Online Dating Made this Woman a Pawn in a Global Crime Plot

Toward the end of our conversation, I asked Elrod what she would say to McGregor—or, rather, the Yahoo Boy who played McGregor—if she were given the opportunity. She chewed nervously on her right index finger as she confessed that she has many, many questions for the man. But the first one she mentioned was not how he faked his Scottish accent or what became of her life savings or how many other women he was stringing along while they were “engaged.” The question at the forefront of her mind was something far more basic: “Was it always a scam?”

http://www.wired.com/2015/10/online-dating-made-woman-pawn-global-crime-plot/

More heartbreaking and incredible - the Jette Jacobs story - the crown jewel in the Yahoo Boys' chest : http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2287774/Lonely-widow-Jette-Jacobs-dead-South-Africa-sending-50k-Nigerian-boyfriend-met-online.html

Make it Stick - Peter Brown

• Useful learning is EFFORT-FULL. It's difficult, but worth it.
• We are BAD JUDGES of when we're learning well and not.
• REREADING TEXT and BATCHED PRACTICE are not supported by research.
• RETRIEVAL PRACTICE is what you need - a simple quiz will do wonders for you.
• SPACE OUT PRACTICE with breaks to learn well.
• TRY TO SOLVE PROBLEMS BEFORE BEING TAUGHT THE SOLUTION. Good for you.
• Build your learning on a FOUNDATION OF PRIOR KNOWLEDGE.
• ELABORATE on what you just learned by expressing in your own words. If you've encountered the Udacity Git course with Caroline Buckey and Sarah Spikes, you've been told to write down reflections because it's good for you!

Study smarter : https://www.youtube.com/embed/IlU-zDU6aQ0 (Marty Lobdell)

WT* is FB Up To?

Facebook is seeking an Electronics Engineer to join our Infrastructure Team. We believe connecting the world is one of the greatest challenges of our generation, and that everyone deserves access to the knowledge, tools and opportunities that come from being connected. That’s why we, along with other tech companies, launched Internet.org, a global partnership to make the Internet available to the two thirds of the world’s population that doesn’t have it. The Connectivity Lab team has been working on developing new platforms for connectivity on the ground, in the air and in orbit. For all of these systems, the team is looking at Free-space optical communication, a way of using light to transmit data through space using invisible, infrared laser beams. To make this a reality, we need to scale our infrastructure and ensure that it operates efficiently so that we can deliver innovate services. Join us as we build the technical foundation upon which the world shares and connects. This position is located in our Woodland Hills office (near Los Angeles).

Responsibilities

• Hardware design for Free-Space Optical (FSO) and Radio Frequency (RF) communication terminals
• Interface with software, mechanical, power, thermal, and hardware engineers to understand system architecture
• Perform component and system level testing in both laboratory and operational environments

Requirements

• B.S. or M.S. in Electrical Engineering or related technical discipline
• Experience in analog and digital circuit design, schematic capture, and PCB layout
• Knowledge of transmission line theory, high-speed circuit design, RF, electrical concepts, and analysis tools
• Experience with hardware in the loop testing and validation, including the use of network test equipment such as spectrum analyzers, oscilloscopes, and frequency synthesizers
• Experience with both RF and optical testbed lab operation and procedures desired
• Experience in RTL design and implementation on an FPGA, including synthesis and simulation tools desired
• Knowledge of Cadence Allegro, Mentor Graphics PADs, Altium Designer, Verilog, System Verilog, C, C++, *nix

Thank You WSJ ... Nehal Chopra

Get em while they're down. Ladies, wouldn't you like to see a big, sleazy company that is responsible for more pollution than all the passenger cars in the world combined (watch Rose George on TED) go out of business?

Not going to happen. So, given that they'll stick around forever, and thrive, why not buy their stock now and make a buck or two?

For a change, it's the male analyst who takes down the overpaid female fund manager. Congratulations Andrew Left. Sorry Nehal - I'm sure there are jobs in India though. You can try the H1 thing again next year.

Former Hedge Fund Star Nehal Chopra Settles With SEC | Institutional Investor

The 1% - Thanks to Prof. Rubik

An easy one - but not sure if it'll lead to any broad transfer (that is, will this facility lead to better performance in other areas?). It did work out my mnemonic creation ability though.. Next, need to get into speed cubing. I'm a laugh - I can do the thing walking to the grocery store, but I'm taking 10 minutes :)

here are the mnemonics

ridird for putting which corner pieces correctly
(Duolinguist has a good one - Ride the Dirty Red Dragon)

Then, for a top to right re-positioning of a middle layer edge piece, it's

ur i(ur) i(uf) uf -- probably better remembered as UR i(UR UF) UF -- so you basically only need UR, UF at the tip of your tongue.

For a top to left re-positioning of a middle layer edge piece, it's

Wiley Uluf used WiFi (UiLi UL UF UiFi)

Then, if you have just one yellow center piece or the rev-L, then it's

The FURry doc said URF : FUR i(URF)

If it's a horizontally oriented straight yellow line, it's

Beat a straight path to the FRUit tree to find the it's rough :

FRU i(RUF)

Now you have your cross.

If you have no corner pieces correct, you orient one of the side yellows at 8 o'clock

If you have one correct, in addition to the cross, put that (top edge of course) at
7 o'clock. Note that 7 o'clock top-edge is different from 7 o'clock vertical faces..
Vertical faces go from 12 o'clock to 11 o'clock. The top edges are 12, 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10

If you have 2 corners correct, then you need to orient one vertical yellow facing you
at 7 o'clock

Do : Are you Rui's sister? are you Uri? RU RiU RU URi
(Riu is Rui's sister - I actually know somoene called Rui)

Do this till you get the top face completely jaundiced.

Then, see how many corner pieces are correct. If it's none, do the below move once.
If it's one, same gun. If it's 2, then if it's
AB
CD

for the corner pieces, you need to position so that AB are correct, or AD are correct.
Then do the move :

Rif and Ribb Arfie, Ribb Ararui (yes, I know. If you have a better one, do share)

This is : RiF RiBB RFi RiBB RRUi

You may have to do this more than once. Once done, you'll only have the center pieces to
work on. For that, you have to see whether you want them to move clock wise or counter.

For clockwise :

Inside FF and F (Father Franklin is Famous)

Uluf split himself watching a rif of FLIR. (Uluf becomes UL something UF)
Something is RiF FLiR

So : FF UL RiF FLiR UF F

May have to do it more than once.

For counter clockwise, you just invert the U's in Uluf --> UiLUiF

One Line Lessons

My experience with learning resources like audio-books, or just books, which I keep mentioning to people, is that you only take away one or two sentences from each. But, those things are like minders by your side - helping you be more effective in your day to day decision making or execution than you would be otherwise. Finally, I'll start a formal compilation (triggered by self-awareness of how I was attempting to skim through Palo Alto Networks' cyber security call-to-action)

Princeton Reviw prep for the SAT : For reading comprehension, first, just read the first and last sentences of each para.
Steve Jobs, by Walter Jacobson : People don't k what they want until you s it to them. Only let A players on your team. Once A players see the B and C players are slacking off, it will drag them down. Rounded rectangles.
The Upside of Irrationality by Dan HairyEli : Human beings adapt very well - this is why you need a higher dose of something you like - like booze. So, if it's an activity you like (showering, watching TV, etc) make sure you stop so you DON'T adapt. If it's something you don't enjoy - like doing taxes, cleaning - make sure you STICK WITH IT so you DO adapt.
Succeed by Heidi Grant : For complex goals (starting a company, etc), think about the next step (forget the real motivation). For simple goals (cleaning your room) think about the why, the real reason you want to.
Liespotting by Pamela Meyer : A lie usually uses a long answer to a question that can be answered with a short sentence.
Ashok Goel (KBAI) : If knowledge is power, so is organization.

