Ho,

if there would a trophy for the first being back exist, I would have catched it, too. But being the first time to this meet and catch a trophy, wow, that ist a good start.
Thank you all guys for this wonderful day. I talked with many Empeggers and all are very nice.
So for you folks who had to stay at home: Yes, very sad, you missed something!

I am happy, but really tired, it's 3 a.m. here and now I go to bed. But I will sleep with a bright smile...

Rolf

Greetings!

You won the worst install! Cool! Do you have some photos on the web - this I have to see.

What a great meet! I really am glad I decided to attend, I'm sure steve agrees as well. I've got my Rio Receiver working and also put my translucent buttons in. I think steve has already got V3 on his player!

Thanks a lot Rob, you did a cracking job and bent over backwards to help Steve and myself get there and back. We'll definately be back next year. This time with a car (hopefully take back some trophys! )...

V3??? Details!!! And attachments!!!

Ooops! Forget I said anything.......

Damn you!!

They need to change that copyright notice...

Copyright? You sound bitter Paul

Mind you, I'm willng to bet you can use the focus on a camera better than others!

No. You misunderstand. I was commenting about SonicBlue and the 2002 date. I am not bitter about it.

I am still hoping that it will appear in the beta section of the empeg.com "Latest Software" section eventually.

Given the photo (and someone does need a bit of focus or a capture of the file directly), it is still in alpha right now. Beta I am willing to deal with. Alpha is a little too cutting edge for me. The thought of uploading 140GB of data chills me somehow.

I know you're not bitter, hence the smiley !

Ooops. Sorry. I missed that one!

Yes, I'm happy to pass on the alpha version too!

What's the point of naming an empeg "lab rat" if you aren't willing to run alpha software on it? That would seem to be the whole point...

Matthew

I'd totally run alpha software, just to see what the new stuff looks like.

LabRat is specifically for my own experiments, typically trying out new hardware and drives. At the moment, that machine is my cloning master - my normal unit for this (hermit) is substituting for my car/office machine (traveller) that is on loan as a demonstration unit.

If I start doing anything that might involve data corruption, I would propagate that to the other players. Not that I wouldn't want to try it out, as long as I didn't risk blowing away all of my music copies in the process. I am currently building a fourth unit specifically for loan / demo purposes (unnamed as yet), but that is currently undergoing some hardware enhancements to bring it up to spec.

Kind of moot, though - the software is not up on the empeg site.

Hi folks,

Further to Andy's post, I'd like to thank Rob and the team for such an excellent meet.

I have fired up my freshly unpacked empeg and it works a treat. I do believe that I'm the luckiest man alive. There are now no excuses for me to lurk around in the sidelines.

Cheers,
Steve

As seen on the web-cam...

As seen on the web-cam...

Nice So when do those of us who didn't make it to the meet get a chance to play?

Steve, are you the one with the 3.0 alpha 3 that they were talking about earlier?

So, you got a new empeg at the meet? Is this your first? If so, welcome! Yes, you are the luckiest man alive, along with all the other empeg owners (unless they are female, who rank as being the luckiest women alive).

Yes, I'm happy to pass on the alpha version too!

So pass it on, I want a copy

If I understood rightly, when the first beta is out :-)

Bah.

Hi,

I wanna also say thanks to everybody to be there and share some great time together.....

Special thanks to Rob for all organisation stuff and giving me the red fascia...

Special thanks also to everyone giving me the votes to get the second price for the best professional installation.

I was never thinking about that, to get a trophy on my first empeg meeting.

Yes, definately a great thank you to all that showed up this year!

Also a very big thank you to Rob and Merrigan for putting up with us (hopefully your neighbours won't be too mad for too long...), and an extra one to Merrigan for providing the delicious Saturday lunch buffet and the accessories to the BBQ.

As the two years in a row Best Self Install winner I just didn't know what to say at the time, but: it means a lot to me that people liked it enough to vote for it. There were a lot of good installs to choose between, I know I had a hard time to cast my vote... (and no, I didn't vote for myself ) Thank you!

