What is Bill Benner working on?
Hi folks,
A lot of time I get the impression that people wonder what I am working on, or how I spend my day. It might seem like certain things are taking a long time to get finished. Well that's only because there are a lot of things being worked on!
For certain projects, there are a number of people working on them simultaneously, so steady progress is being made. For example, Valery and Alexey are the two main programmers on QuickShow, although I personally spend a lot of time on that project as well. And for certain other projects it's only little teeny tiny old me working on them.
Below is a list of some of the projects I have been working on this year, and a brief status report. Hopefully this will show you not only what we're doing for Pangolin, but also for the laser world at large...
* LASORB -- This was invented last July and it took nearly a year to perfect it. Well now it is finally perfected. We have videos, datasheets, and a solid manufacturing process. We have been shipping to companies and this is going well. And the best part -- I no longer need to be involved with this project. The parts are made entirely in our Central Europe office.
* LD2000 translations -- LD2000 is available in six separate languages. Someone (in this case me) has to manage the process of getting it translated, and then incorporate the translations into the programs. It takes me around 1 week to incorporate the translations into the programs once they are finished, and it takes quite a bit of back and forth to manage the people who do the translations. Well, finally this is done for LD2000 version 5.0 and I am happy to say that the translation for French and Chinese are better than they have ever been before -- on par with the other languages we have.
* LD2000 version 5.0 -- Of course many people have been waiting for this. We have taken extra time since the various trade shows to incorporate some additional features such as pre-loading beam effects. We have also recently done additional work on the network system to basically make it smoother. We believe network use of streaming programs like LivePRO will be better with this version. And we have done continued work for compatibility with VISTA and Windows 7. Because this update is so big, the installer had to be changed -- as did the media. It is now a 2.1GB intallation process on DVD! And last but not least, we have incorporated an ability to display Pangolin Lasers in the 3D Visualization program called Light Converse. This work was major, and Pangolin will be selling Light Converse dongles as well. If not for the fact that Alexey is on vacation this week and I need something from him, we would be shipping LD2000 version 5.0 this week. In any event, we have started sending interim versions to anyone who asks...
* Lasershow Designer QuickShow -- This has been mentioned in previous posts. We believe this will be among the easiest-to-use laser software ever created, and yet still very powerful. Certain things that can be done with QuickShow can't be done with any other laser software on earth, and most of the really impressive things that can be done in QuickShow can be accomplished with just a few mouse clicks. We have already started sending QuickShow to people on PL who have requested it, and so far we have generally received good feedback. This should be "coming soon" although software development always takes longer than we (or anyone else except Andy) anticipates... Nevertheless, with Pangolin starting to distribute BETA copies and the fact that we will be showing it at the upcoming SELEM should mean something.
* Pangolin Show Portal -- I have been working with Bjoern Musing -- one of the folks here on PL, to get this done. He has done a lot of work on it, but it got stalled once our server was hacked. Well, now we have a new server and it should be officially activated next week. Once activated, we will also have new forum software too. Anyway, once the Pangolin show portal is finished people will be able to download almost all of the 120+ shows that we have to offer. People will also be able to upload shows that they wish to share with others as well. We want to keep this 100% free of charge, so -- no shows will be there that you have to pay for. (In the mean time, Soforene has done immense work preparing the shows and show previews for the portal. Thanks Soforene!!!)
* Beam Brush -- some people know that earlier this year we activated -- for the third (and final) time -- a project that allows people to control the beam diameter of the laser in real time, while drawing. We showed pictures and video of this at the past ILDA and Pangolin User Meetings, and will be showing the videos at the up-coming SELEM. This is an amazing device with amazing specifications. But there are challenges in making this manufacturable and at a cost people can afford (under $1000). This work is progressing, but this is one of the projects that I am the only person working on.
* PASS -- many of you know about PASS, our audience safety hardware/software system that allows safe audience scanning, even in territories where audience scanning has been restricted, such as the United States. Well, work is ongoing with PASS insomuch as hardware modifications and refinements. But the results are great as we will no doubt see more and more examples of safe audience scanning, not only in the US but also Europe.
* Other top secret projects -- There are a few other top secret projects that I don't want to discuss in detail here on PL. Just know that -- as revolutionary as Beam Brush is, there will be other things coming as well...
* Running a business which ships more laser software and hardware into the industry than any other -- obviously this takes at least a portion of my time. Fortunately between Justin, Hayden and Paulo, and to some extent Ante in the Central Europe office, they have that under control for the most part.
I'll tell you folks, it aint easy managing all of these tasks and it becomes clear that we could use more help if we want things to go faster!
We'll be having a new intern join us from Germany in September. His specialties are not necessarily technical, but more artistic, packaging, and the like. I believe he will be invaluable in helping us with the packaging for QuickShow and the FB3 (our packaging for LD2000 is already in decent shape). He will also no doubt do web-related work too.
I recently reached out here on PL and some people have responded offering to test our newest software. This will be a little bit of a help as it is usually only me and the developers who are doing the testing.
But we'd love to work with other talented people who have time on their hands and want to do something that will change the world. If there's someone in the Orlando area with machining and manufacturing expertise, we could use your help on Beam Brush and a few other top-secret projects. If there are programmers around the world who want to bring cool software tools to a large user base, I'm sure we can use your help too! And if you have portal-programming expertise, it could be that Bjoern can use some extra help to bang this out.
Anyway, now you know what Bill Benner is working on... Some things take a long time, but then, they are the thing that wind up changing the world. LD2000 changed the world when it was released. LASORB changed the world of laser diode protection. Once it's released Beam Brush and QuickShow will both change the world in their respective ways. (OK, "change the world" might be overdoing it a bit...)
Best regards,
William Benner
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