The CSL

Each item will be dated, and the items will appear in reverse chronological order.

(May 20, 2010) Autorun, Autoplay and Protection Against Threats

Here's the bottom line:

We use USB drives to exchange data at meets. Viruses and worms use USB drives to spread themselves

There are two things you should do to prevent this. The first is to protect your computer. The second is to protect your USB drives.

This article tells you how to do it..

(July 15, 2009) De-merging a merged meet

There is a lot of diversity with regard to Developmental meets in this league. Teams bring different numbers of swimmers. Teams have different entry limits. Teams do their ribbons differently.

Most teams in the league prefer to merge entries with the other team into a single meet database. The main reason for this is so that the ranking of swimmers for ribbons and results will be across both teams.

But there are still a few teams that prefer to rank swimmers only within their own team. These teams prefer not to merge. Instead they prefer that each team run its own independent Hy-Tek meet on its own computer -- even though the swimmers still compete against each other in the pool.

So if a "wanna merge" team swims with a "don't wanna merge" team then what happens?

By decree of the Team Reps in 2007, and again in 2010, the teams should merge. And here are the reasons why:

• Once you run the separate meets on separate computers, there is no easy way to merge the two meets into one meet or one set of results so that the "wanna merge" team can get the ribbons it wants.
• Once you run a merged meet, there is an easy way to de-merge the meet into a meet that looks like it was run as a separate meet.

So, now that the long background essay is done, here is how you de-merge a merged meet:

1. In Meet Manager, make a copy of the meet via File --> Save As. Put the word "de-merged" or something similar in the name of the copy of the meet so you'll be able to recognize it later.
2. After you save, the copy should be become the active meet in Meet Manager. Check the caption bar to make certain of this. If the copy is not the active meet, then open the copy via File --> Open / New.
3. Go to the Teams screen. Highlight the team you want to de-merge out of the meet -- usually that would be the other team. Then click Delete from the Teams screen menu.
4. Still not done. Now go to the Run screen. You'll notice that all of the swimmers from the other team are gone. Click Re-Score on the Run screen menu. This will re-rank all of the swimmers in all of the events using only the swimmers on the remaining team.
5. Now you can print ribbon labels for your team out of Meet Manager. If you plan on printing ribbon labels from Team Manager, then you should do your results export from the de-merged meet, and not from the original merged meet.

During the meet (e.g. after each stroke block) is probably not the best time to perform the de-merge process. The recommendation is that you wait till after the meet.

(July 14, 2009) Primo PDF

** This blog entry has been deprecated in view of the fact our new version of Meet Manager supports export of reports to PDF files. (3/15/2011)

One of the nice things about the latest version of Team Manager is that you can now export reports to Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format, even though you haven't shelled out $250 for the Adobe Acrobat software. When we upgrade to the new version Meet Manager (perhaps next summer) it will also have the ability to export to PDFs.

Until then, unless you have Adobe Acrobat, you are stuck with DOC, HTML, and RTF exports from Meet Manager, right??

Wrong.

http://www.primopdf.com/

(June 15, 2009) The awesome power of Google Docs

This one is due to the Burke Centre Penguins, who learned it from their contacts in the world of Little League Baseball.

If you've never heard of Google Docs, it is sort of a web-based version of Microsoft Office. You can store and edit spreadsheets, slideshows, and documents. You can transfer the files between the web (Google Docs) and your computer (MS Office). You can even make the files publicly viewable on the internet, and even set up collaborations so that multiple people can update the same file.

The spreadsheets in Google Docs have an added bonus feature -- you can set them up for form-based data entry. This means that you can build -- on your own -- a web-based form with text fields, drop-down lists, check boxes and so forth. And when someone enters data on that form and then clicks the submit button, the data they entered is stored in your spreadsheet.

This is great way to collect data from swimmers and parents!

For example, if your team uses sign-up sheets on which swimmers can select events for Developmental meets, this provides another vehicle by which they can give you their choices. Or if you collect meet availability information from swimmers this is a good way to do that.

Here's an example of a web-based meet sign-up form:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=cnFWUnZtalNfa3l5WXZmMTR2b2dEV1E6MA..

Get yourself a Gmail account and give it a try.

(May 20, 2009) Upgrade to Team Manager 5.0

CSL is upgrading to the latest version of Hy-Tek's Team Manager product this season, specifically from version 4.0 to version 5.0.

There are lots of changes, but many of them are not of particular interest to us. If you'd like to see an extensive list of changes, use Internet Explorer (not Firefox, not Chrome, etc.) to view this web page:

http://www.hy-tekltd.com/swim/TMII/STS-TM5-0.htm

Installation CDs are being/have been distributed to the Team Reps. If you haven't gotten your hands on your CD yet, give your Team Rep a holler.

Under your TM 5.0 license, you can install the software on as many machines as you want. The license also allows you to make a backup of your CD, so please do so.

And here are a few of the new features which are of interest to us:

1. TM 5.0 uses a newer version of Crystal Reports than TM 4.0. The reports will look the same, but the report preview screen and its associated printing and exporting functionality is better. You can now export directly to Adobe PDF, for example.

2. The event entry screens now contain columns which show the number of individual entries, relay entries, and combined entries for each swimmer. The values are color-coded -- green means a swimmer is at the maximum, red means that the swimmer is over-booked, and yellow means the swimmer has room for more entries. A nice feature, especially for A-meets.

3. The relay entry screen now lets you show best times for swimmers for different strokes -- one stroke at a time. There is a dropdown that lets you choose the stroke for which you want to see the times. This screen will also calculate, if it can, a custom time for a relay -- so you don't have to do that manually any more.

(July 17, 2008) Alright, I accidentally scored one of the 6&Under events and now I can't get rid of the score. What do I do?

On the Run screen while working on an un-scored event -- such as IMs or 6&Unders -- if you click the Score : Ctrl-S button or Re-Score button, Meet Manager will prompt you and give you a chance to score the event.

It is very easy to accidentally give the wrong answer to this prompt, and end up with a score for the event.

Getting rid of that score is not quite as easy. Here's what you have to do:

1. Leave the Run screen and navigate to File --> Purge --> Reset Scores
2. Select the event(s) you wish to "un-score" and then click Re-Set
3. Still more to do... now navigate to the Events screen
4. Open ( by double-clicking ) each event that was accidentaly scored and clear the Score Event checkbox

And now things should be back to "normal". Note that, except for the scores, this procedure is not destructive. Any times that you entered for the event(s) should still be there.