How Do You Watch Formula One?
Having set up my desk for the Hungarian Grand Prix, I got thinking if I was the only one who organises the room around the grand prix whenever the cars take to the track. Below is a photo (excuse my lack of photography skills) which shows how my desk looked as the build-up to the qualifying started. It primarily includes my MacBook Pro, which is obviously essential for blogging to BlogF1, joining in with the LiveBlog and following Formula One Live Timing. Due to the limited space on the 15″ MacBook screen, I also utilise a separate 22″ Dell monitor (which was one of the best things I ever bought). I also rotate my TV slightly so I can see it from the desk.
My TV is obviously out of sight in the image, but I have uploaded another image to Flickr which you can see here…
So what about you? How do you watch Formula One? And if you’re a fellow blogger, how do you watch and blog Formula One. If you have a Flickr (or similar) account, upload an image and link to it in the comments. If it doesn’t work straight away, I’ll fix it for you…
Alvin
August 2nd, 2008 - 2:48pm
Hi,
How do you have a separate window showing on the dell monitor? Does the mac have a second display card? I use a dell laptop running win xp. Normally I have to have 3 separate windows open, 1 for live timing, 1 for the live blog and another for the live feed.
BTW, please visit my blog:
http://www.lewisf1.blogspot.com
Regards/Alvin
Oliver White
August 2nd, 2008 - 3:02pm
I’m not 100% sure what you mean, but I’ll have a go at explaining it – I’m not an expert, by the way.
In MacOS, as soon as I plug the Dell monitor into the MacBook it recognises it and converts my desktop over. If I want, within the OS preferences, I can leave the main desktop on the laptop if I want, but I prefer to have the menu and dock on the larger screen. (In Windows-speak, I’m referring to the Start button and taskbar.)
When I open Firefox, I load Live Timing (automatically loads on the main screen), then open the Live Blog in a separate window. I just drag that window over to the laptop screen (the two screens are essentially one giant screen and I can seamlessly move between the two.) I can even have half a window on the left and half on the right – but that would just be silly!
Or have one giant wallpaper in the background, although I prefer two different images so I don’t get confused.
By the way, you can do all this within XP as I did it with the ex-girlfriend’s Dell laptop. Look for ‘Displays’ in the Control Panel. The picture of the two monitors (when a second is plugged in) is almost identical to how MacOS does it.
Does that answer your question or have I got the wrong end of the stick?
John
August 2nd, 2008 - 3:13pm
I need an extra screen becuase I have a betting application open! There’s a pic on my blog.
http://www.flutterfly.co.uk/2008/03/tools-for-job.html
I have TV card which allows me to watch on the PC/laptop so i can move everything around to fit how I want it.
Oliver White
August 2nd, 2008 - 3:17pm
Looks good John. I’m not sure I could cope with three monitors!
Alianora La Canta
August 2nd, 2008 - 4:35pm
This is complicated. In fact, I can see a blog post coming out of this. Suffice to say I don’t have to set up the hardware side of it very much, but if I’m watching from the computer, the software can take a while to set up. This is because I have several commentary sites, a general browsing site, the ITV streaming service, live timing and a basic graphics program in operation simultaneously.
Oliver White
August 2nd, 2008 - 11:40pm
I look forward to your post, Ali. Links to sites-and-all plus photographs!
zerogee
August 3rd, 2008 - 2:45am
All Mac laptops (and PC ones, as far as I know) allow you to run a second screen off their external output. The Mac is quite straightforward, you just tell it to run two screens.
In Windows, you will see when you go into the graphics card properties that when you plug in a second monitor, there’s a 1 and a 2. Used to be a nightmare (Linux still is) but it’s very easy.
I knew Oliver was the type of higher human that would use a Mac.
