1/18    http://www.circuitcity.com/closed.html
        oopsie doodle!
        \_ How much cheaper will I be able to get a Canon 50D or 5D for?
           \_ i dunno, but you should go today and report back.  the liquidat'n
              sale isn't very well known yet, IMO.  however, such sales are
              also known for having crap discounts.
           \_ who knows, check the forums.  from what i've read it's "10% off"
              and no idea how the bigger ticket items are doing which is usu
              where you can get the better deals
              and a few deals here and there.
              http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/deal-discussion/895549/?start=0
              \_ 10% is lame. I can get over 10% from B&H Photo or Adorama
              \- you're not going to find magic deals on highly liquid stuff.

9/26    Has anyone had a head unit installed/replaced at Circuit City
        or Fry's? If so, would you recommend them for installation?
        Also, if there are better places than CC or Fry's in the South
        Bay, please let me know. tia.

3/11    Which non-commercial Linux 64bit distro is most compatible with
        enterprise tools (in particular the Cadence/Synopsys tools?)
        \_ Probably CentOS b/c it is RHEL recompiled from SRPMS.
           \_ I didn't like CentOS 4.2 very much.  (64-bit).  It's possible
              it was misinstalled, but I found it lacking in polish.  It was
              hard to compile things for it, things wouldn't work...  --PM
              \_ Knowing some of the people behind CentOS and cAos, I'm
                 very nervous to build on them. I am pretty sure at least one
                 of their core people will not know what Cadence and Synopsys
                 are. You are probably best off asking the Cadence/Synopsys
                 communities about their Linux experience rather than Linux
                 users about their experience with these "enterprise tools".
                 BTW, if you hadn't clarified, those are not the tools I would
                 have assumed you were referring to. We also found a number
                 of other weird behaviors and possible file systems bugs in
                 64bit AssOS, but I think that's expected with their lacking
                 quality control and testing systems [e.g. file with diff
                 sizes having the same md5 hash] ... but that was at least 6mos
                 ago. Lately the bugs I am dealing with are in more obscure
                 areas like infiniband drivers, and it's possible nobody is
                 perfect there.
                 perfect there. Linux works ok for some of my integer crunching
                 projects which can be naively parellelized. My colleagues
                 doing more complicated MPI stuff see wierd, hard to reproduce
                 problems.
                 \_ They both recommend Redhat Enterprise.  I have run the
                    32bits variant with not much problem.  Not sure what it's
                    like in the 64b env.  RHEL 32b works fine.  Trying to
                    see if RHEL 64b exists and works fine.
                    \_ RHEL 4 + most recent update seems to work pretty
                       well on our dual opterons in 64b mode. Try it out.
        \_ Stupid question, but I'm not familiar with either of these--got
           a URL that actually describes what they do?  Looks like sort of a
           set of cost management tools (aka part of SAP)  -John
           \_ iirc, cadence and synopsis make circuit/chip design and
              verification tools.
              \_ Yes, very expensive tools. If you are using such expensive
                 tools then why not shell out for a commercial OS like RHEL?
                 To do otherwise seems penny wise and pound foolish.
                 \_ He might want to avoid the cost of the license if
                    he is running a very large (100+ system) cluster.
                    Personally I agree, just run RHEL. Another option
                    is to try Slowlaris x86, it runs fairly well on
                    x86_64 (opteron) systems.
                    \_ If he's running a large cluster then the cost of
                       the licenses is even less per node. It's silly to
                       spend, say, $100K on hardware and $100K on tools
                       and then worry over $2K/year for RHEL.
        \_ In my experience, the 64-bit RHEL 3/4 and it's CentOS derivative
           aren't as polished as the 32-bit versions. The package managers
           often get confused about 32/64-bit issues and throw weird
           unimformative errors. They're supposed to be 100% compatible
           with 32-bit software, yet some libraries come only as 64-bit
           objects and there is no rpm for 32-bit (but you can grab those
           manually from the 32-bit distribution). Of course, I am using
           Linux in a different environment, so my comment might not be
           very useful to you.
           \_ I agree w/ this. I've seen a lot of libc6 issues in 64bit
              mode on RHEL 4, but the same problems do not occur in 32bit
              RHEL. Another option for OP is to try SuSE's Enterprise
              Linux Server (SLES).

11/4    http://www.bangedup.com/bu_posts/ratmonstermig74.wmv
        Category: humor
        Synopsis: pranksters hire a PETA member to clean up a biological
                  laboratory who gets scared by a live mutated mouse man.