We Love you Joe Wong!

My name is JW. But, to most people, I am Who?
Hu is actually my mother's maiden name, and the answer to my credit card security question.
I just want to reassure everyone that I am invited here tonight.
I grew up in China. Who didn't? And my childhood memories are ruined by my childhood.
Like all immigrants, I too want my son to be the President.
My son says, "Dad, why do I have to learn 2 languages?" I say, "Son, because, when you become President, you'll have to sign legislative policies in English, and talk to debt collectors in Chinese."
Obama was conducting 2 wars when he was awarded the Nobel Peace P. And he accepted it. You can't be more badass than that. The only way you could be more badass is if you took the Nobel P P money and gave it to the military.
I was born in the year of the Horse and that is why I am a naysayer.
America's #1, because we won the World Series every year.
I have a quick solution for global warming. I will switch from Fahrenheit to Celsius.
I believe open dialogue and unilateralism are too expensive. So, if elected, I will switch to text messaging. I will text our allies even to say Hi. And I will text our enemies when they are driving.

On Ellen :

Are you guys afraid of the economy? I'm not. I grew up young, you see. If I become poor again, I'll just feel young.

To become a citizen I had to answer some questions :

Who was Benjamin Franklin? Uhhh... the reason our convenience store gets robbed.
What is the 2nd amendment? Uhh... the reason our convenience store gets robbed.
What is Row vs Wade? Uhh...  2 ways of coming to the United States.

Anything iCanDo, You Can Do Better

Have to give these guys credit for sticking around so long - probably been 20 years..

http://icanprogram.com/09tk/lesson6/lesson6.html

Their recipe for displaying the contents of a text field :

proc saveFile { } {
set fn "saveFile"
global f

set myFile [tk_getSaveFile]

puts stdout [format "%s:myFile=<%s>" $fn $myFile]

set line [$f.t get 1.0 1.end]
for {set i 2} {[string length $line] > 0 } {incr i } {
puts stdout [format "line=<%s>" $line]
set line [$f.t get $i.0 $i.end]
} ;#end for loop
} ;#end saveFile 

Here's my tweak that's much more elegant (off the web of course) :

set nLines [$f.t count -lines 1.0 end]
for {set i 1} { $i <= $nLines } {incr i } {
set line [$f.t get $i.0 $i.end]
puts stdout [format "line : %s" $line]
} ;#end for loop
} ;#end saveFile

A New Worthwhile Resource

http://www.artofmanliness.com/2012/01/15/how-to-strengthen-willpower/

Unity for All Mankind

Who are the geniuses behind Unity 3D? Seems, with my limited ken, an incredible piece of work.

Some people, somewhere, decided, wouldn't it be nice to do X, and wrote a proposal for it and got money and hired people and did it! Supermen.

Maker Faire SD

3D Printing is in - as it has been for 2+ years - at MF at least.

Astroprint is now applying the cloud to it - so you can print directly from your smartphone. Someone was talking about content being the next big thing in 3D. I've heard of ABS and PLA filament. Now, there seems to be PET. I saw a couple of prints that were metal - using a laser to do something to the powder - a rocket engine..

As usual, my to-do list grew bigger and my feeling of having wasted my life as well... Saw this young Asian guy talking about getting motors from China and hacking them to use for go-karts - with a DC brushless motor, you can drive them as hard as you want if you can get the heat out. He adds epoxy to motors, replaces ball bearings, you name it - and no formal degree yet. I've wasted my life.

There's San Diego Startup Weekend I'm looking at seriously : http://www.up.co/communities/usa/san-diego/startup-weekend/6504

DIY genetics hacking biology is getting bigger - at least in mindshare.. People know who Craig Venter is. Never mind no one wants to sleep with him. wetlab.org.

Altium started off in Australia, moved to China and are now based out of Oregon. Wow. They have a new FREE PCB tool called Circuit Maker. I guess user experience is the thing. Not sure in what way it's deficient compared to the pro version.

Q's Snapdragon was in a few places spread out. Anyone figured out why the h Q's stock has been beaten down so much?

In addition to pitching Robot College in Riverside, Tim Lewis, who does Disney's Animatronics (or did anyway) was pitching the greatness of Garner Holt : http://www.ghpproducts.com/animatronicdemos.php . They have a massive machine shop he said after telling me animatronics is multi-disciplinary.

How to Deactivate Suunto Core All Black Military Watch

Press all four buttons at the same time and keep pressed. You'll hear a beep and then the screen will stop displaying information.

Why Not Work on a Cure for Cancer?

Consider these smarties :

In China, iOS app developers used a counterfeit version of xcode (which is used to develop apps) to develop apps because it downloaded faster.

Then, the hackers modified this counterfeit version to plant malicious code.

How smart are these guys? Don't they have relatives they love who die of leucosemia? Mann!

Be Nice to Anonymous, Or Else

I wonder if they can give me justice. Maybe I should take my story to an anon..

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2011/02/anonymous-speaks-the-inside-story-of-the-hbgary-hack/

Cute One : Nostradamus by Max Gunther

Well, maybe. The verses are in such indirect, mystical language that you can interpret any of them to prove anything you want to prove. Leaning over backward to be charitable to the ancient seer, I once studied a hundred of his prognostications and ended with the following statistical summary: Three forecasts were correct, eighteen were incorrect, and the remaining seventy-nine were such dense gibberish that I simply didn't know what the old Frenchman was driving at. Not a very impressive record. Yet Nostradamus managed to make a name for himself in the world of prophecy -- a name that any modern oracle would love to equal.

Nostradamus wasn't often right, but he sure was often.

Hemp : A Drug Good for You

Marshall Goldsmith - "Am I happy?" is the wrong question. The right one is "Am I doing my best to be happy?" Along those lines, are you doing your best, in every meeting to be (HEMP ) :

Happy
find Meaning
Engaged
build Positive Relationships

TCL Comments - the Authoritative Answer

The Coarse Correction

Dr. Perlmutter : eat a high fat diet - fat in your diet doesn't make you fat.

Dr. Sapolsky (Stanford, Great Courses : Stress and Your B) : Fat in your blood is a risk factor - if you get your heart rate up, so the blood is circulating faster, then the fat molecules can cause damage at the bifurcation points.

So - don't eat fat before you expose yourself to stress - like a workout.

Analog Art

When my analog simulation gave me something so beautiful, how could I NOT embellish it and SHARE it? I saw the plots and immediately thought of the beautiful, golden desert just after sunset. Oh, the beautiful, gorgeous desert.

The significance? Carli Lloyd has ridden Abby Wambach and overcome obstacle after obstacle and now the last few remain - the French team outfitted by the Lacoste alligator and then the oriental serpents - far in the East.

Thank You Charles Duhigg for Wasting Everybody's Time

Whoever told this bum he could be an author?

His book should have been a paper of 5-7 pages, with an abstract, a body and a conclusion.

Now I've already wasted 4 hours reading it.

