In 14th century France, there was a popular game known as la boude. Favored by royalty, it was often played in castle moats-drained, one could only hope. And although it wasn't particularly dangerous, it was said to have contributed to the death of Louis X, who died from a chill contracted while playing. Quelle domage!
Six hundred years later, the game was catching on in the United States, and William Johnston was probably wishing that Bill Tilden would catch a chill. For six years they had been whacking an inflated, felt-covered ball at each other with repetitious results. From 1920 to 1925, Bill Tilden won all six U.S. Open Men's Singles tennis titles. Five of those years, he beat Johnston in the finals.
Today, the second-best tennis player in the world is Andre Agassi, who probably doesn't know King Louis from Crab Louis. Nonetheless, he's richer than St. Louis and is of concern to us here because IBM sponsors the governing body of men's professional tennis. It is known as the ATP Tour, but what is not commonly known to the hummingbird-quick athletes it represents is that an AS/400 tracks their every dazzling and improbable move.
One would think that ATP stands for the Association of Tennis Professionals. It did at one time, explains Pete Gentry, the tour's director of information systems, but it doesn't any more. In 1991, the association incorporated as a non-profit, becoming simply the ATP Tour. IBM actually began sponsoring the tour in 1990, and, in the fashion of sponsorship protocol, the tour is now known as the IBM/ATP Tour.
The tour sanctions some 80 tournaments in 34 countries for top-tier players. It also promotes a challengers circuit comprised of players of lesser ability and a senior's tour. To be sanctioned, a tournament sponsor must provide a minimum of $300,000 for a 32-player draw. For larger tournaments, prize money routinely climbs into the millions. Players, however, are ranked on a point system, not on the accumulation of prize money, explained Gentry. And it is in the gathering, processing, and presentation of player performance data that the AS/400 plays its crucial part.
The ranking process is based on two criteria: how players finish in sanctioned competition and the caliber of their opponents. Positions are determined by the number of total points amassed during a player's best 14 tournaments over the most recent 52 weeks. The competition for top rankings is fierce, since professional athletes do not compete out of altruism, and success is often rewarded by lucrative endorsements.
Data gathering starts with chair umpires who keep game statistics electronically, using hand-held computers. Beyond point tallies, the umpires record the number of successful first serves, double faults, aces, side changes, new balls put in play, and other statistical minutiae.
The data gathering device, Gentry was somewhat reluctant to admit, is made by Hewlett Packard. At the end of each match, the devices are brought to the supervisor of officials, who is equipped with an IBM ThinkPad. The hand-held computers are connected directly to the ThinkPad and transfer match data in the form of an ASCII file.
The ThinkPad then processes the data using Matchfacts software, jointly developed by IBM and ATP Tour, preparing it for transfer to the AS/400. A modem relay quickly transmits two files to the Tour's headquarters in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.
One file automatically starts a remote job on the host AS/400 F45 that updates the Matchfacts database. Using that information, the system extrapolates tour rankings. Each Sunday night, following the completion of the week's tournaments, the AS/400 produces a list ranking the 1,000 or so active players on the IBM/ATP Tour.
The other file creates tournament summary information, which is made available to the statistically addicted media. Matchfacts and Tour Rankings are transmitted by the AS/400 to the Associated Press and other news agencies weekly, and dial-up inquiry is available.
In a typical month, the media may initiate some 400 outside inquiries to the AS/400, browsing the system for an aggregate 60 hours. Tournament history dating back to 1984 is also available on the system, and those who cruise the information superhighway can access the ATP Tour's AS/400 through Infonet.
The data collection process is complicated by the fact that there are one to three tournaments each week originating in different parts of the world, with up to 128 players qualifying for each tournament. Surprisingly, only about one- third of the tournaments are held in the United States. About half originate in Europe, where tennis, Gentry reveals, is the second most popular sport (soccer is first). The other tournaments are held in Asia, South America, and on assorted Caribbean Islands. Professional tennis has even surfaced in Moscow, where the prize money is undoubtedly not doled out in rubles.
