Barcelona - Catalunya GP

Lewis Hamilton wins his first Grand Prix for Ferrari. If there is one headline for the Barcelona Grand Prix, this would be it but it hardly does justice to the racing masterclass with a bit of luck that gave Hamilton the victory. It was expected that Hamilton might pip Russell to take the lead at Turn 1 but that was not to be. While Hamilton had the slightly better start Russell did enough to ensure he stayed in front of Hamilton and his team mate. He looked to be in control in a couple of laps comfortably staying 2 seconds in front of Hamilton. 

Hamilton's first stop forced Mercedes into pitting Russell to cover the undercut. Russell did convey his doubts post the stop but it was done. Russell emerged into the effective lead and the pecking order was restored. 

Hamilton pitted for a second change of tyres. Switched to medium and all hell broke loose. He began banging out laps that were 1.4s faster than Russell, effectively eating... no gulping down Russell's lead. Secured the effective lead and then came the vrtual safety car, the first one for Antonelli's striken Mercedes. A VSC have Ferrari a cheap pit stop, 13s a lightbyear away from 23s for a regular stop. The final nail in the hopes of Russell's win.

Meanwhile Russell emerged just 1.4s ahead of Kimi and then began a battle between the teammates for the second podium. Russell managed to cover off Antonelli for the first few laps but eventually had to concede and the Italian passed only to pullnover to the aside due to loss in power.

Behind the leading duo Norris maintained P4 and Max P5. Max had a pretty lonely race unable to challenge for any podim positions. However Isack Hadjar after dropping 9 places fought back exhibiting good pace to climb up the ranks making overtaking on the outside of Turn 3 his own during the race. Eventually ending up in P6 where he started.

Verstappen seemed to have a lackluster race unable to challenge anyone or having anyone challenge him except for a few laps by Leclerc and Piastri. Finished P4. A lonely race by his admission.

Leclerc has been eclipsed by his teammate for the last couple of races. The implicit driver one status is slowly but surely sliding Hamilton's way and Leclerc will do good to pay attention to this. To repeat a cliche - you teammate is your greatest competitor and the fact that all champions are ruthless... Leclerc has to do to Hamilton what he did to Vettel in 2019 where within the first few races Ferrari began to treat him on par with Vettel. Get in close and take the fight to Hamilton just like Kimi is doing to Russell. 

Barcelona Formula 1 GP - Qualifying

Russell was back at the top after a couple of miserable weekends at Canada followed by Monaco where issues out of his control ruined his final result. He looked very consistent over practice and qualifying and pulled oneout of the bag to set a lap prior to the final run that was 2 tenths over what his teammate Antonelli had set. Russell was consistently the fastest over the middle sector and it showed in his final pole lap as well.

Good that he did too because Hamilton literally came out of nowhere to set a lap that was just 6 hundredths of a second behind Russell. P2.

Given the strong performance by Hamilton you would expect Leclerc to be somewhat close or better. However the Modegasque made an error at turn 4 initially seeming to catch the oversteer but ending up losing it an binning it heavily into the barriers effectively ending a good streak having got his brake issues sorted out. P10 as a result. Maybe that Ferrari quick start will help.

The Red Bulls qualified 5th and 6th having had issues all through the weekend and having the Norris in front in P4. Piastri did look the stronger of the two but Norris managed to steal P4 from Max. Piastri's last lap looked a bit out of shape. The tyres have such a narrow operating window in Barcelona with one quick lap being all they can deliver.

It's commendable that Isack Hadjar is putting up some very commendable performances in the last few racea to end up so close to his stories teammate who made former teammates look pretty ordinary. 

Audi has produced a very strong car in their very first F1 outing and the Hulk capitalised on that to just nip into Q3 at the cost of Lindbald who looked pretty strong till then. Lawson has been putting some very strong performances of late and ended up P8.

Williams has had a pretty ordinary weekend and it's pretty obvious that they still have quite a bit to go in terms for car performance with Sainz in P16 and Albon in P18.

The race start is going to be interesting with Hamilton starting alongside his old teammate and Antonelli eager to win his 6th race. Verstappen in P5 and Leclerc in P10 Will be hungry as well. Not to say that there rest fonthe pack will be sitting around twiddling their thumbs. With a long run turn one it's going to give plenty of opportunities. Depleting batteries in the run to Turn 1 may create problems in the following turns especially Turn 3 which is a long right hander flowing into 4. Game on.

Jimny Dueller A/T 002 review

It was always on the cards. The question was more of a matter of when rather than if. If there is one thing that the Jimny needed replacement of straight from the showroom it was the tyres. Make no mistake, they do the job. Very good on road performance and decent in most average off road hurdles as I found out in an fun drive in Kerala last year. However they look positively weedy and detract a lot from the looks of the Jimny. 

The HT tyres also impact the capability to ford off road hurdles especially for total 4x4 novices like me. 

I didn't change the tyres straight out of the showroom as has been my practice for the last three cars I owned. Multiple factors. Finances and the fact that the stock tyre look began to grow on me cause me to hang on to the tyres for almost 3 years and 28k kms. Couple that to the fact that highway performance was excellent and a yearning for the Evo Course Dakar Zero alloys in 16 inch meant that the decision was not a priority.

So what were the options? I have always been a big fan of the Geolanders so that was going to be  my choice . Or so I thought. As I started to research the Continental Cross Contact and Bridgestone Dueller A/T 002 became strong options. 215/75 R15. Reports and videos of 235/70 R15 fouling with the mudguards put me off and I was perfectly fine with the look of 215/75 R15s. Given the performance of the stock Dueller and the fact that my trusted tyre shop was a Bridgestone dealer I decided on the A/T 002s. An off-road event at Wagamon sped up the replacement and my Jimny got shod with the Dueller A/T 002s. 

Performance 

The performance of the tyres can be split into two. Highway and rough road/off road. 

