I find it easier to write in the first person, so let me introduce myself: I'm Chris Pelkie and I've been a scientific visualization specialist at the Cornell Theory Center since 1989. As mentioned earlier, I've been using DX since it was called ADX, and have performed visualizations for a large variety of research disciplines, including geology, civil engineering, chemistry, physics, biology, botany, ecology, mathematics, remote sensing, computational finance, and many others. To deliver the "goods" to the clients, I've also needed to learn a lot of things about other software and hardware, particularly details associated with producing video, color graphics, and other digital formats.

I've created hundreds of "nets" as OpenDX programs are called, some tiny, some with hundreds of modules in them (I counted 780 in one; I've never counted since then). I've written a very small number of custom modules and produced literally thousands of images from DX for video, print publications, and web distribution. I've lectured on and taught DX in Japan, South Korea, France, Austria, Brasil, Mexico, and at numerous locations in the U.S. including NASA Langley, Stennis Space Center, NIST, San Diego Supercomputer Center, and other sites. For several years in the late '90s, I was contracted by IBM to teach their customer workshops on Data Explorer (I was told I was a Certified Instructor though I never got the secret decoder ring they promised), and I continue to teach and consult privately as well as maintain my position at the Theory Center. IBM also invited me to be a founder of OpenDX.org and I accepted this invitation, though my own contributions to date have been modest compared to the hard work by the other founding members, mainly restricted to answering users' questions on the opendx-users mail list.

Even after doing all that, I'm the first to admit that there's always something new and exciting about OpenDX to be discovered. I don't know all the answers, but I've built up a storehouse of tricks and tips. I'll do my best to get you up and running with this amazing program in this workshop.

By the way, I'm very used to referring to this software as DX, but unless I say otherwise, I am referring to OpenDX and I'll use the two terms interchangeably.

Other staff at the Cornell Theory Center transformed my text and images into a Virtual Workshop set of modules, reviewed and tested the materials, and are contributing to consulting. We feel the materials are well prepared, but probably not perfect! If you find any errors in content or presentation, please send us email so we can fix them.