CDE Software: From the desk of Lance Rasmussen

Over the years, I’ve tried many different products.  Norton’s suite of products, MacAffee, Panda, Kapirsky, AVG and others.   I’ve often been asked “whats the best”?

 After the past few years, I’ve gravitated to simple, effective and focused tools.  I don’t need or want to install a suite of 5-10 products that does stuff I don’t need or want to understand.  I simply want something that will keep my inbox clean from viruses and protect my desktop in case I somehow run a product that is infected.

NOD32, from http://www.eset.com has become my favorite of late.  It’s simple.   It’s not the most prettiest interface on the block, but I don’t need pretty.  The application sometimes will update the virus definitions several times a day, which tells me that is something is “hot of the virus press” that I’ve got a great shot at not being compromised.

The email scanner works well with Outlook / Windows Mail, which I only use for newsgroup reading.   I used Mozilla’s Thunderbird 2.0 for email and NOD32 works like a champ, optionally tagging my incoming emails letting me know its been scanned.

Is it free?   No.  But it is very reasonable in price.  I find you get what you “pay” for with free products.  I don’t want spyware on my system to be used as the price, nor do I want to be staring at advertising, which helps fund the free versions to the software authors. 

Does this have several utilities?  No.  It’s virus protection done well and is focused on just that.  I would rather use a tool that ranks as one of the top tools for spyware protection to deal with that part of the suite from a company focused only on making that type of product be the best.  I don’t need a company doing a LOT of things… mediocre.

Most, if not all autoscoring manufacturers prohibit the connection of their scoring system network to the Internet.  Why, you may ask, are they that picky?

 Well…  really it’s a simple reason.  Viruses.  Can you really blame the manufacturers?  Do you really expect them to fix the problems (on their dime, not yours) because you or an employee checked their personal email at the center and clicked on a file attachment called “Ha Ha Ha”?

For the most part, there is little reason why a scoring system network needs to have access to the Internet.  However, there are some things beneficial to having the Internet, such as remote technical support or uploading league standings to LeagueSecretary.com (for free and sanctioned/unsanctioned leagues) or Bowl.com.  Also getting program updates is handy as well.

To upload leagues, we have an alternate solution available in the form of a special licensed copy of BLS.  As always, each computer a CDE product is installed on must have a unique license and serial number (and for the most part, most other programs from other companies do too).  This special license can be used to install BLS on a computer that is outside of the computer scoring network, but still in the bowling center.  A league is simply backed up from the scoring network version of our product and transported via USB Memory or other removable media and then restored on the Internet computer.  From there… upload the league.

This does give you an advantage of having another computer with a backup of your league in case of a hardware failure. 

Also, the Internet enabled computer can download updates to the CDE (or other) products and saved to USB Memory or other removable media and installed on the scoring network computer.

 Some centers who are savvy enough and have invested in technology and anti-virus protection have connected their systems directly to the Internet.  Should you do the same?  I would strongly encourage you to contact your scoring system and find out the ins and outs of warranty and other things that could be effected by that decision.  These centers understand the risk and have taken the appropriate precautions to justify paying for a support incidence related to viruses.  In the mean time, this workaround generally will make the scoring manufacture happy and still allows you to connect your center to the information super highway.

One of the changes coming up for the next bowling season, looks to be quite dissappointing.  298 and 299 awards now will no longer qualify to receive a ring… unless you choose to pay for it.  In past practice, those that wanted a gold ring would simply pay the costs associated with the upgrade.

What happens now?  Those particular awards are now downgraded to being an 11-in-a-row award, which has been a plaque in the past. 

Is this a good thing or bad thing?  Thats up to interpretation.  Are you seeing the best value for your annual membership dues?

One personal thought is to offer a ring for first time earners, lifetime.  Or if a person shoots a certified 300 lifetime, then they would not qualify for a ring for the lower 299/298.   As a fellow “crying club” member who shot a 299 game years ago, I would have been upset and getting another 11-in-a-row plaque (and no… I don’t have 8-10 300’s a year either.  I’ve never shot 300).

Did you know you can make a copy of your league to begin preperation for next season, while keeping the previous league for reference and history purposes?

This can be done two ways.

• From inside of the league, select menu K10 (Mid-Season, End-Season > Make Copy of League For Next Season), select the options that apply for your league and click OK.  Enter a file name for the copy of the league and give it a different name than the original. 
• From outside of the league, select menu B11 (League and File Maintenance > Copy BLS-2007 League To Somewhere Else), select the league and click Copy A League.  Enter a file name for the copy of the league and give it a different name than the original. 

Generally I recommend naming league files something logical.  So if if the league is for the Sunday Mixed, I would call it SUNMX08 for the 2008 season.

As fall leagues have come to a close, it is a good time to take the opportunity to do some spring cleaning.

Your front desk typically will display a list of all the leagues available to send out to the lanes for that week.  Once the season is over, it is nice to remove the leagues so that only current leagues display.

While each scoring system may differ, the principle is generally the same.

1. Check to see if you have a Delete League feature in your front desk software to remove the league from the list.  Don’t confuse this with your CDE product’s Delete League feature. 
2. If not, try clearing out all the export files from the directory your CDE product is pointing to on the front desk / server and then re-exporting the leagues that are still currently bowling.

Another important thing to do is to insure you have made backups of your leagues / tournaments in the CDE products you use.  They should be saved onto removable media in case a hardware of operating system failure occurs.  Its always a good idea to periodically make a second major backup that can be stored off premise in case of theft, fire or other damage.

A great article was posted on the movement to protect people from spyware:

http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/57528.html

Our company has been a longtime exhibitor and supporter of BPAA’s Bowl Expo, an annual event featuring seminars and an industry tradeshow held the end of June.

This year, Bowl Expo returns to Las Vegas and will be hosted at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino.

If you haven’t attended before, I strongly encourage you to plan on comming and checking out all the new products, ideas and specials available from our company as well as the majority of the industry manufacturers.

Welcome to the beginning in a series of blog writtings on a variety of different things, but primarily on the use of our products, tips and tricks and such.  Also planned is some thoughts about technology and other things.

I hope you enjoy.