Sir Stirling Moss at the Concours d'Elegance
(Credit: Nathan Lang)Formula 1 has long been considered the pinnacle of automotive and motorsport technology. Many advancements on road cars, including paddle shifters, traction control and improved tire technology, have come out of the development of these engineering marvels.
Sir Stirling Moss, who drove in 66 Grand Prix races between 1955 and 1961, was an honorary judge at this year's Concours d'Elegance at Pebble Beach. While he was carefully studying the lines and mechanics of this year's competitors, we had a chance to ask Moss, now 77, a few questions about his role in racing and how today's cars have changed.
For one, the sheer number of races in a season was far greater when Sir Moss was racing. In the 1955 season, there were 7 races that counted toward the world championship title, and 16 non-championship races. In Moss' final year, there were 8 championship and 36 non-championship races. Today, F1 drivers only have to compete in 17 races per season.
"Back then we had many more races a year," Moss said. "And we still had time to chase pretty girls."
Current Formula 1 cars are some of the fastest in the world. The 2.4 liter, naturally-aspirated V8 engines are mandated to rev at 19,000 rpm (although they're capable of more) and can reach speeds of nearly 220 miles per hour. But being on the forefront of technology doesn't come cheap. Today's teams spend between $57 million and nearly $420 million on the sport annually.
So what does Moss think of these contemporary carbon-fiber speed demons?
"I think they're just staggering," Sir Moss said. "In the old days, you'd just buckle yourself in. It's quite different now."
Solar thermal is heating up.
Infinia, which makes a Stirling engine that can generate electricity or household heat by harvesting heat from the sun, has raised $9.5 million, the company said Thursday. Investors include Idealab and Khosla Ventures. As part of the deal, Infinia bought Stirling Cycles, one of Idealab's companies.
Stirling engines were invented in the 19th century as an alternative to steam engines. A Stirling motor has a closed cylinder that houses a gas, such as hydrogen, and a piston. Applied heat expands the gas to move the piston that, in turn, pumps other mechanisms, such as a crank, to create energy.
The Kennewick, Wash.-based company's main product will be a dish--which will look like a large satellite TV receiver--that will use the sun's heat to generate electricity. It can also generate heat.
The product is slated for final design later this year and commercial release in 2008.
Other solar thermal companies (also called concentrated solar power) use the sun's heat to warm oil in a closed tube. The oil is then used to create steam, which turns a turbine.
Some scientists and venture capitalists believe that electricity produced at solar thermal power plants can be as cheap as conventional electricity. Solar thermal plants, however, only work in dry, desert environments--like outside of Las Vegas or in the deserts of Algeria--and are quite large and expensive. Nevada Solar One, a recently inaugurated 64-megawatt plant, cost $250 million.
It is common knowledge that IT security is made up of isolated security islands that don't talk to each other and must be managed on a one-off basis.
Why is this? Best I can figure is that it is a historical combination of budget and behavior. Security budgets are notoriously tight, so tools tend to be brought in on an as-needed basis. As for behavior, security professionals grew up with a "best of breed" mindset. If security widgets 1 and 2 are deemed to be the best products available, they buy them. Security benefits tend to trump interoperability or operations challenges.
As an old blustery boss of mine used to say, "we've seen this movie before." Think of all the IT technologies that started as discrete implementations only to become an unmanageable mess when you tried to coordinate things across the enterprise. That's where we are today with security.
But, Microsoft sees the writing on the wall. Future security products must combine threat protection with enterprise scale and manageability.
At the 15th annual Microsoft TechEd conference on Monday, Microsoft announced a new product code-named Stirling that will aggregate client, server, and edge network security in a common management platform. Imagine configuring a security policy once and then having it enforced across the IT infrastructure? That is the exact goal. The product is due to go to beta later this year and become available in 2008.
Microsoft isn't alone in this pursuit. Symantec, McAfee and others are building products with the same objectives in mind. Years ago, Check Point Software introduced its OpSec software integration framework to piece together a similar type of offering, combining its products with others from partners. Microsoft's advantage here is its ability to go beyond security by adding further integration into its Windows infrastructure. Combine Stirling with Active Directory and System Center Operations Manager (formerly Microsoft Operations Manager) and you build a powerful set of capabilities.
Stirling will certainly appeal to finance and IT operations but Microsoft's biggest obstacle is convincing those stodgy old security gatekeepers that it can compete on pure security functionality. If it passes this test, it is likely to be very successful.
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