Today, I had the misfortune

[PeteS]

to visit the NXP (nee Philips) website. I am replacing a legacy part and
needed the original datasheet for comparison purposes. It's not a
website, it's marketdroid mental masturbation.

We've had these rants before, of course, but I'm getting to the point of
writing an open letter to semi mfrs - on the lines of 'just give me the
content'. There's a place for javascript (I like the way TI and OnSemi
[for example] use it for the parameterisable lists), but don't make the
entire website non-navigable without it; and don't make me use Flash.

I use FF2 with NoScript and nxp.com is not navigable at all unless I
enable javascript and Flash (ugh).

I wrote them a nastygram (which will no doubt be ignored). It's a pretty
website for the investors and an excuse when they start to go down the
tubes "...but the website looks so nice with all those animations. It's
not our fault nobody buys our products..." where in reality it _is_
their fault. Nobody buys the products because the website is not
targeted at it's proper audience.

I made a final decision today to not bother looking for their parts any
more - there's nothing they have I can't get elsewhere, especially in
the original design stage where I can choose parts based on
availability, functionality and decent documentation (another pet peeve).

ok - rant mode off (for now). We now return to our regular programming.

[X-posted]

Cheers

PeteS

 

[[email protected]]

to visit the NXP (nee Philips) website. I am replacing a legacy part and
needed the original datasheet for comparison purposes. It's not a
website, it's marketdroid mental masturbation.

We've had these rants before, of course, but I'm getting to the point of
writing an open letter to semi mfrs - on the lines of 'just give me the
content'. There's a place for javascript (I like the way TI and OnSemi
[for example] use it for the parameterisable lists), but don't make the
entire website non-navigable without it; and don't make me use Flash.

I use FF2 with NoScript and nxp.com is not navigable at all unless I
enable javascript and Flash (ugh).

I wrote them a nastygram (which will no doubt be ignored). It's a pretty
website for the investors and an excuse when they start to go down the
tubes "...but the website looks so nice with all those animations. It's
not our fault nobody buys our products..." where in reality it _is_
their fault. Nobody buys the products because the website is not
targeted at it's proper audience.

I made a final decision today to not bother looking for their parts any
more - there's nothing they have I can't get elsewhere, especially in
the original design stage where I can choose parts based on
availability, functionality and decent documentation (another pet peeve).

ok - rant mode off (for now). We now return to our regular programming.

[X-posted]

Cheers

PeteS

Are you back yet from your UK vacation? Or are you doing work while on
vacation?

 

[PeteS]

to visit the NXP (nee Philips) website. I am replacing a legacy part and
needed the original datasheet for comparison purposes. It's not a
website, it's marketdroid mental masturbation.

We've had these rants before, of course, but I'm getting to the point of
writing an open letter to semi mfrs - on the lines of 'just give me the
content'. There's a place for javascript (I like the way TI and OnSemi
[for example] use it for the parameterisable lists), but don't make the
entire website non-navigable without it; and don't make me use Flash.

I use FF2 with NoScript and nxp.com is not navigable at all unless I
enable javascript and Flash (ugh).

I wrote them a nastygram (which will no doubt be ignored). It's a pretty
website for the investors and an excuse when they start to go down the
tubes "...but the website looks so nice with all those animations. It's
not our fault nobody buys our products..." where in reality it _is_
their fault. Nobody buys the products because the website is not
targeted at it's proper audience.

I made a final decision today to not bother looking for their parts any
more - there's nothing they have I can't get elsewhere, especially in
the original design stage where I can choose parts based on
availability, functionality and decent documentation (another pet peeve).

ok - rant mode off (for now). We now return to our regular programming.

[X-posted]

Cheers

PeteS

Are you back yet from your UK vacation? Or are you doing work while on
vacation?

I'm back from vacation (I live in the UK nowadays - I was trying to
deal with something a cow-orker hosed up.

I went to the highlands and sampled many a fine malt - now I'm wishing I
was still doing it

Cheers

PeteS

 

[Meindert Sprang]

[email protected] wrote:
I'm back from vacation (I live in the UK nowadays - I was trying to
deal with something a cow-orker hosed up.