An apology in fairness : the bit about near misses was good - thank you Sir. Organized crime that wants your money leaves you feeling like you almost won - and the problem gamblers fall for it. I almost won! Next time I'll really win!

Real Names of Well Known Professors

aus Professor Greenstein of Understanding the Fundamentals of Music :

Israel Berlinsky --> Irving Berlin
Jacob Gershewitz --> George Gershwin
Aaron Kaplan --> Aaron Copeland
Allen Koenigsburg --> Woody Allen
Betty Persky --> Lauren Bacall
Melvin Kaminsky --> Mel Brooks (BTW : Dean Kaminsky --> Danny Kaye)
Leonard Schneider --> Lenny Bruce
Bernie Schwartz --> Tony Curtis
Danielovich Dempsky --> Kirk Douglas
Robert Zimmerman --> Bob Dylan
Eugene Horowitz --> Michael Landon
Joseph Levich --> Jerry Lewis
Wolffe Garber --> Bill Macy
Winona Horowitz --> Winona Ryder

Essential Reading (Listening) for New Employees

Want your small company to go big? Get your greens to eat these :

1. Winning by Jack W.
2. The ABCs of Building a Winning Business Team by Blair Singer
3. Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
4. Inside Apple
5. Critical Thinking Skills in 20 Minutes a Day by Lauren Starkey
6. The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
7. The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber

How to Build Great Software

Decompose your problem on the basis of what design decisions are difficult and what design decisions can change. DON'T decompose based on your flowchart and the order of processing. But, don't take my word for it :

http://web.stanford.edu/~ouster/cgi-bin/cs190-spring15/lecture.php?topic=complexity

https://www.cs.umd.edu/class/spring2003/cmsc838p/Design/criteria.pdf

How to Know When It's Time to Move On from Your Job

for free :

http://www.learnvest.com/classes/taking-your-career-to-the-next-level/

Wish I'd seen this one 10 years ago :)

More stuff : http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/238908

Herbert Waggener : An Unknown Giant of Science

Poor mensch - not even a wikipedia page on him.. He has to tell his own story :

http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/hawaggener

I entered Missouri University in 1954 to major in Physics. When I entered, I was a little undereducated, and had to work my way through school, but by the second year, I had reached parity with my peers from St. Louis and other larger schools. I was awarded scholarships by the Physics Department in each of my next three years, and joined delta sigma phi fraternity in my junior year to provide some rounding out. In my senior year, I flamed out, and academically crashed and burned. My marriage in 1958 worked well, and I once more achieved excellence at San Diego State College. I joined the Navy Electronics Lab in 1959 and received a Masters in Physics in 1960. While in San Diego, we had three bright, healthy children, and in 1961 I accepted a job at AT&T Bell Labs, Murray Hill NJ to work in semiconductor technology. (The Education and Domestication of a Bulldog)

I joined Bell Labs in 1961, wanting to prove that I could compete and contribute to the progress of silicon semiconductor technology, in the midst of an amazing group of giants. After somemeandering about, I was successful in a small way. Among other things, I invented alcoholic alkaline anisotropic etches for forming isolation slots, electrochemically controlled thinning for forming very thin silicon structures, and applied them to making high speed bipolar integrated circuits. My group and I were drafted into a massive technology development program to help develop a very advanced double level tungsten gate MOS memory technology. My group and I made significant contributionsd to the project before I left to join the Teletype Corporation in Skokie Illinois. I left some small footprints on the sands of time while at Bell Labs, but wanted to find a new venue for my efforts. (On the Bell Lap, Walking Among Giants)

LTspice and XFAB - The Unbeatable Combination

A work of art - a 4 MHz switcher with SKIP mode implemented. Everything's macromodeled at this point except the switches and some of the logic cells.. Showing a sweep of the load with VIN 3.3V, Vo 5.625V (nom, this is the load-line architecture).

Now, time to try prototyping a hysteretic boost using what I just learned today..

Hier Findes Sie der Noise Potpourri aus Herr Doktor William Marshall Leach

www.pearl-hifi.com/06_Lit_Archive/07_Misc_Downloads/Noise_by_Marshall_Leach.pdf

With some Bunnie Huang style disclaimers about fair use.

Intuitively Please : R1C1 Into R2C2

Intuitively, say what the bode plot should be. That part's not hard - you can work from what you'll get at f=0 and f=0 (what do caps do at both extremes?)

But, can you intuitively say what the pole and zero are? The math is easy, you could do this in a minute.. but.. think..

You already have a Thevenin circuit - so, if you make a Norton equivalent, what current do you get? And into what load? Get it - the load is everything in parallel - so, since that load looks like a short at infinite freq, obviously you have a pole at W = 1/(R1||R2 (C1 + C2)) . Easy.

Zero? What current do you get in your Norton equivalent? You have a part through an R and a C - at high frequency, it goes up because of the cap - so, obviously a pole - and, the frequency has to be W = 1/ (R1 C1). Childishly simple..

Digital Is Hard

Thought occurred to me today that what stands between me and being a successful subsystem designer (understand tradeoffs between the various topologies and control-schemes for power delivery) is a weakness with rapid digital prototyping..

It's easy to think of if-thens in your head. But how do you translate them into digital gates?

We're talking asynchronous stuff here - and not something neatly wrapped up in a box like a state-machine. Even an asynchronous one would be easy..

Give Me a Fish, Or, Teach Me ... LTspice Behavioural OR Gate

How do you make the symbol the easy way :

Open the one they have in Digital. Save As a copy.
Open in text editor, change SymbolType CELL to BLOCK.
Remove the Prefix and SpiceModel lines.
Add the SYMATTR SpiceLine thing to provide default values for the params.

That's it - now you know how to make your own models super easy..

For instructions, see older post on the AND gate below.

---------------------- first file, save as mdl_or.asc (schematic)
Version 4
SHEET 1 1152 680
WIRE 48 80 16 80
WIRE 560 112 448 112
WIRE 64 144 16 144
WIRE 624 160 512 160
WIRE 512 176 512 160
WIRE 240 192 128 192
WIRE 384 192 320 192
WIRE 464 192 384 192
WIRE 128 256 128 192
WIRE 368 288 352 288
WIRE 384 288 384 256
WIRE 384 288 368 288
WIRE 464 288 464 240
WIRE 464 288 384 288
WIRE 512 288 512 256
WIRE 512 288 464 288
WIRE 752 384 624 384
WIRE 384 400 256 400
WIRE 496 400 464 400
WIRE 576 400 496 400
WIRE 624 400 624 384
WIRE 64 416 16 416
WIRE 576 416 576 400
WIRE 256 432 256 400
WIRE 496 480 496 464
WIRE 576 480 576 464
WIRE 576 480 496 480
WIRE 624 480 576 480
WIRE 480 496 464 496
WIRE 496 496 496 480
WIRE 496 496 480 496
WIRE 128 576 128 336
WIRE 128 576 16 576
WIRE 256 576 256 512
WIRE 256 576 128 576
FLAG 16 144 b
IOPIN 16 144 In
FLAG 16 80 a
IOPIN 16 80 In
FLAG 16 576 g
IOPIN 16 576 In
FLAG 560 112 y
IOPIN 560 112 Out
FLAG 16 416 c
IOPIN 16 416 In
FLAG 624 160 Q
IOPIN 624 160 Out
FLAG 752 384 Qb
IOPIN 752 384 Out
FLAG 368 288 g
FLAG 480 496 g
SYMBOL bv 128 240 R0
SYMATTR InstName B1
SYMATTR Value V=if( (V(a,g) > Vth) | (V(b,g) > Vth) | (V(c,g) > Vth) , Vhigh, Vlow )
SYMBOL bv 256 416 R0
SYMATTR InstName B2
SYMATTR Value V=if( !((V(a,g) > Vth) | (V(b,g) > Vth) | (V(c,g) > Vth)) , Vhigh, Vlow )
SYMBOL res 336 176 R90
WINDOW 0 0 56 VBottom 2
WINDOW 3 32 56 VTop 2
SYMATTR InstName R1
SYMATTR Value 1000
SYMBOL res 480 384 R90
WINDOW 0 0 56 VBottom 2
WINDOW 3 32 56 VTop 2
SYMATTR InstName R2
SYMATTR Value 1000
SYMBOL cap 368 192 R0
SYMATTR InstName C1
SYMATTR Value 1p
SYMBOL cap 480 400 R0
SYMATTR InstName C2
SYMATTR Value 1p
SYMBOL e 624 384 R0
SYMATTR InstName E1
SYMATTR Value 1
SYMBOL e 512 160 R0
SYMATTR InstName E2
SYMATTR Value 1
TEXT 712 160 Left 2 ;params : \nVth : input transition threshold\nVhigh : output high level\nVlow : output low level

