Category Archives: News & Reviews

I have enjoyed knowing
Jeanie Treichel
for at least fifteen years. Until recently, Jeanie
was in charge of most of the characteristic amenities of life at
Sun Labs in Menlo Park, California.
Among her many activities, Jeanie ran the weekly party (“The Bash”),
the intern program, the lab reports and technical publications, the
Noosphere and its library, and she was the resident historian. In my
favorite quotes page, I have the following from Jeanie (told me on
9 October 2000):

A local guide told Jeanie when she rested once too often when hiking up

the Ruwenzori range (“Mountains of the Moon”) in Africa in 1956:

“Memsahib: to arrive, you must go!”

Jeanie worked for Xerox PARC, then Sutherland, Sproull, and Associates
before becoming one of the founding members of Sun Labs in 1990.

At Jeanie’s going away party (and Ladies Lunch), she was presented with
an album of photos from her 19 years with Sun Labs, including photos with
some of the great leaders and innovators of the Silicon Valley:
Scott McNealy,
Jim Mitchell,
Greg Papadopoulos,
Wayne Rosing,
Eric Schmidt,
Bob Sproull,
Bert Sutherland,
and
Ivan Sutherland.

You can see some of Jeanie’s work in her publications:

• 
  Sun Labs-The First Five Years: The First Fifty Technical Reports. A Commemorative Issue
  By: Ching-Chih Chang, Amy Hall and Jeanie Treichel,
  Sun Labs Report Number: TR-98-51, Sep 1, 1998
• 
  Sun Labs: The 3rd 50 Tech Reports – Commemorative
  By: Jeanie Treichel, Sun Labs Report Number: TR-2008-150, May 12, 2008

Jeanie ended her last email to Sun Labs with this quote:

Come, fill the Cup, and in the Fire of Spring

The Winter Garment of Repentance fling:

The Bird of Time has but a little way

To fly—and Lo! the Bird is on the Wing.

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

Edward FitzGerald 1809-1883

Jeanie Treichel

Sun Labs Ladies Lunch

Jeanie Treichel in her office

Jeanie’s photos

Jeanie Treichel in Africa 1956

Jeanie’s office giraffe collection

Images Copyright 2009 by Katy Dickinson

On
9 March, I wrote about yesterday’s

San Jose Planning Director hearing on File # HA89-104-01 – about the three large old
stone pines that our
neighborhood ARCO gas station petitioned to remove.
Here is my husband’s writeup of the 11 March hearing:

Three of the six of us there spoke about noise, light and keeping the
trees if possible. It seemed clear that they were going to approve
the request simply because of the “federal rules require us to let the
gas station install a vapor recovery system by April 1” excuse, and
they did. The trees lost out to a masonry wall, a reference to a
federal requirement and a promise to plant replacements – there wasn’t
even anyone from the gas station there to answer questions.

It turns out that the bright canopy lights are illegal and must be
removed, and that there is a chance that the graffiti and tagging will
be cleaned up. The planning dept was surprised that the station was
open all night (is it? The lights seem to be left on all night…).

We also got an immediate and helpful email update from the city planner
to whom we had directed our communications:

Thank you all for your comments on the tree removal permit for the above mentioned site. I have opened a Code Case in regards to the illegal spot lights located on top of the canopy, as well as, the graffiti that has not been cleaned up. Both of these items are in violation of the gas stations site development permit, as well as, the zoning ordinance. This action should abate the graffiti and light nuisance. I will keep you updated on the Code Enforcement action. If you have any additional questions please let me know.

The summary is that the three old trees will be cut down and replaced with much smaller
trees; however, some of the problems of the gas station may diminish because we called
attention to them during the hearing process.

There has been so much bad economic news for so long, I thought folks would
enjoy some good news, even if it is a very little, very local trend. I live
in the Willow
Glen neighborhood of San Jose, California. During the last few years, our
immediate area (near the Guadalupe River)
had accumulated four single family homes which didn’t sell.
That is, the houses were actively for sale (signs out on the lawn) but nothing moved.
As of this week, all four houses have sold and new owners have moved in! One home
which was under construction (very very slowly under construction) is now
almost fully built out with final work progressing very fast. Even if this means
that housing values are down, we and all of our neighbors are very happy to see
the homes finally inhabited. Unfortunately, two more local houses just
went on the market but we hope they too will sell soon.

Happily, our neighborhood has become much closer and more supportive because
of the current mortgage crisis. Partly to exchange status updates on the four
long-empty homes, our local neighborhood group developed an email list. We use the
group list to exchange information of interest to all.

For example, this Wednesday (11 March 2009), we found out that the
San Jose Planning Director is reviewing File # HA89-104-01 (a Tree Removal permit
request by the local ARCO station’s owner to remove three large stone pine trees).
The trees are lovely in themselves and they also do much to reduce the lights
and noise of the gas station. (Many customers thoughtlessly leave their radios on
full blast while pumping gas. Last summer the ARCO’s ATM machine was broken and
beeping every few minutes for days at a time.) So, we neighbors are exchanging
information to be sure letters are written in advance to the city planner and
we are represented at the hearing. Below are some pictures of the ARCO station
and the old trees they want to kill.

