What Advice for the Man Who'd Like to Destroy Cadence?

Isn't it sad to see someone who doesn't know they're shooting themselves in the foot?

A man has been working and working and working.
The product hasn't been selling or selling or selling.
Anyone using it locally? No.
Michael Gerber asks : Are you working on your business or in your business? Ans : F off.

Can you sell a product without finding out what your customers want?
We won't do that - customers want cadence. We're not Cadence.

But, it wouldn't hurt to find out what customers want and what they're upset about and give them something that's great. Consider :

Dual monitor support? Nah - just buy one giant monitor
Bindkeys? Do we log commands to a logfile so that users can collect them up into a macro to do bindkeys? Hmmm..

Symbol editing is horrible - need to fix. Can select portions of shapes to drag, can position pin names relative to pins, etc.. No wonder Cadence needs a staff of thousands..
Can we have options in command mode - like CDNS - when you're placing an instance, give user a way to flip/rotate/etc..?
Routing - provide an autoroute feature like Cadence does for wire routing in Schematics.
When you edit properties on an instance, it gets deselected. Man, this is after so many years of development. Just goes to show - if you don't have a customer driving your schedule, you'll keep on working on your product.. (when what you SHOULD do, read the E-Myth, is work on your business - the HOW, not the WHAT)
Need a better User Experience for notifying of invalid property values - don't just prevent - use a pop up to explain. No harm being like Cadence.
Delete/Undo/Redo : R doesn't exist and DEL key isn't working most of the time.
Drop the "any colour as long as it's black" - that's not going to get you in the door. Find out what customers want. If you have to have dummies, then put them in at the end after you do your final placement prior to routing.
Nasty bug with respect to device resizing - the layout drives the schematic in a totally unreasonable way. I couldn't understand it - on the one hand, we're talking about a 28 nm process. On the other, we want W to be more that 1.6 um. What giveth?

Android App to Arm Raspberry Pi Through WiFi

Your Pi has a Ken Lavrsen's motion installed (and a webcam or other useful camera connected) and set up to send you an SMS when it detects motion (how to get it to ignore dogs and cats?)

Here is, therefore, the challenge for Lukasz Skalski :

Design an android app with a slider button (on/off) that will use the WiFi connection to tell the Raspberry to start motion.

Here's one solution :

Private Eye Pi (Light toggler)

.

India Whips China On Its Own Turf At Its Own Game

Finally, some solace..

Shame on FTDI

Installs driver on Win 7 using CDM v2.12.00 WHQL Certified

Gets

The drivers were successfully installed on this computer.

Driver Name

FTDI CDM Driver Package - Bus/D2XX Driver (08/26/2014 2.12.00)
FTDI CDM Driver Package - VCP Driver (08/26/2014 2.12.00)

I've noticed - nothing slows down this already glacial PC like installing a driver. It's as if it's on the phone on an important call and doesn't have time for something trivial, like me.

After this install, I plug in my Arduino, Windows starts installing a driver again. Why? Wasn't that what we just did?

Anyhow, goes to Device Manager, and USB Serial Port has the yellow exclamation mark thing. I'll bet they didn't get that from Apple.

Driver is still installing btw.

In device Manager > Properties.. things update once the driver install completes, with message :

Program Compatibility Assistant / Windows Requires a digitally signed driver

Driver : FTDIBUS Serial Device Driver
Service : USB Serial Port Driver
Publisher : FTDI Ltd.  (Shame on you Brits!)
Location : C:\\Windows\System32\drivers\ftser2k.sys

Device Manager USB Serial Port Properties have updated : General : Windows cannot verify... blah blah (Code 52)
Details :
Driver files (apart from the one listed above )
C:\\Windows\system32\DRIVERS\serenum.sys
C:\\Windows\system32\ftcserco.dll
C:\\Windows\system32\ftserui2.dll

Provider : FTDI Ltd.
File version : 2.12.00.2 built by WinDDK
Digital Signer : Microsoft Windows Hardware Compatibility (then what's your effing problem mate?)

No more yellow exclamation mark in the Device Manager, but, go into Arduino > Tools and Serial Port is greyed out. Thank you very much open source!

Turns out, shame on Symantec too - Go look at the file ftser2k.sys or ftcserco.dll, they both have "Symantec Time Stamping Services Signer - G4". What's the point in the end if it doesn't work? Help me out Apple!