On-road the stock Dueller actually perform better in all aspects except braking. The bigger contact patch of the A/T 002s provide more advantage in this regard. However the lowered rolling resistance of the stock Dueller offer better acceleration. The side walls of the A/T 002s flex more and are taller so when you accelerate I felt that a bit more energy tended to be absorbed by the tyres that slowed acceleration and pickup a bit. In a practical world this really does not matter much and is hardly an issue. The roll is a bit more thanks to the higher sidewalls and this needs to be taken into account as you need to be a little less aggressive on corners.

Off-road and on rough roads is where the A/T performance really shines through. I was simply amazed at how ruts and rough roads were damped by the A/Ts. Hard thuds on the stock Duellers were transformed to soft bumps at the most. I do not have much offloading experience. However I did a fun drive in Thodupuzha in 2025 and post the tyre change went to the offroad track at Dirty Drivez in Bangalore. Navigating though the track felt much more effortless with the A/Ts.

Looks

This is the number one reason for the tyre changes on my cars and the Bridgestone A/T 002 deliver 100% in this regard. The patterns on the tyre and the side wall lugs or "side biters" as Google AI informs me, look the business without being excessive macho. The writing indicating brand and model has an interesting aspect. While it is not colored in white and you have to look closely to read it when black, the writing becomes so much more legible when the tyre is dusty and a bit muddy. I am not sure but someone seems to have put some thought into this.

My cousin's Jimny on the left with 215/70 R15 Radar Renegades.

Renault Duster 1.3 Turbo Petrol

Checked out the new Duster at a couple of times and test drove the turbo petrol manual in Iconic guise.

I find the design of the new Duster to be one of the most appealing facets on the vehicle. It's not surprising though given that the Triber and the Kwid facelift look very nice too. 

Design

Head on, the Duster logo written out across the front grilled bookended by the slim led headlights grab your attention followed by the faux bullbar in silver trim that enclose the lower grilled element. The vertical black trims at the edge of the bumper may be mistaken for fog lamps, however the fog lamps are little cubes and the bottom of the bumper. Very susceptible to damage in case the lower bumper hits a rock or something. The ground clearance is a boon... however I would preferred a higher location. 

At the rear, the Duster has thankfully not gone along with those featureless rears of KIA, Tata Sierra and the new Maruti Victoris. Designers seems to have no clue what to do with the real estate freed up by slim led tail lamps. The tail lamps of the Duster actually look substantial and the connected black trim give the rear hatch some character, as does the rear diffuser like element finished in silver trim.

From the size, the doors are well proportioned and nowhere do you see a vast expanse of sheet metal not knowing what it's there for. The cladding looks good and the plastic gives off a feeling of toughness. The 18 inch wheels fill out the arches well too. I saw the Techno variant as well with the 17 inch alloys and that looks pretty good too.

Interiors

I did flirt with buying the Duster back in 2017 and one of the biggest turn offs was the archaic interiors. Nothing like that in the new Duster. Good quality plastic finished with soft touch material, very contemporary design and a well integrated screen that felt good. I didn't play around much with the screen though. The Duster has enough physical buttons and as long as basic screen functions like navigation,calls, and music work well i really don't pay much attention to screens. One particular peeve I have is a dislike for screen that just out considerably over the dashboard surface. I love how the new Taigun has integrated the screen. The Duster screen does pop up over the dashboard a bit but I can live with that.

The iconic upholstery rocks and the seats feel very comfortable. While the rear has enough legroom, seating three abreast will be a challenge. The substantial side bolstering on the front seats may be a bit too cozy for broader body types though.

The interior color combination for the variants other than the Iconic didn't impress me though. a sort of dark brown fabric, paired with dark grey for the middle of the seats and whalebone colored inserts in dash and door pads. Underwhelming.

Boot space is very good and while Renault doesn't provide a spare the enclosure looks big enough to keep one of your own if needed. Puncture repair kits are such a shortsighted feature in India. One cool feature of the electric boot release mechanism is the ability to stop it at any height but pressing the close button as it is rising up.

Ride and Handling

Handling was impressive. I drove on a stretch that had a mix of long sweeping uphill corners and tight curving decents. The Duster was very comfortable hustling into and out of the corners with the brakes very effective at shaving off the speed before the curves. The four wheel disc brakes were really good. 

Ride while providing a sense of toughness is not a magic carpet ride like the previous Duster. Navigating through a rough potholes section the Duster did reveal the hard edges of it's suspension and did rock from side to side. Nothing uncomfortable though but it didn't faltten out the rough terrain as expected.

Engine and Transmission 

The 1.3 turbo petrol is a beauty, eager to rev and picking up speed in no time. Coupled with a marvelously light clutch shifting up and down the rev range was effortless. However below 1500 power drops significantly and the  turbo lag makes itself evident which means that you get busy with the gear lever having to go down a cog more than you expect. But above 1500 the engine comes alive reving freely and providing a delightful mid range punch. Reminds me of the first generation Swift diesel that woke up after 2000 rpm. 

All in all a very impressive package and if in the market for an new car today, i would strongly consider this. It offers a refreshing take over the regular run of the mill shapes that crowd this segment. The 1.5 lakh km or 7 year warranty does give a peace of mind though TVS service remains to be proven.

Aramco Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix

For the fourth race running the formula repeated itself. The Silver Arrows botch their starts, get swamped by the Ferrari's, Russell jumps Antonelli who loses 3-4 places. In the course on the next few laps the Silver Arrows proceed to undo the damage and end up 1 and 2. Well this race had a new comer in the form of Oscar Piastri, who of course has the same engine. Piastri made an excellent start,  swung around Antonelli and moved to the right to block Russell,who in turn tripped up a fast starting Hamilton, giving Leclerc a chance to follow Piastri and end up P2. 

Antonelli meanwhile ended up behind Norris in P6. That did not last long. In the course of two laps he overtook both Norris and Hamilton to end up in P4 behind Leclerc. By this time Russell had overtook Leclerc and set off after Piastri who had opened up a 2 second gap.

