Windmills in My Head - A Smattering of Tech

I drove past the Altamont Wind Farm on Friday
It reminds me of my response to technology issues this week
Each individual machine is doing something important, but I don't see the big picture

Usually a theme emerges for me as I sit down on Sunday night to write in response to tech issues I've heard about during the week. Not so tonight. These stories sound important, but no  pattern has emerged for me yet.

This Blue Tooth style hearing aide sounds more affordable and hearing enhancement, even for those who don't (yet:-) need a hearing aide!

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-12-12/soundhawk-hearing-aid-by-rodney-perkins-runs-on-bluetooth-and-an-app

I still fight setting aside time to keep up to date with software I depend on. But I’m going to be in trouble if I get behind with the new version of  gmail! So here’s another item for my learning curve list.

http://www.technobuffalo.com/2014/05/10/gmail-receives-a-massive-overhaul-in-newly-leaked-photos/

I envisioned using my iPad like I use a spiral notebook. But Pages just ain’t Word. Having Office on my iPad is going to increase my ability to rely on that device as more than a book reading movie watching environment.

http://www.mercurynews.com/troy-wolverton/ci_25679746/wolverton-microsoft-office-great-addition-ipad-lineup

The Net Neutrality decision is a biggie. It sounds like something I need to understand better than I do now. I think it’s going to have an impact on the kind of work I do.

http://www.mercurynews.com/troy-wolverton/ci_25632420/wolverton-new-rules-could-kill-net-neutrality-and

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/net-neutraility-050814

10 Reasons to Unplug that Car and Get Out My Bike Helmet (green)

In honor of my father, Sam, who taught me to ride a bike whenever possible.

1) Some hackers have found the ultimate in meanness. They're doing all they can to further mess up commuters as folks great ready to move off home on four wheels. I've been in enough traffic jams that were simply caused by the end product of overpopulation. I don't want to deal with this too. On my bike I can zig zag right on by.  Traffic Congestion Just Got Worse - http://www.siliconbeat.com/2014/05/01/this-is-not-what-san-francisco-needs-right-now/

2) I know that a lot of folks think the idea of robot cars is sexy, but... I want to be out of the way when....Google's Self Driving Cars Hit the City http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/28/tech/innovation/google-self-driving-car/

3) I'd rather turbo boost my bike than my car. And hey this includes blue tooth! http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/power-pitch/bicycle-riders-get-turbo-boost-from-high-tech-wheel-133518768.html

4) If I can ride safer, I'm more likely to pedal, versus turning that ignition key. High Tech Bike with sensors that detect cars in your blind spot http://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/smart-bicycle-tech-hood-youll-know/

5) The Bamgoo Bicycle is much cooler than any car http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/sara-urasini

6) Because crowded roadways can force drivers to jump through too many hoops
http://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/news/news/local/town-hoping-high-tech-can-reduce-traffic-woes/nfm2G/

7) Because in cities like London, driving is discouraged and bikers get benefits. How to Cycle in London http://www.visitlondon.com/traveller-information/getting-around-london/bicycle

8) Because big city driving isn't only a hassle, it can cost you extra just to be on the road http://www.visitlondon.com/traveller-information/getting-around-london/congestion-charge

9) Because I get a little exercise when I bike my errands.

10) Because when I'm on my bike,  I can stop quickly and easily, chat with a neighbor, pet a friendly dog, not fret about finding parking, and easily help a visitor out with directions.

Web Resources

May is National Bike Month - According to the American Bike League,  half of American workers live within 5 miles of work. That doesn't mean it's safe or practical for all of that group to bike to work, but certainly a goodly crop of folks can give it a try.  http://bikeleague.org/content/bike-month-dates-events-0

An App for That: The Pedestrian's Rope Bridge App (Priority Street Crossing)

Do you find it so unfair that walkers have to waste precious minutes waiting to cross major boulevards when we're out for a walk?

Hey! Who is not wasting the planet's fossil fuels here? We walkers deserve a special right of way, when it comes to crossing busy streets. At the push of button, and not the one on that light pole that shouts "Wait" until it's darn good and ready to give me 8 seconds to get across a six lane highway, I should be able to get immediately and safely across any intersection I choose. 

