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January 30, 2004

Closer and Closer

Sitting on our dining room table is a contract signed both by us and seller's of the house we'd like to buy. The wheels are turning now, and if all goes well, we'll be moving in April 24. There's much to do between then and now -- home inspections, mortgages, insurance -- but the deal is done. The final step toward to adulthood is nearly complete.

January 29, 2004

Cold Scorchin' and Other Things

I finally decided I was sick of waiting for the bus endlessly, so I rode in this morning. Now that I'm downtown, I'm riding on all main roads (Stanton to Butler to Penn to Grant), so everything was wet or even dry in spots. It was a bit chilly and windy, but still bearable. And much better than standing around waiting for a bus.

On the house hunt....it looks like we've come to an agreement on the price. Now there are just a few ancillary items we have to hack through before we sign the contract. Woo.

We had a nice long evening meeting with our new masters at work on Tuesday. At least there was food. Some things will better, some things won't. I think it will really depend how much they allow our current management to do what they do. There are still rumors that we will moving to the Forest Hills office, however. I'm not exactly thrilled at that thought, but I really don't want to worry about it at the moment.

January 27, 2004

Seb Sighting

The boy seems to have snuck out again, and this time he wasn't going to be satisfied with some piddly waterslide....

January 26, 2004

I, for One, Welcome My New Robot Masters

(with apologies to jwz)

Ciber Acquires FullTilt Solutions

After three wonderful days of employment, I'm now an employee of Ciber. According to management, nothing is going to change for us, since we all work on profitable projects for large clients. There's obviously a lot of grumbling in the office, and people are concerned, but I've got other things to worry about. Plus, Ciber has such a large army of Java programmers that if things at this office went downhill, I could always move within the company. The good news is that the office will stay downtown, rather than moving to Ciber's Pittsburgh office in Forest Hills, and the management at the office will stay on, though there will be a general manager from Ciber installed. These guys have been through a couple of acquisitions, and they've managed to keep things pretty stable at the office, so I'm not terribly worried at the moment.

Update

Dave pointed out this spelling mistake (I hope) in the Ciber press release I linked to above about the acquisition:

“CIBER is adding approximately 100 employees, approximately 70 percent of which are in Philadelphia. The new operations represent approximately $15 million in annualized revenue and are expected to add approximately one cent to CIBER’s earning in 2004,” according to David Durham, CIBER’s Chief Financial Officer.

Great to know we can add $0.01 to Ciber's earnings this year. Heck, they could probably take the soda machine out of the break room and add more to their earnings this year.

January 25, 2004

Rallye Monte Carlo Wrapup

As expected, Sebastien Loeb won his second consecutive Monte with a commanding win over Ford's Markko Martin and Francois Duval. Marcus Gronholm held fourth place, one his best finishes in the rally. Two big surprises: Freddy Loix took fifth, and Gilles Panizzi, in the new Mitsubishi Lancer took sixth. Perhaps Peugeot's signing of Loix wasn't such a bad idea. Panizzi's sixth was a great result for the team in its return to the championship. Panizzi was subdued in his praise for the car, but obviously it was quick enough and reliable enough to score a couple of championship points. Petter Solberg looked as if he'd give Gronholm a run at fourth with a stage win, but then a collision with a rock damaged the suspension on his Impreza and Solberg dropped to seventh. Still, not a bad start, considering Solberg had never finished at Monte before, let alone score championship points.

Loeb seems to have picked up where he left off last season, and he'll be the man to beat all year. Ford has to be pleased with the performance of the Focus, and of David Duval. But the season is young, and Duval is on a short lease with team management, so he's got to keep up the pace. The new Peugeot 307 looks quick and generally reliable, so perhaps Gronholm will be a threat to the overall title this season. At least the manufacturer's race will be interesting, with Citroen, Ford and Peugeot all staking their claims.

The championship moves to Sweden in two weeks. This will be a critical rally for Markko Martin and Petter Solberg, as they both have the skill and experience to win it. Solberg needs to land on the podium to stay in the title hunt, even with the season just getting started. Keep an eye out for Freddy Loix as well -- he's proven he's a strong driver given a good car, and he could be a darkhorse on the snow.

