THURS, JUNE 14TH, 2:34 PM -- Everyone's exhausted and in the post-DAC lull
when I heard an absolutely, really *crazy* rumor that EE Times had axed
Richard Goering.  I thought it was a joke so I forwarded it to Richard.

    From: Richard Goering <rgoering=user domain=cmp got gone>

    Hi, John,

    The rumors of my demise are NOT exaggerated.

    My last day at EE Times will be June 29, and since I had already
    arranged a week of vacation starting June 18, I effectively have
    about 1 week left.

    I understand EE Times EDA coverage after June 29 will be handled by
    freelancers.  I may be a contributor in the future, but for now, I'm
    taking some time off and thinking about what's next.  I'm sure I'll
    be writing about EDA at some point in the future, however I've been
    a thorn in the side of the EDA vendors too long to simply disappear.

    This is all part of a large-scale restructuring that our parent
    company, CMP Media, announced earlier this week.  The company is
    putting a strong emphasis on its on-line properties, such as Light
    Reading and TechOnline, and its conference business.  However,
    EE Times print and on-line will continue, with the addition of
    videos.  The U.S. and European EE Times editorial teams will be
    combined and www.eetimes.com will be redesigned.

        - Richard Goering, formerly of EE Times

Holy crap!  I can't believe that after 17 years at EE Times, they cut him!
The guy is a rock star in EDA!  This is a cut to the bone.  Oy.

I remember years ago when I first started ESNUG and the Synopsys lawyers
were at my throat doing their best to get me fired from my job.  They were
doing classic intimidation.  They had sent an ambush legal nastygram to the
CEO of my company claiming that ESNUG was violating the licensing agreement
because it was reverse engineering Design Compiler.  Of course, that was all
bullshit (and they even knew it was bullshit) but it caused all sorts of
headaches for me at work (which was their obvious intent.)

I was alone and depressed and my work world was falling apart.

I was alone.

Then, out-of-the-blue, I thought "what the hell" and called Richard Goering.
I remember it vividly.  It was bad times and I had to be cautious.  Before
I called him, I walked to a far empty cubical and was sitting on the floor
not to be seen.  I told him about how ESNUG really worked, users sharing
bugs, sharing workarounds, and sharing their honest opinions about the EDA
tools they used everyday in their chip design work.

Goering wrote a short story about us that was printed in EE Times.

Suddenly, the Synopsys Legal Department backed way off and the Synopsys
bigwigs decided to actually talk directly with me and to play nice, etc.

If Goering hadn't written that story, I would have been screwed.

Holy crap!  I can't believe that after 17 years at EE Times, they cut him!
The guy is a bloody rock star in EDA!  This cut is to the bone.  Damn...

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FRI, JUNE 15TH, 6:53 PM -- I just got a phone call from a source who I've
known for years report that Brian Fuller, the Editor-in-Chief of EE Times
has "left the publication as well."  Damn.  When it rains bad news, it pours.