Well, this must be the latest a daily post has gone up. We're all about setting records here at Sidepodcast. It was a bit of a manic evening last night, with everything in its power trying to stop us from recording a live show. Nevertheless, we persevered, and the stream can be viewed here. The edited version will be available... soon.
Here are some other things going on in the world of Sidepodcast:
- Whilst waiting for the show to begin, the Space I Spy was solved - H for headsets. Next is C.
- We're curious why Bulgaria are suddenly showing an interest in Formula 1. They're building a track, talking to Bernie, and getting into the news. What's going on there?
- McLaren are bigging up their 2009 car already, saying they are excited and feel positive about the changes going on. I suppose with one less team on the grid (at the moment), the odds of them being champs are going up.
Apologies for the tardiness of this post. Things should be getting back to normal now, so feel free to discuss anything on your mind in the comments. It doesn't have to be limited to what I've mentioned above.
Apparently, Brundle's been a bit rude: http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/people,1728,martin-brundle-lays-into-hotel-staff,61483
I guess that's the problem with being a commentator, you say things how you see them!
Red Bull have a new team sponsor for next year: Trust.
Has anybody ever bought anything with the Trust name on it? To me, they produce the sort of PC accessories you would find in a pound shop or similar!
Sheesh, the hotel don't know a joke when they see one. Sheesh, they're so defensive.
Yup, according to the ads. That's what they do. They sponsored Minardi in 2003 and Jordan in 2004.
Pitpass also lashing out at Williams for the way they organized Dani Clos' test. But I'm wondering why they didn't ask for a comment from Williams prior to publishing it?
Because they're a bunch of twits who Williams wouldn't give the time of day. I can't stand Pitpass with their regular contrived, sensationalist agendas. The online equivalent of The Sun!
never.
haha. brilliant :)
some pics from today's test:
oops:
should he be pointing in that direction?:
ooh, check the forward weight distribution on these cars:
there's a guy hanging off the rear wing and it's still not enough to counterbalance that nose.
apparently the british public are quite fickle:
"Great Britain swimmer Rebecca Adlington has knocked Lewis Hamilton off pole position to win this year's BBC Sports Personality of the Year award."
"It seems the public feel that Olympic achievement outdoes a contest held annually," said Graham Sharpe, a spokesman for William Hill."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/swimming/3688765/Olympic-gold-medallist-Rebecca-Adlington-favourite-to-win-BBC-Sports-Personality-award-Swimming.html
Hmmm. Could it just be a ploy to get more people to watch, only for Lewis to win anyway? After Brazil, Lewis' BBC win here looked like a foregone conclusion. They could just be after something to make us think something different can happen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wU0QBy5oGA
When was the last time someone called James Allen a God? Skip over to the 5:51 mark. :)
Just seen this link about Williams almost securing 90% of operating budget for next year and committing for F1.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/7771407.stm"
Very happy about that as it was their 92 season that really started me watching F1. That and the factory moving to Grove where I lived at the time.
It would be a sad day to see Williams squeezed out of F1. Even if their performance last season was nothing to write home about.
Perhaps bulgarian investors are bidding for honda. Seeing as they're putting all the cash into building the track for moto GP, why not try and secure f1 as well. Maybe cancel the british grand prix to squeeze it in.
Rebecca is a lot more decorative and would make a better sports ambassador than Lewis so I would prefer her to win the award.
Why swimming, why not one of the british track cycling team who dominated this years olympics.
and re-badge as a Dacia F1, possible not it might beat Renault F1!
Autosport reckon that five teams have signed up to the standard engine deal, including Renault.
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/72413
hi christine/me...not spoken to you lot in awhile...all going well? honda must have come as quite a sad shock...did you guys get to speak to anyone when covering it?
Planning on any trips?
I ask a lot of question :P
keep up the good work...
wha??
i guess that confirms alonso to ferrari in 2010 then.
i've been a bit quiet on the renault site, as i still can't view any of the posts when logged in - i think it's a conspiracy ;)
after this weekend, we're not in such a hurry. but shall let ya know as soon as we know more.
how's things with you?
or retirement!
also true. i think he's quite motivated to beat ron's team though.
He's said in the past that his ambition is to emulate his hero Senna and win three world championships. So I think a lot could depend on whether he achieves that next year.
There are rumours flying round the blogosphere today that Apple are to remove DRM from iTunes music. What's more, they're apparently going to be offering users in the UK, France and Germany unlimited free downloads over Christmas.
http://www.electricpig.co.uk/2008/12/09/rumour-apple-to-strip-itunes-store-of-drm-today/
I'm a little sceptical, though.
Simon Cowell might decide to lure him back to ITV if Cheryl doesn't sign-up to a second series.
he also said he'd like to do it with two different teams didn't he?
wow. that is exactly what we want to see :)
If that's true, then I've decided I want an iPod for Christmas :P Which one would you guys recommend, by the way? :)
If it is confirmed, then I'll probably invest in a portable hard drive.
or three :)
depends on your budget / needs. sidepodcast looks best on the touch.
