Just a quick thanks to all who helped make my first NI week a kick-ass time. Big props to Mike A. who was cool enough to share his room, as long as I let him be the big spoon, and to Jim and His buddy Dave who re-assured me that it was ok to have LV programming dreams. I hope I can see all of you again next year and answer some of your posts on LAVA between now and then.
~,~ The Captain was here
*Th!$ P@gE H@$ been H@(ked by G h@cker
Hey guys!
Nice to have met all of you. COOL BLOG!!! Mike, thanks for the link to our blog site… The trip back was cool… NI Week was fun and educational as usual. If not sooner, see y’all next year in blistering Austin, Texas!!!
- Terry
PS How was the unofficial NI pub crawl on thursday night? (that we missed cause we had to leave)
I just wanted to put up a quick post saying I had a great time this year. It was great meeting everyone: Michael, Jim, Dave, Ed, Irene, etc…
This was my 4th NI Week (1999, 2001, 2002, 2004) and, even though it’s an NI marketing circus, I still feel this is one of the best industry-type conventions around. Actually, anything with this much attention to LabVIEW is great! 
Are there any other companies the size of NI where you have access to the developers and upper-management, face-to-face, and get to tell them your opinions? Microsoft? 
The cool thing is that they tend to listen. It may take them a few years, but they listen. 
Peace & Programming,
Chuck
“Stuff your eyes with wonder
See the world. It’s more fantastic than any dream…
Ask no guarantees, ask for no security…”
–Ray Bradbury
My NI Week 2004 trip report:
Finally I got home (4:00AM, Aug 20, 2004) and tired and happy and quiet. I think I should write a short trip report, so here I am.
I arrived Austin on Aug 16, Monday afternoon. Since I am not an alliance member, so there was no official event for me for that day. It felt kind of silly coming so far to just sleep in the hotel. Luckily I met Michael and others. Michael taught me a trick that got me into the alliance party on Monday. I don’t usually attend a party like this, it was fun and I had a good chat with Jim Kring, I think he is a good and interesting person. Regarding the Hula and Ahola and Hawaii Dance, it was interesting to see live, this was my first time. Well, it doesn’t matter to me, I was not excited, neither was I embarrassed. Guess the other folks may feel different . I also met Hamid, we had a little bit discussion about my IVision LabVIEW toolkit. I had to go back to hotel a bit earlier after some alcohol with empty stomach, and I needed a good rest since I did not want to skip the keynote the next day.
Tuesday I was busy attending keynote speeches, all kinds of seminars… I met Enrique, the VI security guy. He is a very nice person, he gave me a lot of information about becoming an alliance member and we had a good chat about LabVIEW, running own small business and family and of course, I got a very good lesson about security…
The most peak moment on Tuesday was: I WON a price, an $300 american express, and that was in US dollars. I guess that made me a “famous” person. Many people that I don’t know would come to me and greeting me for the winning. And I also met Greg and other members from NI LabVIEW team, they told me they read the Info-labview all the time, so I guess that’s where they know me. ( :-$, Hmm… I was kind of embarrassing… I knew I did make quite a bit noise in info-labview over the past time, I guess I do get the attention now, ah?). Oh yes, I also met the Christopher Relf from Australia, and we had a photo together. There was no party on Tuesday.
Wednesday, what’s happening on Wednesday? Now I have to think for a while. In the morning, of course keynote speeches, I was excited about programming DSP board with LabVIEW in the future version. Then all kinds of seminars again, then it was almost 5PM that we should gather at LabVIEW user group lounge for Salt Lick dinner. I was in the car of Ed Dickens with some other people. At dinner table I happened to sit also beside Ed, so I got to know him a bit better. I think he is a very interesting person, a very nice person although his appearance at first kind of frightening me back (he looks like a body guard in the movie, tall and strong with a pony tail). Later I found out that he was in the US Army. He had been located in Japan, Taiwan and other countries. I was curious to ask him what the US army do in these countries, why do they need to be there… I liked his accent, I guess that’s from Iowa. After the salt lick, I went with some other people to BuffaloBillard, I don’t usually go to this kind of bar scene, but I wanted to try, it was very loud and I got a beer, played some game and then I decided to get back to hotel earlier.
