Free small business teleseminar series http://budurl.com/IBBLMaya

This series of talks seems like it may be useful for anyone running a small business, and it is at my favorite price. 

Caveat: I do not know the authors, and I expect them to take some of the time promoting their new book, so use your own judgement.

Cheers,
Connie O'Dell
--------------------

Reminder: 6 Days to Incredible Business Virtual Book Launch

Sylvia Dolena Partner at Accelerated Women Entrepreneurs

To: Connie O'Dell

Date: September 28, 2010

Hello Friends, 
Here is the announcement of the virtual book launch that I am excited about. 
My business partner and I started a business early in 2009 called 
Accelerated Women Entrepreneurs to help women create the work they love through workshops and coaching. 
Then early this year, we were asked to be part of a book project and now the 
book we co-authored with 20 other women and one man, INCREDIBLE BUSINESS, is out! 

We are celebrating by offering, FREE, a talk delivered by each co-author 
each weeknight in October. These are successful business people, thriving 
in today's economy. Please feel free to pass this along to anyone who may 
need this type of information and education. 

And check out the website link toward the end of the announcement. 
The web site has all the topics and co-author presenters. 

My business partner, Pat Duran and I are presenting our talk on Oct 5th, 6PM, Pacific Time. 
You will have 48 hours to listen to the recording free if you are not available at the broadcast time. 

Regards, 
Sylvia Dolena 

ANNOUNCEMENT: 
If you own a small business or ever thought of starting a business, join us, 
twenty business expert authors for our Incredible Business Virtual Book 
Launch Extravaganza. 
We are revealing our best secrets to you. 

What if you could solve some of your puzzling business problems? 

What if you could learn some secrets to improve your business that work? 

What if you could put yourself on the fast-track in starting a business? 

What if you could get all of this education free and easy? 

Guess what? It is! 

20 business experts give you their best stuff. 

Imagine receiving invaluable information from the comfort of your home or 
office. 

Imagine having access to the right information on your schedule. 

Imagine learning quickly and easily what took our business experts years to 
learn. 

We are all so excited about this information packed book that we are 
throwing a Virtual Book Launch TeleSummit. It's FREE and you are invited! It 
runs throughout the month of October, one speaker a night. 
Each of us co-authors will present our own chapter and share with you 
information about our success formula. 

Celebrate with us the release of our innovative, information packed book, 
Incredible Business, designed to take your business to the next level. 

So check us out, find out when your favorite author is speaking, and 
register for the entire telesummit at once. 
Your free pass will get you into each speaker session. 
So you can pick and choose at will. If you miss a talk you really wanted to 
hear, don't worry. They are all being recorded. 


To find out more about the Incredible Business Virtual Book Launch Telesummit and to register click here: 

http://budurl.com/IBBLMaya 


PLEASE HELP US SPREAD THE WORD AND PASS THIS ON TO ANYONE YOU THINK MIGHT BE 
INTERESTED. THANK YOU! 

Aloha, 

Sylvia Dolena 
Co-author, Incredible Business, Release September, 2010 



Pre-order and save. 
Accelerated Women Entrepreneurs 
www.AWEntrepreneur.com 
"Those who live in a world of unlimited mindsets enjoy the ultimate of possibilities."

Cheaper textbooks/technical books via bigwords.com and used.addall.com

Here is another great resource for finding the cheapest source of textbooks.

Both bigwords and addall look at and compare prices on various sources for books, including amazon, abebooks, alibris, half.com, and many other booksellers, so you don't have to do it manually.

I still found one book that was cheaper via addall that didn't show in bigwords, but it looks like bigwords might work better if you needed multiple books that might come from the same source (and thus save you money on shipping). Bigwords also seems to know about some promotions/coupons not mentioned on addall.

http://www.bigwords.com/

For instance, here are various copies of David C. Black's SystemC book that are available:

http://uber-bot.bigwords.com/details/book/SystemC_From_the_Ground_Up_Second_Edition/9780387699578/0387699570

http://used.addall.com/SuperRare/RefineRare.fcgi?id=100927113035342486

(Look out for international editions unless you know what you're doing)

Cheers,
Connie

On Mon, Aug 30, 2010 at 3:12 PM, Connie L. O'Dell <odellconnie@gmail.com> wrote:

The trick with textbooks is to obtain the ISBN for the book (for instance, by looking up the class on the school bookstore's website to find the recommended texts and ISBNs), look it up on amazon just to make sure you know which edition it is, and then to look it up on used.addall.com like shown below, and sort the results from low price to high. The prices vary wildly, as it collects prices from all used book vendors and possibly Canada and UK as well (these are sometimes cheaper even with shipping). If the description on addall doesn't say something funny like "this is really edition 1" when you know you need edition 2, then it should be OK. Conditions vary, but I have never seen a book come that was not usable. If a CD is supposed to be included then you should check the description to make sure it is.

