Book read: Williams The Legendary Story of Frank Williams and His F1 Team in Their Own Words by Maurice Hamilton

I was lent this book and at first I did not have huge expectations, mainly because I know a lot of the team's history and thought that I was not going to learn much new. Also I am always a little suspicious of journalists who write biographies, usually too caught up in the headlines to give true insight.

I'm pleased to say I was wrong, Hamilton writes some very interesting things about the team, and also interview segments from people involved. Each chapter has a story element and then interview quotes from the people who were there.

So things that stood out for me:

• The remarkable Patrick Head and Frank Williams partnership, one concentrating on the engineering the other the sponsor deals.
• The determined nature of Williams to keep going despite his tragic road accident.
• Great insight on why Mansell and then laterly Hill were dropped. The bit about Breen (Hill's lawyer) walking into Williams office and trying to call the shots made me feel the he was justified in dropping him.
• Good coverage of the early team years, racing was different back then - entry costs may have been much lower but it was a struggle to survive and find funding.
• Active suspension was outlawed because Ferrari put pressure on the governing body when they could not get their version working. Probably not a bad thing for the sport though.
• The stormy relationship with BMW was interesting, huge politics involved. Part of this may have been Williams going off the boil slightly and never really finding someone of the calibre of Newey to design the car.
• The first use of wind tunnels involved renting time at a University in London. At least twice in the book does a wind tunnel upgrade mean the team suffers while the new facility is getting up to running.
• Good references to people who could talk about the Williams they knew in private, not quite the cold character the press portrays - mainly because he limits their exposure to him.
  

Burnley 1 Portsmouth 2

Not that I want to be a result service, but every cloud has a silver lining. An away win in the most difficult of times. Part of me wants to believe the "doing it for the fans" mantra that is often trotted out in times of crisis - but I suppose the players also realise this a shop window now, so had better start playing to attract interest.

That's a little unfair I know, the performances have been ok this year but results have been lacking.

Portsmouth in Administration

Not the most earth shattering news but Portsmouth went into Administration today. Not complete winding up, but now the process of finding a buyer and losing league table points await.

Hard to see any positives here - except another Pompey first - the first club to go out of business in the top flight. How did it ever come to this?

TV Wishlist 2

Well it looks like Panasonic maybe doing something like this, albeit in a higher end model:

http://dontgetdemoralised.blogspot.com/2010/01/tv-wishlist.html

The register is reporting a TV with HDTV, plugable storage - ok plasma. Get this in an LCD and sub £500 - it will sell well I think.

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2010/02/19/comet_sells_panasonic_freeview_hd_tv/

Can't wait to replace my current setup.

University Places

A story that has been brewing for a few weeks, institutions are facing cutbacks on places, and more bizarrely cuts in funding if they overstep their quota.

The Telegraph is trumpeting this, and of course they can find the A* students from private school who cannot get a place - but I have a feeling this is a minority. It is ironic that you can only pay for education so far, you cannot (yet) buy a university education in this country. Although you could argue we are not far from the American model.

The other issue is a bumper year for births back in 1992 - also causing pressure on numbers. I do find the fines for exceeding numbers strange, and surely the government could do something positive here maybe allowing extra funds for "useful" courses.

Politicians in tears

Although I have sympathy for Gordon and Sarah Brown on the loss of their child a few years ago I am against celebrity style interview shows trying to bring out their human side to the potential voter.

Maybe it was also the sight of Alistair Campbell (someone I have reasonable respect for as he often would tell it as he saw it) almost blubbing during an interview. But the country faces serious issues, I want to hear policies, I want to hear choices, I do not need to hear personal things no matter how tragic.

It's something I do not think does Brown too many favours, maybe cynically it is a jibe at Cameron who now would feel obliged to do something similar.

Photo: Spinnaker Tower Portsmouth

Part of my rare photo series, a shot of Spinnaker tower in Portsmouth. The much delayed and over budget tower is now part of the city skyline.

Too cloudy for a visit, the desginers probably did factor that into their earnings model.

FA Cup: Southampton 1 - Portsmouth 4

In a rare win Portsmouth move toward the quarter finals, or to bankruptcy who knows.

A good game, Southampton were better than the scoreline suggests - Portsmouth relied on breaking and scoring goals.

The teams rarely meet so a bit of history too, Portsmouth have had the better of the FA cup ties.

Man Utd 5 Portsmouth 0

I would never have expected great things of them here, even if times were good. But 5-0 is pretty hard, especially with your own side scoring 3 times!

The FA cup tie cannot come soon enough.

BAE fine

BAE have now been fined for their previous contracts with corruption allegations. The fine itself does not seem that heavy. I do buy the idea that it is a company that has now much cleaned up its act and the contracts in question were a long time ago.

Some other interesting facts is that BAE is now our largest manufacturer. This probably says a lot about the state of that sector rather than BAE, but also shows it is a business that is worth keeping - although trading arms is not the most noble of professions. I always think it is probably best the Britain does this, as it is unlikely what is sold will ever work!

Still it was a shame this was all initially covered up under "national interest". It would have been far better to admit the past bad practice rather than withhold on these grounds. As with MP expenses the truth always comes out in the end.

iPad no flash

Lots of hype about Apple's new product, I am sure it will do very well - although as usual I would not be able to stand the lock in to the manufacturer.

In fairness the lockin is there to provide a safer user experience and most users simply will not care.

One interesting thing was Steve Jobs in his demo browsing a site with Flash on - but with no Flash plugin running in the browser. At first this was seen as work in progress, but he has since criticised Adobe for buggy software and hoping the HTML 5 see their technology disappear.

I kind of agree, lots of the web contains Flash though - you only really notice it as a non Windows user who does not want to use a plugin for it.

Film: Aliens directed by James Cameron

The second of the Alien films, this is a great all action adventure. Ripley is discovered drifting in space and is taken back to earth 50 years after the setting of the first film.

A colony has been formed on the planet from the first film, contact is lost with the colonisers and a crack team of marines and Ripley as consultant are sent to find out what is going on.

So a predictable mascare ensues, the marines super over confident in their abilities are humbled and most of them are wiped out with the first serious encounter.

This leaves Ripley and the survivors to work out a way back home, a struggle that takes up the rest of the film.

Great effects, still looks good today and a fast paced action packed film. 8/10