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Penguin Car Earns Indy500 Spot
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?"
(I'm coming out of comment retirement to criticize Slashdot, not the community)
:)", the grass roots project wasn't worthy of your sacred pages. There were several times that a story about this project appeared in the firehose, but no story about the project's existance ever made it to the front page.
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?
The year of Linux on the racetrack is upon us!
I just wonder how the pitstop will go
apt-get new-tyres
liqbase
That sounds pretty good! Unless the race goes for, like, an hour.
emerge new-tires, then wait till the race is over.
We'd need a lot more cars rigged together with distcc to have a chance!
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
Will Moreno be able to pilot the penguin-tipped Indy car to victory next week at the 91st Indianapolis 500?
I'm going to go with my gut instinct as a casual Indy fan and answer "no."
Will Moreno be able to pilot the penguin-tipped Indy car to victory next week at the 91st Indianapolis 500? No they won't. Haven't you seen the latest latest latest news? Because the car is using Linux anywhere whether its on a sticker, under someone's breathe, it should be obvious that the car its owner, its pit crew, and the tires have infringed on MS patents. I thought you knew by now that Microsoft patented Indy 500.
Infiltrated dot Net
Yes.. but does it run......on gasoline? (close but no cookie here)
if the indy car was actually RUNNING LINUX, someone please correct me if I am wrong. At least have the car's ECU running linux and geeks might take an interest. I personally find no interest in donating money to see tux included in a sea of advertising, what are we talking here, a few stickers? Yes, I know ANY publicity is good publicity and I really am a capitalist at heart, but I need a little more to open my wallet.....
K
But you can still donate money on the website. I'm sure the money would help them out somehow.
it'll probably be because of a faulty driver.
Cake or Death? Cake Please!
a valid place story for car analogies!
Monstar L
I just sent a donation.
I know many of us Linux users would like to see it replace Windows as the dominate OS, but frankly, why should we care? We Linux users have a wonderful OS that does everything a big geek like me could want, and far more than Windows can do. Saving Joe Sixpack the $70 he pays Microsoft to buy a machine with Windows pre-loaded isn't a cause I get excited about.
I love making predictions, and here's my prediction for the future of Linux: Linux will never beat Windows in the market place. Instead, a new market will emerge for ultra-cheap computers (as in OLPC). Super-cheap computers with lots of RAM and non-volatile storage will one day cost $100 (in 2007 dollars). When this happens, Microsoft will not be able to compete against free Linux as the dominant OS on these machines. There just isn't enough profit per device to support Microsoft-like company. Instead Linux, or a derivative of GNU/Linux software, will power our new ultra-cheap devices. I think Microsoft understands this low-end disruption threat, and that's why they're so desperate to push Windows CE derivatives. However, the bean counters at Microsoft will always try to kill off unprofitable efforts like Windows CE, as the market, margins, and profit just aren't there compared to selling high-end software for high-end machines.
If you think this idea is crazy, have you heard about the iPhone? It may not run Linux proper, but it's clearly in the GNU/open-source camp. Operating systems are mature technology, no longer worth much money. Apple showed great insight in dumping their own, and running with the free stuff. This gives them a huge advantage over Microsoft in the future battle for smart consumer devices. Others will follow Apple's lead, and dump Windows for GNU/Linux as the super low-cost PC/personal-computing-device market emerges. In the end, GNU/Linux will prevail, but never on the traditional high-end desktop that Joe Sixpack buys for web surfing, games, and porn.
Beer is proof that God loves us, and wants us to be happy.
Got to wonder :)
Dang! I thought "penguin-tipped" meant a big ol' fiberglass penguin head on the car's nose.
Better yet would be a something like the 3-foot tall chicken on top of our local Broasted Chicken!! delivery car.
I don't want to see limp wristed race car drivers like Stallman and Torevalds, which the NASCAR equivlent to them would be gay Jeff Gordon.
Why is the Linux community financing a race car? Why do something stupid like that?
http://timcol6.freehostia.com/
I gotta love this place, any excuse to get out of doing something, let alone giving money to a worthwhile purpose. Kind of like that comment about this sites leadership who didn't care for the story and hence it wasn't made known to the community. One of the real reasons I find Digg so much more informing is that you don't have the site leadership slant you get here.
