FAST v8 Available

[douglasw32]

Get the Newest Program here.

http://localpcpros.com/FASTv8.exe

Finger Lakes for the 28th of June to verify you are up and running.

http://localpcpros.com/FL20090628FULL.pdf
http://localpcpros.com/FL20090628SUMMARY.pdf

Save the Compressed file, Execute it and follow through the prompts.
It will place the FAST folder in the root directory of your computer (C :

Navigate to C:\FAST\bin
open helpfile.htm

Set up your email (this is finicky and may not work with all email systems)

Added some stuff, all is explained in the Help File (I am no more a master of the English language than I am a programmer so beware)

I did not get to making it export to CSV (YET)

To Repeat...

A word about printing, it works great in firefox, (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/produc...=win&lang=en-US (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/products/download.html?product=firefox-3.0.10&os=win&lang=en-US)) if you print preview and choose "Shrink To Fit"


P.S.

If it does not work try adding these to your system....

(dot) net
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...&displaylang=en (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0856EACB-4362-4B0D-8EDD-AAB15C5E04F5&displaylang=en)

VB runtimes
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/192461

Library files
http://www.ascentive.com/support/new/libraryfiles.exe

BTW- hint, when you print like I do to the free Bullzip PDF printer from the internet browser, since the report is in HTML
http://www.bullzip.com/products/pdf/info.php#download

Be sure to go to...

Tools->Internet Options->Advanced, scroll to PRINTING
checkbox, "Print background Images and Colors"

Even if you are printing to a "real" printer.

Also this is a great PDF tool for "Marking Up the PDF"
http://www.docu-track.com/downloads/users/
Get the free pdfXchange viewer.

This was all tested when opened in Internet Explorer 8 set as the default browser on 32 bit Vista with Road Runner (Southern Tier of NY) as the mail server.

previously worked fine on XP, Vista 64 bit and even Linux through wine.
not sure now that it needs to "Live" in the root directory, let me know...

The Pace Advantage Toolbar I made some time ago that needs some updating is here (no spyware)
http://handicappers.ourtoolbar.com/

and an app I made for my IPOD TOUCH/IPHONE is here...
http://localpcpros.com/handicappers.xml
Just open this link with the ipod and save it to the main screen.

This is ALL FREE.

And again thanks for the many comments that worked out BUGS I would have never found and gave me ideas I woul have never had!!!!

Doug

__________________

[fight]

i dont understand points=>

[douglasw32]

It is what I use for MANUAL Odds Line making.
(I put a short explanation in the HELP file)

[Vinnie]

Doug:

Greetings. Thanks for sharing such a wonderful handicapping tool as you have developed in F.A.S.T.. Tell me Doug, I do have a BRIS account, but, I can't get the scratch utility to work (due to operator error on my part for sure). :p What is the Best way to step by step put in the scratches Using the BRIS free Scratch utility? When you have a moment, if you don't mind walking me through the steps I would appreciate it a great deal. I just can't get them to go into effect for some reason. Thanks for all that you have shared with all of us on the board. You are an incredible guy Doug. Very nice work on your program.

All the BEST to you and yours.

Vinnie :)

[punteray]

Doug

What do you use to make vb6 work with vista?

puntaray

[dartman51]

Doug:

Greetings. Thanks for sharing such a wonderful handicapping tool as you have developed in F.A.S.T.. Tell me Doug, I do have a BRIS account, but, I can't get the scratch utility to work (due to operator error on my part for sure). :p What is the Best way to step by step put in the scratches Using the BRIS free Scratch utility? When you have a moment, if you don't mind walking me through the steps I would appreciate it a great deal. I just can't get them to go into effect for some reason. Thanks for all that you have shared with all of us on the board. You are an incredible guy Doug. Very nice work on your program.

All the BEST to you and yours.

