Embedded Systems Engineering Standards Column vol 16.5 August October 2008 A Standard Individual: Life is a cabaret oh chum, come to the cabaret! By Chris Hills

These are my own personal views and not those of my company Phaedrus Systems see www.phaeds ys.com which is where the full version of this column, with links etc, resides under the Documents tab.

 

It’s that time of year again: >Show time!  What follows are my own views and has not been suggested by anyone connected with ESS.  Actually no one gets any editorial sway on this column (apart from the ESE lawyer!).

 

The problem is the average British Engineer (and their management) don’t go to shows.  Why not?  Most don’t know what they are missing. This is one of Donald Rumsfeld’s “unknown-unknowns” What are they missing?

 

INFORMATION and PEOPLE!  There are also “things” at a show.  The point is even with the internet, or these days especially because of the internet, you can down load vast amounts of information and can get swamped, missing the important stuff, especially as search engine results can be skewed and your details harvested by cookies.  You still can’t beat a face to face discussion with the device, equipment, live demo in front of you.  Also a picture on the web is not the same as picking physically up the kit and examining the build quality and asking questions. At ESS you get to see all the main players in your area of interest who operate in the UK and you don’t have to give them your name or email address!   Many of their specialists will be there. They want to look around too, so you can often meet the designers and experts who have been let out of the office for the day, the ones who don’t usually make sales calls.

 

Unusually ESS has, alongside the paid conference, a free track in the exhibition hall where there will be some useful presentations, apart from the one I am doing: Debugging is difficult: so why do it?   Yes, develop without debugging!  Or rather develop without the bugs… not quite Bug Free Softwaretm but getting there.

 

Some years ago I gave a presentation on debugging methods starting from the “good old days” and said no one should be doing this now as for the last 5-10 years there have been far better methods and tools.  There were two rather glum looking engineers in the front row.  After the presentation I asked them what the problem was. They said that they were still using methods that were 10 years old and did not realise how some of the tools and methods had advanced.  Their view of ICE was they cost 20,000 GBP and were unreliable. At the time In Circuit Emulators were about 3-8K (and the 20K was now 60K in real terms) extremely reliable and usable with features that were a complete revelation to them.  They were only at the event because it was free and on a Saturday it was the first event they had been to in a decade. By not “wasting time” on other events over the previous decade they had cost their company a small fortune in time using inefficient  development and debug methods and tools and developed products that were less reliable than they could have been. Not to mention being late to market.

 

Apart from seeing new tools, new methods and components you get information, the sort of thing that does not get on to corporate web sites. Gossip and advanced information.  Specifically several customers of mine picked up some information in the ESS exhibition in 2006 that saved their companies many thousands of pounds and saved six months wasted development.  Why? Because information flows at a trade show in ways you don’t get anywhere else.   What is more you can often sit and discuss it over a coffee and put it in perspective before looking round again for more information and solutions at the show saving days of web searches and phones people..

 

Some employers see it as a wasted day. They should see it as a day’s, very cost effective, research. Many new things are shown at shows. The ESS gets many product launches and not just that, distributors such as ourselves show new tools from news companies we distribute.  You can’t rely on email news letters; spam has caused much tighter filtering and many don’t get through. Besides there are many things you may have missed over the last year.   A discussion at a show is far more effective than a web search.  Besides you can do those afterwards armed with information from the show

 

Also it is surprising how many people have off the wall solutions after going to a show as their normal thought patters have been altered and new ideas introduced.  As the proverb goes “a change is as good as a rest”.  It jolts you out of familiar thought patterns and refreshes the brain. It is quite amazing how ideas will popup caused by unrelated things you see. Also you end up with a bag of goodies, often the stress reliving “executive” toys which can save your sanity, a box full of pens, note pads and a few toys for the kids.   One year Cyan who do an IDE had tins of mints marked with their name and product. Think about it…. That year everyone had CyanIDE pills.

I am not suggesting going to every event and show. ESS is the largest show of its type in the UK and should be on your list.  There are other more specialised events looking specific areas, you should look at some of the specialised events and pick carefully but a day at the largest generic UK event is a must just for the broad range of inputs and ideas. You never know what will be useful or start a train of thought. One day a year is well worth it.

 

Some employers used to be worried that staff would find other jobs at shows! With the on-line job web sites and everyone having a mobile it is highly unlikely. In my experience engineers are looking for solutions for their current or next project. 

 

Whilst on “highly unlikely” tomorrow, as I write this, the team at CERN are going to start powering up and we could all have disappeared into a black hole, parallel universe (it will be nice to see David Icke again) or just exploded before this article gets printed. As I am writing this the panic merchants are on the TV, so if you are reading this all is well.  Well, at least the planet is still here, which is not quite the same thing as: “all is well”.   You still have projects and products to finish.

 

Hopefully we will see you all at the Embedded Systems Show. Stand 336, at the back by the exhibition theatre, but do glance at the other stands on the way to see us. Apart from seeing my presentation it is a chance to see all that is new and innovative as well as the regular stuff in the embedded world and of course the coffee and doughnuts.

 

 

 

Author Details and contact

 

Eur Ing Chris Hills BSc CEng MIET MBCS MIEEE  FRGS   FRSA is a Technical Specialist and can be reached at This Contact

 

Copyright Chris A Hills  2003 -2008
The right of Chris A Hills to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988