KatysBlog

September 26, 2010 · 3:00 pm

Visiting Katydid

When I was little, one of my Grandfather’s nicknames for me was “Katydid”, after the long-horned grasshoppers or crickets (in the family Tettigoniidae). Last week, I noticed a bright green insect half as long as my finger wandering around on the top of our laundry room door here in Willow Glen (San Jose, California). The katydid seemed as interested in me as I was in her…

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September 26, 2010 · 2:37 pm

Resources about Awards, GHC2010

Members of the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing conference panel called “Advancing Your Career Through Awards” met by phone on Friday to plan what we will do next week at GHC2010. The panel includes:

Katy Dickinson (Huawei Technologies), Panel Chair

Frances E. Allen (IBM)

Marcy Alstott (Hewlett-Packard)

Lucinda M Sanders (NCWIT – National Center for Women & Information Technology)

Robert Walker (Kent State University)

Manuela M. Veloso (Carnegie Mellon University)

One of our decisions in the meeting was to create a business card handout including key information for those interested in technical awards for women. I ordered the cards from OvernightPrints, which will deliver them to me at the Hopper Conference hotel (if all goes well). The resources listed are:

Award-Winning Career Timelines In Computer Science and Engineering (the new web pages developed by my committee, just published by ABI)

The Raise Project (Recognition of the Achievements of Women In Science, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine – lists of awards)

The back says “Nominate a Great Technical Woman“. Here is what the cards will look like:

Award-Winning Career Timelines In Computer Science and Engineering, GHC2010

A recent Anita Borg Institute press release starts out: “A conversation with Fran Allen held several years ago has blossomed into a new career resource women in technology. This is to announce the availability of the Anita Borg Institutes’ “Award-winning Career Timelines in Computer Science and Engineering” web pages, at URL http://anitaborg.org/award-winning-career-timelines/. The web pages present the biographies of a variety of successful technical women whose careers can serve as a touch point and model for other women working in technology. The women presented have succeeded in industry, government, and the academic world (and some of them in all three areas!). All of the women on this timeline have won major awards and been recognized over many years by a range of admirable organizations and institutions. …”

Since Fran and I had that conversation, my amazing committee has created two Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing conference panels, plus the newly-released Award-Winning Career Timelines web pages. Our second GHC panel “Advancing Your Career Through Awards” will be presented next week at the sold-out GHC2010 in Atlanta, Georgia:

Panelists: Katy Dickinson (Huawei Technologies), Frances E. Allen (IBM), Marcy Alstott (Hewlett-Packard), Lucinda M Sanders (NCWIT), Robert Walker (Kent State University) and Manuela M. Veloso (Carnegie Mellon University)

There are hundreds of awards available to women in computing. In industry, promotions and high-status titles can serve the same function as awards. Some organizations offer higher pay, public acknowledgment, or seniority to winners of major awards. What difference does it make if you get an award? How do we ensure that more women students, professionals, and academics will get into the queue and on the lists of those honored?

My daughter Jessica is also presenting at GHC2010. About her poster:

OPM: How to Get the Funding You Need to Do the Work You Love

Presenter: Jessica Dickinson Goodman (Carnegie Mellon University)

Whether a travel grant to present at a conference, a nationally competitive scholarship, or a few hundred dollars for printing costs, applying for Other People’s Money (OPM) is a necessary evil for women in computing. This poster is informed by the experiences of institutional grant distributors and successful grant-seekers and will unveil the grant application process, to help attendees gain the knowledge they need to get the funding they need.

Jessica and I have been attending the Hopper Conference together since 2007 when she was a Freshman at CMU. She is in her Senior year now and will be a CMU 5th Year Scholar next year in Pittsburgh, PA.

Here are Jessica and my son Paul and my soon-to-be-son-in-law Matt at the Lair of the Golden Bear family camp in Pinecrest, CA last month:

Goodbye Simon & Garfunkel

Last month, we went on our annual vacation at the Lair of the Bear family camp. We had a wonderful time, as always, but were shocked and deeply sad to return home to find our pet birds Simon & Garfunkel dying of starvation.

We hired Home Alone Pet and Plant Care (San Jose, CA) to walk our 1-year-old dog and care for our 2 cockatiel birds while we were camping in the mountains. In addition to hiring Home Alone, we also asked a neighbor to care for our other pets and the house, but not the birds. The day we left, Home Alone’s representative called our neighbor, told him she fell and was hurt trying to walk the dog and left our neighbor in charge of everything. She left a single voice mail message on our cell phone (which we told her did not work at camp) but made no other attempt to contact us. Simon died the morning after our return. Garfunkel died in the vet’s care a few days later.

