A straight and simple review

A trip to Ferrari town (Maranello, Italy)

2007-12-26T07:54:00.001-05:00

Trip to Ferrari town (Maranello)
22nd December 2007

Ferrari's home town is a small village known as Maranello in Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. This is about 20km from Modena , a town which is well connected to all major Italian cities by train. Maranello has the Ferrari factory which you cannot visit with an invitation ; Ferrari Galleria - a museum that is open to all; and the Ferrari test track Fiorano - where sometimes, you can see cars being tested.

Our journey began in Milan, in northern Italy. There is a train almost every hour to Modena from Milan. Non-stop, this takes about 1hr 45minutes and costs between 15 and 20 Euros. There are a couple of trains that don't go non-stop; you would need to change trains in a place called Parma. This is not too bad, probably takes an extra 20 minutes. This 1-stop train costs about 10 Euros.

Modena Train Platform

Modena is a mid-sized town where very few people speak English. They get a lot of tourists here - mainly for Maranello. Right outside the train station is the bus stop and a bus ticket-office/booth. YOU NEED TO BUY A 2-WAY TICKET BEFORE BOARDING THE BUS. The ticket-office has a little note for 'Ferrari tourists' and the attendant will tell you what to do if you ask for Ferrari. This person spoke English - she gave a little note that says (in English and in Italian) , how to get to Maranello.

Modena Train station

Ticket booth at the station

From the Modean train station - there is no direct bus to Maranello - but thats no problem. From the train station, bus number 1 and 2 goes to the Modena main bus terminus (known as Autolinee I think). This costs 1 Euro and takes about 5 minutes. On the way, you might see a Ferrari shop or may be a Testarossa on the road.
Bus stop at the station

Main bus stop (Get down here to take Maranello bus)

From the main bus stand, look for buses to MARANELLO , the one we took was number 800 , there might be others. You can use the same ticket from the earlier bus, but ask the driver to tell you when you reach Ferrari Galleria.

The trip from Modena to Maranello takes about 40 minutes. Towards the end of the bus ride, there is an overpass, where on your right, you can see the Fiorano test track. This is the best view of the track that you can get to see. The Galleria bus stop where you need to get down is right after this over pass. The bus stop is across the street from the historic Ferrari HQ and square arch. From here, you can also see the Ferrari store, where you can ask for directions to the Ferrari Galleria. The Galleria is a 5 minutes walk from here.

Maranello : Galleria bus stop

Across the street from bus stop is the Ferrari office

Near the bust stop is the Ferrari store - stop here for directions to the Galleria. Its a 5 minutes walk to the Galleria from here.

Ferrari store : Directions to Galleria

Inside the Galleria - well, I am not going to spoil the fun. Have a look at some of the pictures , but you need to be there to enjoy the experience.There are a lot more cars on display - I've shown only a few.

Ferrari Galleria from far

Galleria Main entrance

Ferrari wind tunnel replica

Supercars (Enzo not in picture)

F1 engines evolution

599 Fiorano

Circa

F1 2004

F1 cars

The cafeteria is not very expensive - you can have a sandwich and a drink for about 5 Eu.

After this, you can also visit the test track which is a 5 minute walk. (Ask for directions at the Galleria). You will walk past a statue/bust of Gilles Villenuve.

Fiorano Test track

To come back to Modena, you can go across the street from where you got down (right next to the Ferrari office main entrance). Or , you can also walk to Maranello main bus stand which is a 10 minute walk to the town center. This is a beautiful place, there is a small cafeteria where you can wait for the bus or have coffee.

Town Center

Maranello Bus stand

Enjoy your trip to Maranello. The whole experience is awesome. The Lamborghini museum is not too far away from Modena station (its near the adjacent town of Bologna, but this is less visited).

Real Towns wear Dikes

2006-06-29T18:48:00.000-04:00

What I really enjoy studying is engineering disasters. When something goes wrong – you have a chance to see what can be done or what mistake was made. You all know about the Katrina disaster in New Orleans. Well it was an irony – that USA had the technology to predict and warn the people – but didn’t have the common sense to evacuate or reinforce.

That’s the city after the flooding – here are the dikes that were used.

These – as you can see are really no brainers and failed easily. About 2000 people died and its really the people that built these dikes – saving the dollars - that could have done something else. They are ment to be walls that prevent the water from entering the town. It clearly did not do the job.

Rotterdam

In 1953 – there was a huge flood in Rotterdam, Netherlands that seriously damaged the place - killed around 2000 people. (Fifty years and USA system behaved like the 1953s).

Now, Rotterdam is below sea level – which means it’s prone to such disasters. So, that had a project to build an engineering structure to prevent flooding. This flood prevention system known as Delta Works Project was constructed. Out of all the engineering wonders that you can come across around the world, this I think – is the definition of wonder. It was built to prevent natural disasters – that is, prevent the nature from destroying civilization and works magnificently.