I'd also like to say a special thanks to Patrick (aka God) who, as always, gave a great presentation ("...so I had to develop this" [digging into a bag for another little electronic gizmo] ). For you that weren't there: a system for stereoscopic remote viewing, ultimately intended to go into a RC plane, giving you the "in-cockpit view" of the world, with superimposed display of aircraft attitude and some instrument readings.
The technology demonstrator (RC monster truck) was impressive - and fun!

/Michael

I'm still touring Europe, but Thomas has kindly helped me to put up this unofficial group photo from Saturday!

Ditto on the thanks! Rob and the gang did a great job. If you missed it this year, start planning now for next year. Rob S. deserves many, many thanks and the earned title of "Cat Herder" for keeping folks moving in the right direction all weekend. Thanks Rob. We are not worthy!

Rob S. (far left) and Hugo & RobV doing their thing.

Some of the Prizes, which included the Worst Install trophy (front centre), an Empeg Mk2, a PCATS tuner, a Dell-branded RioReceiver, a rob-sled, and a dock, among mountains of other goodies not shown in the pic.

Higher resolution copies of these (and lots of other) photos will eventuallz (curses to German kezboards!) appear on my webserver, once I return to Canada in a week and a bit..

Cheers all!

Thanks to everyone for being so welcoming to an old fart who had little knowledge of the subject but enjoyed the chat and the beer.

great weekend!

somebody had fun with Hugo´s car

obviously!!!

Hi Fox,

Out of the box the empeg still had v1, as it would have shipped. I have upgraded to v2 for the moment whilst I upload music from my main PC. Will then try 3alpha with Emp 3alpha once I can coax my dev laptop into life for long enough to load the software. Yes, the empeg is my first. I'd always looked on from afar, being interested in the whole portable digital music scene. If you want to see my ugly mug I am the one on the top staircase in Mark's photo, carrying the empeg box.

Cheers,
Steve

SteveH: you lucky git! But who better to win the Empeg raffle than the only one who did not already have one!

Cheers! (and get Hijack installed, will ya!)

I do believe that I'm the luckiest man alive.

For those who missed the meet, Steve won the carplayer in the raffle. (One of many generously donated prizes, including a dock from Mark, a tuner kit from Patrick, and a black sled from Rob R.)

This was terrifically appropriate, as Steve was one of very few in the room who didn't (yet) own an empeg (or a few spares for that matter.)

John

Edit: I guess that shows how slowly I type!

I'm usually absolutely horrible with names, but for posterity's sake, I'm going to try my hand at starting a list with the names of the people I can make out in the picture (and their handles if it's not obvious).

Feel free to help fill in the question marks!


Forth row: Julf, Andy (marria01), ?, Chris (christian), Steve (SteveH), Mike (mtempsch), ?, ?.

Third row: Tony and Rachel and Jenny, ?, Erin and Alvin (Mach), ? and Melkon (crazymelki), John (johnmcd3), Pim.

Second row: Thomas (speedy67), Rob V., Rolf (rowitch), Roger, ?, ? and ?, Sven, Hugo and Clare, Jim (jimhogan), ? and ?, ?, Tim (303), Rob R. (robricc), Godfrey (boxer).

First row: ?, The Lord and God Almighty... I mean Mark and Patrick, Derek, Paul (thinforth2) and his father George (The_old_one), ?, John G., Henrick (h_blake).

Lying: Rob Schofield (who else! ).


John

P.S. Profound apologies in advance for any misspellings or other inaccuracies.

Great to see you there, George!

I'd also like to say a special thanks to Patrick (aka God) who, as always, gave a great presentation ("...so I had to develop this" [digging into a bag for another little electronic gizmo] ). For you that weren't there: a system for stereoscopic remote viewing, ultimately intended to go into a RC plane, giving you the "in-cockpit view" of the world, with superimposed display of aircraft attitude and some instrument readings.

