Data & techie stuff for BAFS 2017

[hozn]

For those that are experiencing problems, the best way to report these is to use the issue tracker.

https://github.com/hozn/freezingsaddles/issues

For those that would like to help, the best way to help is to assign yourself an issue from the issue tracker. Unfortunately, my day job is at full throttle (and likely through end of competition), leaving me effectively zero time to support FS development. (If this doesn’t abate, I expect I will abdicate this role for 2018.)

[jrenaut]

@hozn 153368 wrote:

(If this doesn’t abate, I expect I will abdicate this role for 2018.)

So if anyone knows a Python coder who does or might ride a bike, now might be the time to start recruiting him/her for next year. Even if hozn decides he can continue next year, we really need to find some more help.

[BobCochran]

@jrenaut 153372 wrote:

So if anyone knows a Python coder who does or might ride a bike, now might be the time to start recruiting him/her for next year. Even if hozn decides he can continue next year, we really need to find some more help.

Well I would like to help in 2018, but I’m not a Python coder. I’m okay with Node and JavaScript, and decent with Java. I’ve been down with the flu recently and that has given me an entire week to look hard at Freezing Saddles from the eyes of a software developer. I’ve looked at the code that is posted on GitHub to some extent. Still more studying to do, and I think there must be some source code I have not seen yet which isn’t posted publicly.

For me to come on board, there would have to be flexibility in the choice of database and programming language. I think nosql is the way to go. I have a little code under development and I’m working to be as good with documentation as, say, the stdlib-js project that started recently. It will likely take me a lot of 2017 to learn, re-code, prepare, and come on board for Freezing Saddles.

Of course, if you can find a real Python person — feel free to opt for that person. For now I’ll consider myself just an experimenter, looking at the Freezing Saddles site with different eyes, different viewpoints, and a complete willingness to try something different. I get satisfaction from that. So you don’t need to pick me; I’ll be just as happy playing with this.

You can follow my GitHub repositories — there are 2 of them now, stimulated by Freezing Saddles. The first is a fork of freezingsaddles itself. It isn’t much right now. I’m using that for building a MongoDB database. The original code on the master branch is perfectly fine. I’m using a totally different branch and preserving a local copy of master so I can study that and learn from it. The second repository is rj_web and that has 2 branches. ‘master’ is present, and doesn’t have much to it. There is a ‘develop’ branch where all the action is taking place. So maybe in 6 months it will have amounted to something. Then again, maybe not. (Smile.)

Thanks a ton

Bob

[jrenaut]

Your offers to help are much appreciated, but introduce some issues of their own. One, I don’t know Node (and I’m allergic to server-side Javascript). Two, hosing Node and Mongo are still a little tougher (or more expensive) than Python/MySQL. So I fear we’d be replacing our current single of failure (hozn) with a new single point of failure (you).

[BobCochran]

@jrenaut 153404 wrote:

Your offers to help are much appreciated, but introduce some issues of their own. One, I don’t know Node (and I’m allergic to server-side Javascript). Two, hosing Node and Mongo are still a little tougher (or more expensive) than Python/MySQL. So I fear we’d be replacing our current single of failure (hozn) with a new single point of failure (you).

That’s okay Jon.

[hozn]

Bob, the code is all up there …

The only non-public parts are configuration things like the cron scripts that run the various bafs-sync entry points.

Why do you think a nosql database is a better choice than a rdbms? Not saying it isn’t, but wondering what it would enable.

Regardless, hopefully if I’m not able to contribute or support much next year, I can at least do some needed & documentation cleanup before then.

[jrenaut]

@hozn 153431 wrote:

Regardless, hopefully if I’m not able to contribute or support much next year, I can at least do some needed & documentation cleanup before then.

Even if you are able to contribute next year, this really isn’t sustainable. It’s not fair to make the whole competition depend on you having the time to keep the website running. I can commit to keeping the front end in line, but I’ve had a hard time understanding the Strava synching.

In any event, no one person should HAVE to be involved in order for the competition to continue. “Software Developer” is the most common job in Virginia – surely we can recruit someone else with the time to keep things running.

[Vicegrip]

Is this something that can be hired out for a cost that could be small enough to spread out to all participants? We all throw down $20 or $30 to cover the hosting and site management for the duration of the event each season? I ask as I have no idea what this kind of thing costs or if there are people or companies that would even do this for us.

I have been a volunteer on multiple boards and and organisations and know that there is a right and wrong way to manage the work and workers. In the right way the time and effort are manageable, distributed and rewarding. In the wrong way it devolves into a time sucking chore for whiny people wanting something yesterday after they say they will get you the information tomorrow. Distribution of effort, matching work to skill and some redundancy in key positions seems to be the key to a happy long term volunteer.

[cmj7gh]

Hi All, I’m a database engineer (SQL Server), but I’ve done my share of web development (mostly in a MySQL/PHP stack, but I have a bit of experience in Python). I’m especially interested in data visualization, so this project is right up my alley!

Hozn, I have to say that you’ve done a great job with this site so far, and I’d be happy to do what I can to share some of the workload. I took a quick skim through the repository, and I’ll try to find some time over the next few weeks to setup a local dev environment and pick up an issue or two.

[jrenaut]

@cmj7gh 153464 wrote:

Hi All, I’m a database engineer (SQL Server), but I’ve done my share of web development (mostly in a MySQL/PHP stack, but I have a bit of experience in Python). I’m especially interested in data visualization, so this project is right up my alley!

Hozn, I have to say that you’ve done a great job with this site so far, and I’d be happy to do what I can to share some of the workload. I took a quick skim through the repository, and I’ll try to find some time over the next few weeks to setup a local dev environment and pick up an issue or two.

Welcome! If you use Docker, I can probably get you set up with a dev environment. If not, I can possibly help you set something up using virtualenv. Email me at [my forum name]@gmail.com if you need help.

[chuxtr]

If someone has already asked this previously, my apologies and please ignore. But since we’re pulling data from Strava, how hard would it be to track elevation gain and create a leaderboard (both individual and team) for that? Might add another dimension to the competition.

[Sunyata]

@chuxtr 154051 wrote:

If someone has already asked this previously, my apologies and please ignore. But since we’re pulling data from Strava, how hard would it be to track elevation gain and create a leaderboard (both individual and team) for that? Might add another dimension to the competition.

Umm… There already is one. Go to “Leaderboards” “Team Various” “Elevation Gain” or “Leaderboards” “Individual Various” “Elevation Gain”. 😎

[chuxtr]

sunyata;154056 wrote:

umm… There already is one. Go to “leaderboards” “team various” “elevation gain” or “leaderboards” “individual various” “elevation gain”. 😎

smh!

[QuikAF77]

@Sunyata 154056 wrote:

Umm… There already is one. Go to “Leaderboards” “Team Various” “Elevation Gain” or “Leaderboards” “Individual Various” “Elevation Gain”. 😎

Erik B is winning, since apparently he commutes via Atlas V rocket!

[BobCochran]

I’m working on a very generic version of this which uses NoSQL and MongoDB. There are a lot of other NoSQL databases to look at too such as PouchDB. The great advantage of a NoSQL approach is elimination of multiple tables and joins. That reduces latency and complexity a lot.

This is totally generic project right now. By that I mean it is not specific to Freezing Saddles. I’m open sourcing my code on GitHub under the Unlicense. Others can download it later when it has a lot more functionality to it. An example screen shot is shown below. That one comes from my cell phone. I have a long way to go, and I need to integrate Strava, but things are progressing. Should be a good project for me for this year.

Sorry the screen shot is so small, I thought it would be bigger…

…Bob

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