Just 4 Years Out of College. How Did She Do It?

Laura Kassovic makes me feel like I've wasted my whole life.

Now, if I can take what they've got and whittle it down so I only keep what I need, maybe I can get my prototype in no time..

Incredible. Great job by MbientLab. And they only wanted $8k from Kickstarter!

A Giant of Engineering. I've Wasted My Life :(

www.jeremyblum.com

Why Some Folks are Vegetarians - Not Because They Love Animals

India's most evil export ever - but, evolution is to blame..

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/69622/

Confession : It's been a long time since I felt genuine fear - but this is one of those times..

Charles Mackay : Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

Suddenly got interested in the Tulip Mania.. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/24518/24518-h/dvi.html

Powell On the Indispensable Employee

My folks at the previous place would do well to hear Powell's words.. especially Kendall Wilhelmshaver :

I have run into too many people in public life who thing they turn on the sun every morning. If not for them, there would be no light and heat. I have run into too many people who have long passed their sell-by date and don't accept it's time to leave. I have run into too many leaders who have never given a thought to succession or building a leadership team in depth. Too many leaders are too insecure to face those realities.

And I have run into too many leaders who have not faced the reality that it is the indispensable person who is holding their organization back. Leaders have an obligation to constantly examine their organization and prune those who are not performing. The good followers know who the under-performers are. They are waiting for the leader to do something about them. When necessary pruning is not done, good followers often slack off. But when it is done successfully, black clouds lift from over the team. Even the best, most treasured, most successful members of the team can lose their edge and become under-productive. Leaders need to be able to replace anyone who is no longer up to the task. Don't reorganize around a weak follower. Retrain, move or fire them. Then you are doing that person a favour in the long term and you are doing your team a favour immediately.

Dealing with Tenants from Hell

Hoping I get lucky with my place. But, I gotta prepare :

Here's what Brandon Turner says :

1. Don't Scream, Screen : call ALL previous landlords
2. Have a written policy
3. Be strict and carry a big stick (late fees, etc)
4. Don't be the landlord : Speak to a lawyer, form a legal entity to own the house, manage that entity - say you'll talk to the owner and get back..
5. Don't be afraid to remove the problem

If you're looking a property management outfit, think about Real Property Management..

Immortal Game - Oh What a Feeling :)

Never mind the endgame blunders that let me get away :) After being whacked by some solid opponents, I really needed this one to go to bed with a good feeling :

What a sad end for the man. If he had just nabbed my rook with the K when he was under check.. He had me!

(See older post for the player link) (BTW, here's how the 13 year old Magnus gave Kasparov the jitters. Even though that page displays the moves list with symbols, just cut and paste in the player and all is well:)

1.Pe2e4 Pe7e5
2.Ng1f3 Nb8c6
3.Pd2d4 Pe5xd4
4.Nf3xd4 Qd8f6
5.Bc1e3 Bf8c5
6.Pc2c3 Nc6xd4
7.Be3xd4 Bc5xd4
8.Qd1xd4 Qf6xd4
9.Pc3xd4 Ng8f6
10.Bf1d3 O-O
11.Nb1c3 Pc7c6
12.O-O-O Pd7d5
13.Pe4e5 Nf6g4
14.Rd1d2 Pf7f6
15.Ph2h3 Ng4h6
16.Pf2f4 Bc8f5
17.Bd3xf5 Nh6xf5
18.Pg2g4 Nf5e3
19.Rh1e1 Ne3c4
20.Rd2e2 Pf6xe5
21.Pb2b3 Pe5xd4
22.Pb3xc4 Pd4xc3
23.Pf4f5 Pd5d4
24.Kc1c2 Ra8d8
25.Re1d1 Rd8d7
26.Re2e4 Rf8d8
27.Rd1d3 Pa7a6
28.Pa2a4 Pb7b5
29.Pa4xb5 Pa6xb5
30.Kc2b3 Pb5xc4+
31.Kb3xc4 Pc3c2
32.Re4e1 Rd7b7
33.Re1c1 Pc6c5
34.Rc1xc2 Rd8c8
35.Kc4d5 Kg8f7
36.Rc2xc5 Rb7d7+
37.Kd5c4 Rc8a8
38.Kc4b5 Kf7f6
39.Ph3h4 Ph7h6
40.Rc5c6+ Kf6e5
41.Rc6e6+ Ke5f4
42.Re6g6 Ra8e8
43.Kb5c5 Kf4e4
44.Rg6e6+ Re8xe6
45.Pf5xe6 Rd7d5+
46.Kc5c4 Ke4e5
47.Pe6e7 Rd5d6
48.Pe7e8=Q Rd6e6
49.Qe8b5+ Ke5f6
50.Qb5f5+ Kf6e7
51.Rd3xd4 Pg7g6
52.Qf5c5+ Ke7f7
53.Rd4d7+ Kf7f6
54.Qc5f8+ Kf6e5
55.Rd7d5+ Ke5e4
56.Rd5d4+ Ke4e5
57.Qf8f4#  1-0

