Katy Dickinson

Annual Mathematics Department Awards

My son Paul is in his Freshman year at Paly High School. The Palo Alto school year runs later than that of Harker from which my daughter just graduated so Paul is just starting to prepare for his final exams. We were surprised and delighted last week to get a formal invitation from the Paul's Math teacher to attend the 29 May Annual Mathematics Department Awards.

The evening started with a speech by a Paly Grad who had gone on to become a Math professor. This interesting talk was followed by each teacher presenting certificates to their notable students. Paul was given an Excellence in Mathematics certificate for being consistently at the top of his Algebra class. Some of the certificates were of the "most improved" or "best attitude" variety but others were for the "first perfect exam I have seen in 20 years as a teacher" or for the "first A+ grades I have ever given". I was very impressed by the passion and dedication of Paly's Math teachers. The students were about evenly mixed between boys and girls. One of the teachers did point out that she was about to bust some stereotypes and then called up her three best advanced Math students - three girls with long blond hair.

Each certificate had the student's name, what they were honored for, and signatures by their own teacher and the head of the department. At the bottom was the round Official Seal of the Palo Alto High School Mathematics Department. In the center of the seal was a picture of a little Greek ship plus the letters
π α λ ψ

μ α θ

The evening was full of similarly geeky math jokes. One teacher got up and said that he was the median presenter that evening and that if we didn't know what that meant, we were in the wrong place. Paul loved it.

Posted at 03:56PM May 31, 2007 by katysblog in Home & Family  | 

103 Apply to SEED So Far (2007-2008 Term)

We are in the application period for the 2007-2008 SEED Engineering mentoring program Recent Hire and Established Staff terms. Sun's Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President of Research and Development, Greg Papadopoulos sent email to Sun Engineering worldwide on 21 May opening the application period. Since then, we have received 103 impressive applications:

• Applicants: 103
• Completed Applications: 10
• By Organization:
• Microelectronics: 4 [ 4% ]
• Sales (GSS): 6 [ 6% ]
• Services (GSS): 9 [ 9% ]
• Software Group: 67 [ 65% ]
• Storage Group: 6 [ 6% ]
• Systems Group: 9 [ 9% ]
• Worldwide Operations: 2 [ 2% ]
• By Work Location:
  • APAC (Asia Pacific): 1 [ 1% ]
  • Americas (outside USA): 1 [ 1% ]
  • China: 20 [ 19% ]
  • Czech Republic: 9 [ 9% ]
  • EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa): 2 [ 2% ]
  • France: 1 [ 1% ]
  • Germany: 3 [ 3% ]
  • India: 16 [ 16% ]
  • Russia: 5 [ 5% ]
  • USA
    • Central USA: 9 [ 9% ]
    • Eastern USA: 10 [ 10% ]
    • Western USA: 25 [ 24% ]

SEED generally receives over half of its applications during the 24 hours before the deadline so these patterns may or may not be representative of the eventual totals. All applications are due 1 June. All additional materials (resumes, letters of recommendation, etc.) are due 8 June. The Selection Committees meet 13 June. The Recent Hire term runs September 2007-September 2008. The Established Staff term runs September 2007-March 2008. We plan to select about 80 participants, divided roughly evenly between Recent Hires and Established Staff.

More information on SEED is available at http://research.sun.com/SEED/

Posted at 12:01PM May 31, 2007 by katysblog in Mentoring & Other Business  | 

74 Apply to SEED 2007-2008 Terms So Far

We are in the application period for the 2007-2008 SEED Engineering mentoring program Recent Hire and Established Staff terms. Sun's Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President of Research and Development, Greg Papadopoulos sent email to Sun Engineering worldwide on 21 May opening the application period. Since then, we have received 74 impressive applications:

• Applicants: 74
• Completed Applications: 5
• By Organization:
• Microelectronics: 1 [ 1% ]
• Sales (GSS): 5 [ 7% ]
• Services (GSS): 7 [ 9% ]
• Software Group: 47 [ 64% ]
• Storage Group: 4 [ 5% ]
• Systems Group: 9 [ 12% ]
• Worldwide Operations: 1 [ 1% ]
• By Work Location:
  • Americas (outside USA): 1 [ 1% ]
  • China: 17 [ 23% ]
  • Czech Republic: 6 [ 8% ]
  • EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa): 1 [ 1% ]
  • France: 1 [ 1% ]
  • Germany: 2 [ 3% ]
  • India: 11 [ 15% ]
  • Russia: 3 [ 4% ]
  • USA
    • Central USA: 8 [ 11% ]
    • Eastern USA: 10 [ 14% ]
    • Western USA: 14 [ 19% ]

SEED generally receives over half of its applications during the 24 hours before the deadline so these patterns may or may not be representative of the eventual totals. All applications are due 1 June. All additional materials (resumes, letters of recommendation, etc.) are due 8 June. The Selection Committees meet 13 June. The Recent Hire term runs September 2007-September 2008. The Established Staff term runs September 2007-March 2008. We plan to select about 80 participants, divided roughly evenly between Recent Hires and Established Staff.

