Tag Archives: Geeks

August 29, 2012 · 10:28 pm

DCC Brakeman

My husband John has been designing model train open source hardware for many years – as I have written about before. Recently, at the urging of fellow enthusiasts (or “Train Nuts” as their wives call them), John brought out his first retail product – the DCC Brakeman. The DCC Brakeman is now for sale for $6.99 at The Train Shop, 1829 Pruneridge Ave, Santa Clara, California, (408) 296-1050. (The first version sold for $6.25 but everyone wanted him to have a weight added, which costs a little more.) Some assembly is required.

The rule of the railroad used to be that “When a train stops on a main track, flag protection must be provided.” This little electronic guy is about one inch tall. He represents a flagman with a red lantern – as a visual aid to protect model trains when switching from fouling the main line. He is used in DCC (digital command and control) model train operations – about which you can find out more at the Operations Special Interest Group. He wears a baseball cap which says DCC. The little man’s front says Brakeman and his back says Safety First! (“Safety First” has been an American railroad industry motto since around 1910.)

Details on the DCC Brakeman are on John’s website: spcoast.com.

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Filed under Caboose Project and Other Trains, Home & Family

Tagged as Geeks, John

August 23, 2012 · 11:14 am

IEEE Photographer

Huawei is hosting the 3-day IEEE Hot Interconnects conference in Santa Clara, California, this week and I am pleased to be the official event photographer. Yesterday was the first day of this 20th anniversary conference. It has been fun to see so many colleagues and friends from the Sun Labs diaspora, including Radia Perlman (called “The Mother of the Internet”, first woman to be a Sun Microsystems Fellow, many-time mentor in my SEED program, holder of more than 200 granted US patents, now an Intel Fellow). She gave a fascinating talk called “Network Myths and Mysteries.”

I am taking pictures again today – and posting them on the new IEEE Hot Interconnects Pinterest page.

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Filed under News & Reviews

Tagged as Geeks, Huawei, SEED, Sun Labs, Sun Microsystems, technical women

August 7, 2012 · 10:23 pm

TechWomen Mentor Training

TechWomen mentor training was today, hosted by Walmart in San Bruno, California. About TechWomen:

Harnessing the power of business, technology and innovation, TechWomen brings emerging women leaders in technology sectors from the Middle East and North Africa together with their American counterparts for a professional mentorship and exchange program at leading companies in the United States.

Pairing Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s vision of “smart power diplomacy” with “21^st Century Statecraft,” TechWomen works to empower women and girls through technology. It connects and supports the next generation of women in technology sectors by providing them the access and opportunity needed to pursue careers in technology.

TechWomen is an initiative of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA). … partnering with the Institute of International Education (IIE) and the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI) to implement this initiative.

This is the second year for TechWomen, with Silicon Valley companies hosting women from Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia, Palestine, and Yemen. I was the Process Architect for TechWomen from 2010-2011. Today, I gave a short talk on the Best and Worst Practices in Mentoring. I am proud to be a Professional Mentor myself this year. Each mentee has both a Professional and a Cultural mentor assigned to her. Huawei hosted three mentees last year in Santa Clara (two from Lebanon and one from Egypt) and will host three more this year (one each from Egypt, Lebanon, and Morocco). We are very much looking forward to meeting them in September!

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Filed under Hopper - Anita Borg Institute, Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews

Tagged as Egypt, Geeks, Huawei, Middle East, teaching, technical women, TechWomen

July 21, 2012 · 1:36 pm

Non-Travel Diary 4

While my husband John is in China on business for Huawei, I am keeping a non-travel diary. This has been a relatively quiet week. In addition to working full-time at Huawei:

There was a small amount of progress on our home construction projects. The painter spent a half day painting the wrong color stain on the baseboards. When I pointed out the error, he spent about the same amount of time sanding that color off and re-staining. Nobody was happy.
Thursday, I joined the monthly Board meeting of the Santa Maria Urban Ministry. We said an appreciative goodbye to our summer intern. The SMUM Tech Team (of which John and I are members) was assigned some new projects by the Board.
My newly-assigned 2012 TechWomen mentee from Lebanon and I made first contact. We exchanged introductory emails and are starting to make preparations for her visit to the Silicon Valley in September. Her background is impressive – I very much look forward to working with her in person. TechWomen is an initiative of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA).
I communicated with the 2011 TechWomen mentees with whom I am presenting a panel at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing in October 2012 (Baltimore, MD). I am the moderator of the panel called “Technical Women in the Arab Region: Challenges vs. Aspirations”. We have travel funding confirmed for three of the panelists and we are working on support for our fourth. The ladies are traveling from Algeria, Palestine, Egypt, and Lebanon for GHC12. I am very eager to see them again!
Paul and I took our Wood Shop basic safety and equipment introduction at TechShop San Jose last night. We enjoyed learning to use the miter saw, table saw, band saw, electric sander, and drill press. The scroll saw is being repaired so we will learn how to use that later. I made a heart for John and Paul started work on an infinity symbol using the band saw. One of the other students laser-engraved the heart for me. I want to take a TechShop laser class next!
This morning, we had a community yard sale. Despite being on Craigslist and putting signs up on nearby corners, it was very poorly attended. However, it was fun to hang out with the neighbors. Our neighborhood apparently has 7 boys and 1 girl aged between 6 and 12 years old – who spent the morning rocketing from sale to sale comparing stuff and giving updates.
John comes home Tuesday morning!

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Filed under Home & Family, Hopper - Anita Borg Institute, Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews

Tagged as China, Geeks, House Work, Huawei, John, Mentoring, Middle East, Paul, San Jose, technical women, TechWomen, Willow Glen

July 20, 2012 · 11:10 pm

Your Mother is Here to Make Robots

I love this sign over the kitchen sink at TechShop San Jose:

TechShop Members: Your Mother may be a member here at TechShop, but she’s here to make Robots, not wash your dishes. Please clean up any messes that you make. Thank you.

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Tagged as Geeks, San Jose, technical women

July 20, 2012 · 10:38 pm

Silicon Valley at Your Feet

My Godmother was Margot Patterson Doss who wrote about walking in San Francisco and the SF Bay Area. Her most famous book was called San Francisco at Your Feet: Best Walks in a Walkers City.

I was thinking of Aunt Margot on my way to lunch today in Santa Clara. Walking from my Huawei office to the Bamboo Leaf Vietnamese Restaurant is not far, but I pass by dozens of small Silicon Valley companies. They are nested together in the San Tomas Business Park, one of probably hundreds of such company parks throughout our high-tech valley.

Humanitarian organizations, medical research, telecom, technical research and support companies, and companies whose products are a mystery are all mixed in together. Each is in an office space that is maybe twenty feet from the door of the next such space. All that differentiates them is the sign on a series of identical glass doors.

This particular office park has been around long enough to boast large redwoods and other mature trees among its plantings (which make it a pleasant lunchtime walk). I wonder how many of the tightly packed companies have been around long enough to see those trees grow?

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Filed under News & Reviews

Tagged as Geeks, Huawei, San Francisco, Silicon Valley

May 25, 2012 · 12:40 pm

CMU Creatures

While we were trailing after my daughter Jessica during her graduation events last weekend, I was charmed to see so many animals had infiltrated the ultra-geeky world of Carnegie Mellon University. I don’t just refer to the CMU Scottish Terrier official mascot – although Scottie was there – but wild animals too. From the early morning robin and bunny to the sparrows in the grass during the commencement service, CMU creatures joined our celebrations.