---------------------- end first file

Version 4
SymbolType BLOCK
LINE Normal -32 32 -28 32
LINE Normal -32 96 -28 96
LINE Normal 12 48 32 48
LINE Normal -32 80 -24 80
LINE Normal -32 64 -20 64
LINE Normal -32 48 -24 48
CIRCLE Normal 32 88 16 72
ARC Normal -132 8 -20 120 -32 96 -32 32
ARC Normal -80 -12 28 96 -28 96 24 64
ARC Normal -80 32 28 140 24 64 -28 32
WINDOW 0 -8 8 Left 2
WINDOW 3 -8 128 Left 2
SYMATTR Description Behavioral OR gate with complementary outputs
SYMATTR SpiceLine Vth=1.5 Vhigh=3.0 Vlow=0
PIN -32 48 NONE 0
PINATTR PinName a
PINATTR SpiceOrder 1
PIN -32 64 NONE 0
PINATTR PinName b
PINATTR SpiceOrder 2
PIN -32 80 NONE 0
PINATTR PinName c
PINATTR SpiceOrder 3
PIN 32 80 NONE 0
PINATTR PinName Qb
PINATTR SpiceOrder 4
PIN 32 48 NONE 0
PINATTR PinName Q
PINATTR SpiceOrder 5
PIN -16 96 NONE 0
PINATTR PinName g
PINATTR SpiceOrder 6

---------------------- end 2nd file (mdl_or.asy - symbol )

LTspice Behavioural AND Gate

For that day when you're finally fed up with the one they've provided that's causing you to pull your hair out..

How : save the first file as mdl_and.asc. Save the second as mdl_and.asy in your working directory - that is, wherever you have the testbench you're going to simulate - so you can use this..

NOTE - if you're familiar with LTspice files, you should know that stuff displayed below maybe wrapped - that is lines that should all be on one "line" are displayed using 2.. Generally, all lines begin with a directive that's ALL CAPs.

---------------------------------------- first file (don't copy this line)
Version 4
SHEET 1 1392 680
WIRE 864 0 752 0
WIRE 752 16 752 0
WIRE 480 32 368 32
WIRE 624 32 560 32
WIRE 704 32 624 32
WIRE 368 96 368 32
WIRE 608 128 592 128
WIRE 624 128 624 96
WIRE 624 128 608 128
WIRE 704 128 704 80
WIRE 704 128 624 128
WIRE 752 128 752 96
WIRE 752 128 704 128
WIRE 160 160 112 160
WIRE 160 224 112 224
WIRE 992 224 864 224
WIRE 624 240 496 240
WIRE 736 240 704 240
WIRE 816 240 736 240
WIRE 864 240 864 224
WIRE 816 256 816 240
WIRE 496 272 496 240
WIRE 160 288 112 288
WIRE 736 320 736 304
WIRE 816 320 816 304
WIRE 816 320 736 320
WIRE 864 320 816 320
WIRE 720 336 704 336
WIRE 736 336 736 320
WIRE 736 336 720 336
WIRE 368 416 368 176
WIRE 368 416 112 416
WIRE 496 416 496 352
WIRE 496 416 368 416
FLAG 112 160 a
IOPIN 112 160 In
FLAG 112 224 b
IOPIN 112 224 In
FLAG 112 288 c
IOPIN 112 288 In
FLAG 112 416 g
IOPIN 112 416 In
FLAG 864 0 Q
IOPIN 864 0 Out
FLAG 992 224 Qb
IOPIN 992 224 Out
FLAG 608 128 g
FLAG 720 336 g
SYMBOL bv 368 80 R0
SYMATTR InstName B1
SYMATTR Value V=if( (V(a,g) > Vth) & (V(b,g) > Vth) & (V(c,g) > Vth) , Vhigh, Vlow )
SYMBOL bv 496 256 R0
SYMATTR InstName B2
SYMATTR Value V=if( !((V(a,g) > Vth) & (V(b,g) > Vth) & (V(c,g) > Vth)) , Vhigh, Vlow )
SYMBOL res 576 16 R90
WINDOW 0 0 56 VBottom 2
WINDOW 3 32 56 VTop 2
SYMATTR InstName R1
SYMATTR Value 1000
SYMBOL res 720 224 R90
WINDOW 0 0 56 VBottom 2
WINDOW 3 32 56 VTop 2
SYMATTR InstName R2
SYMATTR Value 1000
SYMBOL cap 608 32 R0
SYMATTR InstName C1
SYMATTR Value 1p
SYMBOL cap 720 240 R0
SYMATTR InstName C2
SYMATTR Value 1p
SYMBOL e 864 224 R0
SYMATTR InstName E1
SYMATTR Value 1
SYMBOL e 752 0 R0
SYMATTR InstName E2
SYMATTR Value 1
TEXT 952 0 Left 2 ;params : \nVth : input transition threshold\nVhigh : output high level\nVlow : output low level

---------------------------------------- end first file (don't copy this line)

Version 4
SymbolType BLOCK
LINE Normal -32 32 -12 32
LINE Normal -32 96 -12 96
LINE Normal -32 96 -32 32
LINE Normal 16 48 32 48
CIRCLE Normal 32 88 16 72
ARC Normal -44 96 20 32 -12 96 -12 32
WINDOW 0 16 24 Left 2
WINDOW 3 16 112 Left 2
SYMATTR Description Custom behavioural AND gate
SYMATTR SpiceLine Vth=1.5 Vhigh=3.0 Vlow=0
PIN -32 48 NONE 0
PINATTR PinName a
PINATTR SpiceOrder 1
PIN -32 64 NONE 0
PINATTR PinName b
PINATTR SpiceOrder 2
PIN -32 80 NONE 0
PINATTR PinName c
PINATTR SpiceOrder 3
PIN 32 80 NONE 0
PINATTR PinName Qb
PINATTR SpiceOrder 4
PIN 32 48 NONE 0
PINATTR PinName Q
PINATTR SpiceOrder 5
PIN -16 96 NONE 0
PINATTR PinName g
PINATTR SpiceOrder 6

---------------------------------------- end second file (don't copy this line)

Linux Catching Up to Windows in User Experience

By the look of things, enough people have clamoured about the lack of Autohotkey on Linux that Dekter has done something about it :

https://code.google.com/p/autokey/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KV_B6dBFHA
http://beginlinux.com/desktop_training/ubuntu/autokey-video-tutorial

LTspice : An NMOS Current-Sense Model for a Boost

Comes in handy when you're designing a peak-current-mode boost :

Basically use the bi component which lets you do some useful stuff (i.e., write code to do fancy models). In this case, it's a simple model. You only want to pass on the current when the FET is ON.