4/27    What's a good replacement for the Byte magazine? I want something
        more technical than PC Magazine, but less extreme than the art
        of computer programming.
        \_ Uhm, Dr. Dobb's? Maybe too technical? Are you doing only a
           software mag or do you want a hardware mag? If you want pure
           hardware, you can try circuit cellar (for ee in general, not
           only for computers).

9/13    What's the industry standard (if any) VHDL simulation program?
        ie, the photoshop for image editing.... thanks.
        \_ It really depends on what you want to do.  The short-short
           answer is don't use VHDL.  If you must, then it depends on what
           you're trying to do.  FPGA guys are big on Modeltech, I hear.
           For ASIC types, it's the usual VCS and NC.  NC used to have
           the better VHDL/verilog cosim.  Not sure what the state of
           the art is now, since I haven't shopped for simulators for
           a few years.
           \_ I need it for a class. What are some well known and easy
              to use programs for writing code in vhdl? My professor
              is using a demo version of some software from ages ago..
              \_ emacs vhdl major mode
              \_ I think modelsim comes with an editor. It's probably the
                 easiest simulator for a single user too.

8/9     Triffids!
        \_ Zulus!  Thousands of them!
        \_ Dive bombers!  Enemy dive bombers!
        \_ That's no moon.
        \_ Nazis.  I hate these guys
        \_ Yo she-bitch, let's go.
        \_ looks like i picked the wrong time to quit sniffing glue
                \_ Joey, have you ever been to a Turkish prison?
                   \_ Midnight Express.
        \_ GUNS!  BIG! FUCKING! GUNS!
        \_ You cannot do that without the will of the people, Mr. President!
        \_ I *like it*!!
        \_ We got nukes, we got knives, sharp sticks...
        \_ Can someone please provide a synopsis of the Day of Triffids?
                \_ Better yet, a synopsis using quotes from other films.
        \_ "Apples, Apples!" "Rain!" "Very small rocks!" "A DUCK!" ""

7/8     Now hiring.  see /csua/pub/jobs/Synopsys -mel

5/25    Getting a new PC, $500 range.  Is it a better deal to buy from
        Dell, Circuit City, or PC Club, etc?
        \_ Dude, get a Dell.
           \_ Is it because it's more reliable, has better customer service,
              better deal for the money, or just cuz they have a funny
              commerical?
              \_ too bad, someone erased my post
              \_ you think the commercials are funny?
                 \_ I think she is using this definition of "funny":
                        dict -
                        4: experiencing odd bodily sensations;
                        \_ Throwing up or feeling queasy isn't odd.  It is
                           unpleasant but not odd.

5/10    What's the difference between a simulator and an emulator?
        \_ Emulation is along the lines of "perform all the same actions as"
           while simulation is "a system or enviornment where conditions are
           the same." The distinction is highly contextual.  And as you give
           absolutely no context, your question is pretty unanswerable.
              \_ no, it doesn't.
           \_ are there simulators that do not try to "perform all the same
              actions as" the design under simulation?  is non-trivial
              simulation ever performed where "a system or environment where
              conditions are the same"?
              \_ Don't be daft.  Without valid context, this discussion means
                 nothing.  "But those words can be used almost interchangibly!
                 And they might even be SYNONYMS!"  You're beating a dead horse
                 behind chicken coop doors.
              \_ yes.  The Palm OS Simulator is one example.
        \_ Emulator: VirtualPC, VMWare, etc.
           Simulator: VCS, VerilogXL, etc.
        \_ an emulator tries to mimic hardware.
           \_ and a simulator doesn't?  try again.
              \_ No. He means mimic in that the host environment pretends
                 to be capable of what the guest environment is capable
                 of giving an illusion to the user. For example, VirtualPC
                 gives the user an illusion that a Mac is running Windows
                 software. Simulators make no pretense of doing so. For
                 example, VCS is a verilog simulator. It doesn't allow
                 the computer it's running on to mimic the hardware it's
                 simulating.
                 \_ what's the point of running a simulator if it doesn't
                    mimic the hardware it's simulating?  if i give you a
                    black box, how can you tell if there's a simulator or
                    an emulator running underneath?
                    \_ We use an RTL simulator for ASIC design so that
                       we can pass it some test vectors (similar to how
                       things would happen in real life) and view the
                       results in a waveform viewer. Simulators are
                       orders of magnitude slower than a real machine
                       but the purpose is not to have a usable system
                       but something which you can debug through a
                       waveform viewer. The engineers at Intel, for
                       example, are not using RTL simulators to run
                       WindowsXP on a chip that doesn't exist. That
                       would be impractical. They use it to run small
                       bits of code for design verification purposes.
                       \_ ah, an asic "expert".  have you done hardware/
                          software co-design, where the low-level driver
                          and firmware is developed on the hardware simulator?
                          and they call that... co-emulation?  no!  it's
                          called co-sim, son, as in co-simulation.  and just
                          because win-xp is too bloated and modern processors
                          are too large, that doesn't mean that no os has
                          ever been booted in simulation in the history of
                          hardware design and simulation.
                        \_ AMD used to boot NetBSD on Hammer simulations
                           regularly.
                    \_ speed.  a simulator can be faster than an emulator at
                       the expense of accuracy.
                       \_ ah, speed.  so let's say you have an OS running
                          on a cpu and system that is being simulated on
                          a (say) verilog simulator.  are you simulating or
                          emulating the OS?  can a simulator emulate?  can
                          an emulator simulate?
                          \_ I don't think there's always a clear-cut
                             distinction.
              \_ Maybe he means stimulator.  Oh, yeah. That mimics hardware
                 also.

