Conference 7.286::digital

There is supposedly more info at the Marathon web site cited in the press
release.

		Steve

    I ran in the L.A. Marathon and they gave me a chip I tied onto my shoe
    and tracked everyone.  Don't know if they used an Alpha or not but they
    had a rackmount computer and some notebook computers that you passed
    through.
    
    							Michael
    

    
    Once again, Web appliations designed with specific "end user" hardware/
    software dependencies?
    
    This is what the marathon Web Site looks like, and how it works, when
    accessed thru a text viewer (Lynx):
    
    
    
                                                    Official B.A.A. Boston
    Marathon
    
       [IMAGE] [IMAGE]
       [ISMAP] [IMAGE]
       [LINK]
       Digital is the Official Information Technology Sponsor
       of the 100th B.A.A. Boston Marathon.
       TM     ____________________________
                 (this text in bold)
    
    
    
     .....................................................................
    
    (and the functionality:
    
    [IMAGE] boxes are not enabled for access
    
    selecting "100th B.A.A. Boston Marathon" puts the curson on the
    [ISMAP] box.
    
    selecting the [ISMAP] box generates:
    
                                    IMAGEMAP ERROR
    
       Your client did not send any coordinates. Either your client doesn't
       support imagemap or the map file was not accessed as a map.
    
    
    [LINK] takes the reader to this 'primitive design' Digital page which 
           points NOT to marathon information:
      ----------------------------------------------------------------
    
                                                 Digital Equipment Corporation
    
       [Welcome Non-Graphics Users!]
    
       This server was last updated: March 26, 1996
       TM
    
      � Digital Equipment Corporation, 1996. The DIGITAL logo is trademark
      of Digital Equipment Corporation. All other trademarks are the property
      of their respective owners. [Text View] [European Mirror Site]
    
    
    
    

    Yep, the page seems to use every Netscape V2 feature there is...
    Sigh...  So much for 'open' systems...
    
    				-John

  How well does the Web page work on Mosaic?

  There is a misleading statement in this Livewire posting. This is the first
time the names, home towns, and countries of all runners have been posted ON
THE INTERNET. It is not the first time they have been published. For several
years in the 1975-85 time frame, the Boston Globe published a list of this
info for every Boston Marathon. This was when there were 4000 or so official 
runners; it still took up about 4 pages of fine print. They apparently stopped 
doing this because the list got too long.

   Livewire Worldwide News    1-Apr-96

                  Ads about Digital's Marathon sponsorship  
                      airing on Boston radio stations 
   
         If you're going to be in the Boston area between now and April 
   15, listen for radio ads about Digital's sponsorship of the 1996 Boston 
   Marathon.  The ads will be broadcast weekdays through Marathon Day 
   (April 15) on WBZ 1030 AM and WEEI 850 AM during the morning and 
   evening rush hours.  
         Digital also will broadcast advertisements during the Boston Red 
   Sox baseball game that will be played right before the Marathon.  
   Listeners will recognize the music and the distinctive voice of the 
   woman who narrates the company's other radio and TV ads.
         The spots reinforce Digital's ability to build innovative 
   information systems for what lies ahead -- including the marathon 
   route.   
         Digital created and will maintain the Marathon's official 
   Internet web site for the Boston Athletic Association, which stages the 
-> race.  For the first time in the Marathon's history, Digital will post 
-> the names of all the official entrants, along with the towns, cities 
-> and countries they represent, along with other data.  Input from an RF 
   chip on every runner's shoe will be tabulated and available on the 
   information system provided by Digital for the BAA.  
         This year marks the 100th running of the race, known simply as 
   "the Marathon" to runners worldwide.  Some 38,000 people have 
   officially entered the race. 
         You can access the Boston Marathon web site at 
   www.BostonMarathon.org.

Bob:

  You obviously aren't a trained spin-doctor! :-)

> For the first time in the Marathon's history, Digital will post
> the names of all the official entrants, along with the towns,
> cities and countries they represent, along with other data.

  This is the first time in the Marathon's history that *DIGITAL*
  is posting all of this data. :-)

                                   Atlant

So, who won the marathon now then ?

While I can easily reach the Marathon main page, I can't seem the read
the final results. I keep having "errors pages" instead...


Philippe

    Looks fine from here...  (admittedly, right next-door in CyberSpace...)
    
    .. and may I be the first to congratulate the entire DIGITAL team that
    did http://www.bostonmarathon.org/ .  A super job.  Gotta love the
    availability of finish times online via an end-user-driven Oracle
    inquiry.  
    