This toy of Patrick's was very, very cool.

To elaborate... the RC car used as a test bed for the plane had two gimble-mounted, independent-feed cameras to achieve realistic (and I mean unbelievably realistic) depth perception. When you "looked around" the cameras would look about-- not unlike the eyes of a small dog.

Due to various inadequacies of commercially available parts, the majority of the hardware was custom designed. So cool.

Apparently Patrick drives it around his neighborhood from the bedroom.

John

Fourth Row:

Julf, Andy (marria01), (I think) Herbet-Jan, Cris (Cristian), Steve Hoare (SteveH), Mike (mtempsch), Berko Mulder, Hendrik Gelijk.

Third Row:

Tony, Rachel and Jenny Fabris, Eize Slange, Erin and Alvin (Mach), Michal Kolodziejczyk and his very pretty girlfriend (whose name I only heard once), and Melkon (crazymelki -standing behind Pim), John (johnmcd3), Pim Zandbergen

Second row:

Thomas (speedy67), Rob V., Rolf (rowitch), Roger, Peter Rheingans, Erlend(Archeon) and Stephanie, Sven ("The Terminator", complete with Cyborg leg), Hugo ("The Almighty") and Clare ("Look, Hugo, a SPACESHIP!"), Jim (jimhogan - skulking in the background), Edwin and Martine, Daniel, Tim (303 - Nina is missing!), Rob R. (robricc), David Clesse (dclesse) and Eddy Collart, Godfrey (boxer).

First row:

Christine ("The Last Mango in Paris"), The Lord and God ....I mean Mark and Patrick, Derek, Paul (thinforth2) and his father George (The_old_one), David Dixon, John G., Henrick (h_blake).

Lying down on the job:

Me (the baldy git - Don't put it in the dishwasher)

Thanks a lot for a great weekend Rob!

We'll be back next year for sure!

Oh yeah, Stephanie wanted me to ask you for the recipe of Merrigan's delicious lemon pie!

Yup, I need to post it to Gaby as well, so maybe it's an idea to put it here....

I just wanted to post my thanks to the two Robs and everyone else that hepled put on the meet. I will certainly be back next year!

So... I'm looking at that group photo, and there's something missing...

and it takes me a bit... can't quite put my finger on it...

...wait...

HOW MANY TIMES HAVE YOU GUYS BEEN TOLD... NEVER LEAVE YOUR EMPEG IN THE CAR!

*sheesh*

Rob,

I was on the fifth row.... No, I missed this group photo session, because of missunderstanding the photo shooting time....

Yup, I need to post it to Gaby as well, so maybe it's an idea to put it here....

Yeah, great idea Rob. That way you can give those that missed the meet even more reason to attend next year!

NEVER LEAVE YOUR EMPEG IN THE CAR!

Our cars were actually right in front of us (behind the carmera), so we could keep a good eye on them! We're not stupid you know!
(actually all the empegs were already back in the hotel rooms by then)

I suppose I'll have to play with photoshop (or gimp) and add "missing melkon" to the mix when I get home next week!

I would like to take the opportunity to publicly thank Rob, (and of course Rob) for the huge amount of work that went into setting up the event. His long-suffering wife was a marvel, and even the neighbours deserve an honourable mention for making remarkable little fuss, considering the number of loud bangs and flame-trailing bits of paper that went into the trees.

The whole event was fantastic fun, even though the weather wasn't quite up to scratch, at least compared to last year At least it didn't rain! I was most pleased to meet old friends from last year, as well as new ones who made the effort (in some cases very significant) to come this year. Finally meeting Tony and Mark in person was a special treat, and Tony even brought me some special treats!

The only complaint I have is that I missed the cheesecake

pca

Just to add to Patricks comments...

Big thanks to Rob S. for a great weekend, well worth the 1000+ mile round trip. Thanks for fixing my player while pissed, don't worry I trust you How your wife puts up with all us lot I will never know.