Here is a satellite map of the Rotterdam area that I got on Google maps. You may use the link to check more details. The yellow map shows the conceptual location of eeach of the dikes – there are about 13 of them.

Oosterscheldekering (Don’t try to pronounce it – in English its The Eastern Schelde)

The nine kilometer-long Oosterscheldekering (kering meaning barrier) was initially designed, and partly built, as a closed dam, but after public protest huge sluice-gate-type doors were installed in the remaining four kilometers. These doors are normally open, but can be closed under adverse weather conditions. In this way the saltwater marine life behind the dam is preserved and fishing can continue, while the land behind the dam is safe from the water.

This shows the structure at work.

Unfortunately – I can’t get much pictures of it.

Maeslantkering

The construction of the Maeslantkering was a part of the "Europoortkering"-project which, in turn, was the final stage of the Delta Works. The main objective of this Europoortkering-project was improving the safety against flooding of the Rotterdam harbour, of which the Europoort is an important part, and the surrounding towns and agricultural areas

Stormsurgebarrier

Hartel Barrier

Well these are all the pictures I have. If I do get more, I will make another blog about it. This network of dams and dikes is really a wonder and something to learn from. Infact, not only New Orleans - many Asian projects have considered this flood prevention system. This is of course for Tsunami defense in the Asian costal areas. So I am sure that we will be seeing more of these dams springing up around the world.

P.S : Picture at the very top is a Levee system used in UK. Its not a part of the Delta Works project - but the 1953 flood also affected UK and these systems play an important role.

Credits :
http://www.deltawerken.com/Deltaworks/23.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_Works
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oosterscheldekering
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0112-15.htm

Auto Reliability Analysis – not so reliable

2006-06-20T13:54:00.000-04:00

JD Powers

JD Powers is a company that analyses and rates reliability of cars (apart from other things). They supposedly help customers purchase cars, get insurance estimates etc. Essentially, they are consumer information resource,

They conduct an auto survey every year – out of 100 cars that come to the service station, hoe many defects are reported. So basically this is what they do – they goto a Toyota dealer (say), gather the total number of Toyotas that came in for service in the year of 2005 and also get the total number of faults or defects reported. Then they divide the total defects that year / number of Toyotas that came for a service and provide the result – ‘defects/100 car’. Finally, they rank car companies based on defects/car – lowest being the best.

I support any automobile venture. This is supposed to be helping people – but by providing raw data, I think they have made a mistake. Before I point out what I mean, let me show you the results. I will go every 10 ranks to load it quicker. I took the data from a website (source in the bottom) and plotted the graphs myself in i’Works’ Keynote (Apple).

Default Fault (DF)

What JD does here is fundamentally wrong. When they sort if by companies – they ignore that fact that there are several models of cars in every company. For example, the Mercedes C class is known to be very unreliable and comes in to the service station all the time – but with minor mistakes. The S class comes probably once in 2 years with not that many faults. So basically, by dividing defects / number of cars a year, they are not really doing justice to the good models.

Severity Fault (SF)

It doesn’t discuss how severe some of these faults are. If you own a Benz – you are likely to take it to the service station even if you hear a minute sound/rattle. It’ll probably be a rubber pad or something like trivial and that might be counted as a defect. If you own a Dodge, you probably will avoid visiting the station just to save some Benjamin (money). You wouldn’t know something is wrong when you own a Honda as the road noise will be louder than the rattle – so basically severity is an issue. Did the engine blow up, is it the transmission, is it the rear wiper blade.

Results Discussion

The raw data doesn’t help - honestly. If you follow that it just says – buy a Porsche if you can afford it, or settle with a Huyndai. It also shows that VW (Volkswagen) and LR
(Land Rover) are the worst cars in the market today – not true – totally not true. Here is MY observation/discussion.

1 – 10

Porsche belongs there of course. They are really good cars – hardly any defects, even the Cayman – justified. Lexus has been in the list for decades.
Companies like Lexus, Cadillac, Infinity and Acura belong here. They cost a lot more that their parent cars (Toyota, GM, Nissan and Honda respectively) for the very similar engines/transmissions. So I assume the extra cost goes to the reliable parts and the nicer looks. Acura has a sports RSX which some blokes might have trash which is why its on the bottom.
Hyundai opened a factory in Alabama 3 years ago – since then their cars have indeed been doing well. I am not sure how they will do 4 years down the line (and beyond).
I’m surprised to see it above Toyota and Honda – haven’t reached a verdict on it.
Honda and Toyota – definitely up there – Honda even with it super sporty S2000 and Si Coupe which are easy to crash. Jaguar is truly wonderful – big price tag, superb looking and functioning (read the XK article below) and very reliable. Happy to see that.
GMC (General Motors Company – mainly truck division) now I totally surprised to see this. I think a GMC owner is more likely to fix a problem than take it the service station. That’s why its here ! That’s my conclusion.