Look, there aren't asking for large sums from individuals. Throw them twenty bucks. At least it will be productive support instead of posts on random boards across the net proclaiming how much your type loves linux but "Project X" or "Project Y" isn't worthy of your support because of "pick a reason from the hat please"
Hell, do you associate with businesses that don't run Linux? Do you use products that don't use Linux? If so, whats your excuse? I mean, after all, if you won't support the mass advertisement this gains linux just because the car doesn't use it then you just don't get it. Linux isn't for EVERYTHING, but it damn well ain't going to be for much with people who hold others to requirements you never meet yourself.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Here's my prediction, Windows will be free too, but the money will be in providing the internet offered services to those $100 dollar computers. Why do you think Microsoft was willing to lose $2 billion/yr on the xBox project? (Hint, they could care less about bringing FPS to non-geeks). Do you really think search engine ads were going to be worth $100 billion?
Degaussing scares the bad magnetism out of the monitor and fills it with good karma.
This car has about as much chance of winning at Indy as Linux has of relieving Windows of its 90+ percent desktop ownership. However, had the discussion been strictly about Indy racing and the level of funding a team needs (which is mind numbing), and to what ends team owners go to get funding, it would actually have been a good thread.
I give money to worthwhile purposes, however this to my mind - you may have different views - is NOT a worthwhile purpose.
The article forget to mention that the linux car violates 500 additional microsoft patents including but not limitied to microsoft secretly owning the F1 as well as "creating" racing.
Energize the community? To me it sounds like an unbelievably pointless waste of money. The failure to raise 250k probably reflects the community thinking much the same thing. Even assuming 250k were raised, I can think of dozens far more worthwhile open source projects that it could go towards.
Exactly, or something in the same vein but a bit more enlightened than burning an obscene amount of fuel just to go round in circles, for example a solar plane/car race or some kind of sailing sponsorship (much bigger penguins possible there).
"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"
... the Tux 500 Project was able to secure a spot in the Indy 500? Did generating over $12K hinder them somehow?
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?
The "only 5.5 MPH" difference huge. That's about 4 seconds a lap which means that over a 500 mile race on a 2.5 mile track, the 1st place car will lap the 31st place car 5 times. When you factor in driver ability, strategy and pitstops, the difference will be much greater. The top 3 cars in the race will probably be within .25 second of each other after 500 miles.
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.
Bill Gates is on his knees, right now. If you losten closely, you can hear his prayer;
"Please please please, somone film the crash."
Here will be an old abusing of God's patience and the king's English.
Mostly, I think it is because MS makes working in IT suck.
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.
Just don't use YUM - PLEASE! I'd rather the Linux car not be a DNF (did not finish).
www.eFax.com are spammers
Or one of the other sites which are part of the OSDN empire.
/. would gladly have pimped the story for ya!
/. game.
Then
That'll teach you. Next time, learn how to play the
There is a word for this kind of race entry
Backmarker
Nuff said
-- 73 de KG2V For the Children - RKBA! "You are what you do when it counts" - the Masso
I for one wrote a little note asking if it was worth it to give money to this project. I did give them some money, and as a fan of racing (car and motorcycle and cycling), am exited to watch the race and root for the #77 car. Not only they are one of the under dogs out there (they even lost the first driver in a crash in the qualifying rounds) but a lot of the linux community was against them in a bad way, apparently even /., so more of an under dog IMHO. The new driver is a seasoned driver that has always been a "replacement" driver, but he is no doubt a good driver (better than the original in my opinion), also driving a formula one car, he even has won a few races in the champ car and the formula 3000 leagues. He also was running as of sunday morning practice in 13 place. I hope he does well, and just by being in the race it has proved that projects like this deserve the attention of the community, advertising anything in any media is very expensive and this is a good conduit to reach average people, or do we don't want to see Linux advertised at all?.
It is clear that the submitter is not familiar with racing. 5.5MPH in a race is a HUGE gap, it is a 500 mile race on a 2 mile track. IF he stays at a constant 5.5 MPH behind the leader, he will be give or take 8 laps back at the end of the race. Unfortunately the more likely scenario is that he will lose speed throughout the race.
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
But probaly not toast - guys got plenty of experience - just not top finisher ... I'll say he finishes in 20th
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Roberto Moreno (born Roberto Pupo Moreno, February 11, 1959 in Rio de Janeiro) is a former Formula One driver from Brazil. He participated in 75 grands prix, achieved 1 podium, and scored a total of 15 championship points. He raced in CART in 1986, and was Formula 3000 champion (in 1988) before joining Formula 1 full-time in 1989. He returned to CART in 1996 and raced full-time until 2003. He currently drives as a temporary substitute and test driver in both Champ Car and IndyCar.
Indy 500 results
Year Chassis Engine Start Finish
1986 Lola Cosworth 32nd 19th
1994 Lola Ford-Cosworth Failed to Qualify
1999 G-Force Oldsmobile 23rd 20th
2007 Panoz Honda 31st
Its not the years, its the mileage
So is this driver in the repositories?
