Purposeful.Poised.
Performance.
A superlative road car.
(c:
Thursday 19 April 2007
PS3 Supercomputer
I wonder how long it will be before someone makes the first large PS3 cluster.I was at a recent lecture by Dr Adam Vile, Head of Grid, HPC and Technical computing at Excelian LTD. He suggested that a cluster of 270 PS3s would be more powerful than world's #2 Blue Gene (approx 91k GFlops) Supercomputer.
If his performance predictions are correct, we can expect this sooner rather than later! I can't imagine business will do it until they have rack mounted machines. However expect the academics to pull it off in the very near future.
Another interesting estimate comes from the Folding at Home project which estimates that 20,000 PS3s would give 1 petaflop performance. Indeed with the recent addition of the PS3, Folding @ Home is now the most powerful distributed computing resource on the planet, and for the calculations they run (parallel independent molecular dynamics trajectories), the most powerful supercomputer of any type (distributed or otherwise).
Not bad for a humble games console.
Saturday 14 April 2007
Boxster Trip to Ace Cafe
Today I attended a PistonHeads Porsche meeting at the Ace Cafe in London.
The cafe itself is very interesting. It's themed on mods and rockers. Something I only vaguely remember from my childhood. Today the tyre marks on the road show that it's still a haunt of bike and car petrol heads with many regular meets there.
Breakfast was good, served as ever by our trusty eastern european migrant workforce. The conversation was also good and I gained a lot of useful info on where to go to have my car properly maintained.
The drive back was fantastic. Bright warm sunshine, top down, light traffic. Man and machine in perfect harmony. The corners flowed together, Same Man on Kiss 100 being punctuiated by the rasping howl of the sports exhaust. Beautiful!
The cafe itself is very interesting. It's themed on mods and rockers. Something I only vaguely remember from my childhood. Today the tyre marks on the road show that it's still a haunt of bike and car petrol heads with many regular meets there.
Breakfast was good, served as ever by our trusty eastern european migrant workforce. The conversation was also good and I gained a lot of useful info on where to go to have my car properly maintained.
The drive back was fantastic. Bright warm sunshine, top down, light traffic. Man and machine in perfect harmony. The corners flowed together, Same Man on Kiss 100 being punctuiated by the rasping howl of the sports exhaust. Beautiful!
Thursday 12 April 2007
Boxster S : First Impressions
My initial impressions on the Porsche are very good indeed. When I collected it, the car was clean, the tyre pressures correct and even the washer bottle was full! How refreshing to find an honest and reliable private seller.
Driving it back from Essex to London was a pleasure. The car is very responsive in any gear at any speed. The flat six configuration gives it a really smooth and free revving nature too. Sixth gear enables you to cruise along from 30mph – 160+mph and still effortlessly keep up with traffic. This makes progress really effortless. And if you do really want to overtake, just drop it a cog or two and squirt past in a very assured manner.
Ride and handling is also excellent. You get all the feedback you need along with assured roadholding and massive grip. Driving over a coin, you could probably guess if it was heads or tails, yet the ride is surprisingly supple. Indeed, the stiff chassis means that cobbles are dealt with easily. There’s none of the dreaded scuttle shake here. It really is a very elegant and effective setup.
Although SWMBO only had a short trip round London, she is really impressed too. She was very impressed with the comfort of the optional sports seats.
I can’t wait to use the car more to get to know it’s limits and capabilities better. Roll on the weekends away and trips to Europe!
Driving it back from Essex to London was a pleasure. The car is very responsive in any gear at any speed. The flat six configuration gives it a really smooth and free revving nature too. Sixth gear enables you to cruise along from 30mph – 160+mph and still effortlessly keep up with traffic. This makes progress really effortless. And if you do really want to overtake, just drop it a cog or two and squirt past in a very assured manner.