It is best to assume that the book may take a week to come if in the US, and 2 weeks if outside the US, unless the vendor offers express shipping.

It is OK to buy books without an ISBN (by title, author, *and* edition), if you are *absolutely positive* about all this information. Older editions also sometimes work for non-technical classes.

If I do not find a better price than the campus bookstore on a very expensive ($85+) or new book (these tend to be math or science books), I will also try looking on ebay, which sometimes has books for better or worse prices, it varies, but it is more complicated. If you are ever seriously buying things on ebay auctions, I'd suggest learning about esnipe.com.

Cheers,
Connie

...

Free Cooperative Wireless Network Tutorial from IEEE/COMSOC

Have I mentioned lately that I cannot pass up a free technical tutorial?   :-)

This one looks especially interesting, thanks to IEEE/COMSOC.  Limited time only, I gather.

Cheers,
Connie

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: IEEE Communications Society <CommunicationsSociety@comsoc.org>
Date: Tue, Sep 21, 2010 at 12:41 PM
Subject: Complimentary Cooperative Wireless Network Online Tutorial from IEEE Communications

If you cannot see this message, click here.

This tutorial introduces cooperative concepts for wireless networks advocating mobile devices to cluster in peer to peer fashion, including simple demonstrations. Cooperation is advocated to overcome the most cirtical problems in mobile communications, including energy consumption, security, and higher data rates. The tutorial covers rules for cooperation, cooperation concepts at different protocol layers, and topics such as social mobile networks and game theory.

Click here to unsubscribe

IEEE Communications Society - 17th floor , 3 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10016

Ugh: the 'free' in freelance - Crain's

"More than 400 freelancers have electronically “outed” clients they say have not paid them—ranging from political candidates to banks to media companies—via a website set up by the Freelancers Union."

It's outrageous how hard it can be for contractors to get paid. I came across this article about contractors' efforts to strike back, thanks to the Freelancer's Union:

Ugh: the 'free' in freelance - Crain's New York Business

"Verification is Due for an Image Overhaul" Harry Foster/MGC

Harry knows his real-world formal verification, both as a customer (HP) and as a vendor, so his articles are highly recommended!

Cheers,
Connie

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Verification Tech News <info@mentoremail.com>
Date: Thu, Sep 16, 2010 at 10:00 AM
Subject: Verification is Due for an Image Overhaul - Learn More Inside
To: c.odell@co-consulting.net

