Thread: National Meet in Ruston (Summer 2006)

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It might be interesting if there were awards with vendor involvement, sponsorships or hardware / software prizes.

Maybe some “seminars” from software developers on topics concerning coding for CarPCs. (using everyday hardware making code streamlined for car use, os optimization, programs as shells, ect)


Also maybe consider scheduling it for a holiday weekend as that will mean we will have to request less time off from work to drive there and back 

EDIT: of course this would all be dependent on how big it is going to be.

Its unlikely I will make it from Brazil, but who knows maybe someone will sponsor me? come one its only $5000 for a firstclass ticket hehehehe

Anyways some ideas for a nat'l meat:
- usual best install, cleanest, ghettoest, ba bla award
- New carpc technology? Can you get mfgrs to provide samples?
- sponsors to give out crap, likemp3carstore can give you some stuff, epia can give you 10 mobos, and so forth to be given out to lucky winners of some sort of game or contest or whatever...

also you can make a sort of raffle of sorts... like $50 entrance fee to the meet, and then random winners will get

10mobos
10psu's
etc (I wont state models cause in 6 months a lot of stuff is sure to come! )

I was thinking along the same lines as alti; some workshops/seminars would be awesome, as noobs like me have a lot of learning left to do, and with so many like-minded carputer nerds around it would be the perfect place to do such a thing. I also like the idea of a raffle, although $50 seems a little steep...(maybe $25?)
Also.... If I still work for Holiday Inn (which is totally up in the air at this point, I'd love a better job) I could possibly get a deal on a block of rooms, but that would require some advanced planning, so let me know once we get closer and have concrete plans. I checked and there is one on Roberta Ave, off I-20... is that pretty close?

Workshops are a no-brainer--of course we need them. The bad thing about coming up with workshops this far in advance is what's hot right now will be old news in a year.

Member presentations/workshops I absolutely want to see:

OBDII
Something on Phidgets!
Valentine One Integration
An unbiased review of the major font-ends, or developers' presentations on each one
Skinning classes(?)
Some hardware vendor "sales pitches," which will also offset some costs maybe.
I personally want to give a "how to choose the right hardware for you" presentation

This is a big huge deal with lots of planning and stuff to be done. If you really want to see how much work we need, remember that so far we have only decided to have it in Ruston--little other planning has been done. After I go there in August, we'll have a much better idea of what's left to do and what kind of facilities we'll have.

1. There should be a display floor. Vendors and members who want to display their cars to enter in competition for best, most ghetto, whatever. To avoid arguments over judging standards, each attendee gets a ballot and votes.

2. Should be open to the public, nominal fee to help offset the cost of the venue.

3. "Build a Car PC in a weekend!" Right on the display floor, have several of the members install a PC in somebody's car (maybe Frodo?) using donated equipment if possible.

4. Designate someone/s to document and write a blog/video blog about what is going on at the various seminars and displays so that others who can't attend get a flavor for what is going on.

5. Seminar topics: Need to think about this a bit more. Most likely, people attending this event would be veteran members. Some newbies from around the nearby area, but only veteran's would be crazy enough to
drive in from around the country and attend, so while there might be one presentation on what to plan on for your install, most of the topics ought to be of the more advanced variety. Maybe something on "programming a basic stamp circuit" or "getting your feet wet with PICs".

I'd also like to see some presentations on mobile interfaces. I get paralyzed by the different mobile phone standards and models, but I really want to jump in and do live tracking and connectivity to the internet. Maybe something on "mobile connectivity - how to" or "bluetooth phones and your PC" or something like that.

How about some specialty presentations like "How to do a Car PC on Linux, or Mac OSX".

Originally Posted by Bugbyte

1. There should be a display floor. Vendors and members who want to display their cars to enter in competition for best, most ghetto, whatever. To avoid arguments over judging standards, each attendee gets a ballot and votes.

2. Should be open to the public, nominal fee to help offset the cost of the venue.

3. "Build a Car PC in a weekend!" Right on the display floor, have several of the members install a PC in somebody's car (maybe Frodo?) using donated equipment if possible.

4. Designate someone/s to document and write a blog/video blog about what is going on at the various seminars and displays so that others who can't attend get a flavor for what is going on.

5. Seminar topics: Need to think about this a bit more. Most likely, people attending this event would be veteran members. Some newbies from around the nearby area, but only veteran's would be crazy enough to
drive in from around the country and attend, so while there might be one presentation on what to plan on for your install, most of the topics ought to be of the more advanced variety. Maybe something on "programming a basic stamp circuit" or "getting your feet wet with PICs".

I'd also like to see some presentations on mobile interfaces. I get paralyzed by the different mobile phone standards and models, but I really want to jump in and do live tracking and connectivity to the internet. Maybe something on "mobile connectivity - how to" or "bluetooth phones and your PC" or something like that.

How about some specialty presentations like "How to do a Car PC on Linux, or Mac OSX".

Yea.

1. I think thats a great idea, maybe have a like $50-100 fee to show your car off in the floor??

2. yes.

3. Maybe even make it a competion make a few teams and they are timed who ever gets done the fastest and the best working/ install wins a (something good here).


4. I will be filming it definatly but we should get as many cameras rolling as we can, If im still working at Toms Hardware then i could probably get a article about this on the site...

5. yea that would be good.
To tell who is a newbie vs vet maybe we should set up a registration site that then you register you say if your new to this or not and then we can see the stats for that and figure what to have for that...

We also should have some "PC on a buget" or "using old parts" seminar to let the n00bs and people that don't know about this great "hobby" ( I know is more than that) that they don't need 1000s of dollars to put a CarPc together.

Following the line of seminars we can also show the diferent kind of hardware (besides the cars in the floor) like in a display both.

I really love the idea to make some kind of competition to see who can make a CarPc faster and cleanest.

I also be filming and if I still having my contacts in production I will get some gear (like tripods,cameras and such)

Originally Posted by 0l33l

He said nothing about silly comments

No, I didn't But, since this thread is going so great, I'm
going to periodically delete them to keep it clean. First
edit in 3, 2, 1 ....