quote:Originally posted by Kanye West: i think, anyway.
You liked Tropic Thunder, though. And Zoolander. I'd say big-budget American comedies are a serious black hole in your film-assessment abilities. You might want to look into that.
posted
NAO! The hat was the more good parcel. The less good parcel contained a horrible lilac coloured nylon running top, with my race number, timing tag and saftey pins. That is pretty good service mind you, even providing the safety pins. But I don’t want to do the run any more, so it doesn’t count.
In metal detector related news I was recently at the gay beach gay beach just outside Barcelona and at the end of the day, once all the athletic looking young men had gone off for some refreshing after-beach cocktails, a horde (~4) of less athletic looking men with metal detectors appeared to scavenge for the beach treasures. What is all that about eh? Are the gays particularly prone to dropping valuable metal items?
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quote:Originally posted by Kanye West: i think, anyway.
You liked Tropic Thunder, though. And Zoolander. I'd say big-budget American comedies are a serious black hole in your film-assessment abilities. You might want to look into that.
That's true. I always enjoy Zoolander.I also like Dodgeball. I think it must be a Ben Stiller thing.
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posted
We (I) had so much (little) fun talking about what we (I) were (was) wearing / doing at the weekend that it would be criminal (a blessing) not to do it again!
wearing
A blue dress, heels.
watching
Lynch club last night, so I peeped 'blue velvet' for the first time in a few years. Enjoyable. Lots and lots of lols to be had there. I don't recall watching any TV this week. Sort of a busyish week I feel, but I don't know what I've been doing.
reading
Finished the nuclear vacation book, and picked up Cancer Ward as I already mentioned. Lots and lots of lols to be had there as well.
weekend
probably go and watch the ricky gervais film tomorrow. maybe some drinks in a bar on the holloway road on saturday. Tonight! Nothing. Xbox I imagine. watch a violent film. some girl is staying over later so I'll end up talking to her.
email
last non-work one was an email from a girl I know and it just says 'poke' so I think I was supposed to reply to something but failed to do so. I don't know. last work email is something about the new 'holiday request system'.
week
Not bad. Had a little trip. Bought a top from American Apparel. Hmm. 6/10. Brought down by having seemingly run out of things to do at work, and suffering from a massive bout of despair on monday.
Weekend Going to *Big Boss Man's album launch party tonight.
Probably watch some panel shows and films and play a game.
Week Delved deep into the world of scripting in order to automate the production of 3D renderings. Learnt that MAXscript is pretty clever stuff. Revolutionized company's future marketing output.
Reading It's the same as ever. Oh, it's got a new games shop in HMV with loads of consoles and PCs and all that stuff. Madejski still hasn't demolished the old bus station.
Watching Saw Shooting Stars last night. Got some films from LoveFilm to watch over the weekend.
Email
quote:I bet... there’s a watch place in Debenhams… well used to be...
Black slacks, black t-shirt, black Hunfred resons hoody. I look like an emo.
watching
Forgot to send the lovefilm DVDs back so nothing new. Have a few films to watch still. I have all the Afro Samurai stuff to plough through.
reading
fuck all. Well not fiction anyway. I'm constantly trying to cram my brain with fucking info and I feel like its reached its peak. Like, I have a capacity that I have maxed out like a hard drive and the more I stuff in the thicker I'm getting. This is it. I have intelligence capacity and I'm all out of space. Somewhere has changed the read/write permissions on some unhappy memories so I can't delete them, shit, better get rid of something quick. Early childhood memory. Paff. In you come delicious boring geek knowledge. get inside my lovely grey matter.
weekend
Tonight: probably xbox. The Crash Course DLC for L4D fucked up all the Steam content. Every game was hosted locally with 1 player with 7 ping and the rest with 600 ping. Bullshit Valve. It's still only two levels. Actually mostly just XBox I think. Pia has pumped some serious hours into Blue Dragon now. I think she's starting to reach the 20 hour mark so keep posted for that.
email
turkish delight on the desk behind me
Hi Michael, the settings you've changed it to are now outputting Japanese. How do you change it back?
did anyone lose a black "Oakley" sweatshirt at the summer party *note the use of quotes
week
Yeah man. Alright. Only a 4 day week.
[ 02.10.2009, 12:02: Message edited by: New Way Of Decay ]
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At the weekend I was lucky enough to be able to go on a tour of the Force India F1 factory. I could talk about this in some detail if anyone is remotely interested.
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quote:Originally posted by MiscellaneousFiles: Some detail, yes. But not too much, okay?
Well ok. I mean, I won't bore you. Obviously I saw some pretty amazing stuff. I got to have a really good look at the T car (basically a third car which never gets raced but is used as a test bed for bits at the factory) in a way which most people never get to see. I was amazed by the technology involved in the cars.
But I was aslo blown away by what a small scale operation it really is. You see the likes of Ferrari and McLaren on telly and see they have enormous factories with acres of room, and a state of the art machine for making every single component of the car. By contrast Force India make a good number of their parts by traditional fabrication methods - guys with hammers and vices and files and welders in a workshop that looks no more high tech than my old technology classroom.