The Mclaren performance looks promising and hopefully ending the one horse or rather wolf race at front. Piastri looked very comfortable holding onto the lead and preempted Russell by pitting first with the Mclaren pit crew executing a flawless pitstop to send him out with track position.

For the last 15 years Suzuka has never seen a safety car. But as has been proven in the starting races this season, records will be broken. What looked like a botched pass by Bearman saw him slide on to the grass before the Spoon curve and end up in the barriers and a 50G impact. Later it was determined that a battery deployment triggered the overtake on Colapinto with a closing speed differential of over 50kph forcing Bearman to take evasive action. Another critical safety issue to fix in the current battery era. 

What was Bearman's loss turned out to be a godsend to Antonelli and Hamilton who had not pitted yet...giving them a free pitstop. Antonelli ended up in P1 but Hamilton was held up by Verstappen coming into the pits ending up in P4 behind Russell who he tried to harry after the safety car restart. But the Merc proved to be too strong and Hamilton ended up in a usual battle with his teammate who pulled of a close but clean pass. Piastri meanwhile ended up in P2 behind Antonelli who with clean air before him, promptly proceeded to build up a sizeable gap.

A common tactic employed by drivers was to get their opponent to overtake them on the straight after the 130R forcing battery deployment and the proceeding to retake the position on the main straight. The subsequent technical sections comprising of the esses, Degna till the Spoon curve reward a mechanically and aerodynamically sorted chassis than outright performance, where the Ferrari had an advantage helping Leclerc keep Russell behind him till the end to secure P3 for Ferrari. Oscar held onto P2 unable to challenge Antonelli and untroubled by the Ferrari behind him.

The Red Bulls were more competitive with Verstappen overtaking a few cars before ending up behind the Alpine of Gasly and unable to pass without losing the position on the repass. Maybe one option should be to allow only 80% battery deployment and 20% reserve to defend against a repass. But anyway, there is quite a distance for Red Bull to go before making this a four horse race.

Has the racing become better. After 3 races especially one on a drivers circuit like Suzuka, I would say no. F1 used to be about the drivers who could maximise grip on the corners, brake late into a corner and use tools like DRS etc to overtake or defend on straights. With corners now becoming battery harvesting opportunities this capability has become secondary. For drivers like Max Verstappen who differentiate themselves by having more of this craft, and viewers like me who tune in to watch humans like him perform superhuman overtakes and passes the current battery managed spectacle is kind of a damper. We don't tune in to see the yo yo ping pong battle. And that is what corporate animals like Toto Wolf and Stefano Domenicali simply don't understand. Welcome to corporate F1. It was good while it lasted.

Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix - The Race

Hats off to Antonelli! Granted that Russell's misfortunes during qualifying setup the pole for him but Russell was still on the front row and Antonelli held him off. He then proceeded to fight with Hamilton and eventually get the better of him, in what is now standard fare for the last two races. A brief ding dong between the races and eventually one figures how to better manage the electrons than the other and speeds away. The issues of grip, aero, control are all sacrificed in at the altar of electricity. Ah well..but that takes nothing way from the young lad. He showed signs last year and it was a matter of time.

I feel for Russell though. He was never given a chance to really take the fight to Hamilton and even on Sunday's podium Toto looks happier for Lewis than he was for George. 

The scrap between Lewis and Leclerc post the safety car  was providential for Antonelli as it helped it eke out a very healthy gap from the next three, a gap that he comfortably maintained at around 6-7 seconds till the very end. 

Red Bull looked out of the game this whole weekend with only Hadjar providing some solace in 8th after Verstappen had to retire from 6th. Carlos Sainz drove a very measured race to give Williams their first points this season. And Ollie Bearman with another stellar 5th place finish.

So as a fan how do I feel two races in. Well let me try to put it this way. For me enjoying a car is the sum of it's parts and pushing it to the limits of my capabilities and what is legal on the road (well mostly!) It certainly is not enjoyable driving it fast and knowing that you and the car can push harder but having to back off as you have to watch the electric charge. You want to overtake when you have the chance instead of bother about your electric charge. Also with the combustion engine there was no getting back any of the capability expended. The driver needed to be judicious in choosing how he pushed the engine, knowing that if he wore it out beyond repair, he could not get back the performance in the course of the race. So while ding dong phases are enjoyable, I don't think the changes have made the entire racing anymore interesting than the last season. It's early days so let's see.

Formula 1 - Chinese Grand Prix Sprint

 For the second race running a familiar pattern emerged. Mercedes locks down the front row. Ferrari's blot like lightning from the start line to take the lead with George Russell in second, Antonelli botches the start to lose 4-5 places and then resumes a recovery drive.

Last weekend it was Leclerc who nipped in front of Russell, this week it was Hamilton. A cat and mouse then ensued with both drivers strategising their energy deployment to figure a way past each other. Hamilton in the process ruined his tyres which gave George, who was managing his tyres the ability to fight back and take the lead. Hamilton then proceeded to tussle with his team mate, potentially torpedoing Ferrari's only chance of taking the fight to Russell. At this point of the game, the joint objective should be to take as many points from Russell as possible. Hamilton, in my opinion, could have hung back and let Leclerc have a chance at challenging Russell forcing Russell to compromise his tyres. Who knows, this may have given Hamilton a chance at the win later on in the race.

Antonelli fought back passing cars with relative ease till he clattered with Hadjar earning a 10 second penalty for his favors. The Hulk's retirement brought out the safety car and a free pit stop which earning Antonelli a realtively less detrimental way of serving his penalty. This helped him end up fifth behind Norris thanks to a misjudged overtake by Piastri, who gave up the place on instruction from the pit lane rather than get a penalty.

Back down the order McLaren seem to be the third best with Red Bull coming in fourth - however the Red Bull looked really out of sorts at Shanghai, with Max terming it as undriveable. A messy start which him tumble down the order. After a recovery back to sixth, he then pitted during the safety car for fresh tyres which should have ideally landed him in the top five. However with the mid runners like RB, Haas not pitting and an extended safety car period leaving less than 3 laps of racing, it meant that he finished outside the points in 9th and 10th respectively.

