Thanks to everybody for the comp.dsp conference.

I'm away from home until the end of August, so I'm posting from a
Google account instead of my usual account, but I wanted to send a
note and just say what a great time I had meeting everybody at the
comp.dsp conference.  I can honestly say that I learned way more at
this conference than I usually do at more formal conferences.  My
respect for the comp.dsp denizens, especially those in attendance, has
grown even more.

Big, big thanks to Al Clark and Lori Ann for being the most perfect
hosts we could have asked for.  Much thanks to everyone who presented
and attended, and thanks to everyone who participates here for jointly
creating and maintaining such a useful group that it inspired the
conference.  There were many conversations that it would have been
even more fun if many of you who couldn't make it had been able to be
there, but such is the reality of modern life.  Much beer was consumed
in your honor.  Well, much beer was consumed...

I also have to publish an erratum for one of my slides that has been
bugging me since I presented it: on slide 5 of the FEC presentation it
should say "A single bit error can be detected and *usually*
corrected..."  With dmin = 2, all single bit error events can be
detected, but not all can be corrected.  I leave why as an exercise to
the user, but the example is pretty easy to work out.

I put that presentation together in a bit of a hurry, but that's not a
good excuse.  :(

ejacobsen1@cox.net (Eric Jacobsen) wrote 

> Big, big thanks to Al Clark and Lori Ann for being the most perfect
> hosts we could have asked for.  Much thanks to everyone who presented
> and attended, and thanks to everyone who participates here for jointly
> creating and maintaining such a useful group that it inspired the
> conference.  

Agreed!

I was only able to attend the conference for the second day, but it
was defnitely worth it.  The hosts, as you say, were fantastic and the
presentations and discussions during them were all interesting.

Now we just have to figure out what happens for 2005. :-)

Ciao,

Peter K.

Peter Kootsookos wrote:
> ejacobsen1@cox.net (Eric Jacobsen) wrote 
> 
> 
>>Big, big thanks to Al Clark and Lori Ann for being the most perfect
>>hosts we could have asked for.  Much thanks to everyone who presented
>>and attended, and thanks to everyone who participates here for jointly
>>creating and maintaining such a useful group that it inspired the
>>conference.  
> 
> 
> Agreed!
> 
> I was only able to attend the conference for the second day, but it
> was defnitely worth it.  The hosts, as you say, were fantastic and the
> presentations and discussions during them were all interesting.
> 

Hear! Hear!

Many thanks to Al, his family, Rick Lyons, and anyone else I might've 
forgotten. We all appreciate you organizing the conference.

I know Al was hoping for a little larger turnout, but I think it was a 
really nice size.  I learned a lot.  I thought the relatively small size 
was conducive to sidebar discussions and deeper understanding of the 
material.

> Now we just have to figure out what happens for 2005. :-)
> 
> Ciao,
> 
> Peter K.

Al seems eager to pass the torch.  I can't say I blame him.  It was more 
work than I expected to prepare a presentation.  I imagine it was even 
more work to organize all of them.

There are certainly advantages to keeping a conference simple, small, 
and low-cost.  People who pay their own way, or whose bosses have tight 
pursestrings stand a better chance of coming.

There are also advantages to having more frills.  There may be some 
presenters who would be tempted by an exotic venue.  It may also be more 
tempting to attendees to see someplace cool and exciting.

Perhaps the best balance would be to modulate the frills value to 
alternate between the advantages.
	frills = (year&1) ? low_frills : high_frills;

The low frills site could rotate around the world according to whichever 
user base seemed best suited to support it. (definition of "best suited" 
is left as an exercise to the reader)

For a higher frills version:
I suggest partnering with www.geekcruises.com.  I attended the Linux 
Lunacy cruise last year. It was fantastic!  A top-notch conference 
combined with a beautiful relaxed atmosphere.  It was wonderful to be 
walking around the cruise ship and see Linus Torvalds snapping pics of 
glaciers, or Ted T'so sipping a coffee at the cafe.