The vet did a formal necropsy and said both birds died of starvation and dehydration. We left written instructions which included the camp office number plus a contact list, which the Home Alone representative recorded on her company’s customer intake form when she visited our home. The representative even asked to take our dog for a walk the day before we left. She said the first walk went well and she would take care of everything. Home Alone Pet and Plant Care and our neighbor share responsibility for the death of our birds. However, since Home Alone Pet and Plant Care is a professional animal care service with 17 years of experience, we expected more.

We named our boy birds Simon & Garfunkel because they were great duet singers and inventors of new songs. We only adopted them a year ago from Mickaboo Companion Bird Rescue and we loved them very much, grumpy little featherheads that they were. Simon had cinnamon-gray feathers with a yellow crest and pink feet. Garfunkel had a gray crest and gray feet. Both had the yellow heads and orange cheeks typical of male cockatiels. Mickaboo had rescued them from the Martinez animal shelter where they had been abandoned. They hated to be apart. Garfunkel was sometimes very crabby about coming out of the cage or “stepping up” onto a hand – he would often try to bite and sometimes succeeded. However, if Simon went out first, Garfunkel was happy to follow. Garfunkel also liked to dominate and would sometimes fly up to sit on John’s head to prove who was the top bird. Both of them had damaged wings when we got them so they did not fly well. Simon & Garfunkel were very curious and sometimes got into trouble for nibbling the curtains or furniture.

We told Mickaboo about the sad death of our birds and we shared the necropsy report with them. We were able to adopt a new pair of Mickaboo cockatiels today. Paul and John and I met Guapo and Sparky, two gray male cockatiels, at their foster home. They are the same size and look almost identical except that Guapo has two yellow spots on the back of his neck. Sparky is more outgoing. They both have gray feet and yellow-gray crests. We just brought them to our home to be our new bird companions.

Simon and Garfunkel’s last pictures

Guapo and Sparky today

Home from China

I flew into San Francisco late last night from Hong Kong, after ten days working in China. Our takeoff was delayed two hours because of a typhoon – as the cycling winds changed direction, we had to change runways four times. Finally, the jet had to return to the hub to top off fuel before take off. I did not sleep much, so I watched movies: Prince of Persia, The Last Airbender, The A-Team, Letters to Juliet, Nanny McPhee and others, courtesy of Singapore Air. In Singapore Air Economy Class, movies are unlimited, the seats are big, there is a foot rest and a place to put my glasses, and the food is good but fourteen hours on a plane is still not much fun.

This year is the 30th anniversary of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, with much honoring of Deng Xiaoping. There were balloons, flags, and illuminated red lanterns on the main streets in celebration. I think my Huawei business trip went well but I am glad to have this long weekend to rejoin my home time zone before starting work again.

I was happy to eat western breakfast food today – the food in Shenzhen is excellent and interesting but I would rather have food I am used to when I wake up. We went to Bill’s Cafe in Willow Glen – our favorite brunch spot. I am even happier to be with my family (John and Paul met me at the airport) and able to drink water from the tap. “Boiled-bottled-or-alcoholic” is the requirement for drinking in China.

I gave John and Paul some of their presents last night. Paul got some carved jade charms and I gave John a small bottle delightfully painted inside with two scenes of birds. The Chinese art of painting a tiny image on the inside of a bottle is delightful. I bought John’s bottle at a store called “Chinese Arts and Craft” in Hong Kong, which offered better quality artists than other locations. I also brought home tea (of course), sesame candy, and moon cakes. I was assured by my Chinese friends that the simple red bean moon cakes I prefer are not as good as those with an egg inside; however, when I came through SFO customs last night and saw the FDA agents confiscating all moon cakes with egg, I was even happier with my choice.