Oliver Bearman is fast emerging as a standout talent continuing from his impressive performances last year. Thanks to him the Haas is regularly in the top 10 in all races so far. The development race is yet to show it's colors so we don't know what the eventual order might be. It's evident though that given the car the kid has terrific talent. Ferrari should pontentially on board him as a driver in the next couple of years.

What is emerging as crucial is the ability to harness excess power from the internal combustion engine as most of the top runners have figured out the electric side of thing more or less equally well. Mercedes extra compression volume when hot is proving critical. However this advantage doesn't seem to have extended to it's customer teams notably McLaren and Williams. Williams really seem to be in a spot of bother this season and don't seem to have figured out the Mercedes power plant all too well. 

Onto the main race tommorrow.

 Formula 1 is back. Not with a bang but rather with battery regeneration and energy recuperation. With 50% power coming from the battery pack, drivers have had to learn new tricks both old and new. So how did the racing fare?

Off the bat, it's evident that Mercedes has nailed the new regulations producing a car that is at the top of the pile. Leclerc in the Ferrari offered some opposition but Ferrari's botched VSC strategy put waste to that hope and Ferrari's chance of a potential win. 

Antonelli had a botched start but the ease with which he made up ground was testament to the car's performance and his quality as a driver.

The first couple of laps were interesting but flattered to deceive. The dogfight between Leclerc and Russell was very promising, with the requirement for energy recuperation leading to the positions being exchanged almost every corner. Once Leclerc pulled some sort of a lead, Russell seemed to have issues following Leclerc which was repeated in the duel between Max and Lando but that may also be due to the gap in performance between the Mercedes and Red Bull power trains.

I foresee that the smarts in the teams will now figure energy recuperation strategies, where to do so, how much to spend and overall come up with some pre determined strategy that takes the decisions farther away from the driver. Today's race being the first had some unknowns and hence the excitement but I don't think this is going to last.

Arvid Lindbad was the driver who stood out with his ability proving why he was promoted to the Red Bull sister team so quickly. He showed none of a rookie racer and always seemed quite confident and decisive during the race.

With the new regs a lot of teams seemed  to be in the mix in the top 10 positions instead of this being limited to the regular bit hitters like Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull. But today's race will be debriefed threadbase, the data pored over and analysed several times over and energy deployment strategies developed for each track.

Unlike previous years, F1 teams have some powerful allies in Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini and a whole host of other models and agents to do this. Might be a great leveler, that.

BMW X1 (F48) Rear Brake Pad Replacement

 So the CBS for my BMW X1 indicated that the rear brakes pads were up for replacement. The pads were last replaced at 58k kms and the odo currently stands at 82k kms. Which means I got about 24k on the pads. From what I read this is average with a general life of the pads being about 25k. The last time I changed the pads I got it done at the BMW service center as I did not have the pads and not enough research completed to attempt a DIY.

I sourced a set of AKEBONO pads for around $100. Ordered an extra couple of sensors just in case. The pads however come with a brake sensor and springs that fit onto the pad.

Every DIY comes with it's own set of peculiarities. All manufacturers have specific approaches regarding design of bolts. fastenings etc. For the X1 here is what stood out for me:

• The electronic parking brake. The X1 comes with a electronic parking brake which means that there is a motor that is actuated to push the pads against the rotors. This means that pushing the piston back to get clearance for the new pads doesn't quite work. There are multiple ways to do this:
• the standard practice is to achieve this through BMW's service software ISTA. In ISTA there is a routine that puts the brakes into service mode which essentially pull back the motor from the piston so that you can push it back. This is what i used. It also means that you need to reset the brakes to normal operating condition using ISTA once the service is done. ISTA provides a clear step by step procedure to get this done and is pretty easy to follow.
• another option is to remove the motor from the calipers entirely so that the piston can be pushed back
• the third option is to apply reverse polarity to the motor to and spin in in the opposite direction to retract it.
• When you remove the dust covers over the caliper bolts you might be excused for expecting a 12mm bolt like most of the other vehicle. BMW however uses a hex bolt that needs an 7mm Allen key (H7) to unscrew the caliper guides. Picked this nice toolset from Flipkart that included a star allen key that helped with the X1's oil filter drain cap, the filler nut for the Aisin transmission as well.

I used the ISTA software to set the parking brake to service mode, jacked up the car and removed the tyres. The first step is to unplug the socket to the parking brake motor. This is the plug that you see dangling at the bottom of the image below. It has a small tab that you have to depress while pulling out the plug to unlock the lockinging mechanism. While pushing it back just push till you hear a click of the locks engaging.

Unplug the brake wear sensor from the socket which is located behind the fender lining towards the rear of the wheel well. I was able to access this by folding the lining back but you may have to pull out one of the fasteners to access the socket. Just following the wear sensor cable to locate the socket. It sits in a plastic holder along with the ABS sensor socket. You can see the wear sensor cable in the right of the image below.

Next I removed the spring that holds the calliper agains the caliper assembly. If you don't have this the you will get a rattle as you push against the callipers even with the calliper bolts fixed. No guesses for how I figured this one out. Let's just say I had changed the pads and bolted back the wheel on one side before the figured this one out.😐 To remove the spring just push down on the top with your thumb and use a flat head screwdriver to pry out the portion that goes into the two holes on the face of the calliper itself.

It other vehicles I've owned you had to remove only one of the calliper bolts and loosen the other and the calliper could be swung up/down to access the pads themselver. However in the X1 you need to remove both the bolts and lift the calliper off to access the bolts. These kind of aspects create a new appreciation on how simple things lend themselves to easy service procedures and less mistakes which make Japanese cars much cheaper and faster to service. In the image below you can see the calliper with the spring removed.

I used a box to place the calliper on, once I removed it from the assembly to avoid straining the brake lines and ABS cables. You can see the piston in the middle that I pushed back using a socket extension so that the increased thickness of the new brake pads could be accomodated.