11-20

Whats surprising is almost everything here is an American car. Remember – American cars fail only after 3 years and this survey mainly focuses in 1-2 year old models. Chrysler is owned by Mercedes group – so some signs of success there. Nissan, which should have been 3 places above, is probably incurring some SF error as they are essentially good engine/transmission people. Audi – is a superb company – if you ask me it belongs in the top 10. But – the problem is that they have a lot of Quattro vehicles (4-wheel drives) and I am not sure if that is smooth. I think Audi is in an upward trend – very reliable, not too expensive and a luxorious and good driving experience. All the other cars you see in this list are same – first 2 years they all perform well.

21-30

If you did this survey for 4 year old cars – this exact list would be in 11-20. I don’t know how Kia made it this high – it’s the really the worst car company. Mitsubishi, Mercedes and Mazda are probably incurring the DF error mentioned above – purely due to the number of different models they make. Like Honda, these companies make cars in all classes and that’s bothersome. About Mazda – if you are planning to get a Mazda passenger car (sedan/coupe), go for it. I think they are reliable and inexpensive and good. Forget its minivans and SUVs – those are the Dfs.
Mercedes, BMW and the Mini – I really don’t know. I think it’s the electronics – they have too many gadgets in them, which is a bit risky. Even water (heavy rain , spilled coffee inside etc) can wreck some of these gadgets (a combination of DF and SF). Also, I guess you are more likely to get things fixed quickly – if you own one of these three. So its not unreliable – its just that owner care for it more.
Subaru and Scion are going up in the list – both owned by Toyota. They belong higher definitely – it’s just a slow period I guess. I personally would trust both companies as much as I would trust Toyota.

30-37

Seriously – Isuzu and Suzuki have been causing some trouble lately. They have to work on that. I can’t believe Hummer and Jeep are this high, they belong even lower. After GM took over Saab, they have successfully managed to kill it. Do you know they actually use Saab parts in Cadillac almost entirely? Coming to my toughest discussion….

LR – if you know me well you know I love Land Rover. Recently, after Ford acquired them, they have brought down the cost but have paid a price. LRs are superb cars – very reliable really, but their reliability is in completing the journey. They can be driven off road on any terrain like a tractor. But when you do that, you are likely to break a part of 2 – I mean small ones like tip of a bumper or something. LR owner don’t use it for shopping for clothes – typically they are rough&tough people and off roaders. This is likely to happen – it doesn’t mean LR is unreliable as a car – its probably MOST reliable. It just takes the beating for you.

VW – what a company it is. They own Audi, Bentley, Skoda, Lamborghini and Buggati. VW is the single most important company to the automobile industry I would say. Truth is, lots of VW cars seem to fail now a day. Clutch, transmission, cooling system etc – these are not small. Problem is, they make a lot of their cars in Mexico and Portugal and I am not thoroughly convinced by their production methods. More over, the costs seem to be reducing a lot – good thing yes – but not with cheap parts. Good news is, VW of 2006 is really doing well – good that they learnt some mistakes. I hope to see them much much higher next year.

OK now that’s my stand on the issue. Probably a long blog – but I think a lot of you guys are car enthus. I welcome comments / suggestions etc – especially in this regard.

The survey was conducted by JD Powers. I found the numbers in Business Week (http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8I3IQJO0.htm?sub=apn_home_down&chan=db) (Associated Press)

Limbs of the Tiger

2006-06-18T13:33:00.000-04:00

Who owns a Macintosh? – Typically, professionals (artists, musicians, editors, animations/graphics experts etc) , research scientists, professor; and people on movies. But recently, Apple has put in a lot of effort to sell Macs to everyday people. So what did they do? Enter Tiger.

The operating system that Apple runs is known as Tiger , or as OS X 10.4 or simply OS X. It is popularly accepted to be better than Panther or Cheetah ;all the Linux GUIs and Windows. Other than reasons such as faster, safer, easier to use – which are all very true, I have figured out 4 strong reasons why I think OS X is superior.

Disclaimer
I use 2 computers every day – a Mac ibook running OS X Tiger and a Dell Xeon Quad running Windows XP x64 (64 bit , Professional XP). I use computers extensively – hence I believe I have a fair and well-rounded opinion on both OS’s. But here ,I am not comparing X vs Xp , I am just going to write about X.

I also know that most people who read my blog are highly qualified individuals. I know you will understand everything I have to say and nothing here is even remotely technical. You probably use XP, this blog is going to help you. I don’t consider ya’ll laymen; you are infact inline to the category of people I mentioned in the top.

OS X

It true – OS X is really very simply to use; no viruses; very fast; never crashed (restarted) so far. But the reasons why it truly steps out for every daypurposes for laymen are, the following.

