So I've been using National Instruments hardware now for 15 years and programming in LabVIEW for 10.  First, that makes me feel .  Second, why is it that this is the first year I have gone to NI week?  I don't know.  But I finally understand why everyone else makes such a big deal about attending.

It is a great time.  You get to network with a bunch of great people. And you can quickly get up to speed on new hardware, software features, and the overall future direction of NI.

With that, here is a short list of what I consider to be my highlights from :

• NI announcing and providing a demo of the .  With this tool, you can create web browser-based interfaces to your LabVIEW real-time hardware.  It is basically a skin for .  The tool creates a 'thin client' application which will run in most common web browsers.  The browser-based application pulls data from a web service running on your real-time target, and presto... live data displayed in a custom UI you designed using your LabVIEW skills... without the need for remote panels.

• NI also had several new hardware modules of interest to Test Automation folks on display.  The NI PXIe-4154, is a new .  While optimized for mobile device testing, I hope it is a stepping-stone toward something capable of simulating a large battery stack.  NI also announced a new line of high-density matrix relay modules for the PXI platform.  Look for them on NI.com soon.

• FPGA programming will soon get a bit faster, since the next implementation of LabVIEW will let your FPGA code compile on , or better yet on someone else's up on the cloud.  To top it all off, after a recompile to add FPGA features, the FPGA reference in your realtime code will no longer automatically break your calling VI.

• Getting up close with the new PXI based RF instruments.  Conventional wisdom just a few years ago was that RF signal generators and would never appear in a PXI form factor.  But there they were, running at 6.6 GHz.

• The biggest one for me was listening to ponder the next big leap for Graphical Design... while most everyone else dozed off, I was captured by one one question... how is timing information captured on a LabVIEW block diagram?  As we move toward distributed real-time systems, it is a bit troubling to realize that valuable timing information and synchronization of tasks between elements is nowhere to be found on a VIs block diagram.  Something tells me it soon will be.