I went to the highlands and sampled many a fine malt - now I'm wishing I
was still doing it

The last time I visited a Morrisons they stocked a pretty decent selection
of malts. No need to go to the highlands for that.....

Meindert

 

[PeteS]

The last time I visited a Morrisons they stocked a pretty decent selection
of malts. No need to go to the highlands for that.....

Meindert

Buying a malt at Morrisons vs tasting it at the distillery is rather
like the difference between buying a fish at Morrisons and getting it at
the dock off the boat.

Cheers

PeteS

 

[Eeyore]

to visit the NXP (nee Philips) website. I am replacing a legacy part and
needed the original datasheet for comparison purposes. It's not a
website, it's marketdroid mental masturbation.

I agree.

It insisted on me registering just to be able to view *datasheets* yet the
registration with my password didn't arrive for ~ 12 hours by which time I'd
found the data elsewhere and generally lost interest.


Graham

 

[Robert Adsett]

I agree.

It insisted on me registering just to be able to view *datasheets* yet the
registration with my password didn't arrive for ~ 12 hours by which time I'd
found the data elsewhere and generally lost interest.

Last time I tried I just ignored the login and it let me at the
datasheets w/o an issue. I do agree with the general tenor of the
comments though. Registration requirements are one reason Luminary
parts are low on my list of alternatives to look at.

Robert

 

[YD]

to visit the NXP (nee Philips) website. I am replacing a legacy part and
needed the original datasheet for comparison purposes. It's not a
website, it's marketdroid mental masturbation.

For older parts I always check http://www.datasheetarchive.com first.
Often enough it's the original mfr's datasheet without the hassle.

- YD.

 

[Jim Granville]

to visit the NXP (nee Philips) website. I am replacing a legacy part and
needed the original datasheet for comparison purposes. It's not a
website, it's marketdroid mental masturbation.

We've had these rants before, of course, but I'm getting to the point of
writing an open letter to semi mfrs - on the lines of 'just give me the
content'.

If you mean the 'front door', then yes - but I've bookmark the usefull
pages, and go straight to those.
The search in philips/nxp works quite well, and I like their
'similar parts' link ideas.

I did find they broke the philips/nxp website under netscape, with
badly aligned pages - smacks of poor testing, but it does render OK
under Firefox.

There's a place for javascript (I like the way TI and OnSemi
[for example] use it for the parameterisable lists), but don't make the
entire website non-navigable without it; and don't make me use Flash.

Well, OnSemi drives me nuts with their poorly filtered lists. I want to
do much more than re-order the columns, so I gave up and use Fairchild's
search instead.

I use FF2 with NoScript and nxp.com is not navigable at all unless I
enable javascript and Flash (ugh).

I tried disable of javascript and their search and links seemed to work,
with much simpler (but usable) rendered page view.
I typed BC857W into the search window, and disabled javascript.

I wrote them a nastygram (which will no doubt be ignored). It's a pretty
website for the investors and an excuse when they start to go down the
tubes "...but the website looks so nice with all those animations. It's
not our fault nobody buys our products..." where in reality it _is_
their fault. Nobody buys the products because the website is not
targeted at it's proper audience.

I made a final decision today to not bother looking for their parts any
more - there's nothing they have I can't get elsewhere, especially in
the original design stage where I can choose parts based on
availability, functionality and decent documentation (another pet peeve).

The Philips datasheets themsleves I find quite good, and the search
usually gets pretty straight to them, IF you know the part number.
Where they could improve things, is device search.

eg suppose I _know_ that I want a SMD MOSFET, Rds < 5mOhms, 20-40V,
I should be abe to tell their web that, and get a quick short list.

-jg

 

[Tom Lucas]

Buying a malt at Morrisons vs tasting it at the distillery is rather
like the difference between buying a fish at Morrisons and getting it
at the dock off the boat.