Immortal Game

After a youngie with handle Kryzhalee whipped my a couple of times with solid foundation and mate! Got my good feeling by whipping a certain JC

Use http://chesstempo.com/pgn-viewer.html to view.. (paste the moves)

1.Pe2e4 Pc7c5
2.Bf1c4 Pe7e6
3.Pd2d3 Nb8c6
4.Bc1e3 Ng8f6
5.Ng1f3 Bf8e7
6.O-O O-O
7.Nb1c3 Pe6e5
8.Nc3d5 Nf6xd5
9.Bc4xd5 Nc6d4
10.Nf3xe5 Be7f6
11.Ne5c4 Pd7d6
12.Pc2c3 Nd4c6
13.Pf2f4 Ra8b8
14.Pf4f5 Nc6e5
15.Nc4xe5 Bf6xe5
16.Qd1h5 Be5f6
17.Rf1f3 Bc8d7
18.Rf3h3 Ph7h6
19.Ra1f1 Bd7c6
20.Bd5b3 Qd8e7
21.Be3xh6 Rf8c8
22.Bh6g5 Bf6xg5
23.Qh5h7+ Kg8f8
24.Qh7h8#  1-0

Wait! What the h was I thinking Qh7? Stage time? Crap.. Could have saved a move and boosted me ELO rating half a point..

How a Nobel Laureate Tells It

Basic semiconductor physics at the high-school level. Try staying awake. What a classic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cdr89n_nf9Y

Jacob Beningo Plugs Pi

Gosh, the typos on his PPTs. I wonder if he gets paid to do these webinars.. that's genius.

To follow along with his learn Python stuff, you don't actually need to download and install python..

You can do it online through your browser :

https://www.pythonanywhere.com/try-ipython/

The Big Book of Lumosity Tricks

There underperformance and then, there's indiaperformance.

What can explain India's mediocrity? Do you think that a martial law style government like China would make a difference in showings at competitions?

What's missing?

Enough ranting. If you've read this far, you're entitled to these tips that have worked for me. BTW, there's a 60 year old woman out there who's topped about 250k in Penguin Pursuit.

These aren't "lumosity" tricks - they're in the spirit of "how to be brilliant every day." I just happen to notice when playing..

1) Get plenty of sleep - or, quality sleep. If you're a guy, you might wonder why you get better scores after a wet dream - it's because testosterone boosts spatial processing.
2) Do them relaxation exerises. Do one..
3) Eat a healthy breakfast - no refined sugar. Some protein.
4) Shower, do another relaxation exercise.
5) Do some rhythmic breathing - in-4, out-6, hold-2
6) Meditate for a few minutes.

See if you can't crack level 24 of PP this way:) And 57 trains in tot.

Notorious Russell Peters (Sydney) : Super

Had me laughing all the way. How does he get away saying stuff like that and asking people those kinds of questions?

My ex-wife is a very attractive woman, on the outside.

She's like a Ferrari without the engine - doesn't go anywhere, just sits there and costs me money.

The Lesser Known Feynman - Juval Ne-eman

In one sphere, at least, Feynman made a deliberate effort to play the role of enfant terrible. Combining his love for scientific truth and his hatred of "impostors," he was always willing to play cat- and-mouse games to expose flaws and pretense - all of which made him the terror of lecturers who came to Caltech to present their intellectual wares. On my first visit, I gave a series of ten lectures on "group theory," the mathematical apparatus I used, and Feynman interrupted me with questions every 3-4 minutes. I knew the material, however, and in the end it was Feynman who got tired out. On the other hand, I remember the visit of a well-known Swiss physicist, Johann Jauch, who after half an hour of torture, flung the chalk away, announced he could not go on this way, and walked out the door.

