Rally Fascination – Gran Turismo PSP

When I started playing Gran Turismo on PSP, I enjoyed drifting and racing a lot except for Rallying. It was just so difficult to handle with all of the unpredictable road conditions. This meant that all of the rally cars I purchased suddenly became a waste of game credits because I’m not playing the game to collect cars but rather try every single one of them and use them on races.

Happily though, I gave it a try and it worked. Of course a quick reaction is good but if you cannot give the results, there’s always time to learn more about the whole course and how the car reacts to these conditions.Since the famous rivalry in WRC before was between Mitsubishi and Subaru, I used Subarus and Mitsu’s. I also learned a lot on how the car responds to the needs of their drivers. For example, the indicator of braking and gear change reacts quickly and if you follow it, you can enter the corner without crashing. Of course, the option not to follow the copmuter is still fine. The cornering style for Rally Cars is totally different. 😀 And if you do well, you can make spectacular moves such as this:

More pics in the gallery!

Random Post

Yes, my phone definitely knows where Cervini Caf is. 😀 I was already in Fairview, QC at that time. That’s why it says I will have to travel 6.8 kilometers to get there. 😀

Ovi Maps and Nokia 5800 GPS System review

UPDATE: I’ve included the images/screenshots about the navigation action of OVI MAPS. Please Check it out below.

I thought it comes with a fee to download the necessary data, like the map itself, to use the program as well as the built-in GPS device of my Nokia 5800. After seeing that big ad of having the Maps for free, I browsed the website again and saw this program:

Click to enlarge

Now, I have the map data for my beloved country. Which means, I can now use my phone as a real GPS rather than reading positioning coordinated and not looking at a real map.

Before, I actually use the GPS from my phone to record distances travelled from school to home. Sometimes, I also use it to record the distance I travelled from jogging or running around but I haven’t used it for navigation.

I just finished downloading some data. I’ll post updates if there are any regarding the positioning and driving guides and even the annoying voice guide. 😀

UPDATE

Now I have some screenshots showing the Ovi Maps in action. During the operation, I was in Faura Building, Ateneo de Manila University. As usual, the built-in GPS device of Nokia 5800 does not have good reception while indoors. So I had to go out to see what’s what.

Um, if I remember it correctly, I was in Ateneo, not in Mangyan Street (Red Dot)

When the map data was uploaded, the application immediately knew where I was. Though, Katipunan was correct, the street was wrong. Remember, I was staying in Faura when the Maps initially gave my location in Mangyan Street, quite a very far place from my original location. It was also difficult to initialize with the satellites so I fiddled with some things first such as this:Oh, yes. Finally, a real GPS Navigation System!

I pressed the top bar while the pointer is not on the red dot on the screen. I clicked the “Drive to” option and immediately the screen tilted into a somewhat a 3D-like interface. It looks nice, just like the onboard GPS systems mounted on vehicles! 😀 It also looks different, depending on what way you would go to that position. 😀 It looks like a typical overhead map when you choose “Walk to” and there are more options to choose from.

Finally, the built-in GPS system initialized and detected enough satellites to determine my position exactly and it was correct. 😀

Red Dot indicates my position. It was correct and the GPS signal is just fine.

The street names were even accurate. Even the Diversion Road was indicated in the Map, which is nice. The main roads and other known streets were highlighted in different color, just like in Google Maps or Google Earth. I haven’t fiddled with the different views in this application whether the view can be a simple map, satellite imaging or terrain. Although for me, the different wouldn’t make much of a difference and I think it will just make things more complicated. I went back with the Drive view, pointing the next location to Masterson Drive but before that, I installed the voice guide so that I can experience the annoying voice that says turn left, turn right and so on. AND IT WAS ANNOYING but I love it. It was annoying in such a way that when I now told the system that I will go to Masterson Drive, it said “Drive to the nearest road”….okay. 😀

“Drive to the next road..” -Oh, okay. is it this College Lane?

What’s even nice is that it has an odometer and speedometer for you to see how much you have travelled and what speed you are travelling. How geeky was that? And I love the skies. 😀

Overall I think the only problem here is that the signals are very hard to get. Filipinos do have a good sense of direction in such a way that sometimes, maps are not necessary. Although in this modern world, more and more people are becoming lazy and eventually they will be lazy to even buy a hardcopy map that most people and drivers have. Because Filipinos liked buying Maps, GPS systems never clicked immediately when it came out here in the country and that’s probably why satellited never roamed that much around above the Philippines, thinking that they are now useless. But now, with most people are being adaptive to technology and the ever-growing application business, people would seek digital solutions such as this GPS. Also, with this Nokia Feature becoming free and more and more Nokia devices being fitted with internal GPS, I think this system would quite work slowly but surely to the Filipinos. Especially that Filipinos would love stuff that will make them WOW at a reasonable, or even better a cheaper price. 😀

I’m still fiddling with this thing. If you guys have any concerns or anything to share about this application, feel free to comment on this post. 😀

LSAT – Team Captain First Sortie

I admit, I was not performing that well during the registration. It was painfully hard to work as a team captain, especially that my current team is the Graduate Studies team wherein a new set of assessment procedures are given. I even made a terrible mistake, leading the registrar helping me to get a room where I can discuss the team’s constitution to the new applicants as well as the old members.