Here are some photos from my trip to Shenzhen and Hong Kong:

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September 1, 2010 · 5:45 am

Working in Shenzhen, China

I have been here in Shenzhen, China, visiting Huawei headquarters for the past week. It is beastly hot and muggy but until yesterday the air was clean. Yesterday and today, it has been like living in an increasingly thick cotton ball. Working in mainland China is very interesting. Some of my observations:

There is a wide variety of dress but more formal dresses worn to work than I am used to in the USA. By “formal” I mean sequins and black chiffon knee-length gowns with high heels – not “business formal”. Clothes are western-style, modest, and fashionable. Ladies’ cloth parasols are popular – these can be plain plaid but others feature lace and sequins. I have seen none of the hand-painted paper parasols like those they sell in San Francisco’s Chinatown.
Very few people here are overweight. Most are young – less than ten years out of college – with one much-loved child in each family (called a little Emperor or Princess). I have seen almost no old people. Almost everyone is relatively short, with a few notable exceptions.
We went to visit Hong Kong by train last Sunday. Hong Kong is cosmopolitan and very stylish, with malls full of designer shops – different from Shenzhen, which is a high-tech working town. We went up to The Peak to watch the lights come on in the skyscrapers on Hong Kong Island – an amazing and impressive sight.
Restaurants offer packets of tissues instead of napkins. Many offer shrink-wrapped sets of plate-with-2-bowls-and-spoon at each seat. The food is excellent, fresh, and interesting. Watch out for the red peppers! The best restaurant so far was been Laurel, right near our hotel – really good.
Traffic is relatively light and slow (compared to the Silicon Valley or Cairo anyway), which is good because drivers go all over the place regardless of lanes. Cars do not stop for pedestrians.
The internet is fast and free in my room at the Paradise Hasee Hotel but no Facebook or Youtube is available. There seems to be just one hair dryer and one clothes iron in the hotel; they swap them between rooms. Also, each room is limited to just 4 wooden hangers – if you ask for more, you get plastic coated wire hangers. The electric kettle for tea in the room is very convenient. The beds are large and comfortable and the lighting is good. The shower heads spray across the room if you are not careful to point them toward the wall before turning on the water. Breakfast is free and plentiful but only Chinese food is available – I usually have fried rice with egg and vegetables.
People are very friendly and helpful but most only speak Mandarin.
Having “KTdict+ C-E” Chinese-English dictionary on my iPhone has been very helpful – I can show people the characters for the words I can’t pronounce. I also bought the “English-Chinese Pro” application but it is usually too noisy for someone to hear it speaking. I keep my Data Roaming OFF to keep costs down, so many of my iPhone applications are crippled. Skype has worked well for communicating with my family in California and Pennsylvania.

I am taking many pictures but I will have to wait until I get home to upload them.

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August 1, 2010 · 11:52 pm

Lightening Our Footprints – New Cars

This week, we sold our 15-year-old Toyota Camry 4-door Sedan and our 10-year-old Ford Expedition 8-passenger SUV, and we bought two new cars: a Smartcar Passion Coupe Cabriolet (2-seater convertable), and a Mercedes GL350 BlueTEC SUV (which seats 7). We traded in the Toyota on the Smartcar and sold the Ford on Craigslist. After so long nursing along old (very old) cars, it was a wild week.

We spent last weekend visiting car dealerships, mostly along Stevens Creek in Santa Clara, California. It was surprising how few offered cars that would fit my tall husband in comfort. We told salesmen that we wanted to test sit the cars before we test drove them. We visited Mercedes, Toyota, Cadillac, Ford, Lexus, Chevrolet, Smart, and Porsche. After sitting in 20 cars, we found that only four really fit John: the Mercedes GL (SUV), the Toyota Sienna (minivan), the Ford Flex (SUV), and the Chevrolet Traverse (SUV).

Besides wanting cars that were not falling apart bit by bit (I think the Camry’s door handle breaking off in my hand told me that the time had come…), we wanted cars that were not so wasteful. The Smartcar has an EPA estimated fuel consumption of 33 city/41 highway (compared to the Camry at about 20 mpg). It is for me to run errands and commute to work when my husband John and I are not driving together. For such a tiny car, the Passion has a surprising amount of headroom for John.

The ultra-low-emissions diesel Mercedes has an EPA estimated fuel consumption of 17 city/23 highway miles per gallon (compared to the Expedition with 13 mpg at best). This will be our family car, used in hauling yard and building supplies for house and caboose work, taking our big dogs to the vet, driving groups of children on field trips, and taking the family on our annual camping trip into the mountains. Our hope is that the Mercedes will last us much much longer than the Ford, so we will save the energy of creating materials for a new vehicle every ten years.

Many years ago, when our friend Max was a very little boy, he stared at our Ford Expedition and christened it the “Too Big”. We now have both a “Too Big” and a “Too Small”.