In 1976, Werner Heisenberg, one of the leading physicists of the 20th century, made a stop at Caltech as part of a cross-country lecture tour. Since 1950, he had been expounding a certain theory that was generally acknowledged as worthless. Out of respect, however, people usually refrained from arguing with him. His lecture at Caltech was on this theory. Gell-Mann stayed away purposely, but Feynman was there and made his presence felt. At a certain point he got up and shouted: "If that's so, your theory is crap." Mortified, Heisenberg left the hall, and according to the distinguished physicist Harald Fritzsch, who was at Caltech at the time and on close terms with him, he never recovered from the shock. He died that same year.

But there was someone who gave Feynman a taste of his own medicine. The Norwegian-American physicist Ivar Giaever once suffered through a lecture with Feynman. Two years later, he came back to Caltech to give another lecture. This time, however, Giaever not only answered Feynman to the point, but made him look stupid. Obviously, he had done a good job of preparing ahead, deliberately slipping in remarks to provoke Feynman - who walked straight into his trap. Everyone in the lecture hall could feel how stunned Feynman was.

From : http://www2.physics.umd.edu/~yskim/feynman/yuval.html

I'm Sold. Zentangle is The Next Big Thing

My first tangle and I'm hooked already!

US Challenge Ends in Suck-cess

Here's the part I don't understand. Americans are always obsessed with being the biggest - go to any gym, you see what I mean. They have protein shake oozing out their eyes. So, then, why are their soccer players so small and wimpy - I mean, come on - look at the size difference in comparison to Belgium or Germany. If you want to be short, that's fine, why not be a Shaqiri in that case? Or a Messi.

Time to invoke the status thing. American soccer players have an inferiority complex because they're not seen as stars in their own country - the way basketball and football (what?) players are. Same isn't true in Europe. Read books on psychology and you learn that status counts for a lot. A study found that a chain-smoking permanent secretary in the British Civil Service had higher life expectancy than a janitor who lived by the book. Status! Prestige!

Full credit for the Swiss for playing their hearts out - even if defensively. Those tears were precious. But, really, what were they crying about? Did they really expect to win? Duh!

The Essential Henry Ford : Titles and Foreign Trade

 On Titles :

One of the things that we will not tolerate is injustice of any kind. The moment a man starts to swell with authority, he is discovered and he goes outor he goes back to a machine. A large amount of labour unrest comes from the unjustexercise of authority by those in subordinate positions and I am afraid that in far toomany manufacturing institutions it is really not possible for a workman to get a squaredeal. The work and the work alone controls us.

That is one of the reasons why we have no titles. Most men can swing a job, but theyare floored by a title. The effect of a title is very peculiar. It has been used too muchas a sign of emancipation from work. It is almost equivalent to a badge bearing the legend :This man has nothing to do but regard himself as import and all others as inferior.Not only is a title often injurious to the wearer but it has its effect on others as well.There is perhaps no greater single source of personal dissatisfaction among men than thefact that title bearers are not always the real leaders. Everybody acknowledges a realleader - a man who is fit to plan and command and when you find a real leader who bearsa title, you will inquire of someone else what his title is. He doesn't boast about it.Title in business have been greatly overdone and business has suffered. One of the badfeatures is the division of responsibility according to titles which goes so far as to amount to a removal altogether of responsibility. Where resp is broken up into many smallbits and divided among many departments, each department with its own titular head,who in turn is surrounded by a group bearing their nice sub-titles, it is difficult tofind anyone who really feels resp. Everyone knows what passing the buck means. The gamemust have originated in industrial organizations whre the depts simply shove the respalong. The health of the organization depends of every member, whatever his place, feelingthat everything that happens to come to his notice regarding the welfare of the biz ishis own job. Railroads have gone to the devil under the eyes of depts that say "oh, thatdoesn't come under our dept, dept X 100 miles away has that job"

On foreign trade and the plunder of Mexico:

A country becomes great when by the wise development of its resources and the skill ofits people, property is widely and fairly distributed. Foreign trade is full of delusions.We ought to wish for every nation as large a degree of self-support as possible.  Insteadof wishing to keep them dependent upon us for what we manufacture, we should wish them tolearn to manufacture themselves and build up a solidly founded civilization. When every nationlearns to produce the things which it can produce, we should be able to get down to a basisof serving each other along those special lines in which there can be no competition.The north temperate zone will never be able to compete with the tropics in the special products of the tropics. Our country will never be a competitor with the orient in the production of tea. Nor with the south in the production of rubber.A large proportion of our foreign trade is based on the backwardness of our foreigncustomers. Selfishness is a motive that would preserve that backwardness. Humanity is a motive that would help the backward nations to a self-supporting basis. Take Mexico forinstance. 