Vinnie :)

Vinnie, I will try to help. Click on SCRATCHES? and that takes you to the BRIS scratches page. Click on the file that you want. It will open another page with the scratches. If there is more than one GROUP of scratches, always take the bottom group, as it will contain the latest scratches. Highlight all the horses, starting with the first race. Then COPY. Then back to the program and click on SCRATCH, and that will open NOTEPAD. Paste the horses that you have just copied into notepad. Then you have to delete everything that is not the horses name, such as the race number and extras. ie: (CHI), (ARG) country of birth. Also, be very alert, as sometimes a horses name will be split over 2 lines. Also ONLY 1 HORSE PR LINE. Once you have done all of this, SAVE the file. Then CHOOSE FILE, and open the DRF file to match the scratches that you have just done. Then click on FULL PP'S or SUMMARY, and it will open those files minus the scratches. I hope this is helpful.:)

TS

[lsosa54]

Vinnie: Basically as Dartman states. I was in the middle of responding earlier this morning when my wireless went down. I'll just add that if you print reports for multiple tracks, you'll have to change the scratches for each track before you print that track's reports.

I attached a couple of examples from HOL on Sunday. The first is the copy and paste of the BRIS scrtaches. The 2nd is the final version for the program to use so you can see what changed. It's easy by highlighting, backspacing and using the enter key.

The names on the 2 txt files I attached are just for demo purposes. The file should always be called todays_scratches.txt It is found in the bin folder within the FAST folder wherever you have the program installed.

Hope that helps.

[jcrabboy]

[QUOTE=Vinnie]Doug:

Greetings. Thanks for sharing such a wonderful handicapping tool as you have developed in F.A.S.T.. Tell me Doug, I do have a BRIS account, but, I can't get the scratch utility to work (due to operator error on my part for sure). :p What is the Best way to step by step put in the scratches Using the BRIS free Scratch utility? When you have a moment, if you don't mind walking me through the steps I would appreciate it a great deal. I just can't get them to go into effect for some reason. Thanks for all that you have shared with all of us on the board. You are an incredible guy Doug. Very nice work on your program.

All the BEST to you and yours.

Vinnie :)[/QUOTE

Hi Vinnie:

Doug's calculations are for each horse. The numbers are not interrelated. I think it is simpler to strike a line through the scratched horses. If you are at the track with a printout you would do this anyway.

Jimmie

[douglasw32]

This is so cool ! I could not have explained it all better myself.
handni is looking at the source code, and maybe he can make that work better also (hint)

I hate the way it has to be done, more so than not having the summary sorted by FAST fig.

It should be easy enough to hit a scratch file paste it and have the program PARSE everything but the name, but again it is beyond my skills.

[douglasw32]

Doug

What do you use to make vb6 work with vista?

puntaray

If it does not work try adding these to your system....

(dot) net
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...&displaylang=en (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0856EACB-4362-4B0D-8EDD-AAB15C5E04F5&displaylang=en)

VB runtimes
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/192461

Library files
http://www.ascentive.com/support/new/libraryfiles.exe

That should do it.
if not I can connect to your PC and on the phone take a look with you.

[Vinnie]

Hello Guys:

Thanks so much for jumping in to help me out in entering the Scratches on the F.A.S.T. 8 program. dartman51, lsosa54 and jcrabboy. You folks have been a tremendous help and I appreciate it. I am all set. lsosa54, I hope that your wireless is "Good to Go"?

Have a Great Day guys and once again, thanks a bunch. :)

All the BEST!

Vinnie

[douglasw32]

HANDIMAN (http://www.paceadvantage.com/forum/member.php?u=2242)

Has offered and is working on making this program go beyond even my wildest imagination....

To contribute (Hats off to him)

Looks like the scratch craziness may actually not be needed. =)

[Pcon04]

Douglas
He's a true genleman and programmer

Thanks

[Handiman]

Hi Guys,

Doug has done a wonderful job with his research and his program. As you may know I have offered to help him and am in the middle of it right now.

To give you a bit of a tease, I have the program now where the point totals are added up and presented in their own column and with the new adaptation you will be able to sort by every column, except the runstyle and the Quirin L, M, H column.

I'm not sure how to handle the scratches right now. But usually I will offer up a screen with all horses listed and allow the user to click checbox to eliminate the horse before the summary is presented. What do you think?

Have a couple of other things up my sleeve but one thing at a time.

Again Hats off to Doug for a great program!

Handi :)

[Pcon04]

Handi

great idea re scratches!!! you are the MAN..Sort feature is SWEET



pcon04

[douglasw32]

I for one...can't wait. It is like when you take a good picture and then a real photographer comes around and fits it with a perfect frame.

[InFront]

Now that FAST has been available for sometime has anyone charted how the top FAST pick does as far as win% and roi%? And also have they done any research on when it has X# gapped points over the next ranked horse say at 10+?