    Kudos!!
    

	I got to see about 40 minutes of the race on TV at the gym - 
the commentators kept talking about how technology was revolutionizing the
sport, how with computers up to the minute times and graphics would be
available - and then the announcer said it was all due to Silicon Graphics.
SG this, SG that....  I must have heard SG's name at least 20 times in
the time I was watching....  

	On the plus side, friends who were down at the finish said there
were Digital signs, ads, etc. everywhere.


-rob

    Yep, Channel 4 had a cute looking 3D-style display of the runners that
    they'd show at each "mile mark".  The display had Silicon Graphics
    plastered at the bottom corner.  I didn't see a single Digital sign
    except for the shirt on one runner (and I watched almost the whole
    race).
    
    				-John

The web site www.100th.com seems to be supported to some extent by Silicon
Graphics and Boston's WBZ broadcaster. Perhaps the SG references stem from this
site, which is sort of a competitor to www.bostonmarathon.org.
						-- Tom

WBZ radio reported this morning that "full race results were not available
due to a computer glitch."

Art

I heard the "computer glitch" report on WBZ radio also.  But the Boston Globe
seemed to have full results in the paper this morning.

Paul

    Well, color me confused. I thought the Digital-sponsored marathon
    page would provide continuing updates as the race progressed; if it
    did, I never found them; perhaps I didn't look in the right place,
    but it didn't seem obvious from either the opening page or the menu
    at left. I found the live coverage from http://www.boston.com and 
    http://outside.starwave.com/outside/online/specialevents/boston/live.html
    much easier to follow in realtime.

    OBTW, I saw some SGI-produced graphics on the WBZ local Marathon
    Preview gala the night before the race.  They looked REALLY lame, imho. 
    No realistic human-body forms or motions were shown, and they simulated
    a pitifully small number of runners, going through a few sketchily
    rendered landmarks in the towns along the route.  In contrast,
    Digital's website was state-of-the-art.
    
    I hope the point wasn't lost on hoi polloi, but I fear it might've
    been.
    

    We did get some national coverage on the Marathon web site on Tom
    Brokaw's evening news (I always forget which anchor is on which
    network).  They showed the page and did mention that it was provided by
    "Digital".
    
    It almost seemed like WBZ was going to some effort to avoid mentioning
    Digital throughout their coverage.  The one time I saw a Digital bib on
    one of the runners, they immediately panned away as if the cameramen
    were told to avoid getting that Digital logo on the airwaves!
    
    	Steve

    On WBZ's 11:00 news last night, they reported that the electronic
    results for the first 15 finishers varied enough from the observed
    results that the official results were being questioned and may be
    changed. I sure hope this doesn't end up with us having egg on our face
    from this.

    
    A report I heard last night said that any problems with reporting the
    Marathon's results were due to human error, not system problems.
    
    len.
    

According to the Globe, the problem was that some of the first group of runners
didn't have the "Champion Chip" tied to their shoe the way they were supposed
to, which caused confusion.  Luckily this wasn't a problem for the first
15 finishers in each category, so no prize money was in question.

				Steve

    Re .20:
    
    > . . . some of the first group of runners didn't have the "Champion
    > Chip" tied to their shoe the way they were supposed to . . .
    
    Do you mean "tied to their shoe the way they were supposed to" or "tied
    to their shoe, the way they were supposed to"?  It makes a difference. 
    The latter means the runners did not tie the chips to their shoes at
    all and is probably a mistake by the runners.  The former means the
    runners may have tied the chips to their shoes but did not use some
    special method of tying the chip, which is probably a mistake by the
    designers since it is too complicated a method of use.
    
    
    				-- edp
    
    
Public key fingerprint:  8e ad 63 61 ba 0c 26 86  32 0a 7d 28 db e7 6f 75
To find PGP, read note 2688.4 in Humane::IBMPC_Shareware.

Appearing in tomorrow's VNS:
 Boston Marathon - Programming error in providing timing results
        {The Boston Globe, 17-Apr-96, p. 39}
   The Boston Athletic Association was unable to provide timely official
 results Monday night because of a computer programming error, resulting in
 incomplete results in early editions of yesterday's Globe.  For the Globe's
 first two editions, the second of which closes out at midnight, results of the
 first 2,000 runners contained errors in finishing times, although the order of
 finish was believed to be correct.  The newspaper was provided with the names
 of the first 20,000 finishers in time for those editions, and marathon
 officials were confident that after the first 2,000 there were few errors.
 For the third edition, the deadline for which is 1 a.m., the Globe and
 marathon officials were able to correct many of the early errors and provide
 the names of an additional 2,800 finishers.  For the final edition, which
 closes out at 2:30 a.m., officials released and the Globe published the names
 of all 35,811 official finishers.  To get results... Those interested in
 obtaining Tuesday's last-edition Globe, with complete Marathon results, should
 write to Boston Globe, Attn.: Back Copies, PO Box 2378, Boston, MA 02107-2378.

