Fellow Listers,

I have a somewhat unusual request:

We are looking for rental pricing and availability of an HP3000 for one
week, in November, 2000.

Some background -
Cat Fanciers' Association, Inc. has 600+ member clubs, who sponsor cat
shows throughout the world, usually  between 6 and 10 shows per weekend.
Once a year, CFA itself sponsors a large show with 1300-1400 cats.  This
year, the show is to be held on Nov 17 - 19 in Kansas City, MO.   The cats
compete within 3 major categories: Kittens (age 4 - 8 months), Adults
(unaltered cats over 8 months old), and Premiership (altered cats).   There
are breed awards (for 49 different breeds) and "Top 15 Best cats" awards in
each group.

In prior years, scoring was done on site at the show, on a PC using a
specially designed application, written in Pascal  by a member of the Cat
Fancy - not on our staff.  This application is locked into a specific date
and set of data, and due to the death of the writer, we do not have access
to the source code.  We cannot use last year's program, since we have added
new breeds and made other changes to our requirements.

Data is keyed throughout the show, beginning on Saturday morning, and
continuing off and on, until Sunday late afternoon.  Then, within an hour
or 2, the results are announced to cat exhibitors at the show.  (A very
small time window!)

After the fact, we take the same data, which is compiled by cat show judges
at the show, and reinput it into our HP3000, using a VPLUS screen,
TurboImage dtabase and a KSAM file.  The input program and other processing
programs are all written in Cobol II.  (CM)

One option we've considered for this year, is to use Reflection over a
modem line, from Kansas City, MO to our office in New Jersey.  We would
have the operator at the show enter data through our VPLUS program online.
Program would compute results, and send back a flat copy of the spooled
file for printing on the PC at the show.  Our concern with this method, is
the dependability of phone lines, training curve for the VPLUS program, and
having someone on site in NJ to monitor the data input.

Another possibility, is to set up MS Excel spreadsheets for the operator to
enter data at the show, upload them as a batch to the HP, either via modem
or as an email attachment, import it into the Image database and KSAM file,
score the show, then send back reports to the PC.  This method reduces the
dependency on the modem data link.

Yet another way:  have an HP3000 on site in Kansas City, load it with our
programs, databases and account structure, and have the operator key at the
show using our VPLUS program.  This would avoid the 'weak link' of a phone
line.  This is where my request for an HP3000 in Kansas City comes in.
This may be cost-prohibitive or otherwise impractical...need prices.

BTW - this is not actually an ODBC situation - with the presence of a small
file/database on the PC, this could be entirely a standalone operation.  We
hope to be writing something for the PC, but it wouldn't be available in
time for this year's show.

Your thoughts?

Thanks!

Connie Sellitto
Cat Fanciers' Association, Inc.
World's Largest Pedigreed Cat Registry