Archive for 24 January 2005
Sweet New McLaren MP4-20
24 January 2005 in Root | Comments (1)
McLaren unveiled today their 2005 contender car: the MP4-20. The new driver Juan Pablo Montoya and old McLaren regular Kimi Räikkönen seem to have got a really hot car for this new year.
The MP4-20 seems to me like it has got a very low center of gravity and quite reasonable amount of downforce. Interestingly, the new regulations for 2005 means that there will be more downforce on all cars this year with the tires being thicker and thus making the cars a whole lot slower than last year. I can’t help to wonder though how much faster this new McLaren would be on last year’s tires… 
The side pontoon seems to have been inspired by the 2004 Ferrari but the hot air chimeny placed upon it changes the picture quite a whole lot. Over all, I think this new car from McLaren might be a Ferrari beater — until Ferrari reveils their new car. 
To see the latest pics from the release of the new McLaren, head over to Pitpass.com.
Solving the Kryptos Code (Ok, Not Really!)
24 January 2005 in Root | Comments (0)
Jim Sanford is the creator of a statue called Kryptos, placed in the front of CIA HQ that has got an encrypted text that has been puzzeling crypthographers for some time. I got a few ideas for the cryptographers out there to try out, when Sanford said recently in a transcribed interview to Wired:
It’s also well-known that I did use some matrix codes Ed gave me, and I have also designed visual systems for encoding, which are much harder for cryptographers to crack because they’re individualistic.