In support of the global character of today's tennis, the ATP Tour has established additional offices in Monte Carlo and Sydney. Scanning the current list of top-ten players, it seems that an office in Eastern Europe would be more appropriate. They include such household names as Ivanisevic, Kafelnikov, and Krajicek.
Since players, fans, and media speak many different languages, the ATP Tour is contemplating a project that would rewrite the existing Tour Inquiry, Matchfacts, and Tour Rankings systems to allow multilingual translations. This is a project well-suited to the AS/400 with its 40-language capacity. In addition to the tournament tracking system, two AS/400s are used for development-one in France and one in Florida that doubles as the ATP Tour's business system.
All three ATP Tour sites are networked in token-ring configurations driven by IBM PS Value Point 486DX file servers running Novell network software. The LANs are, in turn, connected to a wide area network (WAN) facilitating the transfer of documents and the use of E-mail. "Even the maintenance people get their E- mail from the AS/400," said Gentry.
The entire 120-member ATP Tour staff has either a ThinkPad, desktop, or hand- held computer. Those who travel, said Gentry, really like the communications capabilities of the AS/400. "They appreciate carrying nothing bigger than a ThinkPad."
I asked Gentry if he ever pulled tough duty in Monte Carlo? "Yes," he said, no doubt celebrating the linkage between corporate sponsorship and the French Riviera. "It's very expensive, and very different from Las Vegas. Monte Carlo is quiet and dignified, and gentlemen are required to wear tuxedos in the casino."
That brought to mind a tennis and tuxedo story once reported by San Francisco's premiere columnist, Herb Caen. Some years ago, there was a celebrity tennis tournament held in Los Angeles for charity. The society matron who was coordinating the event called a San Francisco photographer and asked him to document the tournament and the subsequent gala. "It will be a formal event," she crowed, "so you'll have to rent a tuxedo." Jumping right on the snobbish verbal volley the photographer replied, "This is San Francisco, madam. I have my own tuxedo."
Game, set, match.
Victor Rozek has 17 years of experience in the data processing industry, including seven years with IBM in Operations Management and Systems Engineering.
More than ever, there is a demand for IT to deliver innovation. Your IBM i has been an essential part of your business operations for years. However, your organization may struggle to maintain the current system and implement new projects. The thousands of customers we've worked with and surveyed state that expectations regarding the digital footprint and vision of the company are not aligned with the current IT environment.
TRY the one package that solves all your document design and printing challenges on all your platforms. Produce bar code labels, electronic forms, ad hoc reports, and RFID tags – without programming! MarkMagic is the only document design and print solution that combines report writing, WYSIWYG label and forms design, and conditional printing in one integrated product. Make sure your data survives when catastrophe hits. Request your trial now! Request Now.
Forms of ransomware has been around for over 30 years, and with more and more organizations suffering attacks each year, it continues to endure. What has made ransomware such a durable threat and what is the best way to combat it? In order to prevent ransomware, organizations must first understand how it works.
Disaster protection is vital to every business. Yet, it often consists of patched together procedures that are prone to error. From automatic backups to data encryption to media management, Robot automates the routine (yet often complex) tasks of iSeries backup and recovery, saving you time and money and making the process safer and more reliable. Automate your backups with the Robot Backup and Recovery Solution. Key features include:
Business users want new applications now. Market and regulatory pressures require faster application updates and delivery into production. Your IBM i developers may be approaching retirement, and you see no sure way to fill their positions with experienced developers. In addition, you may be caught between maintaining your existing applications and the uncertainty of moving to something new.
IT managers hoping to find new IBM i talent are discovering that the pool of experienced RPG programmers and operators or administrators with intimate knowledge of the operating system and the applications that run on it is small. This begs the question: How will you manage the platform that supports such a big part of your business? This guide offers strategies and software suggestions to help you plan IT staffing and resources and smooth the transition after your AS/400 talent retires. Read on to learn:
LATEST COMMENTS
MC Press Online