Logic Games 2010

Posted on August 31, 2010 by Kristina
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Enjoying The Office a few months back (I’m a late adopter when it comes to popular T.V. shows; if it’s not available on Netflix for “Watch Instantly”, forget it), I became inspired. It was the episode where all the employees decide to hold an Olympic-style games when Michael and Dwight are out looking for a condo. I thought, “We have to do that.” So, the Logic Games idea was born with a handful of Logic Supply employees brainstorming creative ways we can recycle materials (this is Vermont, you know) and come up with a few well planned events everyone can get into. And, boy, did everyone really get into it! So much so that we had to squash some ideas for handmade trebuchets and sling-shots (we decided to make it more about brawn than brains for this event).

So, if you looking to throw a company-wide event and are looking for some ideas, here’s what we did (the names aren’t really novel, we spent all our energy designing the rules due to threats of “bending the rules”; good thing we had a former lawyer on the planning committee):

  1. Event #1: Shipping Cart Relay
  2. Event #2: Heat Pipe Toss
  3. Event #3: Coffee Mug Relay
  4. Event #4: GS-L08 Throw
  5. Event #5: Hot Dog Eating Contest

With the exception of the Hot Dog Eating Contest, all the events had equal participation from every employee. And, none of the games required us to purchase gear, save for some spray paint, Tupperware containers, and hot dogs. We created five teams and gave each a color to work with. We split up the departments and requested each team come up with a name, identity, slogan to invoke fear in others, etc. The teams created were as follows:

Yellow: Electro-Static Destroyers – Electrically Charged, Powerfully Potent, Shockingly Swift

Team Electro-Static Destroyers

Orange: Juice – We’ll Turn You Into Pulp!

Team Juice

Green: BRoHS (no slogan, but no need—this team excelled in pulling off some pretty serious bling)

Team BRoHS

Blue: Bluetooth – Don’t Be Blue When We Blue You Away, Oh So Bad!

Team Bluetooth

Red: Rest, Elevate, and Direct Pressure – We can take care of you after we crush you

Team Rest, Elevate, Direct Pressure

The final results:
1st Bluetooth
2nd BRoHS
3rd Rest, Elevate and Direct Pressure

Okay, now onto the details of the events: let’s start with the Shipping Cart Relay.

Shipping Cart Relay

Official Rules: Teams had to navigate a warehouse shipping cart loaded with boxes through a designated course made up of over-turned recycling bins. This was a timed event and points were awarded to the teams that completed the course the quickest. Each team had to load a shipping cart with 20 boxes of varying sizes. One player at a time pushed his/her team’s cart through the course being careful not to lose any boxes (the more boxes you have, the more points you can get).

This was a bit of a challenge. Boxes started flying off the cart immediately. Good strategy: stack em’ well.

Rockin' the primo box stack

Heat Pipe Toss

Official Rules: Each team lined up behind a foul line at a designated station. One player from each team had the chance to toss a heat pipe into four varying sized buckets. There were five stations in total all facing in the same direction and all configured the same.

Player’s feet could not cross over the line before, during, or after each toss. If any part of the player’s foot or major portion of the body crosses the line during a toss, that toss was not counted, and the player was not able to score any points for that toss. The player’s arm could cross the foul line, but not any parts of the person’s foot or feet or body.

There were two large buckets each worth 5 points, 1 medium bucket worth 10 points, and 1 small bucket worth 15 points. The buckets were spaced out so it was more difficult to score a lot of points with one toss.

It looks easier than it actually was

Coffee Mug Relay

At the office, we have a lot of stuff from Ikea, including coffee mugs that hold just enough liquid to make you really angry for more—we went for form over function here when choosing mugs. At the very least, they are pretty.

Official Rules: Each team was provided with coffee mugs filled to the top with colored water. Players had to navigate through the obstacle course, one by one, return to the start line and empty their water into a bigger pitcher. In order to make sure everyone moves faster than a snail’s pace, there was a time limit of three minutes for the event. To judge who won, we used a shipping scale to weigh the water.

Steady hands... (photo courtesy of Miko Hidaka)

GS-L08 Throw

That’s right, we threw a computer.

Official Rules: Each team player had the chance to “throw” a GS-L08. The player with the furthest throw won.

This event had the most restrictions because of the initial threats of building complex mechanisms to hurl the computer across the state of Vermont. Because we didn’t want to take out passing cars or have Homeland Security come after us (they are our neighbors), we limited the throw to bare hands. This didn’t limit the excitement, though; we saw one of the employees do a handspring before throwing the GS-L08!

