LAVA/OpenG NI-Week 2009 BBQ - Door Prize List!

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Yes yes, we're holding the immensly successful LAVA/OpenG NI-Week BBQ again this year (details coming soon), and we'd love to give away member-sponsored door prizes again (weren't last year's USB LAVA LAVA lamps cute? ) You and your company will get free advertising in this thread (company name, logo, description, etc), and, when your donation is drawn on the night, we'll mention you and/or your company, embarrass you by pointing you out in the crowd to take a bow, and maybe even give you 15 seconds to plug your business*.

Nothing is too dorky or too cool to be a LAVA/OpenG NI-Week 2009 BBQ door prize! If you need inspiration, check out last year's door prize list here. So, if you or your company would like a slice of the free advertising here on LAVA and at the BBQ on the night, please send me a message here with details on prizes you'd like to give away (dont' forget to include a picture), and I'll add them to the list.

*While plugging your business, there will be a "wrap it up" box there on the night - it'll be Todd from An Engineering Mind waiting to slap you - seriously, please go over time, he loves it when you do that

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A big thanks to Ed Dickens from DISTek Integration, Inc for offering up the first LAVA/OpenG NI-Week 2009 BBQ door prize:

Nextar P3 - 3.5" Navigation System

3.5" color display with touch screen

Specifications:

● Built-in speaker

● Voice-guided directions with Turn by Turn voice prompts

● Preloaded 50 U.S. states map (in SD card)

● 1.6 million points of interest

● Address book can store up to 300 addresses

● Automatically recalculate the route

● Speed alert

● SD card slot for added memory

● MP3 playing mode - (requires larger SD card)

● 2D or 3D map viewing modes

● Day and Night modes (Night mode features additional light on the screen for easier viewing)

● Comes with manufacturer's 1-year limited warranty

● Includes a Car Power Adapter, Suction Cup, Pouch, USB Cable, SD Card

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A big thanks to Jim Kring from JKI Software for offering up a LAVA/OpenG NI-Week 2009 BBQ door prize:

a VIPM Professional Edition license with Subscription

(includes one year of support and upgrades)

VI Package Manager™ is a package management tool that organizes and maintains VI Packages™ within your LabVIEW environment. All OpenG libraries and tools are supported for download using VIPM. VIPM allows you to quickly access online code repositories and get them into your LabVIEW development environment in the shortest amount of time possible.

VIPM Professional Edition specs:

● Download free OpenG libraries

● Install VIs directly into the palette

● Automatically resolve VI dependencies

● Keyword search for VIs

● NI Certified, Compatible with LabVIEW

● Save and recall configurations

● Scan projects for dependencies on reuse VIs

● Distribute packages to other developers

● Automatic Check for Package Updates

● Download Packages Directly from the Internet

● Integrated VI Package Searches

● Cross-platform Compatible

● Simultaneously Manage Multiple LabVIEW Versions

● and more...

JKI's software engineers are experts at integrating tools into the LabVIEW development environment. The VIPM was developed according to the LabVIEW development guidelines and is certified by NI as Compatible with LabVIEW.

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A big thanks to The Captain from National Instruments for offering up a LAVA/OpenG NI-Week 2009 BBQ door prize:

a Guided Tour of National Instruments' Corporate Head Quarters in Austin, Texas

We will be drawing 4 tickets to join this exclusive private behind-the-scenes tour of the corporate head quarters with our very own Norm as your guide. View things usually restricted to only NI elite, including Jeff Kodosky's desk, the site where

was created, and the An Engineering Mind studios where Todd films his weekly rant about how engineers are awesome (and everyone else wishes they were engineers).

From NI's website:

National Instruments transforms the way engineers and scientists around the world design, prototype, and deploy systems for test, control, and embedded design applications. Using NI open graphical programming software and modular hardware, customers at more than 30,000 companies annually simplify development, increase productivity, and dramatically reduce time to market. From testing next-generation gaming systems to creating breakthrough medical devices, NI customers continuously develop innovative technologies that impact millions of people.

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A big thanks to Ben Zimmer from Enable Training and Consulting, Inc for offering up a LAVA/OpenG NI-Week 2009 BBQ door prize:

WD TV HD 1080P Media Player

From their website:

Combined with an external HDD, this player is the most convenient way to play HD movies or user-generated videos, listen to high-quality digital music and show high-resolution slideshows of your family photos on your TV. Also works with popular USB drives, and digital cameras, camcorders, and portable media players that can be recognized as mass storage devices.Designed for My Passport, works with many other USB storage devices - Play content from most popular USB drives, digital cameras, camcorders, and portable media players that can be recognized as mass storage devices.

Bonus prize: the lucky winner will also receive a USB memory stick containing all of the LabVIEW TipJar Video Blogs, so they can watch them in all the glory of your largest TV*!!!

