MORONS!

[thewayne]

This is unbelievable. Beginning in 2008, Microsoft is going to become the sole supplier of engine control units to Formula 1 racing.

http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/07/05/2357227

Allow me to repeat that. MORONS!

"Well, they had all these copies of Windows ME sitting around, and..."

Comments

[apostate-96.livejournal.com]

As if the sport wasn't dangerous enough on its own....

[kylejcrb.livejournal.com]

Hey, maybe this will inject some excitement back into Formula 1 and increase the US fanbase. Nothing like a good wreck/explosion every couple laps to get the Americans watching. :P

[silveradept]

I dunno. With the way things are, this might be the one Microsoft product that doesn't crash, because crashing would cause crashes.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

There's a lot of issues and it'll be interesting to see what happens. I just cannot see WinCE (AKA wince or Windows Critical Error) could be used in an engine controller. It is just not a real-time OS and no where near reliable enough for such an app.

[silveradept]

Out of the box, or even after all the customisations that F1 will put it through to try and make it more reliable?

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

Apparently MS has a partnership with Seimens, so I wonder if the ECUs will simply be rebranded with MS logos.

The thing that bugs me, aside from it being MS, is that MS has zero background in racing or race sponsorship, and then they jump in cold to the highest level.

[silveradept]

This is what happens when you have the money to spend on these sorts of things. And, in a perverse sort of way, this may be Microsoft getting a swipe back at the EU.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

re: MS swipe at EU. Hmmm. Dunno. F1 is pretty much exclusively Bernie Ecclestone, who is a Brit. Brit is only quasi-EU. Interesting thought, though. Could be.