My guess is: Neil Bauman of Geek Cruises can handle much of the work of 
organizing a conference, since he does many per year.  The catering and 
facilities are part of the cruise ship.  A small number of comp.dsp 
regulars could help out with getting speakers, targetting advertising, 
etc.  Divide and conquer!

http://www.geekcruises.com

I offer up the title, "Waveforms on the Waves 2005".


-- Mark
Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with Geek Cruises. I just love the 
concept.

Dear comp.dsp,

I echo Eric's sentiments wholeheartedly! Thank you, Al and Lori Ann,
for your generosity and hospitality. I also believe I learned more at
this conference than at any other. The total lack of B.S. and the
opportunity to jump in whenever and ask a question was refreshing. No
one was there to "look good" - everyone was focused on learning
DSP. It was *excellent*!

I think we may have actually started a landmark activity in the
engineering/DSP community! I'm looking forward to next year's
conference.

--Randy


ejacobsen1@cox.net (Eric Jacobsen) writes:

> I'm away from home until the end of August, so I'm posting from a
> Google account instead of my usual account, but I wanted to send a
> note and just say what a great time I had meeting everybody at the
> comp.dsp conference.  I can honestly say that I learned way more at
> this conference than I usually do at more formal conferences.  My
> respect for the comp.dsp denizens, especially those in attendance, has
> grown even more.
>
> Big, big thanks to Al Clark and Lori Ann for being the most perfect
> hosts we could have asked for.  Much thanks to everyone who presented
> and attended, and thanks to everyone who participates here for jointly
> creating and maintaining such a useful group that it inspired the
> conference.  There were many conversations that it would have been
> even more fun if many of you who couldn't make it had been able to be
> there, but such is the reality of modern life.  Much beer was consumed
> in your honor.  Well, much beer was consumed...
>
> I also have to publish an erratum for one of my slides that has been
> bugging me since I presented it: on slide 5 of the FEC presentation it
> should say "A single bit error can be detected and *usually*
> corrected..."  With dmin = 2, all single bit error events can be
> detected, but not all can be corrected.  I leave why as an exercise to
> the user, but the example is pretty easy to work out.
>
> I put that presentation together in a bit of a hurry, but that's not a
> good excuse.  :(

-- 
%  Randy Yates                  % "...the answer lies within your soul
%% Fuquay-Varina, NC            %       'cause no one knows which side
%%% 919-577-9882                %                   the coin will fall."
%%%% <yates@ieee.org>           %  'Big Wheels', *Out of the Blue*, ELO
http://home.earthlink.net/~yatescr

Mark Borgerding <mark@borgerding.net> wrote 

> Al seems eager to pass the torch.  I can't say I blame him.  It was more 
> work than I expected to prepare a presentation.  I imagine it was even 
> more work to organize all of them.
>
> There are certainly advantages to keeping a conference simple, small, 
> and low-cost.  People who pay their own way, or whose bosses have tight 
> pursestrings stand a better chance of coming.

Definitely.  I also think it helps keep things light and entertaining
during the conference.
 
> Perhaps the best balance would be to modulate the frills value to 
> alternate between the advantages.
> 	frills = (year&1) ? low_frills : high_frills;
> 
> The low frills site could rotate around the world according to whichever 
> user base seemed best suited to support it. (definition of "best suited" 
> is left as an exercise to the reader)

I'd be wary of jumping in too deep with the higher frills, unless we
can find someone to underwrite the costs involved. Al et al. were kind
enough to cover things things this year; we can't expect the same
again.  From my small experience with other conferences, bumping up
the frill level can bump up the costs exponentially.

Ciao,

Peter K.

I agree about what all others said about the conference. I really would
like to thank Al Clark and Lori Ann for having making the conference both
technical and entertaining. I also thank all participants for various
conversation and discussion.

It is true that I learned more from this conference than from a formal and
expensive conference. As a systems engineer, I like very much those two
survey presentations that provided a broad technical overview on two
specific topics. I also like other in-depth or "hand-on" sessions that will
definitely enhance my skills.

Additionally, I was one of the luckiest guys in the conference, winning an
Analog Device DSP Development kit.

I really look forward to the conference of next year.

