Katy Dickinson

Grange Hall

I was recently in a Lions Club meeting at the Prunedale Grange Hall on California's central coast. These halls are buildings of The National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry, a fraternal organization for American farmers, founded in 1867. The Grange is the oldest surviving agricultural organization in America, important politically after the Civil War.

Meeting in a Grange Hall felt a little like doing business in Boston's Faneuil Hall, a building still in use but suffused with history. On the wall was this Mission Statement:

The Granges of California provide opportunities to enhance your communities today for the generations of tomorrow by promoting growth through family, community, and grassroots legislative action.

The dents in the wooden floor were testimony to heavy use of the Prunedale Grange.

Images Copyright 2009 by Katy Dickinson

Posted at 04:05PM Nov 20, 2009 by katysblog in Lions  |  Comments[0]

Famous Women in Computer Science

I recently read a University of Bristol (UK) web page about women behind important advancements in Computer Science: "Famous Women in Computer Science". I don't know the University of Bristol's selection criteria (other than "women" and "Computer Science") but their list seems too short. Last week, I sent email to Sun's Women in Engineering to ask, for curiosity's sake, "Who would you add to this list?"

Below is the original list, the names added by the Sun women, plus some references. The list is uneven and I am sure there are many more who should be added but here is what I have so far...

Original List (alphabetized, not original order):

• Frances E. Allen, 1st female IBM Fellow, 1st female recipient of ACM's A. M. Turing Award (2006), WITI Hall of Fame 1997, IEEE Fellow 1991, ACM Fellow 1994
• Anita Borg, founding director of the Institute for Women and Technology (IWT), which became the Anita Borg Institute, WITI Hall of Fame 1998, ACM Fellow 1996
• Carly Fiorina, CEO Hewlett-Packard 1999-2005
• Adele Goldstine, authored the Manual for the ENIAC in 1946
• Shafi Goldwasser, RSA Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, and of computer science and applied mathematics at Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award 1996
• Grace Murray Hopper, developed the 1st compiler for a computer programming language, US Navy Rear Admiral, in 1973 became the 1st person from the USA and the 1st woman of any nationality to be made a Distinguished Fellow of the British Computer Society, IEEE Fellow 1962 (1st woman awarded)
• Augusta Ada King (Countess of Lovelace), 1843 wrote a description of Charles Babbage's early mechanical general-purpose computer, the analytical engine. She is credited with being the 1st computer programmer.
• Barbara H. Liskov, Ford Professor of Engineering in the MIT School of Engineering's Electrical Engineering and Computer Science department, 2nd woman to win ACM's A. M. Turing Award (2008), 1st US woman to be awarded a PhD from a computer science department in 1968, ACM Fellow 1996
• Kay McNulty, Betty Snyder, Marlyn Wescoff, Ruth Lichterman, Betty Jennings, and Fran Bilas, original programmers of the ENIAC, WITI Hall of Fame 1997
• Jean E. Sammet, IBM computer languages FORMAC and COBOL, ACM Fellow 1994
• Erna Schneider, in 1971 awarded one of the 1st software patents ever issued, at Bell Labs, she became the 1st female supervisor of a technical department
• Eva Tardos, Professor and Chair of Computer Science at Cornell University, ACM Fellow 1998
• Meg Whitman, CEO eBay 1998-2008

List Additions (suggested by Sun Women in Engineering)

• Carol Bartz, President and CEO of Yahoo! (starting in 2009), previously Chairman, President, and CEO at Autodesk (1992-2009), WITI Hall of Fame 1997
• Lenore Blum, Distinguished Career Professor of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University
• Safra A. Catz, President Oracle Corporation since 2004, CFO Oracle since 2005, Member Oracle Board since 2001
• Diane Greene, VMWare co-founder and CEO (1998-2008)
• Helen Greiner, 1990-2008 Co-founder, Board Chair of iRobot, Anita Borg Institute Woman of Vision - Innovation award winner 2008, WITI Hall of Fame 2007
• Wendy Hall, Professor of Computer Science, University of Southampton, UK, 2008 ACM President, 2009 Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE), 2009 elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS)
• Mary Lou Jepsen, Founding CTO of One Laptop per Child (OLPC), Founder and CEO, Pixel Qi, WITI Hall of Fame 2008
• Maria Klawe, 5th president of Harvey Mudd College (1st woman in that role), previously Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Princeton University, 2002 ACM President, ACM Fellow 1996
• Sandra Kurtzig, founder and CEO of ASK computers (1972-1991)
• Susan Landau, Sun Microsystems Distinguished Engineer, Anita Borg Institute Woman of Vision - Social Impact award winner 2008
• Evi Nemeth, Associate Professor Emeritus of Computer Science, University of Colorado, Co-author of the best-selling UNIX System Administration Handbook (Prentice Hall, 1995)
• Radia Perlman, the 'Mother of the Internet', 1st Sun Microsystems female Fellow, 1st Anita Borg Institute Woman of Vision - Innovation award winner 2005, IEEE Fellow 2008
• Janie Tsao Co-Founder of Linksys (1988-2003), 1st Anita Borg Institute Woman of Vision - Leadership award winner 2005
• Jeanette Wing, President's Professor of Computer Science (former CS Department Head), Carnegie Mellon University, Assistant Director, Computer and Information Science and Engineering Directorate, National Science Foundation, IEEE Fellow 2003, ACM Fellow 1998

