything wrong.”

Gasly's engine: Hold my oil. 😉

[rovingicams]

Today's Wikipedia featured article is Sydney Newman.

I think I can see what they did there. 😉

[rovingicams]

Alain Prost and Carlos Reutemann may have held pole positions of Formula 1 races held in Las Vegas, but that was not for the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

This was instead the Caesar's Palace Grand Prix, a different event held on a different circuit, which was since buried under the Mirage.

Just in case you were wondering how there could be a 21-year gap in the record books, or how there could be three polesitters, for an event in its second year. 😉

[rovingicams]

Scar Tissue

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by David Hutchison (@roving.i.cams)

[rovingicams]

A cartoon I once read described Presidential elections as "the day people pull the lever for the one they hope won't Push The Button". Time now to find out how many of those levers were pulled, and in which way.

[rovingicams]

“Rubens, it's the last lap. Let Michael past for the Championship. Let Michael past for the Championship.” 😉

[rovingicams]

The Commentators' Curse is alive and well. Diffey notes the field has made 41 minutes of clean racing, then they have the Biggest One in NASCAR Cup history. 😆

[rovingicams]

Hazy sky and rich smell of smoke in the city, it must be burnoff season again.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by David Hutchison (@roving.i.cams)