Hello, We are pleased to share with you the latest Verification news and information and hope you enjoy this month's issue. News   »   Verification is overdue for an image overhaul - Formal verification is the key to 40 more years of chip design, by Harry Foster Formal verification, or specifically formal property checking, is one of those ideas in technology that, for many people, has never fully lived up to its promise. It's easy to get a sense of the origin and growth of the specific term in the technical literature by simply doing a search through the IEEE Xplore database. What you will find is that the references to the term "formal verification," which is the proof of properties on designs using logic rather than testing, dates back to the early 1980s. Formal verification is long overdue for nothing less than an image overhaul. Unfortunately, this project is unlikely to attract the attention of high priced marketing wizards, who understandably find consumer brands and political campaigns more compelling than EDA. That leaves those of us who are technologists to tackle this one. Any volunteers? No? Then here goes (with tongue occasionally planted in cheek).      Blogs     »   Redefining Verification Performance (Part 2) by Harry Foster In part 1, I gave a few examples of different ways of thinking about getting more work done by finding solutions that increase amount of work accomplished per cycle, instead of just a brute-force approach to the problem. Before I talk about advanced verification solutions, I want to talk about why performance even matters.     »   Making formal property checking easy to use by Ping Yeung For years one of the objectives in EDA has been to make formal property checking easy to use and its results easy to understand. With the Automatic formal check feature, I think we have made significant progress in this area. The feature, which predefines a set of assertion rules to look for design issues automatically, makes formal technology accessible to users who are not yet ready to write properties in System Verilog Assertion (SVA) or Property Specification Language (PSL). To make it easier to comprehend problems in the design, the tool highlights the violations back to the RTL code. Automatic formal check focuses on three areas inadequately addressed by dynamical simulation.     »   Companion OVM Cookbook Examples Kit also offered for download by Dennis Brophy Several months ago, the OVM Cookbook and the Examples Kit were made available for online use at the Verification Academy. This proved to be a great help to accelerate the skill level of new OVM users. Given the number of new projects that have deployed OVM and the number of new engineers that now need to use OVM, there is increased demand for practical and useful information found in the Cookbook. One can see the OVM World community continues to grow. The same needs from that community to invest in bettering their OVM knowledge and skills is just as needed as those who are members of the Verification Academy. For that reason, we are making the OVM Cookbook and the Examples Kit available for free download from OVMWorld.org.     »   View these post plus many others at the VerificationHorizonsBlog Technical Resources On Demand Web Seminar Presentations   »   Effective Debug of Embedded Processor-based Designs What You Will Learn: To identify and understand the challenges of using embedded code running on the embedded processor for HW verification How Codelink accelerates the diagnostic and debug phase of your processor-based SoC design Advantages of using embedded code for HW verification Download this presentation   »   Eliminating Clock-Domain-Crossing Bugs As many ASIC/FPGA designers of multi-clock designs already know, experiencing clock-domain crossing (CDC) problems is painful. Simulation alone typically doesn't catch CDC bugs, resulting in failing silicon that is extremely difficult and time-consuming to debug and oftentimes requires re-spinning the design. This presentation teaches viewers about the types of problems associated with clock domain crossings, the things you can do to avoid these issues, and how to apply an automated verification solution to ensure your design is free of CDC issues. Download this presentation   »   Finding the Toughest Bugs with Formal Verification As designs get more complex, verification cycles increase dramatically while quality hangs in the balance. As a result, many companies are looking for a better methodology to help them achieve improved verification productivity, predictability and quality. This seminar explains how formal verification can most effectively be used alongside simulation to allow design and verification engineers to find more bugs, earlier in the design process. Download this presentation Technical Events      Accelerating Coverage Closure with Intelligent Testbench Automation Web Seminar     »   Wednesday, September 29th 9:00am - 10:00am US/Pacific Accelerate functional coverage closure in today's complex designs using Mentor Graphics proven methodology, freeing up resources to achieve more verification, resulting in 10x to 100x faster funcitonal coverage closure. Find out more about this complimentary web seminar      Clock-Domain Crossing Verification for FPGAs Web Seminar 9:00am US/Pacific, September 23rd, 2010     »   Today FPGA designers are equally plagued by clock-domain crossing (CDC) problems as ASIC designers are. Simulation alone doesn't catch the CDC bugs, resulting in an extremely difficult and time-consuming to debug process in the lab. This seminar teaches attendees about the types of problems associated with clock domain crossings, the things you can do to avoid these issues, and how to apply an automated verification solution to ensure your FPGA is free of CDC issues. 0-In CDC supports the leading FPGA vendors. Includes a demonstration. More information and Register Have a friend or colleague that would like this newsletter? Feel free to pass it on!   Tom Fitzpatrick Verification Technologist Mentor Graphics Corporation http://www.mentor.com/products/fv If you do not wish to receive future Verification Technical News updates, please update your subscription . Mentor Graphics 8005 SW Boeckman Road, Wilsonville, OR  97070  United States  800-547-3000 or 503-685-8000

In this Issue   News   Blogs Technical Resources Technical Events   Accelerating Coverage Closure with Intelligent Testbench Automation Web Seminar   Clock-Domain Crossing Verification for FPGAs Online seminar

9/16: OVM and UVM - Building a SystemVerilog Testbench Webinar

Yes, it's a vendor presentation, but if one wants a little OVM/UVM exposure, or just a shot at a few answers from John Aynsley 

(he's a pretty smart guy), it seems like a good free opportunity...   :-)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Webinar title: OVM and UVM - Building a SystemVerilog Testbench in Riviera-PRO™ 

These events fill up fast so don't delay in registering today! 

