This is why I had to settle for more races using just one car. The chances of having closer racing is higher if the grid has only the one car. We had just enough drivers to make it fun, so I am glad you had someone to race with.
The room got a second-wind and lasted for another 40 minutes or so after most drivers left.
A question was raised about using the Google calendar. It is iCal based, so
anything that is iCal compliant will work with it. This means that your tablet, smart phone of any kind, computer or any other iCal compliant device will be able to present the event information I enter to you. On-line servers/clients work, too. This is really cool stuff because it allows you to access the event info, and get reminders, even when mobile, all automatically.
I can't explain every software calendar out there, so look up the details of how to enter the iCal URL for the calendar you use. I will give you an .ics link below for MNR. You enter this into your calendar and that's it. You will receive all updates in real-time and two reminders that I set (one for the general event the day before; one 30 minutes before the specific race starts - each has different notes). You can even add your own custom reminders, if you need more.
https://www.google.com/calendar/ical/t9f6ntavjqttu182vl84kr49u8%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.icsNow, there is a reason why this is happening now. I am doing this because it works and to prepare you for a busy future. I used on-line event calendars for events that I ran starting in 2007 resulting from GT4 not going on-line, so they are not unknown to me. If you are not used to using these, however, then practicing with mine will prepare you for changes coming. One way or another, we will be able to access many more events this way, probably pretty soon.
If this forum can be set up to use them, importing calendars from afar will be a real boon to keeping everyone organised and keeping us busy with GT or any other worthwhile racing sim. Remember, Kazunori announced that community run events are coming. I presume that he meant officially through the PSN, so who knows how many "official" events
they will have. That will be in addition to whatever groups, such as the Tunas or the PSN or the Planet or whoever else you consider a good place to race with, do; or with other sims.
The calendar that you choose to use is up to you and what hardware/OS you have. On-line servers which operate 24/7, such as Yahoo!'s and Google's are two of the best, but Google has more options, extras and third-party support. There are more servers coming, such as DayHap's, but it is not iCal compliant yet. I haven't got their 2.0 beta yet, either. The DayHap calendar allows group management, so I am keeping an eye on that one.
We can have our own calendar clients follow whatever events
we want, too, so we don't have to just follow whatever events someone else supplies or dictates. Set up your own to keep yourself happy and content according to your own schedule, and never forget about a good race again. If you run your own events, then you can make all of your event details available for anyone, member or not, very easily and with very little effort. As a host, you can even request RSVPs, to make sure you don't overfill a room. As you can see, there are many benefits from using such event calendars.
I also recommend having up to three calendars. All can be tracked from your personal one. Use a personal "master" calendar, an on-line persona calendar, and if you are also hosting events, set up another for your event(s). All can be run independently of each other, but your personal one can track all of the others and
any event. You can print your schedule(s), too.
If anyone has questions, I will try to answer them for you, but this isn't really all that difficult to get set up. Making it work on the forum may be more of a struggle, from what I've read, so thanks for trying Charlie! (SMF isn't supporting their clients well, if they don't have an iCal compliant calendar module.)