And now I can.

With the Pedestrian's Rope Bridge App, the walker rules! With one quick swipe of a finger on my iPhone, a rope bridge comes shooting out of the bottom of my mobile device, springs up from my feet, arcs over busy streets, and let's me down safely on the other side of the road. It's neat, it's easy to use, and it's guaranteed to make others wonder, "Why am I driving when I could be walking?" 

Once I've crossed the street, another quick gesture on my phone and the bridge springs back into the base of my phone. Remember those retractable metal tape measures we used in the old days before we calibrated everything with laser beams? Yup, it slips back in pretty much the same way.

You can call this app a fantasy if you want, but just give it a couple of years...

~ ~ ~

Web Resources

Yes, many of my fantasy apps are inspired by other great thinkers. Like those of this author....Smithsonian Magazine - There Was an App for That: Apps That Changed the Course of History http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/there-was-an-app-for-that-75586616/?no-ist=

iPhone Apps Development https://developer.apple.com/devcenter/ios/index.action

But... What Would Beethoven Print? (3D Printing)

You just know the kind of organ
Beethoven would have chosen to print

There's been quite a lot in the media about wonderful advances in 3D printing in the medical field. No doubt about it, these are indeed noble uses for technology. Imagine being able to just pop that new appendix, still warm from the printer, into the fella on the table before you. Sure applications like print-on-demand bodily organs allows for great advances in medical science. But what really strikes my fancy, when it comes to 3D printing, is the creation of our own musical instruments. I'm not so much interested in the bodily organ as I am in the pipe organ.

The idea of a musician being able to design and create that pipe organ is what really intrigues me. Thinking about pipe organs  naturally leads to thoughts of  Beethoven. I'm guessing Beethoven would also have been more interested in printing a pipe organ than a fresh new lung or kidney.

Freude, schöner Götterfunken

Tochter aus Elysium!

(Joy, beautiful spark of the divinity,

Daughter from Elysium!)

These lyrics, from Beethoven's famed 9'th symphony, enhance one of the most beloved classical music pieces in the western world*.  Beloved by people, that is, who have access to classical music training. Outside of choral singing, for those who come equipped with the right sort of vocal chords, that training requires access to a musical instrument. 

Though this symphony has words, the emotions that stir in the hearts of the performers as they come together to make this music happen, can't be accurately described. In fact, it spoils the experience if you try.

Yes indeed, there are musical folks working on rolling their own instruments. Check out the beautiful creations on Six 3D-Printed Musical Instruments, and what 3D Printing Could Do for Musicians. Sure 3D print-your-own-instrument technology isn't yet exactly at the affordable-for-the-masses stage, but neither were cell phones just a few years back. Maybe it won't be too long before that day, a few autumns from now, when the kids line up to pick up this years social studies text, the math workbook, and their sixth grade instrument. There just waiting for Mrs. O'Houlihan to come back from the staff room with that replacement box of liquid brass for the classroom 3D printer.

Any parent who has ever ponied up for an organ, clarinet, french horn, string bass, or flute knows that a child's access to an instrument of her own can make all the difference, when it comes to  being exposed to the wordless and wonderful joys of making her own music. Will many kids give up before the age of 10? You bet. Is there any guarantee that an individual will make it to even third chair violin in a small local symphony? Nope. 

But I know that if, at the age of 8, more kids are given the opportunity to play a hundred renditions of Frère Jacque on that french horn they printed at home, then one day the freude! of Beethoven's 9'th symphony is going to be waiting out there for one more kid looking for a little wordless wonder. 

And one more kid is going to get a chance to be a part of a wordless spark of divinity, at one with the daughter from Elysium.

* Classic western music is extremely popular in Asia as well.