There is one problem with this line of thought. One is peoples perception of cheap or free. Take cell phones for instance. If one factors in the cost of a subscription, free cell phone deals aren't really that great due to the lockin. How does MS compete with free? Make things subscription based. If they give away these one hundred dollar computers that only work w/ MS online technologies, they can keep your data on a server. At that point, you will have to use their technology to access it. Same principle as people using word documents. They can control your access to your own data making a 100 dollar linux device as worthless as a rock. Once this is done, they can give away binary only copies of windows to the manufacturers who in all likelyhood will be happy to accept the MS lockin system.
When all else fails, try.
wait... is the driver from nvidia?
nobody watches Indy anyway - a F1 fan a work w/told me the Indy 500 is only the 3rd most attended/watched race at that track, trailing both the F1 & NASCAR races held there...
:D
maybe we can raise enough $ to put Dale Jr. in a "tux" car for next year...
...that we can all get behind.
Here he comes, here comes TuxRacer - he's a demon on wheels
He's a demon and he's gonna be chasin' after redmond.
He's gainin' on bill so he better look alive.
He's busy revvin' up a powerful Mach 5.
And when the odds are against him
And there's dangerous work to do
You bet your life Tux Racer will see it through.
Go tux Racer! Go tux Racer! Go tux Racer, Go!
He's off and flyin' as he guns the car around the track
He's jammin' down the pedal like he's never comin' back
Adventure's waitin' just ahead.
Go Tux Racer! Go Tux Racer! Go Tux Racer, Go!
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Well, the Indy 500 itself is becoming almost as redneckified as nascar is. Even Nascar drivers sometimes switch over to drive in it just for this one race. If you ask most people, Indy is just this race, separate from nascar, where they drive the "Indy" cars. In reality, its a whole racing series with these cars driving in ovals, the Indy Racing League (to be fair, they did add street courses this year). I would rather watch CART (CCWS) races, but much prefer GT/Lemans races where you get not only the street courses, but two vastly different car designs running at different top speeds competing at the same time, or F1, where an oval course is blasphemy and the races are recognized the world over rather than just in the US. Im sorry, ovals are boring, even though they might go faster (because they only have to turn 2 (4?) corners), the street courses demonstrate racing skill and offer much better entertainment (it always funny to watch Nascar drivers when they do their street course races, all 3 of them).
Tm
Support TBI Research: http://www.raisinhope.org
...but isn't it boring without all the turns of other racetracks?
Swedish plasma phys. PhD student; MSc EE; knows maths, programming, electronics; finance interest; seeks opportunities
Do you have any idea how many stories do not make it onto Slashdot?
This insane car rumor has been blasted all over the Internet and the newspapers for two months. It is quite clear that it is somebody's pet project, and has even been pointed out as a scam by a few famous community spokespersons. Even if that's wrong, it's still a fantastic waste of money for a completely stupid project.
There's a hundred more stories that didn't make it to the front page today, too. Shall we post them all just so the first comment of each can smear Slashdot for "repressing" them?
...but 5.5 mph is a lot.
He's a full second behind the guy in front.
That is all well and good until there is a piece of hardware or software that you want or need to do something on Linux. When making the decisions on what these companies are going to support visibility will have a large impact on if it's supported. That is where the marketing helps.
In that sort of market Microsoft will push their embedded tools which don't cost $70 but in the $8-20 range. Not to mention people like QNX etc who would love to get their software in boxes like that and are actually spending money to get their name out there. The problem is that the people making the decisions are not the geeks who know about the stuff it will ultimately be the administrators (people who companies like MS and all have been marketing to for years) who have final say on those decisions.
Bull, CE is central to a lot of Microsoft's most recent endeavors, smart phones, car operations and navigation, and will almost certainly find it's way into their Robotics offerings. CE is not going anywhere soon.
"I don't necessarily agree with everything I say." - Marshall McLuhan
"There have been hundreds of stories here over the years meant to mobilize the community (ie. Blender). I ask, why not this one?"
becoase blender is free software software project. and this tux500 thing is about racing a car at the indy500 with a logo.
"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"
Fortunately for whom?
people know what linux is. think. who would have even cared about another indy500 team, unless they had the cute "linux logo" angle to feed the press?
And its called a race?? Sheesh... no wonder only hillbillies show up for the party...err... race in Indianapolis.
The EU and US stores are different???? And I tried to buy from the EU store and US is not selectable as an option???
The ingenious marketing department at work?
