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Speculator Speculator - FAQs, Technical Support, Examples, etc |
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02-24-2006, 05:00 PM | #1 |
Grade 1
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada
Posts: 8,865
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Speculator Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Hello,
I started this topic so there could be a place to post Questions and Answers, usually of a technical nature, about Speculator. How to install it, reinstall it if it crashes, screen shots of error messages and what to do about them, or other issues related to care and feeding of these old DOS programs. In some cases, advice will pertain to any of the DOS Sartin programs, or in some cases, just how to use Windows, or how to use the DOS command prompt.
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RDSS - Racing Decision Support System™ |
02-24-2006, 05:06 PM | #2 |
Grade 1
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada
Posts: 8,865
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Spec Crashed during a race, and race won't reload
Question:
Spec (or Val) crashed on a particular card. Won't subsequently load that card no matter what. Answer: On your program folder (e.g. SpecPA, Val3c), look for 3 files representing your race card, for example, AQU0223R.DBF, AQU0223H.DBF, AQU0223P.DBF. Delete these 3 files using Windows Explorer. Now try loading the card afresh.
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RDSS - Racing Decision Support System™ |
02-24-2006, 05:49 PM | #3 |
Grade 1
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada
Posts: 8,865
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Spec won't run at all
Question:
Spec won't even run and get to the Main Menu. It crashes with various error messages. Answer: Some of the files needed to run are damaged, missing or corrupt. Best to delete and reinstall the whole program. Procedure to use if you have the software on a diskette: Using Windows Explorer: Let's presume the software is SpecPA and installed in the folder SpecPA.
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RDSS - Racing Decision Support System™ |
02-24-2006, 05:52 PM | #4 |
Grade 1
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada
Posts: 8,865
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DOS Programs run really slow
Question:
These old DOS programs run really slowly, hog all of Windows resources. Answer: Use TameDOS (www.tameDOS.com). It costs $20 bucks, you get a 30 day free trial first. It will solve all your problems with DOS misbehaving under WinXP and earlier Windows version. I can run several DOS apps (e.g. multiple copies of Spec, Val, on different directories) at the same time, with no loss of speed.
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RDSS - Racing Decision Support System™ |
02-25-2006, 01:54 PM | #5 |
Grade 1
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada
Posts: 8,865
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How to Install software from a ZIP file
Question:
How do I extract Speculator files from a ZIP file package, and put them in a folder where I can run the software? Answer: Let's presume you downloaded Spec150.zip to your Desktop. Or you may need to reinstall one of the other versions of Speculator received from Guy Wadsworth in a ZIP file. Let's presume you use Windows XP. WinXP treats ZIP files like folders: if you double-click on a ZIP file, it opens up to display a list of files contained within it, as if you were looking at a regular folder of files.
Now, if you use a Windows vesion earlier than WinXP (e.g. Win98, WinME, Win2000) or your Windows XP does not have ZIP extraction built in by default, you will need to first download a ZIP file extraction utility such as WINZIP (http://www.winzip.com/). Install this software, then when you double-click on a ZIP file to open it, choose to open it with (e.g.) WinZIP (and make WinZIP the default program to open ZIP files), then follow the instructions above.
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RDSS - Racing Decision Support System™ Last edited by Ted Craven; 01-08-2008 at 08:03 AM. Reason: Added info about WinZIP utility for non WinZP systems |
03-13-2006, 05:07 PM | #6 |
Grade 1
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada
Posts: 8,865
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In Spec150, the Pre Analysis screen is sometimes blank
Question:
In Spec150 and Spec160, the Pre Analysis screen is sometimes blank. Why, and how do I fix it. Answer: This is a bug which occurs as follows. Pick a card, then a race, the go to the Pre Analysis screen. Pick any Menu item to view Pre Analysis (e.g. 1 = All Pacelines 2 = Pacelines by Surface 3 = Pacelines by Sprint or Route and Surface), then view the resulting Pre Analysis ranks. Exit to the Pre Analysis Menu, then immediately again select one of the PA view (1,2,3 menu choices). The PA ranks screen will be blank - no ranks are displayed. To fix this, return to the Pacelines and Calculations Menu and again select Pre Analysis. You can now view PA ranks again. Comment: In Spandx and Spec150, Guy attempted to merge the Pre Analysis ranks with the Past Performance screens. You only have to display the PA ranking screen once (for the chosen filters you prefer - days/distance/surface), then the ranks are included in the PP screens, to the right of the Equalized, Normalized, Adjusted upper panel. In previous versions with Pre Analysis, you could mark a < symbol indicating the best rank for a given factor. In Spandx and Spec150, this data entry is no longer possible - instead the ranks just show up on the PPs.
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RDSS - Racing Decision Support System™ Last edited by Ted Craven; 02-26-2007 at 05:39 PM. |
07-31-2006, 12:53 PM | #7 |
Grade 1
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 206
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Hi Bill, Can you tell me exactly how your opening all the race files on the card, in other words what sequence are you using? Do you mean 1, seclect and calculate race on the main menu first? Im the one who found this bug so Im interested in this. I nver found a way to get around it.
Best Doug |
07-31-2006, 07:05 PM | #8 |
Grade 1
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada
Posts: 8,865
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Bill,
I tested this and you're exactly right (but obviously I've forgotten that conversation!) Here's what I did: from the race menu, open each card you wish to handicap (no need to go to pacelines) before you hit F9 Comments for the first time. For example, if you wanted to handicap races 1,3,5,7,9 for the day, open all those first before handicapping any of them. Then return to the first one (or any one) and F9 Comments will not crash. Unfortunately, the comments still display only once on any of the Ratings screens, but they print out fine. Doug, F9 Comments are still imperfect, but hope this helps! Bill, many thanks for the additional workaround! Ted
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07-31-2006, 08:52 PM | #9 |
Grade 1
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Escondido CA just 25 minutes from where the turf meets the surf - "...at Del Mar"
Posts: 2,418
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Crash prevention program
Doug:
Ted got there first, but just follow what he explained because he explained it perfectly. It should eliminate that type of crash. bill |
08-02-2006, 02:02 PM | #10 |
Grade 1
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 206
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thanx Bill, i gave up on the coments screen, just keep the ole pen and and paper handy here.
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