 Boston Marathon - BAA Officials: Don't bag the chips
        {The Boston Globe, 17-Apr-96, p. 40}
   More than 35,000 runners completed the 100th Boston Marathon Monday, but a
 computer glitch delayed the issuing of official results until early yesterday
 morning.  So much for technology.  The chips, which were attached to the
 runners' shoes and recorded the actual time a person crossed the starting and
 finishing lines, were not faulty, according to race director Guy Morse.  A
 programming error led to an incorrect listing of some of the runners' times,
 Morse said.  The finishing order was correct.  "It was not the computer chip,"
 Morse said.  "The chip was nothing less than an unqualified success."  "[The
 problem] was with our own programming and with the computers.  That system
 broke down."  This chip, invented by German Heinfreid Maschmeyer, will be used
 in the Summer Olympics to give 5-kilometer splits during the men's and women's
 marathons.

    A neat point.  A significant shade of meaning "for want of a comma." 
    
    If one of edp's hypotheses is correct -- that some may have not tied the
    chips to their shoes at all -- then they may have tied 'em higher on
    their bods.  Which (if I may add my hypothesis to edp's) could well
    cause some nonperformance or variance, given my sketchy understanding
    of the technology.
    
    I heard (in passing) that there were sensors ON THE PAVEMENT at the
    start & finish lines, presumably to "interrogate" the chips as they
    passed nearby on the feet of the runners.  Given that it's unlikely
    that anyone will be kicking high at the start (and certainly not at the
    finish, unless it's a dead heat) a chip wouldn't be more than 2 or 3
    feet high.  If someone put the chip on their waistband or headband,
    this might not work.
    
    All this is by way of asking for what's really IN the proverbial
    horse's mouth, rather than just speculating...???  Would someone who
    really knows chime in here pls?
    

The item I read was in yesterday's Globe - haven't read today's yet.  It
indicated that some of the first 100 female runners to cross the finish line
had not attached the chip to their shoe (at all).  It's entirely possible
that this statement later turned out to be incorrect - I just reported what
I read.

				Steve

.17 by Steve Strange
        
>    It almost seemed like WBZ was going to some effort to avoid mentioning
>    Digital throughout their coverage.  The one time I saw a Digital bib on
>    one of the runners, they immediately panned away as if the cameramen
>    were told to avoid getting that Digital logo on the airwaves!
    
>    	Steve
    
    Perhaps a few of us should let WBZ know this has been noticed.
    
    Mike (author of note 3000.83 letter to the Boston Globe)

I worked at the finish line.  It was explained to us in
the training sessions.

The pads create an RF field which is about 3 feet high.  All the runners
received explicit instructions to put the chips on their shoes.  Orientation
of the chip does not matter, as long as it is somewhere below the
knee it will register.

I've got to believe that the story about some of the top females
not attaching the chip is erroneous.  The runners were
fanatical about having them and making sure they were attached.
In addition to missing their time, they couldn't get a medal
if they didn't return it.  They were all well aware of what the
chip was for and how it needed to be attached.  Since I helped 
remove over 100 of them, believe me they were well secured!!!

This same technology is used in animal labs and hospital nurseries to
make sure the patients don't "walk out".  TI makes the chip.

					Mark

> This same technology is used in animal labs and hospital nurseries to
> make sure the patients don't "walk out".
    
    Does this mark the end of the Digital badge and door access card? :-)
    
    -Mark

    yes, at least in HLO.  :-)

    Aahh, what sweet validation of my presumptions about the technology... :-)
               

    The only problem is - suppose you forget to put your shoes on before
    you come in to work.
    

    To raise this topic once again now that the Olympics are a couple of
    weeks away...
    
    From what was written in 4484.22, it appeared the chips are to be used
    in the men's/women's Olympic marathons (not sure what "5-kilometer
    splits" are, however).
    
    Can it be assumed that the programming and computer problems as noted
    have been resolved?  
    
    -Andy (who feels for -anyone- that will be running in this heat for any
    length of time)