Once again, Code Camp will be coming to the Foothill campus for two intensive days of presentations and networking opportunities with over with over 600 currently registered attendees. This is a great opportunity for networking.
This year’s code camp will be held on Saturday, November 8th and Sunday, November 9th 2008.
The event is FREE and you can register for it by going to:
http://www.siliconvalley-codecamp.com/
There are already over 90 sessions signed covering lots of technologies including ones from Microsoft, Sun, Yahoo, Open Source and others. Please register for Code Camp if you can make it and if you have any interest in giving a session, please sign up for one after you register.
Code Camp is a completely free event put on by volunteers including all the speakers. If you have not done much presenting, this is the perfect place to start out. If you're a veteran presenter, you will be among many friends as we already have some of the top presenters from the bay area committed to speaking.
Since this is a volunteer event, the more financial sponsors we have, the more fun things we can do. If you are interested in contributing, either financially or otherwise, please go to the fol- lowing URL and read about the details:
http://www.siliconvalley-codecamp.com/Sponsors.aspx
In addition, we will make announcements on the following RSS feed so please subscribe to that. For the past 2 years, many people commented how helpful the RSS feed was for keeping track of updates.
http:// www.siliconvalley-codecamp.com/Rss.aspx
For more information, contact the Silicon Valley Code Camp Coordinator, Peter Kellner at (408) 823-1385 or at http://peterkellner.net
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Wednesday, October 08, 2008
** An Evening with 2008 CHM Fellow Jean Jennings Bartik **
The Computer History Museum presents...
Later in 1945, the Army circulated a call for "computers" for a new job with a secret machine. Bartik jumped at the chance and was hired as one of the original six programmers of ENIAC, the first all-electronic, programmable computer. She joined Frances “Betty” Snyder Holberton, Kathleen McNulty Mauchly Antonelli, Marlyn Wescoff Meltzer, Ruth Lichterman Teitelbaum and Frances Bilas Spence in this unknown journey.
With ENIAC's 40 panels still under construction, and its 18,000 vacuum tube technology uncertain, the engineers had no time for programming manuals or classes. Bartik and the other women taught themselves ENIAC's operation from its logical and electrical block diagrams, and then figured out how to program it. They created their own flow charts, programming sheets, wrote the program and placed it on the ENIAC using a challenging physical interface, which had hundreds of wires and 3,000 switches. It was an unforgettable, wonderful experience.
On February 15, 1946, the Army revealed the existence of ENIAC to the public. In a special ceremony, the Army introduced ENIAC and its hardware inventors Dr. John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert. The presentation featured its trajectory ballistics program, operating at a speed thousands of time faster than any prior calculations. The ENIAC women's program worked perfectly - and conveyed the immense calculating power of ENIAC and its ability to tackle themillennium problems that had previously taken a man 100 years to do. It calculated the trajectory of a shell that took 30 seconds to trace it. But, it took ENIAC only 20 seconds to calculate it - faster than a speeding bullet! Indeed!
The Army never introduced the ENIAC women.
No one gave them any credit or discussed their critical part in the event that day. Their faces, but not their names, became part of the beautiful press pictures of the ENIAC. For forty years, their roles and their pioneering work were forgotten and their story lost to history. The ENIAC Women's story was discovered by Kathy Kleiman in 1985. Bartik will discuss what it means to be overlooked, despite unique and pioneering work, and what it means to be discovered again.
Where
An Evening with 2008 CHM Fellow Jean Jennings Bartik
In Conversation with Linda O’Bryon
One of the first women in technology…!
Born on a farm in Missouri, the sixth of seven children, Jean Jennings Bartik always went in search of adventure. Bartik majored in mathematics at Northwest Missouri State Teachers College (now Northwest Missouri State University). During her college years, WWII broke out, and in 1945, at age 20, Bartik answered the government's call for women math majors to join a project in Philadelphia calculating ballistics firing tables for the new guns developed for the war effort. A new employee of the Army's Ballistics Research Labs, she joined over 80 women calculating ballistics trajectories (differential calculus equations) by hand - her title: “Computer.”In Conversation with Linda O’Bryon
One of the first women in technology…!
Later in 1945, the Army circulated a call for "computers" for a new job with a secret machine. Bartik jumped at the chance and was hired as one of the original six programmers of ENIAC, the first all-electronic, programmable computer. She joined Frances “Betty” Snyder Holberton, Kathleen McNulty Mauchly Antonelli, Marlyn Wescoff Meltzer, Ruth Lichterman Teitelbaum and Frances Bilas Spence in this unknown journey.
With ENIAC's 40 panels still under construction, and its 18,000 vacuum tube technology uncertain, the engineers had no time for programming manuals or classes. Bartik and the other women taught themselves ENIAC's operation from its logical and electrical block diagrams, and then figured out how to program it. They created their own flow charts, programming sheets, wrote the program and placed it on the ENIAC using a challenging physical interface, which had hundreds of wires and 3,000 switches. It was an unforgettable, wonderful experience.
On February 15, 1946, the Army revealed the existence of ENIAC to the public. In a special ceremony, the Army introduced ENIAC and its hardware inventors Dr. John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert. The presentation featured its trajectory ballistics program, operating at a speed thousands of time faster than any prior calculations. The ENIAC women's program worked perfectly - and conveyed the immense calculating power of ENIAC and its ability to tackle themillennium problems that had previously taken a man 100 years to do. It calculated the trajectory of a shell that took 30 seconds to trace it. But, it took ENIAC only 20 seconds to calculate it - faster than a speeding bullet! Indeed!
The Army never introduced the ENIAC women.
No one gave them any credit or discussed their critical part in the event that day. Their faces, but not their names, became part of the beautiful press pictures of the ENIAC. For forty years, their roles and their pioneering work were forgotten and their story lost to history. The ENIAC Women's story was discovered by Kathy Kleiman in 1985. Bartik will discuss what it means to be overlooked, despite unique and pioneering work, and what it means to be discovered again.
Where
- Computer History Museum
- Hahn Auditorium
- 1401 N. Shoreline Blvd.
- Mountain View, CA 94043
- Wednesday, October 22, 2008
- 6 pm Reception - Open to all attendees
- 7 pm Program
- Wine provided by The Mountain Winery
- Free. Members should register early, as this event will sell out. Suggested donation of $10.00 at the door from non-members. To register or for more information on the event, please visit the Museum's website or call (650) 810-1005.
Monday, October 06, 2008
** Register to VOTE **
Registration deadlines are coming up soon. In order to be eligible to vote in the California statewide election on November 4, 2008, your registration must be postmarked no later than October 20, 2008.

