DER Conference, Day 1

Today was the first day of the DER software conference (excuse me, the official title is the “FY2005 Software/Complex Electronic Hardware Standardization Conference”) here in Norfolk, VA. (It’s at the Norfolk Waterside Marriott, if you’re really interested.) It started out pretty boring today. Most of today’s topics were on the certification of Complex Electronic Hardware (i.e. FPGAs, ASICs, PLDs, etc). Since I’m mainly a software guy, this hardware stuff wasn’t that interesting.

I found that the other danger of having an engineering conference with presentations by engineers is that, for the most part, engineers have lousy public speaking skills. The one presentation I thought I’d really be interested in was at the end of the day; the guy works for Honeywell (OK, they’re my competitor, but I can forgive him that) and has been a DER for 15 years. He was giving “perspectives on being a software DER”. Now, I’ll give him credit, the material was insightful. Unfortunately, his presentation skills were sub-par. He basically read/mumbled the content from his slides in such a quick, low tone that most of us wouldn’t have understood him if it wasn’t that the text were on the screen. Why is it that the good engineers can’t have some social skills, too?

I wandered around the waterfront plaza here in Norfolk during the lunch hour. After the conference finished for the day, I jumped into that shiny gray Mustang (sweet rental car!) and headed out to Virginia Beach (about 15 minutes away). I’d never been to the Atlantic Ocean before. I found an empty spot on the beach (a tough trick when it’s 100+ degrees outside) and just sat and absorbed for a while. There’s just something incredible about the ocean; the immenseness of it all, I suppose. The continual pounding of the waves, nothing but water as far as the eye can see; the knowledge that if you head out that direction, the next land you’ll come to is Europe.

Back to the hotel to get cleaned up, then I walked over to a restaurant called Max & Erma’s for a late supper. It was nearly 9:00, and the place was pretty empty. I had just talked to Becky on the phone and was feeling kinda lonely sitting in a booth all by myself staring out the window at the cars on the street. On the upside, though, I had one of the nicest servers I’ve ever had; she was very friendly, service was excellent. I ordered the “Garbage Burger”, which came with Bacon, 4 kinds of cheese (American, Cheddar, Swiss, Mozzarella), onions, mushrooms, guacamole and marinara. It was tasty. It was nice to walk the 4 blocks back to the hotel; unfortunately, it was so swelteringly hot that I wasn’t motivated to walk any further.

The one task I should still complete tonight is to prepare some slides for Sunday; I’m teaching Sunday School, and we’re discussing stem cell research. I think I pretty much know what I want to say, I just have to get it compiled and put some pretty slides together. But I know how to do that. :-)