The Farce Continues

Apparently, the teams which refused to race at the Indianapolis Grand Prix have been found guilty of bringing Formula One into disrepute - well, the FIA was hardly likely to charge itself, was it?

Interestingly, the sentence won't be announced until mid-September. No doubt when it is, the severity will depend on how much of a leg up is required by Ferrari...

Automotive Hara-kiri

I settled down to watch the US Grand Prix after a very pleasant day yesterday and I still can't believe what I saw. How can a "race" in which seven out of ten competing teams withdraw before the start have any meaning or validity whatsoever?

In their efforts to give struggling Ferrari a leg up - and what other reason can there possibly have been for not agreeing to allow the building of a chicane which would have enabled the Michelin-shod teams to compete - the FIA have clearly forgotten about the punters.

If this is what Formula 1 has come to, then it's time to start over. Hopefully the rival GPWC series which has been set up by the manufacturers for 2008 and beyond will fill the void...

(X&)Y Shouldn't I Rip It?

I've just bought a copy of Coldplay's new album. For convenience, I prefer to rip all my CDs to MP3, which can then be stored on my server PC. This is networked around my home so that I can listen to my music wherever it suits me. I do NOT file-share.

To my annoyance I found that the disc is copy-protected in an attempt to prevent me from enjoying music I've already legitimately bought and paid for. I really don't see what this is really achieving - there are copies of the album already floating around the 'net, so the only people suffering from this are the likes of me - who rather than sponging or stealing have put their cash up front.

Needless to say, I've got round the protection anyway and now have a high quality set of X & Y MP3s safely copied to my server...

Chutzpah

So Michael Jackson's been found not guilty. I'm not that surprised, mainly because what I've heard of the prosecution's case hasn't proved the allegations "beyond reasonable doubt". Had I been on the jury, I'd probably have acquitted him, too. That said, I agree with the view of one of the jurors, who stated the opinion that he probably had abused children, there just wasn't the proof.

I'm somewhat amazed to have heard that MJ's website is apparently comparing the acquittal with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the release of Nelson Mandela. Clearly, the guy's only losely connected to planet Earth.

What's Been Going On?

I've been away on holiday for a bit and have pretty much been out of touch. Whilst I was incommunicado, it appears that the country has finally, undoubtedly gone completely barking mad...

The singles music chart has been an irrelevance for me for years, nevertheless I was stunned to discover that the chart topper is now a bl**dy ringtone, and an extremely annoying one at that. Is this really the best "music" currently available? I think not!