Sky, Presents, and Resolutions

Whoa, it feels like I was gone a long time.  Actually I’ve been back at work a while, but I returned to find pieces of sky all over my desk.  Fortunately, the sky has now stopped falling and I can blog.  Of course, it’s already Sunday evening before the opportunity to blog presents itself.

Those pieces of sky included PROFInews North American Edition issue 12 coming out on January 17.  Thankfully, my involvement with that issue is near an end.  One of the articles covers the Changi water application as presented by PTO member, ProSoft Technologies.  If you have not already subscribed to the newsletter, subscribe here.  You’ll be able to keep up-to-date with PROFIBUS and PROFINET news, read case studies, and see new product announcements.

Another piece of sky I’ve dealt with since my return is the questions from several readers about the status of PROFIBUS and PROFINET in the Chinese standards process.  I’ve blogged about this before, but it’s still hard to understand.  The tough part is comparing where the PROFI technologies stand and where the ODVA technologies stand.  Control Engineering has a good command of the subject as you can read here.  One thing that I have found helps comparison is this little table:

Standards must begin at the lowest level (industry) and progress from there to a national standard.

The little pieces of sky on my desk did not qualify as “presents.”  Fortunately, Santa was good to me this Christmas including a red Ferrari.  The geeky part of me was happy to receive a set of all the episodes of ST:TAS.  I was not so happy to get the tee shirt that proclaims me as a “Struggling Hair Farmer.”  (It’s appropriate – it just doesn’t make me happy.)  Incidentally the Ferrari is very economical to operate – two AA batteries.

I try not to make resolutions because they are so hard to keep.  But this year I resolve to quit bragging about the very pleasant winter temperatures here in Arizona.  It was cold today; barely reached 70; I had to wear a sweatshirt.  See what I mean about resolutions being hard to keep.