Me, Martha Stewart, and the Manufacturing Mosh Pit

Dear Friends & Subscribers,

Next weekend, Martha Stewart gets out of jail.

When Martha gets out, I think she's going to be
on all the TV shows and stuff.  Teary-eyed
newscasters will chronicle her trip back to her 
153-acre estate north of Manhattan, where she'll 
be under house arrest for a few more months yet.
She'll begin collecting her $900,000 salary once 
again, and she'll start rehearsing for the new 
TV shows she's going to be in, like her new 
special version of "The Apprentice."

(I'm sure she's getting that show because 
Donald Trump felt sorry for her.  Doncha think?)

Well on that very same weekend, I get out of 
Ottawa, Illinois.

When I escape from my Dilbert Cube next week,
I'm heading straight to Chicago.  I'm gonna hang 
out at  National Manufacturing Week with all my
manufacturing friends.  It's going to be kind of 
like that Garth Brooks song "I've got friends 
in low places."  

We're going to do our own low-rent version 
of  The Apprentice" at my trade show booth.

And what, you may ask, are we going to do 
at MY special B&B version of The Apprentice?

 We're going to have a contest to see who can
sell the most ZigBee nodes and lemonade from 
our live trade show demo.  The winner gets a 
sales job at B&B. (The salary is undisclosed, 
but Don, the president of B&B, tells me that it is 
going to be somewhat less than nine hundred 
thousand a year.)  We take care of our people 
here, but not quite that well.

Now seriously, I do want you to come join me.  
This is March 7-10 at McCormick Place in 
Chicago, booth 4705.

Here's what you're going to discover 
when you come:

- We have brand new RS-232, 422 and 485 to 
***802.11g***  wireless serial servers for 
industrial applications.  Come see how to take 
that serial port -- anytime and anywhere -- and 
connect it to anything else, without 
even running wires

- Live ZigBee-ready MESH networking via 
802.15.4 - battery powered networks for 
small bursts of data, they keep your systems 
reporting for months or years, with no wires 
and no maintenance.

- A new industrial version of our popular 
Vlinx Ethernet serial server, adds extra reliability 
to one of our most popular products

- New industrial Ethernet switches that require
no setup

- I'll be giving a seminar on "Industrial Mesh Sensor
Networking," from my unique point of view of 
developing and selling ZigBee ready solutions from 
multiple vendors. Come shake my hand (make me 
feel important) at 8:30am Wednesday March 9.

Now for those of you who can't come to Chicago, 
I've still got some cool stuff you can check out 
right now, on your computer:

--> Our new RF modem with 40-mile range 
line-of-site and up to 3000 feet in outdoor and 
urban situations.  Great for SCADA, security, 
instrumentation, waste water, oil and gas:
http://www.bb-elec.com/product.asp?sku=XT09-PKI-RA&src=e030305
   
--> Our new 802.11b to Serial converters, they 
give you serial to Ethernet but without that Ethernet 
cable. Very handy for legacy installations where 
running new conduit is a no-no:
http://www.bb-elec.com/product_family.asp?FamilyId=99&src=e030305

My probation officer is more lenient than Martha's.
According to the newspaper, Martha Stewart is 
free to entertain colleagues, neighbors, friends 
and relatives, just as long as they are not criminals.  
According to the newspaper, convicted felons are 
not allowed to consort with convicted felons.

However, since I am only a Dilbert Cube escapee
and not a convicted felon, I can talk to you even
if you are a convicted felon.  Not that I want you
to steal any of my ZigBee demos, but I think most 
of our customers are awfully nice people and 
I don't think any of you would do that anyway.  
Especially considering you're going to be on your 
best behavior for that lavish sales job.

I look forward to shaking your hand in Chicago!

Mike Fahrion
mailto:support@bb-elec.com 

P.S.:  If you wanna buy me a beer at the show, 
my favorite is Heineken.