January 24, 2004

Rallye Monte Carlo Day 2

Not much has changed in the top 4 after day two in Monte Carlo. Sebastien Loeb has extended his lead, and he now holds an advantage of over a minute and half. Ford's David Duval and Markko Martin will fight it out for second place tomorrow, with Duval currently holding a slim lead. Marcus Gronholm is holding steady in fourth, though he'll need a mistake by one of the front-runners to gain any ground. Petter Solberg is in fifth, with a comfortable cushion. This will actually be a good start to Solberg's title defence, as he's never scored points in Monte Carlo before. Freddy Loix should get his Peugeot campaign off to a good start if he can hold sixth place. Gilles Panizzi holds seventh place, and though his opinion of the new Lancer isn't exactly glowing, the car has been reliable enough for a points finish. Antony Warmbold rounds out the points in eighth. The day's only real drama was Carlos Sainz shunt and retirement due to a spin in snow. Both Sainz and Loeb complained that they thought spectators were pushing snow into the road, making the conditions more treacherous.

Not much should change in the standings tomorrow, barring accidents. Loeb should win his second consecutive Monte Carlo. It should be an interesting battle for second place, however -- perhaps Ford manager Malcolm Wilson will give team orders to maintain the good manufacturer's race points haul. It will also be interesting to see if Solberg will make a run at Gronholm. There aren't many competitve kilometers left, but Solberg tends to drive at his best on day three.

January 23, 2004

House Update

Just an update on the house negotiations. We did receive a counteroffer from the owners, and we're now formulating our counter. We're getting pretty close on price, it's just a few little things (seller assist on the closing costs, and some details of the home inspections) that we need to hammer out. Who knows, maybe we'll have an agreement in place by Monday!

Rallye Monte Carlo Day 1

Well, after four stages, the new Peugeot 307 looks to be a fine successor for the 206. Marcus Gronholm currently leads the rally by 8 seconds over Sebastien Loeb and 11 seconds over Ford's Markko Martin. Each of the three has taken a stage win so far. The conditions have been typical Monte -- snow and ice, with wet and dry tarmac mixed in. Tyre choice for this afternoon's stages will be critical, as the snow and ice may begin to melt, leaving either slush or wet tarmac for the cars to deal with.

Ford is looking strong at the moment, with Francois Duval holding fourth place, and Citroen Carlos Sainz holding fifth. Reigning world champion Petter Solberg is currently eighth, over a minute off the pace. Mitsubishi is doing fine for itself on it's return to the championship, with Gigi Galli holding ninth place, and Gilles Panizzi in eleventh.

Update

At the end of day one, Sebastien Loeb has taken the lead, and has an 18 second cushion over Markko Martin and Marcus Gronholm. Gronholm lost most of his time thanks to some gearbox issues, including what appears to be a bad ratio choice on SS5. Carlos Sainz has moved into fourth, just over a minute off the pace, followed by Francois Duval and Petter Solberg. Solberg has been hampered by the distinction of running first (a "perk" of being the reigning champion), so expect him to put his foot down tomorrow and pick up a place or two.

January 22, 2004

Random Things

First post from the new job....

Two interesting politic tidbits this morning:

First, a radio interview with Dick Cheney on NPR, mostly focusing on the war with Iraq and the administration's motivation for it. One thing Cheney repeated: we're just following up what the Clinton administration started -- regime change in Iraq. Hmmm. Go figure -- neo-conservative foreign policy fueled by liberals.

Second, Slate has an interesting take on Michael Moore's endorsement of Wesley Clark.

On the house hunt: the sellers are currently mulling over our offer. Our realtor is expecting them to decline the offer, but hopefully they'll give a counter-offer, and we can go from there.

January 21, 2004

A Fresh Start

I start the new job today. This should be a nice switch. I've always enjoyed working for small companies, but my last job gave me some valuable insight -- the small company atmosphere doesn't work at all when people don't get along. Not that I'm going to a huge corporation now, but I will be working for a larger company with a software development process in place. I'm sure people there still wing it when necessary, but at least there's a plan to fall back on if things go wrong.

And in even bigger news, Jen and I took the plunge last night and put a bid in on this house. I thought signing all the paper work and applying for a mortgage would be so much more climatic than it actually was. Maybe it's because we're working with a great realtor and a good friend is helping us with the mortgage. Maybe it's because despite the fact we're going into debt, we're going to be saving almost $100 on housing. I am a bit anxious to hear back from our agent tonight though, after he meets with the sellers about our bid. I'm sure we under-bid a bit, but better to start low and work our way up, eh?

