ASTDan

Are you saying it takes a whole day to commit . Why couldn't you commit at night? How do you know what the other folks on you team are doing if you aren't connected to the server? If programmer A and programmer B work on the same piece of code how do they get each others changes? Are you using a lock method i.e. nobody can check out your code until you check it back in? From what I briefly read about GIT each person has their own repository. What I don't understand is how that works in a multi-programmer environment. How do you know what version of the software is right one? If you have 5 developers you have 5 valid repositories of the code? Who's is valid? That sounds like a nightmare to manage. Is there something I am missing?

To my knowledge you have to get a 3rd party tool to integrate SVN directly into LabVIEW. The 2 I am aware of are JKI TortiseSVN for LabVIEW PushOK I use Tortoise SVN just in the Windows Explorer environment. A programmer could work on their code not having access to the repository (server) with TortoiseSVN however to commit and update code you would have to be connected. I don't know how you could manage your code if you weren't connected to a repository. You don't have to have your repository on a server. You can have it on your local hard drive or on the web. Branching in my opinion is easy in TortoiseSVN. I have never tried Git so I don't know the merits of it.

I really like TortoiseSVN Here is a presentation on an introduction to TortoiiseSVN http://decibel.ni.com/content/docs/DOC-7811

I just wanted to point out it is very important to clear the data acquisition task after you use it. This frees up the task and prevents memory leaks.

Waaaa! Tesla isn't David Bowie! Ziggy Stardust and Alternating current! I am crushed.

In regards to environmental issues I recently saw a PBS program of great interest http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/dustbowl/ It is about the Dust Bowl in the 1930's on the American Great Plains. One of the causes was poor farming practices. The farmers were reluctant to adopt farming practices that encouraged soil conservation. I think this has some parallels to the climate debate of today. Dan

I have mixed feelings about a Relf that could be a US President... Congrats and enjoy! Dan

I have had many problems over the years emailing executable to customers. Two problems I have found arise. 1. File to large for email 2. Customer's Firewall/Virus scanning doesn't like .exe My solution (and it has worked well) is I ftp the executable to my website and my customers can download it. This method has worked very well. Recently I have learned about Google Docs http://docs.google.com/ This looks like a very good way to share files with customers and other folks. I haven't tried it yet, but it looks very interesting. Dan

Hmmm. Well the presentation I am referring to was given by Tom Bress at NI week 2009. It is titled "From spaghetti code to State Machines: One Man's Journey through the NI Certification Process" http://www.ni.com/niweek/summit_presentations.htm Dan

This is a fantastic presentation on the merits of training and certification ftp://ftp.ni.com/ts1374_sw.pdf

I like to kick back and enjoy my favorite beverage on Black Friday. It helps me after a whole day with the family...

Are we not Computer Savy folks! It should be Cyber Monday http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyber_Monday Black Friday... Go to a store, with people... Please!!

I had my hard drive crash a year ago. I had all my data backed up on an external hard drive. I was able to restore my files including all my .vi files with no problems. I used the Windows backup utility to perform backups and also to restore my files. Dan

Well I wanted to post this for posterity... I went with Hostgator for my new host. http://www.hostgator.com/ I have to say it is waaaay better than my old host for the SAME price!! There are many hosts to choose from and I tried to go with one that had a lot of space, bandwidth, and good to work with. Hostgator has unlimited space, bandwidth, and has a 45 day money back guarantee. I made the plunge and am happy so far... I am hiring a company to help me select a Joomla template, port my static website to a CMS website, and give me some training on Joomla. My hope with this is to have some help to set everything up right, and train me so I don't do anything to stupid. Joomla seems very vast and feature rich. I am overwhelmed and excited with Joomla right now and hope the training will focus me in what I need to know for my site.

Congratulations Jim!

It looks like Joomla is the way to go. I am really impressed with their features. I do have a problem. My current host will not work with Joomla so I need to find a new one. I am looking at www.sitground.com What I like about them is that they seem to have a lot of support for maintaining a Joomla site. Does anyone have an experience with siteground? Are there other things I should be considering with a web hosting service? Who do you use to host your website and why? Thanks Dan

Here is a good white paper on NI's website on the subject of noise. http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/3344 I am reading this book right now and would highly recommend it. It deals with designing your measurement system. Due to the fact you are trying to measure such a small signal you really need to pay attention to all the little details. "Applied Measurement Engineering" Charles P. Wright http://www.amazon.com/Applied-Measurement-Engineering-Effective-Mechanical/dp/0132534770

Hello, I am thinking about redesigning my website. In the past I hired a student or friend to update and design my website. I like how my website looks and functions, but I want to have more personal control over my website. I am looking for some kind of program or service that allows me to manage my website. I also want to use a platform that is so simple an engineer can use it, and can help an artistically challenged engineer. I have found dream weaver overwhelming, and Front page looks cheesy. Any suggestions? Dan

ATML looks interesting. Can it hold an array of data for analysis? How portable is it? Can it be used in a non NI reader? i.e. not diadem I have been playing around with XML files and excel. Very cool!

Hello, I am thinking about saving the data I generate in XML. In the past I have used a tab delimited or comma delimited file. What I like about this idea is the following -Open file format. This makes the file readable by LabVIEW, Excel, Matlab, Diadem, etc -I can add tags and attributes to data -I like TDMS, however XML is an open file format. This appeals to me more because moving forward any kind of data viewer should support XML. For example my customer likes Matlab. Using an open file format that can be easily read without finding, installing, and maintaining converters is very appealing. I am not really concerned with file size or speed. The JKI Easy XML toolkit looks like the way to go to implement this. My main concern about implementing this is my customer's unfamiliarity with XML. Has anyone used XML to save data? Any recommendations, tips, pitfalls, etc. in using this file format. Thanks Dan

As a general rule, if you can, you want to try and filter or reduce the noise before you acquire it. Here is a great white paper on the topic. http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/3344 Dan

This is a little off on a tangent, but if you use subversion for you SCC because it is open source and not developed using an accredited ISO process would that cause problems?

I was wondering since NI has the unit test framework how does JKI's VI tester fit in? Are you planning to compete with it, or does your tool have some fundamental differences? Could you guys comment on that. Thanks Dan

I have an idea I was wondering if anyone has used Bugzilla http://www.bugzilla.org/ In addition to managing bugs, could you use this tool to track requirements? You could tag each requirement as a "bug" and track when it was completed, and by whom. Would using this method satisfy traceability requirements in regulated industries (i.e. FDA) Dan