1) Automator

It’s a robot – an automator. You pre program it with actions – a set of instructions and create a plugin. This plugin gets stored in the right-click pull down menu. These plugins perform repetitive functions like rename files, move files, convert formats (PDFs , JPGs etc), resize images, check mails – send mails etc etc. It basically is a robot that does repetitive work – any work that you can do. It can open any application and perform any function automatically as per the instruction. Very easy to program as its graphic interface and plugs in right to the right-click pull sown menu. You can download a lot of Automator Plug ins in Apple.com. Lot of people write their script and post it online – very useful.

2) i’Life

This is definitely huge . It’s a package that comes with the OS, its FREE – you don’t have to purchase it. It’s a package containing 4 or 5 applications – iTunes, iPhotos, iMovie HD, and iWeb.
You’ve seen iTunes

Its really easy to use. It’s a very simple player / ripper / CD writer.

iPhoto

It is similar to Microsoft Office’s Picture manager. It edits, resizes, adds effects etc. But this is free – comes with the OS.

iMovie

Movie editing tool. I believe Win XP has something similar. I really haven’t used both a lot. iMove has a lot of options for including texts, animation and transitions. I am sure you’ve seen Pixar movies.

iWeb

It's a web-publishing tool. Probably similar to Front Page, but easier to transfer video, images and music from other iLife applications. But it’s free !

3) Spotlight

This is a built in search tool. This is so fast that it will locate a file quicker than you can finish typing the name. Really – it searches as you type the name and ofcourse it has the other search options – size date etc. You can search in the System Preferences (Control Panel) for functions as shown in the picture.

The major plus point here is individual files have a comment options. Spotlight will Search through these comments as well ! So basically you have 5 video clips and you can add individual comments (not file names). When you search in Spotlight with one of the word from the comment – it will locate the video clip. This is definitely a break through.

4) Dashboard

You might know this as widgets. Well the main difference is (this applies to all above four), the OS is tuned to work with this software. They don’t slow down the system – they run most efficiently with it and you never have to turn it off to make the system faster. Widgets are available on Apple.com for most functions. You probably already know what they do.

Apart from this, there are many other reasons - small (like inbuilt PDF converter) and large (like multi thread and parallel process capability). But the above 4 are easiest to explain. I use the 4 above-mentioned features all the time – and I think all of you will too.

Surprising Airports

2006-06-13T13:10:00.000-04:00

I am doing a top 10 here. Top 10 most surprsing airports. These are not the BEST AIRPORT's, just strange or weird ones. I will try and highlight what is unique about each of them. Some times, there is nothing. Most photos are taken from the website www.airliners.net which is a good place for aviation pictures.

10) Tied at 10th place are two airports. They similarities are unique (!?) Have a look !
Penticton Regional Airport, Penticton, British Columbia, Canada

Big Bear City, California,USA (Elevation 6740 ft)

9) Canary Island airports
The Canary Island was the location where the biggest aviation disaster occurred. A PanAm and a KLM 747 collided on the runway killing every one on-board. Some times known as the Tenerife disaster, this happened in the first airport below. The main cause was poor visibility. Although these pictures look pretty, both the airports are still dangerous for the same reason.

Los Rodeos Airport,Tenerife,Canary Islands

(Credit:http://www.jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=204605)

Reina Sofía Airport,Tenerife,Canary Islands

(Credit:http://images1.jetphotos.net/images/t/TFNRWY18SEP.jpg.23335.jpg8)

8) Diego Garcia, BIOT
Diego Garcia is a coral island - 11 sq mi (28 sq km). Indian Ocean's largest island of the Chagos Archipelago, 1500 km south of India - Part of the British Indian Ocean Territory, the island was leased (1970) to the United States and later developed as a joint U.S.-British naval base to guard the Persian Gulf oil routes and to counter increased Soviet military activities in S Asia and Africa - unfortunately I don't have much pictures. But it definitely is a surprising thing.

(Credit http://web.umr.edu/~rogersda/military_service/Diego%20Garcia.jpg)

(Credit http://www.ukotcf.org/images/photos/Chagos/3867-768/092.jpg)

7) Macau International Airport, Macau, China

Trust me , this is stranger then HOng Kong and Japan which also have island airports. The narrow bridge is pretty scary.

(Credits http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/cd/Macau_International_Airport.jpg)

6) Davis-Monthan Air-force Base, Arizona, USA
This is not an airport. It's an airfield near Tucson Arizona. This is like a maintenance / storage / graveyard for planes. There are more than 5000 planes here. You can see this in Google maps satellite map. They allow tours to get upclose to the junk.

(Credits : Google Map)

(Credits : Wikipedia)

(Credits:http://www.ukexpert.co.uk/photopost/data/559/118Davis_Monthan_AFB.jpg)

(Credits:http://www.combatreform.com/a4skyhawksatdavismonthanafb.jpg)

5) Jiu-Zhai Airport, China
The altitude of this airport (JZH / ZUJZ) is 3447.7m/11311ft. It is one of the highest tableland airports in China also in the world. The airport has the extreme weather and the complex of nature obstacles make this one to be one of the most difficult airports to operate in the world.

