Review of the year 2021 (Spoiler - less sucky than 2020)

[swatts]

Seasons Greeting Software Gurus,

How did my predictive skill hold-up for 2021 - Preview 2021.?

Public Facing Stuff - I have indeed been quiet this year, did a panel at GLA Summit, did a DutLUG thing on Encrypted SQLite and rambled on at CSLUG. I expect this to continue in 2022. One thing I have been enjoying is various casual meet-ups, a shout-out to Sam Taggart and Malcolm Myers for organising Virtual Coffee and Business of LabVIEW respectively.

Work - We've been VERY busy on Multishot DAQ (MSDAQ), and I expect it to be keeping us busy for 18 months yet.

Here's a graph of how much better this year was compared to our average of the last 10 years (you can also see how bad 2019, 2020 were)

Finance stuff...

Here's some business advice kiddies...keep your overheads low! 

Let's also talk NI, lot's of things have changed this year and we reached a low-point in our relationships with NI. The Champs delivered some VERY honest (severe) feedback on some of the issues we were worried about. 

I am actually quite optimistic about the future, things have improved markedly in the last few months and these are structural, which hopefully will make them more sustainable. Obviously there will be ups and downs, change will not make everyone happy, but I'm actually looking at the organisation and there are much clearer lines of responsibility now.

Some of the trials of the year were helped by the fact I have lovely customers, it really makes a difference!

GDevCon - Fail! COVID is proving a persistent little beggar and CERN was closed to conferences, let's hope 2022 is less.....virulent.

DSH Workshops- All pootling along nicely as predicted, had some nice sessions earlier in the year, but we've all been too busy to push it too hard. I don't think I will be doing training courses by myself from now on, I much prefer the group dynamic where we all bounce off of each other. Fab, Joerg and Brian are much more capable trainers than me it transpires....

Personal Life - Nearly lost my mum to a cardiac arrest a month ago, so that has made me assess some life priorities. Other family stuff has also been weighing heavily on us this year. But...

Mum is OK and other family stuff is nearly sorted, so come on 2022 we're ready for you!!!

I'm going to repeat what I said last year, because I think we deserve it even more now ..

I'm going to stick with the message of the last couple of years...

How about this for a new years resolution for everyone.

Surround yourself with things that make you happy and reduce the things that don't.

Let's do positive things in January, rather than removing perceived excesses. I'd like to see a "self-pampering January" rather than diets and gym memberships. How about a starting 2020 full of art, music, laughter, dogs and treats.

Lots of Love