Other References

• ACM Fellows (award started 1994)
• Ada Lovelace Day Collection, Ada Lovelace Day is an international day of blogging to draw attention to women excelling in technology
• Hatch, Sybil E., Changing Our World: True Stories of Women Engineers Publisher: American Society of Civil Engineers (2006), ISBN-10: 0784408416
• Pioneering Women in Computing Technology, from Women at the School Of Computer Science Carnegie Mellon University
• WITI Hall of Fame, from WITI (award started 1996)
• Women in computing, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• Women IEEE Fellows since 1962 (award started 1912)
• Women of Vision award winners from the Anita Borg Institute (award started 2005)

Posted at 10:17PM Nov 19, 2009 by katysblog in News & Reviews  |  Comments[4]

Chocolate Dinner for SMUM

On 17 October 2009, Saint Timothy's Episcopal Church ("St. Tim's") in Mountain View, California held a fund raising formal dinner and auction called "A Feast of All Things Chocolate" to benefit Santa Maria Urban Ministry or SMUM. Peggy Aoki was the head chef, assisted by Jennifer Ezell of St. Tim's. The cooks clearly had fun putting together the meal, especially the desserts. Both dark and white chocolate fountains were offered for dipping strawberries and cake. My favorite was the ganache in shortbread boats. St. Tim's youth served the dinner. The event was hosted by the Vestry (elected church leaders). We won certificates for two custom made cakes in the silent auction.

My husband John Plocher and I are on the SMUM Board of Directors and were asked to speak about SMUM and why we support it. Some of what we said:

Santa Maria Urban Ministry was founded as an outreach ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of El Camino Real in 1983, providing emergency food to the residents of San Jose's inner city. SMUM is a partner agency of the Second Harvest Food Bank, and has been designated to serve those in need within the eight Central San Jose zip codes. SMUM provides basic services to meet short-term needs, such as food, clothing and referral services, and by supporting long-term transformation through education, counseling and seasonal programs.

John and I have been helping mentor a dozen or so grade and middle school kids in the after school program for several years. During the school year, we focus on homework and computer skills. Last summer, we went on field trips to The Tech Museum of Innovation, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and the San Francisco Zoo.

Due to a shortage of regular volunteers, the after school program is only open on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but we could be open every weekday if we had more adults available. Sometimes we have too many high school students earning service hour credits; what we need is adult volunteers. When we started, John's and my qualifications were minimal - a desire to help, a couple of hours a week and a willingness to learn Spanish from a first grader! Since then, the kids have stolen our hearts. Our Spanish is improving slowly.

SMUM now has an operating budget of about $200,000/year, of which less than 15% comes from the Episcopal Church. More than 100 families a week from come to the facility for basic foodstuffs to supplement what they are able to buy with food stamps. Dozens of homeless clients get hygiene packs and clothing as well.

Several dozen children are part of the preschool and after school homework/computer programs. Many Latino clients work seasonally in the central valley as fieldworkers and move to San Jose on the off season to work in the construction and service areas. Unfortunately, it is still somewhat the norm in that community for young teens to drop out of school to babysit younger siblings or to go out to work along with their fathers, brothers and uncles in the fields. SMUM's after school program has two goals:

• Every child will feel safe and cherished.
• Every child will be encouraged to complete high school.

