Katy Dickinson

Arrived at Keystone for Hopper

I have arrived in Keystone, Colorado, in the Rocky Mountains near Denver, for the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (aka GHC 2008). It was an uneventful trip. On the flight from San Francisco, I sat next to a pleasant woman who wore a silver leather jacket and more sparkley jewelery and clothes than I have ever seen on one person. Everything, even her glasses and shoes, had sparkles.

Flying over the mountains, there were big patches of yellow rust color that the pilot said were aspens wearing their autumn leaves. It was dark when we arrived but I am looking forward to seeing the mountains in the sun tomorrow.

Tanya Jankot and I were on the same flight. We had dinner at the Denver airport, then took the shuttle to Keystone. There were so many women headed for Hopper that they had to call for a second van. Our driver said it was his 4th trip of the day. I teased him that some men would be happy to be on a two hour van trip with eleven women but he said he had four older sisters so he expected to be picked on.

Tanya and I will be setting up the Sun table in the exhibit hall tomorrow after lunch. I hope that all of our stuff has arrived in good shape. My daughter Jessica arrives tomorrow morning.

Posted at 10:15PM Sep 30, 2008 by katysblog in Hopper - Anita Borg Institute  | 

Day Before Hopper - Printing Printing Printing

More than thirty-five Sun staff will be at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing this week in Keystone, Colorado. Many of us were able to check in with each other by conference call this afternoon. I am flying into Denver tomorrow afternoon. Today, I am printing everything I think I may need while I am traveling and at the conference:

• Airline boarding pass
• Denver-Keystone-Denver airport shuttle tickets
• My travel itinerary (California-Colorado-California) and my daughter's travel itinerary (Pennsylvania-Colorado-Pennsylvania)
• Hotel reservation confirmation
• Phone numbers and names of people I plan to contact
• Information about Sun staff attending Hopper 2008
• Information on my panel "Taking the Long View - Many Careers in One Company" - Thursday, October 2nd, Session Three, 2:45pm - 3:45pm
• Information on the MAGIC BOF in which I am a participant - "Setting Up An Effective Organization To Support Girls" on Friday, Oct 3rd, 5:10pm - 6:10pm
• Sun job and program and MAGIC program information, in case anyone asks me

I am also carrying Sun business cards and MAGIC business cards, pencils printed with "www.getmagic.org MAGIC girls" for distribution at the BOF, books, clothes, etc. Sun's Hopper t-shirts and other giveaways were already shipped, as were our posters and quick screens. I updated my laptop software this afternoon but John is messing with it now (in case he, as our family sysadmin, can think of more stuff I might need).

I talked with Jessica and she is ready to print her poster for Hopper's Technical Poster Session (Wednesday, 1 Oct, 7 - 9 pm). I am looking forward to seeing it (and my girl!).

Keystone temperatures are expected to range between 65 degrees F and 25 degrees F, at 8930 feet above sea level, with thunderstorm potential, so I am packing for cold and maybe wet weather. Almost ready to go... I am very much looking forward to this. Hopper conferences are well worth the effort.

Posted at 08:01PM Sep 29, 2008 by katysblog in Hopper - Anita Borg Institute  | 

Win Ng Chicken

For my birthday, my mother gave me two books and a chicken. The chicken is an elegant ceramic cooking pot made by Win Ng in the late 1960s. It is practical and well made and has cooked many family dinners.

Win Ng was a family friend, ceramicist, and co-founder of the popular Taylor & Ng store in San Francisco. When I was a little girl, he adopted one of our Siamese kittens, which gave us something to discuss when we visited his store. Long after the store closed, my mother rented studio space from Win Ng on Belcher Street in San Francisco. She still has one of his larger ceramic sculptures on her garden deck.

Win Ng Chicken Cooker

Win Ng Chicken Cooker

Win Ng Ceramic Cube

Images Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson

Posted at 09:03PM Sep 28, 2008 by katysblog in News & Reviews  | 

MAGIC Business Cards

There is a solid feeling of accomplishment in having business cards printed up the first time for a new venture. The MAGIC core team now has its cards to take to the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing next week in Colorado. Here is mine:

The MAGIC mentoring program for middle and high school girls will be featured at a BOF called "Setting Up An Effective Organization To Support Girls", on Friday, Oct 3rd, 5:10pm - 6:10pm. If you attend Hopper, please come by and talk with us!

