Rob Boudrie

If someone without a computer drops me a note, I will squad them but it will be a "one-shot" deal. that means I will look for a squad which meets their needs, put them in and I am done. I won't be constantly re-arranging squads to preserve relationships. If a group of people send in registrations with a note asking that I send postal notification of squadding codes to a single contact individual, I will do that as well..

Although what Gary says is true, there is a more accurate explaination - I re-wrote the on-line system the board uses, and there was an error in the import process. The re-written system does not keep a history of individual votes, just the "real vote". The purpose of the re-write was to move to a database driven system, so that minutes would be posted directly from the system used to distribute motions to directors and tabulate the votes. In addition to increased accuracy, it gives the USPSA president the ability to post motions simply by checking the "post minutes" button on his control panel. I would caution against drawing any inference from the multiple votes previously posted. In at least one case, I personally hit "submit" when I had the wrong box selected; noticed my error and immediately corrected it. In another case, I changed my vote for a motion so that I could work for an improved version of the same motion. Also, the board members review the results of each motion before they rsults is "accepted as valid" and posted.

$195.00 each - which means I'll be sticking to paper reciepts for the 2004 ARea 7 match .

Since we do not have linkages between records (as in debit in one account and credit in another), there really isn't any need for a two phase commit.

The difference is that voting is a activity where "data integrity" does not only mean "accuracy" and "not losing data" but protection from tampering by highly motivated and well funded adversaries, in a environment where the user has no chance to verify their data. Although banks and brokerage houses rely on electronic data, the customers know if the data is "right" and any systematic outcry of inaccuracy would be looked at. No such feedback exists in a voting system, since there is no way to tell how your vote was recorded.

At this point, USPSA is not at this point making a "heavy investment" - my guess is that we will spend a few hundred $$ extra on the EzWinScore upgrade having the flat file import/export feature to support Palms. I can assure you that the work on the Palm end is the bulk of the task (the interim MS/Access transfer program alone is far more complex than the EzWinScore interface will be). Once that is in place, changing to support other platforms will be relatively straightforward, athough differences in conduit conventions may result in tweaks to the code if assumptions such as "all transfer files go into a single directory" turn out to be Palm-specific. But, I don't know of any credible plans for a non-Palm handheld scoring system at present. As to paper integrity - a) I've been pushing the "paper concept" in conjunction with Palm scoring. I told the MD of both the 2003 Area 7 and Infinity matches that the system is good, but we still need paper at anything above a local match. That assessment has not yet changed. MANY mission critical systems use electronic authentication. If you call your stockbroker or do an on-line transaction, you are not given a reciept - (one you print from your computer certainly isn't "signed" and won't be accepted as "overriding proof" if you brokerage house disagrees with the record). I'm not arguing that the Palm system is as robust as a brokerage house storing its data on raid arrays with off-site real-time remote replication - just making the point that the concept of "electronic data integrity" is already accepted in today's world. As to "79 reshoots" - A stats runner picks up scores every hour, which would mean about one squad's worth of reshoots in the event of a lost palm at the worst possible moment in the case of a paperless match. If the reshoots are impractical, the risk is one of a lost stage. Any Palm based stats officer who allowed a stage to build up 79 scores without doing a data pickup would be rather negligent. My local club is planning on going 100% paperless for local level matches, but will still used signed log sheets at big matches such at the upcoming Area 7 Championship. By the way, if you want to see a new way to do squadding, visit http://www.uspsa.org/squadding .

Limited 10 serves a couple of needs: 1) A divsion which accepts new, legal to manufacture, equipment. Without this, there will be no industry interest and hence no gun press. Yes, I know Production have the 10 concept as well, but L10 has more room to push the limits of what the guns can do. 2) Several other reasons: a. Hawaii - no > 10 round mags, no grandfathering b. NJ - 15 round limit c. CA - NO new purchases of > 10 round mags - it's posession of a specific mag by a specific individual which is grandfathered, not the mag by virtue of its manufacture date.

You'd go broke, even if a sponsor paid for your guns/ammo and travel.

Actually, it makes a lot more sense to work your way up to the "big match" such as the World shoot. It would be a mistake for IPSC to perform its first test of Palm Scoring at a World Shoot. I threw a number of obstacles at Peter - so many that I was actually surprised we made it all the way to the Infinity match (whcih was the original goal). The action plan was: 1. Use it to score a local match 2. Use it for the Area 7 Championship 3. Use it for the Infinity Open If *any* of the above steps failed (failure being defined as erroneous or delayed results) we would not proceed to the next match on the list. I told Peter I would do all I could to make his product succeed at these matches, but would not cover for him if it failed - and that he was free to not deal with me if he did not accept those terms. There was no need to run scores "in parallel" - the Palms were used to score the stage, and totals written down. The shooter saw a full display of their per-target hit and totals, and signed paper accepting this. It also meant that we did not need to have "duplicate staff" for the match. As to the "Validity" of the test - I submit that paper has NEVER been tested at a major match (double blind score acquisition by two separate individuals with comparison of each after totalling hits). Paper may be a "throwback", however, I don't see the elimination of a paper audit trail until the match culture has evolved to the point that people will accept the integrity of a "paperless" system. There is also the fact that out of 2000 scoresheets at the Infinity Open, 4 somehow did not get saved on the Palm. I attribute this to operator error (especially since 3 were on one stage). The presence of paper backup made this a non-issue, which only took a few minutes to correct. The decision to actively explore Palm scoring is a long term strategic one, not a decision about any particular match. An organization can decide to work to make something new succeed via incremental steps, or decide that the inability to get there all at once is reason to take a pass on the new technology.