A Feast of All Things Chocolate, Photos

SMUM, Photos

Images Copyright 2009 by Katy Dickinson and John Plocher

Posted at 04:35PM Nov 18, 2009 by katysblog in Church  |  Comments[0]

1007 Circle Park, Knoxville, Tennessee

My mother, Eleanor Creekmore Dickinson, grew up at 1007 Circle Park Drive, Knoxville, Tennessee. This address does not exist any more. In the mid-1960's, the whole neighborhood was torn down to make room for the University of Tennessee. You can check out Circle Park on Google Maps: the satellite view shows that Circle Park itself is still there but the round street around it is now called Circle Park Drive SW or Circle Park Drive. Originally, Circle Park was a private open space owned by the houses around it.

It is surprising how much of a presence a house that does not exist still has. 1007 Circle Park stood on its own acre of land. It had towers, secret passages (an air gap between inner and outer walls), and a teardrop-shaped carriage drive in the side yard with a porte-cochere to keep the rain off. There were stables and three servant quarters in the back. My great grandfather, Walter Van Gilder, bought the house around 1910. It was ornate Victorian in style, built around the time of the American Civil War.

After 1965, when Evelyn Van Gilder Creekmore and Robert Elmond Creekmore (my grandparents) knew that their home would be torn down, they took as much of the house with them as they could when they moved. This included doors, architectural trim, windows, banisters, and ironwork as well as furniture. Over the years those pieces have been installed in a variety of our family's houses in California and Tennessee.

My husband, John Plocher just finished bolting the extremely heavy black iron fireback (featuring Poseidon and seahorses) into the exterior wall of his new workshop. In our house, we also have furniture carved by Ellen Bolli Van Gilder (my great grandma), a parlor screen with six paintings by my ancestress Mary Esperandieu, the newel post from the 1007 Circle Park staircase, a heater grate, a metal fire screen, several panels of stained glass and clear leaded glass, and a variety of mirrors that Walter Van Gilder made himself for 1007 Circle Park.

The bottom left photo shows the front door of 1007 Circle Park on the day my mother married my father in 1952. In the picture, she is being escorted to the wedding by her father, R.E. Creekmore, flanked by my other grandparents (B.W.O. Dickinson and Gladys Grace Oakes Dickinson) and Ellen Bolli Van Gilder. The doors and stained glass panel in the back of that 1952 photo are the same doors and stained glass panel in my parents' house in San Francisco now, shown on the right with my mother at the door. Walter Van Gilder made the glass panel.

Images Copyright 1938-2009 by Katy Dickinson and Eleanor Dickinson

Posted at 06:14PM Nov 17, 2009 by katysblog in Home & Family  |  Comments[0]

Geek Heaven - HSC Electronic Supply

HSC Electronic Supply of Santa Clara, California is geek heaven. The better-known Fry's Electronics is a pale shadow in comparison (Fry's sells steam irons and manila folders as well as motherboards). According to the New York Times in their 4 February 2009 article "A Haven for Spare Parts Lives On in Silicon Valley", by Ashlee Vance:

"For close to 50 years, Halted has supplied the do-it-yourself electronics enthusiasts so common in Silicon Valley with just about anything they could imagine. Like the many electronics stores once populating the area, Halted helped turn entrepreneurs’ inklings into huge success stories. These days, however, Halted caters more to hobbyists than titans of industry because much of the fundamental computing manufacturing has moved to Asia... Apple’s co-founders, Steven P. Jobs and Stephen Wozniak, shopped at Halted, hunting down parts for their first products."

My husband, John Plocher and I were at HSC the other day looking for parts for his HO-scale model train layout. If you like putting together your own electronics, you will be happy at Halted.

Images Copyright 2009 by Katy Dickinson

Posted at 04:51PM Nov 16, 2009 by katysblog in News & Reviews  |  Comments[1]

Sculptural Agave

Agave is one of my favorite plants. I am growing an agave hedge along the side of our driveway; in a few years, it will be taller than I am. The stiff and thorny strap-like leaves arrange themselves like a living sculpture. Weeding around agave is painful (I use very long tongs). Some photos of my agave just after a light rain:

Images Copyright 2009 by Katy Dickinson

Posted at 04:02PM Nov 16, 2009 by katysblog in News & Reviews  |  Comments[0]

Cactus Fence

This is an update on my blog entry "Gardening Around the Homeless" dated 10 April 2006. We live on the bank of the Guadalupe River in Willow Glen, California. In 2006, I started to create an informal cactus fence to deter homeless transients from passing through or camping on our river bank. I am even more motivated to continue this project by two big river bank fires recently caused by homeless campers just upstream of our property. I have planted both Echinopsis and Opuntia (prickly pear), plus some Yucca for height; they are all growing well.

