Rating Calculation Question

Are ratings based on scores at the time a game is started or at the time a game has ended? My current opponent is rated about 200 points lower than me in the daily games.  However, his rating on the fast games is 500 points higher than me.  Also, he is playing 70 concurrent games, most of which are against players with low ratings.  The only time he loses is on time.   I don't think I'm going to win , this is the strongest player I've ever played against.  So, I'm wondering if it makes any difference to my rating if I resign early or play the game out.  It seems it would be fairer to calculate the ratings based on the ratings at the end of the game.  

Can't answer your question, sorry...

... but in reference to your user-name, I used to hand-assemble 6809E code.

No assembler, just me and paper-and-pencil.

I'm nearly 70.

You have a few years on me --but only a few--in High School we had a PDP11 and we had punch cards used to program it. I don't think any of us got it working successfully because there was some sort of hardware problem. But then in a few short years there was the Apple II and the IBM PC and that's where I cut my teeth. I miss that direct access to memory and hardware (kind of like getting old!)

The rating at the end of the game is used in Daily Chess calculations. It's considered to be the most accurate rating at that point.

how do I get a rating?

By playing rated games against other members