Image Copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

Posted at 04:15PM Sep 26, 2008 by katysblog in Hopper - Anita Borg Institute  | 

SEED Event Yesterday and Today

The SEED worldwide Engineering mentoring program is holding its annual in-person event yesterday and today in Menlo Park, California. I wrote about our preparations on 8 August 2008. Over 90 people from all over the world are registered to participate in person and by phone. Last night, over 30 people attended the SEED dinner. Here is the first SEED Event group photo with Greg:

Executive speakers for the SEED Event include:

• Dr. Greg Papadopoulos, Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President of Research and Development - SEED's executive sponsor!
• Mike Lehman, Chief Financial Officer and EVP of Corporate Resources
• Aisling MacRunnels, Senior Vice President of Software Marketing
• Dr. Ron Ho, Distinguished Engineer, VLSI Research Project, Sun Labs
• Dean Nelson, Senior Director, Global Lab & Datacenter Design Services

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

Image Copyright 2008 John Plocher

Posted at 08:36AM Sep 26, 2008 by katysblog in Mentoring & Other Business  | 

Keeping in Touch with my College Kid

My daughter Jessica is now in her second undergraduate year at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She is doing well and enjoying herself despite the un-California-like weather of her school home. She is in CMU's Humanities Scholars Program majoring in Political Science with minors in Music and Computer Science. She also working on the P4 project at CMU's Posner Collection (to record more of Shakespeare and Twain for YouTube) and she teaches karate. She is a very busy kid. I miss her. How do we keep in touch?

One way is through our blogs. Reading FeelingElephants lets me know some of what Jessica is thinking and experiencing. My respect and admiration for my daughter grows when I read her blog (although I despair that she will ever learn to spell). Jessica says she started blogging to reduce the number of status update calls required for friends and family. I find it easier to write for Katysblog when I have Jessica in mind.

Another way to keep current with my busy college kid is through scheduled weekly phone calls, sometimes using Skype. Also, for the second year, Jessica and I will be attending the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing conference together soon. In 2007, Jessica was on my "Girl Geeks" panel at Hopper, this year her own poster (on academic plagiarism) was accepted.

Jessica bought me a book before she left for college last year called I'll Miss You Too: An Off-to-College Guide for Parents and Students by mother and daughter Margo E. Woodacre Bane and Steffany Bane (Sourcebooks Trade, 2006, ISBN-10: 1402206410, ISBN-13: 978-1402206412). It is a good resource book on the transitions, joys, and challenges of having a kid in college.

Katy and Paul and Jessica using Skype

Jessica on Skype

Images Copyright 2008 John Plocher

Posted at 01:22PM Sep 24, 2008 by katysblog in Home & Family  | 

Why read a book?

Last month while camping in the Sierras, I saw a woman reading a book using a Kindle (Amazon's Wireless Reading Device). It looked interesting (portable, convenient, easy to use) but I wasn't tempted. Why not? I have always been addicted to books but more particularly, to books in the form of a codex.

I recently finished reading The Archimedes Codex (by Reviel Netz and William Noel, Da Capo Press, 2007, ISBN-10: 030681580X, ISBN-13: 978-0306815805) which presents the many "technology upgrades" that the works of Archimedes survived between about 212 BC (when the great mathematician and scientist was killed by a Roman soldier in Syracuse, Sicily) and now. The Archimedes Codex is the story of how three of Archimedes' works started out in scroll form and ended up as a medieval codex in very poor condition sold at public auction in 1998 as the Archimedes Palimpsest. Since 1998, Archimedes' works have gone through their most recent IT upgrade and next month (at 2 pm on October 29th, 2008 to be precise), a digital version of the Archimedes Palimpsest is scheduled to be released on the web.

