Credits, etc.

This is the 11th year that Bill and Joe have run the NCAA Upset Pool. What started out as a small office pool among a few friends has grown into (dare I say it) a cross-border phenomenon.

In the good old days the pool was a very hands on affair. All administration was done in TSO datasets (if you know what those are, I wouldn't admit to it).

Eventually we graduated to something a little more sophisticated: Microsoft Access (although some might argue the sophistication of Access). All the entries were stored in an Access database and results were easily and quickly calculated (though not so easily publisized).

Enter the Internet! (Well, I suppose the Internet had entered quite a while ago, but we finally caught the wave.) Starting last year the pool gained a web presence. A web page was created to allow each person to submit their own entries. The entries were saved online and were then downloaded into our good old Access database. The same results were created and posted online (though not in an ultra-timely fashion).

This year we've kicked things up another notch. Our trusty old Access database is still around, but now it's stored on our web server. The queries we ran to create the results pages are online too. So now you can check the standings in near-real time (things might be sketchy on March 14 and 15 during the afternoons, but otherwise we will be on top of things).

The current site is written using Active Server Pages with client side Javascript and server side VBScript. Access 2000 is the backend database. The site is hosted by Brinkster www.brinkster.com , a free ASP hosting service. Yes, I said free. If you are interested in learning ASP development, Brinkster is a great place to start.

The "Headline Ticker" is actually a Java applet written by Per Dahlberg. An excellent little program.

Thank you to all the pool participants out there. You make it fun for us and are the reason we keep running the pool!

2002 Update: The pool for 2002 is much the same as is was last year. The biggest change is that the pool is now hosted under the banner of joeprogrammer.ca. Hopefully the performance and reliability of the site will be greatly improved this year.

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