Katy Dickinson

88% SEED Mentees Matched

Since 9 July, we have been in the SEED 2008-2009 Mentor Matching Cycle. That is, the 84 Engineering mentoring program Participants (Mentees) have created and prioritized their 15-name Mentor Wish Lists and I am in the process of sequentially contacting the highest priority potentially available mentor for each of them. In this first 20 days (just short of 3 weeks), 74 or 88% have been matched so far. There are two terms being matched at the same time:

• September 2008 - September 2009 Recent Hire Term
  which already has 21 out of 23 matched
• September 2008 - March 2009 Established Staff Term
  which already has 53 out of 61 matched

This matching cycle is slightly ahead of where we expect it to be. Last year, we took the average of four term matching cycles over their first three weeks. Not all SEED terms have the same number of participants and some offer special challenges (like having all participants working outside of the US). Nonetheless, here is a comparison of that 2007 average against the current 2008-2009 term:

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

Posted at 05:34PM Jul 29, 2008 by katysblog in Mentoring & Other Business  | 

Restoring Caboose Windows

I am working from home in WP668 (our backyard caboose) today. WP668 is very comfortable except when summer's late afternoon sun hits the roof. John has been working on restoring the caboose windows for the last week or so. He designed screened window inserts to let in a cross breeze while keeping out bugs. The original caboose fittings included wide metal mesh screens to protect windows against rocks (or vandals?), not bugs. We removed the window trim during painting last year and have gone back and forth discussing whether to buy new or restore the original windows we have.

The difficulty is that the windows installed in 1943 have no framework other than the caboose itself. That is, on five of the windows, the sash holding the glass slides straight up between the inner and outer wood walls. On the bay window, the two sashes move horizontally along built-in metal slots. We haven't found any windows for sale (standard or semi-custom) anything like what we have. We could go to a custom historical window manufacturer but that would be a very expensive solution.

Last weekend, John took apart one of the windows to check its condition. It is clear that the walls of the caboose were painted much more often than the window frames. However, after much scraping, the wood on the first window is solid and the original railroad safety glass is intact. So, that window will be reinstalled with new trim and sill. The rotted original trim and sill are providing the pattern for the replacement pieces. John said he found over a dozen rusty nails in one piece of trim. Repairs during active rail service were hasty...

I will post photos when I have more to show...

Posted at 12:58PM Jul 29, 2008 by katysblog in Caboose Project and Other Trains  | 

Unleash Your Creativity - Sun's Hopper 2008 Ad (revised)

Sun is a again a Platinum-level Sponsor of the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (in Keystone Resort, Colorado: October 1-4, 2008). Thanks for the comments on the earlier version of the conference program advertisement. We revised the first sentence to sound better. Thanks also to Margaret Nguyen and Alex Seibert of Sun Marketing for their support. See the earlier version (and Sun's 2007 Hopper conference ad) on: July 24, 2008. Click on the image below to see a bigger version.

Sun Copyright 2008, Reprinted with permission

Posted at 03:20PM Jul 28, 2008 by katysblog in Hopper - Anita Borg Institute  | 

Women of Vision Videos 2005-2008

On 9 May 2008, I wrote about the amazing Women of Vision event held in downtown San Jose, California. Sun Labs' Susan Landau, Distinguished Engineer, won the Anita Borg Institute 2008 WOV Award in the Social Impact category. Sun's CTO Greg Papadopoulos gave the welcome address at the Imperial Ballroom of the Fairmont Hotel.

The videos of the three 2008 winners' acceptance speeches have now been posted on YouTube. We who are building the new MAGIC program for mentoring middle school girls are planning how to use these videos for inspiration. Here are all of the 2005-2008 WOV links on YouTube:

• Woman of Vision Radia Perlman Video 2005 WOV Winner for Innovation
  (Radia Perlman is Sun's first woman Fellow!)
  