Cheers

PeteS

Not long now until the most Northerly Scotch is ready for consumption -
late this year for the three year old and late 2008 for the 5 year old.
Check out http://shetlandwhisky.com/index-1.html for details. It's
pretty dear to pre-order and the taxman will want another cut on
delivery but it would be good to have a few bottles of the first run
(which might become a good investment - how much would a bottle of the
first Talisker go for?)

I grew up in Shetland so I must declare an interest in plugging the
local booze. I can also recommend White Wife and Simmer Dim real ales
http://www.valhallabrewery.co.uk/ as worth a try if you come across
them.

 

[Ban]

to visit the NXP (nee Philips) website. I am replacing a legacy part
and needed the original datasheet for comparison purposes. It's not a
website, it's marketdroid mental masturbation.

We've had these rants before, of course, but I'm getting to the point
of writing an open letter to semi mfrs - on the lines of 'just give
me the content'. There's a place for javascript (I like the way TI
and OnSemi [for example] use it for the parameterisable lists), but
don't make the entire website non-navigable without it; and don't
make me use Flash.

What is wrong with that? Can't you selectively enable those for this site?

I use FF2 with NoScript and nxp.com is not navigable at all unless I
enable javascript and Flash (ugh).

I wrote them a nastygram (which will no doubt be ignored). It's a
pretty website for the investors and an excuse when they start to go
down the tubes "...but the website looks so nice with all those
animations. It's not our fault nobody buys our products..." where in
reality it _is_ their fault. Nobody buys the products because the
website is not targeted at it's proper audience.

I really like the feature to download all relevant literature nicely zipped
up, so everything is together and the file is named as the part number. It
is also smaller if you are on dial-up.

I made a final decision today to not bother looking for their parts
any more - there's nothing they have I can't get elsewhere,
especially in the original design stage where I can choose parts
based on availability, functionality and decent documentation
(another pet peeve).
ok - rant mode off (for now). We now return to our regular
programming.
[X-posted]

Cheers

PeteS

You should learn how to come fastest to the desired docs, which is typing
the part no into google. I never visit those home pages, go directly to the
product folder.

Actually it is one of my favourite sites. No registration, pretty fast, good
search, no nasty renaming of datasheets with cryptic names (this bothers me
much more than JS).
IMHO you seem anyway not to specify hardware parts, rather being a
complainer like this Jorg. Maybe you should apply for a job there.

 

[JW]

I agree.

It insisted on me registering just to be able to view *datasheets* yet the
registration with my password didn't arrive for ~ 12 hours by which time I'd
found the data elsewhere and generally lost interest.

Hmmm. Curious, I just downloaded a datasheet without registering. What
part were you looking for?

For websites that DO require web registration, I recommend using the
Firefox browser with the BugMeNot extension. (In fact, I recommend dumping
Internet Exploder entirely I just went to the site, and BugMeNot worked
perfectly!

For most sites all you need to do is right click on the login, and it will
supply the credentials needed to get into the site. To get both of these
FREE programs see:
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/
http://roachfiend.com/archives/2005/02/07/bugmenot/

 

[David Brown]

Not long now until the most Northerly Scotch is ready for consumption -
late this year for the three year old and late 2008 for the 5 year old.
Check out http://shetlandwhisky.com/index-1.html for details. It's
pretty dear to pre-order and the taxman will want another cut on
delivery but it would be good to have a few bottles of the first run
(which might become a good investment - how much would a bottle of the
first Talisker go for?)

3 year old whiskey is going to be pretty rough - that's the minimum age
it has to be before you can even legally call it whiskey. There are
very few self-respecting malts that are less than 8 years old.

 

[Tom Lucas]

3 year old whiskey is going to be pretty rough - that's the minimum
age it has to be before you can even legally call it whiskey. There
are very few self-respecting malts that are less than 8 years old.

I know and it worried me somewhat, especially considering what they are
charging. However, I think there must be some 8yo due for an appearance
because I dimly remember them beginning to mature the whisky quite a
while ago (and it's been easily three years since I was last on the
island).

Still it's darn cold up there and a bit of rough whisky would be welcome
to warm the cockles ;-)

 

[Eeyore]

re: NXP
Actually it is one of my favourite sites. No registration,

When were you last there ?