In California, click HERE for more information about registering and voting.
VoteforChange.com makes it easier than ever to register. Instead of tracking down the right forms, all you need to do is answer a few basic questions and you'll be ready to vote. You can also:
This race is too close and too important to stay home on Election Day.

In California, click HERE for more information about registering and voting.
VoteforChange.com makes it easier than ever to register. Instead of tracking down the right forms, all you need to do is answer a few basic questions and you'll be ready to vote. You can also:
- Confirm your existing registration
- Apply to vote absentee
- Find your polling place
This race is too close and too important to stay home on Election Day.
Sunday, October 05, 2008
** Happy Birthday Google **
Saturday, October 04, 2008
** Problems with Krypton Server (updated) **
--Update
Service appears to have been restored.
*****
I have had only intermittent access to the Krypton web server this morning. There may be power problems at Foothill...or not. Either way, if you cannot access either the COIN 61 or 63 sites or your own sites, that is probably the reason.
--Update
As of 4:35 pm, neither the Dean or the System Admin have responded to my messages. Please do what you can and I will post any updates as I receive them.
Service appears to have been restored.
*****
I have had only intermittent access to the Krypton web server this morning. There may be power problems at Foothill...or not. Either way, if you cannot access either the COIN 61 or 63 sites or your own sites, that is probably the reason.
--Update
As of 4:35 pm, neither the Dean or the System Admin have responded to my messages. Please do what you can and I will post any updates as I receive them.
Friday, October 03, 2008
** COIN 63 Quiz this Weekend **
If you are in COIN 63, Advanced Web Technologies, you have a quiz this weekend. Sometime between 8:00 am Friday and 10:00 pm Saturday, log on to Etudes NG and choose Tests. If you've never taken a quiz in Etudes NG before, review in the Modules > Student User Guide 1.3 Taking Tests or click the My Workspace tab and then choose Learn how to take tests in the system (on the right under Tips and Information).Check the Week 2 Online Guide for your class for more info.
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
** Banned Books Week **
Celebrating the Freedom to Read!
Updated below...
Updated below...

Banned Books Week is the only national celebration of the freedom to read. It was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries. More than a thousand books have been challenged since 1982. The challenges have occurred in every state and in hundreds of communities. People challenge books that they say are too sexual or too violent. They object to profanity and slang, and protest against offensive portrayals of racial or religious groups--or positive portrayals of homosexuals. Their targets range from books that explore the latest problems to classic and beloved works of American literature.
Be informed! Find out more about banned books and buy them to read at:
Be informed! Find out more about banned books and buy them to read at:
Books Inc.
301 Castro St.
Mountain View, CA 94041
Books Inc.
855 El Camino Real #74
Palo Alto , CA 94301
Update (h/t Tracy K):
You can also find banned titles in your local library. If you want to find out who the past and/or top authors and titles challenged presently and in past, check out the American Library Association's Banned Books page.
301 Castro St.
Mountain View, CA 94041
Books Inc.
855 El Camino Real #74
Palo Alto , CA 94301
Update (h/t Tracy K):
You can also find banned titles in your local library. If you want to find out who the past and/or top authors and titles challenged presently and in past, check out the American Library Association's Banned Books page.
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