pjbk

Totally agree.

Being involved with FPGAs for 20+ years now, and Xilinx for the most part of it, I have witnessed the progressive decay of their software quality. The legacy Xilinx tools (Foundation) were far from perfect but at least useable -- and hackable to a degree if you needed to implement workarounds. Those were many times even suggested by Xilinx own employees that were easy to approach and responsive back in the days.

Altera Quartus was always better in terms of project organization and user interface, including their hardware tools. Third party software such as Synplify (before Synopsys bought their maker Synplicity) were light-years ahead, especially on the synthesis introspection and support for design and RTL troubleshooting.

People tend to justify the software quality and vendor lock-in because these are niche markets. I think that is a lame statement. You could tell both Xilinx and Altera, being "fabless hardware companies", treated their software departments as a necessary burden and not a critical part of their business model, which by de facto it was. The software started going downhill, progressively accumulating technical debt while it kept getting even more cryptic and expensive. I think they offshored a significant part of its maintenance in the last decade. Each release fixed bugs but astonishingly introduced very stupid new ones that a minimally decent software verification process should have caught.

Vivado is a mess. You can optimize your workflow digging down deeply with TCL scripts (yikes, its 2020!). However who has the time for learning their badly designed API and fighting with the quirkiness of their tools? I am amazed some of us use it in regulated environments where our tools need to be properly validated. I have had designs that take more than one day to synthesize, map and route. Having being bitten by some bugs and my own errors dealing with the cumbersome IDE, I always painfully go through all the logs of each step, and also many times recreate the project and rebuild just to check if the output is reproducible.

Did you see any evidence of slavery, as some documentaries mention or seem to show?

Funny how JTAG these days is synonym with in-circuit debugger. The original use of the port was to support IC interconnect testing, and for high density boards it still is. For external parallel and serial memories you can use the boundary scan registers to bit bang the pins and read the inputs. In fact, that was a popular way to program external memories on fresh boards if they didn't come with embedded bootloaders.

Even if you don't have the scan configuration file of a particular chip for your tool, they are very standard and easy to figure out. No desoldering required!

Being in the embedded safety/security industry for years, piezo igniters and sparklers are one of my go-to system test and side attack tools. They were also effective opening an August smart lock some time ago when one of my coworkers had to enter a room in a hurry and were not carrying their phone with the app. Amazingly a few zaps around the enclosure did it.

The big ones for gas stoves even work some feet away on some badly shielded products. Growing complexity, size/weight reduction and low power technology have made all these devices quite flimsy these days.

From my experience at some workplaces, Netflix was 'a pure negative' for office work. Every time there was a popular show, which was several times a month, productivity at the office noticeably took a toll.

I particularly remember some colleagues behaving like zombies for a couple of days after spending their night sleep hours binging on the platform.

Fun indeed. Some of them may even come in handy: https://imgflip.com/i/3yuikf, https://imgflip.com/i/3yumf1

It is also very responsive in Android. I use FF in the desktop but in my phone and tablets it is practically unusable. Switched to Edge there a couple of years ago and it was a smooth transition and has some good configuration options, like blocking ads.

I specialize in consulting for mission-critical systems development, with an emphasis in robotics, medical devices, avionics and functional safety. For complex projects I am also part of a network of seasoned engineers like me, who have worked in prominent companies from several industries and that work together to deliver turnkey solutions or anything in between - design to certification.

Therefore if you need help with a project don't hesitate to reach out. And if you have a similar background and experience we can use, we would certainly like to talk with you too.

* Location: Fort Lauderdale, FL USA

* Remote: Yes

* Willing to relocate: No

* Experience: Embedded systems, real-time firmware, safety applications, mechatronic design, medical devices, IoT, technical PM.

* Technologies: C/C++, Python, Rust, SystemVerilog, RTOSes, OpenCV, PyTorch, GUIs, databases and web frameworks.

* CV: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pbleyer (PDF on request)

* Email: hauptmodul@protonmail.com

I second this one. That book was awesome, as well as her story.

Since these have not been mentioned already:

* Brian Bagnall trilogy on the history of Commodore/Amiga: http://variantpress.com

* Severo Ornstein's "Computing in the Middle Ages", about how it used to be a professional programmer back in the early days. You can find his CHM oral history interview at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q243lfVdQ9E.