Thanks to Rob V. and the empeg team. The amount of goodies that were up for grabs was truly impressive. A3 is running OK, love the new features, it ran OK in the car for the 9 hour return trip. (only crashed twice)

And thanks to all that attened and made me feel so welcome. I had a wonderful time and plan to return next year.

Thanks once again to everyone, Rob S. I take my hat off to you Sir !

Cheers

Cris.

The only complaint I have is that I missed the cheesecake

.... a smily face at missing the cheesecake???..... that wouldn't be "coffee shop" cheesecake would it

that wouldn't be "coffee shop" cheesecake would it?

No, but it was likely just as addicting! Thanks Merrigan!

I think Paul (thinforth2) and I were probably responsible for at least half of its rapid disappearance!

John

Lemon Pie / Cheesecake / Etc..... No wonder you all ordered "Fat Bastard" sized T-shirts up front

- stikes me this was just a Cake Fest not an empeg meet [/jealousy]

Sim

Lemon Pie / Cheesecake / Etc..... No wonder you all ordered "Fat Bastard" sized T-shirts up front

Not to mention the ribs & beer...

/Michael

Not to mention the ribs & beer...

Go On - Rub it in some more why don't you [/drools]

- next you'll be saying you had a special release of empeg software and were told of secret things that mustn't be discussed,...........

next you'll be saying you had a special release of empeg software and were told of secret things that mustn't be discussed

Of course not - that's just all rumours...

/Michael

Of course not - that's just all rumours...

......HUMBUG....

The only complaint I have is that I missed the cheesecake

There was cheesecake? Man, next year the stuff at work can just break.

Lemon Pie / Cheesecake / Etc..... No wonder you all ordered "Fat Bastard" sized T-shirts up front

Well, on Paul (thinforth2) and John (johnmcd3) it does not show.
So it was probably best they had the most of the cheesecake.

Pim

Okay, who wants to ftp me the disc contents! =] PM me!

Okay, who wants to ftp me the disc contents! =] PM me!

AOL.

AOL? Sorry, that is one I don't know, unless you really mean AOL - the provider of coasters for the last decade...

AOL == "me too".

Ah. Sorry. Never heard that one before. Thanks!

Yeah I hadn't heard it either, Fabris used it once and I asked the same question. Makes perfect sense when you think about it, though.

I heard it through Usenet. You'd get loads of posts with just "Me too!" tacked onto the end. That's where I heard it from anyway.

Steve and I were thinking for next year, for the best sounding stereo competition, wouldn't it be a cool idea if we came up with some test mp3s to play? It'd be a bit like the IASCA people and their test CDs.

Before the meet someone posts the mp3s which we can then download and put on the players (then destroy them after we've finished ), everyone could theoretically start from the same point (barring EQ settings, but then that's an art worthy of a prize in itself). That way you could do some subjective testing across the systems.

While we're speaking of suggestions for next year, might I suggest choosing a weekend that doesn't coincide with America's Independence Day (July 4th)? I know some fellow Americans see that as a good thing since it can create a nice extended weekend. But I have a yearly family gathering on the weekend closest to July 4th that I cannot miss for anything other than my own wedding or funeral. This was my reason for not attending this year. I know I'm only one vote and no one weekend can make everyone happy, but I sure would like to attend one of these at some point.

But I have a yearly family gathering on the weekend closest to July 4th that I cannot miss for anything other than my own wedding or funeral.

You could get married at the meet next year . . .

Just consider it a matter of priorities..

Speaking of which, You cost me two points in the trivia contest! Well, actually, my own problem I suppose -- I just keep confusing you and genixia in my head from time to time.. dunno whz (blasted german kezboard is driving me crayz!)

Cheers.. err, uhm.. prost!

You cost me two points in the trivia contest!

What, pray tell, was the question?

While we're speaking of suggestions for next year, might I suggest choosing a weekend that doesn't coincide with America's Independence Day (July 4th)?

More to the point, it'd be nice if the meet was earlier to avoid the astronomical airfares. Or I guess that September would probably work to have the same effect too.