January 19, 2004

House Hunting

The house hunt this past weekend was quite fruitful. I saw this place in Morningside on Friday, and took Jen and the boy over yesterday, and we all love it. It's really in move-in condition, which is a bonus. And from the it's-a-small-world department, I used to work with the guy who is selling it.

January 17, 2004

2004 WRC Preview - Wrapup

In six days, the 2004 season begins in Monte Carlo. I'll wrap my season preview and Monte preview into a single entry, just for convenience sake.

This is Sebastien Loeb's championship to lose. He made a few uncharacteristic mistakes on his favored surface (tarmac), missing out on big points in Germany and France. Don't expect that to happen again. Hopefully Loeb has learned from Richard Burns' example -- that is, you don't need to win every rally to contest the championship. Loeb had a few retirements pushing the boat out a bit too far -- had he just finished in the points, he would have easily won the championship. Loeb has a fast, reliable car (the Citroen Xsara), so even though his car doesn't have the number 1 placard, he's the man to beat.

Petter Solberg had a combination of skill and luck to win the championship last season. Poor weather conditions during the fall tarmac rounds allowed Solberg and the notoroiously underperforming Impreza to steal a win and a load of championship points. Solberg learned a lot of from his ex-teammate Tommi Makinen, and expect him to put that knowledge to good use this year. If Solberg is to repeat as champion, he's got to maximize his gravel wins and take advantage of the fact that Loeb loses a tarmac event this year (the Rally Italy has been moved from the sealed surfaces of the mainland to the gravel roads of Sardina). Can Solberg repeat? It's possible, but it will an uphill fight, unless the Subaru engineers really re-tooled the Impreza's engine this winter.

Markko Martin is the darkhorse. The Focus is incredibly quick, but it suffered from reliability issues last season. If the Ford M Sport engineers ironed out the bugs, Martin has a shot, but he's still not my favorite to win the championship. And what about Marcus Gronholm and Carlos Sainz? Sainz kept himself in contention last season by taking Richard Burns' route -- not many rally wins, but loads of points. His retirement from Rally GB nixed his hopes, but he was in the running until then. Gronholm had a terrible season last year, after owning the circuit in 2002. I'm not sure Gronholm's fortunes will change this year with the debut of the Peugeot 307, which will no doubt be plagued by reliability issues.

My Top 5
1. Sebastien Loeb
2. Petter Solberg
3. Carlos Sainz
4. Markko Martin
5. Marcus Gronholm

Monte Carlo
Citroen absolutely owned this event last season, with Sainz, Loeb and Colin McRae sweeping the podium spots. Don't expect much to change this season. Loeb is Tommi Makinen's heir as the master of this event, and Loeb should start his season with third consecutive win in Monte (it could be four, but he was given a time penalty in 2002 and lost to Makinen). This event has never been kind to Peugeot or Subaru, but Solberg at least needs to score points to get his season off to the right start.

Monte Carlo is always a bit of a crapshoot, with variable weather conditions, and the chance for rain or snow in the mountains. Loeb seems to have mastered the rally already. Solberg should have a better finish this year, due to more experience and a more mature driving strategy. Markko Martin should be a favorite, but he's not had much good luck at the Monte in the past.

My Top 3
1. Sebastien Loeb
2. Carlos Sainz
3. Petter Solberg

January 14, 2004

2004 WRC Preview - Mitsubishi

After a year's sabbatical, Mitsubishi returns with a new drivers line-up and a completely redesigned Lancer WRC. The car features a redesigned body and engine, and promises to be a strong competitor once the bugs are worked out. New number one driver Gilles Panizzi said the car has felt very good during the tests, and he expects it to be up to speed by the end of the season.

Panizzi was a big catch for the Japanese outfit, and the French tarmac specialist was happy to join the team to get the opportunity to contest a full season (something his previous team, Peugeot, had never given him). While Panizzi is not a real contender for the overall title, he can upset the balance with a few solid rallies. He should have best chances on the new gravel rallies (Mexico, Japan, and Italy) if the car is reliable. A points finish (like his fifth place in Turkey last year in a customer-spec Peugeot) could upset someone else's title hopes. Whether Panizzi will be able to retain his crown as the tarmac remains to be seen, and ultimately relies on the performance of the Lancer.

Joining Panizzi are a group of junior drivers who will get their shots to compete in a WRC. Kristian Sohlberg, Gianluigi Galli, and Daniel Sola will take turns in the number two car. Galli is committed to run in Monte Carlo, and Sohlberg in Sweden, but otherwise, the drive will go to driver with best shot at competing.