Put in a loop with the appropriate (not 100%) hooks to skip pulses at light load :

Learning from the Humble D Flip Flop

I was lamenting to a friend the other day how unproductive I am without the infrastructure of a big company. One thing an IC designer misses is the standard-cell libraries you get for free when you're with an established house. So, my current endeavours calling for a D-Flip-flop with asynchronous reset, I googles and gets this :

So, after reading this, I'd say : "Del Greco : More Harm Than Good". Why would you put something up like this in the age of LTspice, when you can get your TA or whoever to check it out? See how the thing simulates :

Crap! But, as George would read out, Prof. Del Greco is truly and utterly guilty of nothing more than trying to do his duty under difficult circumstances. Here's a class act :

http://www.ee.cuhk.edu.hk/~qzhao/ELE2120_files/ELE2120_tuto7.pdf

Popping Pills

Real time puzzle solving. Let's see if I'm right. I haven't felt too well lately, but managed some sleep yesterday during the day and felt refreshed. Didn't sleep too bad at night either.. Feel some good muscle tone. Despite not doing Lumosity for weeks, pulled off 210k+ on Penguin P. So..

RAY: You're on a medication regime in which you are to take daily one tablet of A and one of B. So, you have two little pill containers. One says "Pill A," and one says "Pill B." You must be careful. Taking two or more B's can have unpleasant side effects, or can even be fatal. In order for the B to be effective, it must be accompanied by the A pill.

TOM: So, you gotta take one A and one B. Got it.

RAY: Right. You open up the A bottle and one A pill kind of jumps out into your palm. You open the B bottle, and you accidentally get two Bs falling out of the bottle. But here's the problem: They look exactly the same. Both kinds of pills are blue, they're the same size, they're the same weight. And as soon as they fall in there, they get mixed up, so now you have three pills, but you can't tell what the heck you’ve got. The pills cost a hundred bucks apiece, and you can't throw them away.

How can you make sure that you get your daily dose of A and B without wasting any of the pills?

What would Jerome do?

Add one more pill A, put all 4 pills in a mortar, grind with a pestle and mix thoroughly. Then, take half of that mix today and the rest tomorrow.

If the pills are soluble in water, then you just add one more A pill, put all 4 in a class of water, dissolve, drink half today and the rest tomorrow?

How did I do? Sort of okay - they say cut each of the 4 pills in half and you're good - true.. Hmm..

Specifying Max and Min Output Voltage with LTspice VCVS

voltage controlled voltage source..

You want to set a certain gain and also a min and a max. How? You can't - not with those parameters. But, you can do it like this :

table=( min min, {min/gain} min, {max/gain} max, max, max)

You get the idea.. you're doing the PWL thing..

Where would you put this? In the Value field that you get with a right-click on the E component..

The Easiest Productivity and Mental Focus Hack

First read (heard about) this in Julie Morgenstern's "Making Work Work" about 8 years ago..

Been about a couple weeks since I decided to turn off data on my phone and only check email twice a day.

More stuff : http://www.quora.com/What-are-the-best-day-to-day-time-saving-hacks

Flashing Blue and Yellow Shield on Windows Taskbar

Can't go to other programs, can't do anything..

What to do?

CTRL-ALT-DEL gives you a menu, now pick Start Task Manager.
Once TM starts, you'll see, under applications, which one this is - select that and then click on Switch To.

Now you can interact with it.

http://www.askmefast.com/What_does_a_flashing__blue_and_yellow_shield_mean_on_my_lower_taskbar_which_stops_me_going_any_further_with_using_my_computer-qna1580513.html

Cynthia Says Yes, Now BLE is All I Can Think Of

Some say BLE is getting big. I say I want to get into BLE.

Now's my big chance..

http://www.scribd.com/doc/100590575/Bluetooth-Tutorial#scribd

http://makezine.com/psoc-maker-challenge/

http://www.cypress.com/?app=forum&id=5283&rID=106119
Man! These guys have a 1.25 mV accurate reference in an advanced CMOS process!

Reps Reps Reps : Slope Compensation

My recommended weekly list of do it yourself reps (for power electronics guys) is :

Apply the Extra Element Theorem (EET, Middlebrook) to a real circuit
Derive the expression for the Right Half Plane Zero in a Boost regulator
Derive the expression for required linear slope compensation in a generic regulator (m1, m2, m)
Derive the equations for operation of a flyback converter
Derive the equations for operation of a forward converter

This is all about fitness - keeping your confidence level high and being confident enough with the algebraic jugglery that you can try out new what-if scenarios without getting paralyzed by the analysis.

Looking back over my professional life, I can see that, despite my memory, I haven't had much success or confidence in building systems or sub-systems of any significant depth. I think one problem is a lack of chunks. Sure, I remember facts, but the how to build isn't there.. Why? I think I failed to generate chunks by failing to spend sufficient time with a particular system and due to the poor quality of my sleep, especially in the early days of my career. As I've said often, energy and the ability to concentrate are the keys to the quality of like. Time management follows naturally.

Anyways, enough ranting - I want to give you a chunk, but how..
How can you always pull out the formula for the gain of the perturbation in duty-cycle out of thin air, like I gave you one for EET? We need a mnemonic..

Here's what's happening. You start with inductor current at I, with no perturbations, it ends up at I after going up with a slope of m1, then down with a slope of m2 after peaking at Ip. This is the same with or without slope compensation. In that ideal case, the duty cycle is D. And, you'll agree m1*D = m2*D' (where D' = 1 - D).

Real case, you had a perturbation that changed the Ip to Ip + delta_I. That also changed D to D1 (D + d).

In the next cycle, D2 is D - d2 and you want an expression for d2.

I2 = I + m1*D1*Ts - m2*D1'*Ts -- has to be true - nothing to do with Ip changing because all that's captured in D1
Now write an expression for D1 in terms of I, Ip + delta_I and the m's. Juggle it to get Ip + delta_I on the LHS. (Starting value = I, ending value = Ip + delta_I, slope is m1 + m - coz, when you implement the peak-current mode thing, the slope-comp is part of it)
Do the same for D2.
No eliminate I2, I, Ip and delta_I by keeping Ip + delta_I together - maybe just call it Ip2 and use m1*D = m2*D'

Sound easy, but how to create a mnemonic?
When you start off writing the equations, these are the LHS's to begin with :

m1*D = m2*D'
I2
D1
D2

So, if you can think of a better mnemonic, let me know..
Sherlock : A process of elimination will lead you to the jackpot and you'll strick Gold - as if you had the M1Das touch. Get it? Then, "I also did two" - I2D1D2" - " I too did two". Too lame? :)

Iron Condors 101 : Don't Give Them Your Email

http://www.wyattresearch.com/video/iron-condors-101/

When you search for "making income through covered calls" and get to Wyatt Research Andrew Crowder and Ian Wyatt..