Comparing the thickness of the old and new pads. Maybe another 1000 kms left on the old pads. However the wear sensors were pretty worn out and indicated I was 400km over the replacement warning. Give the amount to programming these cars have I am not sure how much this would cause the control modules to adjust associated setting and performance so I generally follow the CBS (Condition Based Service) warnings.

Installed the pads next which just hook on top of the calliper assembly requiring the calliper to hold them in place. This makes it a bit fiddly while installing the calliper. Another aspect that I dislike over the Japenese cars that have a pad profile that just locks into place which makes installing the calliper much easier. You can also see an additional spring peeping out in the middle of the picture. Got new ones along with the Akebono pads. I think these help the calliper push down on the pads and maintain them in place. Maybe ensure that the wear sensors are held tight in place to but not 100% on this one. Anyway they slot into the grove for the wear sensor. You need to install new wear sensors as the old ones will be pretty worn down and useless.

New pads in place with the callipers fixed and the spring installed. Did it in perfect order on the second wheel after all the learning on the first one. 

Some additional observations. The hex bolt is access from the rear face of the wheel and it helps to have a longer Allen key or a ratchet extension. 

The plug that goes into the socket of the parking brake motor. The socket is just above the plig in the diagram and located towards the bottom of the assemble. You can also see the wear sensor cable coming out through an opening in the calliper. I installed the wear sensor at the end after installing the pads and bolting the calliper in place.

As mentioned at the start DO NOT FORGET to set your parking brake back to normal operating mode using ISTA. Test that all is well by activating and deactivating the parking brake a couple of times.

That's it. As usually the achy joints and muscles notwithstanding, the sweet feeling after a DIY is priceless.

Links - Automotive

https://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1517476

The Future of AI

 The Future of AI

To say that Artificial Intelligence is taking the world by storm is an understatement. It's projected to be that all conquering technological advancement in the coming century. Depending on what streams you are employed in this triggers a wide range of emotions ranging from gut wrenching fear to euphoric excitement.

I am more of an observer at this point, interested enough to read more or less anything related to AI that crosses my feed. I satisfy myself with being able to understand that transformers has nothing to do with Autobots and Decepticon and stochastic gradient descent is not a mountaineering technique.

It the last one week I read two articles that for me gave a great perspective on AI as a whole. The first was an article by Rob Toews on Forbes.com. This was about the work of AlphaFold by the DeepMind team in predicting with considerable accuracy how proteins are folded into a 3D architecture. The complexity of proteins are covered in the article but let's just say that the combinations are humungous and the combination determines whether you are a mouse or a human being. Normally the structure of a proteins takes years of experimentation and specialised equipment to arrive at. However as of July 2021, a library of 350,000 protein structures predicted by AlphaFold has been published. 

To me the article was fascinating from the point of view that is showed how AI was helping us gain more knowledge and insight into previously unsurmountable problems. Of course this means that the added insight also means that we gain more understanding about what we actually do not know. For a "glass half empty"perspective it also showed how DeepMind was fast gaining in terms of intelligence that could one day threaten my precarious existence as a knowledge professional or even more depressingly take away my ability to commandeer the helm of an automobile through all that self driving blah blah, a skill that I consider existential.

In the midst of this came an article from IEEE Spectrum written by Neil C Thompson which sheds light on the computational limitations faced by Deep Learning. Apparently deep learning models are fast approaching limits of computational capabilities and more importantly incurring huge costs in training deep learning models to achieve the necessary accuracy. This cost is a critical factor in deciding the return on investment of Deep Learning projects and correspondingly their viability. The article touches upon the various work arounds and techniques used by the leading AI research teams to mitigate the cost of training and also CO2 emmissions. 

This places the value of human capital in context and illustrates how much ground technology has to cover to match up to a human brain. Again as mentioned about it also shows the frontiers of knowledge remaining to be explored and conquered. All the talk about machines replacing humans is a bit far fetched. Yes, just like the tractor replaced the oxen certain skills will become obselete. As much as I love driving I do see driving as a skill becoming obselete in the next 50 years if not earlier. However my skill as a software architect will still be relevant assuming I use my natural deep learning mechanism (my brain) to discover the great unknown.

Yuval Noah Hariri in his book "Sapiens" says that great progress started in societies who realised that they knowledge that they possessed was but a small modicum of the vast mysteries that the world had to offer. This realisation and the subsequent drive to gain more knowledge and consequently riches hugely spurred human development in the next 750 years to where we are today. In the same way both articles expose the exciting frontiers that remain to be conquered in which AI is but a welcome aid and not necessarily something to be feared.

P.S : the initial outline of this frontier seems to be the Metaverse but more of that later.

Book Review : The Phoenix Project

The Phoenix project

An excellent read for anyone in the Information Technology space irrespective of your role or position. It clearly calls out why IT is a differentiator and why IT risk is a business risk. For developers it puts perspective around why things like faster deployments, smaller packages matter from a busines perspective. It clearly elucidates why DevOps is not just something that start when you check in code but right from the requirements phase. 

Suddenly the hulabaloo around the "Shift Left" mantra makes all the more sense to you. In the midst of all this it left me with the Theory of Constraints which provides yet another weapon in your arsenal to approach IT delivery.

Ten deployments per day! Audacious in 2013 when the book was released but today it's much more common place. The book shows the need for automated testing, a focus on security right from the design stage.

DevOps is a culture

Yes it is and this book makes it clear why it's so. It makes it clear why all arms of the IT and business should work hand in hand to achieve goals and why for instance business KPIs should be reflected in application monitoring KPIs. Return on R&D spend, prioritising features that bring business value, paying down technical debt are all aspects that need to be considered in a DevOps culture.

Musings on the Iterator Design Pattern

Reading about the iterator pattern sparked a few thoughts. The Iterator pattern is used in conjuction with Collections. It abstracts the traversal methods out of the Collection. This has the advantage that the code of the relevant collection is not congested with the logic of traversing the list. In addition the responsibility of traversing the collection is offloaded to a separate class. Collection have a factory method called getIterator that provides the Iterator implementation for the collection.