~ ~ ~

Web Resources

3D Printing Organs, Other Medical Applications http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/12/opinion/lungs-chip-3d-print-organs/

Wikipedia: 3D Printing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_printing

Six 3D - Printed Musical Instruments and what 3D Printing Could Do for Musicians  http://createdigitalmusic.com/2012/10/six-3d-printed-musical-instruments-and-what-3d-printing-could-do-for-musicians/

Beethoven's 9'th Symphony Rules Supreme, as far as I'm concerned. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._9_(Beethoven)

An App for That! Plumber's Friend App Saves the World

I'm in the final throes of finishing up my Edgewood Secrets iPhone app. Today I'm beginning the job of submitting it for approval. 

I created Edgewood Secrets as a companion for folks hiking at Edgewood Nature Preserve, here in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. I hike at Edgewood quite regularly and I'm also a wildflower docent there.  In the app, I share stories of different experiences I've had in the preserve, as well as tales I've been told by other folks. 

As great as it is (and I should know!) Edgewood Secrets is a pretty straightforward app. Like most developers, I have plenty of plans for other mobile device creations along similar lines. It's not challenging coming up with ideas for great apps, it's challenging doing the work involved to get those ideas implemented. And despite the typical claims of the folks who create the software development environment I use, the technology isn't easy.

The ideas, however, spin away. I keep lists of course. Yes, I have lists everywhere on my laptop, and iPhone. Most of them are quite practical. It's a matter of getting on with them. Then there are those....hummmm what can I call them? Speciality apps, I guess.

One of my favorite specialty app plans is the Plumber's Friend App (PFA).   Here's the user experience I envision...

Have you ever been brought up short while speeding out the door - your laptop zipped into it's case, your lunch packed in that outside pocket (so the avocodo doesn't mash onto your keyboard),  your teeth (hopefully) brushed, your hair at least looking brushed, and shoes that more or less match on both feet - to the call of "Mom, the toilet's backed up again!". Why oh why, you wonder for the hundred thousandth time, are we stuck with the retro fifties, only-one-bathroom apartment model? (Surely it couldn't be affordability.)

What to do? The metro isn't going to wait while you get out the plunger. And the folks at work aren't going to keep a chair warm for you in the 8:15 meeting. In fact... if you arrive late at that meeting, you're going to get volunteered to put on the Friday night Management Achievement Awards banquet. How fun will that be in addition to getting your already-behind-goal project fully functional before the project status meeting next week?

PFA to the rescue. You simply pull out your iPhone - now which pocket did you put that in? - aim it vaguely at the wall, and with one swipe of your finger you launch the Plumber's Friend App. PFA does it all for your. As you streak along making a beeline for the metro station, you hear from the open window above, that blessed sucking of air, a mighty flush, and the noise of your teenage daughter cheering (I did say this was pure fantasy, right?) as PFA once more saves both the world, and your day.  

I haven't quite identified the foundation kit classes I'm going to need to write this app. Perhaps they haven't quite yet been created. But you can be sure once they're out there, you'll be seeing a new app in the store. 

Do you think I'll be able to charge more than 99 cents for it? 

~ ~ ~

Web Resources

Hiking Edgewood http://www.hikingedgewood.blogspot.com/

Yes, many of my fantasy apps are inspired by other great thinkers. Like those of this author....Smithsonian Magazine - There Was an App for That: Apps That Changed the Course of History http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/there-was-an-app-for-that-75586616/?no-ist=

iPhone Apps Development https://developer.apple.com/devcenter/ios/index.action

Dark Side of the Force - Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing can be beautiful. In fact, it's got a touch of classic fantasy sci-fi charm about it. I'm thinking Alderon, before the Death Star (back in the first Star Wars release) blew up the entire planet.

Massive numbers of photos need the human touch.  A volunteer army of citizen scientists peruse these images working to differentiate cancer cells from normal blood and tissue cells. Can't you just see the people of that one-time tiny peaceful planet making similar contributions to those that are being made today in our own world?

Crowdsourcers contribute vital genetic information to Alzheimer research by contributing their own memory and attention test data. Other folks share information that is pooled in a database used by breast and ovarian cancer research. This isn't fantasy. It's reality.

