Jeff,
Thank you for organizing this, all your work and for answering my border questions on another post.
I will be flying into SFO from YOW and will see everyone and their projects in Rocklin.
/michael
Good to see this much chatter on folks attending this venture.
I plan to fly from Edmonton AB to SF, and rent a car there to drive to Rocklin. As I recall the last time I made the trip to Rocklin, I flew to SF, and then hopped a very short flight (15 mins?) to Sacramento, and it was iffy flying back out as there were fog issues, so I was concerned about connections. And then the drive from Rocklin airport (cheerily provided by Parallax) was quite a distance.... probably a very expensive cab ride, so a car is probably in order anyway.
It might be good to share a car from SF to Rocklin. Anyone know if that drive is a good or poor plan? Or how long a drive that is?
I plan to travel in on Friday, and out on Monday. Times are yet to be determined.
I know the SFO to Rocklin drive very well, as we often take it when we go to Hong Kong and China. It's about 2.5 hours in light traffic. If you could avoid it, I'd not do that drive on a Friday evening because people flee the SF Bay Area to go home to suburbia or to Lake Tahoe. This turns a 2.5 hour drive to Sacramento into 3 hours or maybe even 4. It's okay if you arrive early Friday afternoon, but rush hour will make you wish you flew to Sacramento. The Monday morning drive from Rocklin to SFO is also a disaster. Chip and I once missed a flight to Amsterdam because we thought we could do the drive from Rocklin to SFO in 3.5 hours. There's nothing like buying an international ticket on the spot in a terminal ($$$$$). We both still feel guilty about that mistake. We weren't spending our customer's money the right way on that afternoon.
Here's another thought, though. Fly to Reno. Reno is a shorter distance to Rocklin than San Francisco, and there's NO traffic. It's a small airport but a very snappy place - car rental is in front of the airport for example.
Again, if somebody needs to be picked up or dropped off at SMF (Sacramento Airport) we can do that without a problem. Once you're in Rocklin, you can walk to and from Parallax to a hotel. The rental car provides freedom to go to places like Fry's Electronics, and to get away from the many chain restaurants that plague Rocklin's every corner, too.
Rocklin is California sprawl, just so everybody understands. The name sounds like a majestic place with mountain air in the California foothills. It's a nice place but the downtown is not too active yet there's plenty of shopping at nearby malls.
Ken Gracey
Parallax, Inc.
Post Edited (Ken Gracey (Parallax)) : 4/30/2009 5:28:42 PM GMT
I drove out of SF once a week for 5 years. That was a while ago and the traffic was bad then. You're looking at about 115 miles to Rocklin, in Friday evening traffic for the first 40 miles or so. I don't know how long that would take these days but I would expect four to six hours.
Rich H
Edit: Ken posted while I was writing this. Three to four hours on a Friday is pretty good. Not as bad as I would have thought. Normally I would be leaving on Tuesdays but the times I had to leave on a Friday was just miserable. Maybe traffic is better now...
Ken Gracey (Parallax) said...
Rocklin is California sprawl, just so everybody understands. The name sounds like a majestic place with mountain air in the California foothills.
If anyone has an extra day or so before or after the expo and wants to see the real foothills, they should take the hour drive up to Nevada City/Grass Valley. It's beautiful up here and there are some great restaurants. But Rocklin has better shopping.
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Wow over 80 people that is a lot. I am still trying to come but life seems to keep throwing me more bills.
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Need to make your prop design easier or secure? Get a PropMod has crystal, eeprom, and programing header in a 40 pin dip 0.7" pitch module with uSD reader, and RTC options.
80+ Nice,
I've always wanted to go to Cali, I talked my wife into it, I know she'll have a good time.
I'm really excited to see Parallax.
OBC Just as a reference, how many were at UPNE?
Rayman said...
How much do you think a taxi is from Sacramento airport to the Rocklin hotel?
(I'm trying to decide if I should get a rental car.)
Yellow Cab of Roseville (the town next to Rocklin) has a fare calculator on their site, but it's down at the moment. They also have airport shuttle service. (This message isn't an endorsement of any kind--I've never used them.)
Is Staybridge Suites (official hotel of unofficial expo) actually within walking distance?· Is this the kind of place that I can get a taxi at 4AM on Monday morning?
Ken Gracey (Parallax) said...