Ride and handling is also excellent. You get all the feedback you need along with assured roadholding and massive grip. Driving over a coin, you could probably guess if it was heads or tails, yet the ride is surprisingly supple. Indeed, the stiff chassis means that cobbles are dealt with easily. There’s none of the dreaded scuttle shake here. It really is a very elegant and effective setup.
Although SWMBO only had a short trip round London, she is really impressed too. She was very impressed with the comfort of the optional sports seats.
I can’t wait to use the car more to get to know it’s limits and capabilities better. Roll on the weekends away and trips to Europe!
Independent Rates Wapping in Top Ten
The independent recently rated Wapping at number four of the top ten places to live in Britain. You can read the full article here.
In summary, it says:
4. Wapping £1.29m
Property: Three-bedroom luxury flat. Postcode: E1W is a desirable and vibrant young community. It is the only London postcode in the top 10. Amenities: Well located for the 2012 Olympics; walking distance of the City.
In summary, it says:
4. Wapping £1.29m
Property: Three-bedroom luxury flat. Postcode: E1W is a desirable and vibrant young community. It is the only London postcode in the top 10. Amenities: Well located for the 2012 Olympics; walking distance of the City.
Tuesday 10 April 2007
Free Choice - or is it?
Isn’t it interesting when we go to a restaurant and are buying a bottle of wine? Everyone imagines it’s a free choice, but actually it’s not!
Imagine there were just two bottles on the wine list. One at £6 and a second at £18.
Now imagine there is a third bottle on the list at £34 a bottle. Are you more likely to buy the £18 bottle now? Most people are.
Porsche have done the same too with their model range. They have three sports cars. The Boxster, a convertible sportscar, the Cayman – a tin top Boxster and the 911 – the fastest in the range.
Before the Cayman it was just Boxster and 911. You either bought the cheaper, but very capable car, or the ‘ultimate’.
Now the Cayman – it is priced above the Boxster, despite being cheaper to produce than a convertible. Having a top makes it stiffer and so it will be better handling. Not that 90% of the owners will ever be able to tell the difference.
The case in point is the 911 / 911 cabriolet. The 911 cabriolet is more expensive!
So it’s all in the marketing. Make the Cayman more expensive than a Boxster and appear closer to the purist ideal of the 911 and people will buy it!
It’s no wonder Porsche is the most profitable car manufacturer in the world, making something like £15,000 per car sold.
Forget location, location, location. It should be marketing, marketing, marketing.
Imagine there were just two bottles on the wine list. One at £6 and a second at £18.
Now imagine there is a third bottle on the list at £34 a bottle. Are you more likely to buy the £18 bottle now? Most people are.
Porsche have done the same too with their model range. They have three sports cars. The Boxster, a convertible sportscar, the Cayman – a tin top Boxster and the 911 – the fastest in the range.
Before the Cayman it was just Boxster and 911. You either bought the cheaper, but very capable car, or the ‘ultimate’.
Now the Cayman – it is priced above the Boxster, despite being cheaper to produce than a convertible. Having a top makes it stiffer and so it will be better handling. Not that 90% of the owners will ever be able to tell the difference.
The case in point is the 911 / 911 cabriolet. The 911 cabriolet is more expensive!
So it’s all in the marketing. Make the Cayman more expensive than a Boxster and appear closer to the purist ideal of the 911 and people will buy it!
It’s no wonder Porsche is the most profitable car manufacturer in the world, making something like £15,000 per car sold.
Forget location, location, location. It should be marketing, marketing, marketing.
Sunday 8 April 2007
Saturday 7 April 2007
Wapping Music Video
What a surprise it was to see the streets around my home of Wapping on a music channel today. Here's the full video for your viewing pleasure. All set within a few hundred metres of my riverside flat!
Friday 6 April 2007
Boxster S!
I found a good one!
Much to my surprise, the first one I looked at had everything I wanted and at a price that both the seller and I were pleased with.
It has lots of nice options. 18" split rim alloys, litronic headlights, sports seats. Also has a full service history and is in top condition.
I can't wait to get my hands on it next week.
She's already been named Black Betty.
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