2005 Hamann Ferrari F430
Sheer beauty. No info on specs yet. I’ll change the images to thumbnails so this page loads faster later. In the mean time, the pictures are clickable for a larger image.
Amazing Ferrari Collection
This is why becoming a triple-board certified physician is important.
Enzo Ferrari, 575M, 512BBi, 288GTO, 360 Spider
Local Wikipedia Install Exposes IE & Firefox File Size Limit Bug?
For the past two weeks I have been working on setting up a local copy of Wikipedia which is an online encyclopedia that anyone on the internet can contribute to. The idea is that a community-edited encyclopedia could leverage the expertise of everyone on the intenet to develop a world-class encyclopedia. Although Wikipedia isn’t a perfect source from which to do college or graduate level research projects, it provides reasonable answers to many questions that aren’t present in traditional print encyclopedias.
To move this process along I have finally gotten a copy of Fedora Core 4 installed in VMWare on my Windows 2003 Server box, it’s taken quite some time in restoring the encyclopedia database which is about a 4 gigabyte text file (will be much larger once restored). On a Pentium 4 2.8Ghz (HT-enabled) and 1.5 gigs of ram, it took a little over 48 hours to restore the database dump of the English version of Wikipedia. My entire Linux install including the database is hovering at around 20 gigabytes of used space.
Everything was working fine except for the fact that I had none of the images that are embedded in the articles. I found a backup of the images as well. I had problems downloading it in both Firefox (FX) and Internet Explorer (IE). In both IE and FX, the file showed up as a 753 megabyte file. In reality the file is supposed to be 17 gigabytes which leads me to believe that both IE and FX have some weird file download size limit preventing them from downloading the entire thing. Finally I installed the windows version of WGET and it is working perfectly.
Update: This bug is resolved in the latest Firefox version.
The Celtics Invade
Yesterday evening I had a hurried Deepa calling me begging to take one of the cars in the stable to an art gallery event last night. She had asked me to come but I had emphatically refused because it isn’t my style to show up at a glitzy event for no real reason. Anyway, so I gave her the car and told her to be careful because if it got ruined I would pull it out of her income for the next two decades. Things were just fine and the car was returned by 1am. I went this morning to get my glasses fixed and decided to take the car out for a spin although my official reasoning was I needed to drop the car off at the other house where it stays. To my bewilderment, at 8:30am I hear what sounds like a song of off one of those PBS specials with the tapdancing and expressionless people. Okay, I’m not as ignorant as I purport because I recognized the artists as “Celtic Woman” and they actually did play on PBS a few months back but I didn’t get to see the performance. I liked the song playing but that isn’t the point of this post. The point is: who the hell plays a song like this when in this sort of car? Are you just being cute? It’s not like you bump this on your way for a night out. Anyway, I figured I’d upload the song and let you guys listen to it. Next time, put on a real driving song or I’ll drive even if I don’t want to go. All ******** drivers should be insulted. LOL
Hit play if it doesn’t start by itself.
[http://blog.hishamrana.com/media/celtic.mp3]
Oh, if you haven’t figured it out, that’s not English. It’s a Gaelic song written originally by Clannad in 1983 for an Irish drama. Ten years after it was written, the song was played in Patriot Games and Volkswagon played the song in its commericials. This version is just amazing as it demonstrates Orla’s unbelieveable vocal ability. I will say that it isn’t the typic Irish jig and some may say her voice is too perfect, but everything has a time and place.
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Bugatti Veyron 16/4 beats Koenigsegg CCR Top Speed Record
I was just reading my copy of Evo magazine and saw that the Bugatti Veyron 16/4 recently surpassed the Koenigsegg CCR’s top speed record. The Bugatti has a 16-cyclinder engine with four turbochargers making a cool 1,001 horsepower. It clocked in at 400kph (248.5 miles per hour) at Volkswagon’s Ehra-Lessien test facility. This is the same place where the mighty Mclaren F1 set the 387kph (240.14mph) record in 1998 which it held for almost seven years. The car to break that record was the Koenigsegg CCR back in February of 2005 at Nardo when the car ran 388kph (242mph). The difference is that Nardo is a huge oval and the Mclaren only went 372kph (232mph) so it remains to be seen if the CCR can beat the Veyron 16/4 at the Ehra-Lessien facility.
