70 posts from 2006

Here's the tops from the article (according to me):

Hennessey Performance seems to have a knack for producing modified supercars that are as intoxicating as its namesake Cognac. Hennessey specializes in top-level American muscle, having earned its street cred by strapping twin turbochargers to the Dodge Viper to crank power up to 1000 horsepower. Now Hennessey has turned its attention over to the Viper's main rival in the battle for American supercar dominance: the Ford GT.

The Ford GT was, of course, created as rolling homage to the Le Mans-winning GT40 of yore, and the modern retro-mobile lives up to the legend by challenging Ferraris just as it did in the sixties. But cavallino-trouncing performance just wasn't enough to John Hennessey and his crew, so they went to work. Two Garret turbochargers, an intercooler, a new exhaust system, a custom intake manifold, a revised engine management system and a whole slew of other modifications later, the Hennessey Ford GT Twin Turbo puts out Koenigsegg-like levels of power: 850 horsepower and a matching 850 lb-ft of torque. That's enough to propel the throwback sportscar to sixty in a claimed 2.6 seconds, covering the quarter-mile in 10.6 seconds on its way to a very Veyron-like top speed of 240 mph.

The price, of course, is not specified, but for that kind of performance, if you have to ask... But for a customer bent on American domination of even the performance supercar world, price is no object.

Stolen from AutoBlog.

Look closely and you'll see this bus ain't no bus!  "It's mostly a 1962 VW Bus. Except for the engine, which is now a 355 small-block. And the aluminum seats. And the 7-inch chop. Oh, and the trademark VW flower vase on the dash was carved from billet aluminum."

With the ascent of Sun's ZFS, this could be a further blow to ReiserFS:

DUBLIN, California -- Hans Reiser, the prominent Bay Area Linux programmer charged with murdering his wife, says he's seeking to sell off his open-source file system company, Namesys, to help pay mounting legal costs.

In the first interview since his arrest, Reiser spoke this week about the future of his company and his legal travails from within the walls of Santa Rita Jail, where he is being held without bail.

"I just keep thinking that I'm stuck in George Orwell's 1984," he said while shackled, dressed in a red prison-issue jumpsuit, and locked in a cement room. "The government has taken away my kids, invaded my house, held me in solitary confinement and caused me all sorts of financial problems."

William DuBois, Reiser's attorney, says Reiser is running out of money to pay for his defense. "This is a unique opportunity for someone to buy the company for pennies on the dollar," DuBois said. "We welcome all vultures."

Read the rest on Wired.

Stolen from TheCarConnection:

Chevrolet did a surprisingly good job of keeping a lid on its plans to roll out a Camaro coupe concept car at last year's North American International Auto Show. But when it comes to the Camaro convertible, leaks even the Little Dutch Boy couldn't plug are popping up all over the automotive community.

TheCarConnection has learned that a ragtop will all but certainly make its debut in this year. And we expect that, just like the Camaro Coupe, the cabriolet will follow soon afterwards as a critical piece in Chevy's production portfolio -- 2008 and 2009, respectively.

 

Both cars will aim to challenge the undisputed king of the pony-car segment, the Ford Mustang, and to gain traction, we're hearing both Chevy versions will be offered in a variety of powertrain configurations, from a fuel-stingy V-6 to a 6.0-liter, Corvette-derived V-8.

 

Senior design officials report that the production Camaro Coupe is staying quite true to the show car's look and feel, down to such details as the heavily-hooded headlights and the metallic door inserts. The challenge for the ragtop team will be to squeeze in a foldaway roof without disturbing the lines that won acclaim at last year's auto show.

I mean, damn, I've so lowered my standards of, myself!  And what makes matters worse, I dig it!  I actually want a binary clock now.  Holy crap I so suck at this point.  I truly think if I don't keep myself composed I might actually install a dos emulator on my laptop just so I can play Gorilla.  Why?  Hell if I know.

But hey, c'mon all the cool kids are doing it.  You know you want to!  Here, learn the art  of binary timekeeping with me.  Click on this link.  You're not scared, are you?

Back in May of this year it was rumoured that Apple’s File System Development Team had contacted Sun Microsystems to help in a translation of the Zettabyte File System to Mac OS X.

With the most recent Build of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, ZFS has appeared to have finally made an appearance, as per the rumours.

Sun Microsystems describes ZFS as the “last word in File Systems,” the file system is well known for being incredibly resilient to data failure, having immense capacity and being the first 128-bit file system.

Read the rest at the World of Apple.

While I consider myself more of a middle of the road kind of guy, it's apparent I'm definitely leaning towards the left.  Sorry Aunt Zoe!  ;-)

The following are the top 10 candidates for me based on the Presidential Candidate Selector:

(100%) 1: Gov. Bill Richardson (D) Information

(91%) 2: Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D) Information

(91%) 3: Sen. Russ Feingold (D) Information

(88%) 4: Sen. Barack Obama (D) Information

(85%) 5: Ex-Sen. John Edwards (D) Information

(82%) 6: Ex-VP Al Gore (D) Information

(82%) 7: Sen. John Kerry (D) Information

(77%) 8: Sen. Hillary Clinton (D) Information

(77%) 9: Sen. Joseph Biden (D) Information

(74%) 10: Gov. Mitt Romney (R) Information

I hope like hell Hillary and/or Kerry won't be on a ballot - they have no chance - not even with me!

Hmm, I guess the upshot is the cost of making the video was 70% less than if they made it here in America?