More information on SEED is available at http://research.sun.com/SEED/

Posted at 01:24PM May 30, 2007 by katysblog in Mentoring & Other Business  | 

Fanime, (High School Graduation), Sushi, Shrek, Pirates

My daughter Jessica's graduation from Harker High School went well on Saturday. We used all 8 family tickets for seats at the small but pretty Mountain Winery outdoor amphitheater above the Silicon Valley. My brother Pete and his son Daniel drove up from Southern California for the big ceremony.

Tom Campbell (Dean, Haas School of Business, U.C. Berkeley) gave a moving talk as the graduation speaker. Jessica wore the add-a-pearl necklace her great-great-grandmother started for her grandmother (which my mother and I finished for her). After hugs and family pictures, we wound downhill for lunch at Michi Japanese Restaurant where Mr. Shin makes great sushi. John and I hosted a BarBQ at home later that afternoon for everyone who attended or wanted to attend the graduation. Family, friends, neighbors, former teachers, members of our church congregation, even Mr. Shin came by with a big plate of special appetizers to celebrate.

However, mere graduation was eclipsed by Fanime, the Bay Area Anime Convention. Jessica and her friends dressed up in costumes and went to Fanime for two days of the long weekend. She wanted to go the other days but she was graduated on Saturday and on Sunday the whole family went to see my mother's art exhibit at the Peninsula Museum of Art at the Twin Pines Art Center in Belmont. The retrospective show is called "The Fires Within - Passionate Drawings by Eleanor Dickinson". After seeing the exhibit, we all went to the movie Shrek the Third (since Daniel is too young to see the other movie choice, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End).

For Fanime on Friday, Jessica wore her grandmother's vintage 1960's blue and magenta striped vinyl hiphugger miniskirt and matching vest. On the Monday holiday, she went to Fanime in a long green gown with a black and green Chinese satin cape (another hand-me-down from my mother). She looked elegant and had a wonderful time. We saw the Pirates movie after Pete and Daniel drove home.

Posted at 04:36PM May 29, 2007 by katysblog in Home & Family  |  Comments[3]

Caboose Move on Front Page

A photo of my family standing on the platform of our caboose is on today's front cover of our local newspaper, the Willow Glen Resident. Inside on p.18-20, are more color and monochrome photos, nine images in all. The reporter, Mayra Flores DeMarcotte, has been patiently waiting to publish this story ever since February 2007 when she saw our application for a variance presented to the San Jose City Council. Mayra sent two photographers, Jacqueline Ramseyer and Vicki Thompson, to take pictures of the 12 May final move and crane lift of WP668 into our backyard. The name of today's story is "Home Depot - Willow Glen family purchases 30-ton caboose".

Two videos of the big move have been posted on YouTube:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJPm7ebfUl8
  "Caboose Move"
  
  Added May 11, 2007, From sfineberg
  
  Video of the caboose move (with sound)
  
  9 minutes 24 seconds, 66 views
  
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GE-dBtEfwHQ
  "WP668 - crane lifts caboose into backyard - webcam"
  
  Added May 14, 2007, From johnplocher
  
  Webcam images from the upstairs window every 30 seconds - made into a video (no sound)
  
  1 minute 8 seconds, 149 views
  

What fun!

Posted at 05:37PM May 25, 2007 by katysblog in Caboose Project and Other Trains  | 

Harker High School Baccalaureate

We just got home from our third Harker High School graduation event this week: the "Baccalaureate: A Farewell to the Class of 2007". We have also been to the 2007 Athletics Awards Ceremony, and the Upper School's Awards Ceremony. This Saturday is the big one: the graduation ceremony itself.