2/5     Anybody know the address of Sun Microsystems in Sunnyvale, the one
        right across Synopsis? On Corte Madera? Thanks.

9/16    I need [a] recommendation for a couple of books.  One an introduction
        to verilog.  And another an introduction to how to write good
        verilog that can be synthesized.  Or one book if it covers both
        topics well.  I'm the SW guy looking to get into ASIC design.
        Amazon has 100s of verilog books.  They're very expensive and I don't
        want to waste money buying the wrong one.  Thanks.
        \_ Take EE319 @ Stanford.
        \_ for synthesis, ask a friend for the Synopsys tutorial.
        \_ My recommendations (no, I don't personally know J. Bhasker):
                "A Verilog HDL Primer" by J. Bhasker - Intro to verilog
                "Verilog HDL Synthesis, A Practical Primer" by J. Bhasker
                        - Intro to synthesis
           Side note: We'll see when verilog -> C occurs (if it ever occurs).
                - yakura

7/19    Can somebody recommend a book (or a web site) that has step by step
        descriptions of how an ASIC is built?  From the verilog/vhdl to
        actual silicon.  What tools are used and what happens at every
        stage, etc.  Thanks.
        \_ If you're still in school, take 141 or 152 or intern at an ASIC
           design group. If you're out in the job market, join one.
           Unfortunately, ASIC design is not something easily done "on
           your own" as is with software where you can just write your
           own stuff or download the Linux/BSD source and muck around
           with. Many of the tools like VCS and DC have very expensive
           license fees. Learning Verilog or VHDL isn't that hard. Just
           pick up an HDL book (I'll look up the one I use) and try it
           on a free simulator like Icarus. But learning an HDL is kind
           of trivial and only a tiny portion of the entire ASIC design
           flow. For more HDL info, try going to
           http://home.europa.com/~celiac/othersite.html
           \_ The book my co-workers use is Verilog HDL by Palnitkar.
              Like K&R, it's a crappy read but a decent reference.
           \_ I took 152 ten years ago and it didn't tell me how an ASIC is
              built.  --- !OP
              \_ Well, he/she wanted to gain experience using an HDL and
                 152 made you use VHDL, at least.
                 \_ there's a difference between HDL and synthesizable HDL
        \_ I'm not an ASIC guy but all the ASIC guys I know say it's *very*
           boring work.  What's your interest in the topic?
           \_ really?  architecture and microarchitecture is fun.  so is
              coding.  simulation and bug-fixing is fun, tho i find test
              writing moderately boring.  i like hacking synthesis stuff,
              but then i'm an old fart.  back end is mostly boring, tho
              there are some interesting bits as i look more into it.  lab
              bring up is highly amusing, tho i've noticed that other people
              don't seem to share my enthusiasm.
              \_ dunno.  like I said I'm not an ASIC guy.  I know nothing about
                 it.  I was mostly curious as to what the OP saw in it that my
                 ASIC buddies don't.
        \_ http://parts.jpl.nasa.gov/asic/sect.1.1.html
        \_ sjmercury, 1/31/2002.  there's a 3/4 page graphic on page 4c of
           the business section that explains all the steps from arch to
           bring up to system integration.