Images Copyright 2009 by Katy Dickinson

Posted at 03:45PM Nov 06, 2009 by katysblog in News & Reviews  |  Comments[1]

Sun Labs Comics

Here in the Sun Labs area of the Menlo Park Campus is a coffee bar bulletin board which has been accumulating comics for years. Some are cut or torn out of papers or magazines or comic-a-day calendars, others are printouts. Most are either from Dilbert, XKCD, or Doctor Fun. Since XKCD is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License, the original comics can be included in this blog. Old Dilbert cartoons are harder to search for and are very restricted in how they can be reproduced. Doctor Fun is no longer published but there is a good Dr.Fun's Cartoon Search page.

One of my favorite postings is the list of Merged Book Contest Winners, including:

• "Green Eggs and Hamlet" -
  Would you kill him in his bed? Thrust a dagger through his head? I would not, could not, kill the King. I could not do that evil thing. I would not wed this girl, you see. Now get her to a nunnery.
• "Rikki-Kon-Tiki-Tavi"-
  Thor Heyerdahl recounts his attempt to prove Rudyard Kipling's theory that the mongoose first came to India on a raft from Polynesia.
• "Paradise Lost in Space"-
  Satan, Moloch, and Belial are sentenced to spend eternity in a flying saucer with a goofy robot, an evil scientist, and two annoying children.

The most melancholy cartoon is by Sipress from the 3/23/2009 New Yorker, showing the head of a company speaking to a large group of employees gathered in his office: "We're still the same great company we've always been, only we've ceased to exist." One of the funniest is a chart comparing How the HR department reads your resume vs. How a programmer reads your resume. (I haven't been able to tell where this comes from, but I found copies all over the net.) My addition to this board was a page from The New Yorker (9/21/2009) with a story by Paul Simms called "Attention, People of Earth".

Below is a sample of what some very educated geeks think is funny.

Doctor Fun

• Hiram P. Doodle and some of his many patents
• The HP DittoJet

XKCD

The Board

Images Copyright 2009 by Katy Dickinson

Posted at 03:47PM Nov 03, 2009 by katysblog in News & Reviews  |  Comments[1]

Trick or Treat

The new Willow Glen Lions Club was one of many organizations providing volunteer crossing guards for the Trick-or-Treat Trail sponsored by the Willow Glen Business Association on Lincoln Avenue. Thousands of little kids walked the trail, collecting candy and treats from the local businesses. Since Halloween was on Saturday this year, children went to school in costume the day before. The Trick-or-Treat Trail was on Friday, timed so that kids could go right after school. There were many dogs in costume too because of the special contest for them.

On Halloween itself, John and I had dinner with some friends in Palo Alto and then made the rounds with their kids. One Palo Alto house had a very elaborate witch's cave, another had an Area 51 scene, complete with spacecraft on the roof, jeep on the lawn, and creepy alien experiments. We saw the house that dresses its concrete goose for all holidays and admired her witch's costume. Rumor had it that Steve Jobs' house had the most elaborate decorations but the kids were tired so we didn't go see.

Willow Glen Trick-or-Treat Trail

Palo Alto Halloween

Images Copyright 2009 by Katy Dickinson

Posted at 04:21PM Nov 02, 2009 by katysblog in News & Reviews  |  Comments[0]

Chick Flick Nite

Every few months, the women of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church (Saratoga, California) have gathered for Chick Flick Nite. Marian Abbott coordinates the event on behalf of the Episcopal Church Women (ECW). We started a year ago with "Calendar Girls", followed by "Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day", then "Shall We Dance?". Last Friday, we dressed up for Halloween and watched "Young at Heart". We bring snacks and enjoying snickering and laughing out loud in the company of women.

Images Copyright 2009 by Katy Dickinson

Posted at 02:55PM Nov 02, 2009 by katysblog in Church  |  Comments[0]

Fan Pages on Facebook

I have recently been experimenting with Facebook Fan Pages. This is a Facebook web page not for an individual or a membership group but rather in support of a cause or organization. The instructions imply that these pages are often used for celebrities, bands or businesses. It seems to me to be a good way to provide pointers and basic information without too much structure.

