On the train home from work I usually thrash out a few ideas for articles, listen to podcasts or sleep. The one thing I never do is talk to anyone, because that would violate Rule 1 of Travelling on the London Underground.
This evening, however, someone did speak to me, and I’m glad I resisted the initial urge to pull the passenger alarm. The voice had a friendly face and his name was Hector – he’d spied “F1” on my laptop and wanted to know if I wrote for a Formula 1 website…
So we shot the breeze and talked about the upcoming season. Hector, it turns out, is from Spain and lives in Britain, so the discussion quickly turned to Hamilton and Alonso at McLaren. He was encouraged by Alonso’s form in testing at Jerez today (see here for more) but we both agreed things are not looking so rosy at McLaren – Hector wondered whether they were missing Alonso’s development input.
Of course we had to talk about the other big story of testing: the surprising pace of Brawn GP’s BGP 001. Will they be among the top four this year? Hector reckoned so, placing them in the top bracket with Ferrari, BMW and Renault. Despite that, he reckons Alonso is Ferrari-bound in the future, “The Tifosi will like him better because he speaks Italian. Raikkonen doesn’t speak much Italian” he said. “Raikkonen doesn’t say much at all,” I ventured.
When we went our separate ways he asked me for the name of the site I wrote for, explaining “I’m an F1 fanatic so I’ll definitely have a look for it.”
Well, I hope you found your way here to meet the rest of us F1 fanatics Hector!
Il Venturetto
16th March 2009, 19:01
Nice history.
I’m glad another spaniard reads you from Britain! :D
Regards from Spain :)
antizyklon
16th March 2009, 19:59
You have another F1 Fanatic reader in Palma. Our underground is much smaller though :)
Spencer
16th March 2009, 20:03
You have a British fanatic who lives in Spain. Does that count?
Ali
16th March 2009, 20:19
Keith, is it possible to crate a map of your followers world-wide? It may be interesting to see how much user visits this -let’s say- me(e)lting pot from how many different countries (:
Is it?
Hounslow
16th March 2009, 20:21
Interesting idea from Ali. A map of worldwide appreciation!
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
16th March 2009, 20:33
Like that idea a lot. Can you do it on Google Maps? Or does anyone know of another way of doing it?
Il Venturetto
16th March 2009, 21:08
I’m pretty sure it can be made with the Google Maps API:
http://www.google.com/apis/maps/
I suppose somebody else has already done it.
I’ve found a few useful links here: http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifehack/essential-resources-for-google-maps.html
I would try to help you, but now I’m going to have dinner. :D
Good luck!
Ali
16th March 2009, 21:25
Oops sorry, I don’t know how to use these stuff but lots of people already gave some clues. How nice!
DanD
17th March 2009, 2:34
Keith, looks like you might be using Google Analytics… if so, just log in and go to Visitors and then Map Overlay. The map there is in Flash, so your best bet is just to take a screen shot, paste it into imaging software, and save as jpg or similar. Good luck!
Loki
16th March 2009, 20:58
Here’s one way – not glamourous, requires to be done over time, but is free:
http://www.ip2map.com/
Loki
16th March 2009, 21:02
Actually, a quick search says if you know someone who can programme Google Maps API it should be somewhat straight-forward…
ceedas
16th March 2009, 21:10
And if Google is too much, you could look at this: http://platial.com/
(although Google Maps do look better)
carlos
16th March 2009, 22:18
Carlos, in Miami. i visit this website at least once a day. The articles are interesting, informative and lots of insight.Right now i am trying to convince my son to go to the British grand Prix in June.He rather go to Brazil to grandma’s house but I assured him that a GP would be a lot more exciting.
keep on writing and get the map going…
Snoopy
16th March 2009, 23:01
So if I am from Finland but live in Australia can i have 2 marks in the map lol.
Hector
16th March 2009, 23:44
Hello!!
scunnyman
17th March 2009, 6:33
Hi Hector.
So are you really the Hector from the train?
Nice to hear from you and i hope you like the site.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
17th March 2009, 8:50
Seriously?
Alianora La Canta
17th March 2009, 13:00
Buenos dias, Hector :)
Jay Menon
17th March 2009, 0:33
Heyy!!! Its Hector!
Journeyer (@journeyer)
17th March 2009, 9:54
Hector, is it you?
Buenos dias! :)
sojcarter
17th March 2009, 1:08
I think we have just seen the start of a beautiful friendship!
SamS
17th March 2009, 9:38
they should make a film….. Keith who would you like to play you!!
Gman
17th March 2009, 1:50
Great story guys- I’ve had a few similar experiences when I have been out in public wearing some of my McLaren gear, or when I see other people in gear from various F1 teams. Some are from other countries, but many are born and raised right here in the U.S.- the more conversations I have like this, the bigger I believe the F1 fanbase over here really is :)
Again, three cheers for good old-fashioned social networking. Enjoy the start of the season everyone, in whatever corner of the globe you may be ;)
arun srini
17th March 2009, 3:21
i’m an avid reader, from chennai India. Lived in dallas usa for last 5 years and moved back. I’ve partook in live blogs. Love this site
todd
17th March 2009, 6:46
there should be a plugin to accomplish that.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-guestmap/
only 2.5 stars, maybe look for a better version.
Sush Meerkat
17th March 2009, 9:19
HELLO HECTOR!
what a nice little train story.
Striay
17th March 2009, 12:11
Reading you from Gibraltar but live in Spain!!!
we are making Hector famous LOL!!
Adam
18th March 2009, 4:55
Not from Spain, but reading all the way from Texas!
Won’t find many of us following F1 too close : (
Except me that is!
verasaki
20th March 2009, 16:51
“howdy” adam. there are at least two of us down here.