Thousands of volunteers scour detailed satellite photos of the Indian Ocean, helping hugely in the effort to find a missing Malaysian Airlines jet. Crowdsourcing helps rescue workers to both avoid less likely search zones, as well as target areas where they are more likely to be successful. It's not just in movies when people come together in response to the suffering of others.

Other folks are involved in massive translation efforts. The goal of Duolingo is to “… get millions of people worldwide to translate the Internet.” (*). C-3PO himself, couldn't have done better.

People in Santa Cruz – ten percent of the population in fact – pooled their ideas and abilities to eliminate a $9.2 million shortfall for their city. The plans these people made continue raise money for the city and benefit local programs. Several other cities, both large and small, follow these same successful citizen government crowdsourcing patterns. Government of the people isn't a leftover from old time films.

Crowdsourcing sounds like a wonderful dream come true. We’re harnessing the good energy of thousands or even millions of people to create a righteous universe. It's something Star Warrior heroes like Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia would totally get behind. We are talking the power of The Force here!

So what’s not to like about crowdsourcing?

How about the ability to send work offshore to be completed by desperate people earning a dollar or even pennies an hour? The author of the “Digital Sweatshop” Wikipedia page says “…digital sweatshops represent a phenomenon in a recent trend that offers workers and the employers the freedom to accept and request services. However, some believe that completing repetitive tasks for very small amount of money is an act of exploitation, hence the term sweatshop. A notable example is the Amazon Mechanical Turk, a marketplace dedicated to crowdsourcing.”

With Mechanical Turk, amazon has access to an unlimited labor pool that will almost literally work for peanuts, doing basic tasks a machine can’t do, but that doesn’t require skilled human labor. And amazon isn’t the only player in this outsourcing field. Crowdsourcing of cheaply paid labor, has become a huge part of the digital economy. 

Who’s doing the work? Desperate people who’ll do whatever is required to survive. And yes, the potential for slave labor and child labor is there as well. Oh of course it isn’t only these folks. Skilled digital laborers in a number of third world countries are just as determined to make money. It’s not too hard to figure out that a lot of our software development, and tech support have been driven off shore. 

I can hear some funny breathing headed down the hall. Darth Vadar is on the loose. This kind of energy harnessing isn’t drawing Earth’s citizens into a collective sense of accomplishment. Nor is it a righteous universe we’re building here. It’s more like we’re headed straight into a real life sci-fi fantasy world, complete with an evil emperor.  

Do previously well-paid western workers plan to go to battle with their determined competitors in other countries? We all 
need to make a buck, a rupee or a yen. It’s a matter of coming together and figuring out how to we can all earn a decent living. 

Sounds like we need to get busy on some citizen-of-the-world crowdsourcing techniques to kick Lord Vadar and the dark side of The Force right back into fantasy land.

~ ~ ~

Web Resources

Thanks to Fantasy Planet Art for making this postings image freely available http://www.mrwallpaper.com/Fantasy-Planet-Art-wallpaper/

3 neat ways to participate in crowdsourced cancer and Alzheimer’s disease research http://medcitynews.com/2013/11/3-ways-participate-crowdsourced-disease-research/

Crowdsourcing volunteers comb satellite photos for Malaysia Airlines jet
http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/11/us/malaysia-airlines-plane-crowdsourcing-search/

* Five Ways Crowdsourcing Can Transform the Public Sphere
http://www.governing.com/columns/mgmt-insights/col-government-crowdsourcing-five-models.html

GovFresh – Crowdsourcing Citizen Ideas
http://govfresh.com/2009/11/6-government-sites-crowdsourcing-citizen-ideas/

Wikipedia: Digital Sweatshop discusses not the concept, and also names names of companies who make use of the unlimited workforce of very low cost crowdsourcing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_sweatshop

Amazon’s Mechanical Turk 
http://www.utne.com/science-and-technology/amazon-mechanical-turk-zm0z13jfzlin.aspx#axzz2xlJMsraK

Three bitcoins in the Fountain

What kind of happily-ever-after is there for the bitcoin?