Are the "world cup and the olympics" held every year ??
why not #1337
Nascar is WWF on wheels(staged) Indy is a bunch of guys making boring left turns F1 doesn't have enough passing and too much depends upon the speed of the pit crew as opposed to driver skills. MotoGP has no pit stops and lots of passing. Every turn is a game of chicken and the bikes are close to what's available on the street.
Just made my donation. Give me more advanced notice next year and I'll make a bigger one.
Balmer carefully removing screws from his sky box seat strategically perched about the start finish line.
I've really enjoyed reading lot's of the ignorant comments people are making about the Indy 500, so in short let me explain why this is, not only important from a sporting perspective but also from and environmental and technical perspective as well.
You might want to use better grammar if you're going to complain about ignorance.
1. The Indianapolis is the biggest annual sporting event. Period. More people attend, and more people watch on TV worldwide then any other event.
Bullshit. The Indy 500 is about 110 million viewers. The world cup held in France in 1998 had 2 BILLION people watching.
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).
I know very little about NASCAR, but a quick google search says they're using unleaded gas right now, the 2007 season.
The rest of your post was so rambling and incoherent, I couldn't find any way to respond. It is patently obvious you have never watched any other form of racing (namely, that you're quite ignorant yourself.) Most of the competitive elements you describe are present in most other forms of auto/bike racing.
Please help metamoderate.
I'm 28 and have been to probably 14 or 15 Indy 500's. It's the only race I go to each year even though my Uncle always has an extra ticket or two to the Brickyard and tickets for the USGP are pretty easy to come by. Don't know much else about the IRL except that they have some other races throughout the year.. I just have fun going to the race each year. Also happen to be a fan of Linux. So, I think it's pretty cool that there is a penguin car in the 500 and this is the first I've heard of the car. I can't so whether I would have donated to the cause or not had publicity been better, but I'll now be rooting for Tux on race day :)
The truth is that the real Indy 500 has been dead for years. Ever since the owner of the speedway split the sport in a power grab the race has been a shadow of it's former self. Talk of "the biggest sporting event" is a joke. The TV ratings have fallen below those of many of NASCAR's ordinary races and the event has gone from an annual sell-out with a waiting list to a free ticket bonanza.
This project has nothing to do with promoting OSS and everything to do with some Indycentric gomers fleecing OSS advocates while trying to prop up the sagging facade that is "Indy".
NASCAR started using unleaded fuel this season (2007). Grandparent post was wrong to suggest they are only "thinking about phasing out leaded gas".
As a sidenote, I'm really surprised to see Ethanol praised by everyone and their uncle as a great alternative to fossil fuel. Sure, it burns cleaner and results in less pollution, but somehow everyone forgets the impact of large-scale farming (fertilizer pollution, soil erosion). What's even worse is that it takes more energy to produce corn-based fuel than fossil fuel. This energy has to come from somewhere - in the US, it's most likely a coal power plant. Ethanol simply moves the pollution from one producer to another.
As and IRL fan knows, Moreno is known as "The Super Sub". He usually replaces injured drivers on other teams, then performs well above expectations. It's a mystery that he never has a full time ride these days. Anyway, a 31st starting spot on Sunday means NOTHING. Look for Moreno to be in the top 5 by the 300 mile mark. Hopefully this will expose auto racing to more nerds. At it's heart auto racing IS the nerd's sport.
'mmmmmmmmm.... forbidden donut'
I love linux, using it daily. But why are we advertising a product that won't work for a lot of people who are watching the race. Most people advertise things people can go out, buy and use right now.
I have been using linux since slack on floppies and it has come a long way. But for the average consumer, it still needs work. Instead of 12k going to a bumper sticker on a car moving way too fast to read, why not put that money in projects that helps mature parts of linux. Lets get some working wifi broadcom drivers, being able to only connect at 11 mbs to an unencrypted network, its not fully finished. The people on those projects need funding. If you want people to switch, how about throwing that 12k towards the wine project? People won't give up old applications just like that. When ever you have to say "It's just like X, but..." then the project still needs work to replace the alternative.
That 12k could have gone a long way to several projects. The proposed 250k could have gone even further. When I can install linux on any of my laptops or desktops and be able to work and play like I do under Windows and Mac OSX, then it is time to advertise to the masses.
-I just work here... how am I supposed to know?
apt-get install checkered-flag
Donated for myself and another geek, named anonymous. And believe me, im stingy with my $.
Apple uses a lot of open source technologies, but their platforms as a whole are still proprietary, and is used to drive sales to its up-market computers.
There are thousands of projects that deserve my money more than this one.
See I like micro payments.
I throw money at my waiter for serving me my food. I throw money at a blog that has good tutorials on it. I throw money at far fetched projects like SeaLand.