Tonight's Baccalaureate was surprisingly enjoyable. We were offered the regulation Harker brownies and fruit plates and hard white plastic chairs, of course. However, the music (two pieces by the Harker String Ensemble, plus two songs by Cantilena, the women's choir) was excellent and the speeches funny and moving. My daughter Jessica, much to her surprise, got a few minutes' notice to prepare an introduction for the second Faculty Speaker. After she and her friends hurriedly collaborated on the text, she carried it off well. Mr. Barth likes to tell bad jokes so she repeated three of them in his introduction:

• What is a pirate's favorite math variable? Answer: R
• How do you catch a unique rabbit? Answer: You Neek Up On It
• How do you catch a tame rabbit? Answer: Tame Way

Jessica also carried off a goodly set of school awards:

• Coaches' Award (for 4 years' work on a new sport: women's wrestling, from the Head Coaches)
• Excellence in Choral Music (from the Performing Arts Department)
• Cum Laude Society (for high grades)
• Recognition of Service: Judicial Committee (Student Body Awards)

It is a delight to see my daughter's hard work and passion recognized but it will also be pleasant to be done with High School events and start getting ready for Jessica to go to Carnegie Mellon in August.

Posted at 09:13PM May 24, 2007 by katysblog in Home & Family  | 

Caboose's 1st Earthquake

Our neighbor Jamie works for CalTrain and has been supportive all along of our caboose project. Jamie and Alice own the house in the background of this photo WP668 being lifted on 12 May 2007:

Jamie has been particularly interested in our discussions with the City of San Jose on how to be sure WP668 will not move during an earthquake (it is his house the caboose would roll into). As John was building the new fence on Sunday, Jamie mentioned that WP668 had already been through its first earthquake, a 3.4 magnitude temblor centered about 6 miles from our house. Nobody else noticed the quake so the inaugural shaking passed without much comment.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) has a Map for San Francisco on which it plots local earthquakes as they happen. It looks like there have been four in our immediate area in the last week, the biggest being the 3.4 magnitude quake last Sunday.

Photo Copyright 2007 by Danek Duvall

Posted at 11:32AM May 23, 2007 by katysblog in Caboose Project and Other Trains  | 

Girl Geeks in High School – Technical Experiences of Future Inventors

In March, my daughter Jessica and I submitted a panel proposal to the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing 2007. Hopper 2007 will be held October 17-20 in Orlando, Florida. Our panel title is "Girl Geeks in High School – Technical Experiences of Future Inventors". The 2007 Hopper conference theme is "I Invent the Future".

Jessica and (I hope) at least one other girl from Harker High School will join the panel. I also just received a confirmation in email from a potential panelist who goes to Castilleja girls' school. (My department's summer intern also attends Castilleja High School.) In addition, there are several girls also interested in participating who attend Palo Alto High School ("Paly"), where my son is a Freshman.

If our panel is accepted, it will include young women from a range of educational backgrounds: both private and public high schools, girls-only and co-educational schools. Some of the girls will have just started their Freshman college year. This panel will present the views and stories of young women from the unique technical environment of the Silicon Valley about what it is like to grow up geeky. We hope this will help the audience understand more about what is possible: the current state of high school technical education for girls in some of the best schools in one of the most technical places in the world.

The October 2006 Hopper conference included a panel called “Priming the Pipeline - Girls Speak Out About Pre-College Computer Science” which was remarkably well attended – standing room only! In October 2006, there were many more questions for the four girl panelists than time allowed. Since then, there have been two books published aimed at understanding women in technology and how they got there: She's Such a Geek! Women Write About Science, Technology & Other Nerdy Stuff (2006, Newitz & Anders) and Changing Our World – True Stories of Women Engineers (2006, Hatch). This indicates a strong continuing interest in how girls become geeks and what prepares them to grow up to be innovative Engineers and Scientists.

Hopper is an amazing annual conference for women in computing. I have presented two Hopper panels in past years, both on mentoring. I very much hope this panel proposal is accepted. Hopper offers many activities, panels, and talks aimed at undergrads as well as to benefit women with jobs in computer science, both in industry and academia. Usually, there are more students (grad and undergrad) than any other category of Hopper attendees. Hopper offers 1-day registrations and computing scholarships - see http://gracehopper.org/2007/participate/scholarships-student/ - as well as regular registrations. The young women on our panel are sure to have an excellent and educational experience.

Posted at 09:54AM May 23, 2007 by katysblog in Hopper - Anita Borg Institute  | 

New Worldwide SEED Term Opens for Applications

Yesterday, Sun CTO Greg Papadopoulos welcomed applications from Sun Engineering to the 2007-2008 SEED mentoring terms for Recent Hires and Established Staff. SEED program participants are expected to rise to the top of Sun Engineering's individual contributor or management ranks.

