Yes, I was thrilled for her as well. She and Justin Pekarek really paved the way for ALL the successful U.S. dance teams that have come along since they won that first major international junior world title in 1999.
Random Figure Skating Questions
- Thread starter tulosai
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Yes, I was thrilled for her as well. She and Justin Pekarek really paved the way for ALL the successful U.S. dance teams that have come along since they won that first major international junior world title in 1999.
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We, the Canadians, like the old fashioned way.
While ranting, I am dead serious. There is nothing old fashioned involved. USFSA does old fashioned, but one can find the data with Google. Another version of old fashioned is to have paper sheets that kind fans photograph and post to facebook...and which also can be found by Google. Skate Canada stores the data and then makes it difficult to find, especially after the current season. I would love to know why they have decided to pay the cost of storing data and then not making it easily accessible? This policy has cost me a ton of time in the last couple days. I also have had trouble finding the dates and times and cities of Quebec sectionals in prior seasons. Ustream videos from Skate Canada mostly have only the name of the competitor. The other info is from Ustream-city -date -time. No easy way to tell what the competition was.
I am not only at my wit's end with them, I would like to offer services to them if they would like some help.
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Doris, many thanks for all your labor
. I know you already have done countless boatloads of research.And I know you're not crazy about Ustream videos, but in case it helps:
On a Ustream search results page, the name of the event will pop up if you place your cursor over the small square at the bottom right of each listing.
As an example, search results for "paradis ouellette":
Scroll down to the listing for Nov 13, 2011. Place your cursor over the small square at the bottom right (in this case, the square happens to contain a Skate Canada logo), and the words "Skate Canada Quebec Sectionals" will pop up.
As an example, search results for "paradis ouellette":
Scroll down to the listing for Nov 13, 2011. Place your cursor over the small square at the bottom right (in this case, the square happens to contain a Skate Canada logo), and the words "Skate Canada Quebec Sectionals" will pop up.
I think you already found the date/location stuff for Quebec sectionals, but persistent
hopelessness clicking thru the archives under the competitions tab on the Quebec section page http://patinage.qc.ca will (eventually) lead to the information. Example:Championnats de Section A 2012
du 9 au 13 novembre 2011 à Sherbrooke
http://patinage.qc.ca/pages.asp?id=627
du 9 au 13 novembre 2011 à Sherbrooke
http://patinage.qc.ca/pages.asp?id=627
Again, a million thanks for everything.
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And in several of the events, nothing comes up. In one case, Rink 4 in French comes up...it appears the uploading person has to fill in the "About the Show" field, and in several cases, this was not done.
But thanks for the info. It is a help, for sure.
The competitions tab on the Quebec site seems to want me to sign in to an account I don't have.
So, is there an answer to why this is such a mess when it could be easy? Am I supposed to pay somebody for access to data, a reason I could at least understand.
I keep thinking how well Four Nationals (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, and Hungary ) manage to get their data out in four different languages plus English. And they are all relatively small federations compared to Canada.
But thanks for the info. It is a help, for sure.
The competitions tab on the Quebec site seems to want me to sign in to an account I don't have.
So, is there an answer to why this is such a mess when it could be easy? Am I supposed to pay somebody for access to data, a reason I could at least understand.
I keep thinking how well Four Nationals (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, and Hungary ) manage to get their data out in four different languages plus English. And they are all relatively small federations compared to Canada.
I'm not sure if this addresses your problem, but PDF files that are mainly text are searchable. Go to google.com, click on settings on lower right and click on "Advanced settings". There, you can select the file format to search for (e.g., .pdf, .doc, etc.).
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That's not the problem, unfortunately.
The first problem is that PDF's cannot be simply cut and pasted without getting a mess that takes a long time to reformat. Screen shots, another thing one can do, are not allowed on GS.
The second problem is what happens when the new season starts. The old files are archived in a way where they are not searchable, at least by nonSkate Canada members.
I used to fill in on this by using files saved by Melanie Hoyt on tracings.net. However, Melanie has suspended updates since the last Olympics, so that is not going to be an option.
The first problem is that PDF's cannot be simply cut and pasted without getting a mess that takes a long time to reformat. Screen shots, another thing one can do, are not allowed on GS.
