SVFIG
Next Meeting:
Saturday, April 30th
Fifth Saturday
at
Cogswell College
1175 Bordeaux Dr.
Sunnyvale, CA

Bring your laptop computer and wireless card to the meeting for free on-site Internet access at Cogswell!

If you would like to have meeting announcements e-mailed to you, send the message Subscribe SVFIG Meeting Agenda to: George Perry

09:45

Starbucks Coffee, Tea, Bagels, and Pastries

10:00

WinSpice - CH Ting

"I am getting deeper into WinSpice, which processes text files of SPICE models, as SPICE meant to be. I've gotten good models of OpAmps and comparitors. However, I need good digital IC models of the 74AC02, 74AC74, and 74AC86. I can talk about these models and how to integrate them and simulate them together. My feeling is that SPICE is a very important tool to which we have not paid much attention. I like to get to the bottom of it."

"WinSpice deals with SPICE2 and SPICE3 text files without the GUI interfaces of PSPICE, which often stand in the way of understanding the basic models."

"I suggest people download WinSpice and run the demos and tests. For those who are really interested, I recommend this book:"

CMOS Circuit Design, Test, and Simulation by R. Jacob Baker

11:00

DSO Business Plan - Tom Gregory

Tom will extend the simple business plan idea discussed at the last meeting to include numbers. A presentation will be developed to solicit funding for Ting's Digital Storage Oscilloscope project. The content of these presentations are continually "evolving" - this one will be a rough/early draft. Those in attendance will assume the role of venture capitalists or angel investors (the nice ones!) and offer constructive suggestions on how to improve the presentation's weak parts. Generally many meetings are held before an investor feels comfortable enough to invest, i.e., when the perceived risk and reward are reasonably balanced.

12:00

Lunch and Dilbert Film Festival

Dilbert DVDs will be shown during lunch to test out the DVD player. Lunch options include: Togos, Waiters on Wheels, or bring your own.

13:00

Introductions, Announcements, Rumors, Gossip, and Random Discussions

Potential topics include: May's lunch order-out options, elections, meeting schedule, and speaker / topic suggestions.

A Short Discussion of: The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the 21th Century - All in attendance

When scholars write the history of the world twenty years from now and they come to the chapter "Y2K to March 2004", what will they say was the most crucial development? The attacks on the World Trade Center on 9/11? The Iraq war? Or the convergence of technology and events that allowed India, China, and so many other countries to become part of the global supply chain for services and manufacturing, creating an explosion of wealth in the middle classes of the world's two biggest nations, giving them a huge new stake in the success of globalization? And with this "flattening" of the globe - which requires us to run faster in order to stay in place - has the world gotten too small and too fast for human beings and their political systems to adjust in a stable manner?

In this brilliant new book, the award-winning New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman demystifies the brave new world for readers, allowing them to make sense of the often bewildering global scene unfolding before their eyes. With his inimitable ability to translate complex foreign policy and economic issues, Friedman explains how the flattening of the world happened at the dawn of the twenty-first century; what it means to countries, companies, communities, and individuals; and how governments and societies can, and must, adapt. The World Is Flat is the timely and essential update on globalization, its successes and discontents, powerfully illuminated by one of our most respected journalists.

13:30

Ethernet Gadgets - Al Mitchell

The long-awaited presentation of AM Research's Ethernet Gadget! The device is online most of the day.

15:30

A Discussion of the SVFIG Election Process - All in attendance

Issues:

Who is allowed to nominate?

Who is permitted to be nominated?

Who should vote?

What is the voting process: paper ballot, show of hands, via email?

What about proxies?

16:00

Possible Beers and Dinner
Venues include Tied House in Mountain View.

Future Meeting Topics

May

• SVFIG Nominations
• Tour of Moffett Field Museum
  
  

June

• SVFIG Elections
  
  

Other

• Math Secrets of Mosaic Industries' QED-Forth
• Robot Parts and Pieces - vendor(s) from the RoboNexus show
• misc8051 Forth - Charley Shattuck
• Smart Dust
• A USB Device Enumerator in SwiftForth
• PID Control
• SVFIG meeting or meeting fragments as Webcast
• Forth Day 2005 in Anaheim
• Space-rated Forth chip
• Forth-based mass-market appliance computers - Canon Cat and/or QX10
• Group excursion to "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" movie

SVFIG welcomes everyone's participation at its monthly meetings. There are many ways to contribute:

• bring in a hardware or software item to discuss,
• present a topic in an area of expertise,
• discuss a book, paper, website, new product, new application, or an article in Forthwrite, or
• talk about a current project.

If you would like to present at an SVFIG meeting, contact Kevin Appert.