• Woman of Vision Janie Tsao 2005 WOV Winner for Leadership
• Woman of Vision Pamela Samuelson Video 2005 WOV Winner for Social Impact
• Deborah Estrin, Women of Vision 2007 WOV Winner for Innovation
  Deborah Estrin, Acceptance Speech
  
• Duy-Loan Le, Women of Vision for Leadership 2007
  Duy-Loan Le, Acceptance Speech, part 1
  Duy-Loan Le, Acceptance Speech, part 2
  
• Leah Jamieson, Women of Vision for Social Impact 2007
  Leah Jamieson, Acceptance Speech
  
• Susan Landau Women of Vision Award Speech part 1 2008 Social Impact Winner
  Susan Landau Women of Vision Speech part 2
  Susan Landau, Women of Vision Winner Social Impact slides
• Helen Greiner Women of Vision Award Speech 2008 Innovation Winner
  Helen Greiner, Women of Vision Award Winner Innovation slides
• Justine Cassell Women of Vision Award Speech pt 1 2008 Leadership Winner
  Justine Cassell Women of Vision Award Speech Part 2
  Justine Cassell Women of Vision Award Speech Part 3
  Justine Cassell Women of Vision Award Winner Leadership slides

Posted at 07:07PM Jul 24, 2008 by katysblog in Hopper - Anita Borg Institute  | 

Unleash Your Creativity - Sun's Hopper 2008 Advertisement

Sun is a again a Platinum level Sponsor of the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (in Keystone Resort, Colorado: October 1-4, 2008). We worked with Margaret Nguyen (Advertising Program Specialist in Sun Marketing) to create Sun's 2008 program ad for Hopper (which we received today). Click on the images to see a bigger version.

Sun Copyright 2008, Reprinted with permission

For comparison, here is the advertisement Sun used last year (for Hopper 2007):

Sun Copyright 2007, Reprinted with permission

Posted at 05:30PM Jul 24, 2008 by katysblog in Hopper - Anita Borg Institute  | 

SEED term 80% Matched

Since 9 July, we have been in the SEED 2008-2009 Mentor Matching Cycle. That is, the 84 Engineering mentoring program Participants (Mentees) have created and prioritized their 15-name Mentor Wish Lists and I am in the process of sequentially contacting the highest priority potentially available mentor for each of them. In this first 15 days, 67 or 80% have been matched so far. There are two terms being matched at the same time:

• September 2008 - September 2009 Recent Hire Term
  which already has 20 out of 23 matched
• September 2008 - March 2009 Established Staff Term
  which already has 47 out of 63 matched

We have a parallel project in the works this summer, using the services of Alice, my second-term High School Summer Intern. Alice is creating simple profile SunWeb pages for Sun executives (Fellows, Distinguished Engineers, Principal Engineers, Vice Presidents, Directors...) and all SEED potential mentors who do not yet have profile pages. Many executives get profile web pages created automatically, like those on Sun's Executive Bios web page. However, not all of us are exalted enough to rate such a high-visibility page. Sun Labs solves this problem with its People at Sun Labs/CTO web page. Staff in our division are offered an easy tool to create both internal and external web pages. However, not everyone is in CTO or Labs. Alice has the fun job of creating SunWeb pages for over 120 accomplished SEED mentors who did not get one some other way. About 250 SEED mentors already had web pages (some of them created by Alice last summer). Internal web pages are extremely useful to Sun Engineering staff all over the world who are seeking expertise or help.

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

Posted at 03:40PM Jul 24, 2008 by katysblog in Mentoring & Other Business  | 

Kay Ryan, Poet Laureate on KQED

I heard the always-remarkably-knowledgeable Michael Krasny interviewing new American Poet Laureate and Bay Area resident Kay Ryan on the KQED Forum (National Public Radio) show this morning. I was very impressed and regret to write that this is the first time I have heard Kay Ryan's poems. Krasny's introductory comparisons to American poets Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost at first seemed unlikely. Then I heard her read. Wow! I am buying several Kay Ryan books soon.