"Three Coins in the Fountain" was a regular post-war, classic oldie, on late night television when I was growing up. When it's heroines, Frances, Anita, and Maria tossed their lucky coins into the Trevi Fountain, they were wishing for diamond rings. Actually, they were supposed to be wishing to return to Rome, but every popcorn snacker in the 50's theaters knew they were intent on love - the kind of love that ends in marriage. A girl of that time wasn't supposed to have much on her mind other than traditional marriage.

With all that "glorious technicolor",  and the romantic lure of handsome fellas like Louis Jourdan and Rossano Brazzi (yes, the ultra-suave Emile De Becque in South Pacific), viewers 
just knew any coin - whether it was American quarter or a five lire piece - that got pitched into that much-visited Roman landmark 
was a guarantee of a happily-ever-after ending.

Not so much with todays not-quite-mainstream bitcoin. 

With twelve and a half million bitcoins in circulation, however, we've come to a point where it's not just a select group of digital know-it-all, hacker types controlling this crytopcurrency. Nowadays, the IRS and Wall Street are taking an interest. The IRS has issued tax guidelines for virtual currencies. Agencies in other countries are making similar moves. Banks and speculators are investing in Bitcoins*.

Oh and various criminal types are focusing on bitcoin transactions as well. Gotten in on any good Ponzi schemes lately? Ponzi masters are only one style of robber barons misusing Bitcoin technology. Who knows what other trolls are hanging out under bridges, persuing bitcoins on the dark side of the web.

Government agencies, financial mavens, and calculating criminals are all interested in getting, keeping and enhancing the value of Bitcoins. Well we all know who comes next. Yup, us regular folks just may be thinking about slipping bitcoins into our virtual wallets any day now. I'm starting to get a vision....

There I am, hopping up on the elliptical at the gym, strapping on my Oculus glasses for that virtual ride through Disneyland, an experience that's bound to keep me entertained while I pedal the virtual miles away. Just up ahead is Snow White's wishing well. 

I'd really love to see the monthly sales figures go up on My Heart Beats Faster  ebook at amazon.  What could be a better investment in my sales futures than a Disneyland wish?

Is my digital bitcoin, like it's more traditional 1954 cousin,  going to guarantee me my own happy ever after ? Let me just reach  on down into that digital wallet.....

* Note the capital "B" - which 

refers to the technology and management of the currency, versus 'bitcoin' - the actual currency.

~ ~ ~

Web Resources

Three Coins in the Fountain - The movie
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Coins_in_the_Fountain_(film)

What's a bitcoin? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin

San Francisco Chronicle Bitcoin Politics and Business Changes http://www.sfgate.com/technology/article/Bitcoin-supporters-clash-over-ideological-5360314.php

Facebook and Oculus - What about those 3D glasses? http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_25426490/biz-break:-harsh-reality-for-facebook-after-2b-oculus-acquisition

What's Crytopcurrency? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptocurrency

Where might digital trolls hang out? Dark Web/ Deep Web - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_web

An Eye On that New Smart Phone Star in the Sky

Has the smart phone market bubble gone bust?

I read this week, that companies like Apple, HP, and Intel may need to take things down a notch, when it comes to smartphone production. They don't doubt their popularity. Folks continue to enjoy these devices,  it's just that sales aren't growing like they once were. Oh, and they may not be able to charge as much for them. Of course I also read about the market in China heating up for Apple, so I don't think that fruit stand down the street is going to be suffering too much. For those of us without investments in these companies, is a price break a bad thing?  

My main concern is built in obsolescence. Like that stove top we had to replace in less than ten years, whereas the ones I remember from my childhood had been around since the 1930's, and may still be in use somewhere today. If those big companies decide they want to sell me on wearables, instead of a phone, you know I'll be stuck. Although it sure would be awesome to be able to just look down at my wrist to see what time it is, instead of having to get out my phone. Oh wait, isn't that what we all used to do?

I do notice a strong desire to have the latest and greatest smart phone, don't you? Mobile devices seem to have replaced changing fashions in clothes. Yes, believe it or not there was a time before we all wore tee shirts and jeans to work. Hemlines went up one year, down the next, and no gal wanted to be seen dead in last years skirt. Of course men could get by with just switching out the wide tee for the narrow one. Oh a tie, let me try and explain what that was.... 