4) Male International Airport, Male
This country relies a lot on tourism. I don't think they would want to use these photos though. Lovely place - yes, but definitely concerned with Tsunami and everything.

3) Kai Tak International Airport, Hong Kong (closed)
Almost every airline out there has had an incident in this place. Including . . . . Qantas - the only airline with no major accident. The main reason is the cross winds that tend to roll the planes. They closed this airport in 1998 and opened Chek Lap Kok which probably is th best airport in the word today.

2) Funchal / Madeira Santa Cruz, Portugal
This is a strange one. Notice the pillars that keep the run way up. Well - mountains one side, the sea on the other - it feel like landing in a poem.

1) Princess Juliana International Airport, St Maarten Island
Its a small island. There is no place for a proper runway. Other factors such as cross wing, head wind and tail wind were considered while making this. 747s that require maximum landing distance (about 6000ft) land here. Definitely - the most interesting airport that I've seen.

Leave a comment here if you think one of the others should be #1 .

Aston Martin DB9 or Jaguar XK

2006-06-08T15:26:00.000-04:00

I know what’s in every one’s mind. Just like me, you are all wondering which car to buy – the Jaguar XK or the Aston Martin DB9 :). I’ve been inundated by emails asking me to suggest which one to get! So here is my blog comparing the two.

Well – here is a basic summary of the two cars.

The DB9 has the same engine as Vanquish (from Die Another Day – Vanish). The XK (’06) has the same engine as (’05) which is not really a bad thing – but suggests poor progress. Either way – the XK engine is a good one – not too far behind the DB9.

The DB9 transmission is probably the best transmission money can buy. If you ask me, its better than the Pagani Zonda’s transmission. The Jaguar has a very good transmission too – I don’t want to make it look bad. Its just very hard to beat DB9 in that aspect. Both are 7 speed steptronic/triptonic gear box.

Now – here is a photo of each of them.

Yes – they do look strikingly similar. Because they both were designed by the same person.

Incase you didn’t know this – I am sorry to break this to you. Aston Martin and Jaguar are owned by Ford Motor Company. So what Ford has done (not surprisingly) is design the two cars together – share some concepts, some ideas and even some fixtures. What do I mean by sharing?

So I took the above 2 photos and imported them in Matlab. Then I merged them with the image toolbox and created this photo.

You see the body (shape) is almost identical. The only differences I can see are the wheels, the light fixtures, engine side intake (behind front wheel) and the tail wing/tail light. Well there is some difference in the window and the seat – but that’s not a big deal.

But wait – it doesn’t end there – here are pictures of the interiors

Well – once again – you can see a lot of similarities. The instrument panel ; the steering wheel (minus the symbol on it) etc. No complaints here – I am not criticizing it – I am just showing how close they look.

Do you want to know something else? Well, the other company that Ford owns in Europe is Volvo. So what has happened here is they have put a lot of fixtures from Volvo. Once again, I am not particularly complaining as the interiors look very very good – but I am a bit offended that you can buy a much cheaper Volvo and get the same good Jaguar Interior looks. Here is a Volvo S80 interior photo – make your own judgment (especially keeping you eyes on the instrument panel).

Cost
Jaguar price are from its website. Aston Martin price is from other sites – not perfect.

Aston Martin DB9 170,000 $ in the US; and in the UK - 110,000 pounds (205,000 $)
Jaguar XK 80,000 $ in the US and in the UK - 60,000 pounds (112,000 $)

Don’t currency convert – I did it there just for the sake of it. I mean by converting – it will not make much sense. What you can see though, is that, the price difference between the 2 cars is about 50,000 pounds in the UK and 100,000$ in the US.
I think – definitely, that the Jaguar XK is a better buy than the Aston. (Deepak should be a bit happy – he was a Jaguar owner). Let me explain – the Jag is more Car/Dollar than the Aston is unfortunately. I know - when you own an Aston (especially in the USA), you are probably the only person in a huge radius to own one. That’s not the case with Jaguars – you are never to far from one. More over, the Jags some time tend to attract older “wanna-be-cool-but-too-old” people. But this XK is clearly different. I mean they even removed the trademark Jaguar marque/statue in the front. JD Power rating put Jaguar in Top 5 car manufacturer(results announced yesterday – will blog about that too). So basically, Jaguar is a very good company.

Let me put it this way, to own something this close to the DB9 for 100,000 $-off, is a jackpot. I mean the Aston is better in almost every technical aspect, but I don’t think it is worth the extra 100,000 $. So people, when you do buy one (either one), do give me a call.

(Phoro Credits : Aston Martin , Jaguar and Volvo website)

Intel Insight

2006-06-05T12:56:00.000-04:00

When you go to Taco Bell – how do you decide what to buy ? They all cost roughly the same – so what do you do ?