What is Test?

Testing of ICs in mass production is a screen between the factory and the customer.

It uses acceptable overhead (throwing away good units) to deliver an acceptable defect level (bad shipments, usually customers want 0 dppm, but for consumer electronics, 300 dppm used to be acceptable) at the customer end.

A good test implementation will use a tester of reasonable cost (whose resources are limited) to achieve the required yield with an acceptable test time.

The challenge for the test engineer is to design the test hardware (cost not critical because very few units are produced - max of about 30) to provide parametrics with required accuracy, with electrical and mechanical robustness and a test program that achieves the yield goals with acceptable cost.

Changing Digital Cell Macro Parameters in LTspice

How to Change Logic Levels in LTspice

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/LTspice/conversations/topics/38474
http://www.electronicspoint.com/threads/how-to-change-logic-levels-in-ltspice.119681/

Documented in the builtin help under Special functions..

Vhigh, Vlow, Trise, Tfall, Ref (default 0.5*(Vhigh + Vlow) ) Td (delay) and a few more..

Now, wouldn't it be nice to see what parameters diffschmitt has?
So, despite appearances, the diffschmitt isn't really a comparator - that is, when you specify Vhigh and Vlow, don't expect the output to go HI when V(in+ , in-) > 0. That's right - V(in+, in-) needs to exceed Ref - yuck, I know.. So, to get a comparator function out of this one, you need to specify Ref = 0.

Open Source Digital Circuit Synthesis : Yosys

Okay, if you haven't completely made the switch to linux, you're in for some hassles, but, you should be able to get through the counter example with what you get here..

If all you want is to code simple state machines in verilog and get the circuit that you can then hand-enter into a schematic capture tool like LTspice, you're all set. Same applies to truth-tables, etc..

1. I don't see a build for cygwin. Good news is, once you install on Windows, you can call that executable from cygwin. So, install from here..
2. Install graphviz on cygwin - i.e., run the setup app, and, in the search box, put in graphviz and select the resulting matches to install and let it also install the dependencies. This one should be very quick.
3. Run yosys in the directory that you have the counter.ys in as (maybe) $ /cygdrive/c/Tools/yosys-win32-mxebin-0.5/yosys.exe . When downloading from github, you go to "raw" for each file and then Save As - unless you know a smarter way - in which case, please tell me :)
4. That's it! You can open up the pdf files to look at them..

Clifford Wolf > Jack Kilby

If Jack Kilby hadn't demonstrated the first IC, someone else would have. If Clifford Wolf hadn't put synthesis within the reach of the ordinary man, who knows who would have?

Used by https://www.efabless.com/

Wanna Kick Butt as a Gadgeteer? Do This

People forget Bunnie Huang is a PhD :)
Karen Field :

1. Learn the tech that makes the net possible.
2. Use search engines to avoid reinventing the wheel.
3. Learn something new outside your comfort zone.
4. Become experienced with an RTOS. Embedded Linux ain't a bad thing to pick up now..
5. Diversify your skills and move up the stack
6. Know your software well but always tinker with the latest processors
7. Get comfortable with open-source software
8. Develop a systems engineering mindset (think verification strategy, requirements, compliance early)
9. Become great at expressing yourself in both words and graphics (mindmapping ain't bad)
10. Learn wireless connectivity - my favourite - BLE, here I come!

Never Pull a Bee Sting Out with Your Fingers

Reasons

When you grab the part that's easy to grab, you actually squeeze the venom sac and the forces more venom out of the needle. Plus, the venom is accompanied by an alarm pheromone that attracts nestmates to the sting site and the new bees will give you more grief.

You should use tweezers to grip the needle directly and pull it out.

How to Make a Million with LTspice

Recently, an experienced (old) engineer (circuit designer) who does consulting jobs for a living told me, "Cadence would like you to believe that you can't design ICs without their expensive tools, but you can." Pspice is enough apparently. If you can architect and farm out blocks, that's really all you need. Of course, the user experience is crappy.. compared to Virtuoso.

XFAB supports Cadence and (maybe) Mentor/Tanner. But, what if you want to do the design (schematic) without investing in tools? Is there a way?

Sure - following the architect and farm model - you just need a way to import the LTspice databases into Cadence so you can do you full-chip LVS (layout vs schematic ver) in Cadence. Yes, you're still spending - but you might be able to get a Cadence license for a just a week and knock this out..

So, what do you need - one perl script that can take XFAB's hspice model deck and generate the design kit you can use with LTSpice. You need to push a button and out comes the symbols, subcircuit definitions and model files (minor syntax edits on the input model files) and a component-browser schematic that you can use as your palette and your in business. You will have to do some editing on the symbols to make them visually different - you do want a drain-extended MOS to look different from a regular MOS, etc.. So it's not totally automatic - but you can always get there if you want - just more work upfront.

And of course, you need some skill code that can generate the Cadence schematic database taking the LTspice db as input - if you look at LTspice - it's cool - just text files. Would be nice if they had a command interpreter log and a way to do custom bindkeys for macros - that would devastate Cadence..

Crappy, Crappy Perl : Subroutine Vars Access Globals By Default

Man, after 15+ years of using perl, you'd guess I should be aware of such a shortcoming.

You can do

sub mySub () {
    $var = 'xyz';
}

And, if there's a variable in the body called $var, you're in big trouble mate!

You *have* to use strict. Stinks..

By default, subroutine vars should be local. Anyone knows that.. Shame on your Larry..

Perl Magic with split

How come even perldoc -f split doesn't show such stuff? Surprised that python and ruby have taken over?

$s = 'JP,w,l,m,*,/cygdrive/c/Tools/LTspiceIV/lib/sym/pjf.asy'

You want to get w, l and m in an array..

@info = split( /,\s*\*\s*,/ , $s);
@info = reverse ( split( /,/ , $info[0] ) );
@info = reverse( @info[0..$#info-1] );

okay, maybe this is looking a bit contrived. But, anyway, I started, I might as well finish :

@info = ( split( /,/ , ( split( /,\s*\*\s*,/ , $s) )[0] ) )[1..10]

Okay, a bit of cheating there - you have to know your data - so that the magic "10" is big enough..
Actually, that's not a good one. DON'T USE IT.. You wish they would support [1..] with the 2nd argument omitted.

Use
@info = split( /,/ , ( split( /,\s*\*\s*,/ , $s) )[0] );
@info = @info[1..$#info];

Did you know that the range operator also behaves like a bistable flip-flop in such a case :

if( $a .. $b ) {

}

First, it returns true only if $a is true. After that, it ignores $a and only returns true if $b is true, and so on..

Here's my rookie mistake of the day (after more than a decade with perl) :

    $is_cell = 1 if $subin =~ /^\s*$/s;

When what I really want is for $is_cell to be set to 0 when the match fails. Duh!

Perl Extract All Elements of an Array Except..

The first :

@a = ( 1, 2, 3, 4);
@a[1..$#a]
gives
(2, 3, 4) (all but the first)

@a[0..$#a-1]
gives
(1,2,3) (all but the last)

Perl : Can't modify constant item in substitution (s///) at

Hmmm... for once, perl disappoints - can't it point to the right place?