I wonder who figured out they'd do better selling us on keeping up with the phonies down the street, than getting us to simply fill our wardrobes? I know it's going to cost me more in the long run. I tend to sew my own clothes, but I strongly doubt I'm going to be rolling my own mobile devices.

Built in obsolescence is a big help to mobile device manufacturers - not so much for me.

~ ~ ~

Web Resources

Apple, HP, Intel may be hit by slowdown in growth of smartphone sales http://www.siliconvalley.com/ci_25347385/apple-hp-intel-may-be-hit-by-slowdown

Music to Apple's Ears: the iPhone is Mobile China's Leading 4G Smartphone http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2014/03/music-to-apples-ears-the-iphone-is-mobile-chinas-leading-4g-smartphone.html

Confusing the Censors. Google on a White Horse?

Articles in this news this week, in regards to new encryption techniques, paint Google in a very chivalrous role. I was tempted to illustrate this post with an Arthurian knight on a milk-white steed. However, the real hero here may well be the patient end-user who works around censorship on a day-to-day basis.

How might  this weeks move by Google to encrypt searches, impact regular folks here and in China?

For me... nothing much. If I want to search for information about Mao Hengfeng, a woman human rights activist in China, I can do so here in the San Francisco Bay Area. But very likely I won't get any results with the same search in mainland China.

Google's new implementation of search encryption could mean that my search will no longer be waylaid by government censors. Whether at home or abroad, I should now be able to bring up her wikipedia, and other, web pages.

But there's another way to carry out this search in China, and it uses techniques (Do we notice the connection to technology?)  that have been in use since power struggling between people first began. Anybody whose ever read Sherlock Holmes or a WWII spy-thriller knows how this works. The method involves someone in or outside of the community setting up coded words and phrases. If I want to search on Mao Hengfeng in Peking, very likely I know, or I ask around, until I find out her alternate name. And once the censors figure out the code and ban it by digital censorship, than the word gets out in the underground about a new name or phrase that brings up the same information.

Chinese censors are probably already at work figuring out a way around Google's encrypted searches, but regular people, using technology as old as the hills, are one step ahead of Google's white horse.

~ ~ ~ 

Web Resources

NPR Avoiding the Great Firewall Internet Censors: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=220106496

Mao Hengfeng: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mao_Hengfeng

Great Firewall's Next Hurdle http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/03/12/google-is-encrypting-search-worldwide-thats-bad-for-the-nsa-and-china/

Silicon Valley Tech News http://www.siliconvalley.com

Daydreaming About Summer in the Land of Fruits and Nuts

Folks used to think fruits and nuts when they thought of California. Now when I tell people where I'm from, they think silicon.

Still, even in Silicon Valley, which is much cooler than the great Central Valley of California,  we still grow 'em. Both damson plums and walnuts  grace my yard and serve the local population of birds and squirrels, not to mention the occasional raccoon, possum or skunk, well.

If we're really lucky we even get a few.

Heart of Silicon Valley (Mountain View, Red Rock Cafe)

You can hear about the big names and hot companies in the Silicon Valley, but if you want to feel it happening, come by Castro Street in Mountain View.

Go on into the Red Rock Cafe and head up the narrow stairs to find people plugging away on their laptops, working and talking together. This is where they come to informal working groups, Meetups, like those for Android App and IOS (apple/Mac) developers. This is where it's actually going on. 

History is happening here.

Junípero Serra: The Mission Man

Junípero Serra was not exactly the good old buddy of California native people that he imagined himself to be. Were his missions indeed like old-time concentration camps for the enslaved native population who didn't manage to escape the rule of the Conquistidores? Likely many of the diseases that decimated local people spread from the missions.

This statue's up behind a roadside rest stop off Highway 280, one of two major arteries on the peninsula that runs between San Francisco and the Silicon Valley. That freeway still bears the name of this man, though many of us don't relish the connection.