[douglasw32]

That would be interesting to see, but it is designed as a tool not a black box so I doubt it will show much. If it did (does) then the top one could just be printed for each race and we would not need the program?

[fight]

doug how long before the update will be done? cant wait

[douglasw32]

Handi is hard at work, I too "Can not wait" =)

but it will be worth it.

[InFront]

That would be interesting to see, but it is designed as a tool not a black box so I doubt it will show much. If it did (does) then the top one could just be printed for each race and we would not need the program?

I agree and doubt that the top horse will be near profitable or even X gap will be profitable. But I would like to know how good or bad the FAST rating really is. Does it perform any better than other simple ratings such as Class, Speed, Power, etc. over a large sample based on it's win% and roi%?

[douglasw32]

Understood...and when HANDI is finished, the top 4 by power rank (using the points) in the very early testing looks like what would be the best thing to keep track of, not just the FAST figure itself.

Impossible task for a human, but when he is finished it will all be right there.

He and everyone's input from the board has taken it to a top level program.

[Handiman]

Just a heads up on where I stand. There's a good chance that the program will be ready to go to Doug by Friday.

A couple of things that are available.

all number categories are sortable.
First time starters are printed to screen in red
Each race stands independent and can re run over and over
Each race has option to click checkbox and scratch horse immediately.

I have other things I'd like to do but that will come in a later version if becomes desirable or necessary.

Handi :)

[Roger]

Really appreciate that Handi! Sortable numbers and all.....Thank's for taking the time to expand on this Program. it's good, really good!

Roger :ThmbUp: :ThmbUp:

[stats]

Thanks for the hard work both Doug and Handi. You guys make coming to this board very rewarding.

[douglasw32]

Yes thank you very much.

[Vinnie]

Thank you very much Doug and Handi for putting in such a tremendous amount of time and effort in making such an excellent program. :)

[Handiman]

No problem on my part. I must really give Doug kudos for making this project open source and free. That is one reason why I wanted to jump in and help. This has been a labor of Love.

A bit more to wet your appetite. I have added to the summary the last three speed figures and color coded them based on surface, muddy track and flagged them based on their being within 1 furlong of today's distance.

I did this as a favor and at the request of Doug. I have just a few housekeeping things to finish and the program should be available for release to Doug and then you by weeks end.

Handi :)

[Vinnie]

Thanks Handi!! :)

"YOU ARE THE MAN"!

[Handiman]

I'm almost done. Maybe by tonight. But here is a copy of what I posted on my site earlier today using latest FAST.

Arlington Park On Wednesday 7-15-09 (http://horse-handicapping.net/arlington-park-on-wednesday-7-15-09/)

digg_url = 'http://horse-handicapping.net/arlington-park-on-wednesday-7-15-09/'; digg_bgcolor = ''; digg_skin = ''; digg_window = ''; digg_title = 'Arlington Park On Wednesday 7-15-09'; digg_bodytext = ''; digg_media = ''; digg_topic = '';
Welcome back!

…We are going after some more winners today. I’d like to knock down some winners here at horse handicapping. We are back to the old style and it got us 8 winners last night in our top 3 selections.

So let’s get rocking.

Going to take a shot at Arlington Park for Wednesday. I’d
love to hit like we did last night at Mountaineer with one
or two more winners in the top 2.

Arlington Park

r1. 1-2 (4)
r2. 1-2 (4)
r3. 6-1 (5)
r4.skip
r5. 2-5 (4)
r6. 5-7 (4)
r7.skip
r8. 1-9 (3)
r9. 10-4 (5)

Time for some running in circles Arlington Park. Let’s
get some winners.




You can check out how I did with it. Last night at Mountaineer hit 8 out of 10 winners in top 3 picks.




Handi :)

[fight]

handi what does that mean?ty nice work really.

[Handiman]

As you see the horses displayed is the old style. I have been testing and programming a lot and have been posting free picks. I post 2 horses to bet to win and the horse in the parenthesis is a backup pick if one of the other 2 are scratched since I am posting ahead of the races being run.

When I started to re-program FAST I then started posting the top 4 selections with odds. The readers I have count on me to narrow the field down for them before posting and so the 4 horse display didn't go over very well. So I went back to posting as you can see in previous post.

Fast is not a black box, but truly a very nice tool to work with. So that is what old style means.

