Travel Reading, part 5 - Silicon Valley

Since my Day Job is tied to the Silicon Valley, I figure it's time to read about some of the people there.

The Google Guys, by Richard L. Brandt

I have been a user of Google products since their beginning... and since I am typically a late adopter, I think this speaks volumes about how they revolutionized "search."  For me, they were useful from the beginning.... significantly more so than the other search engines available at the time.

This book is about 10 years old, so it was interesting to be reminded about the origins and initial guiding principles of Google as well as read about forward looking topics 10 years later.

As mentioned in part 3, it's much nicer to read books that are written by professional authors.  The quality of the text is significantly better.  Which makes it much more enjoyable to read.

Without a doubt, Google was a game-changer.  They understood the needs-of and were focused-on the end user, not short-term financial gains.  IMO, this is an important lesson for all companies.

I'd be interested in reading a more contemporary book and to see if the guiding principles are still as strong as they were at the beginning.



The second book for this edition of Travel Reading is Brotopia, by Emily Chang.

It was recommended by one of my colleagues... not only is it a more contemporary book on the Silicon Valley (published 2018) it is an interesting look into the root of sexism in Tech and specifically the Silicon Valley.

First, the idea that people are smarter in the Silicon Valley is ridiculous.  Yes, a lot of them have been financially successful, but that is only because they were luckier, not smarter.  Reinforced by research that shows the zip code of birth is a strong predictor of income (here and here).

Second, Meritocracy is the idea that you hire and promote based on merit only.  On the surface, this sounds great.  But when that is coupled with just hiring the people you know and promoting the ones that go to parties with you, it becomes ridiculous.... the arrogance of assuming you already know "all the best people" is astounding.

Third, as I progressed through this book, the more difficult it became to read.  Even though I, personally, have experienced a lot of what was described during my career, reading about the institutionalized sexism was still sometimes horrifying and often disturbing.

One part that really struck me was when the author was talking about the harassment/trolling she and many others receive for speaking out against the "bro-culture."  She talks about being used to it and that she has skin thick enough to deal with it.  I know that thick skin, because I also have it.  :-(

I appreciate that the author tried to end the book on a positive note.  She talked about Girls Who Code and the excitement these girls have for their future career.  She also talked about a couple of tech companies trying to ensure diversity, equality, and work-life balance.

We are on the precipice of another wave increase of tech workers.  It's important to understand how we got to where we are and we have an opportunity to do better this time.

Of course, this also happened the day I finished reading Brotopia.  We are in a dark time with respect to opportunities and parity.

Fiber Arts Friday: Mathematical Models of Knit Structures

As fiber artists, we know that some knit structures are more stretchy than others.  We also know that some fibers are harder to work with than others.  We know that fibers such as cashmere and suri alpaca are good for garments that drape where high wool content is useful for shaped garments due to better "memory."  Subjectively knowing all of this is important to crafting garments and objects that people will love and cherish... But can we objectively quantify how different they are?

What if we could?

Over my college and professional career, I have consulted the vast amounts of published material property data for steel, concrete, aluminum, carbon fiber, Kevlar, and fiberglass.

Data Sheet example from Hexcel

Properties such as material strength, toughness, porosity, etc all depend on variables such as the alloy, fabrication method, cure temperature, and ambient humidity during fabrication.  Understanding these material properties in the context of how the materials are to be used is one of the basic tenets of being an engineer, product developer, or manufacturer.

So to see this work happening at Georgia Tech for Knit Structures is pretty exciting.

If you think about a simple stockinette fabric, the problem statement gets complex very quickly.

Stockinette, Twined, In the Round, Hand-spun Tibetan Mastiff

First, Stockinette is the simplest of knit structures.... all of the stitches are the same and all of the stitches are facing the same direction.... Garter, while (generally) easier to make, is a more complex structure, because the stitches face opposite directions at each row.

So if we consider a sample of Stockinette stitch and what needs to be quantified in order to make a useful mathematical model, first the structure needs to be considered

• how loads are applied to the fabric
• how loads travel thru the fabric structure

Credit: Elisabetta Matsumoto

then the following variables need to be considered:

• fiber preparation and spinning technique for each single
• worsted or woolen
• long or short draw
• top, roving, cloud, raw
• structure of the yarn
• single, plied, number of plies
• spin and ply directions
• ply technique - same, opposite, Navajo, cabled
• Fabric Construction
• knit technique - Continental vs. English
• knit method - standard, double, twined
• gauge of the stitch with respect to gauge of the yarn used
• Intended Mode of Use
• flat, shaped, layered

Stockinette with Ribbed Cuff, Standard, In the Round,
Commercially Processed Wool blend

Once all of this is mathematically identified and bounded, the data has to be established for fiber content.... be it single sourced (breed or variety) or a blend (alloy).

• cotton, hemp
• wool
• alpaca
• bamboo, flax
• nylon, polyester, rayon
• steel, aluminum
• carbon, fiberglass, Kevlar

Then ultimately there is variation within each breed and variety.  As a hand spinner and breeder, I know that not all alpaca is created equal.  There is variation with respect to breed (Huacaya, Suri), between animals, and within each animal (blanket, neck, legs and belly).

• thickness (Coarse-to- fine)
• staple length
• strength (you've heard of tender fleeces or fleeces with breaks)
• crimp (amplitude and frequency).

It doesn't take much to recognize how complex this problem statement is.

Stockinette with lace edging, Standard, Flat, Hand-spun Huacaya Alpaca

But understanding these properties can lead to better solutions for things like torn tendon repair and prosthesis.  The possibilities are quite exciting.