Decoupling the Iterator also provides an additional advantage of being able to apply a wider variety of iteration techniques like Filtered Iterator etc.

Now extending this thought process a bit we can use this decoupling technique to provide Pagination techniques for instance for a list where the paging logic is abstracted from the list itself and handles the paging requests. This can be combined with a session cache so that the paging request does not go down to the db server.

This general approach can potentially be used to declutter a class from responsibilities that do not form it's primary objective.

Improving the handling of the Baleno RS

The RS has clocked up a little over 17000 km so far and it has been great so far. Typical Maruti ease of ownership coupled with an eager, peppy engine that has so far handled all that it has been thrown at. The daily grind, inching traffic, highway cruising and a few trips to the hills, it's delivered on all of them. Sure, the couple of crucial upgrades have really helped in ironing out the few compromises that Maruti has made in the interests of cost and appealing to a wider audience. Yes, very rarely there are nostalgic memories of the mid range of the GT but those are few and far between.

Of the compromises that Maruti made, none bothered me so much as the handling. It was stiffer than then regular Baleno and was fine as long as you were smooth on the throttle and did not push it too much into corners. However get ready for some aggressive cornering and I found myself having to wait while the car settled on it's springs before plugging on. Not good. To me it seemed that the springs were still too soft. Hunting about for a solution and at the same time not willing to make a huge investment this early, I decided to give RogerAb buffers a try.

Got the buffers in quick time. Decided to tackle the front first as this was the end that was giving me the most problem. The buffers were easy to fit, requiring nothing more than jacking up the car. However their circumference was a bit too much, so that they overlapped. Cutting a bit off would solve this but I haven't gotten around to it. The problem is that when the lower end of the buffer overlaps the upper, it fouls with the fender lining.

However the results were very good. It really firmed up the front suspension such that the wheel felt much more planted. The floatly feeling at triple digits speeds was also sorted out to a huge extent. There was a bit more heft to the steering wheel and the car felt much more planted when cornering.

The rear buffers were a bit more difficult and it seemed that I would have to undo the shocks to get enough extension on the spring to push the buffers in. So decided to shelf it for now and see how much of the handling was sorted out with the front buffers. Good, but not enough. The rear was a bit too soft and there was considerable weight transfer during accelerating and braking. Braking more so as the rear seemed to stand up when hard on the brakes. Not an issue if you were smooth on the brakes, squeezing them slowly so as to ensure a more gradual shift. Took another couple of weeks while I freed up some time to install the rear buffers. I took the car out for a drive and instantly felt a world of difference. The front axle seemed even more planted and high speed composure is so much more. The stance of the car also seemed to change a bit and the rake felt a little bit less. So much so that I feel it is a shame that Maruti opened itself up to so much brick bats on high speed composure just because of a softer suspension. The weight or the lack of it rather does play a part but primarily because of the absense of a suspension tune that matches the character of the car.

Even better was the braking feel or rather the improvement of the braking performance. I had earlier experienced this on my GT when I used Koni sport shocks on the rear. I feel much more confident braking hard rather than having to baby the brake pedal to ensure that the braking is smooth. The car holds it line very well now with acceptable (to me) roll. The front end does not dip so much when pushed into a corner. The best part is that the ride has not become so much more stiff kneed especially at the back. At this point I am pretty satisfied with what I have been able to achieve with the RogerAb buffers.

The second change that made a big difference was the tyre pressures. Thanks to an incorrect fillup at an alignment shop I am now running with 32 PSI against the company prescribed 29 PSI. With 29 PSI there used to be quite a bit of road noise (a fact I came to realise after running with 32 PSI) along with a bad rubbery vibe on the brakes especially when braking and cornering together. The change in pressure lightened up the front end and helped to tighten everything up together in a very nice way. I am pretty satisfied at where the entire package is at now to the extent that I am in no hurry to invest more anytime soon.

A few other things that I looked into an discarded on the way:
1. H&R springs - The 30mm lowering was not something I was willing to ake a chance on given our roads.
2. Swift Type 1(2008) Rear Springs - these were too tall for the rear.
3. Swift Type 1(2008) Front Springs - cooling off in my garage as the current setup has me pretty happy.

I think if I add on to this it would be a set of dampers. However I cannot seem to find any options on the Koni or Bilstien sites.

A couple of point on the Swift springs though. They are considerably thicker and heavier than the Baleno's, a reminder of what an excellent handling package that version of the Swift was.

CES 2016 - What does the future hold?

CES 2016

This year I will be following the CES at Las Vegas closely. CES 2016 promises a lot of new futuristic tech that gives us an insight into what we would be upto in the future and how we may be interacting with our environment at large.

Driverless cars, wireless speakers, electric vehicles, rollable displays they are all there. Check out a nice update at Day 2 coverage from the Verge.

See you on the other side of the show and I should have a few posts out.

New Kids on the Block

Recently wired.com carried an article that showed how Facebook's developers  turned to a 25 year old language Haskell to improve their anti-spam solution. The article turns the spotlight on a few new (..and old) languages that are being used to solve computing problem that mainstream languages like Java, C, C++ etc are unable to address satisfactorily. One of the worlds most efficient messaging application WhatsApp is written in a little known language - ErLang but that's another blog topic.

http://www.wired.com/2015/09/facebooks-new-anti-spam-system-hints-future-coding/

Useful Links

Just thought of using this post to collect all the useful links that I encounter as I research various aspects of technology. These are links that I read through and personally find quite helpful.

Hope it helps.

Inspiration

https://dev.to/aws-builders/from-zero-to-aws-community-builder-in-2-years-4g8c

Digital Transformation

https://hbr.org/2021/08/do-you-have-the-right-software-for-your-digital-transformation

Data Lakes, Analytics etc

https://itnext.io/hydrating-a-data-lake-using-query-based-cdc-with-apache-kafka-connect-and-kubernetes-on-aws-cd4725b58c2e

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)

A basic, easy to understand discussion of the various aspects of SEO.