Personally, I'm a big fan of the Nano, mainly as I think it's the best compromise between size and features. But that said, I have things like GPS, Wi-Fi, games, etc. on my mobile, and if I didn't, would probably appreciate the Touch more.
I've never owned a Shuffle, but some of my mates highly recommend it for running/the gym.
From what I'm hearing the Touch would be a better option as I could use the GPS if I was to get lost anywhere. :P
The more I think about the prospect of Apple allowing unlimited downloads for a limited number of days, the more I doubt that it can be true. How on earth would iTunes cope? Surely people all over the country would go crazy downloading terabytes worth of data each? I guess there could be 'reasonable usage' clauses in the terms and conditions.
Even as someone who's not been particularly tempted by satnav, I do find GPS on my phone really useful. It's great if you're in an unusual city and need to find somewhere quickly.
does the new touch do gps then? i have the original and it doesn't. think it might just be the iphone.
maybe no, but that bit doesn't interest me as much as the drm free part of the rumour.
According to HMV's site it has "Maps location-based service", which I'm assuming is the GPS. I'll go investigate on Apple site.
Here we are
http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/features/maps.html
yeah, that's not gps sadly:
"iPod touch finds your location using known Wi-Fi hotspots."
:(
Hmm, well at least it's some kind of maps service. Better than nothing, eh? ;)
You never know, they might bring out a GPS application on the App Store.
I miss 19 hours and your still talking about iPhone and that rubbish.
isn't a gps receiver a hardware chip?
in other tech news, it looks like vodafone heard christine's rant and have signed up to the android-alliance thingy.
http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/09/open-handset-alliance-signs-up-14-more-android-lovers-including/
too little too late, mind you.
problem is no-ones quit the sport this afternoon, so we've run out of gossip :(
This commentor sums that up:
"So where are the phones already?"
Also, just because I can, I'll self-promote the written rant:
http://smarterthanyouraverage.com/2008/12/09/wont-you-stay-another-day/
Erm, rumour time!
Williams are set to buy Honda after finding long lost buried treasure under their factory. The money, which was found by the Eurosport television crew, is about the same amount DIC is worth. Michael Schumacher and Jenson Button set to team up at the newly formed team, Head.
Yeah, but there are GPS receivers available for Nokia phones which don't have it built in, so something similar could become available for the Touch.
I don't believe this ever made it to these shores.
Have you got another site now?
Always had a personal site. My enthusiasm for it comes and goes.
I read another bit of my EJ book earlier. According to EJ Schumacher had a clause in his Benetton cntract that no team mate other than Senna, Prost or Mansell could be paid more than him. In 1993 Schumacher was being paid $2 million but team mate Patrese was being paid $3 million. Patrese and Briatore had a major falling out and agreed that they would cancel Patrese's contract for the following season. Patrese contacted a number of teams and while speaking to Ron Dennis Ron found out how much he was being paid. Ron also knew what Schumacher was being paid and about the clause in his contract. Ron called Schumacher to tell him about his little chat with Patrese and to try to sign Schumacher.
Schumacher's agent offered Patrese $1 million for a copy of his contract. Needless to say Riccardo thought this was a reasonable deal and obliged. Schumacher's agent confronted Briatore with the copy of Patrese's contract and said they would like to re-negotiate. Now. To avoid losing Schumacher Briatore agreed to pay him $20 million a year. So $1 million to Patrese and $17 million profit.
Interesting, as it would seem that Schumacher, and the team around him, were always confident in Benetton's ability to challenge for the title. Either that, or they just fancied taking the money, and knew that moving to another team (e.g. Williams) wouldn't have been nearly as beneficial financially.
Bernie won't even be remotely interested in putting a Bulgarian race, will he? As far as I'm aware, Bulgaria isn't a huge market for car manufacturers and doesn't rank among the world's super-rich, so it doesn't meet either of Bernie's criteria.
All this speculation must be good news for the share price of the circuit owner. Might this help them cut a better deal with other series promoters?
Buemi was quickest in today's test. Looking promising for STR so far.
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/72416
I think Bernie would be prepared to hold a race anywhere, as long as there's a rich investor willing to build a circuit with luxurious paddock facilities, and pay a huge sanctioning fee. I've not seen anything to suggest that this is the case with the Bulgaria proposal, however.
I wouldn't be surprised if Bernie is behind the Bulgarian story. He needs to have more circuits chasing GPs than there are GPs. So a few fictious races have always been his weapo of choice. How many Russian or Indian circuits have we heard of in the past? We have GPs coming up supposedly in Korea and all sorts of unlikely places.