We have heard a great deal about the development of Mexico. Exploitation is theword that ought, instead, to be used. When its rich natural resources are exploited forthe increase of the private fortunes of foreign capitalists, that is not development. Itis ravishment. You can never develop Mexico until you develop the Mexican. And yet, how much of the development of Mexico by foreign exploiters ever took account of the developmentof its people. The Mexican peon is regarded as mere fuel for the foreign moneymakers.Foreign trade has been his degredation. Shortsighted people are afraid of such counsel.They say, "what will become of our foreign trade?" When the natives of Africa begin raisingtheir own cotton and the natives of Russia begin making their own farm implements and the natives of China begin supplying their own wants, it will make a difference to be sure, butdoes any thoughtful man imagine that the world can long continue on the present basis ofa few nations supplying the needs of the world? We must think in terms of what the worldwill be when civilization becomes general - when all the peoples have learned to helpthemselves. When a country goes mad about foreign trade, it usually depends on other countries for its raw material, turns its population into factory fodder, creates a privaterich class and lets its own immediate interests lie neglected. Here, in the US, we haveenough work to do developing our own country - to relieve us of the necessity of looking for foreign trade for a long time.

Arthur Pini : Ten Tricks to Boost Oscilloscope Usefulness

(He's used a Teledyne Lecroy for his examples)

1. Use the oscilloscope's fast edge feature and math operations to make frequency response measurements.
2. High pass filter your input signal using the oscilloscopes low pass digital filter
3. Selectively average only signals with certain shapes or measured parameters
4. Find intermittent events by using exclusion trigger to acquire only on abnormal events
5. Use the trend functions and trigger hold off as a self-timed data logger
6. Demodulating amplitude modulated (AM) signals using your oscilloscope
7. Demodulation of frequency, phase and pulse-width modulated signals (use track or time-extend function)
8. Adding a "Max Hold" function to the oscilloscope's Fast Fourier Transform
9. Calculating the power spectral density of a waveform in unit of V²/Hz

Nihon : Science Demands that We Kill You

I recall the words of an IISc prof - reminiscing about Shogun (James Clavell) : "They can torture someone in boiling oil and then, two minutes later, sit for meditation. They have a cruel streak in them."

Their latest proclamation : We must kill the whales - for the sake of science. Time to trade my Prius in? Why can't the Germans come up with some decent hybrid cars, rather than $50k hybrids that get 28 mpg?

Activestate Python 2.7 PyGame Horror

Messing with the innards..

Installs pygame from pygame.org using the msi and, stupid thing, installs in my Downloads folder (wt*?). Creates an Include directory with a bunch of .h files and a Lib/site-packages directory.

I hunt and find out where Python2.7 is installed and, that folder also happens to have an Include and a Lib/site-packages.

So, having been unable to import before, I get smart and copy this subfolders - such as pygame and the files pygame-1.9.1-py2.7.egg-info into the master folders.

Then, 

ActivePython 2.7.6.9 (ActiveState Software Inc.) based on

Python 2.7.6 (default, Feb 27 2014, 14:13:40) [MSC v.1500 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32

Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.

>>> import pygame

Traceback (most recent call last):

  File "", line 1, in

  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\pygame\__init__.py", line 95, in     from pygame.base import *

ImportError: DLL load failed: %1 is not a valid Win32 application.

>>>

Luckily, upon searching (finally:) for "getting pygame to work with activestate python 2.7" I get to

http://www.lfd.uci.edu/~gohlke/pythonlibs/#pygame

And... works :)

Header Row - M$ Word

Is there a way to get more than one row at the top of your table to be repeated as "header" on each page?

YES

http://superuser.com/questions/335265/is-there-a-way-to-repeat-the-first-two-rows-of-a-table-as-a-header-on-each-page says it's very easy, but co-workers found it wasn't that easy. That is, they found that if you selected all cells of these rows (how many ever, but most people just want 2 rows. I found it even works with 3) then it wouldn't work.

