> Clearly none of the geniuses in Cadence Corporate Marketing had ever heard
> of Mentor's Precision RTL synthesis for FPGAs.  "It shows you how amateur
> these Intel execs are that Fister's bringing in," said one informant.  "Not
> knowing the industry's product names is a mistake that not even a high
> school dropout would make."
>
>     - from http://www.deepchip.com/gadfly/gad092106.html


As an engineer, I'll admit I take great joy skewering any marketing people
who are dumb enough to make a mistake in front of me.  It's a revenge thing.
In between their wine tasting parties and duels, the fashionably dressed
marketeers tell we grubby engineer-paupers what we must have (and not have)
in our projects and by when.  If the product fails, we're blamed.  If it's
successful, it's the party hardy marketing folk who get the kudos!  It's
like being a divorced dad -- you're a human ATM killing yourself working to
pay for everything, but mom gets all the credit if the kids turn out OK.
And the EDA marketeers are the worst.  They're used car salesmen who will
say/try/do anything to scam users into buying their messed up tools.

So, anyway, with this Catena story I've had lots of fun pointing out all the
colossal blunders Cadence Corporate Marketing did along the way.

What sucks, is, to be fair, I now have to give these Cadence marketing clowns
credit for something they did "right" -- namely their Share Your Analog Pride
campaign.  First off, although it was a closeted Virtuoso campaign, it wasn't
their typical let's-manipulate-our-customers-with-bullshit-happy-happy ads
swimming with Virtuoso propaganda (like how most EDA companies would do in
an ad campaign) -- instead it was uncharacteristically fun and interactive.

Second, their analog pride slogan contest was open to anyone.  That is, you
did NOT have to do a big long registration (where you're just signing up for
a Cadence salesman to come visit you) to vote on the best slogan.  Instead,
ANYONE could vote for any of the 286 designer-submitted slogans with just a
simple web click.  No signup required!  What was also neat was that you
could vote for more than one slogan.  Cool.

Third, their banner ads had the right artwork; a brain in half flat text and
half fun colorful 1960's psychedelic font.  Eye-catching and clever.

Here's the Top 30 Share Your Analog Pride slogans as of 9/11/2006.

    1. Analog designers have sound judgement.
       Analog uses both halves of the brain.
       Without analog, there's no digital.
       Analog designers do it continuously.
       Analog circuits behave like they are alive.

    6. Analog engineer = designer, Digitial engineer = programmer
       Digital Circuit are over driven analog circuits.
       Spice Girls & Boys OUT / Virtuoso Designers IN
       Because the world isn't just 1's and 0's
       If you're not analog, your missing something...
 
   11. Analog design requires a higher stream of consciousness.
       Digital is discrete and Analog is complete.
       Analog sounds better!
       Face it - it's an analog world!
       Analog, the glue that holds the bits together

   16. Digital is about bits and pieces.  Analog is everything!
       Analog Audio.  It goes to eleven.
       Digital simulates, Analog stimulates!
       Digital circuits are real gimpy analog ckts
       Analog design requires more than just the left brain.

   21. Analog kicks; Digital bytes
       Analog designers know how to speak.
       There is no digital.
       Analog... The way life should be!
       Analog -- why thump when you can wiggle?

   26. Analog -- it'll freq you out!
       A.C. D.C. converts 
       1010 0111 1100 1zzz zzzz
       'Digital' is just a word used to sell TVs! 
       Life begins with bang bang oscillation.

My favorites were (#28) "1010 0111 1100 1zzz zzzz" and (#17) "Analog Audio.
It goes to eleven".  No, I didn't submit either of them, but I did vote for
both of them!  I liked their subtle humor.  "Ours goes to eleven!"

Now, before Cadence Corporate Marketing gets all bigheaded on this, I've got
to point out the gotchas I found in their Analog Pride campaign.  (Heck, this
would not be a Cooley column if I wasn't bitching about something would it?!)

I did find that if you wanted to SUBMIT a slogan, you did have to register
and submit yourself to the Cadence Big Brother Sales Visit and censorship.
Yes, anyone could vote, but only those explicitly approved by the official
Cadence Corporate Marketing hegemony could submit a slogan.  And the price
you paid for this approval was a Cadence Sales visit, or a sales call, or
a sales email.  (Annoying, but not surprising.  This is EDA marketing, mind
you.  They're required to do some evil or their management isn't happy.)

But the thing that bothered me were their 2 so-called "free" screensaver
downloads.  I downloaded the one that had "1010 0111 1100 1zzz zzzz" in it.
The artwork was not the psychedelic 1960's brain, instead it was bland blue
text of the 5 fun slogans mixed with Virtuoso & Cadence marketing slogans.
This sad propaganda was disappointing, but at "free" I can't complain.

What did trouble me with the Cadence screensaver was that my Norton firewall
immediately warned me that "AnalogRevolution" was now trying to contact the
Internet!  I had my firewall block it.  To check, I removed and reinstalled
the "free" Cadence screensaver.  Again, "AnalogRevolution" made a play to
access the Internet!  I blocked it again, but I'm left wondering why are the
Cadence folks were giving away a "free" screensaver that wants to connect
to the web?  Are they giving out spyware?  And why did my spyware checking
software not sense it?  Was it because I *voluntarily* installed this "free"
Cadence screensaver that my spyware detector thought it was OK?  I hope not.

The only other minor weird thing with the campaign was that they ended the
contest on Sept. 11th.  You'd think maybe Cadence Corporate Marketing might
have heard this day has certain connotations, but since it's not one of those
official Intel holidays, Sept. 11th must not be known to them.

Anyway, Spyware screensaver scare or not, I must admit I enjoyed reading
those 286 designer-submitted slogans from their Analog Pride campaign.  It
pains me greatly to say this as an engineer, but my congrats must go to
whomever cooked this one up at Cadence Corporate Marketing.  It was cool.

P.S. When's your next contest?  December 7th?  (There, I feel better now.)