This is a learning year for Mitsubishi, but by the end of the season, with Panizzi's help, the Lancer should be well-equipped to compete next season.

January 13, 2004

Huh

Salon's criticism of a Howard Dean interview that mentions the word "God"

I'm not quite sure what all the fuss is about here. Howard Fineman did not attack Dean with his questions about Dean's faith. He didn't try and twist his answers. Fineman was trying to learn to learn more about Howard Dean the person, and Dean obviously didn't mind the question, as he provided a straightforward answer. Perhaps the Newsweek editors got a little carried away with their headlines, but please, don't fault Howard Fineman for doing his job, and doing it well.

The Fix is In

Pittsburgh City Council to raise parking tax to 50% to provide budget relief.

Wow. Imagine for a moment you own a business, and you receive notice that the city will now be taking 50% of your revenue. Keep in mind these people will still be paying their federal and state taxes with the 50% of the revenue that remains. Wow.

First, part of me says "Good! Maybe more people will take the bus to work." But this isn't just about commuters. Mayor Murphy has tried valiantly over the course of his tenure to bring more businesses into downtown, including retailers and "nightlife"-type attractions. This isn't going to help his cause. If you think for a moment that the parking garage owners/operators won't pass this along to consumers, you're nuts. Parking lots aren't like retail stores -- they can only do so much business in one day. If your lot fills up at 8:30am, and stays that way until 4:30pm, you've reached your earning potential for the day. The only way you can offset the tax increase is to raise rates.

This is the sort of budget "fix" that has gotten the Murphy administration in trouble before. Remember the plan to cut taxes for new businesses coming into the city? The expectation was that more workers would move into city, and the city would offset the loss of business taxes with more income tax. Too bad the majority of the workers moved to the suburbs, where their income was safe from Murphy's hands. And where did that get the city? Into the current budget crisis. The parking tax increase will hurt retailers downtown, and at some point aftershocks will be felt by the city.

Given the circus that the local government has been over the past few years, it's really hard to take anyone seriously. I don't follow local politics much, but I've seen the city's leadership make bad decisions over and over again to try and cure their budget woes. There really needs to be a change in leadership. I'm not advocating impeaching Murphy, or throwing out the members of council, but the voters of the city (myself included) need to shoulder the burden and find leadership that can get the city out of this crisis.

Related note
Actually, a question to my intelligent readers. I know that the Pittsburgh Parking Authority owns and operates many parking lots downtown, but for other lots, is the land that the lot occupies owned by the city or the lot operator?

January 12, 2004

Behind the Scenes Update

I finally wrestled the anklebiter.net domain name from our lame hosting provider, which means that everything now points to the same servers as ankle-biter.net. Including email. The old provider's service would just mysteriously disappear every so often. That shouldn't be the case anymore, though. Hoo-ray!

January 11, 2004

2004 WRC Preview - Ford

If one established factory team was a model of inconsistency in 2003, it was Ford. The team debuted the new Focus, and it was incredibly quick -- when it was running. Markko Martin showed poise and skill in winning Rally Finland -- but retired or crashed out of a handful of other rallies. Francois Duval showed glimpses of brilliance -- when he wasn't pulling his Focus out of the trees. This will be a year of huge expectations for the car and for Martin.

Let's begin with Duval. Team manager Malcolm Wilson believes that Duval has what it takes to win rallies and fight for the championship. It's just a matter of whether or not the young Belgium wants to gain experience the easy way or the hard way. Duval found himself in the doghouse several times in 2003 after not following team orders to lay off the throttle a bit and get his Focus to the finishing ramp. While Wilson has stated that Duval is still an important part of the team, he's decided to nominate Janne Tuohino, a Finn, as the team's other point scorer for several rallies this year to improve Ford's chances for the manufacturer's title. Duval will still contest these rallies, but it remains to be seen if this will be in a factory-spec Focus or a privateer car.

Much will be expected of Markko Martin this season. When his Focus was running, Martin was setting scratch times no matter the surface. His win in Finland was his most impressive, as it's rare for a non-Finn to win the event. That victory proved that Martin was a threat to win the title, and that the Focus was the fastest car on the circuit. It's important to realize that while Martin has shown he's fast, he's still inexperienced -- he's a full season behind Petter Solberg as far as WRC experience. The two were teammates at Subaru in 2001, the year Solberg had his first full factory drive. That season Martin ran a limited programme in the factory-spec Impreza. Martin will be dangerous next season, as he's not doubt learned from his mistakes in 2003.