Not on upload it isn't

Nobody is getting ripped if the sale is indeed "Used CDs" and not "unauthorized copies".

At present, the USPSA and IPSC Palm options differ: USPSA: Use a utility program to import Palm scores into the official (in the US region) scoring program, soon to be upgraded to an internal EzWinScore import feature. IPSC: No electronic transfer exists, however, one could use the "Match Magic" excell based scoring program offered by the Auto Scoring people. Although this is nicely done, it's not the same as using the "official" program. At this time, there are no specific MSS/Palm integration plans, however, the file formats used by the present (and future) USPSA<=> Palm transfer utility are "Tab Separated ASCII", so MSS *could* add support if IPSC chose to do so. I think Palm scoring can work well when there is an integration with the official scoring program, but I would be hesitant to use Palms at any match where the scores did not end up in EzWinScore (or MSS for a world body match). In fact, I said the same thing to the Palm scoring people which is how the EzWinScore transfer utility was born. We also had one visionary at Area 7 - club president Greg Newman. At the time I was hoping to score a couple stages with the Palms, Greg was telling me "we can do them all - go for it" ... and, he was proven right. The only question which remains is "Will Horus offer a version of their scope which comes with 'software only' for the Palm, so you don't have to buy a new one to get their system?"

Area 7 and the Infinity Open would disagree with the claim of "doubtful" . As to paper reciepts: Area 7 and Infinity both used paper reciepts of hit totals and times written down after scoring. Infinity was slicker, since we used muti-part perf "stubs" which reduced the number of sheets of paper (7 stage entires on a single 8.5x11 sheet) kept by stats. The current rules state that electronic scorsheets are permissable when approved by the regional director. BUT, there is a problem other than "lost scores" - that of the shooter who honestly and sincerely believes he did not have a miss, procedural, etc. on a stage. NOTHING beats showing the shooter his initials on a scoresheet. As to batteries - Palms are designed to retain data for a considerable period of time after the battery is so low as to render the display unreadable, and then allows for a change without data loss. You still need to be prepared for a hardware failure, but you're not going to lose data due to unexpected battery loss on a Palm. When we did A7 and the Infinity, we used Palms which take AAA batteries, and the "score runner" checked batteries at each pickup. We planned on replacing any < 50% full, but none ever got that low. Regarding stats - there is a real benefit in not having to keep a bunch of people huddled behind PCs throughout the match. In fact, we did not want to run the generator continuously at the Infinity, so the single laptop used to score the match was powered off at least half the time. The big labor issue was supporting new-to-Palm RO's. If the RO's were all experienced Palm users, I could have done stats for either match by myself, and still had time to hang out at the ranges. (Note that I used the term "single laptop" in connection with scoring a 10 stage, 200 shooter match in real time). Vince touches on on accuracy issue (correct # of hits). The other is data transfer - the score you get WILL be the score you accept on the Palm - no chance of "user error" on data entry, and no need to a "manual verification cycle" or "double score entry" system. Vice is right about "knowing limitations." I think Palm scoring is great but, at this point I insist on two things for a major match: (1) A paper log of scores (2) A "standby" supply of paper scoresheets "just in case"

The Case Pro is a wonderful solution to the "Glock brass" problem. If you can hook up with someone at a police department to get their range droppings, it's great way to know that once fired is really just that. The unusual thing abotu the 40 now days is that you can often buy brass for less than the cost of the primer.

One of these days I'm going to get one of them new fangled laptops, but there are advantages to desktops which will probably prevent me from mving completely to a laptop. 1. Easy and cheap to maintain and expand. If a disk drive goes bad, I can get a Maxtor RMA processed in about 4 days and replace it myself in about 10 minutes. Contrast that to the hassle of a laptop repair - except maybe for an in-warrantee Dell. 2. SATA/RAID. See #1 above. 3. Disk capacity. 120GB is small on a desktop. 60GB is huge on a laptop. Fiigure $1.00/GB to expand the storage on a desktop. 4. KVM switch allowing instant toggling between an XP and Linux system (I run my development web server and a samba file server on the Linux box) 5. Durability. Laptops tend to "wear out" (mechanically sooner). Broken keyboard on a desktop? $13 at Newegg takes care of it. Broken keyboard on a laptop? Usually means a new laptop since the maintenance on an old one is cost prohibitive. 6. Speed/Cost - A super fast desktop means you can get by with a moderately priced laptop for on the road and at the range work. If the laptop is your sole machine, you'll spend a premium to go high end. 7. Overclocking & motherboard control - Desktops typically give you more options, particularly if you buy a high end component motherboard rather than a Dell (which are great machines, but tend to protect you from yourself if you want to overdrive the CPU)