They do have some high tech stuff, obviously, like a CNC machine that can work to micon tolerences, and feeler guages that can do the same. Plus high resolution ultrasound equipment for looking at failed parts.
But really their factory is testament to the craftwork of a small group of highly skilled engineers, fabricators and designers. They don't have the ability to just throw limitless amounts of cash at the problem in the way that someone like Ferrari can, and yet through their skill and knowhow they're able to produce a car which can compete on the same stage.
posted
Well I felt that post was a bit of a teaser, and I decided that I want the full account after all. Everything you can remember about the day please.
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quote:Originally posted by MiscellaneousFiles: Well I felt that post was a bit of a teaser, and I decided that I want the full account after all. Everything you can remember about the day please.
Well, I won't go into too much detail.*
If you don't know, Force India used to be the Jordan Grand Prix team many moons ago. Jordan had an enviable amount of success in F1 despite their really humble facilities and helped lauch the careers of several notable drivers including Michael Schumacher, Rubens Barichello, and Damon Hill.
Jordan's team changed hands a few times, and for years basically operated as back markers. But two years ago was bought out by Michiel Mol and Vijay Mallya who renamed it Force India and set their sites on actually transforming it into a winning team.
They're based in what used to be a few old aircraft hangars right next to Silverstone.
The first thing I was shown around was the main working area of the factory. This is where the cars are assembled and tweaked from all their component parts. It's layed out as four bays, each roughly the size of an F1 pit garage. They made the point that it's better to have the engineers working in a fairly confined space in the factory so they are used to it when they get out to the tracks. Obviously when I was there the team were actually away in Japan for the GP there so the factory was more or less deserted and the race cars were away. There were plenty of major components there though including the T Car, two complete floor pans, a couple of gearboxes, and other bits and bobs.
The floor pans and T Car were probably the most interesting bits to see because I was able to see parts of the car you'd never usually have a chance to look at. For instance I was able to see really clearly the design of the 'double decker' rear diffuser which caused so much controversy at the start of the season. And the unbelievably tiny suspension components nestled on the back of the gearbox and housed within the front of the monocoque. There's a real sense of refinement about the technology which goes into these cars; nothing is just randomly slung in. Looking over the fully assembled car you can see the aerodynamic lines and follow the path of air over the body as it is guided by the various aero parts. Naturally the guy taking us round was keen to tell us about the statistics - weights, costs, that kind of thing. But the technical innovation is something which isn't so easily quantified. I was grateful I was able to appreciate some of the subtelties of the car which were clearly lost on some of the other people there.
These things probably seem tedious to some people, but to me it's exactly the same as admiring the subtle brushstrokes on the finest painting. To me, an F1 car is like a symphony - hundreds of individual parts, each carefully arranged and refined, and all working together to achieve one cohesive end. I could have spent the entire day looking at every little part of the T Car's monocoque and suspension parts. But then I'd have missed out on the rest of the factory.
From the assembly area we went through to see the engine. Force India has a contract with Mercedes and McLaren whereby they're supplied with engines and gearboxes for the season. Unfortunately these parts can't be worked on or even operated without the McMerc people being around so while we were able to see the assembled engine, there wasn't much else about it we could look at. It's actually a fairly unimpressive looking machine when it's just sat on an engine stand. I was still able to spot some interesting things about it though, such as the tiny wiring for the ignition system, and the clutch plates which are the size of a digestive biscuit (as opposed to a road car where it's the size of a dinner plate!)
We then went through to see some of the machines they use to develop these cars. In one small room there are three large hydraulic presses. One to test suspension components (this was fitted with ultrasonic microphones and ultra high speed cameras), one to measure the twisting strength of things like driveshafts and steering columns, and the third to test the strength of carbn parts like aero elements, suspension arms, and bodywork. There were a number of probes and sensors all linked up to a bank of pretty archaic computers on the opposite wall. Apparently they do destructive testing as well as endurance testing for parts, and there's a thick perspex screen to protect the operator when they're intentionally testing a part until it fails. We also saw the assembly and maintenance areas where things like hubs, driveshafts etc are all checked according to maintenance schedules.
Interesting fact - Obviously lots of parts of an F1 car need a fluid of some sort. It could be grease for a wheelbearing, that kind of thing. To ensure that every element gets exactly the right amount of fluid, each component is supplied to the race team from the factory complete with a syringe of the correct fluid in its correct amount. That way they never use too much or too little. Clever huh.
Probably one of the most interesting areas we saw was the composites area. This is where things like carbon fibre and kevlar parts are made. The process is really pretty simple. The carbon fibre is supplied in sheets which are impregnated with a sticky resin (unlike fibre glass where you have the dry mat which must be painted in resin). These sheets are layered up into molds by hand using the specific type of carbon weave (and weave orientation) as specified by the designer. This is done by hand. The molds are then vacuum sealed in bags and then they go into an autoclave (basically a big pressure oven) which cures the resin. The part then comes out of the mold and is trimmed and finished by hand, before it's painted and fitted to the car.