Again, if somebody needs to be picked up or dropped off at SMF (Sacramento Airport) we can do that without a problem. Once you're in Rocklin, you can walk to and from Parallax to a hotel. The rental car provides freedom to go to places like Fry's Electronics, and to get away from the many chain restaurants that plague Rocklin's every corner, too.
Will there be a 'swap meet' element to UPEW? Should I plan on bringing interesting things (electronics/robotics related of course) that deserve new homes?
We plan on putting our excess stuff on a table. This includes some broken boards, obsolete components and PCBs, switches, LEDs, resistors, diodes, capacitors, etc. for a free-for-all scramble. I'd imagine there's at least 50-100 lbs of parts. No swap: just help yourself and make sure it only goes OUT the Parallax door and never back in.
As for swap, it's a great idea. You can request a table from OBC.
At the moment I've really only requested real names.
(An oversight I'll be correcting next year.) So
I'm going to leave room for folks to print their forum names
if they so-choose.
Also, I've discovered that Google has done a pretty good
job of indexing most of our icons in their image search.
(Search for "Oldbitcollector" and jump to page 12, seems
they indexed every thread I've ever replied to under my
name and I'm pretty gabby so most of them are there.)
So I'm likely going to print them in pages and provide a
sharp knife to cut and stick on.
Comments
Thank you for organizing this, all your work and for answering my border questions on another post.
I will be flying into SFO from YOW and will see everyone and their projects in Rocklin.
/michael
Good to see this much chatter on folks attending this venture.
I plan to fly from Edmonton AB to SF, and rent a car there to drive to Rocklin. As I recall the last time I made the trip to Rocklin, I flew to SF, and then hopped a very short flight (15 mins?) to Sacramento, and it was iffy flying back out as there were fog issues, so I was concerned about connections. And then the drive from Rocklin airport (cheerily provided by Parallax) was quite a distance.... probably a very expensive cab ride, so a car is probably in order anyway.
It might be good to share a car from SF to Rocklin. Anyone know if that drive is a good or poor plan? Or how long a drive that is?
I plan to travel in on Friday, and out on Monday. Times are yet to be determined.
Cheers,
Peter (pjv)
I know the SFO to Rocklin drive very well, as we often take it when we go to Hong Kong and China. It's about 2.5 hours in light traffic. If you could avoid it, I'd not do that drive on a Friday evening because people flee the SF Bay Area to go home to suburbia or to Lake Tahoe. This turns a 2.5 hour drive to Sacramento into 3 hours or maybe even 4. It's okay if you arrive early Friday afternoon, but rush hour will make you wish you flew to Sacramento. The Monday morning drive from Rocklin to SFO is also a disaster. Chip and I once missed a flight to Amsterdam because we thought we could do the drive from Rocklin to SFO in 3.5 hours. There's nothing like buying an international ticket on the spot in a terminal ($$$$$). We both still feel guilty about that mistake. We weren't spending our customer's money the right way on that afternoon.
Here's another thought, though. Fly to Reno. Reno is a shorter distance to Rocklin than San Francisco, and there's NO traffic. It's a small airport but a very snappy place - car rental is in front of the airport for example.
Again, if somebody needs to be picked up or dropped off at SMF (Sacramento Airport) we can do that without a problem. Once you're in Rocklin, you can walk to and from Parallax to a hotel. The rental car provides freedom to go to places like Fry's Electronics, and to get away from the many chain restaurants that plague Rocklin's every corner, too.
Rocklin is California sprawl, just so everybody understands. The name sounds like a majestic place with mountain air in the California foothills. It's a nice place but the downtown is not too active yet there's plenty of shopping at nearby malls.
Ken Gracey
Parallax, Inc.
Post Edited (Ken Gracey (Parallax)) : 4/30/2009 5:28:42 PM GMT
Rich H
Edit: Ken posted while I was writing this. Three to four hours on a Friday is pretty good. Not as bad as I would have thought. Normally I would be leaving on Tuesdays but the times I had to leave on a Friday was just miserable. Maybe traffic is better now...
Post Edited (W9GFO) : 4/30/2009 4:01:35 AM GMT
If anyone has an extra day or so before or after the expo and wants to see the real foothills, they should take the hour drive up to Nevada City/Grass Valley. It's beautiful up here and there are some great restaurants. But Rocklin has better shopping.
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
OS-X: because making Unix user-friendly was easier than debugging Windows
links:
My band's website
Our album on the iTunes Music Store
OBC
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New to the Propeller?
