Tag Archives: John

November 20, 2013 · 12:15 pm

Blimp Copter Flying High in SOMA

The 100,000+ Salesforce.com Dreamforce conference attendees are creating traffic gridlock in the South of Market (SOMA) area of San Francisco this week. I was there on Monday, visiting the Everwise mentoring company at Impact HUB (in the old Chronicle Building at 5th and Mission). Everwise was busy that day converting a shipment of Mentos candies into MENTORS freebies for distribution to the Smurf-blue hordes of conference goers.

I also visited eVault (at 3rd and Howard) where my husband John Plocher is the Principle Architect for Open Storage. Over the Dreamforce installation, the large Engajer blimp copter flew freely, sometimes coming very close to the eVault windows overlooking the Moscone Center. Blimp copters are a fun development since I last wrote about quadricopters in 2010.

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Filed under Home & Family, Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews

Tagged as John, Mentoring, San Jose

October 31, 2013 · 1:01 pm

TechWomen’s Last Week in Silicon Valley

This is the last week for the 78 TechWomen mentees visiting the Silicon Valley from Africa and the Middle East. Next week, they move to Washington DC for meetings with the US State Department, the TechWomen program sponsors. Some of us 106 mentors will be going with them! Last weekend, Larissa, Imen, and I and our families rode the annual Ghost Train at the Roaring Camp Railroads in Felton, CA. We also joined the TechWomen farewell potluck picnic at Huddart Park in Woodside. Imen joined our Shakespeare Reading Group, celebrating Halloween by reading Macbeth.

Today, Imen is giving her final technical presentation at Mozilla, the company which has generously hosted her this month. After our trip to the capitol, we will be sad to see Imen return home to Algeria.

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Filed under Caboose Project and Other Trains, Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews

Tagged as Algeria, Geeks, John, Mentoring, Middle East, Paul, Shakespeare, Silicon Valley, technical women, TechWomen

October 21, 2013 · 1:25 pm

WP668 Caboose Clinic – Questions?

I am signed up to give a “Caboose Clinic” to the Coast Division of the National Model Railroad Association on 8 December 2013 in San Leandro, California. More event details are on the Pacific Coast Region Master Calendar. Check out the website of WP668, our San Jose backyard caboose for more about our family project.

Last Friday, I joined my husband John Plocher’s model train lunch group to interview the target market for my clinic. Here are the questions the train lunch guys want answered:

How did you find WP668?
How did you install WP668 in your Willow Glen backyard?
How much did the caboose project cost?
In restoring WP668, what did you discover that was unexpected or odd?
How did you match the paint color? What went into the original paint? How did you get the original paint off?

They also asked me to show many many pictures and to include the following:

Tell the story of getting the city permit submitted and approved.
Talk about restoration materials – how you got wood to fit the 1916 old-growth fir tongue-and-groove original boards.

Please add more to this list of questions and topics – and come to the event if you are available.

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Filed under Caboose Project and Other Trains, Home & Family, News & Reviews

Tagged as garden, Geeks, House Work, John, San Jose, Willow Glen, WP668

October 20, 2013 · 8:38 pm

Honoring My Parents with Sacred Threads

Two of the twelve newly-embroidered chairs dedicated at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church (Saratoga, California) today were donated by my husband and me in honor of my parents: Wade and Eleanor Dickinson. The replacement chair seats were created as part of the Sacred Threads project. The new chair seat designs are inspired by the 1957-era stained glass church windows by Mark Adams. I think my mother was pleased to sit in a chair with her name on it!

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Filed under Church, Home & Family, News & Reviews

Tagged as Eleanor, John, St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, Wade

October 18, 2013 · 11:27 am

China to Silicon Valley – by Truck

My husband John Plocher contributes to many open source hardware and software products for model trail enthusiasts (aka “Train Nuts”). JMRI is an example of one of the software projects on which John has worked. One of his hardware projects is the DCC Brakeman – still on sale at The Train Shop (Santa Clara, CA). All of the schematics, PCB layouts, and technical details are on our family website: SPCoast – Electronics.

John frequently orders custom bits and pieces from China during development. In checking shipping status this morning on UPS, he was presented with the surprising image above. Note the icons:

Factory – in China
Home – in Silicon Valley
Truck – going between – across the Pacific Ocean

A truck?

Image Copyright by John Plocher and Katy Dickinson – with thanks to UPS

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Filed under Home & Family, News & Reviews

Tagged as Geeks, John, Silicon Valley

September 30, 2013 · 2:21 pm

Mentoring Research Poster and SOL Panel at GHC13

For the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (“GHC-13″) this week, I look forward to presenting a poster (“Lifetime Value of Mentoring to Technical Women”) and also a Student Opportunity Lab (SOL) topic: “Empowering Technical Women Through Global Mentoring” (with Trish Tierney of the Institute of International Education). Since I was at the People to People (P2P) conference last weekend in Washington DC and am traveling to GHC in Minneapolis tomorrow, my husband John Plocher generously managed the printing of the big poster and the SOL panel handouts. While I was in Washington DC, our daughter Jessica Dickinson Goodman tweaked the poster graphics for better effect. John posted the final versions on our website:

“Empowering Technical Women Through Global Mentoring” Student Opportunity Lab (SOL) Handout:
http://www.spcoast.com/pub/Katy/GHC13.Handout.Mentoring.Final.27sep2013.pdf
“Lifetime Value of Mentoring” Poster:
http://www.spcoast.com/pub/Katy/GHC13.mentoringposter.Sep2013.Final.small.pdf

The “Empowering Technical Women Through Global Mentoring” material was developed in collaboration with four TechWomen co-presenters from the Middle East who regretfully are unable to attend GHC13 in person. Thanks to Sukaina Al-Nasrawi of Lebanon and Maysoun Ibrahim of Palestine (TechWomen Inaugural Class 2011), Adla Chatila of Lebanon and Heba Hosny of Egypt (TechWomen Class 2012) for their welcome support and valuable advice. Thanks also to Trish, John, and Jessica! I am blessed to have so many talented people supporting this work!

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

Tagged as Egypt, Geeks, Jessica, John, Lebanon, Mentoring, Palestine, technical women, TechWomen

September 18, 2013 · 1:57 pm

Too Windy to Sail

Laura Biche and I drove to San Francisco yesterday to see the 7th day of the America’s Cup. Unfortunately, after almost an hour of hunting and finally finding parking at Fort Mason, yesterday’s boat races were called off due to winds. Laura and I made the best of our afternoon by walking through the art galleries and museums at Fort Mason, ending with an memorably delicious dinner with John Plocher at Greens Restaurant. A day well spent!