I was thinking of 2 computers. The idea I have would be to augment our
antiquated paper system until people are comfortable enough with the system
to switch over. We certainly don't want abandon the paper system, as it is
a good backup in case of hardware problems.
One for registration. This machine would allow users to enter their personal
info, sponsors, ETC. As an alternative, we could have a website to do the
same thing in advance, sort of like pre-registration. The registration
machine could print a barcoded label that we use to track the member through
out the day. Barcodes would be generated from your membership number, in
fact, each member would be tracked by their member number to allow for easy
paper tracking. Barcodes would be a convience factor to assist the merging
of the DB on the registration machine, and the tracking and scoring DB
located on a second machine in the trailer home.
The tracking and scoring machine would be connected to the timing and
scoring equipment to allow us to automatically track the timing for each
run. The announcer or one of the trailer workers would just have to make
sure to keep tell the computer when re-runs and timing issues arrise. To
make it easier to enter the competitors into the timing and scoring DB, we
make sure that it is the *drivers* responsibility to get their car entered
into the timing and scoring DB. My thoughts on that are to require drivers
to stay by their cars while they are teched, then immediately after their
tech is finished, the driver takes the card and (with the barcode) scans
their entry into the timing and scoring DB, and then submits their tech card
to the current card sorter. This way we insure that people stay with the
cars while tech is getting done, and we automate some of the hassle of
getting organized between runs, at least that is the plan.
The timing and scoring DB would also handle work assignments. I will admit
that this part of my proposal is a little thin. I have not thought this
through in any great detail. Basically, if your not running, or if the tech
is done off grid or by the other propsed method (group 1 tech group 2 etc),
you need to make sure that worker a) show up, B) sign in. The actuall sign
in could be done by a simple web page running off the timing and scoring DB.
By tracking the work assignments we could identify DNW entries during
REGISTRATION, not when they are supposed to work... Just an idea...
Any thoughts or comments are welcome.
Chris
#52 ESP
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-ba-autox@autox.team.net
[mailto:owner-ba-autox@autox.team.net]On Behalf Of Mark J. Andy
Sent: Tuesday, November 06, 2001 7:13 AM
To: Bay_Area_Autocross_List
Subject: RE: Preregistration and computerized timing/scoring
Howdy,
On Mon, 5 Nov 2001, Carl Merritt wrote:
> Only one computer? That's not NEARLY a sexy enough solution, I thought
you
> were in MIS? ;-)
Yes well, I forgot. EVERYTHING MUST BE WEB-ENABLED! :-)
> A single DB server in the motorhome running on AC power (with a large
enough
> UPS to keep it up while the generator is refueled), driving a small LAN,
> 802.11b wireless network, and then a bunch of iPaq wireless handhelds for
> registration, tech, grid, starter, T&S, etc...
Actually, that'd be pretty slick, except I'd toss the iPaq stuff and just
use laptops with wireless cards... Should be pretty reliable as well.
Mark
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