News prediction fun
Prediction
jimbob666
‘Minority Report’ technology is here
I remember watching Minority Report when it was released and being blown away by the technology in the film, most notably the whole futuristic User Interaction (UI) thing. When the characters were using their hands on clear ‘windows’ (physical, not MSFT) it looked so natural and intuitive.
Oblong Industries Inc has created a real world representation of this futuristic UI. One of the founders was the science advisor for Minority Report so it is no coinicidence in the similarities. Here is a demo:
Tetris. But not as you know it..
Found a great little flash and browser based game called 99 Bricks. Imagine Tetris crossed with Jenga with some physics thrown in. The idea is to build your tower of tetriminoes as high as possible before it topples to the ground. My love of physics in videogames is heightened even further by this game 
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Heathrow T5 and Google Maps
My Google Maps fascination continues. Terminal 5 at Heathrow is a masterpiece of engineering. The logistics and challenges were mind boggling. For instance, they couldn’t build the new control tower in place due to disruption. So they built it at the edge of the airport and moved (?) it in one piece at night in a 5 hour window of downtime.
Google maps really shows how Heathrow is like a well oiled ‘machine’. The maps show so much detail, it is quite fascinating. Terminal 5 was a work in progress when the mapping plane took the photos. Here is hoping for updated images soon.
As a side note, Microsoft Live Maps has a stunning bird’s eye view of Heathrow. This is even more detailed than Google Maps. The fact you can rotate the viewpoint still amazes me.
The car is the prize..
Lewis Hamilton made a triumphant return to McLaren HQ this week. The boss of McLaren, Ron Dennis, teased him with a toy McLaren F1 LM car. The significance of this? Lewis will get the real thing if he wins two more championships. Only 5 of these cars were ever built 
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Fantasy F1: Brazil
Lewis Hamilton WDC 2008!! Hip hip hoooray!!
It was a sensational end to a championship, one which will take some topping. I was on the edge of my seat having multiple heart attacks by the last lap 
. Rain affected the race right at the beginning and, crucially, the last 3 laps. It was a tough call to put wets on but they had to, it was too slippy. All put wets on except Toyota who gambled (bravely) and stayed out on dry tyres. This catapulted Glock up through the ranks. Meanwhile Vettel passed Hamilton to knock him down to a championship losing 6th with a couple of laps to go. It really looked like it was over for Hamilton as he couldn’t find a way around Vettel. That is until the last corner on the last lap when Glock, in his now uncontrollable Toyota, lost traction giving Hamilton the chance to pass for 5th and the championship. An amazing sporting moment, simply stunning.
It was also the end to the Yahoo! Fantasy F1. I had Kovalainen, Piquet, Bourdais and Renault. Kovalainen came home 7th, Piquet didn’t come home, Bourdais came home 14th and Renault cars finished 2nd and DNF. I got a handful of points to finish the season on 396 points putting me in 3097th place (!). Overall winner scored 571 points so I was miles behind. Roll on March 2009!
