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RDSS Racing Decision Support System – The Modern Sartin Methodology

 
 
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Old 12-30-2008, 05:33 PM   #1
Ted Craven
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Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada
Posts: 8,853
Time to Pause/Recharge!

Well, I have been fairly silent the past while and there's a good reason for that. The answer is a mixture of keeping myself focused on working on getting RDSS more developed (or lately, more re-working some of what I've created over the past few years...) on the one hand, and reaching a state of burn-out and often discouragement on the other hand. Setting aside a number of other personal issues (which none-the-less have taken my time and mental and emotional resources) I have found in the past few months that I often feel rather overwhelmed by being a one-man-band so to speak (as regards the RDSS project): continuing software development, technical support, helping to orient and setup new RDSS users, dealing with TrackMaster, dealing with occasional website issues, fighting will all my g@d@mned computers, etc. I guess I knew at the outset, a little over 3 years ago, that this might turn into a large adventure, but one can never be precisely prepared for what the future will really feel like when you get there.

My main discouragement this year has been that I have realized that I had to significantly rework RDSS to make it much more memory efficient, which I discussed a bit further in the other recent thread about the new software update. In the past 3 years, I have probably spent about 2 working years on this project. As happens more frequently than you think, sometimes software development consists of 3 steps forwards, 1 step backwards (when you're lucky) and the big step backwards I took this Autumn kind of took the wind out of my sails. The hurdles are not technical at all - now that I know what I want/need to do to accommodate a smoother operating software platform underneath RDSS with the bells and whistles and displays and internet connections I require. The hurdles are actually emotional and I find that my emotional reserves are a bit depleted right now.

Another discouragement - completely related to how long it is taking me to deliver my dream toolset, is that I am making a fairly small amount of money from the project, certainly not one that supports me in any meaningful way. This would not have been an issue for a 2 year delivery timeframe, but a 3+ year delivery has started to squeak a bit. When I sat down to add up what I made from RDSS in 2008, (from TrackMaster sales share, and from pay-what-it's-worth subscriptions, so far) so I could send a further, modest royalty share to Doc Sartin - well, thank goodness for working spouses, and thank goodness for my former software clients still knocking hopefully on my door from time to time (which then puts me further behind, etc, etc). Also, thanks so much to those of you who, unasked, chose to make a payment none-the-less becaue you found the software valuable to you: I acknowledge your kind support and proactive generosity! Anyway, this issue is entirely of my own creation as I have stated I was not asking for annual subscription payments until the software was finally delivered. I am going to study this in the next little while and let folks know if I intend to change my policy on that.

Remarkably, despite how little I have actually wagered on my own account this year, I am solidly in the plus category using largely the same tools Doc left me with in 2001 (with a few finesses courtesy of RDSS ), so I do not doubt in the least that when I get time to concentrate, I will continue to hone my skills and gradually make more wagering profits as well. I just have difficulty focussing on wagering and programming/business management in the same arc of time.

The upshot of it all is: I am a bit burned out as 2008 draws to a close, but certainly not on the ropes by any means. I have had persistent, intensive support from a few close friends, Number One being my wonderful wife Alison, and regular emails and even small notes and gifts from a larger collection of good friends and clients - to all of whom I owe a big thanks and a beer and hug whenever we will meet!

I have determined to take January 2009 off to rest and recharge all my batteries, up to the 2nd week of February (something about a Carribean island - you may even see me lurking at a sourthern racetrack somewhere: though I love the Canadian winters, absence does make the heart grow fonder...). I'll be around this week and hopefully the new update does not complain too loudly (we've been testing it for a while...). After that, I won't be reachable for longer stretches of time during January, though I certainly will check my emails occasionally. I won't be available to set up new RDSS users or troubleshoot problems, but I do encourage all users to post questions in the RDSS Forums and hopefully others will be able to help out when I am unavailable. If you have recently installed RDSS and have not yet been activated for the next year (i.e. if your software will expiry before mid-February), may I encourage you to Register it now and I will Activate it this week. Probably I can also do that sometime during January, but I don't want to promise.

Doc Sartin, during my phone conversation with him last week, offered a little 'couch time' over the phone, but mostly expressed concern that current economic times were not hitting me too hard (they are and they aren't). Mostly he wanted to know if I had a good support group, was I loved, did I have someone's ear to bend. I was able to tell him unequivocably that yes I had all that and more - I just need to appreciate the riches I actually have at my disposal and focus on gratitude rather than on fear or discouragement (and for me reminding myself of that, he used to get the big bucks...!? )

Thanks to you all, one more time, for the various words of encouragement you have shared, for the handicapping insights, angles and approaches I have learned and re-learned, for the books, movies, food etc you have shared. I am blessed and I know it, and I wish everyone at Pace and Cap a New Year in 2009 of good health, good fortune and especially good focus on all the positive aspects of your lives and on the love around and within you.

I'll be around this week, then back in February.

yours,

Ted
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