I've had a few dspic courses now, but I didn't see anything all that new to
report to the list.  My perceptions have changed about the dsp engine
though.  I've been thinking that the real use of these was just a bigger
faster mcu.  They are quite a bit less dsp anemic than I first thought.
They've done some pretty interesting things with these.  The most fun was
the dsp sound class.  They've also got these running soft modems, 5 band
eq's and a few other things in the demos in the mchip displays.  I've just
been using them as a fast "c" friendly pic --haven't been using the dsp for
anything yet.  That'll hafta change --there's a good deal of power available
in that engine.

Anyway, the conference is pretty cool...  There have been a couple of
classes that weren't up to the standard of some of the other presentations
that I took.  I've still learned a lot and had a lot of fun in the process.
Microchip did a nice job.  Does any other vendor do something like this --at
the same entrance fee?  I'm going to try hard to go next year as well.

Have you noticed that the food has changed the last few meals?  I think I
recognized most of it --no Hopi-indian bread and mud baked turkey the last
few times  --Still really good though.

Frys has good deals --but you need to catch them on a sale --I didn't see
anything compelling either ((did the Las Vegas one on the way down).

Played with the robots competition last night --didn't fail miserably, but
didn't win a place either.  It was fun.

I also got to meet Olin Lathrop.  A very nice guy in person.  He's got some
pretty varied interests.  Anyway, I've met lots of NZ and other nationality
folks here, but no one else I recognized from the piclist.  There's always
next year I suppose.

-Dal


-----Original Message-----
From: Herbert Graf


On Thu, 2004-07-22 at 21:25, picaccount wrote:
> Hey, I'm here too!
>         I'm having a blast!  I'm finally figuring out some of the issues
> that I've been having with the dspic series.  These things are even more
> cool than I knew about before.

        Haven't yet had a class on the dsPICs, that's tomorrow for me. My
classes today weren't as great as yesterday, although the signal
conditioning class was a nice surprise. No new scopes though for the
list... :(

>  Microchip went all out this year.  The
> resort they are holding this in is pretty ritzy.

        Ya, it's quite nice. Of course, the last Hotel I was in was about 14
years ago so I don't really have much to base opinion on.

        A colleague of mine who travels allot said he was jealous when he
found
our where it was being held...

> The food is a little rich
> --(anything better than a hotdog is new territory for me).

        Hehe, ya, the food is quite good, and maybe even a little fancy for
me.
The steak was good.

> They shuffled
> out just about every microchip engineer they could let out for this thing.
> It's cool to talk to the guys that actually designed this stuff.

        Yes, it's very neat to have a class taught by the person who's app
note
you've been reading for the past month. The other thing I like is most
courses I've been too have been taught by the people who actually
developed the stuff they're talking about.

> Anyway, it
> was definitely worth the 14 hr drive for me to get here!  I drove through
> las vegas so it's turning into a bit of a vacation too.

        Hehe, well, aside from a lost bag (which did arrive last night) the
trip has been great, and very rewarding.

        Visited Fry's Electronics today (was recommended by someone to check
out). Very cool place, it's like a bunch of stores in Canada all put
together. That said I was disappointed by the prices down here, they are
actually MORE expensive in many cases then in Canada. Strange, I
expected things to be a little cheaper in the States.

> (the 111 F heat is
> a little stifling though.)  Anyway, off to the robotics competition.
Maybe
> I'll see you somewhere Herbert!
> -Dal

        You know, it was about 112 yesterday, and that was HOT to me. But
today
it was 111, and it just didn't feel as hot anymore. I think I'm starting
to get used to the heat! That's REALLY gonna screw me when I return to
Toronto and it's like 65... :) TTYL


---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.713 / Virus Database: 469 - Release Date: 6/30/2004

--
http://www.piclist.com#nomail Going offline? Don't AutoReply us!
email listserv@mitvma.mit.edu with SET PICList DIGEST in the body