That's true, he can even get the other party to go to the press relatively easily, to make it look more genuine. All he needs to do is send a junior FOM employee to meet the head of a country's motorsport association, or whoever, and he has a ready-made story.
Good point - are we likely to see either of those countries in F1 in the near future? I know Dehli had a slot on the calendar for 2009 or 2010 but that's been put off again now, but I've no idea how close Russia is to getting a race at one of the plethora of Moscow-based cicuits we've heard about.
Or do we have to wait until Bernie next wants to put pressure on the existing tracks for more news about them?
What about a race in St. Petersburg? :)
One is enough ;)
I wasn't talking about America ;)
There was supposed to be one in the Russian St Petersburg about 10 years ago.
I get the feeling that everyone in the sport and in the business is (FINALLY) starting to catch onto Bernie's game. After Abu Dubai opens, I don't think we are going to see a brand new Tilkedrome or purpose built track for a while. If I was a track like Montreal or Silverstone; I would call Bernie's bluff. With what he charges and demands for a race, they have less to lose by waiting for Bernie to come back to them with a lower price and less demands when races start falling off the calander. With the way the economy is going and projected to go, that might happen sooner rather than later.
Just to be clear - iPhone 3G has GPS receiver, iPod Touch does not. Both make use of "location services" which basically means they will use whatever radio signals they can detect to work out where they are. This can be suprisingly accurate, but is dependent on location.
Currently there is no "turn by turn" GPS software available, only Google Maps.
You know what I want for my iPod Touch? The Ocarina application! :D
The ocarina app is pretty clever, but iPhone only as it needs the microphone (you blow into it to play).
sounds like Scott needs an iphone, not an ipod touch ;)
Has anybody ever bought anything with the Trust name on it? {Dank - 62 comments ago}
I haven't, but my older brother bought a Trust steering wheel a few years back. To the best of my knowledge, he's still using it (it even moved house when he did, which is a good clue).
Why swimming, why not one of the british track cycling team who dominated this years olympics. {Paul Jordan - 51 comments ago}
Because the British were expected to do well at cycling (albeit more in the region of 1-2 golds rather than 8 8) ) but swimming didn't even get a bronze medal at the last Olympics. The surprise "where did she come from*?!?" factor in Becky Adlington's performance is significant.
* - Becky comes from Mansfield, not a million miles from where I live.
Autosport reckon that five teams have signed up to the standard engine deal, including Renault. {Christine - 49 comments ago}
I think they (or more likely the FIA) miscounted. They've counted Force India among those interested and they've already got a contract elsewhere. Breaking two contracts in the space of a month is not a good idea if a team is to be taken seriously.
Didn't the sponsor Spyker/Midland as well
the engine deal is for 2010 though?
There are rumours flying round the blogosphere today that Apple are to remove DRM from iTunes music. {Scott - 42 comments ago}
Three guesses as to what made them do it, and the first two don't count.
:D
But I like Vodafone... :(
if they haven't got the handsets...
Didn’t the sponsor Spyker/Midland as well {R.G. - 3 comments ago}
No - they left F1 when the Russians came to Silverstone, along with most of Jordan's other sponsors at the time.
the engine deal is for 2010 though? {me - 6 comments ago}
The Mercedes engine deal is for five years, so they couldn't take a standard Cosworth until 2014 at the earliest.
They sponsored Spyker though
hmmm. there must be a way out of that though, if only because 2014 the entire sport will likely be using entirely different engines from the one's we see today.
They sponsored Spyker though {R.G. - 2 comments ago}
I didn't remember that, but I checked Chicane F1 and sure enough they did. Maybe the Albers factor attracted them (which also explains why they didn't stay another season after Albers got dumped)?
hmmm. there must be a way out of that though, if only because 2014 the entire sport will likely be using entirely different engines from the one’s we see today {me - 2 comments ago}
I'm assuming that Force India expect Mercedes to modify the engine according to whatever regulatory requirements are in place at any given time.
Wasn't the worlds biggest sponser, was just next to the cockpit.
@Scott.
I'd get an iPhone 3G. Its Simply brilliant. I'd say without doubt its the best phone I've ever bought.
Wait till Max World Expo has come and gone (11th Jan I think) as there might be a 32gb iphone or price reductions. Simply brill. Nanos are great, don't touch a shuffle though, they are a pain once you get more than 20 songs on there.
The iphone is also getting a tom tom app soon, so look out for that.
Hi Guys,
Just want to say great show recently and great coverage of the off season. After Brazil I was F1'd out for a month and now i'm back to it, i'm appreciating your stuff. keep up the good work!
'Me' and Christine....
I've just thought....you went to France to test your 3G etc etc, but there isn't an F1 race in France anymore....
:)
that's okay. we really went because christine has a thing for french men (i didn't dare say that whilst in firing range mind you).
i think we're the opposite, we had our fill of f1 around about last thursday. all is good again now though :)