You could get married at the meet next year . . .

Sure, do I have to bring my own wife, or will one be provided upon my arrival?

More to the point,

More to your point...

But of course!

>What, pray tell, was the question?

Aw, nuthin too important, I suppose -- they were nice enough to give me the prize even though I did get that one just slightly wrong.. apparently everbody else was also suffering from ribs dinner hangovers on Saturday

Aw, nuthin too important, I suppose

You're not getting out that easy! What was it?

name the 5 BBS-users with the most posts in order of post-counts....

Wow, I didn't think I was still on the top 5. I haven't been nearly as prolific as I used to be!

Wait a second, are those numbers right? I thought Mark passed me a long time ago and wasn't looking back...

yeah, your ranking is actually No. 4

cheers, Thomas

name the 5 BBS-users with the most posts in order of post-counts....

That's both flattering and embarrasing. I'm glad I could be there, if in name only.

I'm glad I could be there, if in name only.

Yeah, and I'm not sure it's fair to include rob among us since he's a paid professional.

that depends on how fussy you are

<-- just noticed he's an old hand. cool

I'm going to try to be in Portugal sometime next summer. Just make sure it falls within thoe three weeks. Or at least start coming up with dates before I do - which is rather probable. Sounds like it was a lot of fun nd I would have loved to be there. But then I'd be a few K short on the closing costs for the new house and I'd have to live on the street when I returned.

Bruno

Now how am I going to get my car over to Europe so I can drive it to the meet...

Now how am I going to get my car over to Europe so I can drive it to the meet...

get your doors sealed by welding and swim over...?

Okay, who wants to ftp me the disc contents! =] PM me

no... seriously....

Don't know how the empeg boys will feel about us handing out copies as they say on the disc to not put it online. Also we where told that if no one come back with any major bugs it might get put out offically.

I am finding it a bit buggy with it crashing a few times it is has a few probs with skipping tracks and it seems to be running low on memory at times as things get a bit jerky but i have only got it on my Mk2 not tryed it on the Mk2a yet.

The main new bits on the player are the crossfade which is very good, also we have pitchbend which is very silly you want barry white to sound like the smurfs you got it, also new is intro scan which is well an intro scan useful to some but i never used when i had it on cd players. Stereo seperation is no selectable from the player instead of just within emplode, we now have auto gain control offically instead of through Hijack. There is one new visual but i was always running with beta 13 so i don't know if we gained a new visual in 2.0 final (just moved house only found null modem cable the other day.

Unless you are really really desperate for cross fade and have tons of ogg files to load up i would say stick with 2.0 final.

So have some patience

okay who also want the recipe to the lemon pie

[pollname=Do you want to lemon pie recipe posted]
No thanks i am tubby enough
Yes please it was great
I missed it but post it so i can relive the empeg meet favorite

I did post, very early on (January this year) a poll to get people to vote on the weekend they wanted. The greater majority went for this weekend.

So why didn't you organise your own wedding here, then? I would have been happy to work it into the schedule

The reason for the 4th really rather than a later event was that everyone in Europe takes of on holiday: before that, there's a lot of people finishing off study. Any later in the year the weather may not be as good: perhaps next year I'll pitch it on the w/e after Independence Day.

Trouble with that is, we won't be able to toast the defeat of George the 3rd at the hands of the Colonists!

So why didn't you organise your own wedding here, then? I would have been happy to work it into the schedule

As I said, I'll just need to see the selection of beautiful European women that will be awaiting me when I get there...

perhaps next year I'll pitch it on the w/e after Independence Day.

That'd work much better for me.

"An incredible meeting"

"Unbelieveable - well done, I'll DEFINITELY come again next year"

This is the type of comment dropping into my inbox at the moment, and it's pretty gratifying to hear that people enjoyed themselves this weekend. I am still buzzing with the excitement, and I'm certain it's all been worthwhile.