ARCO lights through the pines

ARCO sign at Belmont-Alma

Stone Pine at ARCO

Stone Pine at ARCO

Images Copyright 2009 by Katy Dickinson and John Plocher

I have written from time to time about a family project to restore the antique
fainting couch that my Mother gave me. My last update was on

September 21, 2008. This late 19th century backless couch was in our family
cabin at
Elkmont, in the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee, probably
starting around 1912. We have seen a similar item called a “Turkish Couch” in
a furniture catalog dated 1875-1905. The original couch was stuffed with
horsehair and upholstered in leather. My Mother had it re-upholstered
in black Naugahyde (artificial leather) over foam about 20 years ago.

Today’s news is that the fainting couch restoration is almost complete and the
couch itself is now in WP668, the 1916 backyard
caboose where I have my home office. We bought two whole cow hides to cover it.
There is one just button that needs fixing before the couch is done. Other than
the window seat that my husband John is building now, the fainting couch is the
last major piece of furniture to go into WP668.

Who did the work?

John Gibbs of The Workshop (500 E Mcglincy Lane, #G, Campbell, CA 95008-4919, Phone: 408-371-7166) and Tom Malloy Upholstered Furnishings worked together to restore the fainting couch.

Fainting couch restoration pictures

June 2008 View from the foot

June 2008 Head carving

June 2008 Foot carving

June 2008 View from head

July 2008 Upholstery removed

September 2008 Wood repaired, refinished, braced

February 2009 Foam with tufting diagrammed

February 2009 John and the hide

February 2009 Upholstery partly done

February 2009 Upholstery almost done

February 2009 Head carving

February 2009 Foot carving

February 2009 Fainting Couch foot view

February 2009 Into the truck

March 2009 In WP668 Caboose

Images Copyright 2008-2009 by Katy Dickinson and John Plocher

Our home in Willow Glen (San Jose), California, may be in the Silicon Valley
but it is at the same time in a technological wilderness (“way out in the tulies”
as we say here). We have the misfortune to be 18,000 feet from the closest
central phone office. DSL service only works effectively within 15,000 feet of a
central phone office. That extra 3,000 feet means that we have often had
terrible Internet access, alternating with acceptable service or no service
at all. During the last ten years, we have paid the following Internet
Service Providers (ISPs):

• Sprint (broadband antenna) this service is no longer available
• Covad (DSL)
• AT&T (DSL)
• Etheric – Home-based Business Plan (point to point wireless)
• Comcast – Business Class (cable broadband, cable modem)

The five ISPs have linked our house to the Internet through different technical means. This week, we switched to Comcast and so far the service and
performance have been excellent. We have had two different ISP antennas
strapped to our chimney; we now have a new Comcast cable box in our basement.

Working from home requires 3 major technical elements to function and
interact well:

1. Infrastructure at work: servers, routers, virtual private network (VPN),
   emergency power system, etc.
2. ISP – Internet Service Provider (delivers customer access to the Internet)
3. Home equipment: VPN router, firewall, printer, monitor, keyboard,
   Sun Ray on my desk,
   uninterruptible power supply (UPS) under the desk, etc.

When my husband (John
Plocher) was laid off from Sun several months ago, I joined one of Sun’s work
from home programs for support on the days when I am not in my Menlo Park
office. We have all of the new equipment in place at home and working well
but regularly unusable for one reason or another. We could not tell where
the problems came from each time but suspected it was mostly our ISP.

I have been an enthusiastic
Sun Ray
user for over ten years – since the product was in its final testing before
being transferred out of Sun Labs.
I love being able to pop my card out at work then back in at home (or in
Prague for that matter) using the same session.
I hope that switching to yet another new provider will improve our
home access to the point where it just works and we don’t ever have to think
about it again.

My husband John was laid off two months ago and is now an “unclaimed treasure”
(that is, he is on a job hunt). To help pay the bills between jobs, John signed
up for the first time for
Unemployment Insurance
with the California Employment Development
Department (EDD).

What is Unemployment Insurance in California?

Unemployment Insurance (UI) is a nationwide program created to provide partial wage replacement to unemployed workers while they conduct an active search for new work. Unemployment Insurance (UI) is a federal-state program, based on federal law, but executed through state law. Employers finance the UI program by tax contributions. In California, the EDD administers the UI program according to guidelines established by the UI Code and the California Code of Regulations, Title 22.

http://www.edd.ca.gov/Unemployment/

EDD appears to be a completely faceless bureaucracy. That is, there is no
person to call, no place to go to resolve problems. There
is only a phone number. John had a problem with his EDD paperwork
(he received two contradictory UI mailings on the same day and made the wrong
choice) and needed to talk with someone. It took three days of fifty to 100 calls
per day to 800-300-5616 to get someone from EDD on the phone. He called before 8 am and
heard the “We are not here outside of the following hours” message roll immediately
over to the “We are currently receiving more calls than our system can handle. Please
try again later” message. He redialed all day and heard the “Please try again later”
message roll over to the “We are not here” message promptly at 5 pm daily.

Only an EDD person on the phone can help with a UI problem. There are

EDD offices. EDD office staff only provide career and workforce services but
cannot resolve UI problems – they offer you a phone to call 800-300-5616.
Letters from the EDD feature a post office box address, no fax, no local number,
no names, only 800-300-5616 with alternate numbers for Spanish, Cantonese,
Mandarin, and Vietnamese.

Late yesterday afternoon, when John finally spoke with an EDD 800-300-5616
representative, the problem was sorted out promptly. The EDD woman scolded John
for his mistake but said since it was his first infraction, they would probably let it go
and not deny benefits. She went on to complain that there were so many callers
with all the people being unemployed that EDD was working nights, weekends, and
holidays. John gently pointed out that at least she had a job.