Ford is really the only team that should give Citroen a run for the money in the manufacturer's championship -- if Duval has a consistent year. The Focus is fast, and a winter of testing and development should iron out most of the bugs. Martin should be in contention for the driver's championship this season as well. He's shown he has the ability to win rallies, but can he do it over the course of a 16 rally season?

January 09, 2004

Moving On

Instead of sending out my typical "I've got a new job" email message, I thought I'd just make the general announcement here. I've got a new job. I'll starting with Full Tilt Solutions near the end of January. Things just didn't work out with my current employer (to put things nicely), so I needed to move on, primarily to find a nice, stable environment. I will, however, be joining the Dark Side, though the company does do some Java-related work as well. I'm actually looking forward to working with a new platform, as it will expand my skill set. Most good (read: stable) Java jobs these days are typically the same -- J2EE applications using the same frameworks and design patterns. I'm sure the same thing exists with .Net, but at least it'll be a new experience for awhile.

I will also be working downtown again, which means I have to get used to the wide variety of people one sees there. Squirrel Hill is fairly homogenized -- everyone is either a college student, a Jewish person, or a Russian immigrant -- and the oddity factor is fairly low. I'm looking forward to the easier ride to work everyday (downhill), but I'm not looking forward for the slog back up Stanton Avenue. The hill from Butler Street is much longer and much steeper than approaching our house from Highland/Negley Avenues. I may have to gear down the fixie a bit. There was a time when every bus coming up Stanton from Butler had a bike rack on the front, but those days seemed to have come and gone.

January 08, 2004

2004 WRC Preview -- Peugeot

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Though Peugeot didn't have a disasterous year in 2003, taking second place in the manufacturer's championship, it was still a huge disappointment after taking both the driver's and make's titles in 2002. The team had problems everywhere, so where to begin....

Reliability suddenly become an issue for 206. After an amazing 2002, none of the drivers seemed content with the changes to the car. Marcus Gronholm had a string of retirements, Gilles Panizzi complained of a lack of power, and Richard Burns just never felt comfortable in the car. Harri Rovanpera added a string of mistakes and mechanical retirements. So what happened? More and likely, the team's engineers rested on their laurels and didn't do enough to boost the power of the engine. The most telling comment came from Gilles Panizzi during the Corsica rally -- he said that if he ran at the pace he was during the 2002, he would have won by five minutes. As it stood, Panizzi was struggling for a top 5 finish.

Things won't be better in 2004 with the debut of the new 307 in Monte Carlo. Peugeot couldn't decide if they would wait to debut the WRC until later in the season, but finally concluded it was best just to get some miles on it and make changes as necessary. Releasing a new rally car is never a cause for immediate celebration. With only about six weeks between the Rally GB and Monte Carlo, the engineers don't have much time to fully test the car. Expect plenty of retirements and poor finishes for the 307 during the first third of the 2004 season.

The driver line-up looks entirely different this year as well, with only Marcus Gronholm returning. Richard Burns decided to leave the team late last season, with the management responding with a "Well, we weren't going to resign you anyway." There was no mistaking that Gronholm and Burns didn't really get on well as teammates, especially with the strong year Burns had. I imagine that at some point Gronholm requested that he be the only number 1 driver on the team in 2004. Peugeot also decided to release Harri Rovanpera, after Rovanpera had a disappointing year. The most mind-boggling choice, however, was why the management didn't offer Panizzi a full factory drive (remember, Panizzi had only been contesting the tarmac rounds in a factory-spec 206 -- everything else was in a customer-spec car). Panizzi showed incredible skill on the gravel rounds he contested (and remember, the playing field was far from level for him in a privateer car), and he's a danger to win every tarmac event he enters. While Panizzi probably wouldn't be in the running for the driver's championship, his prescence on the team still doesn't allow Gronholm to be the clear number one driver on every rally.

Peugeot's solution was to sign Freddy Loix, who was left unemployed when Hyundai folded its WRC program before the Rally GB. Loix is a good driver who has been hampered by a less than ideal car (the Hyundai Accent WRC). He can be counted on the score manufacturer's point, and perhaps still a few driver's points here and there. But he'll never challenge Gronholm as the team's number one driver -- he is a clear number two in a supporting role.