------------------------------------------------------------------ 
Date :  September 16, 2010 
Time : 11:00 am - 12:00 pm Pacific Daylight Time (USA) 

 

------------------------------------------------------------------ 
Date :  September 16, 2010 
Time : 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm Central European Summer Time 

 

Presenters : 
Mr John Aynsley, Doulos, CTO and Co-Founder 
Jaroslaw (Jerry) Kaczynski, Aldec, Inc., Research Engineer 


Abstract : 
Aldec has recently added support for the Open Verification Methodology (OVM) for SystemVerilog, which is the basis of Accellera's forthcoming standard Universal Verification Methodology (UVM). Resulting from years of experience w! ithin lead design verification teams and EDA companies, OVM provides c ommon building blocks and predefined mechanisms for creating reusable and expandable test environments that take full advantage of SystemVerilog and SystemC verification capabilities. This webinar introduces basic OVM concepts and shows how users with different levels of experience can rely on OVM to quickly build up a layered, coverage driven, transaction-level verification environment which can be reused across different designs. These concepts apply equally well to UVM.
Aldec provides a precompiled OVM library and a SystemVerilog compatible simulator to help customers take advantage of this latest design verification technology to meet the challenge of verifying today's complex designs. 

Agenda :

• State-of-the-art Verification Techniques
• Verification Standards – SystemVerilog, OVM, and UVM
• Learning and Using OVM
• Using OVM library in Riviera-PRO
• OVM/UVM support from t! he industry and user community
• Question and Answer session

View All Aldec Events: http://www.aldec.com/Events   
We hope you and your colleagues will attend. 

Thank you. 
The Marketing Communications Team 
Aldec, Inc. 
Tel: +1 (702) 990-4400 
E-mail: sales@aldec.com   
http://www.aldec.com/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Sounds like a pretty good event!

Cheers,
Connie

Using Priceline bidding strategies for New York hotels

(Put this together for a friend, thought it might be useful for others...)

Many people are not familiar with Priceline bidding strategies for booking hotels.  It is an organized way to get the best price possible (more or less) via Priceline, as you can get multiple free re-bids, allowing you to raise your price just $10-$15 (or less if you know the right price range) with each rebid, until you succeed.

The process is documented here for New York City.  I apologize for the amount of jargon, but it is not that complex once you figure it out.

We used this a few years ago and got a very nice hotel with fab rooms and a rooftop pool a few blocks south of Central Park for $120-$140/night.

I know it is not cheap, but it was better than the alternatives.  :-)

I would recommend reading the main posting, and at least the first few comments...

http://biddingfortravel.yuku.com/reply/146911/t/-4-3-5-Priceline-Bidding-Strategies--Multiple-NYC-Acceptable.html

I've actually had much better results Priceline'ing hotels in San Jose and Anaheim, really nice hotels for $30-$35.  But of course in CA, you might end up renting a car or taking cabs/buses if your hotel is too far from your destination.  Not a problem in NY with the great public transportation.

Cheers,
Connie

Mashable - 10 Killer Google Chrome Tips, Tricks and Shortcuts

I am going to use this to "save" my currently opened set of Chrome tabs so I can easily open the same ones on another computer (since I also sync my Chrome settings between computers). It seems easy enough to reset that this is a good use model... :-)

"...you can get Chrome to open several pages as it starts up, giving you instant access to whatever sites and services you prefer to start your day with.
It’s easy to setup. Just click on the wrench icon on the top right of your browser window, select “Options” and under the “Basic” tab check the box where it says “on startup… open the following pages.”
If you click “Add” it brings up a list of recently browsed sites to choose from, or you can manually enter a URL in the box at the top.
Now, the next time you fire up your browser, those pages will be automatically loaded in the order in which you entered them, saving you some precious time."

Mashable - Blog - 10 Killer Google Chrome Tips, Tricks and Shortcuts

Thank you, firefighters! Love, Boulder

Twitpic - Share photos on Twitter

Courtesy of "@CampSteve: Thank you firefighters - poster art!"