7/15    So I have 3 days to (re)learn VHDL. The only EE class I took was
        cs152, no 150, no 141.  Any advice?
        \_ uh, what is this for? And how can you take 152 without 150?
        \_ so, is comp arch considered software or hardware?
                \_ it's the boundary in between them.
        \_ they teach it now in 61c/150.
        \_ 141 is probably irrelevant for most vhdl coding tasks.  150 is
           more relevant.  if you've learned vhdl in the past, just do a
           few exercises and you'll be fine.  if vhdl is new, find someone
           who knows the language well to teach you.  of course, this only
           addresses syntactical sugar.  learning how to design once you've
           learned vhdl is another matter.
        \_ what's the diff between Verilog and VHDL? Adv/Disadvantages?
           \_ the diff? the syntax. they do the same thing but vhdl requires
              more typing and in my exp. the latest tools etc. are targetted
              more at verilog. vhdl has some higher level constructs like
              records and shit that can be nice for some things. verilog
              is used by the vast majority of valley companies.

3/18    Anybody supported Cadence CAD tools before?  An application has a
        license file that's expiring and I'm asked to put in a new license
        file.  Is it a simple case of entering the path to the new license
        file or is it more complicated?  Thanks.
        \_ yes.
        \_ is it a node locked license or a floating license?
           if floating, with redundant license servers? cadence isnt too bad
           but there are a few distinct and fairly common cases -jon
           \_ it's a license for one single machine.  No license server.
              \_ put the license file anywhere and have the environment
                 variable LM_LICENSE_FILE set to be that pathname.  having
                 it in the same place as the old license file is the easiest
                 way to accomplish this. -jon

2/25    What happened to the "vis" program? The one that shows the output
        of a program repeatedly?
        \_ http://vlsi.colorado.edu/~vis/whatis.html
             \_That's not the program I am talking about.
             \_ That's not the program I am talking about. I want vis:
                "a program that repeatedly executes a specified command
                and refreshes the display of its output screen" from O'Reilly
                \_ From what O'Reilley?  They publish hundreds of titles.
                          \_ O'Reilly Unix Power Tools. 1st ed. This Program:
                           http://www.chemie.fu-berlin.de/cgi-bin/man?Vis
                             \_ Most of the power tools were on the included
                                CD, not necessarily part of any OS
        \_ There's a similar program called "display"
           http://www.ipsmart.com/src or misc/display in FreeBSD ports.
           Be careful if you have ImageMagick installed; it also has a binary
           in /usr/local/bin named "display" (which no one ever really uses,
           so, well, don't worry about it)
           --dbushong

1/4     W2K has by default a button next to the "start" button that is used
        to clear the workspace.  I'm not sure what happened to mine.  How
        do I get it back?  What executable do I look for in creating the
        shortcut?  Thanks.
        \_ What do you mean by "clear the desktop"?  My W2k never had such a
           button.  Maybe you want the tool bars menu you can find by right-
           clicking on the system tray?
        \_ you mean the button that automatically minimizes/restores
           everything?  It's in the Quick Launch toolbar or something.  Or hit
           Win+D.
        \_ right click on the desktop toolbar.  choose the item for Toolbars.
           make sure "quick launch" item is checked.
           like the other people said, pressing WIN+ D will work.  as well as
           WIN + M
           \_ oh crap.  I toggled the "quick launch" thing and now the
              quick launch buttons are on the right hand side.  It used to be
              next to the "start" button.  Moving it to the left doesn't work.
              the window icons always get in between the start button and the
              quick launch buttons.  Is there a way to fix this?  the help
              index doesn't seem to talk about the placement of quick launch
              buttons.
              \_ geez.  what do you mean moving it to the left doesnt work?
                 it does.  if you still cant get it to get to the left side,
                 close all apps, then with the vertical bar, shove it to the
                 left and it should stay there.
                 \_ Look, this guy is obviously a clueless Windoze moron.
                     \_ Yes and you're obviously a clueless linux bigot.  So
                        what?  You don't see anyone going off on you about it.
        \_ Is there a diff between Win-M and Win-D?

1/19    Related question to the contract post below.  I'm currently charging
        customers $100/hr for solaris sysadmin work.  Setup machines, servers,
        networks. And some basic CAD tool maintanance and compilation/build
        jobs.  Is that too much or too little?  What are your rates for the
        different types of jobs?  Thanks.
        \_ Where can I get some of your contracts?  $100/hr is great!

