IN THE SPOTLIGHTLynx times the Kent Tour of ChinaAnd who says FinishLynx will not take you to exotic lands! Two members of the Lynx team, Doug DeAngelis and Kate Farrington were lucky this fall to be part of the first ever "Kent Tour of China" international cycling race. The tour consisted of seven stages of varying lengths and content happening in Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Shanghai (2), The Great Wall, and Beijing. About 100 athletes from 17 countries jockeyed their way through the often smog-filled streets and countryside of a nation clearly "under construction." Interesting observations abounded: newly opened golf country clubs built in former rice fields; unbelievable grids of 50-storied bamboo scaffolding revealing new city skylines; bicycles carrying just about everything (including the kitchen sink); mountains of winter cabbage fresh from harvest looming on nearly every street corner; and as expected, lots and lots of people.
Of course, the FinishLynx equipment performed beautifully, and our efforts were rewarded when, for example, after one particularly close finish American Mike McCarthy of Saturn climbed up onto the staging in his cleats demanding to see the FinishLynx image. A quick examination of the screen showed that, although McCarthy was going much faster than his rival, it was clearly Belgian Jean-Pierre Henderinckx racing for Collstrop who earned the victory for the day (see "Hall of Frames" on the back page for the image). Incidentally, president Doug ended up seated next to Mike on the very long plane ride home, and using the image, they calculated that McCarthy was travelling at a speed of about 76-80kph to Henderinckx's 70-74kph. At this rate, about 18 inches after the line McCarthy would have been the winner. Keeping with our Internet theme, all of the photofinish images of the Tour of China were posted as they happened at a great web page for cycling at (please note the following address is only one line):
See if you can find them. FINISHLYNX TIMES THE ASIAN ATHLETIC CHAMPIONSHIPSLynx takes on the Pacific RimWe are constantly impressed with the ease at which FinishLynx has been accepted by new levels and types of competitions. This fall, FinishLynx was the official timer for the XI Asian Athletic Championships held in Jakarta, Indonesia. The four day event brought the best athletes from all over Asia together for a fabulous competition. A new standard of professionalism was enjoyed as official results became available immediately. In one instance, the Lynx picture of a stunningly close finish in the women's 100m dash, won by only .01sec, quickly quieted a "celebratory jig" by Sri Lankan, Susanthika Jayasinghe, who thought she had edged out Chinese winner Cui Danfeng (see "Hall of Frames" for the picture). MANUAL UPDATEGet up to date on your DocumentationRecently our User's Manual for the PC was updated to include all of new features of FinishLynx since the last manual printing. You will receive a free copy of this info-packed manual when you order your new copy of FinishLynx 3.0 (the latest release), which is available for only $100. If you do not wish to update your software at this time, but still would like a new manual, the charge is $23.00, which covers printing and shipping. Mac users: There is a 3.0 software upgrade available for the Macintosh also, which has some great new features such as a wind gauge interface. Those who upgrade Macintosh software will be entitled to a free Mac User's Manual when it is available. USING THE LYNX GENERIC INTERFACESometimes generic brands are just as good as going gourmetIn case any of you do not know already, FinishLynx has a built-in generic interface in both the Mac and PC versions that is easy to use, convenient, and can be the perfect solution to some special meet management needs. The interface format is comma delimited text, which means that start lists and results can be generated very easily with "home-made" spreadsheets and databases on PC's, Macs, or even on UNIX and VMS machines. Here is a quick overview of using this great feature - try it and see for yourself how simple it is. Complete details are in your User's Manual. To use the generic database in the PC version, the following variables should be set in "Other Settings":
In the Macintosh version, under Edit: Options. . . make sure Database is set to file. Once all of the data is successfully
entered in the A useful feature of the generic database is using a people file to list all participants without attaching them to specific events. Make sure the event file only contains the name of the event, so that when that event is brought up in FinishLynx using ID mode, the ID number of the finisher can be entered (corresponding to the .ppl file entry) and full name and affiliation will automatically appear in the results box. This is great for all comers events or for finals where the heats are not fixed until right before they are run. Finally, a note of advise: be very careful to follow the exact syntax given in the sample files: if you are missing even one comma, the data can not be accessed. SPECIAL TRADE IN OFFERTrash or Treasure?At the recent USAT&F Convention in Atlanta, many new items were introduced, but perhaps the most exciting of all was the Accutrack Trade in Offer. Here are the details:
Until May 31, 1996, Lynx will be accepting old Accutracks, working or not, in exchange for a $1500 credit towards any new FinishLynx system. So if you were thinking of purchasing a second system, do not delay - call your shipping agent today! Or if you know a local high school or club who was waiting for an offer like this to do the same, pass on this information. [Limit only 1 (one) trade-in per system.] LEFT-OVER SALE ITEMSMake us an Offer!Our last newsletter listed a number of items in surplus inventory that have since found new homes. However, there are three items still up for grabs: *Xircom Credit Card EtherNet Adaptor. For all of you notebook users out there, here is a great bargain! ($75) *Tripp Lite UPS. Battery Back up in case of power failure or even power surges is highly recommended for all FinishLynx users. Anyone who has been the victim of poor electricity knows the great value of a good UPS. Do yourself a favor and unload this item from our shelves. ($150). *Seiko ColorPoint Thermal Printer. This hardly-used color printer is perfect for someone looking for a deal (it was over $3,000 new). We will throw in lots of supplies! ($1500) FEEDBACKOur readers write:Dino Palazzi, of the Argentina Amateur Athletic Association had these words of praise for our technical support department: "I've received the packet with the SCSI card and it works properly. It was here only 3 days after my call with a Technician of your company. Thank you very much. I spent 3 days in Mar del Plata installing another FinishLynx System . . . The only problem I had was that I didn't know [everything about] the software-controlled camera, but I again called your company and the technicians solved my trouble via fax. Once again thank you! ... a strong handshake for you and the technicians who helped me." Michael Turk of Marquette University writes: "Hi Kevin! I wanted to drop you a line to say thank you for all the help you gave us last spring during our conference track meet. We were in serious trouble with the camera shorting out and you came through and SAVED us! The meet was a success with no complaints. In fact, the coaches from the other schools were amazed at the lengths you guys went to take care of our problem. I will be forever indebted to you." Thanks, Mike, for the kind words. Finally, George Lyons of the Morris County Coaches Automatic Timing Service out of New Jersey had this to say: "Hi Lynx Folks! We've just finished checking out our new two camera setup and everything works great!! As usual thanks for all the help, the mouse pad and the shirts. . . ." George and his group deserve kudos for thinking of a mcwonderful name for their timing service. The name above (for all of you sharp readers) has the acronym: MCCATS. We love it! Our home page can be found by typing: http://www.finishlynx.com Or send us some e-mail at: info@finishlynx.com * If you have a picture with a similar story, send it to us and we will reward you with a collection of FinishLynx gifts. [ Back to the Newsletter Home Page | Top Page ]
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