Will Noel (of Baltimore's Walters Art Museum) writes in The Archimedes Codex:

"Nothing is more dangerous for the contents of old documents than an information-technology upgrade, because mass data transfer has to take place and somebody has to do it. The transition from the roll to the codex - the book format we know today - was a revolution in the history of data storage." (pp.70-71)
"As the ancient world disappeared, its gods went with it. And as Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, many classical texts, if they were not condemned as dangerous, were dismissed as irrelevant. It is not that Christians willfully destroyed them very often; they just ceased to copy them." (p.74)

I think we live in a time when books are changing form, just as they did in the 1st through 4th century AD when the codex took over from the scroll. Which books will survive the transition from codex to Kindle? My daughter is working on the P4 project at Carnegie Mellon's Posner Collection to record more of Shakespeare and Twain for YouTube. I am enjoying watching this project develop.

The best list of reasons I have found to prefer reading a book in codex form to reading the same text on a computer is in Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21,730 Pages by Ammon Shea (Perigee Trade, 2008) ISBN-10: 0399533982, ISBN-13: 978-0399533983. This book is full of obscure but delightful words from the OED like "Nod-crafty (adj.) 'Given to nodding the head with an air of great wisdom.'" and "Peristeronic (adj.) 'Suggestive of pigeons.'" In Chapter F, Ammon Shea writes of his admiration for all of the amazing new ways to search and understand that are now available because of the electronic version of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). Shea then describes why he still prefers the codex. Here are some of his reasons:

What Can't You Do With an Electronic Book?

• Drop it on the floor in a fit of pique, or slam it shut.
• Leave a bookmark with a note on it, then happily find it years later.
• Get tactile pleasure from rubbing the pages.
• Have a sense of time and investment because of pages read. On a computer "...everything is always in the same exact spot. When reading a book, no matter how large or small it is, a tension builds, concurrent with your progress through its pages."
• Sit down prior to using it, open it up and sniff its pages.
• Have "...that delicious anticipatory sense that I am about to be utterly and rhapsodically transported by the words within it."

I would add to Shea's list the physical delight in the art of book making. A computer offers nothing like the feel of the embossed image of a book cover under my finger tips. Shea ends with:

"But what does the computer know of the comforting weight of a book in one's lap? Or of the excitement that comes from finding a set of books, dusty and tucked away in the back corner of some store? The computer can only reproduce the information in a book, and never the joyful experience of reading it." (p.58)

Posted at 05:51PM Sep 23, 2008 by katysblog in News & Reviews  |  Comments[4]

QTIP and Lipstick

I saw the delightful cover of the current issue of the free Metro Silicon Valley newspaper and immediately thought of QTIP.

Metro Silicon Valley Cover

QTIP

I don't mean Unilever's brand of cotton swab but rather QTIP, the acronym for
Quit Taking It Personally.

Even someone like me who does not watch TV has heard of the embarrassing squabble two weeks ago between our presidential candidates over the phrase Lipstick on a pig and who was calling whom a pig. The Metro cover image of three piggies with crowns dancing around the big lipstick captured the silliness of the debate beautifully. If I could say one thing to Obama and McCain right now, it would be to ask them to set a better example for adult behavior and just QTIP.

Posted at 01:13PM Sep 23, 2008 by katysblog in News & Reviews  | 

Fainting Couch Update

Back on June 11, 2008, I wrote a blog entry about the 19th century backless couch my mother gave me, which is now being restored. I thought my mother bought the couch as an antique but it turns out that the piece has been owned by our family for at least my mother's lifetime (it was in our cabin at Elkmont, in the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee for many years).

This weekend, we got to see the completion of the second phase of work, by John Gibbs of The Workshop (500 E Mcglincy Lane, #G, Campbell, CA 95008-4919, Phone: 408-371-7166). When we went to see the fainting couch, John Gibbs said the wood is probably a combination of mahogany, birch, and maybe elm. He also showed us a reproduction furniture catalogue from 1875-1905 which featured a "Turkish Couch" similar to ours (so now we know more about the date of our piece). It probably cost under $40 when it was new.

