Discussion: mega splits

Since my watch can handle it, I'll try to take splits every 5 controls. We could have two posts in AttackPoint - one with the splits at 5-control intervals, another at 10. Or only with 5s with the people with lame watches only providing 10s. Or I could be shouted down and we'll stick with what Kenny suggested (every 10th).

I'll put the race up with all 200 or so legs in there. You can all take splits whenever you like and put in whatever you've got, as long as you can remember which controls you took the splits at. The tables and graph will work just fine that way. (I'm pleased to find that Kenny had the foresight to aloow for this many controls!)

Good point about having to remember which controls you took splits at. Any bright ideas? One thought I had was to bring a marker and mark the punch card as I took a split. But that seems a bit unwieldy.

String beads? Actually you can make a string of watches, enough to hold all splits (e.g. 7×30-split Casios), and throw it around your neck. Move each watch to the other side as you punch it. This way you'll have fully pipelined operation with no buffer overflow.

If I was ever teaching the programming of data structures and wanted to use a physical analogy to demonstrate the concept, that string of watches would be an excellent choice.

But when it's time to take some splits, all you need is the Sportline model 180, a nearly brandless Chinese import. I saw about 20 of them in a long-ignored display case at the local mega-sporting goods store a few months ago, so I picked one up for the quite reasonable price of $19.99. Chinese culture may have had some accomplishments over the centuries, but for mega-controlling orienteers, this watch tops them all. It has a memory capacity of 1000 splits! You could run the course four times, and still have twice the memory remaining than any other crappy watch has when empty.