The second problem is what happens when the new season starts. The old files are archived in a way where they are not searchable, at least by nonSkate Canada members.
I used to fill in on this by using files saved by Melanie Hoyt on tracings.net. However, Melanie has suspended updates since the last Olympics, so that is not going to be an option.
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Don't know what to say about the Quebec section site. I have no idea why, but I did not need to sign in to look at the competitions tab or anything else.
(I will try to go back to the Paradis/Ouellette fan thread in the next day or two in case I can add anything from the Quebec site.)
Of course, I have no answer to your overall question about Skate Canada's online presence -- which I agree leaves something to be desired (or a lot to be desired, I suppose).
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Well, I have decided to spend this evening reformatting and storing Nationals data. I did Sectionals and Challenge earlier this season. But the whole strategy stinks. If you wonder why I haven't been doing as many Canadian fan fests as for other countries, despite English being one of Canada's two languages, this is why. It took a week for me to do two OPs when I could have been doing 7.
Regarding problem #1, if you're manually copy-pasting text off from PDF files, have you considered writing a C/Java/Python script to extract (and automatically format) the text? Regarding problem #2, I don't know how their IT people archive or store the data. But if you describe a bit more about the technical roadblocks, I'll see if I've any useful input.
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Doris, please know that I for one never wonder why you are not accomplishing more (of anything) or not accomplishing more at a faster pace.
And I really hope that I speak for everyone at GS that we are simply in awe
of your ceaseless efforts to add content and improvements to GS in every way that you can think of. And in awe of your speed in getting stuff done. Thank you for everything!
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Doris, please know that I for one never wonder why you are not accomplishing more (of anything) or not accomplishing more at a faster pace.
And I really hope that I speak for everyone at GS that we are simply in awe
Ditto. MUCH LIKE!! Thank you DorisPulaski! --William
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Are you looking through the Skate Canada website? Because, yeah, it's a mess. It's easier to look through the provincial/sectional website: http://www.patinage.qc.ca/ . It's still pdf files but at least it's easy to find everything. I believe it's the same for all the other provinces.
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Doris, please know that I for one never wonder why you are not accomplishing more (of anything) or not accomplishing more at a faster pace.
And I really hope that I speak for everyone at GS that we are simply in awe
SAME! Many thousands of thanks for your hard work on my and everybody else's fan fests! I truly have no idea how you do it and GS is lucky to have you (and all the other wonderful mods)!
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Everything I do, nearly, is done typing with one finger on either a Kindlefire or my $80 not-so-smart phone, so Java would not work for me, supposing I knew it, which I don't
: Perhaps I will try it.My hope was that Skate Canada would take a look at itself and say, maybe we can do better.
For some reason, I have had difficulties with the Quebec website. But I have found the Ontario and BC sites very useful compared to Skate Canada's. And that is symptomatic of the problem. There should be one web operation for schedules, bios, and scores. Sectional folks should have update ability for their sections. Sort of how we run Fan Fests. GS can edit and update your OP, but it is yours, if you care to update it yourself.
Everything I do, nearly, is done typing with one finger on either a Kindlefire or my $80 not-so-smart phone, so Java would not work for me, supposing I knew it, which I don't
Wow, if I were you, I'd be pulling my hair out with my other 9 fingers!
If you'd like to PM me the input files and output formatting, and I can try writing a template Python script for you. I've had quite a bit of experience with other types of programming, and this is a good excuse for me to try my hand at text processing.
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Most things run very well, and quicker than you would think, but reformatting pdf files that never needed to be pdf files in the first place plucks my last nerve..I will pass on the script for now. I just finished doing 2015 Canadians and 2015 Challenge, so I am good to next January.
However then, we can talk. The Canadians do not necessarily use the same template year over year....another reason I have a handful of bloody hair.
However then, we can talk. The Canadians do not necessarily use the same template year over year....another reason I have a handful of bloody hair.
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Sure.
I will chime in with the others that your work for this site is much appreciated!Yes, sigh. There's a blast from the past! My apologies. Though, I'll admit S&P we're the ones where I first thought, They could do it. We might finally have an American dance team that can get to the top.
And here we are!
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