Visit the: The Propeller Pages @ Warranty Void.
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
Need to make your prop design easier or secure? Get a PropMod has crystal, eeprom, and programing header in a 40 pin dip 0.7" pitch module with uSD reader, and RTC options.
I've always wanted to go to Cali, I talked my wife into it, I know she'll have a good time.
I'm really excited to see Parallax.
OBC Just as a reference, how many were at UPNE?
(I'm trying to decide if I should get a rental car.)
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My Prop Info&Apps: ·http://www.rayslogic.com/propeller/propeller.htm
Numbers now nearing 100 people!
OBC
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New to the Propeller?
Visit the: The Propeller Pages @ Warranty Void.
Yellow Cab of Roseville (the town next to Rocklin) has a fare calculator on their site, but it's down at the moment. They also have airport shuttle service. (This message isn't an endorsement of any kind--I've never used them.)
goptg.com/
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
OS-X: because making Unix user-friendly was easier than debugging Windows
links:
My band's website
Our album on the iTunes Music Store
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
My Prop Info&Apps: ·http://www.rayslogic.com/propeller/propeller.htm
Rich H
Rich H
We plan on putting our excess stuff on a table. This includes some broken boards, obsolete components and PCBs, switches, LEDs, resistors, diodes, capacitors, etc. for a free-for-all scramble. I'd imagine there's at least 50-100 lbs of parts. No swap: just help yourself and make sure it only goes OUT the Parallax door and never back in.
As for swap, it's a great idea. You can request a table from OBC.
Ken Gracey
Can you have a map up with push pins, and when people sign in they can place a pin where they came from?
Rick
Hey, that's a good idea, maybe add that info to the nametags as well ?
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Brian
uController.com - home of SpinStudio - the modular Development system for the Propeller
PropNIC - Add ethernet ability to your Propeller! PropJoy - Plug in a joystick and play some games!
SD card Adapter - mass storage for the masses Audio/Video adapter add composite video and sound to your Proto Board
One of the problems we had at UPENE was the printing of nametags at
the door. I'm working on a way to avoid that bottleneck if I can.
One of the exciting parts is that the ID will be recyclable.
(All I will say is that you will want to keep it in your shop.)
The map isn't a bad idea..
OBC
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New to the Propeller?
Visit the: The Propeller Pages @ Warranty Void.
how about making the California tags and the Ohio tags fit together, so attendees of both shows get both halves of a puzzle.
Dreaming here...I know we throw out all these crazy ideas, and you're the one that has to do all the work.
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Brian
uController.com - home of SpinStudio - the modular Development system for the Propeller
PropNIC - Add ethernet ability to your Propeller! PropJoy - Plug in a joystick and play some games!
SD card Adapter - mass storage for the masses Audio/Video adapter add composite video and sound to your Proto Board
I for one plan to take a side trip.
Listen to the MAKE podcast Friday as Ken and I will be sharing the event!
Bet we reach 150. Wow. [noparse]:)[/noparse]
OBC
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
New to the Propeller?
Visit the: The Propeller Pages @ Warranty Void.
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
My Prop Info&Apps: ·http://www.rayslogic.com/propeller/propeller.htm
At the moment I've really only requested real names.
(An oversight I'll be correcting next year.) So
I'm going to leave room for folks to print their forum names
if they so-choose.
Also, I've discovered that Google has done a pretty good
job of indexing most of our icons in their image search.
(Search for "Oldbitcollector" and jump to page 12, seems
they indexed every thread I've ever replied to under my
name and I'm pretty gabby so most of them are there.)
So I'm likely going to print them in pages and provide a
sharp knife to cut and stick on.
OBC
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
New to the Propeller?
Visit the: The Propeller Pages @ Warranty Void.
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
My Prop Info&Apps: ·http://www.rayslogic.com/propeller/propeller.htm
I like that museum (a former / partially recovered train 'buff' speaking...). It's well laid out, and it has a nice outdoor area.
(The other Unoffiicial Propeller Expo.)
www.warrantyvoid.us/upene
OBC
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New to the Propeller?
Visit the: The Propeller Pages @ Warranty Void.
UPENE = UP' nee
UPEW = UP' uuu.. [noparse]:)[/noparse]
We really based the UPEW name on the UPENE one.
Heh..
OBC
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New to the Propeller?
Visit the: The Propeller Pages @ Warranty Void.