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Wednesday, March 8, 2006 |
Ah, finally took the time to figure out a little bit more about Flickr. Here are a few photos I took this afternoon. Now that I've got it figured out, I think, hope to have more from Interphex in a couple of weeks.
4:28:42 PM 
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I took a short walk after checking in the hotel this afternoon in New Orleans. Noticed lots of blue vinyl roofs on the approach to the airport. Some tourists down here in the French Quarter. Lots of businesses open. City is still sort of subdued, but then it's a Wednesday afternoon in Lent. There does seem to be some optimism in many people I've met.
4:13:49 PM
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NEMA, the National Electrical Manufacturers Association, has created a Nanotechnology Advisory Council, a panel of experts intended to provide guidance to the electrical manufacturing community on this nascent, but quickly emerging technology. The new council will be a resource for manufacturers interested in the research and public policy implications of nanotechnology development, as they themselves seek to apply the technology to their products. The council will be comprised of nanotechnology experts in academia and government. Council members will be announced in the coming weeks.
NEMA notes nanotechnology is expected to produce breakthrough performance enhancing applications in photovoltaics, thermoelectrics, sensors, structural materials in electrical equipment and fuel cell technology, among others.
10:39:10 AM
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Here's a new OPC product, Cogent Real-Time Systems released the OPC DataHub--software that simultaneously aggregates OPC servers, tunnels data across a network or the Internet, and bridges between different OPC servers. It includes a scripting language and read/write access to ODBC databases, web browsers and Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. The product tunnels through firewalls and the company contends that it eliminates DCOM security and timeout issues.
Another new product that reflects the mobility trend. Datastick Systems has made its first shipments of VSA-1212 Vibration Spectrum Analyzer, a PDA-based vibration analyzer built on a foundation of Microsoft Excel. The system includes the Datastick VSA-1212 Vibration Spectrum Analyzer module that attaches to select PDAs running Palm OS; software that collects and stores vibration measurements while displaying them in time waveforms and FFT spectra complete with alarm levels; and Datastick Reporting System (DRS) software for PCs, which is based on Microsoft Excel. Vibration data from the PDA exports to the PC with a single press of a button and loads into the DRS workbook on the PC with two mouse-clicks.
The VSA-1212 supports these handhelds: Palm Tungsten T, T2, T3, C, Palm m-500 series, Garmin iQue 3200, and Garmin iQue 3600.
If data security is on your mind, Elo TouchSystems has launched a new 1229L 12" Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) multi-function integrated touchmonitor with built-in magnetic stripe reader (MSR), options for an MSR, a rear-facing LED customer display and a biometric fingerprint-recognition device. The 1229L is available with a choice of Elo touch technologies: IntelliTouch surface-wave, AccuTouch five-wire resistive, and CarrollTouch infrared.
10:37:50 AM
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Just received one last message from Wes Iversen from the WBF meetings in Atlanta regarding reaction to the Automation Alliance announcement from ISA. I hope to post some pictures from New Orleans tonight.
One person told me that there is some nervousness and concern by some WBF board members and other WBF members about ISA's recent track record, and [base "]ISA[base ']s history of screwing things up.[per thou] But as long as WBF maintains its independence and doesn[base ']t come under ISA control[~]which is the case under the current agreement[~]the deal is okay, he said. I think negotiations are still underway involving some details. But the current agreement reportedly runs for three years, after which either ISA or WBF could choose not to renew; the deal could be cancelled sooner than three years if both parties agreed
to it. Again, people I spoke with said that WBF felt it had to do something, in order to get access to funding to improve its marketing, training, etc.
The Turner Field outing was good, by the way. Saw the Braves locker room and
got inside the dugout, among other things.
10:00:26 AM
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Gotta say that the Continental President's Club in Terminal E at Bush International Airport in Houston is a nice place to spend a layover. "Free" Wifi, too (with paid club membership).
Just received a newsletter from Profibus hard on the heels of not much news coming from the ODVA annual meeting. The lead items were "debunking the myths" of ProfiNet. This is an area rife for potential obfuscation. Both ODVA's CIP-based networks and ProfiNet use all the standard Ethernet (physical and transport layers) networking. The basic difference is that CIP devices need only an application on each end that can parse out the CIP and understand it. ProfiNet, while standard Ethernet is every way, requires custome silicon in each device that wishes to take advantage of the ProfiNet protocols riding atop the stack.
So, don't get caught up in the war of words. If you're a developer wishing to put your devices on ProfiNet, you'll have to purchase chips from the supplier. If you're developing for CIP, then you just need code somewhere in your device or application to read the CIP protocol. If you're a user, then you just need to make sure the components and software you buy are compatible with whatever network you're implementing. The wires in between and other protocols are the same as you would expect with Ethernet.
9:53:17 AM
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© Copyright 2006 Gary Mintchell.
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