Can't modify constant item in substitution (s///) at ./xx.pl line 309, near "s/(ATTR\s+Prefix[^\n]+\n)/$1SYMATTR ModelFile $name\\$device.cir/;"

Code :

        sym_raw =~ s/(ATTR\s+Prefix[^\n]+\n)/$1SYMATTR ModelFile $name\\$device.cir/;

And.. with fix :

        $sym_raw =~ s/(ATTR\s+Prefix[^\n]+\n)/$1SYMATTR ModelFile $name\\$device.cir/;

Now, why couldn't it flag the LHS instead of talking about the substitution?

Nobel Prize 2016 : Alroy Almeida, Jesus Zozaya, James Pickard, Katarina Ilic

We made the decision to move to Shen Zhen, the electronics capital of the world.
"This allowed us to nail down our supply chain and manufacturing processes."

My buddy who's tired of haggling with the Chinese PCB manufacturers might have found his answer..

What made is possible - a background in nanotechnology. Hmm...

Seen anything great come out of Georgia Tech's behemoth nanotech building yet?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/voltera/voltera-your-circuit-board-prototyping-machine?ref=nav_search

See Who's Raking it In (Hint: Big Data) and What Cirrus Pays

http://www.anewbeginning-genesis2.com/Semiconductor/JobsSemiconductor.htm

You also see why engineers want to be patent attorneys :)

LTspice Drives PC Sales

I have one experienced consultant tell me he recently bought a Core i7 laptop just because LTspice runs faster on it.

Says it's the gold standard these days among hardware guys.. Hmmm....

http://www.scribd.com/doc/54713644/Kielkowski-Inside-SPICE#scribd

Use Doxygen

A coder today suggested people learn to use Doxygen because it told him things about his code that he did not know.

Nice.

Good job there by Dimitri van Heesch aus die Niederlanden.

Rohde Recommends : The ARRL Handbook for the Radio Amateur

Says the chapter on oscillators is a good one...

Here's a treasure trove : http://72.29.85.210/~radioama/old_books/

yoga.org.nz download page

http://yoga.org.nz/yoga_vidoes_download1.htm

Wonder why this has to be so hard. Just make the YoutTube thing downloadable.. Hmph

Anyways, you got the 56 MB file and now (it's actually not that big, but..) you want to put just the audio on your phone because you've seen the poses so many times, all you need is the timing.

There's the rub. Sure, with all the stuff they already have in XP, M$ should be able to give you a free audio ripper on Win7, but, of course, they won't.

So, google it is - and a minefield it is - no clear answer. Looks like Freemake is the winner :

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-pictures/extract-audio-from-a-wmv-file-to-wav-or-aiff/f123e7c8-7f6a-48a2-8340-ca066691bc4b

True - be very careful during the install - you CANNOT (SHOULD NOT) proceed with the Express (recommended) config which will mess up your internet browsers by installing Add Ons - duh, how else is Ellora Assets Corp to survive other than by getting cash from 3rd parties on a per-install basis?

1) Custom installation, both boxes unchecked... next
2) DO NOT install Wajam (I do not accept)
3) DO NOT install Safer Browser (I do not accept)

And, worked - I think - but the audio quality at the end of the day seems a bit disappointing - could be perception.. hmmm, the more I think of it - a lot of cut outs... yuck. But, good enough. Worth my $1 donation..

Then, opens in Audacity - and huge disappointment - can't save as a freaking mp3 and, save as WAV, the 17 MB is now 62 MB!!! WT*!! To save mp3 it needs something called Lame. How lame!

Jeez! Freeware!! Why can't they do it right? Can't they see how big the file was that they started with? It's exporting 128 kbps! Another pain in the * trying to search for how to knock the sample rate down. *ds..

File > Export Audio > Options (Instead of Save) - and then, if you try 16 kbps, it tells you that that's not compatible with a project sample rate of 44 ksps. Ha ha :)

Concept to Product in Months : I've Wasted My Life :)

Teja Philipp and Philipp Engel :

http://media.ccc.de/browse/congress/2014/31c3_-_6589_-_en_-_saal_6_-_201412281730_-_mr_beam_goes_kickstarter_-_teja_philipp_-_philipp_engel.html#video

Looks like knowing software is a big deal - just knowing the problem decomposition is a big deal...
Super job! I'm an IC designer and I don't feel like an engineer. These 2 guys are code-junkies and they built this with their hands!
How did they go to manufacturing?
You see these guys and you think - ya, it's possible for white guys to be as skinny as Indians.
They ordered $7k worth of stepper motors through Alibaba.
4 prototypes for the PCB.. (Arduino shield)
4 3D printers spent 4 months 3D printing the parts! WT*? Man, these guys are unstoppable!
Looks like they got skinny from the workout they got from crimping cables and drilling wood..
260 kits total to be delivered.. Too much work involved in vetting suppliers on Alibaba who promise stuff they can't deliver..
350 backers, but they had to trade emails with about 1600 people!

Bunnie Sums Up the Chinese Threat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msrTR3hNDQM
(Talking about Fernvale)
Slides : http://www.bunniefoo.com/fernvale/fernvale-31c3.pdf

Other 31C3 talks from 2014 : http://media.ccc.de/browse/congress/2014/

Middlebrook's EET (Extra Element Theorem) Without Tears

Short and sweet.

Want a mnemonic? "The Prisoner of Zenda" - n before d basically. How about whether it's Z_n/Z or Z/Z_n? Just think what you need to get when you put Z = infinity and you're done.. Easy? See... (BTW, I strongly suspected Middlebrook had an English streak to him..) In his words :

• What's Z_d : It's the driving point impedance looking into the port where you're going to connect Z, with the input port shorted.
• What's Z_n : It's the impedance looking into the the port where you're going to connect Z, with the output port nulled for any value of the input. No matter what the input port voltage is, the output port voltage is 0 - which is not the same as shorting it to ground.

What about an input impedance? In that case, you might be pulling your hair out for Zn. If you trust the pros (Dr. V) just calculate the Z looking in with the test (port where Zin is determined) port open and you're done.. For a Zin function, the input and output ports are the same. What's the logic though? 

State-Diagram of the O-S FAN4860

The Best Salesman In the World

Kaufman is new in town and looking for a job. He goes to a cloth merchant.
I am new in town. Let me sell your wares.
We don't need more salesmen now.
I am the best salesman in the world. Give me something to sell and you can hire me if I succeed.
Okay, I have a set of trouser pieces. You can try your best with them.
Kaufman comes back in a week and says, I realized I'm only the second best salesman in the world. The best one is the one who sold you these pieces.

BTW, one guy once advised me to read Og Mandino's book, "The Greatest Salesman in the World."

If you want to jump straight to the scrolls, they are here. Instructions are in the first scroll..

http://mnsales.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Og-Mandino-10-Scrolls.pdf

LTspice Help : Viewing Internal SubCircuit (Subckt) Voltages

kudos : http://www.edaboard.com/thread209216.html

Tools > Control Panel > Save Defaults and check "Save Subcircuit Node Voltages"

Giving ViaDesigner a Try

Had seen a request from Triad a year ago asking for people to evaluate them. Never heard back..

Now, the stuff is available as a free download on Cnet. What gives?

The claim is, if you use their Via-Configurable-Array (VCA), you get your IC Design done faster, safer, simpler and less expensively.

It's an 800 MB download by the way..