Here are the phases of this project:

• Phase I (June - July) - the couch was stripped of its upholstry and padding
• Phase II (August - September) - The Workshop reglued and braced the frame, then repaired and refinished the visible wood
• Phase III (Starting Soon) - Reupholstry

Photos of the work so far:

Before Starting Work (June)

End of Phase I (July)

The Workshop Sign

End of Phase II (September)

John Gibbs and The Workshop

Turkish Couch Image

Images Copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

Posted at 10:20PM Sep 21, 2008 by katysblog in News & Reviews  | 

Heart Walk 2008

Today was the Silicon Valley Heart Walk 2008 at De Anza College in Cupertino, CA. We gave away red squeezy hearts and pedometers at the Sun booth. Other booths were distributing water bottles, magnets, juice, energy bars, fans, blinking heart lights and other theme giveaways.

I have been working with Sheri Kaneshiro coordinating the Heart Walk fundraiser for Sun Microsystems on behalf of our sponsor Greg Papadopoulos, Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President of Research and Development. We have been recruiting walkers and donors from both inside and outside of Sun. Even though the walk is over, you can still make a donation through the Company Page of Sun Microsystems. If you work for Sun, you can join the group donation match request.

Some photos of Sun from today's walk:

John, Harsh, Paul at Sun's Booth

Heart Walk 2008

Greg, Katy, Paul at Sun's Booth

Greg and Sun Heart

Sheri

On the Heart Walk

On the Heart Walk

Sun's Sign on the Walk

Charles and Danny at Sun's Booth

Balloon Clown

Images Copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

Posted at 08:47PM Sep 21, 2008 by katysblog in Mentoring & Other Business  | 

U2Charist - How to Be a Perfect Stranger

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On August 28, 2008, I wrote a blog entry called "Make Poverty History" about "U2Charist" - the U2 music and worship service which will be at 7 pm tonight (20 September) at Saint Andrew’s Episcopal Church (13601 Saratoga Avenue, Saratoga, CA). The funds offered at the event will benefit Peter Kithene's project Mama Maria Kenya, and Episcopal Relief & Development (ERD).

For some, it is nothing special to go to a Christian church for a service or event, but for others this is a strange and scary prospect. For them, I have a book to recommend:

How to Be a Perfect Stranger: The Essential Religious Etiquette Handbook 4th Edition, Editors: Stuart M. Matlins, Arthur J. Magida (Skylight Paths Publishing, 2006), ISBN-10: 1594731403, ISBN-13: 978-1594731402

I have the 1999 book by the same authors: How to Be a Perfect Stranger: A Guide to Etiquette in Other People's Religious Ceremonies. I have found this book helpful when attending religious celebrations outside of my experience.

The chapter on Episcopalian and Anglican includes "Guest Behavior During the Service" such as:

"...a guest who is not Episcoplaian/Anglican [is]...expected to stand and kneel with the congregation, read prayers aloud and sing with the congregants, if this does not compromise their personal beliefs. If one does not wish to kneel, sit when the congregants do so..."

and "General Guidelines and Advice" such as:

"Episcopalians/Anglicans are quite diverse - socially, racially, and ethnically. Generally, they rejoice in this diversity and celebrate it. ... What represents 'good manners' at home would be considered 'good manners' in church. Politeness is the key. Appearing overly reserved or non-communicative - which can imply disapproval - is a typical mistake that guests can avoid...."

Posted at 10:47AM Sep 20, 2008 by katysblog in Church  | 

Hopper Conference and OpenSolaris

One of the benefits of Sun again being a Platinum Sponsor of the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (Keystone Resort, Colorado, October 1-4, 2008) is that we get to put stuff into the bags given out at registration to all conference participants. This year, we are distributing OpenSolaris Back to School Student Pack. The Back to School Student Pack includes two CDs - a Live bootable and installable OpenSolaris CD, plus a Resources DVD. I think the Grace Hopper participants, particularly the majority who are university students or faculty, will put these to good use.

Websites for Update Versions and More Information

• OpenSolaris (an operating system that provides a rich, coherent platform for building and running applications)
• VirtualBox (a family of powerful x86 virtualization products)
• OpenOffice (the leading open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more)
• NetBeans (A free, open-source Integrated Development Environment for software developers.)

Resources for Hopper 2008:

• Professors and academic institutions interested in OpenSolaris and Student Pack, please contact opensolaris-university@sun.com soon.
• 2.8 Gb Downloadable VirtualBox Guest Image (as found on the Resource DVD distributed at Hopper 2008)
• gzip Home Page for the gunzip.exe program for Windows users

Posted at 01:27PM Sep 19, 2008 by katysblog in Hopper - Anita Borg Institute  | 

Book Sale Fundraiser

The Barnes and Noble Fundraiser for Santa Maria Urban Ministry is coming soon! This fundraiser is to collect money to finish the SMUM playground.

