Penguin Car Earns Indy500 Spot 244
strredwolf writes "Despite generating over $12K in funds, well short of the $250K goal, the Tux 500 Project was able to secure a spot in the Indy 500 with driver Roberto Moreno piloting the Linux #77 Indy car. He's back in the pack in 31st place (only 5.5 MPH separates 31st place from 1st) but was able to secure it by re-qualifying with an average speed of 220.299 MPH. Will Moreno be able to pilot the penguin-tipped Indy car to victory next week at the 91st Indianapolis 500?"
No thanks to you, Slashdot. (Score:4, Insightful)
Slashdot, you should be ashamed of yourself. Doing nothing to help, but claiming the rights after the fact. This was exactly the kind of grass roots project that you would have announced in the past, but choose to purposefully ignore it this time. You had a chance to announce this a long time ago, but according to Rob Malda himself, who said in full "there are so many reasons that this story doesn't interest me
All it would have taken from you is to accept one measley little story about the Tux500 project a few weeks ago and *bam*, it would have had the proper amount of publicity to energize the Linux community and raise enough money to fully sponsor the car. All it took was $1 from each person in just 1% of the community, so it would have worked even with 80% of the community doing their own thing. But since the project didn't get the good publicity it deserved, it only raised half the amount needed just to put a logo on the car. Fortunately the good will of the tux500 team seems to be allowing the logo to still be on the car. I guess they are better people than you.
You know why so many community projects fail? Because the leaders don't believe in them.
Just so the rest of you know for this discussion, I understand that sites like Slashdot are news sites. But IMHO, only half a news site. There have been hundreds of stories here over the years meant to mobilize the community (ie. Blender). I ask, why not this one?
Re:No thanks to you, Slashdot. (Score:2, Insightful)
(that said, I may be biased because as an Australian this story doesn't really interest me either)
Re:No thanks to you, Slashdot. (Score:2, Insightful)
Obviously it did interest you because you bothered to read the comments for it.
Re:No thanks to you, Slashdot. (Score:1, Insightful)
I think this would garner more attention (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:No thanks to you, Slashdot. (Score:4, Insightful)
Despite? (Score:3, Insightful)
Hang on. Despite generating over $12K in funds
Do you mean that despite not getting anywhere near the $250k goal they still managed to secure a spot? If so, why not say something along those lines rather than the confusing babble presented?
I'm not being a grammar Nazi here - the grammar looks fine to me (and mine isn't the best) - but it's just that it makes no sense and you have read the line 5 times to work out what it is trying to say. Could we have some, y'know, editor type stuff going on here?
5 mph is a big difference (Score:3, Insightful)
In general, the cars are much slower now than they used to be. The 225.817MPH of the 1st place car would have been very far back in the grid compared with the 240 MPH+ of 10 or 15 years ago. I wish him luck.
Re:Linux is doing great, and doesn't need marketin (Score:1, Insightful)
To propose a car analogy, the automobile industry actually pioneered Microsoft's philosophy anyway... Today, a million mechanics will spend 6 hours repairing something that could be performed in 30 minutes, wasting our time and ensuring the OEM recieves a cut. Billions of dollars will also be wasted due to their unwillingness to farm out 50 year old technology that could be produced many smaller independent companies. Instead of a simple component benefiting from standardization ($20) it will cost upwards of $200 and take all day to replace. People will waste a good portion of their lives today making up for the difference. That difference will pay an annoying advertiser.
Re:No thanks to you, Slashdot. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:No thanks to you, Slashdot. (Score:1, Insightful)
If you really want to help 3rd world countries, stop thinking tech. Start thinking about simple things like how to get food, water, and medicine into these places.
Start speaking out about people buying diamonds.
Start encouraging your governments to protect UN, Red Cross, Peace Corps, and other convoys trying to deliver supplies.
Start encouraging assassination of leaders who seize supplies.
Blow up the homes, cars, wives, children, and friends of some of these fucking warlords until they stop chopping arms off of kids.
i wrote about it in my /. journal (Score:3, Insightful)
5.5 MPH is ALOT (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:No thanks to you, Slashdot. (Score:5, Insightful)
>1. The Indianapolis is the biggest annual sporting event. Period. More people attend, and more people watch on TV worldwide then any other event. If you wanted to get the message about linux out there, this would be the place to do it.
I simply do not believe this. For example, the world cup and the olympics are both watched world wide. The Indy is a local USA thing.
>2. This year all Indy cars run on Ethanol 85. While this isn't solar, it's far better then the traditional Gas of the past (hell I believe NASCAR is just now *thinking* about phasing out leaded gas).
Who cares about the fuel? That's a geek detail.
>3. The engineering involved in these cars is amazing, not only as far as engine development (Honda had relatively little time to develop these engines to run on Ethanol 85, and have done so admirably). Also, the engines themselves are interesting in that they are normally aspirated (i.e. no Turbo, so SuperCharger just incredibly engineered 8Cyl Engines That can drive none stop at high speeds for ling distances. FWIW Honda wasn't picked to be the only engine supplier for indy cars, they got that way through attrition. The last year there were multiple engine manufacturers Honda so blew away Chevy that it just didn't make sense for them to continue.