For thick carbon parts, such as wing elements, they use a honeycombe centre either made from card or aluminium. This is cut to shape and then the carbon wrapped around the part before it goes into the autoclave. The aluminium honeycomb is too soft to be machined by a CNC machine so it's first frozen in water so it can be CNC'd without crushing it. Another clever little idea. The combination of carbon/kevlar and honeycomb is really strong but extremely light.
They also have one of those whizzy 3d model printers. It's like a vat of this wax stuff which they can use a laser to harden into any shape. We saw how they use this to test the shape of prototype design parts. So rather than spending tens of thousands getting a new type of exhaust made just to find it doesn't fit, they 'print' a solid model of it first and then test it on a spare development chassis.
Another cool thing they have is a rig of four large hydraulic rams. They attach these rams to the hubs of the T-Car so it's held up in the air, and then the bottom of the chassis is fixed to some smaller hydraulic rams. With this, they can manipulate the suspension on the car itself. But what's really cool about it is that they can take the telemetry from one of their race cars, recorded by its hundreds of sensors, and then replicate the conditions on the T-Car. So for instance if they're at a test day and the car is unstable over a kerb on the track, they can recreate the exact forces on the suspension over and over again on the test car at the factory rather than have the race car go out and do hundreds of laps. They can then measure what's causing the handling problem and find the solution at the factory, and then feed this information back to the team at the race track.
There was loads and loads of stuff we saw that day so it'd take far too long to mention it all. But the last thing I'll talk about is the fabrication shop. Basically all of the aluminium, steel or copper bits for the car are made by hand. So radiators for the car, for instance. The end parts of the radiators start out as flat sheets of aluminuim. Then a skilled craftsman forms the finished part using basic manual tools. I'm sure that if you went to McLaren and saw how they made their radiator end parts, they'd have a huge state of the art machine into which you'd feed a plate of metal and then a few minutes later a finished part would pop out. In the case of Force India it's all done by skilled craftsmen. And they take so much pride in their work that each part they make is polished to a mirror shine. These, in my opinion, are the most skilled specialists on the entire team. They work in an environment which is so low tech that a fabricator from a hundred years ago could probably identify 90% of the machines in that room.
As I say, it's a testament to the skills of the men and women on that team that they're able to do, with very limited resources and a lot of ingenuity, something which takes the likes of McLaren and Ferrari hundreds of millions of pounds to achieve.
*sorry this was probably more detail than I intended
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I don't particularly care for F1 as a sport, but I have to admit that the engineering behind these cars is hugely impressive. Particularly when its achieved with limited funds and space. Your post was genuinely interesting in its entirity.
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watching State of Play (TV), State of play (movie). TV Win.
reading
Nothing much, though I do need some technical manuals on ASP, SQL and so forth
listening
Jason Ringenberg and the Wildhearts - class
weekend
Working tomorrow. Drinks with Dazza later and some graphic designy stuff. No doubt will catch up with Robin at some point and hoping as always to spend some time with Amelie.
email
101 reasons why my colleague needs dismissing immediately
week
Shit, mainly caused by colleague (see above) pulling sickies and me having to cover. Did manage to get the Bailiffs away for a while longer, which was nice.
Bing Ji Ling – Home (7:47) Van Morrison – T. B. Sheets (9:36) Yo La Tengo – And The Glitter Is Gone (15:54) Holger Czukay – Dawn Across The Street (20:53)
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Nothing much, though I do need some technical manuals on ASP, SQL and so forth
I can recommend the O'Reilly "ASP in a Nutshell" one, bought it the other week and it's very useful. I'm quite liking C# ASP development at the moment..
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quote:Originally posted by Physic: I can recommend the O'Reilly "ASP in a Nutshell" one, bought it the other week and it's very useful. I'm quite liking C# ASP development at the moment..
Gotta love O Reilly books
Wearing Usual attire, slightly pepped by wearing a blue EES tee
Watching Lots of German cinema - Das Leben der Anderen, Lola Rennt - all bloody good.
Reading Not much, apart from lots of info on Singapore
Weekend Seeing the stunning Amelie this evening, Saturday I have a day off, Sunday working again
Listening Wolfmother after seeing them last night - excellent. Also loving Icky Thump by the white stripes very much. Just hear a brass band cover I believe in a thing called love and bohemian rhapsody on the radio which was quite entertaining
email Disagreements with reception about my job title on my business card. Oh and a nice one asking me to contacting Jef with one f Streatfield, who I mailed.
Week Another one which has put my life upside down. Fun birthday party on Tuesday, then Wednesday my boss summons me to the pub, which was odd, and informs me he wants me to go for a promotion at work to VP of the Warehouse batch team. Pay rise, get my stripes back, and some kudos. Oh and a relocation to Singapore - *gulp* - now having to do a lot of serious thinking.
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