Winner: Tyler Hughes, Technical Sales Associate

Hot Dog Eating Contest

Each team designated one of their teammates to a horrible fate.

Note: Don’t cook the hot dogs too far in advance. We prepared them before the festivities and then just covered them in tinfoil where they patiently sat for three hours waiting to be devoured. Imagine eating a deflated rubber balloon wrapped in chalk and covered in ketchup. That’s pretty much what the contestants had to stomach. Yum!

Official Rules: Whoever ate the most hot dogs in three (3) minutes won the contest.

Winner: Matt Steinke, Account Manager

Final Observations

All in all, this was a super fun event. And, it won’t be the first and final. The amount of creativity and enthusiasm witnessed during the week leading up to the event and then presented during the Games was really terrific.

Ideas for next year’s event? Or for a Logic Winter Games? Leave us some ideas in the comments section!

Next-Gen Broadcom Hardware Decoder: One Chip, Many Advantages

Posted on August 9, 2010 by Kristina
Filed Under New Products | 9 Comments

Broadcom BCM970015 Hardware Decoder

The Broadcom BCM970015 Hardware Decoder, the newest revision to the BCM970012 PCIe Mini Card, has arrived at our docks and is now available. There are some slight differences worth noting between the latest PCIe Mini Card and it’s older brother.

The BCM970015 is a half-height PCIe Mini Card, but comes with an adapter for mounting in the same fashion as a full-height card. It’s also a one-chip solution with less than 1-watt energy consumption whereas the BCM970012 is two-chips with a TDP of about 2 watts. Not a huge difference, but these things can add up.

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XP Pro for Embedded Systems

Posted on July 9, 2010 by Kristina
Filed Under General | 2 Comments

Finding it difficult to transition from Windows XP Pro? Even Microsoft seemed reluctant to make final the end days of this ever-popular operating system. But now, after the initial End-of-Life (EOL) announcement almost a year and half ago (we were telling our customers to pre-buy licenses back in December 2009!) we are finally seeing inventory of this item dry up for good. But, inline with what we’ve seen with Windows XP Pro since the first EOL scare, it doesn’t exactly go away. It lingers long enough to give people hope.

So, good news! Windows XP Pro is still available, but under the guise of Windows XP Pro for Embedded Systems. It’s identical to Windows XP Pro; the only caveats—there is no media CD (so if your system crashes, it has to be sent back to the system builder for a re-install) and it must be initially installed by a certified Windows Embedded Partner because this version is offered through Microsoft’s Embedded Channel. The most important factor, despite these two minor limitations, is that this version of XP Pro will be available until December 31, 2016.

Because we are a certified Windows Embedded Partner, we can extend this offer to our customers. We won’t be able to sell the licenses separately; they must be installed by us onto a fully assembled system. Not too bad of a deal though, if customers still require Windows XP Pro.

MSI, AOpen, and Jetway Showcase at Computex

Posted on June 11, 2010 by Kristina
Filed Under General | 4 Comments

As mentioned in my previous post, Logic Supply sent a few members from our Product Management and Engineering Teams to Computex. They’ve been feeding me images via the Web and I’ve been then posting them here. The pictures below show Jetway’s, AOpen’s, and MSI’s booths along with some other case and mainboard manufacturers. Although Computex is over, our team has yet to return. They’ve spent the week meeting with manufacturers, vendors, and other business partners—touring facilities and being introduced to the latest technology. It will be exciting to see what they come back with! For now, though, pictures delivered from abroad will have to suffice.

Computex: Day 1!

Posted on June 2, 2010 by Kristina
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A few members of Logic Supply’s Product Management and Engineering Teams made the long, red-eye flight to Taiwan to bask in the wonder of new technology—all conveniently housed in Taipei’s massive multi-day exhibition, Computex. While they get to don pressed shirts, ties, and (hopefully) comfortable dress shoes and trek from booth to booth in search of the latest and greatest, I have the pleasure of downloading their experience, one photo at a time, so I can post them here to share. So, for the next few days, I’ll be adding new photos and deciphering (to the best of my ability!) what we’re all looking at. When our travelers return to the Green Mountains, I’ll be able to add more details to what I have posted here (along with some teasers on what we might be bringing in-house).

Who were the lucky guys to visit Taipei? You’re looking at them. (See image below.) Field Application Engineer, Tomasz Mikolajczyk, and Product Manager, Tony Fiset, are pictured below. CEO, Roland Groeneveld is also attending Computex, but alas, he was holding the camera.

Tony, Tom

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