Here's a workaround (if needed) that a co-worker suggested, and it works. Trick is, (look at the pic) click with your mouse in the text of the "Best Year" field, and then move up and left to select the "Soccer Team" and "Key Stats" cells. Then right click to launch the Table Properties form from the menu.

The Dr. Evil Excuse

This didn't happen, but, suppose it had...

In the world of the up and coming early retiree, John Armageddon is the respected always-delivers, straight-talking, no-nonsense IC design manager. All's going well, for years and years, success piled upon success.. But, ah, the true measure of a good leader is how well the team performs in your absence.

As it turned out, when they finally had a shot at a bik customer, fiesta turns to fiasco.

Then, long meetings after hours everyday, culminating in, is it done John? No. Why? I was surrounded by frickin idiots. Even Austin Powers couldn't top this one.

Impotent PowerShell

Or Skype is immune.

Googled "kill Skype.exe *32" a dozen times, couldn't get rid of the "Not Responding" beast.

Had to reboot.

But, also tried Windows PowerShell and then

get-process skype
(shows it)
stop-process ID
(ID found using get)

No luck... Windows is crap. Unix rules. Thanks for xkill - which never fails!

How Did Zed Shaw Get So Far in Life?

Jeez, this guy is dangerous - plugging caveman debugging :

1. Do not use a "debugger." A debugger is like doing a full-body scan on a sick person. You do not get any specific useful information, and you find a whole lot of information that doesn't help and is just confusing.
2. The best way to debug a program is to use print to print out the values of variables at points in the program to see where they go wrong.

NOT!!

Having spent a few hours with his LPTHW, I can honestly say I wasted a few hours of my life.. It's written for the kids who want to hack Raspberry Pi.. Beware..

But, it gave me an idea - looks like this guy really has hit on something - if you come up with cool videos that CAN deliver the goods, you're looking at a gold mine!

Your Niche in the IC Design Industry : Gamefy Everything

If you've been in the IC Design shops as long as I've been, you've noticed one thing (unless you're a slob yourself) : quality sucks. You have to box peoples' ears to get stuff done right. Why?

Simple, there's no motivation. These are mostly bums who have a hard time even showing up to the parking lot.

That's why Triad thinks it can eat Cadence's lunch with a cooler platform - a la Waze.

Bose Vs Sony Noice Cancellation Shootout

Review aus Costoc.com member :

(Akio Morita's turning in his grave)

Model Number: Sony MDR-10RDC
"Sony MDR-10RDC Premium Noise Canceling Headphones
Pros:
crisp sound very balanced throughout the frequency spectrum.
Fold nicely to fit in protective case
Cons:
they are never silent. The noise canceling feature requires a small amount of white noise which cannot be turned off (and they cannot be used without the noise canceling feature active).
The on/off switch is recessed and impossible to feel without taking them off and looking.
Very easy to take off without turning the noise canceling feature off, which drains the batteries. It seems like they would have an intelligent power off where if no sound is detected coming through the cable, turn the headphones off after 15 minutes.
Remarkably sensitive to unwanted radio signals in the area.
The manual seems to be the product of clumsy automated translation."

Why Python

I've looked for a reason for a while, being a perl guy..

A buddy was able to replace about 2000 lines of C code with less than 100 lines of python - completely re-did a test-suite.

If you want to talk to external devices or are interested in parsing, it's awesome.

Why wait? http://learnpythonthehardway.org/book/

From the official website's Whet Your App section :

Because of its more general data types Python is applicable to a much larger problem domain than Awk or even Perl, yet many things are at least as easy in Python as in those languages.

Guess Who : An Inspiration to Us All

If he can do it, you can do it.

If Chelsea can win the E. Cup, Bayern can win it.

So, here's the deal - bloke moves with some buddies from a has-been smartphone shop to an EDA company and drifts. Meanwhile, wife's a nurse raking it in; so, why work, why not chill out? As in, why not move to IOS programming? I love that!

Next thing you know, in 3 months he's so good, he's gotten a gig at a local outfit in the Prairie.

Impresses there, and, voila, dream job at a neighbour of Twitter. Two of the people that started the group he's in moved on, so he's now the main main. Doing what he loves too.. If he has a bad day at work, he thinks about Twitters 70k sign on bonus!

