XFAB's Plan for Explosive Growth in the Analog Design Market

1. Partner with LTspice (i.e., pay LT some money to get them to support encrypted spice models)
2. Get LT to support runtime loading of the encrypted model from the internet (i.e., even though encrypted, the model file cannot be possessed by the user on his computer - it will, however, be accessible to LTspice)
3. Get LT to enhance LTspice with some additional features that will make it more Cadence-like.
4. Sit back and rake it in as more and more college kids design and refine IP that everyone can use and that big companies then start to BUY!

A Better User Experience from US Airways Mastercard

Gots something in the mail that said, "Go Paperless statements and make a purchase by Dec 31 to get a $25 statement credit."

So I did. And? Phut. Nothing!

Calls customer service and they say that promotion ended Dec 31 and it'll take 6-8 weeks for you to get the reward.

Okay. Then, why not put the $25 credit on my account "grayed out" - you know what I mean - the statement balance won't reflect it, but, if you hover over it, you get info telling you what it's about, "thanks for participating in our Paperless campaign" or something.

Still, you got to be grateful for the dumbasses running these businesses. That's how we get to be here..

how to know if mail drop for your address has happened already for the day?

So simple - why can't USPS put the BMW logo on their vans and think about being more effective and innovative?

Ultimate IDE

How many times have you been working on a project and had to go to an online forum to get help on a certain issue?

How about your IDE ask you what forums you are subscribed to (suggest some good ones - will force forums to maintain some standards - no Dick Cheney allowed, etc).

Then, before you start a particular piece of work, you describe what you're trying to do and some intermediate milestones you expect to accomplish. Then, it checks out the forums and, you have your help ready and waiting..

Cadence++ : Using Touch to Improve Productivity

Have you heard Richard Restak, der neuroscientist, say that cognitive ability is higher when one is looking down? What gives?

Anyhow, I'm surprised that Cadence hasn't jumped on this - I can just see myself whacking out layout so much faster if I'm looking down at the desk, touching a component to select it (or more than one), doing a twist gesture to rotate, etc. Pinch zoom would also be cool.. Come on Cadence, are you begging for another SR from me?

man++

Go in a web browswer and type "man something" and you should usually get the unix man page for the command "something" as the first match.

man++ : be able to type something like "man mount -tjffs2" and you get

mount - mount a filesystem

-tjffs2 : inferred to mean vfstype is "jffs2"



You get the idea. User came looking to find out what an option means. You save him the pain of reading the whole man page to find out what a particular option, or options mean..

iPhone Killer App Revives Pittman Shorthand

Think about it - are there times in your life when you really can't be talking to Siri and are forced to type or Swype?

Enter Pittman Shorthand.

All you need is a line across the page and you drag your finger (and use pressure) to write. In cases of ambiguity, you get choices immediately, just like Swype.

This is an app that will actually make people smarter.

Finally an app that takes a whole team to do - you need a handwriting recognition guy too..