I have created two fan pages:

• SEED Engineering Mentoring Program. This has 37 fans so far. I added links to the new Sun Labs technical report "Sun Mentoring: 1996-2009" and to Katysblog and welcome ideas of what else fits.


• Young at Heart, Children's Worship Service for St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church (Saratoga, California). This has 8 fans so far. Some of the photos I took for that page:
  

I am still working out how best to set up a Facebook Fan Page, playing with the options and reading through tutorials, like How to: Create a Facebook Fan Page and 5 Elements of a Successful Facebook Fan Page and Facebook Group vs Facebook Fan Page: What’s Better?. My biggest problem so far is that Facebook's Search is good for people but not so much for not-people (group, cause, business, organization names). The people I usually ask for advice on new tools say they have never created a fan page either. So, I am now the expert (scary thought)! Still working on it...

Images Copyright 2009 by Katy Dickinson

Posted at 02:14PM Oct 30, 2009 by katysblog in News & Reviews  |  Comments[0]

Andy's Pet Shop

After we adopted our two cockatiels from Mickaboo Companion Bird Rescue, we started hearing about Andy's Pet Shop (1280 The Alameda, San Jose, CA 95126, 408-297-0840)... how wonderful it is, how they are a 100% Pet Rescue shop, and about their current financial problems. Andy's adopts out birds through Mickaboo. Their web site says: "...all the pets in the shop come from a shelter, a non-profit rescue group, or are surrendered for rehoming due to foreclosure, illness, etc."

A few days ago, my son Paul and I went to check out Andy's. It is indeed a delightful place for animal lovers. We bought bird food and had fun visiting the exotic birds, puppies, kittens, mice, rabbits, turtles, and other critters looking for a home. A few days later, we went back because Paul and I had talked so much about Andy's that my husband John wanted to see for himself. My favorite at Andy's is Mango, the toucan who has a long narrow forked tongue and big blue feet. If you go, be aware that the big macaws are loud and very chatty.

Pictures from Andy's:

My cat Tino and birds Simon & Garfunkel (all rescue animals):

Images Copyright 2009 by Katy Dickinson

Posted at 01:56PM Oct 29, 2009 by katysblog in News & Reviews  |  Comments[0]

After the RIF notice, before you leave

Family Update

In light of Sun's current circumstances, here is an update of what I think is my most popular blog entry: "After the RIF notice, before you leave" (15 January 2009).

My husband, John Plocher, was laid off from Sun in November 2008 and (despite many interviews) is still looking for work. If anyone is looking to hire a senior software architect with extensive open source experience, please contact John!

This has been a wild year for our family. A few weeks after I wrote my "After the RIF notice.." blog entry, our son Paul ended up in emergency brain surgery. Paul recovered from that but still has constant terrible headaches. After finishing his Junior year at the hospital school, Paul is happy to be back in his regular High School for his Senior year. He plans to go to college next year. Having John off work during this time of medical adventures has been sortof a blessing.

Background

During the last year, we have found a good many things we wished we had thought to do before John was laid off. Additional items on this list were generously suggested to me from people who read my original 15 January blog entry. I eventually realized that official company sources are limited in what they can tell people. So, this unofficial list, while just based on limited observations and experience, turns out to have been of unique value to a variety of people. RIF stands for "Reduction in Force", also known as a lay off or restructuring.

Here are my opinions of some good actions to consider after the termination notice but before you leave Sun and lose your SunWeb access (and some actions to consider after). Some of these actions may only be appropriate for Sun staff in California since circumstances may differ from state-to-state, and country-to-country. Some actions - like joining LinkedIn - are good ideas whether you are staying or leaving. Usual disclaimers apply. Your mileage may vary. May contain nuts.

First, if you have to leave Sun involuntarily, please accept my appreciation for your work. After 25 years of working here, I know that Sun is a great company. Even if I never knew or worked with you, I thank you for your contribution and I am sorry you have been laid off. Check out "A Tribute to Sun Microsystems" and remember your good times.

