Heart of Silicon Valley (Mountain View, Red Rock Cafe)

You can hear about the big names and hot companies in the Silicon Valley, but if you want to feel it happening, come by Castro Street in Mountain View.

Go on into the Red Rock Cafe and head up the narrow stairs to find people plugging away on their laptops, working and talking together. This is where they come to informal working groups, Meetups, like those for Android App and IOS (apple/Mac) developers. This is where it's actually going on. 

History is happening here.

Finding History at MacWorld 2013 (San Francisco Field Trip)

MacWorld's not what it used to be. These days it's more like a recreation of the good old days in the 80's and 90's to remember when it showcased the marvelous new apple computer products we were all so hyped about. 

It's a short BART trip from my home in Silicon Valley up to the expo.  So I went, still hyped about my mac and all it's associated mobile devices (iPad, iPhone, iPod), and my work on IOS app development. I mostly saw business apps, some hardware and tons and tons of accessories - cleaner, cases and covers. This stuff I can buy on the web. I didn't find any of the educational apps I was interested in contrasting with my own work. The app display area ("Appalooza") had plenty of room to sit in comfort, as there were so few vendors. 

Upstairs I found some of the tech listen-in sessions that used to excite me, but I just couldn't get my enthusiasm up. So I went for a good long walk to enjoy a little more of the history of San Francisco.

Thanks for the memories.

It's all happening, it just isn't happening here anymore. 

Steve Jobs: Heroes and Heroines

I took the pedestrian time portal over to the downtown Palo Alto Apple Store yesterday. It's a nice walk past the library and park fields on a long path of trees that runs alongside the Caltrain railroad track.  At the end of the path, I cross San Francisquito Creek a time portal that has occasionally taken me back to visit with a local Ohlone tribe, back before 1769 when the Spaniards arrived. 


Yesterday, however, I continued past the temptation to drop back a few centuries and gather fall berries with a few of my early California sisters, and headed out along Alma Street on the path to more recent times.  


No matter what time of day I've walked past, since Steve Jobs death, there's been a crowd of people gathered at the window of the downtown apple store, writing postits, dropping off flowers, taking photos, or simply reading the notes that others have left. I found at least six different languages yesterday, two of whose origin I couldn't even make a guess.


We all need heroes and heroines so that we can go forth with a touch more heroism ourselves.