Felix Dennis Slams Kennedy

This is typically muddled thinking from one of the most overrated presidents in US history. A good-looker, but a bad egg.

Commenting on "Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate."

Lessons from Dennix :

1. Never make your finance director or CFO the MD or president of anything!
2. Never go on a vacation when a deal is going down.
3. When you change accounting systems (or accountants, for that matter), have the numbers checked over and over again. I'll eat my hat if errors are not discovered in the next iteration.
4. Never personally underwrite business loans for your company unless you absolutely, positively, are forced to. Even then, set limits in the agreement so that, as the loan figure is reduced over time, you are released from your undertakings commensurately. For people who do what I do - ensure you negotiate terms for your sign-on bonus repayment for early departure. I've learnt this one the hard way. After six months, it should be prorated!
5. Listen to people who are good with money and always invest in property with a good address - providing you can pay cash for it and will not need to sell it for a few years.

All there in "How to Get Rich" - which I found in 50 Prosperity Classics - I remember "wealth improved his sex life because money is power and power is an aphrodisiac"

Giants in Service of Mankind : Francine Shapiro

Finally some hope I may get past all the baggage I've accumulated over the years : Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing : EMDR.

In her book "Getting Past Your Past" she says that researchers have (since she founded the technique) found that even sounds played alternately in one ear and then the other can have the same effect. It's not understood yet, but they think it's something to do with activating the processes of the brain that work during REM sleep.

Gupta, Bindra, Basu - An Eternal Silver Braid

Finally, 3 mensch wer macht me proud to be a Desi...

In the end, people will ask, who the hell was Rajat and why is he so elusive. Autohotkey has the power to change the world and it definitely changed mine.

What about Samit Basu and Freemat! Definitely a big one.

Can You Use Farmville to Mint Money?

Consider how Spencer who lost his secretary Jenny responded :

http://www.sliptalk.com/2014/01/27/employee-quits-job/#.UwJavvldUjy

Hmmm, this deJennyrate manages $100 billion in assets. Really? So obviously a hoax. But, can you really sense something is going to change economically on a space like Farmville?

"I figured out how to use it as a fuzzy-cognitive-map predictor of spikes in the German capital market."

You got to hand it to them inscrutable Amroos.

Sarah Conner Turning In Her Grave

Consider :

Self-selection of targets is not new to this drone; it can also be found in the US-made X-47B and the French Neuron. Activists are calling for pilots to be required when lethal use is planned.

Taranis is a Brit killer btw. I guess it's a matter of time before the Russians and Chinese announce killer drones as well. Eight tonnes? Come on kats, you can do better than that..

Then, there's be a Non Dronification Treaty which India will boycott. Then a Comprehensive Drone Ban Treaty which India and North Korea will boycott again. Then, 40 years later, India will announce a drone. Way to go.

Years later, where does Bayraktar stack up against these? Cheaper and more successful that's for sure..

Nine Lives - Confessions of a Master Jewel Thief by Bill Mason

After several months of this Fran told me a friend of hers had a very private two -bedroom condo for rent in the Georgetown Villas in Lyndhurst. I knew it was dicey, but by then I missed having an actual home so much, I thought it would be worth the risk. I took the place using my "John Welling" alias and set up housekeeping. First thing I did was indulge my legitimate paranoia and build an escape hatch in case the police came through the front door. I cut a hole in the ceiling of a closet that would let me climb up to an attic, then marked out where I could break back down into an adjoining condo and get away. This contingency arrangement made me feel a little better about the chance I was taking.

I came into the Broward County Jail in Florida for a three-month stretch (I'll explain why soon) at the age of thirty-six with my back straight and showing no fear. I cast dirty looks at the more intimidating of my fellow inmates, which got me a lot of catcalls and derisive remarks at first, but I kept it up and didn't look away. The jail wasn't well designed, and was kind of just an afterthought extension to the courthouse, so there was no exercise yard — in effect, we were on twenty-four hour lockdown — but I did chin-ups by the hundreds on the cell-block bars to demonstrate my upper-body strength. It wasn't to show off but to make sure guys knew I wasn't some couch-potato white-collar embezzler who couldn't and wouldn't defend himself. Early on I established that I wouldn't take too kindly to someone trying to f* me in the ass, that I'd rather get killed fighting back and would make sure to seriously damage..