My excellent High School English teacher, Carol Marshall, taught me that the defining characteristics of poetry are word, image, and music. I have found some of Ryan's poems on the web. Her work quietly exceeded my expectations in both first hearing and in re-reading. Ryan's presentation of the music of words is a delight. Here is the first poem Kay Ryan read this morning:

"Turtle"
by Kay Ryan

Who would be a turtle who could help it?
A barely mobile hard roll, a four-oared helmet,
She can ill afford the chances she must take
In rowing toward the grasses that she eats.
Her track is graceless, like dragging
A packing-case places, and almost any slope
Defeats her modest hopes. Even being practical,
She’s often stuck up to the axle on her way
To something edible. With everything optimal,
She skirts the ditch which would convert
Her shell into a serving dish. She lives
Below luck-level, never imagining some lottery
Will change her load of pottery to wings.
Her only levity is patience,
The sport of truly chastened things.

From Flamingo Watching, Copper Beach Press, 1994
Copyright Kay Ryan. All rights reserved.

Ryan's reading reminded me of the big snapping turtle we saw trying to cross a lakeside road last month:

Image Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson

Posted at 02:54PM Jul 24, 2008 by katysblog in News & Reviews  | 

SMUM Karate Class

Our family volunteers at SMUM (Santa Maria Urban Ministry, San Jose, CA) for Studio 17, the after school homework and computer lab. SMUM is the official charity of the Episcopal Diocese of El Camino Real. Studio 17 is offering a summer program of field trips, camping, cookouts, etc.

My daughter Jessica volunteered to teach three Saturday karate and self-defense classes as part of the summer program. Jessica earned her provisional Shito Ryu Karate Black Belt in 2006, her Shodan rank in 2007, and with two other girls started a Taekwondo and Shito-Ryu club at Carnegie Mellon University last year. Here is Jessica teaching her first two SMUM classes:

1st class - first pushups

1st class - more pushups

2nd class - instructions

2nd class - blocking

2nd class - breaking a grip

2nd class - play break

Images Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson

Posted at 03:36PM Jul 23, 2008 by katysblog in News & Reviews  | 

For Train Nuts in Northern California

It is easy to have fun being a railroad enthusiast (aka "train nut") here in Northern California, even if you don't have a caboose in your own back yard. Here are some local and regional delights:

Real Train Nuts - from WP668, our caboose

Places to Stay

• Featherbed Railroad Company Bed and Breakfast Resort sleep in a caboose on the shores of Clear Lake
• Railroad Park Resort sleep in a caboose in Dunsmuir, near Mount Shasta

Short Trips, Dinner Trains, Excursions

• Amtrak's Coast Starlight one of the 10 Greatest Train Rides on Earth (not a short trip but a grand one)
• Amtrak's Capitol Corridor Bay Area to Sacramento and the California State Railroad Museum, passes Drawbridge ghost town
• CalTrain ride the commuter train from San Francisco to Gilroy and back, get off and walk to lunch in Menlo Park, Palo Alto, California Ave./Palo Alto, or Mountain View
• Napa Valley Wine Train between Napa and St. Helena through the wine valleys
• Niles Canyon Railway near Fremont, Pleasanton (rent a caboose for your birthday party!)
• Railtown 1897 State Historic Park in Jamestown
• Redwood Valley Railway 5/12 Scale Narrow Gauge Passenger Railway (trains are 5/12 the size of a full-size locomotive), Tilden Regional Park above Berkeley. You can ride on the trains.
• Roaring Camp Railroads beach or mountain rail route, Felton, near Santa Cruz
• San Francisco Cable Cars in The City
• Shasta Sunset Dinner Train in McCloud (base of Mount Shasta)
• Skunk Train, Sierra Railroad Dinner Train, Sacramento River Train three former working rail lines now offering a variety of tours, meals, and entertainment
• Yreka Western Railroad's Blue Goose Yreka excursion train
• Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine Railroad Fish Camp excursion train

Museums

• Cable Car Museum in San Francisco
• California State Railroad Museum Old Sacramento - take Amtrak from the Bay Area then walk to this wonderful museum
• California Trolley and Railroad Corporation in San Jose
• Golden State Model Railroad Museum in Point Richmond
• Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad Museum in Nevada City, California
• South Bay Historical Railroad Society museum and model train club in Santa Clara Railroad Depot
• Western Pacific Railroad Museum at Portola northwest of Lake Tahoe
• Western Railway Museum in Suisun

