Happy Halloween from DISTek: Annual Costume Contest
Happy Halloween! Today was no exception from year’s past. In keeping with tradition, we once again held our annual Halloween costume contest today at noon.
DISTek to Present November 8th at ESC 2017 Minneapolis
Human Nature and Requirements Elicitation: Lessons Learned
You would think that the easiest, least challenging, part of developing a software solution for a customer is to ask them, “What problem do you need solved?,” to which the customer would simply and clearly answer it in one or two paragraphs. Yet, that is far from the case. Of the various phases that occur during the development life cycle of a software project, the phase with the greater opportunity for cognitive interference is the requirements phase.
DISTek After Hours
DISTek’s employees aren’t just all work and no play. We frequently do a variety of different activities after hours. Let me tell you how I got into some of the after hours activities almost instantly after I started working at DISTek, including how I implemented Board Game Night, as well as my thoughts on the LAN Party, which was my first interaction with the DISTek Activities’ Group.
DISTek to Attend Fall 2017 ISOBUS Plugfest
The ISOBUS Plugfest is nearly upon us once again. Each spring in Lincoln, NE, and each fall in Europe, the AEF (Ag Electronics Foundation) coordinates a Plugfest during which ag electronics from different manufacturers are tested for interoperability. This fall, Plugfest is October 17-19 and engineers from around the world will be meeting in Stuttgart, Germany. I counted quickly so my numbers may be off, but I think there will be 74 Ag implement systems (“Clients”) and 42 Ag displays (“Servers”).
Intern Testimonial: Parting Thoughts from David
Here at DISTek, we place a strong emphasis on our internship program. Every summer we hire a handful of interns to work alongside our teams to not only provide mentor-ship for those entering the field, but also to, hopefully, entice some of the best and brightest to join our ranks after graduation. This summer we were lucky enough to have David Schmadeke, an Electrical Engineering major at Iowa State University, join our internship program.
Summer Send-off: Back-to-School Tailgate
On a gorgeous evening, after work, employees gathered in the back lot of the DISTek Cedar Falls office, while Jeff donned his apron and manned the grill. Employees were treated to brats, burgers, sides, and beverages, while at the same time getting the chance to bolster camaraderie with their fellow DISTekians.
Blood Drive – A Simple Way to Give Back
Please join many of our fellow DISTek employee-owners on Tuesday, October 10th, 2017 from noon until 4pm as we host an American Red Cross Blood Drive. We’re located in the Cedar Falls Technology Park at 6612 Chancellor Drive, Cedar Falls, Iowa.
DISTek Turns 25: Past, Present, Future
The Present – Part 1
The 2000s were a tumultuous decade, bookended on the front end by the dotcom bubble bursting, Enron collapsing with Arthur Anderson, and the September 11th attacks, and on the backend with the financial crisis and the great recession. In the world of technology, we saw the quick spread of broadband internet and the broad adoption first of cell phones and PDAs before the two merged by the end of the decade into the smartphone. The internet seemed to get its legs in this decade with the advent of such tools as Google Maps, Wikipedia, YouTube, and social media.
Why Use AUTOSAR for Embedded Software?
Every software engineer knows there are strengths and weaknesses to every programming language/architecture. Trade offs must be made to improve certain aspects of the system. AUTOSAR is no different. The key is finding the right tool for the job by determining which aspects you need more of and which you don’t. During my time working with AUTOSAR, I’ve found some aspects that AUTOSAR does well and some that it doesn’t. I’ll start with a brief overview of what AUTOSAR is and then jump into the nitty-gritty.
Celebrating 25 Years – Family Style!
When DISTek began its 25th year in business back in March, we knew we wanted to celebrate this rather significant milestone, maybe have a party, take in a ball game, go out to dinner, or have a family picnic. 25 years ago, any of these ideas would have been possible with not much more effort than calling the wife, locking up the office, and heading uptown. Ah, the simpler times of yesteryear!
Precision Agriculture: The Future of Farming
Food production, specifically agriculture, is a crucial component in the expansion of civilizations. As populations grow, the need for more food rises. The gathering of data is the new frontier in advancement for agriculture technology. The more known about the field the better it can be nurtured. Precision agriculture is defined as “the application of technologies and principles to manage spatial and temporal variability associated with all aspects of agricultural production for the purpose of improving crop performance and environmental quality.” [1].
How To: Reduce Memory Consumption in LabVIEW Data Acquisition Applications
Acquiring and/or logging high speed data, using the traditional DAQmx scaling approach, will consume considerable amounts of memory due to its use of the double precision data type. Each sample collected will consume eight bytes of memory whether being stored in memory or on disk. This size is fine when collecting data at lower rates, but if you are collecting data at a rate of 1 MS/s, eight bytes per sample is too much for most systems to handle.