The engineering in other formulas is also amazing compared to normal cars, but not compared to say a IC fab. I happen to have worked both for a F1 team and an IC manufacturer. So I know.
F1 doesn't use Turbo either. They banned it to slow the cars down.
>4. Engineering! Since the engines these days are identical (as are the tires) there is a great deal of parity initially, however engineers get to figure out best race packages using aerodynamics, gear boxes, Tire Pressure etc, and on top of that figure in fuel mileage (which should be interesting since as mentioned, the fuel is different this year) tire wear, etc.
That's what race teams do in many formulas. It doesn't make Indy special.
>5. Of course given all that, the Drivers and Pit Crews make the difference. Of all the drivers (33) my guess would be that only about half of them have the mental toughness and backing human element to actually have a realistic chance of winning (and of that only a handful would have good vegas odds).
Mental toughness? BS. A team wins on testing and competence. Mostly testing. The more money you have, the more testing you can do, the more tweaking you can do and the more bugs you can iron out. That's how the wealthy teams stay wealthy. True for Indy and F1.
>6. Then of course there's a shred of luck and the unexpected that always makes this totally unpredictable. Weather, Freak accidents, mechanical issues, human error, just being in the wrong place at the wrong time, all can have a hugh effect on the outcome.
Also, true for other sports/motorsports. It doesn't make Indy special.
>7. Finally... Indy Car racing is by far the most competitive racing series out there today. Lot's of passing, and lot's of skill (a minor mistake in an indy car, and you are in the wall with your car breaking away into pieces).
Get real. It's an oval.
>8. Technological advancement. The Indy Car Series (and the IMS (Indianapolis Motor Speedway)) Have been at the forefront of many automotive advances. The Ethanol thing is one recent, but the technologies devised for driver safety have not only been adopted by almost every other racing series, but have also been instrumental in the development of safety features for all cars built today.
Give us the data. Check the dates on specific safety feature being put in the rules. You will find Indy was first on about 0 of them.
Re:NASCAR fuel and Ethanol. (Score:2, Insightful)
Haven't you learned that in the US all that matters is the illusion that we are doing the right thing, no matter what the truth is...
Woefully inaccurate... (Score:3, Insightful)
1. The Indianapolis is the biggest annual sporting event. Period. More people attend, and more people watch on TV worldwide then any other event. If you wanted to get the message about linux out there, this would be the place to do it.
The Indy 500 used to be billed as the biggest single-day sporting event in the world, and pole-day qualifying used to be number 2. This was always claimed by comparing their attendance figures. Even though other single-day sporting events are far more popular, none of them have as many people in attendance. Unfortunately, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway doesn't actually release attendance figures. Neither have they actually released their actual seating capacity. When Indy was making these claims, people were publicly estimating attendance of 400,000, or even 500,000 people. A couple of years ago, the Indianapolis Star actually counted the seats, then estimated how much infield space their was, along with an estimate of the number of track workers, team members, concession stand workers, etc, and came up with an estimated maximum attendance of about 260,000. Unfortunately, attendance has fallen dramatically since 1995, and a realistic estimate would be more like 200,000 people.
As to whether it was, or still is, the world's largest single day sporting event is open to interpretation. These days, the Brickyard 400 (also held at the speedway) draws more people. Whereas you used to have to get on a multi-year waiting list to get tickets to the Indy 500 because the race would sell out the day after the previous year's race, nowdays you can purchase tickets directly from the Speedway ticket office just a couple weeks before race day. Or you can wait until race day and buy them at a discount from scalpers outside the track. For that matter, it's entirely possible that the Daytona 500 has more fans in attendance. Of course, if you include television audience in addition to fans actually in attendance, the Indy 500 doesn't even come close to the Superbowl, which in turn pales in comparison to several international events, including the World Cup final.
2. This year all Indy cars run on Ethanol 85. While this isn't solar, it's far better then the traditional Gas of the past (hell I believe NASCAR is just now *thinking* about phasing out leaded gas).
Actually, they run on pure Ethanol, not an E85 blend. This is the first year that they have run on Ethanol. It has been decades since Indy-style cars have actually run on "traditional gas of the past." Before they used Ethanol, they were running on Methanol. Methanol is considered to be much safer than gasoline because it has a much higher flashpoint, which makes it easier to transport and store. Unfortunately, it also burns with an invisible (to the human eye) flame, but they've been able to cope. The reason that the IRL has switched to Ethanol this year is 100% related to sponsorship.
3. The engineering involved in these cars is amazing, not only as far as engine development (Honda had relatively little time to develop these engines to run on Ethanol 85, and have done so admirably). Also, the engines themselves are interesting in that they are normally aspirated (i.e. no Turbo, so SuperCharger just incredibly engineered 8Cyl Engines That can drive none stop at high speeds for ling distances. FWIW Honda wasn't picked to be the only engine supplier for indy cars, they got that way through attrition. The last year there were multiple engine manufacturers Honda so blew away Chevy that it just didn't make sense for them to continue.
It honestly didn't take much effort to convert the engines from Methanol to Ethanol. One alcohol burns largely like the next. And to think of the Honda IRL engine as high-tech is like calling the typewriter state of the art. The Honda Formula 1 engine is far more interesting. Both