Something interesting to note is that Veyron has been delayed for a very long time because of the car’s stability at those high speeds. In normal conditions, you won’t be able to reproduce the 400kph top speed due to safety reasons so Bugatti came up with a novel solution:
Every owner will be supplied with a special second key, made from aluminium in best Bugatti lightweight tradition (originally it was going to be silver but it was deemed to be too heavy). With the car stationary, this key has to be inserted to the left of the driver’s seat, down by the sill.
The words ‘Top Speed’ then appear on the facia and the car begins a series of safety checks on such things as tyre pressures. Once complete, the chassis squats to just 65mm above the road at the front and 70mm at the rear. From now on, the diffuser flaps remain closed and the angle of incidence of the rear aerofoil is minimised to reduce wind resistance. The final action of this high-speed mode is to disable all limiters (the car is otherwise limited to 375kph). Touch the brakes, however, and the car reverts to standard settings.
Protected: The Past, Present and Future
Mclaren F1
Arguably one of the most beautiful, most practical, and highest performance supercar ever built the Mclaren F1 is a legend in automotive history. I was looking at pictures of it this morning and realized how much I wanted one. Unfortunately, even after the car being more than 10 years old, the prices for a used one are hovering around 1.3 million Euros (about $1.5 million U.S. dollars). However, with a car like this I wouldn’t think twice. Mclaren F1 ownership has its perks. Once a new owner purchases a used car, Mclaren will have the car shipped to its factory and spend 3 months taking the entire thing apart and rebuilding it to brand new specs. They will even install the latest devices such as navigation, cell phones, etc. The car can also be repainted in any color the owner wants. This is the car that I stared at every time I didn’t want to study in medical school. I made a promise to myself back in junior high that I would own one someday and I certainly hope I get to that point someday.
As for specs: It is about 14 feet long, 7 feet wide, and 4 feet tall (about as big as a Toyota MR2 spyder which is TINY). The car is equipped with a 6-speed gearbox and a BMW V-12 engine producing upwards of 627 horsepower and 427 lb-ft. of torque. The weight is around 2500 pounds. With a 0 to 60 mph time of 3.2 seconds and a top speed of 240 mph, the F1 remains one of the fastest cars ever made. 107 were built, 65 for street use and 42 for racing.
Below are three movies of the Mclaren and a bunch of pictures. Enjoy.
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In the market for a new luxury cruiser
So we have been debating on what our next uber-luxury car is going to be. We’ve search high and low and here are some of the cars on the list. All the cars come with a navigation system and XM or Sirius radio as options (if not standard equipment). All the prices below reflect cars that are loaded with every option. Please feel free to shoot me an email if you have any recommendations.
BMW 750Li
One wore: UGLY! Chrise Bangle really designed an ugly car for BMW. Yes, they updated the front and rear for 2006 but it really didn’t fix the overall ugliness of the design. I would change the front and rear completely. However, compared to the front, I like the back of the car is somewhat better. The interior is really ugly as well. It just feels cheap and there is nothing earth shatteringly amazing inside. Sure, BMW might have a great engine under the hood but the 750Li doesn’t strike me as a work of art. Cost: $90,000
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Usable cell phone or how much Verizon sucks
I guess I am a self-proclaimed gadget freak. I always like to be the one that has all the latest and greatest electronic goodies which have no seemingly useful purpose in the here and now. However, months later those gadgets somehow get integrated in some useful way into my daily routine. I always tend to find things I wish those gadgets could do better and then I go buy the next greatest thing. The cycle starts all over again. I’m a slave to the system I suppose but it sure is a lot of fun.
Now, let’s get onto my rant for today. Verizon Wireless. Verizon Wireless sucks. I hate Verizon Wireless. Why do I hate it? I just do. Wait, let me qualify this before the Verizon Wireless fanboys come to chase me out of these sandbox. Believe me when I say I have used just about every provider out there (i.e. Cingular/SBC, Pac Bell PCS, Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, T-Mobile, Voicestream, etc) so this isn’t just an uninformed consumer speaking. I got my first cellular phone back when the Motorola brick phones were all the rage. Sure, I was less than half (if not a third) of my current age, but I was the first kid in my school (if not distict) to have a “mobile” phone. So I have a fair bit of experience over the years.
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Protected: Wife Material Debate?
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