First, as some people probably know already, I’ve been spending some time trying to help the FOC push out an online referee exam and learning system.  I ceded priority to this project, as it actually has big, positive implications for changing the refereeing system and processes.

Next, I’ve decided to put the journal on the backburner for now. Its a good idea whose time will come, but the best functionality that I have planned for it won’t happen until askFred gets certain functionality implemented, and that is an unknown.  So until that ball gets rolling, I’m pausing production.

In its place, I’m going to begin working soon on a referee-based utility.  It seems to me that there are a lot of problems finding and arranging referees, and I’m looking to help solve them.  I’m looking to build something to help hook refs with tournament organizers.  This includes smart estimation of travel costs, from tanks of gas to analyzing flight data to help optimize costs when searching for good referees.

In addition, on the side, I’m going to look into developing an open source, modular scoring machine.  The intent is to start with the bare-bones scoring box.  Being open source, you’d be able to buy all the parts and download the software on your own to build something for cheaper if you’re tech savvy enough, but if you aren’t, the goal is to try and price it below $100 for retail.  Software would be updatable with a USB cable and a computer, and the intent would be to develop other modules that you can hook into the base box to upgrade into a better product.

Thoughts?  Input?

Just wanted to keep people up to date with the process.  Expect more frequent blog posts about what I’m trying to do now that I have some free time to work on things.

I’m (slowly) building an online fencing journal applicaiton.  The point of it would to compliment and perhaps eventually replace the standard paper-based fencing journal.   The intent is to build something that will work as an analytic/statistics tool, as well as a lookup tool.

With respect to statistics and analytics, I feel that the biggest shortcoming with your standard journal is that you have to sit down and analyze the notes yourself to produce meaningful results.  Its fairly easy to do mental justifications about trends and therefore discard or twist the results of the analysis.  Instead, if you can plug in the raw facts into an application and have it spit out graphs, data and objective conclusions, it becomes easier to objectively critique your own fencing.

With respect to lookup, I don’t intend on building a big, universal fencer database.  That would be excessive, offputting, and a little intrusive, I believe.  The intent would be for someone to be able to search their own notes, information, and experiences against a specific fencer via a mobile application.  Just an easy way to access all of your past notes, do a search on a fencer you’re about to fence, and see the culmination of how they’ve fenced you in the past.  It would give you better insight into what you’ve done wrong, or what they’ve done right with respect to fencing you in the past.

Anyone have any thoughts/suggestions/etc.?

It works like this: it displays a random question. You pick and submit your answer, and it adds your answer in to the answer pool. Then, on the next page, the previous question is re-displayed with a count next to each answer showing how many people have picked that answer as the correct answer.

The test works like this because there is no official (public?) answer key to the referee test. So, there’s no “right” answer publicly available. The collaborative nature of the test is to try and point people in the right direction, as well as show which answers are most confusing.

The test itself is currently not designed to track which questions have been taken already. I’m definitely willing to take questions/comments/etc. and will improve the test based on input I receive. I think the top two requests so far are “right answers”, which may or may not be possible/reliable, and tracking for questions to ensure all are taken with minimal repeats.

So, in the spirit of that, I’m throwing up a simple, hopefully useful, Fencing Shoes product blog (click here to visit).

The purpose is short and sweet - I’m going to try and throw up a post about every popular shoe used for fencing, what people think about them, and where to buy them. The mini-blog in the upper right-hand corner is for special deals. For example, Adidas occasionally has 20% off sales, Amazon does shoe sales, and the individual vendors all have special deals that they throw around. I’m going to try and keep on top of those things and post them in that section. I don’t anticipate any deals to overlap, but if you subscribe to the RSS feed of the blog, you’ll see everything, overlap or not.

Enjoy

So, I’m kind of up in the air about what to mold the site into.  I have a plan, but I feel like I could make it happen no matter what, regardless of what else I do.  Anyone have any thoughts?

Nothing in there just yet, but its open for use with the public.  I’ve yet to figure out exactly what it should be used for.  I’ve been contemplating things from documenting common Fencing questions to putting up a draft version of the rulebook with an effort to revamp the system.

Thoughts?

Just like with the big list of fencing books, I’m trying to put together a big list of fencing shoes, since its a very common question. Let me know if I’m missing anything. I’ll add the Nike stuff and vendor house brand shoes as I come along ones that are missing.

Also, I keep the links up to date with the least expensive prices I can find, where I can. If you can find something better, drop me a comment and I’ll update.

Fencing-Specific Shoes
adidas adistar
onitsuka tiger
adidas adistar
adidas adistar high top
adidas dartagnan 2
adidas en garde
viktoria competition
li-ning low top
li-ning high top
leon paul scimitar
leon paul blade
absolute elite
blade star fighter
blade star fighter 2
victory low top
adidas asymmetrics
adidas asymmetrics high top
adidas dartagnon
nike ballestra

Court Shoes
adidas lightster
adidas stabil 3
adidas stabil carbon
adidas stabil 7
asics gel beyond
adidas feather (high top)
adidas feather 3 (low top)

Other Stuff
adidas elite sock (my favorite sock)