definitely pissing me off

the only acceptable excuse is if they have found so hot looking brazilian girls and have left their computers to go dance Samba!

I gave it up when the time between updates ran over half an hour.

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Behold the turtle! He makes progess only when he sticks his neck out. (James Bryant Conant)
GET OFF THE F*%KING WALL!!!!!!! (Doug Stern)
Brevity is the soul of wit. (William Shakespeare)

It wouldn't be so bad if it were even IronmanCLOSE. There must be some real problems we are not aware of as these people are not idiots but I, for one, cannot fathom what they are. At least Nick should put out a message every 5 minutes saying "your computer hasn't crashed folks, I am waitiing for information also."

The ITU this year seems to have figured out how to update the web site at the same time the chip goes across the mat on each lap, etc. IM seems to still be relying on carrier pidgeon to update Nick, and this race they wrote the messages in Portuguese.

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Frank,
An original Ironman and the Inventor of PowerCranks

Hopefully the technology will begi to catch up. Quokka.com (now long since defunct)had similar technologies for different events and ran into some problems as well. It will be a while before it looks like this:

http://www.bikesportmichigan.com/editorials/0000046.shtml

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

I don't see this as a technology issue. I see it as an effort issue. I think the IMLive thing is done as an after thought by the race organizers, after all they don't make a dime from it and it is more important that the race go well for the participants than those of us interested in the outcome know what is going on in real time. However, the poor quality of these efforts does create an image problem for them I believe and some effort should be put into improving them. You would think after 5 or 6 years at doing this they would have a system down that worked. They don't.

It does require some modern technology, it can't be done with smoke signals but it could be done with a well-organized, dedicated bunch of volunteers with cell phones, pay phones, or other easily available communication devices.

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Frank,
An original Ironman and the Inventor of PowerCranks