1/17    Another CAD tool question.  I have spice files with multiple layers
        of circuits.  I understand that spice flattens the circuits down to
        a single level before running it.  But it doesn't produce that single
        layer circuit in a file.  Is there a tool out there that will flatten
        a spice file?  I want to use this one layer circuit file as input
        to another program, not spice.  Thanks.

1/16    Has anybody written perl scripts that translate CAD related data
        files (all in text) from one format to another?  Or know of one?
        I'm just looking for an example of this type of program.  Thanks.
        \_ Which CAD software?
           \_ from some PC program whose name I don't remember to berkeley's
              MAGIC.  The translation is straightforward.  There's a set of
              keywords and numbers following keywords.  I'm looking for an
              sample program that does something similar.
              \_ Magic was a piece of shit. Even with its so-called "user
                 friendly" Tcl/Tk GUI Max it still stunk. Fortunately, in
                 the real world, you use real CAD tools (which unfortunately
                 Synopsis will charge you 7 digits for).

4/11    What's a good book for Verilog (kind of like the Larry Wall for
        Perl or K&R for C type book)?
        \_ the one that's red. -ali.
                \_ ali is the next generation tom. fuckin-know-it-all,
                   gives completely fuckin' useless answers. fuck off.
                   \_ I agree. That was about the most useless response
                         I had ever seen before. --original poster
                                \_ that's nothing!  ali took a notepad
                                   and pencils from the office once.
                   \_ yer just a playah hatah
                   \_ guess how i'd reply to "who is the biggest dipshit
                      lacking the most sense of humor?" on the motd. -ali
                        \_ yer mom is red, and haha, that is funny!!!!!!!!!!!
                   \_ Nobody likes a little shit who just bitches about
                      other people's answers and doesn't provide his own.
                      And then doesn't sign his name.
        \_ depends on what you want to do with the language.  if you
           want to write synthesizable code, synopsys used to publish
           a verilog tutorial that's pretty good.  of course, this was
           like 12 years ago, and synopsys may not publish that document
           anymore.  don't know what's the book to read for doing verilog
           dv stuff.

1/20    This is a long shot, but can anyone tell me how a frequency
        divider circuit works?  Assume I have a voltage v(t) = cos(2wt).
        How would I build a circuit that outputs cos(wt)?  By the way,
        this isn't homework; I was curious but couldn't find it on the
        net or in my old EE textbooks.  I know how to double a frequency
        by squaring and filtering, but how to do a divider eludes me.
        \_ idiot way - convert the sine wave into a square wave, attach
           the result to the clock of a flip flop, insert an inverter
           loopback into the flip flop, buffer the output of the flip
           flop, and attach a capacitor to the output of the buffer.
           also known as the rube goldberg (however you spell it) solution.
        \_ squaring and removing DC only works on sinusoidal signals.
           a non-causal solution is trivial, but
            if you want caual and works only with sinusoids, use a PLL
            or use the fact that sin^2(u/2) = (1-cosu)/2, and somehow put
            the sign back in after square rooting. homeboy's solution above
            is just as elegant.
            noone deals with sine waves any more dude. -ali.
            \_ you're an idiot.  i suppose you think the carrier signals
              on the 10 GHz irridium phones are TTL pulses, and that
              the engineers who designed them are all digital monkeys
              like yourself?  I know guys who are running mixers at over
              a terahertz; do you think they designed those by clever use
              of digital circuits?
                                -physicist sick of ignorant EE students
              \_ If digital monkeys bug you so much, get the hell off of
                 soda and start your own party on the s00per analog
                 computer you've got back at the lab, physics-boy.  You're
                 just bitter because physicists, as a group, have to be the
                 only set of people with worse hygiene and poorer social
                 skills than EECS majors.
                 \_ Math grad students are fighting for pride-of-place at
                    the bottom of the list, too!

12/31   Great soda crashes.  Anyone have a history of it?  I think the
        last major one was in 1995?
        \_ 1992. Soda Mark I died when some moron left the grounding cable
           for the internal tape drive hanging loose and it landed on the
           motherboard causing a nasty short circuit and frying the mb.
           On the bright side, the downtime resulted in the acquisition of
           Mark II, the first of the mighty Sequents.
           \_ A moment of silence, please.

2/9     Tetris arcade (and many others) emulator for PC is out.  Go to
        http://www.davesclassics.com and look for "System 16".  -- cm1ee