What to do immediately

1. Before your SunWeb access shuts down, print out copies of key records:
   - Current and last year paycheck history
   - Company training history
   - Stock option history and status
   - Health benefit elections
   - Vacation balance
   - Past annual performance review documents
   Many of these records will just go away and be unavailable by any means soon after your last day in the office. You may need your training history for a future certification, and you will certainly need your vacation balance to apply for unemployment. This is your one and only chance to get copies.
2. Immediately locate all personal internet identities (personal accounts, groups, billing, etc.) that you have communicating with your @sun.com email address, and change them to your personal email address. It is easy to set up a gmail account where you can continue to manage your billpay, website subscriptions and email lists after your Sun account goes away. Moving accounts will take time and those organizations may continue to send updates and confirmations to you @sun.com for days or even weeks. Start this move soon!
3. Your Sun home directory will go away very shortly after your last office day. If you have personal email in your Sun home directory, move it or copy it to a home server or your personal laptop before your Sun home directory disappears. Gmail has a way to upload old messages from other email accounts. Don't copy anything that belongs to Sun.
4. If you have not already done so, use your Employee Giving matching grant for the current year. If you do not have a SunWeb account (and you will not), you cannot take advantage of this benefit even if you are laid off long before the end of the calendar year.
5. Create a blogs.sun.com account or use your existing account to post a brief and professional going away message including at least your LinkedIn reference. Your blogs.sun.com postings stay available after you are gone.
6. Change your Sun voice mail outgoing message with a new professionally phrased reference to your home phone or other non-Sun phone number.

What to do later

Resources which may help and actions to consider later:

1. Sun provides some very good benefits to RIFed staff. Use any coaching services offered as part of your package (such as the excellent Right Management service). Let the service review your resume before you send it out. Join their networking groups.
2. Think through your health, dental, vision, and life insurance choices and application timelines. Read your RIF package carefully. If the staff member who is laid off is the spouse of a continuing Sun staff member, talk with Human Resources (SunDial) soon about when and how you can initiate a "Qualifying Life Event Change" to provide insurance coverage to the RIFed spouse.
3. File for Unemployment Insurance (UI) immediately. In most states there is at least a one week waiting period and some states may have more. In California, you can apply for Unemployment Insurance from the day of your notification (while you may still have months yet to receive Sun paychecks). If you are asked by the California Employment Development Department, do not call money Sun provides you after the 60-day WARN notification period "severance". It is accurate to call it "payment to forestall legal action".
   More about the 60 days of WARN pay: The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act. I am told that while WARN is a type of "in lieu of" pay, WARN should NOT disqualify you from receiving UI benefits. For even more about this, read EDD's Total and Partial Unemployment TPU 460.37.
   Here is Sun's address and phone number which you will need for the EDD paperwork - from Sun's 2008 Annual Report:
   Sun Microsystems, Inc.
   4150 Network Circle
   Santa Clara, CA 95054
   (650) 960-1300
4. In the San Francisco Bay Area, there is a networking and lunch group called CSix where job hunters share ideas and leads. Similar formal or informal groups probably exist elsewhere.
5. Review and update your resume. Create one or more cover letter templates. Review and confirm your references. (You need to know that Sun and other companies have a policy against giving job references.) Brush up on your interview skills.
6. Buy a current-year copy of the book What Color Is Your Parachute? by Richard Nelson Bolles. This book is available in many languages (French, Korean, Russian, Turkish...). Also check out the resources on Dick Bolles' web site: JobHuntersBible.Com
7. Join LinkedIn - a social networking web site for professionals who want to extend their contacts. Follow LinkedIn's advice to create your complete profile. Be diligent in linking to your former Sun coworkers so that you don't lose each other once you are no longer @sun.com. Use LinkedIn to recommend people you think highly of and also ask them to recommend you. There are several LinkedIn Sun Alumni groups, including SUNAlumni. Sun Engineering SEED mentoring program alumni can join the SEED LinkedIn group.
8. Join the Sun Microsystems Alumni Association "The network is the people"
9. Consider other social networking sites such as Facebook which has several Sun Alumni groups, including: The Sun Microsystems Alumni Group, Sun Alumni on fb, and others. Facebook also has a "SEED Engineering Mentoring Program" Fan Page. Plaxo is another good networking, address book site.
10. Participate in Sun Alumni Blogs
11. Make your own business cards so that you can easily tell contacts your new email and phone. John and I like the designs at Overnight Prints.
12. Make doctor, dentist, and other health care appointments soon, so you are seen while you are still insured. Renew prescriptions that are close to refills. The U.S. COBRA continuation health insurance coverage isn't always the same as the coverage you had before.
13. Consider creating a special job seeking email address at yahoo.com or gmail.com. Make it professional, not cute.
14. A job searching and recruitment web site which some people have recommended is http://www.dice.com/ - "career website for technology and engineering professionals"
15. A job searching web site which some people have recommended is http://www.indeed.com/ "to search job sites, newspapers, associations and company career pages"

Keep active and keep networking. Volunteer while looking for work. If you are in the San Francisco Bay Area and need a good cause, you are welcome to join John and me in helping inner city San Jose kids in the computer club at SMUM.