I work in lab – Unmanned Vehicles and Surveillance. My job involves running huge computer simulations for long times (20hours sometime). So I thought I’ll do something.
I run about 7 computers in my lab. Basically there are 4 configurations – and I decided to see which one is the best. There are many websites and magazines that test processors – but no test is perfect. They are all skewed or only partially right. I though I should do my own test – may be its not perfect either – but its something I can do with my hand observe the results. Here’s what I did

The competitors

Xeon 3.2 Ghz or the ‘X’

P4 2.4 Ghz – call it ‘P4’

P4 HT 3.2 Ghz or ‘HT’

M 1.86 Ghz or the ‘M’

All the 4 computers run Windows XP. They all have atleast 1 GB RAM (the Xeon has 4GB). They are uswed just to run the code – no one is simultaneously using it for anything else. Minimum applications are running – not even an antivirus.

The code CMARC

The code I ran on them is known as CMARC. It is a FORTRAN code written by NASA for aerodynamics work. This code has NOT been optimized for any specific processor – which mean it’s a regular application. It just performs continuous mathematical calculations (in this case a 500 by 500 panel method matrix) and does not consume much memory. It only maximizes the processor – 100%. So basically, it depends fully (close to fully) on the processor – so I am going to use this as the test to judge the processors.

Results

After running test I . I got these results

X – 916 minutes
P4 - 1333 minutes
HT- 1001 minutes
M – 1343 minutes

Next was test II – different number for cycles than last time. Here are some results

X – 330 minutes
P4 – 400 minutes
HT – 373 minutes
M – 500 minutes

Conclusions

X
I am not surprised to see that the Xion is the fastest it costs a lot of money. What is most noticeable for me, is that the Performance remained pretty much the same way for the complete duration in the Xeon. The system didn’t slow down in the middle. (The code shows number of cycles completed– so I used a stop watch and verify the duration per 1000 cycles now and then.)

HT
I didn’t expect P4 HT to be any better than the P4, but surprisingly - it is. I have 2 P4s and 2 HTs actually, all of them showed very close results. Well its not much better – just a bit - infact may be its just the higher clock speed and nothing to do with the threading :). Just a couple of days ago, I was talking to my buddy GB and we were discussing how XP does not really utilize the multi thread capability. I am a bit surprised by these results.

P4
The P4 was slow – true – but pretty surprising for 1 thing. It had stable performance too. It didn’t slow down in the middle. Looking closely – you can see that the P4 and M behave some what similarly – their performance overlaps. Why ?

M
I am truly astonished (not in a good way) with the M. I know it’s a small processor with a big bus. Its roughly the same speed as the P4 – but do you know why ? Well, the M slows down ! Towards the end, the system is much slower that it was during the beginning ! Well the keep varying a bit here and there – but finally its about 20% slower than it was when it began (verified by hand/stop watch) , I have no idea why – may be one of you guys can explain in COMMENTS section.

The Xeon stands out definitely – but that’s why it on my server with a huge price tag and 8 cpu fans. I mean there is a reason why they don’t have Xeon laptops !

So among the other 3, honestly – its not MUCH different. Especially, M – its not better than the rest. And I still believe XP ( and all XP applications ) don’t utilize the threading capability – its just higher clock speed (2.3Ghz P4 and 3.2Ghz HT) in the above case that made the difference. There is about a 400$ difference between each of these processor based computers – for what?

So to answer my first question – you go to Taco Bell what do you buy ? Well – they all have beans, they are all rolled in flour tortilla, they all cost the same roughly. Well - it doesn’t matter what you buy – they are all pretty much the same.

P.S : This is what I use :) . Too bad they don't make it any more.

Traffic Congestion : Slow Down

2006-06-03T10:48:00.000-04:00

At last, a topic I know something about. We all know air traffic is a tricky thing. There are a lot of statistics that show how much money is lost because of traffic congestion etc. The main area where air traffic congestion originates is the airport zone. Around the airport is where the congestion is maximum. This figure shows the area around Chicago O’Hare.

Where the congestion is high, the probability of collision is high (no rocket science). So, to avoid this, my friend had a research proposal. The main reason for this congestion is because planes tend to slow down near the airport – as they wait for gates to open in the airport, or until the run way clears up. Her study was trying to reduce the delay in the area immediately surrounding the airport.

This figure shows a conceptual idea. Zone 1 surrounds the airport – the delay here is maximum, and so is the congestion. From Zone 2 to 5, the congestion reduces. Zone 5 is the cruise zone – there is almost no delay here. The plane’s velocity (cruise speed) is about 0.75- 0.79 Mach. This is the best velocity as it consumes minimum fuel for commercial aircrafts. So, when these planes are made to slow down in Zone 1, the airlines don’t like that – it consumes more fuel - it costs a lot of money.

This research tried to reduce the delay in the red zone, by splitting the delay to all the other zones (?) Let me explain. Lets say for a journey from A to B, the delay expected near the airport is 10 minutes. Rather than spending 10 minutes in the Red zone (which is what happens now), it was suggested the 10 minutes be split up and distributed in all the 5 zones.