What else that was there? Oh yes, it was the first time in my stay in LSAT wherein we have to pick people from a bunch of applicants. That never happened before as we always interview and go down on taking everyone into the team. This time, I had to make the core choose their top two among their interviewees and select a few more to get to twenty applicants. It was sad because some applicants did not come, despite being selected by the core. I was thinking of changing the interview procedures.

I was in a difficult situation, given that I am an introvert and I’m not used to be in front of many people. I always care about the impression I give on the assessors. Honestly I am very scared especially there are LSAT “batchmates” there that I was not able to know better and I think they have their eyes on me, looking for errors on the very split second.

Setting that aside, I wanted to finish the job, whatever other people say. I’ll face them after we finish the objectives. However, the job also brought some worrying stuff that concerns us assessors. So I asked again my assessors for any problems every morning, since it was the traditional action done in LSAT. However, I found a fatal flaw in it. No one or only a few responds whenever I ask them and then we’ll end up in a bad situation in the end. So I asked someone who was kind of involved in supervising teams and that was my older brother. He told me stories about his team as well his actions and also the actions done by some of his friends who stay in a similar position but on a higher level. One thing that my brother suggested is to get their feedbacks at the end of the day. The only thing that’s blocking me from doing that is that the Graduate Assessment Team is the team that finishes late. Then my brother told me to give the feedback system as a homework. Although only a few replied to my notice, but it was enough to wake me up and my core. the feedback system was very effective. Those who sent emails, who had their mouths shut when I asked them, suddenly bursted into long paragraphs. Not that I am insulted or mad on the feedbacks, I actually loved them. Two of the assessors commented on the core’s performance and it waked me up. One wondered if a lot of core members staying in one venue is good or bad. The other commented on the attitude of the core inside the venue. I showed this to my core and we immediately made some corrections in the work area. It was also nice as it leads us to think quickly of solutions to these concerns. Then the other stuff were work related, the errors in printing, power issues and online database concerns. All of these were not mentioned when I asked the assessors in the morning, so I was thinking of retaining this kind of system so that I can get a reasonable amount of feedback. It was kind of effective and I am very thankful that there are people whom I can ask for suggestions. I have to learn more supervising techniques!

It was not the best start of my term as team captain nor it was the best but I do admit, I learned a lot. Because of the feedbacks as well as the other things that concerns me and my team, I learned a lot and I discovered that I have to do more stuff for this team. I also have to overcome this being introvert of mine. I need to interact more to my team. It was a hard job, but it was exciting. I also got some feedbacks about my performance but I explained it well (I guess). It was the first time to draw the Team Captain from Grad Team, and technically, I forgot all of the undergrad stuff I learned before when I first came to LSAT, I only knew Grad Assessment back then. Then I read that my presence is needed. Yes I know, it’s just that it’s scary to leave my team. Grad Assessment, if I am allowed to say this, is the toughest Assessment I’ve encountered.

Every morning when the prayer is said to the assessors, I add more prayers so that God may give me more strength to push on for the day. Erwin made me seek help from God at all times and it seems that all of those efforts in looking for God resulted to a more calm, composed me.

Being a Grad Assessment Team Head is tough, being the head among all of the Assessors is tougher especially that I’m that sort of person that you wouldn’t think of as a leader at first glance. But some people proved me that I can still do it, that I am worthy of my position. Of course, there may be some people who wouldn’t agree but if that’s so, I am challenging them to exchange positions on the spot. This is one thing quite unique in my stay in LSAT. All the positions I took were all almost impromptu or… i acquired them on the spot. For example, being the Grad Assessment Team’s Assistant Team Head was temporary position until at the end of that day’s registration, even if I’m not an official Assistant Head, I went to join the Core for their meeting. And because I was the Assistant Team Head, I was directly positioned to the Head after the head graduated. Then shortly afterwards, Team Captain position is now in my hands.

Grad Assessment was the best. It was not easy to be honest but, as what the previous Grad Assessment Team Head mentioned before, this is were one assessor can feel his or her position as an Assessor. No other assessor is present in the team like the Grad Assessor. In Grad Assessment, we go under the Graduate studies students’ rule while the undergrad assessment, the students fall into the assessors’ rule. That’s why Grad Assessment is more exciting! We don’t encounter shouting undergrad students, we encounter terrorizing old people! And there’s always a lot of goals in Grad. For example, we ought to set our goal on doing a good job so that no student would go into the assessment venue, where graduate students are not allowed to enter. Most of the time, we fail because it’s either our mistake or the form was already done from our hands and it is not just delivered quickly to them or their problem isn’t just addressed immediately. I’m not saying here that Undergrad assessment is nothing compared to our work. If you have noticed earlier, I mentioned that I know nothing already of undergrad assessment, and I’m the chosen team captain. Undergrad Assessment is also tough not because of bone-breaking assessment procedures but the shear number of people who go there, being persistent and hard-headed and I admit, it can make you crazy.

I hope I can perform better next time, taking note of the feedbacks sent and the mistakes I’ve done in this first sortie. I will ask help from our Lord for more strength and dedication. For now, I shall rest from being a Team Captain and resume the job after a month. 😀