Peter Xu

"Eric Jacobsen" <ejacobsen1@cox.net> wrote in message
news:267584ea.0407311807.6cf93df2@posting.google.com...
> I'm away from home until the end of August, so I'm posting from a
> Google account instead of my usual account, but I wanted to send a
> note and just say what a great time I had meeting everybody at the
> comp.dsp conference.  I can honestly say that I learned way more at
> this conference than I usually do at more formal conferences.  My
> respect for the comp.dsp denizens, especially those in attendance, has
> grown even more.
>
> Big, big thanks to Al Clark and Lori Ann for being the most perfect
> hosts we could have asked for.  Much thanks to everyone who presented
> and attended, and thanks to everyone who participates here for jointly
> creating and maintaining such a useful group that it inspired the
> conference.  There were many conversations that it would have been
> even more fun if many of you who couldn't make it had been able to be
> there, but such is the reality of modern life.  Much beer was consumed
> in your honor.  Well, much beer was consumed...
>
> I also have to publish an erratum for one of my slides that has been
> bugging me since I presented it: on slide 5 of the FEC presentation it
> should say "A single bit error can be detected and *usually*
> corrected..."  With dmin = 2, all single bit error events can be
> detected, but not all can be corrected.  I leave why as an exercise to
> the user, but the example is pretty easy to work out.
>
> I put that presentation together in a bit of a hurry, but that's not a
> good excuse.  :(

Mark Borgerding <mark@borgerding.net> wrote in message news:<410D1297.4000407@borgerding.net>...
 
> For a higher frills version:
> I suggest partnering with www.geekcruises.com.  I attended the Linux 
> Lunacy cruise last year. It was fantastic!  A top-notch conference 
> combined with a beautiful relaxed atmosphere.  It was wonderful to be 
> walking around the cruise ship and see Linus Torvalds snapping pics of 
> glaciers, or Ted T'so sipping a coffee at the cafe.
...
> -- Mark
> Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with Geek Cruises. I just love the 
> concept.

I cetainly like that concept. A few years ago the Norwegian chapter of IEEE
held a nordic conference on DSP on the coastliner, apparently with great 
success (I did, unfortunately, not attend).

MY problem with that sort of cruise, would be that I would be everywhere 
else than in the conference hall, carrying cameras and telescopes, looking 
for birds and wildlife. Even a trip at the high seas couldn't alter that;
a favourite past-time of mine while doing surveying in the Barents Sea, 
was to look for puffins and awks that tried to escape our vessel as we 
ran straight towards them. The birds had eaten so much fish they could not 
take off and fly away from us. They basked their wings in panic, running 
on the waves to get away. Only the very few very smart ones, found that 
they should run sideways out of our course. On one instance I saw an awk 
running ahead of us for several minutes, him running at 11 kts when 
we "chased" him at 12 kts. I stood at the bridge of the ship, and was 
very worried for a moment when the bird disappeared under the bow railings. 
He survived, but he may very well have decided to run to the side only 
when literally being hit by the vessel's hull. 

Heh, on one occation my brother-in-law and I saw a pack of porpoises from 
the coastliner when in port. We were sitting there on the panorama deck, 
looking for birds migrating north for the spring. The sea was not perfectly 
still (i.e. 20-30 cm "waves"), and suddenly I saw the very characteristic 
back and nostral of the porpoise, just a few meters from the ship. I only 
saw a very short glimpse of the animal (these are not at all like dolphins, 
that might jump out of the water), but called out to my brother-in-law. 
Two seconds later we both saw the next animal come up and breathe, again 
in only the shortest of glimpses. Some foreign tourist lady by the next 
table noticed the slight fuzz, and asked what happened. She did not believe 
us when we told her we had seen porpoises while in port, just in front of 
her own window.

So I'd be happy to join such a cruise, time and funding permitting. While 
probably doing my fair share in elevating the geek factor, I'm not sure 
how much I would be able to contribute to the DSP stuff, though...