So worthwhile, that I have decided to run it for the Fifth time next year, at around the same sort of time. I've already started planning

However, before I slap myself on the back for all the wonderful work I did, it should be made known that there were many people who made this weekend special, so without further ado (and on no special order) I'd like to publicly thank them here:

Rob Voisey - for helping organise the meet in a very special way: he provided the greater majority of the prizes, did all the hard work of sorting out trophies and certificates (including the Incredibly special "Worst Install" trophy, complete with flashing lights), sorting the booking website, organising payment and paperwork, and generally being a superbly nice bloke. In addition to providing exactly the right pithy comments at the right times and a shoulder to cry on, he has a good grasp on reality and no project he manages deserves to fail!

David Moss - for spending the time to produce an excellent tee-shirt design for the meet, in his normal able fashion. What a hero - another collectable. Yours should be arriving soon!

Patrick Arnold - ah, what can I say? Along with virtual reality, he brought along demonstrations of the different (but equally interesting) world reality that he wraps around himself. Patrick has an ability to draw you in with these wonderful stories ("well, it was rubbish, so I had to make a completely new one from scratch!") that captivate his audience. Without his black bags, the feely bag game couldn't have happened: without his assistance, the cannons (and the watching crowd) wouldn't have roared. He struggled hard all day Saturday in the background with recalcitrant video gear (at no mean cost to his own pocket) in order to bring us "How to Make an Empeg" movies, was good natured at being passed over for two of the prizes (he was an insider, after all!).

Hugo Fiennes - for just turning up, so people could just touch him! And blimey, what a nice car! What a good bloke - and according to Peter (who went out for a ride in the NS-X) "Going for a spin" with Hugo means - Just That!

John Mac, Alvin Barber, Rob Ricc - good blokes who were (unasked) prepared to clean up the party mess when there was limited time for me to do repair work for others on the Sunday after the treasure hunt. Troopers!

Michal - for being patient with me while I worked on his player, after he drove across from Poland with his girlfriend (1,200 km!!!).

Tim Linke (and Nina) - Carrot Salad chef extraordinaire (see, it's easy, eh?), who helped out to get the dishes prepared under Merry's instructions before the Barby started when we were running behind after William decided to loosen both front teeth by diving headfirst downstairs just as we were setting up. Next year he will be chained to the wall. William, I mean

Godfrey and Christine - for the wonderful chef's pinny for the BBQ ("The Last Mango in Paris"). I'll wear it with pride!

Tony, Jenny and Rachel: Mark: John Mac: Jim Hogan: Alvin and Erin: Rob Ricc. - for being prepared to travel the distance they did, to make the event special. Fly the flag for us, guys and gals!

Mike Tempsch - for being the best, most rapid learning cannon loader I've had. Boom!

Sven - for being prepared to tolerate my fascination and nosiness about that wonderful nuclear-powered cyborg leg of his, and for putting in above-the-call-of-duty effort to get to the event.

Julf Helsingius - for bringing that bloody marvellous Land Rover which had me smiling all weekend. Bring the Pinky next year!

Steve Hoare - for putting the most amazing smile of spontaneous pleasure on his face when he realised he'd won the empeg in the raffle! Perfect choice for the right bloke. Bring it back next year in your car!

Mark Lord - for gracing us, in the nicest way, with your calm presence. What a wonderful bloke this man is, a great pleasure to meet him - generous and friendly, and as sharp as a button. Donated one of the major prizes at the event - and he even built an intelligent Easter egg into the latest version of HiJack!

Rob Ricc - for putting up with my hopeless navigation and retaining a sense of humour all the while - another major prize donor, in the form of one of his excellent new, re-engineered black sleds.

Derek Ward - for selflessly (to the point of almost going hungry at the BBQ, for goodness' sakes!) for starting off the cooking when I was up to my neck sorting out everything else that was going on at the time. Great to have a true, born-and-bred Barby chef on the job! He was also prepared to lug beer barrels, set up the barby, drive my kids around, put up with my bad temper, and all the rest. All this, despite being a runner up YET AGAIN in the Geek quiz. Next year, eh? (I'll get Rob to rig the questions).

