Congrats to the LHC

In the early 1990s I was in grad school doing research for the Superconducting Super Collider (SSC).  I worked at the Texas Accelerator Center, where the "first foot" of the SSC was built.  Then I went to Fermilab, where I spent a couple years learning high energy physics and building a new type of calorimeter that would work at low-angle regions after the collision (where the radiation levels were particularly high).  

Congress started reducing the funding for the project, then cut it entirely in 1993.   My project lost its funding, and I escaped with my MS in Physics.  For years I was bitter over that whole episode, but eventually I realized that my life would have turned out very differently, perhaps for the worse, if I had stayed with the SSC.  Also, my experiences there - writing programs for data analysis, building a test system - started me down my current career path.  I can't be bitter about that.

In the 15 years since then, I've lost track of the cutting edge of high energy physics, but I still try to read up on it once in a while.  I was very excited on September 10th when they activated the Large Hadron Collider (the New York Times wrote a nice piece about it from a layman's perspective).  

So, cheers to everyone involved with the LHC.  When I was at Fermilab there was a sort of rivalry between us and CERN (where the LHC was being built), but I'm pleased that at least someone will be slamming protons into each other.  

Structural mechanics kit

Last month I received an email for a "complimentary copy" of an Introduction to Structural Mechanics Simulations CD.  It comes from Comsol, a company that writes software for physical modeling.  According to the email, the contents include tutorials on simulating:

- Static linear analysis

- Thermal stress

- Fluid-structure interaction

- Fatigue analysis

- Nonlinear materials

- Multiphysics user stories

- Tour of COMSOL Multiphysics

Now, I am in no way a mechanical engineer.  One of my very first jobs was as an engineer in an aerospace firm, and yes I did do some analyses of stress levels, gear matching exercises, and other mechanical engineering 'grunt work'.  But that job also taught me that if you dig into the details, then mechanical engineering is a serious discipline.  

But, if any of you out there are interested in this, here's the website:

http://link.abpi.net/l.php?20080812COMSOL01

Optimizing LabVIEW

Last month I attended a local NI-sponsored  LabVIEW seminar.  Usually I don't bother with those things.  They are aimed at novice users and are usually frequented by consultants looking for new work.  But our NI rep assured me that this one was aimed for experienced users.  Since they were also serving free lunch, I figured it wouldn't hurt.

It was actually pretty good.  The title was Advanced Performance Optimization in Labview, and the focus was improving programs using memory management.  Because of the unique ways that LV treats data, there are some tricks to speed up your programs.  I mean, if all you want to do is run an instrument and take data, these tips won't help.  But if you're controlling half a dozen instruments and dealing with reams of data, then you probably need all the help you can get.

The presenter was a guy named Brian Powell.  I listed his blog , Open Measurements, as a useful one this past summer.  He obviously knows his work well.

Anyway, I have a PDF of the presentation (including his notes).  If anyone wants it, email me and I'll forward it on to you.

Coming this fall

With all the things going on this summer (new job, summer camps for the kids, big vacation trip), it has been over a month since my last post on here. In that time, I've had several ideas I've wanted to blog about. So I made a note/flag/task for it and kept working. I just got back from taking my kids on a 2400 mile trip (driving my Prius, which I love) to see some friends and family. That excursion marks the official end of my summer activities, so now I have more time for other things.

Here's a quick list of things I plan to write about over the next few months. In no particular order they are:

• Testing small stuff
• Intranets
• LabVIEW v8.6
  
• LabVIEW optimizations
• Blog Action Day
• Being organized
  
• Contractors

Clearing my mailbox, pt 3: VB6

I subscribe to various magazines online. Yes, the subscriptions are free, and yes most of those articles are written by the marketing arm of a company trying to peddle something. But sometimes you can still find interesting stuff.

One case in point is an article in the June edition of Evaluation Engineering. A marketing person from NI wrote a piece about life after VB6, since Microsoft is ending support for Visual Basic 6 at the end of this year. The question the author addressed was 'what do I need to know to upgrade from VB6 to VB.Net?' And I would say she did a credible job of covering the high points, as well as listing other references for further reading.

Back in 2000-2001 I programmed almost exclusively in VB6, with a smattering of C++ as well. When the time came to consider upgrading to VB.Net, the VP of engineering at my firm decided it was too expensive at the time. A contractor I worked with left after that - he felt that he needed to keep his skills current - and I started thinking about migrating back to LabVIEW. So this article had a personal historical interest for me.

Clearing my mailbox, pt 2: joys of dual monitors

Someone forwarded an article to me from the New York Times about the productivity improvements using dual monitors. The article is a little dated (2006), but makes a valid point. But if you program in LabVIEW, once you go dual you'll never want to go back. The advantage to having the front panel on one screen and the block diagram on the other is huge in my opinion. I liked it so much at work, that I found a cheap monitor on craigslist so I could do it at home as well.

Of course, now I also feel a little like an evil genius in a secret lair....

Cleaning my mailbox - LabVIEW vs C

My various email inboxes have been filling up with things I want to keep until I've had a chance to look at them. Today (Saturday) I had time to go over a couple.

National Instruments has a semi-monthly email newsletter where they publish details about new white papers, new products, etc. Some of the time it's just marketing and not useful, sometimes it's good. The article that made me keep this latest issue was about comparing LabVIEW with C. I was particularly interested in this white paper since I had blogged about this subject a year ago.

I judged this paper on two different levels. The first level is a marketing level: it's apparent goal is to convince C programmers that LabVIEW can do about anything that C can do for test engineering. Does it convince? Ehh, maybe. It certainly goes through a list of typical things that a C person may ask about. SO on that level I would give it good marks.

The second level I considered to be more philosophical: does it address why LabVIEW would be better than C, at least for test engineering? On this level it really falls flat. After I read it I couldn't come up with any single reason it gave me for why it would be preferable. But maybe I was asking too much.