Lets say, you decide to slow down in Zone 5, then the cruise speed will reduce from 0.79 to say 0.75. As mentioned earlier - around 0.75 Mach is good cruise speed - the drag is minimum and hence fuel needed is also minimum. So now, the time spent in the red zone is reduced - which is the objective of the research study. Currently - the system works differently. In the red zone, when the planes circle as they await a spot to land, the speed is about 0.4 Mach. This is a lot slower and basically consumes a lot more fuel. Airlines don't like this - as they have to blow a lot of money doing nothing - just for waiting around. They would much rather slow down to 0.75 M in Zone 5.

The risk here is this – lets say it has been calculated that the delay is 10 minutes and 8 minutes of those have been split in to Zone 2,3,4, and 5. Only 2 minutes remains to be burnt in the red zone. But for some unexpected reason there is further delay of about 8 minutes in the red zone. Then what has happened is your total delay is 20 minutes – which might have been avoided if this new algorithm wasn’t implemented.

A lot of work remains to be done in this area – but I hope you get the picture. The idea is that by fully utilizing Zone 5 (which is very vast), congestion can be minimized in Zone 1. This is good for every one – the passengers reach destination on time; the airlines waste less time and spend less fuel; the air space is a bit safer due to reduced congestion. Well the challenge of course is implementing the system in a national scale. There are lot of studies being conducted, just to see if this system will really help. There have been many such ideas which have been rejected as they actually seem to make it more complex; but NOT THAT 1 - this system I think, will be implemented in the near future.

Pretty dry blog actually – sorry about that ! My interest in this area is mainly triggered by one of my professor Dr Eric Feron in Georgia Tech - Aerospace. His research is in this area and he is considered an "expert" in it. He is a prof from MIT and recently moved to GT. I don't think he will be my guide - definitely wouldn't mind though.

Bridging the gap

2006-06-01T18:30:00.000-04:00

S'il vous plaît

OK - no one I know of, is a fan of France. I love Wines and French Vanilla, but those are the TOP French products. In the world of engineering, we might think of 2 achievements – The Airbus (which is a conglomerate with UK) and Renault – which is an awesome car company. I guess, there is something that I over looked in this country.

Millau

Millau is a town in Southern France – not famous for anything. It has an insect museum and a glove museum (really) , and then there is paragliding. Although, it is famous for traffic jams. Near Millau , there is this lovely valley and all automobiles have to go down this valley and come back up to travel to Millau. To avoid that, the government built this bridge. More over, this valley is a preserved area or something – which means the govt. is happy to build a bridge to divert the traffic.

Viaduct

Viaduct is I think French (or European – they use it everywhere) for a channel or a tunnel through a valley. This is somewhat a flawed usage – they tried to make it resemble aquaduct – which is a common expression for water tunnel. This is the highest bridge in the world and definitely a piece of wonder. It is a smart bridge – raises and dips up to 10 meters depending on the weather. It took I think about 4-5 years to build it – which is fast. Click on this link http://mywebsite.bigpond.com/johndeutscher/Ian/Photos/Millau_Bridge/

to see photos of different construction stages (a must see for engineers) . I am going to skip the technical mumbo jumbo. Its taller than the Eiffel Tower and about 4 kms long I think – that’s all the numbers. The pictures explain the construction better than I can. Its called a cable-stayed bridge- as opposed to a suspension bridge.

Bridging a generation gap

We all know bridges are wonderful engineering. The truth is, we haven’t seen a brilliant bridge in a long time. Most bridges we know of, are many years old – London, San Francisco Golden Gate etc. I mean, they have always been there, they are nice but nothing ‘break-through’ about them.

The Millau Viaduct is about a year old now – its truly a new bridge. It makes use of modern technology and innovative methods. Everything from the concrete used, to the cranes you see in the picture in the link are things that didn’t exist 10 years ago. More over, this bridge is a piece of architecture – not just engineering. There was a British architect who designed it – and the engineers enforced it. Look at the shape in the top view. Also, the rise and dip principle is a new concept (Also being used in Japan).

I think this bridge has truly bridge a gap in the generations of technology and engineering. There are not too many bridges that can boast this true wonder (Oresund can – will write about that in a later blog). More over, what makes this truly remarkable is the fact that it was constructed in a valley in almost no where. It didn’t link big cities or popular tourist destinations. The French govt. was surprisingly sensible enough to approve such a project in such a remote place, just so that they can have a super structure. They could have made it much low lying with RSJs; used suspension cables or utilize struts – but no. They actually pulled off a huge cable stayed bridge. They collect I think about 10 Euros as toll and reduced for frequent usage – but if this was some where near Toulouse or Paris, I am sure they would make much much more money,

So I guess, more than the world-record height; the 100-year warranty; minimum maintenance design; the real achievement here is the investments in a modern engineering wonder. It reaffirms strength in engineering – rather than computers and software and spacecrafts….and most surprisingly , it has been developed in the middle of no where in France. A lot of things suck in France, but NOT THAT 1.