Image copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson

Posted at 08:46PM Jul 21, 2008 by katysblog in Caboose Project and Other Trains  | 

SEED Term 59% Matched

Since 9 July, we are in the SEED 2008-2009 Mentor Matching Cycle. That is, the 85 Engineering mentoring program Participants (Mentees) have created and prioritized their 15-name Mentor Wish Lists and I am in the process of sequentially contacting the highest priority potentially available mentor for each of them. In this first ten days, 50 or 59% have been matched so far. There are two terms being matched at the same time:

• September 2008 - September 2009 Recent Hire Term
  which already has 16 out of 23 matched
• September 2008 - March 2009 Established Staff Term
  which already has 34 out of 63 matched

At one level, I am matching interesting and accomplished individuals, some of whom I have known for many years and others I am just getting to know. At another level, I am working a mentor matching system. I have a running tally with notes on it for each SEED mentee:

• mentorname #3 - contacted 17 July
  mentorname #1 - no response by 17 July
• mentorname #1 - Confirmed 13 July (#1 on list)
• mentorname #4 - Confirmed 18 July (#4 on list)
  mentorname #1 - no response by 17 July
• mentorname #2 - 19 July interested - may take a while to decide
  mentorname #1 - declined - works in her org. 14 July
• mentorname #1 - Contacted 7/9, out of the office until 21 July
• mentorname #5 - contacted 15 July
  mentorname #4 - declined 15 July
  mentorname #1 - declined 14 July
• mentorname #1 - Confirmed 10 July (#1 on list)

The Participant is not kept informed of each step in the match process. They do not know which potential mentor from the "Wish List" is contacted. Potential mentors need to have space and time to consider the possibilities of a mentoring partnership without risk of offending the potential mentee or interfering with future communications with them or their manager.

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

Posted at 09:55PM Jul 19, 2008 by katysblog in Mentoring & Other Business  | 

Fixing up the Sun Prank Museum

On August 03, 2006, I wrote about Sun's unofficial April Fool's Day Prank Museum near the lobby of Menlo Park building 17. This week, my husband repaired one of the prank artifacts which had become damaged. So, here are current pictures of the small but historic collection. Plus, some news stories and links about Sun's prank history.

Sun Prank Museum Photos

John Repairing 2003 Big Webtone Switch

Poster 2007 Black Box Prank

1990 Scott's Arrow 1996 Cup

2008 Concrete Hardened Thumper

1996 Coffee Station 2007 Black Box Signs

1993 Sharkstation Marty Hess' SunPuck

2008 MySQL dolphin prank

2008 Mardi Gras Have You Seen This Ham? Prank

1990 All the Wood Behind 1 Arrow Photo of Scott in His Office

News and Links on Sun Pranks

• Do I Still Have a Job? Friday Mar 28, 2008 entry on Jonathan's Blog
• April 1: When Sun Microsystems has fun By Rochelle Garner and Connie Guglielmo Bloomberg News, April 1, 2008, International Herald Tribune
• Sun prank takes potshots at CEO proclivities April 4, 2007 10:09 AM PDT, Posted by Stephen Shankland, c/net News.com NewsBlog
• April Fool's Pranks At Sun I Have Been Involved With Apr 01, 2007 on Dave Edstrom's Catalyst - Edstrom Photons-Electrons blog
• Sun Microsystems Celebrates 25th Anniversary - Sun Pranks From the Past 2005
• EMOTIONS AND STAKES RUN HIGH AT FORMULA SUN ONE GRAND PRIX CHAMPIONSHIP SANTA CLARA, CA -- March 30, 2001, Sun Press Release

Images Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson

Posted at 02:05PM Jul 18, 2008 by katysblog in Mentoring & Other Business  | 

Cat or Bear?

My young nephew Daniel has a debate going with his father, my brother Pete. Daniel's favorite toy is "Purpley", a stuffed animal. The controversy is over whether this stuffy is a bear or a cat? From the front, Purpley seems to be a bear but on the back, he has a very cat-like tail. Daniel was very interested in seeing photos on this blog and agreed to pose with Purpley for photos to put this important family matter to a vote.