We will accept up to 80 participants, half Recent Hires and half Established Staff. There have already been 7 applications submitted. All applications are due 1 June with other materials (resume, letters of recommendation, etc.) due 8 June. The terms formally start in September 2007. As usual, SEED's four General Selection Criteria are:

1. All Participants are in Engineering.
2. Only regular Sun employees may participate.
3. Superior annual performance ratings are preferred.
4. Manager support is required.

The SEED 4-Site term (Bangalore, Beijing, Prague, St. Petersburg) is almost fully matched. 47 mentoring pairs are already working together. 4 participants are still in discussion with potential mentors. I hope to finish matching this term before June.

More information about the SEED mentoring program is available at http://research.sun.com/SEED/

Posted at 05:37PM May 22, 2007 by katysblog in Mentoring & Other Business  | 

Caboose Car Stops Arrived

Our yellow caboose car stops just arrived, strapped to a wood pallet in a big truck. One of the formal recommendations of our Civil Engineer on how to secure WP668 from moving in an earthquake was to use car stops. (See my blog entry of 9 Feb 2007 for two examples of the minimal effect of earthquakes on trains.) A car stop is a fancy bolt-on steel wedge that secures the wheel to the rail without damaging either. It is a semi-permanent wheel chock. We bought our pair from Aldon. This set weighs in at 248 pounds. In train museums, we have seen simple chains and wooden wedges used to prevent rolling stock from unauthorized excursions. What we just bought is the official version, suitable for approval by the city building inspector.

Posted at 05:17PM May 22, 2007 by katysblog in Caboose Project and Other Trains  | 

Fencing in the Caboose (and Dogs)

When we moved in our caboose recently, we had to take down parts of the back fence and the neighbor's gate. We had a temporary plastic orange net fence stretched across the opening but that was not keeping the dogs in.

Last Saturday night, Romeo and Juliet jumped the fence and were off in great excitement to explore the neighborhood, Jessica and John and I running after them. Of course, the dogs got lost when they ran beyond our block so they were upset and scared. Romeo and Juliet walk nicely on their leashes but we did not have leashes with us when they jumped the fence. Carrying 75 pound dogs several blocks home is no fun.

Romeo and Juliet were born from a local stray who crept under the garage at our old house to have her puppies. There were 7 pups in the litter with at least 3 fathers. Two were black, two were white, and three were brown. We describe them as a very local breed: "Palo Alto Shorthairs". After much begging by Jessica and Paul, we ended up keeping a white and a brown and my daughter named them. Romeo and Juliet are good watch dogs and very sweet but poor at remembering their commands when not on a leash.

On Sunday, John and our neighbors Jim and Felix installed the new fence - 7 foot tall redwood boards with a lattice top. The new gate and latticework still need to go in. It is about 5 feet from the end of WP668's coupler to the fence and we are discussing what kind of plantings or walkways will go around that end. We are glad to have the caboose (and dogs!) fenced in. The Willow Glen Resident news story about our caboose move is due out at the end of this week. We don't want WP668 to become an attractive nuisance: the tall fence will help us manage visitors.

Posted at 10:39AM May 22, 2007 by katysblog in Caboose Project and Other Trains  | 

After-Prom Party

My soon-to-be-High-School-graduate daughter Jessica went with Matt to the Harker Senior Prom last Friday night. At midnight, after the dance, she and 14 of her friends came over to our house for their after-prom party.

When Jessica and I first discussed this event, it was going to be just a few teenagers coming over for a quiet evening. However, it seems our family was offering the best alternative to some of the wilder parties being planned, so we ended up with a crowd. The kids who asked to come to our house were those who wanted to watch a video (and snuggle with their prom dates in the dark), play computer games, drink sodas, eat cheetos, chips, and salsa, and hang out in the hot tub.

I talked with three worried parents who called several days in advance to find out about this party their teen wanted to attend. By the third conversation, I knew to answer the questions up front: adult chaperons present and taking notice, no drugs, no drinks, boys and girls sleep on separate floors, we can provide rides to and from prom, and I would try to get everyone into their sleeping bags by 3 a.m. (one teen to a bag, one bag to a teen).

Our guests all arrived looking gorgeous in their formal dresses and suits. There was much mutual assistance from the girls to get unlaced and unzipped and makeup off and flowers unpinned. The clothes bar over our washer and dryer was full of elegant clothes carefully hung and folded. Some of them had even brought garment hanging bags to protect their glad rags. Many of them changed right into their sleeping clothes.