* "Stan Veit's History of the Personal Computer". A candid view about how the PC industry unfolded.

* "Introduction to Algorithms" by Udi Manber. IMHO one of the best books about how to approach problems with a programmer's mindset.

When I was living in Daly City I saw them regularly if I went for a night walk in the Lake Merced area close to the Olympic or Thornton park. I once went pass one on the other side of the street, he glanced at me but was more interested in inspecting a trash bin. They usually ran away.

Plenty of raccoons too. For some reason those are more comfortable around people. One night I met one walking towards me on the sidewalk. First I thought it was a fat cat. I stepped aside as he strolled by me, he stopped, gave me a greeting stare and proceeded on his business.

I specialize in consulting for mission-critical systems development, with an emphasis in robotics and medical devices. For complex projects I am also part of a network of seasoned engineers like me, who have worked in prominent companies from several industries and that work together to deliver turnkey solutions or anything in between.

* Location: Fort Lauderdale, FL USA

* Remote: Yes

* Willing to relocate: No

* Experience: Embedded systems, real-time firmware, safety applications, mechatronic design, medical devices, IoT, technical PM.

* Technologies: C/C++, Python, Rust, SystemVerilog, RTOSes, OpenCV, PyTorch, GUIs, databases and web frameworks.

* CV: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pbleyer (PDF on request)

* Email: hauptmodul@protonmail.com

I recall that was exactly the purpose of some bioweapon scenarios.

You can also use OpenSCAD from inside FreeCAD. I do it all the time. They both play together well.

Funny because I'm still getting probed by their recruiters almost on a monthly basis for several of their positions. Perhaps because I live 5 minutes away from their HQ. ;-)

It's a shame but not a surprise. I have friends and acquaintances that have worked or still work there, and yet I wouldn't vent details of what I know here, everyone knows they have been struggling with their technology, overpromise and growth. Archetype of the "too much money in too little time" syndrome, and a despair to deliver and build a successful company. Be careful with what you wish for.

I don't know Abovitz personally, though I have worked with people who worked with or under him since the early Z-KAT days and he is well regarded. Contrary to what most think about engineers in South Florida (or Florida in general), we have some very capable people here. Companies complain that they can't find good talent. However most of the time they cannot put their money where their mouth is and commit over the local "market price", which is comparatively low, to secure a good hire. It has certainly been an issue in my career, indeed. But guess what? We faced the same difficulties in one of my companies finding the right people when I lived in the Bay area a couple of years ago. The answer is not that simple.

Having worked mostly in startups through my life, from the outside it amazes me how they were trying to spread out so early. When I first heard about them they were pitching movie producers, but after they got their first $50M things started going crazy. I once dated a girl who was a writer producing fancy literary content far before they had shipped anything. This was way before they hired Stephenson. I have experience in medical devices and robotics, and their recruiters have contacted me offering positions for healthcare applications, and also a very pushy one was trying to convince me to move to their Sunnyvale office where they have a robotics team. Think industrial manipulators. Then they go out and sue their once employee Gary Bradski for doing his usual Bradski things and for which he is lauded in the valley... but not here it seems. Certainly they have management problems due to lack of experience.

It would be painful if they fail. They have been the most funded tech company in the state and at least they managed to ship, something many startups are unable to demonstrate.

Pre-powerpoint app presentations were popular back in the days. In the 80s I recall there was a huge industry of educational presentations for 8-bit Commodore and Atari machines. Some good, some bad, and some very bad. There were a few that were interactive and "hyperlinked". In particular I learned programming Atari ANTIC display lists and players & missiles with one that allowed you to modify things in an editor/debugger in realtime so you could immediately see the changes in the graphics, and also checked your correct responses at the end in the self-evaluation section. Pretty awesome. I wonder if they used an external software to program that or they just did everything themselves, as it was usually done then.

I just downloaded DosBox, installed Win3.1 and the software. I am having a blast down memory lane. It's impressive how your brain can retrieve memories so well with only minimal hints after more than 20 years... the persistence of memory!

Back in the 90s when neural networks and fuzzy logic were the rage and were going to solve all problems of human mankind (déjà vu?), I stumbled upon this nice course put together by Texas A&M in the form of an "ebook" (aka Win3.1 application). Lofti Zadeh himself was a contributor. I looked it up in my bookmarks and I cannot believe that the site is still up:

http://faculty.petra.ac.id/resmana/private/fuzzy

I was very interested in training neural networks to find out optimal fuzzy parameters for robotic control systems as an alternative to gain scheduling. There were some cool small companies making nifty scientific apps that I remember evaluating (Aptronix and Neuralogix come to my mind).