What do you think? Is Purpley a bear or a cat? Comments are welcome.

Images Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson

Posted at 12:18PM Jul 18, 2008 by katysblog in Home & Family  |  Comments[7]

Great books mean great decisions

My brother Peter and I share a love of literature and an interest in law. On his last visit, he gave me a delightful article from the ABA Journal, published by the American Bar Association:

Author! Author!
Great books mean great decisions

By Richard Brust , June 2008 Issue

"College lit majors, review that book report you did on 1984, and brush up on your Shakespeare. It could help you brief your next federal case.

University of Chicago assistant law professor M. Todd Henderson searched federal appellate and U.S. Supreme Court opinions for citations to the great works. A student of the law and literature movement, Henderson chose literary passages that gave a decision emotional heft, discounting passing comments and references to an author’s legal problems—for example, James Joyce’s censorship battles.

In his essay, 'Citing Fiction,' in the winter 2008 edition of The Green Bag, Henderson lists the most frequently quoted writers. So take notes. Oh, and don’t just rely on the CliffsNotes—the judge will be grading you.

George Orwell (35 citations)

'The black-mustachio’d face gazed down from every commanding corner. There was one on the house front immediately opposite. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption said.'
• From: 1984
• Cited in: Florida v. Riley, 488 U.S. 445 (1989)..."

Quotations from Milton, Homer, Donne, Bolt, Camus, and Shakespeare are also in this most quoted-in-law list. My favorite:

"... Homer (11)

'Then I witnessed the torture of Sisyphus, as he wrestled with a huge rock with both hands. Bracing himself and thrusting with hands and feet he pushed the boulder uphill to the top. But every time, as he was about to send it toppling over the crest, its sheer weight turned it back, and once again towards the plain the pitiless rock rolled down. So once more he had to wrestle with the thing and push it up, while the sweat poured from his limbs and the dust rose high above his head.'
• From: The Odyssey
• Cited in: City of Carmel-by-the-Sea v. U.S. Dept. of Transporta­tion, 123 F.3d 1142 (9th Cir. 1997)..."

Posted at 10:52PM Jul 17, 2008 by katysblog in News & Reviews  | 

WP668 Caboose Stair Rail

Today, Chris Gremich and his young son came over to work out details on the design of the stair rails for W668, our backyard caboose. Chris is the master welder who already made the replacement roof ladders for WP668 (he is "The Iron Expert" of CG Designs in San Jose, CA, phone: 408-313-3706). Within the next month, we hope to have our new stair rails, which will also allow us to complete the final inspection and get sign off on our caboose work permits, at last!

The new rails will be made of steel piping that is similar to the handrails and grab bars already on the caboose platform. WP668 has leaf springs which cause it to rock very slightly on its wheels, so the new rail will be attached to the wood-and-Trex stairs but not to the caboose itself.

Chris' 8-year-old son looked at the historical photos of WP668 in service then asked his Dad if they could have a train engine in their backyard. Here is a photo of the caboose stairs as they are now with a temporary hand rail:

Image Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson

Posted at 04:20PM Jul 17, 2008 by katysblog in Caboose Project and Other Trains  | 

Posner Poetry and Prose Project

My daughter Jessica has started "P4", an intern project for the Posner Center at Carnegie Mellon University. Posner houses rare and historic books and art on the CMU campus in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. P4 stands for Jessica's Posner Poetry and Prose Project. P4 is an effort to bring high quality recordings of beloved works of literature to YouTube’s broad audience. Jessica has started by seeing what is already available. Wonderful efforts she has found so far:

• The 116 Project for which "this cool dude wanders around with a minicam and a beat up book of sonnets and asks random people to read Sonnet 116 by William Shakespeare"
• “The Cremation of Sam McGee” by Robert W. Service (1874-1958), read by Urgelt
• "If" by Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936), read by Dennis Hopper

I am looking forward to more as her P4 project develops over the semester.

Posted at 03:45PM Jul 16, 2008 by katysblog in News & Reviews  |