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?"

Comments

No thanks to you, Slashdot.

[suso]

(I'm coming out of comment retirement to criticize Slashdot, not the community)

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 :)", 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.

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.

[penp]

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 :)", 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. I could have sworn this had already made it to the front page a few times in the last month or so. At any rate, I know there was a smear campaign going around saying that the tux500 project was a scam, but there was really nothing conclusive. In the end, I really didn't care. I don't think the Indianapolis 500 is the ideal place to be promoting Linux, especially in the form of a tiny sticker on a car (or even if they had raised all the money, for an entire Tux500 car). I doubt anyone at the Indianapolis 500 is going to care about the fact that tux is represented on a car, beyond "hay look thar's a penguin on that thar car!"

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. Just because you believe in the project so adamantly does not mean that so many other people would believe in it just because it got posted on slashdot. It got plenty of publicity, anyone who visits any kind of linux forum can tell you that. But as I said before, the status quo seems to think that it is absolutely absurd, and the idea that they even raised $1000, let alone $12000 is even more absurd.

You know why so many community projects fail? Because the leaders don't believe in them. How excited would the linux community be about a project to put tux on a billboard at the Super Bowl, or better yet, a commercial during the event? I'm sure there are lots more dumb ideas, most of them just don't end up with the financial backing of Tux500. You can't place the blame on the linux "leaders" for not wanting to get behind an idea of advertising linux in a highly commercial environment. It could send the wrong signal. GNU/Linux isnt about commercialism, it's about the community, which is where this argument fails.

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? Personally, I have no interest in racing, let alone the Indianapolis 500. Most of my friends who support Linux, also have no interest. Why support advertisement of linux in an event which I also do not support? This is completely different from a stance to mobilize the community about something which is already WITHIN the community (i.e. blender)

Re:No thanks to you, Slashdot.

[TechyImmigrant]

Myopia is a wonderful thing...

>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.

I think this would garner more attention

[kkelly]

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.....