I have never heard of the Tux500 project. I see it posted. I deemed it worthy of throwing money at it.
"5 Bux for Tux!"
--ElGatoLoco
The race has a car with a Penguin drawn on the hood?
Give me a break!
Tag lost or not installed.
You'll notice that despite the 31st place, he'd actually be just half a mph behind Al Unser. It's very possible that it could at least place in the top 4-5.
No, Linux was about two years ago 'good enough' to go onto the desktop. It is now more than ready. It's been server class for almost have a decade.
The ONLY reason Windows is sometimes easier to install is because it has access to proprietary drivers/hardware. That does not mean that Windows is so much better (because, frankly, it's crap - and that's ignoring Vista because I can't even describe that in polite terms).
However, I'm 100% with you on that this Indie thing was a waste of good money - I made the same observation repeatedly. It felt to me like a community sponsored hobby, and people fell for it to the tune of $12k.
There's so much more that could have been done with that money, Linux isn't something you explain in a 5 second flash of visibility. Ineffective, a waste of time and not suited to purpose.
Even a win won't mean much for Linux IMHO..
Holy hot, she qualified 29. http://www.milkaduno.com/
Speaking as someone who grew up in Indy and who is still heavily involved in motorsports, you really don't know what you're talking about.
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
"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?"
In all honestly, securing a starting spot wasn't that difficult. Indy traditionally starts 33 cars, but there are only 20-22 cars who regularly compete in the series. The remainder of the field is what we in the business called "field-filler". Basically, it's people who show up with a car (often times a year or two old), and then manage to run 4 qualifying laps without crashing. Sure, they have to have an IRL license to compete, but many of them are former drivers well past their prime (Al Unser Jr and Roberto Moreno, for example) or drivers that weren't good enough to land a full season ride from a team (but could come up with a couple hundred thousand dollars in sponsorship money to just run Indy).
To say that he's only 5.5 MPH slower than the fastest car is a minimizing statement. That's over 1 second per lap slower than the fastest car. The faster cars are turning laps in the 39-40 second range, so over 200 laps you can expect him to finish 5 laps down. Assuming that he doesn't get caught up in traffic or have handling problems, which is usually not the case. Then factor in that his team probably will be 2-3 seconds slower per pit stop than the top teams and I could see him easily finishing 7 or 8 laps behind.
So will he be able to pilot his car to an Indy 500 victory? Only if he's incredibly lucky and 30 other cars crash out of the race.
Y'know, I'd be impressed if it were Danica Patrick, Jeff Gordon or Dale Jr. whose car had a big Linux sponsorship on it.
Hell, I'd be impressed if they got a minor sponsorship. Even a "The Phillips Monoco Screwdriver Lightbulb Plumbing Linux Car did great tonight!" would be a shock.
Shouldn't it be called Tux Racer?
See, now here's where the geeks among us need to look into that most heinous of sins -- marketing. I'm not going to even suggest I'm a marketing whiz or even know much about it. But I do know that an effort like this should only be the start of something. Free Tux in every Happy Meal? Tux smiling back at you from a billboard above the Brooklyn Bridge? Guy in a penguin suit rappelling down the CN Tower? Hell, why not? Microsoft has done things like this and their friggin' OS is on almost every computer! Why do they need to make sure they stay in the spotlight? To keep their position with manufacturers as the #1 choice when buying a new computer! We need to be in the public eye more, not just on the Web. We need exposure, and any way you guys can think to do it (as long as it isn't a negative image) is the way to go. Teach them about Linux after they know it exists!
If you think this idea is crazy, have you heard about the iPhone? It may not run Linux proper, but it's clearly in the GNU/open-source camp.
I don't get it. OS X is closed source.
Yeah, it uses BSD-derived code... but so does Microsoft Windows. To really get with the GNU camp you need the whole viral license thang.
Slashdot DOES have editors, they have to select stories to run. Have you ever looked at the firehose? It's full of crap. That said, a lot of the stories selected are crap, too. Here, the Slashdot editors refused to run any story on this because it wasn't interesting to them, therefore they concluded it wouldn't be interesting to a majority of the readers. And, from the comments, a majority of the readers aren't interested, either.
Shame on you. You've rediscovered censorship by the majority. It's not a long step from there to the Soviet Union. I'm very disappointed.
He just crashed, around lap 40.
Tried to pass slower traffic on the outside of turn 1, got wide and smacked into the wall. At least the nose cone was intact.
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).
No, they used to use methanol. It burned without visible flames, which made fueling mishaps a bit too exciting (and harder for the safety crew to deal with). Using an E85 blend probably was as much a safety move as a marketing ploy.