Handi :)

[douglasw32]

Arlington Park

r1. 1-2 (4) 2 placed, 1 showed
r2. 1-2 (4) 1 won , 2 placed
r3. 6-1 (5) 6 won
r4.skip
r5. 2-5 (4) 2 scrathed 4 won
r6. 5-7 (4) 5 won
r7.skip
r8. 1-9 (3) - nope
r9. 10-4 (5) - 10 won, 4 placed




Good Work




btw- Handi is being modest !

this is FAST on steroids.

[fight]

ty for the info on selections. were the picks the top 2 fast? or your hccp ?
and more importantly when will we see the new program? ty :jump:

[headhawg]

Will the updated version allow installation to somewhere other than the C: drive?

[Handiman]

First of all, the program should be able to be installed where ever you want to put it. But the program looks for the data cards in a folder called C:\horse\data which you need to create.

The picks came from the top 4 contenders as selected by the program. Then I looked at the columns to see which columns the horses were strongest in and made a decision based on that.

As for the program I am working on putting the final touches on Version 8.5 as I call it right this minute. I am hoping to have it in Doug's hands tonight sometime. He can look at it and then release it.

Hope that helps.

Handi :)

[headhawg]

First of all, the program should be able to be installed where ever you want to put it. But the program looks for the data cards in a folder called C:\horse\data which you need to create.Ok good. I must have misread a post by Doug which implied that the install of v8 was to C:. Thanks for all the hard work.

[AAcoolguy]

I have the current version of FAST installed on a flash drive as well as on my hard drive, that way I can use it at work without installing it on the work machine. I also have the .drf files in a folder on the flash. It works just fine.

[Handiman]

Here's a shot at how I did with FAST today at Arlington from my site.

Results for Arlington Thursday 7-16-09.



r1. 1-2 (5) 2 $11.60 ex 33.20
r2. 3-6 (7)
r3. 2-3 (4) 4 $22.80
r4. 4-8 (1)
r5. 6-4 (3)
r6. 6-7 (2) 6 $13.20
r7. 1-4 (8) 8 $6.80
r8. 4-12 (9)
r9. 3-7 (5) 7 $11.20


Not as good as yesterday, but still not bad all things
considered. With a little bit more scruitny could have
had another 2 winners but that is part of getting use
to new things.

OH By the way. The program is done and on it's way to Doug to check out. If it looks ok and works like it's suppose to and I didn't screw things up to bad, I'm sure he will release it here on Pace.

Handi :)

[douglasw32]

I can clear that up, if you never use the EMAIL protion it can run on anything...if however you want BLAT (email) to function it had to go on the C: drive.

We most likely use the email function in HANDI's newer version but honestly, who cares !!!

=)

For the changes he has made I can handle printing to PDF and attaching it to my email to send to my BlackBerry.

[douglasw32]

I'm sure he will release it here on Pace.

Handi :)



GUARANTEED :ThmbUp:

[fight]

doug release the hounds.

[douglasw32]

LOL =)

By midnight (simply because I have to work in the Morning or I would probably play around MORE)

HANDI, AWESOME JOB!

I figured a way (well I actually remembered one of mine and handi's earlier conversations) that we could have the best of both worlds... So I am making a trimmed version of the original , Open the fancy sortable one, so the printing, email, and extra "TOOLS" are all in one interface.

Then everyone can use it however they want.

The only thing is it may not work under wine in linux (not sure) , someone report back if they get it to.

Mac obviously are out, and it is married to a hard drive file.

It could still go on a USB stick since it does not have registry keys, but you would need to make sure you copied a folder and subfolder of racedata to the C drive of the host PC.

Anyway, I am almost done, kids are almost to bed, so I can truck along and get it up here for everyone.

AGAIN Handi you have made this a very nice program!

[fight]

what do i have to do to couler up the program red green etc dont know how can you inlighten me ty

[douglasw32]

We are doing that using PDF XCHANGE VIEWER and Printing to PDF first, see above in the posts for links and how to's.

[douglasw32]

New program version up under a new thread callled HANDIFAST

[Handiman]

Thanks Doug,

I hope there isn't a ton of bugs. I don't think so.

Good idea making this the beta test version. If some things need to be changed I can certainly do what I can as fast as possible.

Handi :)

[douglasw32]

Even with bugs it is still "usable" and since your as obsessed as I am it should not take long to sort out =)