Roger Lipscombe and John Graley - they didn't have to come, but they did - and they answered technical questions until they started to go blue in the face. I guess the beer and ribs is a magnetic attraction. Roger is now a four-year veteran, and I hear that he will definitely be coming over again for the special Fifth event next year, no matter WHAT happens! Oh, and thanks for making sure the keg was empty at the end of the evening

To all the "Girlfriends" - my thanks for coming over with your blokes, and I being tolerant of little boys with big toys during what must have been a bit of a trying day on occasions. Mind you though, it's pretty obvious I have to brush up on my kissing technique, and besides, there just aren't that many UFO's about these days!

Tony Fabris - for being an eternal fount of knowledge of all things empeg. Tony provides a good focal point to this community in the provision and management of the FAQ: it nearly, just nearly, won him the feely bag competition - but not quite! Next time, eh? And what an amazing coincidence that he's another closet fan of the 60's SciFi program "UFO". Next time, a wall projector and a Video room will be in order, I think.

Merrigan - she spent several days in advance of the meet preparing food, budgets, buying in provisions, cooking, preparing, and working damn hard on both the picnic lunch and BBQ bits in spite of already having other obligations for the weekend. The sucess of the meet hangs directly off her hard work - without good food this would have gone no-where. Seeing the smile that came with Rob's generous gift of an S30s player as a present made the weekend. She's now talking about the best compression settings for ripping Otis Reading and Hot Chocolate . If you persuade her enough, she might just post the cheesecake recipe here. Her address is merrigan@xs4all.nl. Don't tell her I posted it.....

Nath and William - for being around the place and making it fun to do the feely bag game (only next time William, bust your teeth out AFTER the Barby, OK?). Nath's mini empeg models seems to have become limited edition collector's items!

Now lastly - but not least - everyone who actually took the trouble, whether it was last minute, planned, or otherwise, to turn up for this event. It takes a special kind of person to make the effort of travelling a long way to a foreign country to turn up just for a few glasses of beer and a barby on the unseen promise of having some fun - but without you, and all the people watching from afar, this weekend would not have been half the sucess it was. You made the effort, you made the fun.

There's names missed off this list that helped as well: don't be annoyed that I haven't given you a mention in public, it's mainly due to my tiredness and forgetfulness - but rest assured, I am grateful even so.

Here's a round of applause from me, to all of you: raise your glasses to the next, annual Empeg Owner's meet, in 2004!

An excellent list of thanks that couldn't have been said better!

(and not just because my name is mentioned 3 times)

I can't possibly say enough "Thank You"s to everyone involved. It was a great meet.

I'm trying to get through all the BBS posts and take care of some other stuff today, so I don't have time at the moment to list everyone who I want to thank, and everything I enjoyed. But I want to hit the most important ones:

Rob S: It was a fantastic gathering. I'm so very glad I came. Thank you so much for everything, especially for making us feel so welcome in an unfamiliar country on the other side of the world. Thank you for every detail, from the use of your internet connection to the ride to the train station on Sunday.

Merrigan: Thank you for the food, the hospitality, and for letting us completely trash your home and yard.

Rob V, Hugo, and the Empeg team: Thank you for the tour of the Towers, the repairs on my Pearl unit, the swag for the competition, and everything else.

Patrick: Thank you for the ride to Cambridge, and for your wonderful company and conversation. I could easily spend weeks talking to you about... everything.

Mark: Thank you for taking my family on a geocache and for being an all-around cool and entertaining person.

Henrick: Thank you for the company and the ride to/from the ferry. And for booking our tickets ahead of time. Everything worked out so well.