Don't lose touch with Sun people you care about. As John says, there are only really 100 people in the Silicon Valley, everyone else is just there to create traffic jams.

Posted at 02:05PM Oct 28, 2009 by katysblog in News & Reviews  |  Comments[1]

How to Run a Church Convention

The Episcopal Diocese of El Camino Real held its Diocesan Convention 2009 last weekend. I was a Delegate from St. Andrew's Episcopal Church (Saratoga, California) and my husband, John Plocher, was an Alternate Delegate and also backed up Web Sacristan Stephenie Cooper in managing the information flow to the big screen. Our son Paul was a convention Youth Representative for the first time. This blog entry is to document how Stephenie and John set things up so that there is a record for our own future use (and because it might be of use to others). This blog does not provide much information about the sound system, which had a separate crew managing it.

Ours is not a big diocese, there are 47 parishes (church areas) between Nipomo and Palo Alto on California's central coast, with 189 possible lay Delegates and 134 possible clergy Delegates. Our leader is Bishop Mary Gray-Reeves.

There were 200 to 250 people in Sherwood Hall (Salinas) during the two days of convention. Sherwood Hall has a raised proscenium-style stage which is forty feet deep and sixty feet wide. Here are some diagrams John drew of the stage layout and hardware, plus photos of what it looked like in the hall and behind the big screen:

Overview

Stephenie has been running the computers for convention for many years; this is John's first time. The computer resources required to run convention have been doubling or tripling each year. The big screen presents everything at convention, including the agenda, instructions, song lyrics, the text of resolutions and ballot lists, plus videos and slide shows. The convention has a somewhat flexible schedule since resolutions may be amended, discussions may go longer or shorter than planned, and people may arrive with a video or slide show to add that is unexpected or does not match what they said they would bring. The convention follows Robert's Rules of Order for meeting procedure.

Stephenie lives near us, so she and John mocked up the convention audio/visual layout at our house in the weeks before the event. They used almost every laptop we had plus monitors borrowed from the computer lab at SMUM (Santa Maria Urban Ministry). John bought about $125 in bits and pieces to put everything together.

Stephenie and John relied on PC and Mac laptops using simple and standard tools. That is, the displays used the same hardware and software tools with which the information was originally put together. There was no special software package. Reusing standard pieces allowed quick responses plus maximum flexibility, additions, and changes during the event. There was much dynamic interaction and modification of both music and meeting content. In general, Stephenie ran the screen while John queued material and coordinated with people who came backstage to add or change or discuss what was coming next.

The convention had very few computer problems this year. Every once in a while, during a transition we in the hall would hear a voice coming from behind the screen saying "almost ready..." Of course, several people replied with "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain."

Here are John's notes:

Requirements

    *  Working from a detailed master agenda that is subject to real-time revision,
          o Project desired content on main auditorium screen where it can be seen 
             by delegates and head table.
          o Show slideshows, movies and presentations authored and produced by 
             others.
          o Show song lyrics - and follow along verse by verse as sung.
          o Show announcements (break, lunch, count down timer).
          o Show resolutions:
                + Modify to show motions to amend in progress.
                + Show total and individual debate limit timers.
                + Update as voting results dictate.
    * Show "default background image" whenever other content is not being displayed.
    * Allow real-time editing and addition of content - agenda changes/reordering, 
       new songs, movies, resolutions, etc.
    * Synchronize activities to meeting in progress as dictated by the Secretary 
       of Convention.
    * Do this all from a back stage position without direct views of auditorium 
       or head table.

Hardware setup (see diagram above)

    * a 4-way Video Amplifier cabled to a local video monitor, the projector and 
        a head table monitor. 
    * The 4-way amp was connected to a 4-way VGA KVM switch that only used the 
        "V" connections.  This allowed us to easily choose the video source to 
        be displayed from any of the
    * 4 laptops, which were connected to external video monitors and configured to 
        use both the laptop screen and the external monitor as an "extended desktop".  
        2-way VGA amps connected to each laptop so they could drive both the 
        monitor and the KVM switch/video distribution amp setup.  The use of a 
        dual-monitor setup allowed us to edit and direct content from one screen 
        while using the other as a potential video source (more on this below).
    * The laptops were networked together via a local wireless hub/router that 
        was also connected to
        * a 320GB networked hard disk for shared file storage
        * a networked video camera (Axis 2100) aimed at the head table
        * a color copier/scanner/printer

Operation

- All systems were set up to use the convention "image" as the default desktop 
screen background, so that when no windows were open, their "second" display 
could be used as a placeholder video source.