And what about Gronholm? He'll be anxious to make up for a disappointing 2003 campaign, but the new 307 will no doubt hold him back. If the car progresses quickly enough, he may be a threat to win a few gravel rallies, but it would take a small miracle to be able to compete for the championship. I'd expect that if the car doesn't progress well enough this season that Gronholm will look to move on.

January 06, 2004

2004 WRC Preview - Citroen

After a fine season in 2003, which saw Sebastien Loeb and Carlos Sainz finish 2-3 in the driver's championship and a manufacturer's championship, Citroen is poised to have another fine campaign in 2004. They are clearly the strongest team in the championship, with Peugeot putting all its muscle behind Marcus Gronholm. The Xsara has proven to be very quick on all surfaces, and it has been quite reliable as well. With both Loeb and Sainz returning, Citroen is once again the favorite for the manufacturer's championship.

Sebastien Loeb has become the most dangerous driver in the WRC. Petter Solberg may have won the championship last year (thanks in large part to his partnership with Tommi Makinen and Solberg's level of experience), but Loeb is clearly a threat in every rally he starts. He hit some rough spots last year, failing to finish several tarmac rallies (his speciality), but he also won several loose surface events, which was a bit of a surprise. And after his win at Monte Carlo last season (and his near-miss the season before), Loeb is poised to take the crown of the king of Monte Carlo from the now-retired Makinen (who won five straight).

Carlos Sainz, after toying with the idea of retirement during last season, has decided to go at it one more time. Sainz had a strong, consistent year where he was in the running for the championship going into Rally GB (he failed to capitalize, however, crashing out on day one). With Makinen's retirement, Sainz is the elder statesman of the sport, and that experience shows. Like Richard Burns, Sainz fought for the championship with consistent results rather than a mix of wins and retirements. He is capable of finishing on the podium in every event he enters (and unless things go all wrong, you can bank on him finishing in the points).

Citroen has all the pieces in place to take over where Peugeot left off -- dominating both the driver's and manufacturer's championship. The team was one point away from taking both titles last season, and I expect they'll be in hunt for two trophies at the close of 2004 as well.

January 04, 2004

WRC 2004 Preview - Subaru

It was quite a season for Subaru in 2003 -- Tommi Makinen's last season in the WRC, Petter Solberg fighting for and ultimately winning the driver's championship, and the return of Richard Burns. The team got some bad news soon after celebrating Solberg's victory, when it was announced that Burns would sit out the 2004 due to treatment for a brain tumor. There were rumors that Subaru would pursue Colin McRae, but the two couldn't come to terms and Subaru instead signed Finnish youngster Mikko Hirvonen. But before we talk about 2004 any more, let's talk about 2003 for a moment.

There are many Subaru fans that are happy to see Makinen retire. After starting his time at Subaru off with a five consecutive victory at Monte Carlo, Makinen had a string of bad luck that ran nearly two seasons. He did end his career on a high note, finishing along side Solberg on the podium in Great Britain, but there were many frustrating races in between. But Makinen's retirement is a great loss to the team, and a great loss to Petter Solberg. Repeatedly over the past two seasons, Solberg was quick to credit his success to working with Makinen. The two had a very special bond as teammates, and Makinen was always ready to help Solberg with advice gleaned from 24 WRC wins. I always thought this image, taken just after Solberg finished the final stage on last years Rally GB to win the title, summed up their relationship nicely. Do you really think Carlos Sainz would have run over and hugged Sebastien Loeb had he won the championship? Solberg will continue to be successful, but both he and the team will sorely miss Makinen's experience.

That said, Subaru went from a potential contender for manufacturer's title to another also-ran when Burns took the year off and the team couldn't come to terms with McRae. This isn't necessarily a slight against Hirvonen -- but imagine Solberg driving alongside Burns and McRae. But Subaru should still have a good showing, as it's expected that Hirvonen will score some points for his new team.

The Impreza should be quite reliable this year, as the team is not releasing a new world rally car this season. There were some growing pains with the 2003 model, but after a shaky spring campaign, the Impreza carried Solberg with the highest points tally since the Acropolis Rally in June. The biggest question mark for the car is, as always, it's performance on the sealed surfaces. Solberg scored a win in France this season, but that was thanks to extremely wet weather (in which the Impreza and its Pirellis do quite well). With Seb Loeb in the quick Citroen Xsara, the Impreza has to find more power on tarmac to keep Solberg in the title hunt. Solberg will benefit from the surface switch in Italy, however, with one less tarmac round to contest.