FPGA eNews: Safety Critical Applications 2-day Virtual Seminar

Got to love free design engineering seminars, even if they are half marketing...   :-)

http://www.edatechforum.com/events/virtual-do254/event.cfm?mid=12987009&PC=L&c=2010_09_09_fpga_technical_news

Cheers,
Connie

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Mentor Graphics - FPGA News <fpga_news@mentor.com>
Date: Thu, Sep 9, 2010 at 1:00 PM

Hello Connie Welcome to this month's edition of FPGA eNews. News   »   "Bringing the programmable imperative to space", VME & Critical Systems Chris Ciufo (Editor) compares the new radiation-hardened FPGA from Xilinx and new rad-tolerant synthesis tool from Mentor Graphics—two different solutions addressing the issue of radiation event effects.   »   Mentor Graphics Fields Precision Rad-Tolerant with Versatile TMR, XCELL Journal XCELL journal highlights Precision Rad-Tolerant and its new synthesis-based radiation effects mitigation capabilities for Xilinx devices.   »   Low Power: The Next Big Challenge for FPGA Designers, SOCcentral This article presents an overview of low-power principles for FPGA design and implementation for multiple device vendors. White Papers   »   Making the Case For an Integrated FPGA Design Flow Adopting the right FPGA design methodology can determine the course and competitiveness of a design house's entire business. Development teams can adopt the FPGA vendor software flow "that came with the FPGA", or adopt 3rd party solutions, or develop a custom flow that mixes both. Some choices offer short-term cost advantages, others offer longer-term flexibility. This paper discusses the pros and cons of the diverse approaches available today. Technical Events   »   EDA Tech Forum - Safety Critical Applications 2-day Virtual Seminar September 21-22, 2010 Register Now This 2-day virtual event will explore what's being done at the macro/industry level to help avoid safety critical problems. It will look at the industry bodies and associations being formed to address concerns early in the design and validation process. We'll also investigate the standards that are in place to ensure compliance and traceability to requirements. FPGA-specific Sessions include: Implementing a Rad-Tolerant Application Using a Commercial FPGA: Automation through Synthesis When developing an FPGA application for a high radiation environment, a design house may not want to be limited to just radiation-hardened or rad-tolerant devices. Whether it be due to cost, capacity, re-programmability, or other features, a commercial FPGA may be the preferred choice. This session will discuss a methodology that provides radiation effects mitigation during the implementation flow for a broad range of devices. Safety-critical FPGA Verification with GateRocket This session presents the Best Practices for successful FPGA design. It is the result of meetings with hundreds of customers on the challenges facing their FPGA design teams. The presentation covers the complete FPGA design flow from the basics to advanced design techniques. Xilinx Avionics Solutions Xilinx FPGA provides a flexible base platform for reprogrammable hardware with some key enabling solutions for high reliability applications. This presentation will contain an outline of a DO-254 tool flow demo showing how Mentor Graphics EDA tool suite integrates with Xilinx ISE tool. In addition, we will go over the Xilinx perspective on the avionics market and explore some of Xilinx solutions to enable this market.   »   MILCOM 2010 Oct 31 - Nov 3, 2010 - San Jose, California Visit Mentor Graphics and GateRocket at booth #121 at this year's MILCOM, where we'll be jointly exhibiting a comprehensive FPGA design, implementation, and verification environment for Mil-Aero and rad-tolerant design. Mentor's solutions include synthesis for radiation effects, an HDL development environment for high assurance design, and advanced simulation with Questa® that integrates with GateRocket's platform to model and test designs in real hardware. MILCOM is the premier international conference for military communications and attracts a very impressive array of participants with high-level attendance from government, military, industry and academia. Learn More   »   Respace/MAPLD 2010 Conference Nov 1-4, 2010 - Albuquerque, New Mexico Visit Mentor Graphics at Booth #8 at this year's Respace/MAPLD conference where we'll be exhibiting unique capabilities for radiation effects mitigation. With new synthesis technologies and integration across the development flow, designers can guard against functional interrupts such as single event upsets (SEUs) and verify that these safeguards preserve design functionality. Visit our booth to learn about this technology being offered for the first time in the industry. ReSpace is a new annual conference organized by COSMIAC and its affiliates. The ReSpace Conference is one of the many ways in which COSMIAC interacts with the space microsystems community in the performance of its role to enable and propel the meaningful use of reconfigurable electronics and microsystems in high reliability aerospace systems. Learn More Product Information   »   Precision RTL Plus Precision RTL Plus is Mentor Graphics' flagship FPGA synthesis solution offering breakthrough advantages for commercial, mil-aero, and safety-critical applications. The latest release includes enhancements for low power, assurance mode for mil-aero & safety-critical applications, integration with ReqTracer, extension of our vendor-independent IP platform, and IP encryption.   »   Precision Rad-Tolerant Precision Rad-Tolerant is a new member joining Mentor Graphics' FPGA Synthesis product family offering radiation effects mitigation for aerospace and high reliability applications and includes all the advanced features of Precision RTL Plus.   »   ReqTracer ReqTracer™ 2009.3a includes many new and enhanced tool interfaces which continue to extend ReqTracer's requirements tracing capabilities for design assurance, verification closure, and requirements driven development.   »   Visual Elite Visual Elite 4.2.0 offers continued enhancements to the many existing features. In addition to these new and expanded features, we have extended the design checking capability and have added an option to support IP-XACT automated assembly. Have a friend or colleague that would like this newsletter? Feel free to pass it on!   Simon Bloch Vice President and General Manager, DCS Division Mentor Graphics Corporation http://www.mentor.com/products/fpga_pld/index.cfm Email: fpga_news@mentor.com If you do not wish to receive future FPGA Technical News updates, please update your subscription . Mentor Graphics 8005 SW Boeckman Road, Wilsonville, OR  97070  United States  800-547-3000 or 503-685-8000