(*TV not included)

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A big thanks to Lisa K. Wells from Product Principles for offering up a LAVA/OpenG NI-Week 2009 BBQ door prize:

Free Marketing Advice for your Technology / Engineering Company

Like to be told what to do, and/or drink Texas margs? Then you'd love to win this! One hour of marketing advice and counsel from a marketing and product management consultant who specializes in technology companies. If you don't need marketing guidance, there's always a quick copy-edit or a variety of other services. If you don't need anything of the kind, the consultant will buy you your choice of something from the LAVA Store.

The session will be provided by Lisa K. Wells: previously a 5 year veteran of National Instruments, author of the first edition of "LabVIEW for Everyone" and original "LabVIEW Student Edition User's Guide", and founder of Product Principles.

Redeemable at NI-Week 2009 or by phone the following week (if you choose the in-person session at NI-Week 2009, it can be combined with Lisa's favorite beverage: tequila!)

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A big thanks to Stephen Mercer from National Instruments for offering up what I think is our very first home-made LAVA/OpenG NI-Week 2009 BBQ door prize:

ElectricLAVA Sign

Is there anything this guy can't do? From the man who brought us by-val OO in LabVIEW, inspired by LAVA's new logo, now comes the completely custom made LightWire LAVA sign. It'd look perfect hanging over your bar, on the wall of your cube, on the ceiling above your bed, heck - anywhere! This little marvel is 20" wide x 30" high (that's 30cm x 75cm for everyone that lives in a country not stuck to the measurement system that those who inveted have all but abandoned) - so it's big!

If that's not enough, Stephen's included a sequence controller that cycles the lights through different colors too! It all runs on 2 AA batteries (hmmm... 3V DC can be pretty dangerous - maybe I should remove this listing from the door prize list and it in my home, for the safety and well-being of all you LAVA members of course...)

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A big thanks to Mark Balla from Tecnova for offering up this LAVA/OpenG NI-Week 2009 BBQ door prize:

2 x iPod Shuffles

1 x Black and 1 x Silver

Specifications:

● 4Gb (around 1k songs or so @ 128kbps)

● You get: iPod shuffle, Apple Earphones with Remote, iPod shuffle USB cable & Quick Start Guide

● Audio formats supported: AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Store), MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, and 4), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV

● Dimensions: Height = 1.8" (45.2mm), Width = 0.7" (17.5mm), Depth = 0.3" (7.8mm) - that's pretty bloody tiny!

● Weight = 0.38oz (10.7g)

From the Apple website:

Small gets smaller: The new iPod shuffle is amazingly small and even easier to use. The controls are now conveniently located on the earbud cord. It’s so easy, you can use it with your eyes closed. With the press of a button, VoiceOver tells you what song is playing and who's performing it. It tells you the names of your playlists, too. With 4GB of storage, iPod shuffle can now hold up to 1,000 songs, so your music library can go with you. And you can now sync multiple playlists for the perfect mix for any mood.

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A big thanks to Nancy Hollenback from The G Team for offering up a couple of LAVA/OpenG NI-Week 2009 BBQ door prizes:

Gift Certificates for amazon.com and Starbucks

Nancy Hollenback, on of the few true LabVIEW gurus in industry, is offering up a combination of the two things behind every successful engineer: knowledge and caffine! What's better than curling up with a good novel and a decaf soy latte? I'll tell you: a great OO book and a long black These prizes are a $75 amazon.com gift certificate and a $50 Starbucks gift certificate - she also offered "a date with Nancy", but I'll take care of that thank you very much (not only does she know everything there is to know about LabVIEW, she's damn good lookin' too - what more could a guy want?!?)

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I'm so very happy to add another LAVA/OpenG NI-Week 2009 BBQ door prize, this time from our mega-admin Michael Aivaliotis:

Project Management Tarot Deck for the G Programmer

Designed by our very own Aristos Queue and first featured at the LAVA/OpenG NI-Week 2007 BBQ, this tarot deck is a laugh riot - it's the full 88 cards, each a different representation with a LabVIEW theme.

Form the LabVIEW wiki entry:

The PMTDftGP brings the power of card reading to the everyday software release manager.

• Not sure whether a given feature will be well received by customers? Consult the deck!
• Need to know when the release party should be scheduled? Consult the deck!
• Deciding which programmer to fire during cutbacks? Consult the deck!

The deck is designed with a graphical, dataflow interface that G programmers will find immediately intuitive. The 22 cards of the Major Arcana have been redesigned to depict the phases of a programmer's enlightenment. The Minor Arcana come in four suits of 14 cards each -- Wires (R&D), Nodes (Sales&Marketing), Structures (IT&Manufacturing), and Controls (Users). Included in the deck is a nifty instruction card for doing a basic reading from the deck, though the deck is fully compatible with all known ANSI standard tarot layouts.

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I'm not sure whether I should be uber excited or scared, but I'll thank the mysterious Brian Powell of National Instruments for providing an LAVA/OpenG NI-Week 2009 BBQ mystery door prize.

All I know about this prize is that it's an NI product prototype that didn't make it to market. "Do My Housework for LabVIEW Module"? "cRIO Espresso Module"? "Beer Extensions for Instrumentation (BXI)"? Who knows? I'll tell you who'll know: everyone at the BBQ tomorrow night!