Does Solberg stand the chance to repeat? Yes. The addition of three gravel rallies to the schedule will work to his advantage. Solberg's proven he's not just a quick youngster -- he had several mature drives in 2003 to win rallies, and he'll need more of the same in 2004 to stay in the hunt. And Hirvonen? It would certainly be expected that he could scratch out a few good finishes, say in the top 8. Hopefully Solberg will take the cue from his mentor Makinen, and help Hirvonen reach his potential as well.

Little Green Men.....and a Bike

There's quite a bit talk going around about how NASA's latest mission to Mars could truly shake up the way we view the world and ourselves. It goes like this: what if the rovers find that there was once life on Mars? Suddenly, there's proof that perhaps we're not alone. This sort of talk scares some people, especially Christians, because hard scientific evidence of life on other planets seems to make them think the Bible might be a sham. But I don't follow that logic.

Christians, especially those with a theological bent, like to talk about the mysteries of God -- the Trinity, the virgin birth, etc. The most popular view of the creation narrative in Genesis is that while it tells a truth (God created the universe) it is not to be taken literally. This perspective allows Christians to hold to the theory of micro-evolution (though most still adamently oppose any scientific idea that is tied to Darwin). Most Christian theology portrays God as omnipotent, and while often theology attempts to paint God into a corner as far as His attributes go, realistically we can't do that. We can only go on what He's told us via the Bible.

So, why is the thought that Mars could have sustained life such an earth-shattering discovery? The Bible doesn't seem to limit life to our planet (at least as far as I know). Aren't Christians painting God into a corner again saying that there couldn't be life on other planets? The only discovery on the red planet that could truly rattle the foundation of humanity would be an X-Files-esque discovery of an alien craft with the Bible and the human gene code etched in its shell. If the rovers find evidence of plant life, or water, well, that's a great find for the scientific community, but let's not rewrite our history just yet.

And a bike....

I finally got around to getting images to the owner of the Fixed Gear Gallery website, a fine collection of nearly 600 fixed gear bicycles (with pistas, trainers, classics, commuters, and everything in between). See my trusty steed here.

January 02, 2004

New Favorite Dish

Jen and I are hardly carnivores -- we will cook beef/poultry/fish perhaps once a week -- but we've got a new favorite meat dish to make at home. Braciole. It's an Italian rolled, filled flank steak cooked in wine and tomato sauce. It's amazingly good. So good, in fact, here is the recipe:

Braciole
1.5# flank steak
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/3 cup chopped fresh mint
1/3 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
Juice of one lemon
Red wine
1 batch of tomato sauce (see below)

Tenderize and flatten the flank steak to thin it out. Salt and pepper to taste.

Mix one tablespoon of the olive oil and the remaining ingredients together in a bowl and spread on the flank steak.

Roll the flank with the grain (like a jelly roll) and tie tightly with string.

Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a pan, and brown all sides of the roll.

Once the roll is browned, fill the pan with the tomato sauce and as much wine as you please (1/2 to 1 cup). Simmer gently, covered, for up to one hour. To serve, cut the roll across the grain and cover with the sauce.

Tomato Sauce
1 cup of chopped yellow onion
1 tablespoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
Red wine
1 28oz can of diced tomatoes

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a sauce pot, then add the onion, basil, and salt. Saute the onion until translucent. Add the garlic and cook for another minute or so.

Add the wine. Again, the amount is up to you. 1/2 to 1 cup works best. Turn down the heat and deglaze the pan.

Add the tomatoes, stir well, and allow to simmer, uncovered, for 30-60 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. The longer the sauce cooks, the thicker it will become.

Enjoy!

January 01, 2004

Jumping Ship

Well, if all goes well, I may be returning to the dark side for my employment. In preparation for this, I've starting playing around with Mono, an open source implementation of the various APIs used by ASP.NET. This project, led by the founders of Ximian, is geared toward a fully functionality .Net library for Linux platforms. This has obviously met with some strong resistence from the open source community, since there's concern that this gives Microsoft inroads to the open source community. Personally, I don't have time for this religious discussion, as the .Net platform has some really nice features that are currently lacking in Java and Java-based web frameworks.

Anyway, I think I'll spend part of my off day re-learning C# and .Net forms (though I had to refresh my knowledge prior to a tech interview). Right now the biggest advantage of the Mono implementation is that I don't have install Windows on any of our machines at home....