In this Issue   News White Papers Technical Events Product Information

Making connections to hiring managers, employees via LinkedIn

If you don't know me, I have a background in design verification/EDA, and also have a number of great former colleagues seeking employment. This message compiles a few good links on the topic of LinkedIn and jobseeking, hope it helps!

I've suggested to a number of people that if you could find people in LinkedIn that could help your job/contract search
(for research, for resume expediting, to check for existence of unadvertised jobs, or to try to get a job created/remoted for you because of a very special skill match),
then you could write a linked in introduction to said person, and I would happily forward it (I recommend you give me hints about points to highlight in recommending you for this specific position/company, either in the portion of the intro that is for me, or in a separate email). It is better if I know you, but if I only know you via a contact or two that will vouch for you, I will still consider it. These introductions do by and large reach their intended recipients. I spent all this time in 2002/2003 building up a big network, someone should benefit from it. So here is the nuts and bolts of that:

http://imonlinkedinnowwhat.com/2009/11/17/how-to-request-and-introduction-on-linkedin/
http://windmillnetworking.com/2009/07/09/linkedin-introductions-how-to-ask/

This last link tells generally how LinkedIn can be used to help in a job search. Most people can do everything they need to with the free LI service, by the way.

http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2009/02/10-ways-to-use.html#axzz0dB7wOYZL

Cheers,
Connie

DV Employment - Interview Suggestions - Aug 2010

" "I'm convinced this is the job I want. What do I need to do to convince you that I'm the best person for the job?" ...

I asked this question myself once when I was interviewing and, to my surprise, the Hiring Manager replied, "Well, I'm pretty well convinced already." I was offered the job the next day. "

Some really good suggestions - check it out!

Design Verification Club august-2010-employment-outlook-for-design-verification-professionals | 07 | 2010 | blog

Cheers,
Connie

How to access Gmail’s New ‘Priority Inbox’ feature on iPhone - iPhone Help

How to access Gmail's New 'Priority Inbox' feature on iPhone | All on the iPhone, iPod touch & iPad: "...Click on MailBoxes button and scroll-down a bit and there you will see Gmail Folder and inside Gmail Folder you will a subfolder by name 'Important'..."

This is after you have already activated "Priority Mailbox" in a browser on your PC...  I do like Priority Mailbox so far.   :-)

Cheers,
Connie 

How to prepare for strange interview questions - Ask Annie

"When interviewers ask about your last job, or your present one, they are really hoping you don't step on a landmine and say something negative,"

How to prepare for strange interview questions - Aug. 9, 2010

My favorite Fortune Magazine column, Ask Annie, provides a fresh perspective on a oldie but a goodie - it is so useful to be reminded that the interviewer may be as uncomfortable as the interviewee, and hoping that the interviewee doesn't say something concerning that must in good faith be reported back to one's superiors/peers in the interview feedback as a potential issue...

In addition to asking about why you "left"/are leaving your current job and seeing if you sabotage yourself, I also use variants on these 2 when I do mock interviews for jobseeking friends, as I hear they are more common than you'd think, and why pretend that you only need to be prepared to answer easy and reasonable interview questions, when that's just not realistic:

'The overly general "Tell me about yourself" (where do I start?) and "How long would you stay with our company?" (how do I know that when I don't even work here yet?). '

I will leave "I am afraid you are overqualified for this position..." for another post, as it's not covered here ... :-)

Cheers,

Connie