(that’s a joke, by the way)
Oliver White
August 3rd, 2008 - 2:56am
Hahaha! I like that. I is a higher human, I’ll ‘ave you know. For someone who is barely taller than Heidfeld, that ’tis quite the compliment to befall me.
me
August 3rd, 2008 - 3:04am
do i get kudos for fitting everything onto the 15″ mbp screen?
here’s my screen layout, not sure a picture of a laptop sitting on my lap will tell you much more:
http://drop.io/sidepodcast/asset/mes-desktop
Oliver White
August 3rd, 2008 - 3:14am
@me: (Deleted your second [empty] comment, hotlinked drop.io in your first
)
Yeah, you get kudos for fitting everything you need into a 15″ MBP screen, definitely. You also get kudos for Live Blogging within WordPress, which I’m still trying to figure out how you managed to do…
me
August 3rd, 2008 - 11:37am
“Deleted your second [empty] comment, hotlinked drop.io in your first”
are you some kind of mind reader? thanks, i tried but your comments saw right through me
“You also get kudos for Live Blogging within WordPress, which I’m still trying to figure out how you managed to do…”
a couple of people have asked the same question:
once it’s stable and we’re confident we’ve ironed out most of the bugs, we’ll publish it as a plugin in the wordpress directory. we’re improving it on an hourly basis at the moment, and closely monitoring processor / bandwidth usage at (mt), so it’s still too beta for public consumption.
Tom M
August 3rd, 2008 - 1:43pm
Mine is simply a split-screen, liveblog on one side, live timing on the other. Fits nicely! This is all on a laptop perched on the end of the sofa, so I can watch the race on the telly!
(can’t figure out how to directly embed the image in the comment – so here’s the Flickr URL…)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tom_tvotw/2727381523/?addedcomment=1#comment72157606514900736
Oliver White
August 3rd, 2008 - 3:59pm
@Tom: Odd, when I click on my photo and then ‘All Sizes’, I get the embed code just under the image. Thanks for joining in though, as the race unfolds as well – that’s dedication!
Alvin
August 3rd, 2008 - 4:30pm
hi guys,
thanks for all the tips. will try it out during valencia. great race today.
alvin
Tom M
August 3rd, 2008 - 9:14pm
@Ollie – ahh – it’s on the “All Sizes” page – missed that… will have to remember that for future
Alianora La Canta
August 3rd, 2008 - 10:43pm
Ollie, I will do the post when I get my blog back. It’s currently giving me a 403 (Forbidden) error every time I try to get into it, and other readers are reporting the same problem.
Oliver White
August 4th, 2008 - 12:34am
@Ali: Yeah, in my previous comment I noted the 403, but it came back for me so I edited my own comment to remove the line. But, as you say, a 403 is happening again – good luck on getting your site back!
doctorvee
August 5th, 2008 - 11:07pm
Ollie, I’ve just uploaded a photograph to Flickr and written a post about it on my blog.
Oliver White
August 6th, 2008 - 12:00am
Great image Duncan, and thanks for contributing. If you need someone to stain the door frame, let me know – I’m pretty good with a pot of varnish!
francois
August 7th, 2008 - 10:47am
I think I might start again with the live blogs having not commented since Spain – preferred to concentrate on the race on ITV but you seem to pick up an awful lot more (which admittedly isn’t saying a lot).
At the moment I’ve got a TV which is alongside my monitor (one 19″ widescreen) on a desk which has the live timings open as well as the ITV web site so I don’t miss the press conference: http://www.upload3r.com/serve/070808/1218102241.jpg
(That is Jackie Stewart’s brilliant book “Winning Is Not Enough” on my desk by the way – I’ve finished reading it ages but it’s worth reading again every now an then).
Oliver White
August 7th, 2008 - 12:03pm
Thanks francois – it’s really weird seeing BlogF1 on someone else’s monitor, but I don’t know why though. Thanks for sharing your setup, and come back to the Live Blogs – you’ll always be welcome.
Alianora La Canta
August 8th, 2008 - 7:37pm
I’ve posted my viewing arrangements, but a picture of how I get the screen estate working together remains forthcoming.