John,
all valid points. But the same aurguments can be used when debating the
electronic engine management systems on my car.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-ba-autox@autox.team.net
> [mailto:owner-ba-autox@autox.team.net]On Behalf Of John J. Stimson-III
> Sent: Tuesday, November 06, 2001 10:14 AM
> To: Chris Warner
> Cc: Jerry Mouton; Bay_Area_Autocross_List
> Subject: Re: Preregistration and computerized timing/scoring
>
>
> On Tue, Nov 06, 2001 at 09:42:00AM -0800, Chris Warner wrote:
> > With an automated timing and scoring we could potentially post
> to the web
> > live, as it happens.
>
> So what? All the people who care are still at the event.
>
> > The timing and scoring could be setup to post times live. We
> would need a
> > CRT or flat screen display for the current run group, then when the run
> > group is finished, the results could be printed out and posted.
> No need for
> > a time poster here. It would be really neat if we could use a
> touch screen
> > system here because then we could allow the competitors to search and
> > compare their times to their friends who may or may not be in
> the same run
> > group. It is nothing that we can't do now, but we're just changing the
> > presentaion of the results.
>
> Yay! More hardware! More stuff to power, and more stuff to break.
> This is the kind of thinking that keeps my company in business.
> Spending a thousand bucks to maintain the level of functionality that
> we currently have.
Then you should love this propsal. If your company gets more buisness as a
result, more power to ya!
>
> > True, but since most of our members live and work in proxcimity
> to silicon
> > valley, I don't think it would be a problem finding a specialist.
>
> You're sure not going to recruit me to fix someone else's broken
> software! Maybe some people enjoy working around bugs in someone
> else's software (there are lots of Windows users, for example). Can I
> see a show of hands for people who want to become specialists in
> someone else's fully automated registration, timing, scoring, and
> posting system? How many people have even bothered to learn all there
> is to know about the timer?
I thought open-source was the panicia solution to this problem? No
seriously, this is problem, a solvable problem but an issue none the less.
>
> > Touch screens are great for this. I worked for an company that
> developed a
> > coin-operated bar top machine, designed to take the abuses of drunken
> > patrones and lots of spilled beer. I think I have a few ideas
> to get around
> > this problem. If these technically challenged competitors can use a web
> > browser, then they could use our program.
>
> Yay, more specialized hardware! Who is paying for this stuff? This
> is a club, not an internet startup. If the club has thousands to blow
> on gimmicks, I vote for free karting sessions at Speedring instead!
>
touch screens are nice, but not nessesary. I was pointing out that there
are solutions available.
> There are some tasks for which computers can reduce the work
> required compared to doing it by hand. There are tasks for which it
> takes more time to develop the software to do the job than it takes to
> do the job by hand. And then there are tasks for which it's more of a
> pain in the butt to force the computer to do the job than to do it by
> hand, even when you already have the software. This really sounds
> like the last category, even assuming that we get the software written
> for free by unemployed computer geeks (perhaps especially if the
> software is written by unemployed computer geeks).
While it's true that some development time would be longer than to do the
same task by hand, the bulk of the software development would be done up
front during development making it possible to shorten the task over time.
It's easy to overlook the benifets of the automation over time. That is, it
may take longer to code the problem, but over time, the optimized process
will save more time. Or at least it has the potential to save time. this
is the risk we take by automating the system.
I think we are looking at this as a complete "turn-key" package to replace
what we have. That is not what I suggest. I am suggesting a migration over
time, 2-3 years perhaps. It has to be a slow change over to accomidate the
issues of development, deployment, and education on how to use the system.
It would be suicide to completely switch over within a year. It would be
asking for failure.
>
> One thing that hasn't been addressed is that the paper system provides
> a way to backtrack and figure out what happened if a mistake is
> discovered afterwards. Can that be true of the computer-based system?
> Yes. Will it? That depends on how it's implemented.
Agreed. that is why we cannot eliminate the paper trail. There is too much
going on
>
> --
>
> john@idsfa.net John Stimson
> http://www.idsfa.net/~john/ HMC Physics '94
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