Roger: Thank you for the help poking around to get my competition numbers on Saturday. For those who don't know, I arrived at the meet having absolutely no clue as to what to put in for the distance competition. Roger brought his laptop over to Rob S's house with me, plugged into his net connection, and helped me look up accurate numbers for every leg of the journey. After it was all over, I realized that I left out an entire leg of the journey: The drive from my house to the airport in San Francisco. Not that I needed it in there, but I surprised myself because I forgot it.

I had a fantastic time, it was an experience I'll never forget.

Third Row:
Michal Kolodziejczyk and his very pretty girlfriend (whose name I only heard once),

She is Agnieszka (pronounced "Agn-ee-ashkah" I guess), or "Aga" in the shorter form.

Thank you Rob for the excellent meeting, and fixing my player

She is Agnieszka (pronounced "Agn-ee-ashkah" I guess)

Like ``agony''? That can't be good. Or, depending on your lifestyle, maybe it is.

I'm sorry I didn't notice you were a new poster earlier. Welcome!

She is Agnieszka (pronounced "Agn-ee-ashkah" I guess)

Like ``agony''? That can't be good. Or, depending on your lifestyle, maybe it is.

Oh no, its not that bad Its like "agony" without "o", or extremely short "o". It comes from latin "Agnes", so you could probably find better english version of her name, Anyways, my last name is the really hard one - while I was studying in Canada, my name was been read as "unpronounceable". Good that we can all communicate in easy, straightforward english language.

BTW, I will post my photos later when I will get my film developed (I don't use digital cameras).

Just because I'd find it interesting from the other direction, the English equivalent to the Latin ``Agnes'' is ... wait for it ... ``Agnes''.

We're an inventive bunch, we English speakers, aren't we?

Just because I'd find it interesting from the other direction, the English equivalent to the Latin ``Agnes'' is ... wait for it ... ``Agnes''.

We're an inventive bunch, we English speakers, aren't we?

What a shame on me Well, I am not a native English-speaker, and I have never met any Agnes, so I didn't know it is the same in English . But thanks to You, Rob will have more chances to remember the name.

I wasn't making fun of you. I'm sorry if it came off that way.

In reality, ``Agnes'' is not a common name anymore. It's the kind of name that your parent's grandmothers might have had. It's probably more common as a nun's assumed name than as a birth-given name.

I wasn't making fun of you. I'm sorry if it came off that way.

Don't worry, I know it - I just could not find + on this board.

In reality, ``Agnes'' is not a common name anymore.

Here in Poland it is one of the most common female names. And there is another thing which may be interesting for you - every Polish first name ending with "a" is a female name, and every name not ending with "a" is a male name. So it is good for computer programs to tell the sex from the first name

That is interesting. I know basically nothing about Polish, but I guess that has more to do with linguistic gender crossing over to physical gender rather than something more cultural like the Russian -ova and -vich thing.

Still, you're bound to have non-natives and others with non-Polish names, so I'm sure that wouldn't work in the real world (real Poland?).

Rather belatedly, after an idyllic week touring round the Netherlands, following a truly wonderful weekend, I want to add our thanks to Rob and all concerned.

The bad news......we'll be back for sure next year....our daughter wants to come as well - I'm not letting on, who it is she fancies in the group photo!

The receiver (Competition prize) is up and running first time and Mrs.B has collared it for the kitchen.

You had to be there (In the square at Amersfoort Sunday, waiting for the treasure hunt to finish): Between the tatooist and the ex-boyfriend, they spelt Natalie wrong, so the poor sod has to go round with "Natale" on his chest!

In reply to:

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I'm not letting on, who it is she fancies in the group photo!

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Is it SteveH? I'm sure the allure of a Mk2 owning man would be hard to resist!

Oops, I posted the first post here and went to holiday. So I've been unable to put some photos into the net. Give me some days and I dedicate a subsite on empeg.rowi.net to my new trophy :-).

Rolf

"Natale" on his chest!

Which means "Christmas" in Italian, and it also is a not very popular male name

Sorry, could't help saying it, since everybody's speaking about names and languages

anyway, it's really fun to read your comments and see pictures! I'll do my best to be at 2004 owners' meet!