They were well behaved and as quiet as they could manage given their high spirits and joy in being together. I asked that they not wake up Jessica's little brother or he would want to join in. They enthusiastically agreed. More than a dozen kids in our hot tub began to look like teenager soup. I sent them to bed before 4 a.m. More than half of of our guests had forgotten to bring sleeping bags so we loaned out ours and provided quilts for the rest. There were some begging to be able to stay up quietly to play video games because they were not tired and sleeping was boring but eventually everyone settled down. The girls giggled for long enough in Jessica's room that one of the boys came up to tell them to be quiet!

They started to wake up again at 8 a.m. and were making cinnamon buns and pancakes when I had to leave for a church meeting in Salinas. John got to manage the morning party shift. When I returned home that afternoon, all that was left was a big heap of bedding and wet towels. I am still not done washing and drying quilts and sleeping bags. They left behind 2 swimsuits (1 girl's, 1 boy's), 2 sets of silver ear hoops, 1 big blue towel, and 1 Google-brand chapstick. So far, we have found owners for everything except the towel and the chapstick. Everyone seemed to have a very good time.

Posted at 10:24PM May 21, 2007 by katysblog in Home & Family  | 

Caboose Restoration Started

Ever since our 91-year-old WP668 caboose was lifted by crane into our backyard a week ago, we have been working on her. John has adjusted the doors (which now close tight again) and replaced most of the broken window glass. The door locks work but need some alignment because of the shifting from WP668 resting on ties in storage to sitting on her own proper trucks and wheels. We will probably have replacement windows made but not for some time.

Paul and Jessica have been sweeping and vacuuming out the cobwebs and dust, picking up nails and screws of every size and condition in generations of designs, and pounding in nails that wiggled up out of their holes. We have put down sheets of plywood over much of the floor since that is in the worst condition but will be the last thing replaced.

We have a small pile of wood trim and metal pieces that go somewhere to be determined, plus the ladders, steps, and battery box that were cut off for transport, and the metal ventilator (smokestack?) from the roof. All of the trim and little bits will go into a storage box until we need them during restoration. The windows are high enough that we get a great view over the fence of the garden next door so some curtains will go up soon.

The big caboose projects for this summer (before it rains again) are:

• Building new steps and a deck (meeting San Jose Building Department requirements)
• Putting the metal skin on the roof (working with our neighbor and roofer, Felix Quintero, 408-592-4341, San Jose, CA)
• Painting the exterior (working with Avi Lenchner, who has painted two houses for us, of Avi Decorative Painting, 650-329-0770, Menlo Park, CA)
• Filling the wall hole where a prior owner started installing a window, and replacing the front of one of the two bay windows where that prior owner started to put in a door
• Getting San Jose Building Department permission to hook up the utilities

Posted at 10:47AM May 18, 2007 by katysblog in Caboose Project and Other Trains  |  Comments[1]

Almost 100 SEED Blogs

We have been thinking up ways to make the new external-to-Sun SEED Engineering mentoring program web page (at http://research.sun.com/SEED/ ) richer and more interesting. So far, we have added a page for SEED Program Bloggers at http://research.sun.com/SEED/seed.blogs.html. We started with a list of about 40 blogs and asked the SEED mentors, managers, and participants if they wanted to be included. We now have almost 100 blogs on the list! I had no idea there were so many and I am enjoying catching up on events as I read them.

All of these bloggers work for Sun. Some of them work in the same group but many do not. Bloggers on the list come from all parts of Sun (Software, Systems, Sun Labs, Legal, Sales, Service, Storage, etc.) and from many countries. Some are executives, others are managers, and still others are individual contributors. The list order is alphabetical by URL. The name of the blog is as given on the blog itself (but some have no name). Some bloggers have different sites for different subjects - when known, these are listed together. I will update the SEED Program Bloggers web page from time to time. Some blogs are updated frequently and others more rarely. Please contact the individual blogger with questions or comments about their content.

Posted at 01:54PM May 14, 2007 by katysblog in Mentoring & Other Business  | 

WP668 Caboose Move Videos

The 91-year-old WP668 caboose was lifted by crane on Friday into our San Jose, California, backyard. On Saturday and Sunday, we trimmed branches broken during the lift and started work to replace the back fence. Two videos of the big move have been posted on YouTube:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJPm7ebfUl8
  Added May 11, 2007, From sfineberg
  
  Video of the caboose move (with sound), 9 minutes 24 seconds
  
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GE-dBtEfwHQ
  Added May 14, 2007, From johnplocher
  
  Webcam images from the upstairs window every 30 seconds - made into a video (no sound), 1 minute 8 seconds
  

Another way to see the webcam video is to click below:

Posted at 01:24PM May 14, 2007 by katysblog in Caboose Project and Other Trains  |