What are your thoughts on the man with more than one mission? 

References: 1491 : new revelations of the Americas before Columbus / Charles C. Mann.

Finding History at MacWorld 2013 (San Francisco Field Trip)

MacWorld's not what it used to be. These days it's more like a recreation of the good old days in the 80's and 90's to remember when it showcased the marvelous new apple computer products we were all so hyped about. 

It's a short BART trip from my home in Silicon Valley up to the expo.  So I went, still hyped about my mac and all it's associated mobile devices (iPad, iPhone, iPod), and my work on IOS app development. I mostly saw business apps, some hardware and tons and tons of accessories - cleaner, cases and covers. This stuff I can buy on the web. I didn't find any of the educational apps I was interested in contrasting with my own work. The app display area ("Appalooza") had plenty of room to sit in comfort, as there were so few vendors. 

Upstairs I found some of the tech listen-in sessions that used to excite me, but I just couldn't get my enthusiasm up. So I went for a good long walk to enjoy a little more of the history of San Francisco.

Thanks for the memories.

It's all happening, it just isn't happening here anymore. 

Bug in the Works OR Butterfly Workin'

This Golden Gate Park butterfly doesn't appear to be troubled by problems in her code

Go ahead and click on the picture for a more in-depth view of her world

I've been working away with the Objective-C programming language and the piece of software called Interface Builder.  Those are, of course, the  tools used to write apps for ipads, ipods and iphones. In my case, I'm still learning to do that.

I was up against a particularly nasty little bug in my program and finally, huzzah!, I found it. It reminded me of the  story from the old days, I mean the REALLY old days, kids. It dates back to around World War II. It's the origin of why programmers call problems in the workings of their software, 'bugs'. You all know the old story, right? The engineers had been tussling with some problem that was keeping the huge machine from doing it's thing. My college professor, Harry Huskey remembered those days. He had worked on the EINIAC. "Those vacuum tubes",  Professor Huskey told us. "they were always blowing, and we had to run around that huge room, swapping them out."  

So the problem-solvers on this day had been swapping out vacuum tubes, scratching their heads and dismantling things. Finally after days? hours? (depends on who's telling the story), they found the problem. A dead bug was found deep within the recesses of the machine. The programmers were so happy to find the problem, that they pasted the dead bug into the big ledger in which they noted their progress on the project. "Bug in the works", someone noted.

And of course, ever since then, a programmer works to find the bugs in her works. Because surely the problem couldn't be something SHE did.

Fine Fruit:Quilt Block, Contest Entry Silicon Valley fusionwearsv

My Fine Fruit entry won FOURTH PLACE in the Silicon Valley fusionwearsv contest!

This garage on Addison Avenue in Palo Alto, is the heart of a story that helped transform the agricultural Santa Clara Valley into today’s technological Silicon Valley. 

When Bill and Dave built their first oscillator in this garage, my husband's family lived just a few blocks away. My father-in-law remembered the area of that time, as a land of cherry orchards. In 1938, my own family was involved in the information technology of the day, as telegraphers. As Silicon Valley grew my family's information skill set evolved with it. My father, sister and myself were computer programmers.

I enjoyed biking over to photograph the restored HP garage that represents an important foundation of the Silicon Valley. I used Photoshop CS4 to alter that and other digital photos I’ve taken, to create my own 1938 vintage-style fruit crate label, honoring the birth of the Silicon Valley. All images are my own. I loved being able to honor the history of the valley by using the technology that it represents.

My FusionWearSV Silicon Valley Technology Quilt Block Designs

Fine Fruit: http://hepwithtech.blogspot.com/2010/06/fine-fruitquilt-block-contest-entry.html

Tumbling Chips Quilt Block Design: http://hepwithtech.blogspot.com/2010/06/tumbling-chips-quilt-within-quilt-block.html

Tranformations Chips: http://hepwithtech.blogspot.com/2010/06/transformations-quilt-block-contest.html

Contours Chips: http://hepwithtech.blogspot.com/2010/06/contours-quilt-block-contest-entry.html