Who did they partner with to integrate SPICE you wonder? BTW, heard that Chris Collins managed to grind TIspice to the ground. How did he do so well I asked. Answer : He's very good at managing up. They got a great deal from Cadence apparently - unlimited licenses or something - and the integration with AMS is better, so win-win.

Verdict on installation : Yuck, yuck, yuck! They don't warn you the MG's SystemVision will be installed. And when MG asks you for a license key, what the * are you supposed to do?

Then, you try to run : Super-yuck!

Unable to instantiate DPROJMANLib.ProjectManager COM object. Ensure dprojman.dll is registered.

*ds! What the hell is Reid Wender trying to prove?

Getting Serious about the FAN4860

When it comes to performance of a boost, what do you target?
IQQ - no load input current - as low as possible.
Vout : Accuracy of the output voltage - as good as possible. They're good on the high side, but bad on the low side (Eg. 4.85 - 5.05 - 5.15). What gives - obviously it's something to do with the load-regulation not being corrected.
Vout-ripple : Ripple in the output - as low as possible. Looks like they're about 2 mV p2p with 5 mA and about 10 mV p2p with 200 mA. What giveth?
f_sw : Tolerance of switching frequency - as good as possible - not really an issue if you use a fixed-frequency architecture, but a huge issue otherwise.. They're saying they use a min-TON and computed TOFF. Really? Hence no plots of frequency as a function of load or other things.. Hmm.. What if the customer always wants f_sw to be above a certain value so he doesn't have to worry about interference.
They say the current-source soft-start mode LIN1 is exited for LIN2 mode if Vout is less then VIN-1V after 16 clock counts from start of LIN1. Really? How about telling us what clock this might be?

Cool part - when you design, you have to think about how you're going to test everything with such reduced pin-cout. What can you do with the VOUT pin, the EN pin?
What bells and whistles can you add for the customer? FCS talks about fault detection during startup - but how do they signal the faults? One thing that comes to mind is a simple pull-down current source on the EN pin - 1 uA for one thing, 5 uA for another, etc..

The functional description has just enough detail to leave you tantalizingly unsure what they mean. From reading the PFM Mode section, you get that ON time is when the Low-Side (LSD) switch is ON. (Coz that's how you do a skip-mode - get IL large and let it dump into the Vout so your switching frequency is really low). Of course, this opens up the question of how they ensure the customer can override the skip-mode and force PWM operation. Hmmm.. What do they mean by current-mode modulation?

EE Times Quizzes : Stay Current, or not

• Voltage References
• Friday Quiz: Inductance and Capacitance in Transmission Lines
• Friday Quiz: Signal Bandwidth
• Friday Quiz: PAM Is Coming
• Friday Quiz: S-Parameters
• Friday Quiz: Bit Errors
• Friday Quiz: Oscilloscope Probing
• Friday Quiz: S-Parameters
• Friday Quiz: Differential Pairs
• Friday Quiz: Bit Errors
• Friday Quiz: Bipolar Transistors
• Friday Quiz: More Radar
• Friday Quiz: Eye Diagrams & Jitter
• Friday Quiz: PAM4 Modulation
• Friday Quiz: Fiber Optic Measurements
• Friday Quiz: Radar
• Friday Quiz: Forgotten Test-Equipment Companies
• Friday Quiz: More Measurement Units
• Friday Quiz: Data Acquisition
• Friday Quiz: Units of Measurement
• Friday Quiz: Electrical Heroes
• Friday Quiz: Bit Errors & Jitter
• Friday Quiz: Forgotten T&M Companies
• Friday Quiz: Transmission Lines
• Friday Quiz: Calibration & Metrology
• Friday Quiz: Machine Vision, RF, Semiconductor Processes
• Friday Quiz: EMC & ESD
• Friday Quiz: Decibels and S Parameters
• Friday Quiz: Temperature Measurement
• Friday Quiz: All Oscilloscopes
• Friday Quiz: Test Your Test Knowledge
• Friday Fun: Instrumentation Challenge Questions, Part 3
• Friday Fun: Instrumentation Challenge Questions, Part 2
• Friday Fun: Instrumentation Challenge Questions, Part 1

The Greatest : Greg Giraldo

How do you keep that show on the air?
That wasn't a premise to a joke. That was a real question.
I don't want to say no one watches it, but more people have seen Dennis Rodman reading. (It's even funnier because D is in the audience or on the stage..)
To Bea Arthur (and Pam A) you both were quintessential feminist icons of your day and you both blew Kid Rock.
BTW, Pam, Kid Rock wanted to be here, but he got stuck in a 20 year old.
Adam Corolla - you horse-toothed *rd. You have a mouth full of 2 by 4's. Everytime you smile I remember to waterproof my deck.
Good to see Eddie Griffin. Eddie Griffin - people said there wouldn't be any big movie-stars here tonight and they were right.
Pam : You're environmentally conscious but you've caused more seed to be spilled than the department of agriculture.
What's the deal with the implants Pam? They're in, they're out, they're in, they're out - jeez Pam, they're not contact lenses, they're tits. You've been inflated and deflated more times than Jeff Ross's prom date.
You've done so much - humanitarian causes, TV show, written 2 books. You're busier than Courtney's pharmacist.
2 books Pam! What's up with that? You've written more books than you've read.
To Carrot Top. What did you do to your face? How did you do that? You look retarded. How did you find a plastic surgeon who could add a chromosome?
Jeff Ross - you're running a talent show! Where did you get the balls? You running a talent show is like Michael Vick running the ASPCA.
Snoop, you've killed people, you're filled with toxins, you've been banned from every country on the planet. You're like Chinese toothpaste.
Cheech and Chong - just when I thought you were gone, you came back. You're like the herpes of comedy.
Toby Keith is here. Toby, I'm glad you could take time off from spitting on Mexicans to be here. Toby, you put the "big" in bigot.
Larry the Cable Guy - you've been inside more farm animals than Purina.
You lost 50 pounds on Nutrisystem and another 10 when you shaved your back.
How are you so popular!??? Your fans can't afford cable. They're not coming because you're funny. They're coming to see you because they've never seen a cable guy.
Tom Arnold is here. Tom, so glad you could take time off from being Rosanne's ex husband. Joan actually named another of her s*ty watches after you. The Tom Arnold edition - it never stops ticking and it used to come in a giant hairy box.
Joan, what the f did you do to your upper lip? Not just you all the rubber-faced monsters out here - what goes into peoples' heads? Why? Really? Is that good? How much worse could your real face look than that clown mask you've had welded onto your head? You used to look your age, but now you don't even look your species.
Look at this dais - it's not a roast, it's a melt. The devil has signed so many deals with you people, he's got carpel tunnel's syndrome.
Jeff Ross - how fat are you planning on getting? You're getting faster than you're aging. You're like the curious case of Benjamin Glutton.
Speaking of fat and ugly, Hulk Hogan is here everybody. I can't imagine why your wife loves you. You're an old man who dresses like a Hooters waitress.
Hoff, you're even more popular in Europe. The Queen knighted you. She dubbed you Sir Ossis of Liver. Have you ever not been drunk? You used to have a car that started when you talked to it. Now you have a car that won't start when you blow into it.
You're such a drunk that when alcohol does its taxes, it lists you as a dependent.
Your liver is so shriveled, black and dead, if you put your ear to your stomach, you could hear, "what you talking about Willis?"
Ralphie May - you're like the population of India - big, sweaty and double in size every year. You're the only guy who watches porn and comes when the guy delivers the pizza.