- One system was set up to be the presentation and movie display host.  
Quicktime, powerpoint and other software was loaded onto it, and its 
"headphone out" audio jack was connected to the house sound system.

- Another system was set up to show the Axis video camera's display on its 
primary screen so to get visual feedback cues from the presenters. 
(This could have been done with a TV monitor and inexpensive surveillance 
cameras instead.)
 
- A monitor speaker was run from the house sound system so that John and
Stephenie could hear what was happening in front of the screen and in
the hall.  There was also an audio feed into the sound system so that music 
and movies could play from the computers.

- A third system was configured as a web page editing station in addition to 
being the primary content display driver.   The content was accessed by 
special links from an annotated detailed agenda that sported additional 
presentation cues, such as "SONG", "RESOLUTION 1",  "LUNCH ANNOUNCEMENT", 
"MISSION MOVIE", etc.   All content on this system was in HTML, and the 
special <href> links on the detailed agenda (and on the song lyrics index 
page) were of the form <A .... target="projector">...</a>.  This allowed 
us to display the detailed agenda and song lyrics pages iin a browser 
window on the laptop screen, and have the "projector" window that popped 
up when a link was clicked positioned "fullscreen" on the second monitor.  
Displaying any piece of content was as easy as clicking on its cue.

- The last system displayed a copy of the detailed agenda.  Its second display 
was cued with a copy of the 1-page simplified agenda used by the delegates.  
This proved to be useful in coordinating a presentation and lyrics from two 
systems or to pull up a default display during breaks.

Thoughts for next time

Bring and use at least 4 video monitoring cameras so that backstage can see the 
head table, the presenter's lectern, the musicians and the delegates/audience.  
Being limited to only one of these shots made coordination and timing difficult.  
If there had been more debate on the resolutions, we would not have been able 
to closely coordinate timers, motions and the like.

Move the main display screen up from the stage by at least 8 feet to get it out 
of the direct and reflected stage lighting (improves sight lines, heightens
contrast).

Choose a sans- style font and a better background/foreground color contrast
for greater visibility in the large hall.  Play to the eyesight of the most 
senior members of the group. 

Develop a stage lighting diagram at least 2 months before convention so that 
the Sherwood Hall AV and IT staff in Salinas can work with us to optimize 
things.  Use an 8-1/2" x 11" sheet of paper - same proportions as the actual 
40' x 60' stage.

Get a projector that has at least 2,000 Lumens.

Images Copyright 2009 by Katy Dickinson and John Plocher

Posted at 05:02PM Oct 27, 2009 by katysblog in Church  |  Comments[0]

Willow Glen Lions Charter Night

The new San Jose - Willow Glen Lions Club held its Charter Night event last weekend. We sold 125 tickets and had a fun party. Sami Asfour lead the Charter Night event team. The Sweet Adelines women's harmony chorus sang at the start of our celebration. Our new community service club was sponsored by the Almaden Super Lions. Guiding Lions Karen Fillmore and Jim Issacson started and supported us. The Willow Glen Lions club has 37 members. The youngest members are 19 and the oldest is 86.

My husband, John Plocher, and I are both club officers. We are enjoying meeting new folks in the Willow Glen, California community where we have lived for ten years.

Who Are Lions?

"Lions meet the needs of local communities and the world. Our more than 1.3 million members in 205 countries and geographic areas are different in many ways, but we share a core belief – community is what we make it." From Lions Clubs International

Following up on this story:

• This blog entry was featured (with the cake picture) on the 27 October front page of the Willow Glen Extra. The full story: "It’s Official: Willow Glen Lions Club".
• Lions Clubs International District 4-C6 "All Points Bulletin" (Vol.1, Issue 2, November 2009) p.19 included photos from this blog entry.

Photos:

Images Copyright 2009 by Katy Dickinson and John Plocher

Posted at 04:33PM Oct 26, 2009 by katysblog in Lions  |  Comments[0]