Thursday, it was kind of rush, I did not wait until the keynote speeches finished, it was about Academic, so I was not every interested in. I went back to the hotel to pack my thing, it was my day to leave and I had to check out before noon. After I left my luggage to the front desk, I went back to the conference hall again, just walked around in the exhibition hall, talked to people and attended a prescheduled interview by the NI people about decision making to purchase NI products, got some cash for that interview too .
Anyway, it was an interesting and rewarding trip. I hope I will attend this event sometime later.
Irene
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Well, Hi;
I am back to my work place, after a rather hectic week in Austin. I did not have time and/or energy to write regularly, so I write what I think in one go.
We (Scott Foes and myself) stayed in Hilton which is a nice Hotel and almost attached to the Exhibition center. Rooms are nice and large.
For us, Ni Week started at Monday night, we managed to go to Alliance party, that was fun, specialy for me who was not familiar with Hula and Ahola and Hawaii Dance!
I managed to meet some nice people, such as Irene He and the usuals, Michael, Jim, etc.
It was a fun night.
Tuesday morning it was the key note speaker’s session, which made me to think that NI is more into expansion of Labview towards control and hardware. There were very cool demos, such as PIC and Gameboy interface (is there going to be a driver for PIC?)
The exhibitors in downstairs were also nice, although a bit too commercial. Apart from NI people who were very technical, others tend to be more sales guys type of people.
The sessions were all useful. However, I think I learned that one should not go the the sessions that are presented by the same person and has similar topics (lots of cut and paste was happening). Also, there were a number of sessions that their concepts were almost identical. There must be some better higher level management of the content of these sessions. (Zap or merge similar sessions please)
I could not go the the BBQ at salt lick, but I bet it was nice too.
All in All, worth going for sure, I guess I learned a lot, met some crazy people! also met some very knowledgable ones.
See you next year (I hope!)
Cheers
Hamid
Hey, I met these these two great guys from New York. They are Charles Spitaleri and Terry Stradoudakis. As you can tell, Terry is of Greek descent. It was nice to meet a fellow Greek. We discussed lot’s of cool potential business opportunities for NI hardware and software in Greece…
Him and Charles have their own blog dedicated to NIWeek! I feel better now, there are now 3 official niweek blog geeks. Even worse, can you believe they blogged their entire road trip to NIWeek? Especially check out the picture of the full-size replica of the Parthenon in Nashville. Here is the link:
I have a limited number of LAVA t-shirts that I’m selling at a discount at the show ($10). Come to the LabVIEW LAVA Usergroup booth at exhibition hall and pick one up.
I’ll come back to this post when I have time and fill-in more information. For now… here are some pictures from Sunday night.
Just want to remind people that there are a few of us that want to meet each other and have fun. If you’ve arrived in Austin and want to do something “outside” of the usual and meet other LabVIEW users at the same time, check out the unnoficial links on the right.
**UPDATE**
Everyone meet at Jazz for dinner on 6th Street at 7pm.
**UPDATE**
Does anybody have any plans do anything Sunday evening?
I’m kind of thinking maybe we’ll give the Copper Tank another try. Hopefully they’ll have their technical issues worked out and the kitchen will be open. That is if they are still open, their website isn’t.
What do others have for ideas.
Ed
Update: I just found a bit about the Copper Tank at the Austin Chronicle, they note it is not open on Sundays or Mondays. So I’m looking for other ideas of places to meet.
Ed
Jeff Kodosky will be dropping by the LabVIEW User Group Lounge on Tuesday at about 5:30 PM. If you’ve never met him, or have met him but want to catch up with him, drop by. As he invinted LabVIEW, he should be able to answer any questions! This event prompted some interesting discussions last year.
The LabVIEW User Group Lounge is also a nice place to take a break during NIWeek and meet with other LabVIEW users. There are couches, tables, and computers with a 42″ plasma screen for giving impromptu presentations and sharing tips/techniques with other users. See you all there!
I will be doing a presentation at NIWeek this year. Even though It’s been listed in the official schedule, this is considered a LabVIEW user group presentation.
Title: Design Patterns for implementing asynchronous processes in LabVIEW.
Description:In this special LabVIEW User Group meeting, we address issues involved with launching, managing and communicating with asynchronous processes. An synchronous process can be a dynamically called VI, a cloned front panel or any parallel task. We will start by investigating the techniques used to launch asynchronous tasks and then continue with messaging architectures such as queues and notifiers as well as user defined dynamic events.
