Gary discusses the Make2Pack committee meeting, Rockwell/Dassault collaboration for digital factory, programming and time to market for OEMs.

Gary discusses the OMAC Symposium, standards, Honeywell's equipment health monitor, NI's move to OEM volume products, The Long Tail and why you should blog.

Gary interviews Jeff Becker of Honeywell Process Solutions about wireless technologies for industrial use including wireless sensor networks, WiFi, wireless for control and an update on the ISA SP100 committee.

Gary interviews Dave Bauman, Technical Director of OMAC. Dave reviews the OMAC presence at Pack Expo and explains what is happening with the organization's first annual Symposium to be held in the Seattle area Nov. 28-29. A tour of the Boeing 787 assembly facility is included in the conference. Discussion will center on integrating standards across process and discrete industries. Sign up at www.omac.org.

It's all about Ethernet. Gary talks with Paul Wacker, product manager for industrial communications at Advantech Corp. Topics include managed versus unmanaged switches, when to use IGMP snooping with EtherNet/IP and other protocols, the value of virtual LANs and some tips on network security.

Gary discusses Wonderware's latest product announcements plus product announcements and strategies gleaned from the Emerson Global Users Exchange in Dallas. He also reports on a new online store for automation components.

Gary excerpts his marketing communications keynote at PTO, updates the State Model challenge from end users discussing an interview with Rockwell and NI's new state chart module, reviews technology advances revealed at NI Week, and touches on travel to SEW Eurodrive and Ohio Northern University's robot lab.

Gary interviews Dave Bauman, Technical Director of OMAC. They discuss OMAC technologies such as PackML and PackTags plus OMAC's plans for demonstrations of technology during Pack Expo in Las Vegas October 16-18.

Gary updates Emerson's wireless information, addresses response to his challenge to automation suppliers about machine programming
and takes a look at brain drain.

Gary talks strategies in the wireless market and in the ever more competitive process automation market. He issues another challenge to machine control tech suppliers to make their programming environments more user friendly after Rockwell Automation accepted his last challenge to discuss their approach.