Rune

Rune Allnor wrote:
> Mark Borgerding <mark@borgerding.net> wrote in message news:<410D1297.4000407@borgerding.net>...
>  
> 
>>For a higher frills version:
>>I suggest partnering with www.geekcruises.com.  I attended the Linux 
>>Lunacy cruise last year. It was fantastic!  A top-notch conference 
>>combined with a beautiful relaxed atmosphere.  It was wonderful to be 
>>walking around the cruise ship and see Linus Torvalds snapping pics of 
>>glaciers, or Ted T'so sipping a coffee at the cafe.
> 
> ...
> 
>>-- Mark
>>Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with Geek Cruises. I just love the 
>>concept.
> 
> 
> I cetainly like that concept. A few years ago the Norwegian chapter of IEEE
> held a nordic conference on DSP on the coastliner, apparently with great 
> success (I did, unfortunately, not attend).
> 
> MY problem with that sort of cruise, would be that I would be everywhere 
> else than in the conference hall, carrying cameras and telescopes, looking 
> for birds and wildlife. Even a trip at the high seas couldn't alter that;
> a favourite past-time of mine while doing surveying in the Barents Sea, 
> was to look for puffins and awks that tried to escape our vessel as we 
> ran straight towards them. The birds had eaten so much fish they could not 
> take off and fly away from us. They basked their wings in panic, running 
> on the waves to get away. Only the very few very smart ones, found that 
> they should run sideways out of our course. On one instance I saw an awk 
> running ahead of us for several minutes, him running at 11 kts when 
> we "chased" him at 12 kts. I stood at the bridge of the ship, and was 
> very worried for a moment when the bird disappeared under the bow railings. 
> He survived, but he may very well have decided to run to the side only 
> when literally being hit by the vessel's hull. 


This sort of reminds me of the time that I watched a pod of dolfins ride 
on the bow wave of the USS Sunfish during a surface transit in the 
Straits of Florida.  They didn't seem to have any problem as we were 
going along at about 20 knots.

> 
> Heh, on one occation my brother-in-law and I saw a pack of porpoises from 
> the coastliner when in port. We were sitting there on the panorama deck, 
> looking for birds migrating north for the spring. The sea was not perfectly 
> still (i.e. 20-30 cm "waves"), and suddenly I saw the very characteristic 
> back and nostral of the porpoise, just a few meters from the ship. I only 
> saw a very short glimpse of the animal (these are not at all like dolphins, 
> that might jump out of the water), but called out to my brother-in-law. 
> Two seconds later we both saw the next animal come up and breathe, again 
> in only the shortest of glimpses. Some foreign tourist lady by the next 
> table noticed the slight fuzz, and asked what happened. She did not believe 
> us when we told her we had seen porpoises while in port, just in front of 
> her own window.
> 
> So I'd be happy to join such a cruise, time and funding permitting. While 
> probably doing my fair share in elevating the geek factor, I'm not sure 
> how much I would be able to contribute to the DSP stuff, though...
> 
> Rune

Rune Allnor wrote:
> I cetainly like that concept. A few years ago the Norwegian chapter of IEEE
> held a nordic conference on DSP on the coastliner, apparently with great 
> success (I did, unfortunately, not attend).

I can imagine the sessions:
"CORDIC in the Nordic"
"ICs in the High Seas"
"DSP and Herring Aids"
"Without Remoras: Guilt-Free Debugging and the Shark"
...

> 
> MY problem with that sort of cruise, would be that I would be everywhere 
> else than in the conference hall,

Precisely why the sessions are held when the ship is at sea.  Shore 
excursions are too attractive by comparison.  Bingo and shuffleboard 
are not as tempting.

I didn't feel like I missed much of the cruise experience in Linux 
Lunacy.  It was a great conference interspersed in a nice vacation.

-- Mark

"Mark Borgerding" <mark@borgerding.net> wrote in message
news:410e8756$1@news.xetron.com...
> Rune Allnor wrote:
>
> I can imagine the sessions:
> "CORDIC in the Nordic"
> "ICs in the High Seas"
> "DSP and Herring Aids"
> "Without Remoras: Guilt-Free Debugging and the Shark"

Those last 2 are really bad!  (I mean that as a compliment! :-)