Although I am not writing the Palm software of the EzWinScore interface, I am the conduit (Palmies will understand) via which the specs and requirements will be established. What I expect to be supported: 1. Initial registration in EzWinScore. Transfer registration data to Palms before match. (Be sure to include a couple of "spare" shooters in the Palm - you can change their name and membership number later). 2. Initial stage definition in EzWinScore, transferred to Palms. 3. Scores transferred from Palm to EzWinScore with two options: a. Overwrite - if score for a stage already exists in EzWinScore, overwrite it b. Non- overwrite - if score for a stage already exists in EzWinScore, leave it in place and do not overwrite on a Palm sync. The Palm transfer directory will be set up in the match config screen, so updating scores in ExWinScore will consist of: a. Collect scores from each stage via IR beaming to a master palm b. Place Palm in cradle cabled to PC, press sync button. c. Go into Scoring on the Palm and press the "import palm scores" button optionally: d. Post results on the in-clubhouse web server, so that competitors can visit any of the workstations set up around the periphery of the clubhouse to checks their score as the match progresses. [ Yes, I plan on doing "d" at A7/2004 ]

It's easiest if you can catch the Federal NT cases after the first use, rather than after a botched reload, as the factory primer is of a "copper" color rather than nickle or brass. Make is really easy to spot these visually.

I ran the Palm Scoring test at Area 7 and the Infinity Open. It worked well in both cases but, at present, the movement of data from the Palms into EzWinScore involves a stand-alone Microsoft Access application. A full report of the test at Area 7 test is posted at www.boudrie.com/Area7_Palm_Scoring.html The Ms/Acess approach to data movement has to problems: 1. You need MS/Access on your system 2. Several manual steps to set it up (Start the Sybase anywhere database ending, exit ezwinscore, open three tables via access with specified keys) BUT.... USPSA and Automated Scoring Systems just entered into an agreement in which: a. Automated Scoring Systems will allow USPSA to use the Palm software for free at any USPSA National Championship. (No, there has been no decision to actually do this). Auto Scoring Systems will also update their program to conform to the new USPSA version of the IPSC rules. 2. USPSA will enhance EzWinScore to support data transfer from the Palms directly without any need to MS/Access, and with a *much* simpler process. Once this is done, Palm scoring can be a reality for any club willing to buy Palms and the software. The catch? AutoScoring Systems "USPSS" product is a commercially sold product, not something USPSA "owns". I hae written an article about this for Front Sight, but am holding off on submitting it until actual availability of official support in EzWinscore is a bit closer to release.

The Ruger may not be an option for Peter (not sure if it's on the MA list), but he can't go wrong with a S&W 41 - just don't assume the less expensive models which seem to have a similar design are in any way similar in quality.

The former president of the Bass River Sportsmens Club (Cape Cod, MA), Jim Lombardi, had his services at the clubhouse - attendees were asked to wear their shooting shirts rather than suits, and his wife spread the ashes on the club property privately afterwards. A temporary shortage of AR15's lead to a 3x7 rather than 7x3 salute at the opening of the next match at that club. We lost a good one.

Definitely interested in getting one of these babies for a 1050 if such a beast becomes available, and shipment starts. Brian - who holds the 50% deposit - you or the manufacturer? This obviously effects the "risk factor", since giving a deposit on for a product not yet manufactured places the buyer in the position of "unsecured creditor for a start-up firm".

How would Sandy make an extractor out of his ugliest smelly dog anyhow?

United marks bags with declared firearms with a row of text "FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF" - and claims this is OK because it is not labelling the bag, but an internal code. The Proivdence, RI airport had the most gun knowledgable TSA staffer I've ever run into - the baggage screener didn't even have to pick up the gun to tell the other inspector looking through my case "that's a Strayer Voigt", and before he mentioned something to me about usually building on Caspian frames, but also having done a few SV's.

(1) Revenue generation is an important component of the classification program - without it, the options would be to cut back on programs, spend our net worth into oblivion, or increase dues drastically. (2) Although one's classification percentage is often higher than how one shoots at a really big match (most A's shoot under 75% at the nationals, etc.), it's also worth looking at the results from any National Championship or Area and notice how closly classificaiton is correlated with order of placement. Although there are always fliers, the correlation is really pretty good.

Acutally, constructive suggestions do more to effect positive changes that do a large collection of attaboys. Don't worry about offending me - I can take the heat - especially when there is a degree of validity to the comments. I'll take the lack of complaints about classifier, classification, match listing, point series and match results uploading as a sign that I am at least doing something right