(Photo Credit : http://viaduc.midilibre.com/)

Prius the Lord

2006-05-29T14:33:00.000-04:00

The Toyota Legacy

Toyota is good auto company. They make good engines primarily; hence all cars that carry these engines seem to work very well. Another achievement is the cost – Toyotas are relatively inexpensive, cars costing mostly in the range of 12,000$ - 35,000$. The SUVs , Trucks and mini vans uphold this reputation as well. The Toyota Hi-Lux (a variation is Tacoma in USA) is one of the toughest trucks in the world as shown in an episode of Top Gear (BBC UK). The new FJ Cruiser is a 2001 concept car that was successfully converted to road vehicle.

…and this happened

The Prius is probably Toyota’s worst piece of engineering. This is a science project converted to a road vehicle. At a cost of more than 22,000 $ , the Prius uses 2 engines – a 76hp 1.5l DOHC gasoline and a 67hp 500v electric engine. Having two engines clearly boosts the cost ( ..a lot) + the added intelligent technology of switching between the engines. Hence, Toyota has decided the cut corners in all the other parts in the Prius.
The engine is a no brainer – very low power. The acceleration, 0-60 mph time is 12 seconds and a top speed of 99 mph only. Let me not pick on that – too easy. Lets look at some other features that make the Prius , a toy.

(-) Rear suspension – nothing there , so makes the drive feel like an amusement park ride.
(-) The interiors are cheap recycled ultra light plastic – somewhat like Nilkamal chairs. Nothing in the interior makes you feel specifically majestic, looks just like every other Japanese interior. One special feature though – a screen that provides data about performance of the hybrid data. A Hybrid 101 sort, with a lot of graphics and sounds and color - an entertainment piece basically. Ofcouse, a definite selling point, especially to auto novice, who has no clue what ICE is.
(-) Transmission – CVT, worse than automatic. No manual gearbox option.
(-) Handling is , hmmm what can I say – a challenge. It was the runner up for the worst handling experience by BBC’s Top Gear (beaten by SMART fortwo). This is principally due to the low power and horrible traction on the wheels.
(-) Costs a lot of money! About 10,000$ more than a good Toyota Camry. For this price, you can buy a much better VW Golf or Jetta or the new GTI; a mini Cooper which has high mpg as well; or some of the several Hondas which reflect Toyotas achievements.
(-) It takes 5 years for you to profit from the mileage. So basically, you are not saving a lot on gas either.

Save the planet ?

Nope – not this one. It averages about 48 mpg. An old VW Golf Diesel averages at 65 mpg. Infact, the Audi/VW Diesel engine lies in the band of 55-75 mpg. Ofcouse, it matters how you drive the car. With Prius, it is hard to cross 70 mph, and with the Audi’s – you can cross 90 and lose some “efficient-performace”.
So if its not fuel that makes this car such a fashion statement – then what is it ?

(+) In many US states (including glamorous CA,FL,NY), Prius owners are allowed to drive on car pool lanes, not have to pay in selected parking lots, avoid a few taxes etc. (hmm)
(+) Less noisy – so gives the picture of a calm, tranquil mode of transport. Celebrities have it – many of them – so now it carries a Hollywood Drive of Fame.
(+) Easy political statement – can it get any easier than that? Buy a Prius and now you are captain planet Di’Caprio (who owns 3 Prius’ but drives around in an Escalade 4x4)
(+) Family 4 door, 5 seater – another added selling point. Ofcouse, if 5 people travel in it, the electric engine will never kick in – and you will be driving an 22,000$ Yaris (a 12,000$ non-hybrid car with the similar gasoline engine).
(+) The odd shape (based on a fish) is actually very aerodynamics at low speeds (abt 60mph). It has a drag coefficient of 0.24, which is very good and actually helps the mileage significantly.

In Conclusion

If you own a Prius (or considering to get one),

(*)then you probably own atleast 2 other vehicles for back up (good).
(*)you are a celebrity that needs attention cause you suck at what you do
(*)you are very rich, live in the city, need to buy milk from the next street
(*)you are the only occupant of the car, you don’t mind the low power, and have no where to go.

Don’t buy a Prius if

(*)you go on long distance travel (more than 20 miles/day) . Its good on the gas, but not on your back.
(*)you enjoy driving and the feel of mechanical power
(*)you are not the only passenger – and you plan on carrying SOME luggage at least.

Cars like the Mini Cooper, VW Golf and Honda Accord are more powerful, cheaper, have a high gas mileage and are truly wonderful driving experience. Infact, several Toyota cars including the new Yaris are very good alternatives for this science project they call – the Prius. The idea of Hybrid cars are good, but NOT THAT 1.