You're required to register now if you want to download anything. Sheer idiocy
if you ask me.

Graham

 

[Eeyore]

Hmmm. Curious, I just downloaded a datasheet without registering. What
part were you looking for?

I actually forget now. It might have been an 8051 family part. Maybe they've
changed it now but this was only a week or so ago.

For websites that DO require web registration, I recommend using the
Firefox browser with the BugMeNot extension. (In fact, I recommend dumping
Internet Exploder entirely I just went to the site, and BugMeNot worked
perfectly!

I use Opera.

Graham

 

[Ban]

When were you last there ?

You're required to register now if you want to download anything.
Sheer idiocy if you ask me.

Graham

I just looked and downloaded a couple of ds without registration. Only
Javascript, no flash also. http://www.nxp.com/pip/PMD3001D.html

 

[Lostgallifreyan]

When were you last there ?

You're required to register now if you want to download anything.
Sheer idiocy if you ask me.

The reason is a good one, it might just need a better answer. If people are
using automatic tools to trawl their database, maybe to set up their own as
a way to trap business, the original source loses out twice, first in
bandwidth costs, later in lost business. They probably want to make sure
that if someone comes after their stuff it's a human wanting something
specific, not some kind of virtual riever.

I don't like the new blocks and annoyances, but I can see why their being
tried. Still, if these sites would dispense with the feature rich added
value pumped up extra silliness they'd maybe save even more bandwidth and
money, but such is life...

 

[Eeyore]

I just looked and downloaded a couple of ds without registration. Only
Javascript, no flash also. http://www.nxp.com/pip/PMD3001D.html

They must have changed it, thank goodness for that !

It's still horribly slow though. It wasn't that bad when it was Philips.

Graham

 

[Joerg]

Hello Pete,

to visit the NXP (nee Philips) website. I am replacing a legacy part and
needed the original datasheet for comparison purposes. It's not a
website, it's marketdroid mental masturbation.

Wouldn't have said it quite that drastically but I agree. It is a
classic example of how not to set up a web site.

We've had these rants before, of course, but I'm getting to the point of
writing an open letter to semi mfrs - on the lines of 'just give me the
content'. There's a place for javascript (I like the way TI and OnSemi
[for example] use it for the parameterisable lists), but don't make the
entire website non-navigable without it; and don't make me use Flash.

I use FF2 with NoScript and nxp.com is not navigable at all unless I
enable javascript and Flash (ugh).

I wrote them a nastygram (which will no doubt be ignored). ...

Tried that with Philips Semi (rest in peace...), Infineon and ST. In a
very friendly tone and to the top brass. Got ignored but that didn't
surprise me.

... It's a pretty
website for the investors and an excuse when they start to go down the
tubes "...but the website looks so nice with all those animations. It's
not our fault nobody buys our products..." where in reality it _is_
their fault. Nobody buys the products because the website is not
targeted at it's proper audience.

Absolutamente. There are numerous reasons why some semi mfgs are
struggling, to the point where they must auction off their biz. Poor web
design is one but by far the predominant reason is a poor (or
non-existent?) sampling process. Try to get a few BSP297. Been there,
spent almost 2hrs on the phone, told them we'd pay whatever it takes,
was promised numerous times that they'd now really be on the way, became
frustrated, designed them out. That is "the" method to lose business.
Problem is, because of their lack in listening skills they'll never know
how much of their business is going to competitors on a regular basis.

I made a final decision today to not bother looking for their parts any
more - there's nothing they have I can't get elsewhere, especially in
the original design stage where I can choose parts based on
availability, functionality and decent documentation (another pet peeve).

I haven't put any company on my blacklist yet except those that are
notorious for vaporware (we all know those...). But like you I first go
to mfgs with a proper web site and when I find 2-3 sources within budget
I might never venture to the ones with inefficient web sites.

ok - rant mode off (for now). We now return to our regular programming.

Well, some things need to be rubbed in. Hoping someone wakes up at the
big mfgs. Probably they won't.