Since 1983 SMUM has provided basic services in the inner city of San Jose, CA: both short-term needs such as food, clothing and transportation, and long-term transformation through education, counseling, and after-school and seasonal programs. SMUM serves the needs of the community and promotes self-sufficiency. My husband and I are volunteers for SMUM's Studio 17 after school homework and computer lab club - this is a great program!

Shop at the five Barnes and Noble stores in the San Jose area (Almaden, Gilroy, Westgate, Pruneyard, and Stevens Creek) on Monday, October 6. Invite your friends, neighbors, and co-workers. If you are unable to shop on that day, you can place an order by phone at any time from now until closing on October 6. (Be sure to mention that this is part of the fundraiser for SMUM.) Present this voucher at Barnes and Noble when making your purchase on 6 October:

Pictures from the 2007 ballet folklorico group dancing at last year's SMUM benefit sale:

Images Copyright 2007 by Katy Dickinson and John Plocher

Posted at 01:01PM Sep 19, 2008 by katysblog in Church  | 

Saints for Sale

One of the odd and fun offerings of Bay Area nurseries and garden centers is the statuary section. It seems that it's not enough to have plants, gardens need decorations too.

By tradition, around 500 BCE, Siddhartha Gautama was sitting underneath a Bo-Tree when he was "awakened" (Buddha). Around 1220 in Italy, St. Francis of Assisi gave a sermon to wild birds, earning himself a place in hearts and gardens around the world. In the last century, Flower fairies have become very popular among the less orthodox. Representations of these and a variety of other religious statuary are presented for sale at our local Orchard Supply Hardware, along with frogs and less likely garden inhabitants.

Cool Cats

Penguins, Hedgehog

Frogs

Cross, Mary, Francis

Bunny Truck

Tribal heads

Bunnies, Cats

Buddha

Fairy

St. Francis

Heron

Images Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson

Posted at 09:01AM Sep 19, 2008 by katysblog in News & Reviews  | 

Almost Ready for Grace Hopper

I am again managing Sun's participation in the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing conference, now just a few weeks away: Keystone Resort, Colorado, October 1-4, 2008. On Thursday (2 Oct), Sun has staff in 8 panels or talks, with 4 more on Friday (3 Oct). You can see my panel "Taking the Long View - Many Careers in One Company" on Thursday, October 2nd, Session Three, 2:45pm - 3:45pm. I am also participating in a BOF on the new MAGIC mentoring program called "Setting Up An Effective Organization To Support Girls" on Friday, Oct 3rd, 5:10pm - 6:10pm.

Other panels or presentations including Sun staff have these titles:

• CTO Plenary Session
• Innovating with Chip Multi-Threading Technology
• Mid-Career Course Correction
• The Synergistic Evolution of Software & Hardware Technologies
• Build a Better Processor: Breaking through the Technology Challenges
• Letting the Cup Overflow: Expanding Your Experiences Outside Your Research Lab
• Project Fortress: A Multicore Language for Scientists and Engineers
• Women in the Brave New World of Free and Open Source Software
• Web 2.0 Session: Online Social Networks - Impact to Our Careers
• Experiences with Maternity Leave and Returning to Work

The many Sun staff attending are coordinating schedules (which breakfast, lunch, or evening events to attend?, who will staff Sun's exhibit hall table when?, who can help set up or tear down?). Hopper is an exhilerating experience and I am very much looking forward to it.

Last year was the first time my daughter Jessica attended Hopper. This year, her own poster submission was accepted. I haven't seen my girl since she left for her second year at Carnegie Mellon University in late August. It will be fun to room together again. Some photos from Hopper 2007:

Jessica & Fran Allen

My "Girl Geeks" Panel, 2007

Friday Party 2007

Hopper 2007 Poster

Images Copyright 2007 by Katy Dickinson

Posted at 10:51PM Sep 17, 2008 by katysblog in Hopper - Anita Borg Institute  |