Compute This B

[Hanelia]

Well, I did USGS my first year, and NASA was awful compared to USGS. Any website that needs a brochure to be navigated (I'm dead serious here) needs to be reorganized.

I haven't ever used USGS, but I have to admit =-= NASA really was horrid.
I tried looking at NOAA. Much easier to navigate than NASA =-=

[EpicFailure]

I had to use USGS for researching for Road Scholar. It's really bad. I couldn't find anything on it.

[zyzzyva980]

Well, USGS does only have a small part on maps- that's not its main purpose. There were probably better sites to look at. But as with all sites, including NASA and this year's NOAA, the answer resides in knowing where to look. Become familiar with the site so you know where to look for things.

[taubro]

I keep seeing conflicting information. The 2011 Compute This event rules clearly state in 3.a "...teams will access a web site with an Open Office, MS-compatible word processor and spreadsheet (e.g., Googls Docs) to use during the competition." However, the scioly.org wiki at http://scioly.org/wiki/Compute_This#Programs_Used states "For 2011 B division, you are supplied with a Windows computer that has Microsoft Office 2007 and Internet Explorer 7 or 8."

I'm assuming the wiki is incorrect and has yet to be updated from previous years. Can someone confirm?

[zyzzyva980]

Hmm... yep, that's my bad, I was updating the page to reflect the changes in website/year and didn't realize that some of the rules had changed, as I didn't see a copy of the rules this year. However, I was at an invitational today and it appeared they were using regular Microsoft Office... however, I'd go with the official rules. If that's what it says, feel free to update the wiki to reflect the rules. Good catch.

[andrewwski]

I keep seeing conflicting information. The 2011 Compute This event rules clearly state in 3.a "...teams will access a web site with an Open Office, MS-compatible word processor and spreadsheet (e.g., Googls Docs) to use during the competition." However, the scioly.org wiki at http://scioly.org/wiki/Compute_This#Programs_Used states "For 2011 B division, you are supplied with a Windows computer that has Microsoft Office 2007 and Internet Explorer 7 or 8."

I'm assuming the wiki is incorrect and has yet to be updated from previous years. Can someone confirm?

Keep in mind that the only official source of the event rules is the rules manual. The wiki on this site is not affiliated with SO in any way. This applies for all events.

[zyzzyva980]

Yep, absolutely, if there's ever a conflict between the wiki and the rules, always go with the rules.

[science_chick]

For those of you doing Compute This this year (sadly I can't this year) remember this: This event (graphical part especially) is about 70% attention to details and 30% everything else. If you forget to label an axis or do a bar graph instead of a column graph, your score can fall real quickly.

So what's the site this year? I heard noaa.gov.

I believe it is noaa.gov, according to soinc.org.
I have to agree, remember to pay attention to detal. We lost our fourth place medal last year because we forgot to label an axis...

[sihT etupmoC]

So, during tournaments, you HAVE to use Google Docs or another online doc processor?
Or if the event supervisor decides, could we use Microsoft Word and Excel?

[zyzzyva980]

It's whatever the event supervisors decide on, but according to the rules it will be an online doc processor. However, there is the potential Excel/Word will be used, especially in invitationals.