iEmilie

Hey guys, I'm forwarding this thread to a couple of guys on our web platforms team, as it's a good question we should consider for ni.com and LabVIEW product. I'm not well-versed on the licensing issue so I need to do more homework. But I do agree we should try to leverage ALL community content, be it hosted on NI Community, lava.org or any social platform. And by "leverage," I mean use for increasing LabVIEW productivity and proficiency (not making money).

Hey guys - I'm planning on promoting this on Tuesday of NIWeek as the top unofficial NIWeek party from @NIWeek. Any objections? Want to make sure you guys get some #NIWeek love.

Val - I loved your comment on the blog. Well said. Here's the LinkedIn group where the discussion originated: http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Test-Measurement-World-2196932/about?trk=anet_ug_grppro It's classified as Private, so the group managers have to grant you membership before you can see anything. You'll need to request to join. For anyone doing test applications, it's probably a good group to subscribe to.

Hey guys - here's another "LabVIEW alternatives" post online that is just getting rolling: http://www.tmworld.c...substitute_.php Feel free to chime in - the main topic is LabVIEW vs VEE, which I'm sure you guys can offer some sound advice on. Also - is anyone a member of the LinkedIn group that Martin mentions? I made a request to join, but never got approval. I'm sure there's a long conversation going on there as well. Let me know if I need to break the door down.

You guys know there's a free LabVIEW toolkit for NXT, right?

Thanks for sharing the deep dive, Daklu. I'm sure this review will be helpful for any robotics designer considering a graphical approach to programming. I know first hand that a roboticist has to have at minimum a working knowledge of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, computer science / engineering and controls engineering. So a graphical programming language (or visual programming language, depending on who you're asking) can be a life-saver in terms of building and deploying sophisticated code. It was not too long ago that NI was developing our first "flavor" of LabVIEW - LabVIEW for Robotics. I considered myself privileged to be a part of that product launch. I did a lot of blogging during that time to help seed the product and gather market research and feedback. The blog is retired, but your post reminded me of a post I did when Microsoft initially launched MSRDS (and coined "VPL"). http://labviewrobotics.wordpress.com/2010/05/20/microsoft-ups-the-ante-in-the-robotics-market-makes-msrds-free/ And you'll see, I totally agree with the notion of some healthy competition. I've since moved on from the robotics role, so I don't have much say in the product direction today, but I will always <heart> robots.

Just want to chime in here – I’m NI’s social business manager and a stakeholder in LabVIEW’s brand reputation on the social web. It’s my job to tune into online conversations that mention LabVIEW and help advise on why/how NI may need to take any direct action. The infamous LabVIEW hate blog post you guys found provides a fascinating case study for how one simple complaint on an obscure blog about nothing can turn into a brand reputation crisis. You’ve noticed that Todd Sierer chimed in on the blog several years ago. Little did we know the blog comments would continue to snowball into something that now has 131 comments and counting. Today, this blog post appears in top organic search results for “LabVIEW+alternatives” and “LabVIEW+hate." More recently, I recruited our VP from LabVIEW R&D to chime in. His post is worth the read – I personally know he spent quite some time putting it together. His words provide the most current glimpse into the state of LabVIEW and where David personally would like to see it headed. Take a look. http://jshoer.wordpress.com/2007/08/03/why-i-hate-despise-detest-and-loathe-labview/#comment-3610 The negative comments on the blog are extremely deflating to any LabVIEW brand advocate like myself. I’d agree that most of them are rabid, yet insubstantial complaints because of frustrations stemming from the fact that they simply don’t understand how to effectively use LabVIEW (and I’m not insinuating that it’s completely their faults…NI needs to do a lot more to set the right expectations with new users and help build proficiency). But I’m also a realist and like it or not, we’ve entered the age of the social web, where anyone can say anything and get heard. For NI, it’s a huge opportunity and huge liability all at the same time. What gives me hope: This LAVA thread is listed as the #1 organic search result in Google for “LabVIEW hate” and I’d much rather someone find this thread than the blog post. You guys have taken time to provide thoughtful, constructive feedback about LabVIEW that would actually be helpful for someone considering the tool. Not all of it’s good and that’s ok. That’s what people need to hear. And that’s what NI need’s to hear too. Rest assured: it’s your feedback that we’ll actually take action on. But I just wanted to thank you all for caring enough about LabVIEW to examine and explain how we can continue to make it better, in a meaningful way. This LAVA thread helps me sleep better at night. So thanks for the extra winks of sleep.

Wow. I had no idea April Fool's was celebrated in that part of the world, let alone on a different day of April. I'm also loving the augmented reality spoof. I can just see it now: we can get JeffK to put on a pair of RayBans as the feature photo... So basically - I'm getting the feedback that NI needs to do more pranks, in general, right? Coming right up...

Hey guys, Emilie here - for those of you who don't know me, I'm the new Social Business Manager at NI (i.e. the new "Deirdre") I saw this conversation come up in one of our social monitors last night. I too was bummed to see we didn't have our annual April Fool's press release. I contacted one of my buddies who usually helps come up with the yearly pranks. He said NI decided to sit this year out since the 1st fell on a Sunday. They figured it might get lost in the weekend lull. Hmph. Although I like Aristos' explanation better. Perhaps NI should simply claim the following excuse: "Someone played a prank on us this year and scheduled April Fools on a Sunday."