I would like to know if there is any particular area of launching asynchronous processes that you would like me to touch upon. Also, if you have any interesting ideas about how NI can improve the functionality in LabVIEW to make launching asynchronous processes much easier, please bring them up. The floor is always open to feedback and open discussion… it should be fun. Presentation materials will be posted here after the show.
Hi,
Does anybody know if there is any event or activity for non alliance member on Aug 16, the alliance day?
Irene
The NIWeek conference information is once again available for download to your PDA device. This year the application is built in LabVIEW 7.1 and features improvements such as BEING FASTER to run, and having an installer to make it easier to get onto your PDA! It is live on the NIWeek 2004 website. Due to the late availability of this utility, it is only available on the PocketPC 2003 OS.
This applications, built using the LabVIEW 7.1 and the LabVIEW 7.1 PDA Module, displays all of the NIWeek sessions, and exhibitors in an easy to view manner. Using this application, select a desired session to attend and have the application show you were the room is located for that session. If you want to look up a session you would like to attend later, use this application to add a reminder to your PDA calendar application. Then set an alarm so you remember to attend this session at the correct time. You can even see the layout of the expo hall and learn where all of the vendors are located on the floor and look up the contact information for each of the vendors. This utility is available for all PDA devices running PocketPC 2003.
The zip file contains an installer and a ReadMe.txt file that will explain how to install the application to you PDA and then perform the necessary install steps for you automatically.
I created a set of directions to the Salt Lick using Jim Kring’s recommended route. I posted it in the LAVA forums, I couldn’t figure out how to post a PDF file to the blog. I don’t think I can.
I was looking at the Conference Program.
New Product Announcements at NIWeek 2004
• M Series Multifunction DAQ
• 200 MS/s Mixed-Signal Suite
• CompactRIO (Expansion System and Embedded System)
• SignalExpress
Don’t have to skip lunch to see sessions
Wind River has a booth. Have they been there before? Is LabVIEW RT for VxWorks being announced?
I noticed today that the full program in no longer linked at NI’s site, just the schedule. Did someone at NI make a boo-boo?
Here is the 32-page program that NI posted a few days ago. If NI yells, I guess Michael will take it down. Get it while you can.
Join OpenG and LAVA members for the 3rd Annual BBQ Dinner at the Salt Lick. This will be a BYOB all-you-can-eat-bbq event with a group of very fun and interesting people. Bring your apetite, significant others, a six-pack of beer, and $20 cash (for dinner and a tip – no credit cards are accepted).
Please RSVP ASAP, by emailing me at jkring@jameskring.com. I need a head-count so that we can reserve seating space. Please also let me know if you can provide or need transportation to Salt Lick.
Cost: ~$20.00 (US) per person ($13.95 + tip) – no credit cards are accepted
When: Wednesday night at 6:30 PM
Wednesday is the best night for going to dinner. After our BBQ dinner there will be plenty of time to enjoy the NI Week Conference Party, which runs until 10:30pm. Tuesday night doesn’t work well since 5:30pm to 7:00pm is the NI Week Kickoff Party, and Thursday night doesn’t work well since many people will have already started heading back home.
Where: Salt Lick BBQ
18001 FM 1826
Driftwood, Texas 78619
512-858-4959
Office # at 512-894-3117
Visit their website for directions and a Yahoo Map Link
Transportation: Those without transportation should gather at the “User Group Lounge” at 5:00 PM. Drivers with extra room should please come and provide rides for those without transportation. We will disperse from the “User Group Lounge” at precisely 5:15 PM and proceed to Salt Lick.
BYOB: The Salt Lick has iced tea, but no beer. You are encouraged to bring your own drinks, and I suggest that you stop by a gas station or convenience store on the way to Salt Lick.
Directions:
To avoid heavy traffic, you should use the route shown below (click on image to enlarge).
Driving directions to Salt Lick (pdf) (thanks lavezza)
It all started in 2002 when several the OpenG and LAVA members were hungry for some good BBQ and dinner company. The tradition continued (in a big way) in 2003 with an organized gathering of more than 30 people – a great mix of LAVA, OpenG, and LabVIEW R&D team-members! This year, we are going to repeat last year’s success with our 3rd Annual OpenG and LAVA members BBQ Dinner.
