Is the March 2009 Rating Supplement going to be available for download in the TD/A Affiliate area?
I’m sensing an impending breakdown in the system, which is not coming at a good time.
The person who was creating and posting the supplement files is no longer working for the USCF.
Phil Smith is working on creating and posting the March files and a new March Gold Master file, both of which he should have posted later today. (I believe he’s planning to upload the file to the website, then download it and try it in WinTD or SwisSys to make sure it actually works.)
Too bad he didn’t mention this part of his job description before he left.
Phil had (and still has) a lot of things to learn about what happens in the USCF office, this was just one of them.
BTW, the March files are out there now.
Actually, the March 2009 rating list update is there, but I don’t see the golden database.
I stand corrected. Phil says the first attempt to transfer the March Gold Master file to the website failed, we’re not sure if that was due to a temporary problem with the USCF’s internet connection or a problem on the web server. By the time Phil learned of it, things were working again.
He’s working on the transfer again.
The March Gold Master file is available now.
Thank you!
Now that Phil know how to do it, I expect that the April files will go up somewhat earlier in the month. (Before posting a new set of files I think it is still prudent to wait a week or so after generating the new ratings list to see if any problems surface with it, though that hasn’t happened in several years.)
Mike, here are the descriptions of the past few Gold Master Files listed available for download. Are the last three months only current through January? Getting ready for very large IL State Championship and would like to make sure we are using most up to date file.
The Golden Database lists are cumulative of all USCF ID’s available.
March 2009 Golden Database - dBase III format database, contains all member IDs, including those without ratings, through the January 2009 Rating Supplement. (11.4M - Refer to the readme file.) We also offer this as a tab delimited text file (10.9M).
Note: Make sure there is not a file named ‘taratsup.cvr’ or one named ‘tadskcnt.dat’ in the directory you extract these files into.
February 2009 Golden Database - dBase III format database, contains all member IDs, including those without ratings, through the January 2009 Rating Supplement. (11.5M - Refer to the readme file.) We also offer this as a tab delimited text file (11.1M).
Note: Make sure there is not a file named ‘taratsup.cvr’ or one named ‘tadskcnt.dat’ in the directory you extract these files into.
January 2009 Golden Database - dBase III format database, contains all member IDs, including those without ratings, through the January 2009 Rating Supplement. (11.5M - Refer to the readme file.) We also offer this as a tab delimited text file (11.0M).
December 2008 Golden Database - dBase III format database, contains all member IDs, including those without ratings, through the December 2008 Rating Supplement. (11.5M - Refer to the readme file.) We also offer this as a tab delimited text file (11.0M).
It looks like that was an error in the HTML file that lists the downloadable files.
Looking at that text file, it lists the right files in the links, so I corrected the months in HTML code.
I’ll make sure Phil knows to update that part of the file as well.
I have been able to download RS0903, RS0903T, and GD0903, but not GD0903T - an error message says that file does not exist on the server. And its the only one of them that I planned to use this week, for an event that starts this month (Sat. Feb. 28), to check for new memberships of unrated players without updating our pairing software to March yet. Is that link ‘broken’, or is the file still being prepared? -fb
Update, in reply to Nolan below: Got it. Thank you .
I don’t see that file out there either, I’ll work on getting a copy of it out there ASAP.
Update: It should be out there now.
Just a heads up, the March Rating List PDF w/ encapsulated fonts and without them is the same file (RS0903PE.pdf).
Out of curiosity, what is the difference in the two files for a layman like me? What format were the previous lists in?
- Enrique
I’ve corrected the specified file names.
As to the differences in the two files, this dates back to when the supplements were only issued in printed form, long before we started putting copies of the PDFs files of the printed supplement pages on the website, which I think we started doing in 2006.
This also dates back to the last redesign of the rating supplement pages, which was one of the first tasks I worked on for the USCF back in 2003.
Before then, the editorial department was given a data file with just the names and ratings on it, which someone had to turn into a PDF. In 2003 we started generating the PDFs on the computer and sending them directly to the printer, saving about a day’s worth of time for the editorial department for each supplement.
The rating supplement PDF uses several fonts in a font family called “Bell Centennial”. These fonts were specifically designed to handle printed lists of names and numbers using a small font size (so that we could get 3 columns of names and ratings on each printed page.)
However, many users won’t have those font files installed on their computers, because you have to buy them from Adobe.
By encapsulating the fonts inside the PDF, they will display on your screen using those fonts and will appear the same as the versions of the rating supplement that we used to print and mail out.
Otherwise, the Acrobat Reader will substitute some other font, which will not have quite the same appearance.
The downside to this is that encapsulating the font files increases the size of the PDF by about 5 megabytes.
It appears that for the last year or two the office wasn’t being consistent about whether we were uploading to the website a copy of the PDF file with the encapsulated fonts or one without them. Apparently Phil Smith decided to go both ways, but made a typo.
Interestingly enough, it also appears that if you have previously (or possibly just recently) downloaded and viewed a PDF that has those encapsulated fonts in them, the Acrobat Reader may be smart enough to remember that and find them. (I don’t think that was the case several years ago.)
Thank you for the quick reply.
- Enrique