The Anki app does indeed import from CSV files, and you can choose what delimiter character it will use to separate fields.

Now get a robot to paint it.

Not only that, audio CODECs have analog filters designed specifically for audio capture and reproduction, sometimes even configurable.

The advantage of having a cheap tiny board is that you can build a system like a polyphonic synth with very capable voices with relative ease. And since each one has inputs too, you can interconnect signals giving a lot of flexibility (aka modular synth).

Cool. AK CODECs sound very nice, sometimes even better than Cirrus chips.

Some years ago I did a similar board hooking an STM32F4 to a TLV320AIC3256 CODEC. TI provides an audio development IDE, PurePath [0], to program the embedded miniDSP where you can 'code' and configure different effects graphically (they even have a guitar FX demo, tool written in LabVIEW - yikes!).

Sadly they don't disclose the low level programming instruction codes, therefore changing things programmatically in the microcontroller at runtime is limited. I tried to reverse engineer the instructions with limited success, and then I just lost interest. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[0] http://www.ti.com/tool/AICPUREPATH_STUDIO

This. And salary ranges. Honestly. It is a big waste of resources for everyone involved to go through a hiring process only to discover there will be a mismatch during the different steps or in the end because not everything was disclosed upfront.

Many of us have been part of both sides of the process and we assume there is a necessary level of professionalism and transparency here. We also understand that companies and people have different requirements which is totally OK. Just an extra sentence or two with a relevant summary goes a long way and will speak highly of your company!

ROI! Sadly the advice it's closer to reality than you would think.

One of the VCs of my previous startup was part of the original ROI (Radio On the Internet) guys.

Tente! Those were amazing too. I had some space and alien sets. I could never remember the name of the company. Thanks!

A few startups are realizing it is a rigged, unfair game and are trying to balance things a bit. They are offering stock purchase and exercise windows valid for several years, instead of just months or even days. Unfortunately it is still not a widespread practice. I have yet to see a company equalizing stock priorities of employees vs VCs.

Sadly, examples from the dotcom burst and housing crisis abound. It's a double edged sword. I have always preferred to go for early exercising.

"Many of these workers now owe far more in taxes than their stock is worth. Former Cisco engineer Jeffrey Chou, 32, owes $2.5 million in taxes on company stock he purchased last year that has since withered in value. Chou figures that if he were to sell everything he owns, including the three-bedroom Foster City, Calif., townhouse that he shares with his wife and 8-month-old daughter, the family still could not pay the bill."

* https://www.chicagotribune.com/sns-tech-taxes-story.html

It will prevent the plastic layers from detaching too easily. Specially if you do the etching in a warm bath. If you do it right, the finish is far superior than using a marker, in particular edge traces that turn out very well defined. That means it's easier to do fine pitch SMD pads, for example.

Through the years I have done many PCBs using different methods: Sharpie markers, Posca pens, inkjet and laser printing, transfers of different materials, etc. Except perhaps for pro laser etching or routing, nothing beats photomasks. In my experience the quality I get with 3D filament compares to a DIY routing table, so if you have a 3D printer and don't mind chemical etching, you don't need one.

Good question. Not yet. When I carried out the tests (3+ years ago) I didn't have PETG filament around. Then TPU worked well for me and I have been sticking with it. I have a couple of PETG spools now so I will certainly try it next time!

As I stated above, use TPU or Ninjaflex filament. It adheres very well to a clean copper surface. Start etching immediately after printing.

Adherence. Normal PLA/ABS or other plastic filaments will shrink when they cool down, and cause the thin layer of material to pull and separate from the copper. TPU is rubber-like and will have less inner stress to pull the material off. Also PLA absorbs humidity and will tend to change volume in a solution, with the same propensity to separate from the copper during the etching. TPU has more impermeability.

I have also tried using adhesion glues and hair sprays. Sometimes a thin application of hair spray (removed with a quick spray of isopropyl before the etching) helps a bit to define the edge traces. However I found that cleaning the copper very well, having a clean chamber in the printer and controlling well the etching temperature to reduce the etching time has the same effect and is less burdensome.