Multitenancy

Database topologies for a multitenant application.

Multitenancy at Force.com

Web Development Standards

US Government's Web Development Standard

Developer Inspiration

Developer Heroes

Machine Learning

Getting started - a helpful article from the folks at hacker's earth

Skills for machine learning jobs

A list of machine learning links

Machine Learning Frameworks

https://towardsai.net/p/machine-learning/main-types-of-neural-networks-and-its-applications-tutorial-734480d7ec8e

https://towardsdatascience.com/four-deep-learning-papers-to-read-in-august-2021-7d98385a378d

https://mattturck.com/data2021/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/robtoews/2021/10/03/alphafold-is-the-most-important-achievement-in-ai-ever/?sh=216af7296e0a

https://spectrum.ieee.org/deep-learning-computational-cost

Knowledge Resources

A wealth of knowledge from the SEI. Webinars and stuff on a host of software topics.

Software Estimation

Estimation in these Agile days(Video)

Software Architecture

DevNation 2014 KeyNote(Video)

Introduction to Software Architecture : George Fairbanks (Video)

https://www.oreilly.com/radar/how-architecture-evolves-into-strategy/

https://dev.to/inspire99/microsoft-teams-architecture-behind-scenes-of-75-million-daily-active-users-n39

EA

https://eapj.org/the-many-lies-about-reducing-complexity-part-2-cloud/

Java Articles

Java Object Instantiation

https://www.infoq.com/presentations/new-java-16/

REST API Design

Best Practices - REST API

REST API Design - Thoughts

IOT Links

IOT products at Mobile World Congress

Top IOT Enterprise market leaders

Types of real time

Miscellaneous

https://www.infoworld.com/article/3616602/prisma-orm-for-nodejs-is-ready-for-production.html

Devops

https://dzone.com/articles/devops-best-practices

Microservices in practice - Deployment

https://techbeacon.com/devops/10-companies-killing-it-devops-2020

https://devops-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/devops.com/seven-reasons-you-shouldnt-hire-a-devops-engineer/amp/?amp_gsa=1&_js_v=a6&usqp=mq331AQFKAGwASA%3D#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=16210535492475&csi=0&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&share=https%3A%2F%2Fdevops.com%2Fseven-reasons-you-shouldnt-hire-a-devops-engineer%2F

Architecture

https://www.thearchitectsguide.com/blog/7-mistakes-that-will-destroy-a-successful-architecture-resume-cv

https://www.forbes.com/sites/danielnewman/2018/11/20/6-tips-to-frame-your-digital-transformation-with-enterprise-architecture/

Cloud

https://luminousmen.com/post/aws-lambda-abuse

https://www.lastweekinaws.com/blog/multi-cloud-is-the-worst-practice/

https://dzone.com/articles/the-path-towards-enterprise-level-aws-infrastructu

https://www.cncf.io/blog/2020/09/10/new-free-training-course-teaches-fundamentals-of-serverless-on-kubernetes/

Microservices

https://www.infoq.com/articles/microservices-grpc-ballerina-go/

Quarkus vs Micronaut

Fault Tolerance in Quarkus

CDI Bean

MicroProfile Fault Tolerance

https://thenewstack.io/a-case-for-databases-on-kubernetes-from-a-former-skeptic/

https://www.infoworld.com/article/3614850/no-one-wants-to-manage-kubernetes-anymore.html

https://www.infoq.com/articles/building-microservices-in-java/

https://thenewstack.io/defend-the-core-kubernetes-security-at-every-layer/

https://www.infoworld.com/article/3614766/running-microservices-on-google-cloud-platform.html

https://thenewstack.io/how-vodafone-greece-built-80-java-microservices-in-quarkus/

https://tech.flipkart.com/flipkart-lite-the-how-172f45c4dd20

https://blog.opengroup.org/2021/11/23/how-to-use-microservices-a-guide-for-enterprise-architects%EF%BF%BC/

https://semaphoreci.com/blog/microfrontends

Containers

https://sysdig.com/blog/kubernetes-monitoring-best-practices/

https://about.gitlab.com/blog/2020/09/16/year-of-kubernetes/

https://learnk8s.io/kubernetes-autoscaling-strategies

https://www.cio.com/article/3627869/skills-of-successful-digital-leaders.html

Data Analytics

https://eng.uber.com/streaming-real-time-analytics/

Serverless

https://levelup.gitconnected.com/serverless-architecture-layers-a9dc50e9b342?gi=99f84e8c01f

Serverless Security

https://www.baeldung.com/sql/apache-doris-tutorial

Monaco GrandPrix 2015 - A wrong Arrow from the Silver quiver!

Mercedes got it all wrong in the last 8 laps and tied themselves up in knots. If not, the heading would perhaps have something to do with an adventurous 17 year old named Max Verstappen.

The start of the race had a bit of promise, with Nico having being edged out of pole by a mere 3 tenths of a second tried to make amends by challenging Hamilton into the first corner. However he had to back off to defend second position from an opportunistic Vettel trying to slot in through the outside.

Hulkenberg was shouldered out by Alonso and Massa too had an incident at the back of the grid. And all was calm. The Monaco track lived up to it's reputation of being notoriously difficult to overtake. Ferrari tried the undercut on Mercedes by pitting Vettel early but the Silver team proved to be alert and covered it nicely to retain track position for Rosberg. And all was calm...that is till a young gun named Max Verstappen decided to put on his thinking cap and try to make it into a points scoring position.

His strategy was simple. As a back marker he pasted himself to the rear of Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari as it lapped other back markers. As the back markers moved aside for Sebastian coming through, Vestappen followed Vettel to make up a position. By the time the fellow racers realised what was going on he was through in Sebastian's wake. A couple of positions were made up in quick succession. However Renault warned Grosjean on what was transpiring. Grosjean cleverly used the Grand Hotel haripin to let Vettel through and prevent Vestappen from following through. On the softs with newer tires Vestappen was much quicker and looked set to pass Grosjean. On the start straight, he sold Grosjean a dummy to the left and jinked to the right and tried to pass Grosjean on the inside. Grosjean held his line and braked a bit early with disasterous consequences. Vestappen barged straight into the right rear of Grosjean destroying his front suspension and crashing into the barrier at over 200kmph. Luckily he wa able to climb out of the car and walk away. A thin line between a hero and a zero.