A couple pictures from our 2003 dinner
Here is a link to more pictures from 2003
What will you be wearing at NIWeek this year? Why it must be the latest LAVA and niweekblog T-shirts of course. You can order yours online or pick one up at the show (I’ll have a limited few on hand).
One thing that is always interesting to figure out is what the latest official NIWeek T-shirt will look like. You usually get a t-shirt when you sign-in at the show. There was a dry spell for a while where no t-shirts were handed out. We got t-shirts last year. I think people expect some sort of hand-out when they’re spending so much on an admission fee. Of course it’s only a t-shirt so what’s the big deal right? It’s the thought that counts…
I have an extra NIWeek conference pass available for sale at a discount. It would be cheaper than purchasing at the door. If you are interested then email me: michael [at] mmwis.com
The preliminary program for NIWeek has been released. I was looking through the sessions and found one that looked out of place.
Inside Your Computer - An Introduction to How Computers Work
Have you ever wondered exactly how your computer works? If you were to look inside your computer, you would see printed circuit boards with numerous microchips and electrical paths or buses. These boards, along with other components, are all important elements of your computer. During this one-hour session, we explore the details of the different hardware pieces, such as the CPU, RAM, motherboard, and system clock, and take an in-depth look at how they interact with each other to make up a computer.
This session is not of interest to me but I’m sure it will be usefull for someone somewhere. I find it strange however to have it at this conference. It seems like a waste of time, a space filler.
As I was reading the Preliminary Program Information, I noticed some redundancy in the wording when it came to describing LabVIEW sessions.
Advanced LabVIEW Programming Tips & and Techniques for LabVIEW Programming
Introduction to Event-driven Driven LabVIEW Programming in LabVIEW
Well, it’s preliminary…
This year, NI has changed the main promoted hotel to the Austin Hilton. It’s advertized as being “adjacent to the convention center". Actually, I think you don’t even have to exit the hotel to get to the convention center. I’ll let you know when I get there… This could be a good thing since walking in the daytime sunheat in Austin is not fun. The nice thing is that you get wireless high speed internet access included for free. My built-in laptop WiFi card will get a serious work-out.
I’ve already made my bookings and I was wondering if anyone wanted to share the cost of a room? It’s booked for 2 double beds. I have to warn you however, my wife claims I snore, so be warned. Oh ya, I sleep in the nude…
If you’re interested, email me at: [michaelaivaliotis (at) hotmail.com] and we can discuss the details.
A new feature to the Blog is the ability to post an entry via your favorite email program.
Normally, in the past, if you wanted to post something on the Blog you had to open up the NIWeekBlog home page (the one you’re reading), log into the blogging interface, then post via the browser. Well, this is still the case however now you have the option of using an email program.
You compose an email message like you normally do then send it to a special NIWeekBlog email address. Don’t forget to remove your email signature before you post or it will be visible on the website. Also, please use plain text posting, not HTML as this will mess up the post. Of course you can go into the website interface and edit it after it has been posted (add images etc.).
If you are a registered author of the NIWeekBlog website, please contact us at: [niweekblog (at) lavausergroup.org]. We will send you this email address. This will not be made public since it can be a dangerous source of spam.
I would recommend the usage of this feature when you are only posting text. If you are planning to include many images then it is preferred to use the web interface. It is more convenient.
By the way, this post was made via an email client… Hey it works!
A new feature this year for the blog is the availability of a mobile version. This is a seperate page formated so it can be read easier by those browsing using a networked PDA or another portable device such as a smartphone.
The link is shown on the right-hand sidebar or here:
The page has minimum graphics and is designed to load much faster. Of course this URL can also be used by anyone viewing on a slow connection such as dial-up.
Well, this posting kicks off the launch of the 2004 NIWeekBlog. I hope you will enjoy a behind the scenes look into the National Instruments event of the year. While the conference is on you can come here to find unbiased commentary and of course many photographs of the people who make the event interesting.
This Blog is open to all who are attending the show and wish to comment on what they see. Feel free to register and login to upload any digital images you may happen to take at the show. This year I’ve improved the blogging software to make it easier to upload and post images to the site. Please check the link on the right to find out how to login and post to this site. A quick tutorial is also available.
If you don’t know what a Blog is or how it works you can visit last years NIWeekBlog to get an idea. You can also see some neat pictures from the event.
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