Stuff and Junk

HSV GXP Club Racer? Not Quite.

Dec 11

Posted by Vern in Driving, Motorsport | No Comments

HSV have just released their latest model the GXP and it is aimed at an entry level HSV for the weekend racer. A cheaper alternative with the basic Commodore tail lights for example to keep the costs down.

When I first heard about this car it sounded like a great concept, but then the more information I read about it, more boring it sounded. You buy a HSV because you either you want something unique or you want real race inspired performance. All this car seems to be is a unique car, built for the masses.

If you are going to take stuff out of a car, then at least strip some weight out! My impression of a true club level racer is something that has all the non essentials taken out, chuck in a roll cage, some harnesses, bonnet pins and tighten it up some more.

Perfect examples; 911 GT3 RS, Renault Megane R26R, Aston Martin

Come on HSV, bring out a real Club-Sport!

http://www.hsv.com.au/hsv/press/default.aspx?ID=1153

Tags: car, holden, HSV, light weight, racing

Real Driving Simulators: LFS vs rFactor

Dec 3

Posted by Vern in Driving, Gaming | 1 Comment

I’ve been using Live For Speed for about 5 years now and have never found another driving game/simulator that has ever gotten close when it comes to the actual driving experience.

I tried rFactor about 12 months ago and didn’t really think that much of it, although I did think about how long it took to get LFS working with the wheel setup, force feedback bla bla. So I gave it another go this week and initially I thought the same, but then I spent the time setting the G25 up right, and it wasn’t until I started downloading some more content that it came to life.

Then I downloaded Oran Park and then as soon as I hit this;

I was in!! The Oran Park dog leg, one of the greatest corners in the country and now that it is gone to the progress of residential housing gods I am very happy to know I can relive my old Sports Sedan days through rFactor.

I still put LFS at the top when it comes to the realism of driving, but rFactor is very very close but has the added benefit of relatable content.

Tags: Gaming, LFS, Live For Speed, matrox, rFactor, TripleHead2Go

Avoid the Traffic? Navman Suna review

Nov 30

Posted by Vern in Digital, Driving | No Comments

Basically, nup. Not really.

I would really love this to have worked but unfortunately it just isn’t quite there. There is actually nothing wrong with the hardware, well mostly anyway. OK, so there is a major issue with the hardware.

First issue is it uses an FM signal to pick up the traffic information which of course is digital and when digital reception is bad, it’s useless. So the problem I have living 38.9kms from the CBD is it won’t pickup any traffic until I’m almost 1/3 of the way in, by then I’m already stuck in traffic.

According to Suna who provide the traffic signal to the Navman and the RTA, who in NSW provide the traffic information data to Suna, there is never ever any traffic on the M2. Which of course the M2 is always a $5 carpark.

Problem is if you follow it around it’s suggested new route, you never going to know if there was any traffic there any way. Therein lies the second issue, the data it self is where it all falls over. Because it never picks up traffic on the M2 you then start to doubt the system and start ignoring it because you can never gauge it’s success, you can only gauge it’s failures.

So basically I still use it all the time as a gauge, but you just can’t rely on it. Having said that, a better FM signal and more accurate traffic data and it would be defiantly worth it.

Tags: Driving, GPS, Navman, Suna

Hits vs Page View vs Visits, The Simple Stats.

Nov 17

Posted by Vern in Digital | No Comments

A simple description of the three big stats when it comes to websites; Hits, page views and visits.

Imagine you have a web site with two pages, both pages containing text and 3 images.

If someone comes opens the home page, clicks to the second page and then leaves you will have;

1 visit
2 page views
8 Hits

They have visited the website and no matter how many pages they look at, it is one visit until the session is closed. Sessions are usually ended by the user closing the browser or clicking through to another website.

During that visit they viewed two pages, the home page as one and then the second page.

Each page records 4 hits, the 3 images plus the HTML page containing the images and text. The server has produced 4 files in total for the home page, but because they opened the second page that also contains 3 images and another HTML page, that adds another 4 hits.

Tags: backend, stats, website

Buy the car, CGI the look and laser cut the body.

Nov 17

Posted by Vern in Automotive, Digital | No Comments

When I buy a car I think of it as the starting point, then I need to visual what it would look like when I have made the changes I want, hoping it will look they way I imagine it.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could walk into a dealer, say I want a Chevy Camaro, let’s make it black, the bonnet to have two nostrils, no make it one. Spoiler to look like…etc. The dealer gives the specs to a CGI guy, he produces this video;

And then the dealer laser cuts the body components to the CGI references.

It’s doable!!

Tags: black, Camaro, CGI, dealer, design, helicopter, ideas, Mustang, youtube

Facebook linking, show the right stuff

Nov 4

Posted by Vern in Digital | No Comments

When you post a link in Facebook, FB looks for three elements for the display of the link. Title, description and an image.

The title comes from the <title>This is my Link</title> tag.

The description similarly comes from the META tag <meta name=”description” content=”The Description” />

The image basically looks at all the images on the page over 100 px, and then sorts it by the largest image first, and then position. The image can also have a style display of none so that it is hidden from the browser, but visible to FB.

Tags: code, Facebook, meta, website

Sexy Clems BBDO EVO ad

Oct 19

Posted by Vern in Digital, Driving | No Comments

Sexy Mitsubishi EVO spot ad from BBDO in Adelaide, looks very neat. More here: http://www.resin.com.au/Proj_mitsu_lancer.shtml

Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution – Defy Physics from Resin on Vimeo.

Tags: ad, campaign, design, Driving, EVO, Mitsubishi, racing, tv

Matrox Fallout 3 Screenshots

Oct 15

Posted by Vern in Digital, Gaming | No Comments

Finally got my Matrox triple screen running right with Fallout 3 and this is the result;

Tags: Fallout 3, Gaming, graphics, hardware, matrox, triple, TripleHead2Go, widescreen

ESC Mandatory in Vic, way to detach the driver

Oct 14

Posted by Vern in Driving, Motorsport | No Comments

Victorian law is being pushed through now to make ESC electronic stability control compulsory in all new cars from 2011, obviously the idea is the make loosing control of your car a much harder process. What I really don’t get with this is we keep adding all these things to cars that just make the driver even more detached from driving.

You think about what it was like 20, maybe 30 years ago and the cars were harder to drive, you didn’t have all these helping hands that took the responsibility away from the driver.

Take traction control for example, in a car without traction control you quickly realise if you push your throttle to the floor, you loose traction. So how do you react? You use less throttle and you learnt a little physics along the way, too much power means less control. Take a car from today, it has twice the power but a little button that controls the throttle for you. So how do you react instead, full throttle and the computer will handle the rest. We’ve learnt nothing

about how a car really reacts and nothing about the physics involved in making a tonne and half of metal move.

So all those 18 year old, mummy and daddy bought me a new car types couldn’t give a stuff of course, but these are the ones that I’m scared of! You apply the same lesson of physics to braking and handle, hence ABS and ESC and what do you have? People who have never driven a car without these helping hands, pretend driving technical advancements and they then have no understanding in what it really takes to handle a car correctly.

Lachlan Driving

And what’s the result of that? Tailgating, wreak less driving and not learning the lesson until they really get into trouble when they realise just how hard it is to stop over a tonne of metal.

How do you fix it? Every new licence holder must pass a advanced driving course, teach actual driver control before they are allowed on the roads. And no, tax payers shouldn’t have to pay for it. You don’t want to invest a couple of hundred bucks into learning to drive properly, then get off the road. Catch a bus.

Tags: cars, Driving, rego, victoria