For more information, check out the Matsumoto Group at Georgia Tech.

Keyboards

Over the last month or so, I've been using several different computers, and therefore different keyboards.

All of these are QWERTY keyboards and all are on PCs, but the Control button, while always in the lower left corner, is not always in the same place.

And just because it's frustrating... All of the photos were taken landscape, they all show as landscape on both my phone and PC, but they import at portrait.  smh

Test Video: Miles Being Silly

I'm still having technical difficulties.  The Blogger online help was not helpful.

I found this article that says the max file size is 100 MB and that supported formats are .mp4, .wmv and .mov.  My file is 7.1MB and .mov, so I'm good there.

I experience the same behavior in Chrome and IE.  So I made sure I had a default video player set up on my computer and verified the video is playable outside of Blogger but that didn't help either.

So I'm just going to post a silly, short, video and hope that it's view-able after publishing.  I'll be doing my own tests, but if you don't mind letting me know if you can watch the video and what browser/version you are using.

Thanks.

Here it is...  Miles Being Silly.  20 seconds.

Of course, this one played in preview mode.  hmmm.

Technical Difficulties

I don't know if it's the Blogger Video Plug in, the fact that I'm using Chrome or if there is something wrong with my video, but I am unable to get videos to play in a draft post.

Research is required.

Technical Difficulties

The video from yesterday's post is not viewable in Feedly (my Google Reader replacement), email or on the mobile version of this blog.  It just shows up as a big white space on those platforms.

It does show up on the blog, itself.

I guess, I'll be doing some research.  :-/

Google Reader is Going Away

Hopefully (if you're a user of it) you've heard by now that Google Reader is going away.

I learned from a friend on Facebook about a week ago.  I had decided to wait to make any changes.  It looked like the other options where overwhelmed.

But then I noticed that it is gone from some menus yesterday.  It is still searchable, but I figured they'd give it a little more time.... supposedly, Reader isn't going away until July 1st.  :-/

I went back to my friend's FB post and reviewed the information that she and her friends had put up and decided to try Feedly.

The iPhone App looked promising and ended up being very easy to set up... almost instantaneous.  The PC/Chrome version was a little more challenging.  The trick is making sure you "add to Chrome."

I messed around with the settings for a while and discovered I could add a few feeds that I hadn't figured out how to add to Reader.  Reading on the iPhone marks as read on the computer and vice versa.  I'm not certain that I'm committed to Feedly, but so far I am feeling ok about it.

The visual experience on the app is quite nice.  Though I have not figured out how to comment on the mobile version of the posts... which is not a Feedly issue.  I can type it in but for some reason they are never posted, so I started going to the web version and that seems to work ok.

If you are a Google Reader user and have yet to make your decision about how to keep your subscriptions, here are a couple of posts from good sources on situations like this: Copyblogger and Mashable.

In the meantime, I offer RSS and email subscriptions on the right sidebar.  --->

Technical Difficulties

My computer is on it's last leg.  It no longer keeps time so my RSS feed is not working.  At least I think that's why it's not working.

For a while, if I updated the date and time, the RSS feeds would update.  But that doesn't seem to be happening anymore.

So take an old and tired computer and add traveling too much, you get me way, way behind in reading the posts of my favorite blogs.

So in an attempt to rectify that, I've started moving my favorites from RSS to Google Reader.  At least that's what I'm trying to do.

I have a list of "Subscriptions" and "Blogs I'm Following."  I don't know what the difference is or how one gets into one list and not the other.

It also seems to take some time to get from the "Dashboard" into one of these lists.

So I'm waiting for the batches to run before I delete the blog from my RSS feed.

This process is taking a lot more time than I expected, but I'm looking forward to having regular access to my favorite blogs.

Books

I love books.

I know many people say that print is dead, or on the road to dead. But I can spend hours in a book store.

For me there is nothing like a good book. I love the smell and feel of a book. I love the typeface and the white space. I love the possibility a new book provides. Because of this, I completely lose track of time when I visit a book store.

I usually go to find one specific book or a book on a specific subject. I find the appropriate section and scan the shelves noticing titles, fonts and colors. I open the books so I can look at and feel the pages with my fingers. I read the summary on the back jacket and then the first few pages. I read the blurb about the author and a few pages in the middle. I check out the table of contents and of course the price. I build a stack to bring home.

I especially love bookstores that have wood floors and tall wood shelves, comfy chairs amongst the books and an espresso bar. This enhances the wonderful sensory experience of being surrounded by books. But, there is little more satisfying than finishing a well written book.

New Technology

I went to the Boulder-Denver New Technology (BDNT) Meetup last night. This was my first meetup so I wasn't really sure what to expect.

I was blown away. This is a very cool thing.

About 400 people came together to hear a few companies spend 5 minutes each talking about their new technology products. The audience then had 5 minutes to ask questions and provide feedback on each product or company. This was very fast, very intense and very fun.

These are local companies doing really cool things.

Sports Data Hub - data analysis for NFL Football, professional and armchair
iggli - organize your friends to go to ticketed events
TimZon - Integrated Video and Screen capture for sharing comments for product developers on multiple continents
Rezora - online marketing tool for real estate agents
Zeo - personal sleep analysis and feedback
TechoShark - iPhone app that integrates social media with conference goers

Some products were definitely more interesting to the audience and thus the audience was more engaged. The questions were intelligent and more business then technology focused.

I am absolutely looking forward to the next session.