However this guy is someone to watch out for with a very intelligent and mature head on his young shoulders. A definite future champion.

In the ensuing safety car period Mercedes suddeny decided that with a 21 second gap it would be a good idea to pit Hamilton. However this meant that Nico and Vettel were handed first and second on a silver platter. As Hamilton joined  the grid both leading cars passed him.

The race ended in the same order. The championship is now closer with Hamilton's lead whittled down to 10 points. Now if only Ferrari's promised upgrades mount a mighty challenge to the Silver Arrows and we would have a stunner of a season!!

The Chinese Connection

The Chinese Connection

With the safety car being pulled into duty on lap 54 of a 56 lap Chinese GP, the end of the race was bit of a anticlimax. However other than Hamilton suffering a hot butt (literally as his seat was inexplicably heating up!!) the race was pretty standard fare.

It was a standard day in office for the Silver Arrows. After locking down the front row post qualifying, the duo of Hamilton and Rosberg were never challenged. Hamilton crucially controlled the pace in the second segment of the race going slow enough to aggravate his team mate but doing so meant that he preserved enough life in his tyres to ensure that he could up the pace as needed which he did by posting the fastest lap times just before his second pit stop. In the process he built up a 6 second gap from his team mate. Rosberg did not seem to have any moves to mount a serious challenge. He was also kept on the straight and narrow by Sebastian Vettel who kept the gap close enough to capitalise if his fellow German compromised his tyre strategy by attempting to challenge the leading Mercedes.

Ferrari tried the undercut using Vettel at the pit stop but was unable to work their magic as in Sepang with Merc seemingly wiser in the third race of the season. Towards the last few laps of the race a scintillating battle between the Ferrari teammates seemed in the offing. Raikkonen had tyres that were 4 laps newer then Vettel's and was reeling in his team mate at a steady pace. But any hopes of seeing a Vettel-Raikkonen match up were dashed by the safety car coming in at lap 54 with two more laps to go and staying till the end, on account of Vestappen's engine blowup. It was an unfortunate closure to what had been another stellar piece of racing from the young gun.

Alonso did what he usually does, putting in a fantastic last segment on soft tyres to reel in his team-mate Jeson Button who was having a right tussle with Pastor Maldonado. Fights with Maldonado rarely seem to end well with Jenson tagging the back of Maldonado's car sending the Venezuelan into retirement. Having being close enough to the two to get tangled in the mess, Alonso kept his nose clean to make up two places. Jenson was lucky to be able to finish the race. Hope to see Alonso get back to achieving great results with mediocre cars. The incident was to be investigated after the race.

In the end it was a one two for the Silver Arrows followed by the Ferraris of Vettel and Raikkonen. After three races the team order seems to be Mercedes followed by Ferrari, Williams and Sauber. Next week Bahrain after which the show moves on to Europe where the team order will be really shaken down.

The horse prances at Sepang

German precision and Italian passion.

Ferrari is back. Mercedes tripped over their strategy or rather the lack of it. The safety car also helped Ferrari. But that takes nothing away from what Ferrari achieved as a team. As they say luck is where preparation meets opportunity.

Amazing what changes over a span of two weeks. After the race at Melbourne the f1 fratenity was in a tizzy on how strong Mercedes was and how their domination would be bad for the sport. Even the drivers at Mercedes seemed apologetic about it. Fast forward to Sepang, we had a Ferrari split the Mercs in qualifying and go on to put together a brilliant race to finally take the chequered flag. And what a race. 16 laps left and 13 seconds behind, Hamilton had a chance if it had not been for the decision to put on the hard compound for the last stint. What was required was 1.42.7 which was a tough ask from the hard compound even with the talented hands of Hamilton guiding them. 

Ferrari's decision to stick to their two stop strategy and stay out during the safety car period proved to be spot on. Harks back to the inspired strategies at Ferrari during the Ross Brawn era. The 2.4 second pit stop gave Vettel a chance to come out just behind Rosberg and build a 23 second gap over Hamilton when the Mercedes driver pitted for the second time, which equates to the time needed to pit and come out without losing track position. Lewis being Lewis whittled the gap down to around 19 seconds to ensure that he gained track position when Vettel pitted for the second time. But even with a relatively slower 3 second pit stop, Vettel's race pace ensured he came out just ahead of Rosberg and around 9 seconds behind Hamilton who had one more pit stop remaining. However having used their softer compounds during qualifying, Mercedes put out Hamilton on the hard compound which just did not have the pace required to reel in the leading Ferrari.

Lost among all the action at the front was Raikkonen who rounded out the top four positions. Starting 11th after a spot of bad luck in qualifying, a puncture in the race pushing him dead last, he put together a superb drive to finish 4th and complete a very successful weekend for Ferrari. Misfortunes aside he may have made it two podium steps for Ferrari. 

It was a strong comeback for the sport as well with a very close fought race up and down the order. Be it the young chaps at Torro Rosso out classing their seniors at Red Bull, the close fights between Force India, Lotus and the Red Bull, the fights between the Williams drivers the race never had a dull moment. A word in for Max Verstappen - who came in for a lot of flak for being introduced into F1 at such a tender age. Over the last two races he has shown what a good pair of hands he has, indulging is some close wheel to wheel racing with Valtteri Bottas. F1 is tough politically and if he has the head to deal with all the mind games, I think we are looking at a future world champion in the making. The talent is definitely there.

McLarens did better but still have a long way to go before taking the fight to the leaders. The races in Europe will be the ones that separate the men from the boys and confirm whether Ferrari's form is enough to beat the Silver Arrows. Here's to what looks set to be an awesome season of racing.