Yes, here in Silicon Valley (and Seattle) there’s an app for that.

Starbucks is testing an iPhone/iPod touch app in San Jose, Cupertino, Mountain View, and Sunnyvale, CA. Why here? Because we are cool, or it may be because Apple is here.

My Starbucks Card app was free. It was easy to load my account with my major credit card. I can check my balance, and view my transaction history, etc.

There is a drink and food menu – with cute little pictures. I love it, but the app is only good to use in selected stores.

There is one in San Jose, one in Cupertino (not far from 1 Infinite Loop), one in Sunnyvale, and five (!) in Mountain View. There is even a Starbucks listed for Castro High School. Do they drink more coffee in Mountain View?

There is a place on the app to let Starbucks know what we think. I wish my favorite store (14801 Los Gatos Blvd) was participating.

My iPhone is always with me, and now so is my Starbucks card!

Participating:
20520 Stevens Creek Blvd, Cupertino, CA 95014
5180 Stevens Creek Blvd, San Jose, CA 95129
1037-C El Monte Ave., Mountain View, CA 94040
1380 Pear Ave., Mountain View, CA 94043
Castro @ High School: 750 Castro St, Mountain View, CA 94041
809A Cuesta Blvd, Mountain View, CA 94040
2410 Charleston Ave., Mountain View, CA 94043
1687 Hollenbeck Ave., Sunnyvale, CA 94087

Al Gore: Global Humanitarian Award

This year 15 Laureates, who were selected from 650 world wide nominations, are vying for recognition. Laureates in five categories: environment, economic development, education, equality, and health will be rewarded for their efforts to improve lives around the world. One Laureate in each category will receive a $50,000 cash prize.

“The global challenges of the day have become increasingly strident, more deeply rooted,” said Peter Friess, president of The Tech Museum. “Still, there is hope. These incredibly impressive Laureates have all proven to be equal to, or better than, the challenge to make the world a better place.”

To make the evening even more special, this year’s recipient of The Global Humanitarian Award is Al Gore.

“With all that is going on in the United States it is easy to forget that much of the world is still without power, lighting and access to quality, or sometimes to any, health care and education.” said Mike Splinter, Chairman and CEO of Applied Materials. “This year’s laureates remind us that through creativity, entrepreneurship and determination, individuals and small groups can have a powerful impact and bring innovative solutions to the world’s most immediate problems. We salute all of The Tech Awards Laureates for their amazing work to benefit humanity and thank Vice President Gore for his tireless work to inspire action to save the planet.”

The Tech Awards Gala: Information & Tickets (buy now – tickets are going fast)

Thursday, November 19, 2009
6:00 p.m. Reception
7:00 p.m. Dinner
San Jose McEnery Convention Center
150 West San Carlos Street, San Jose, California, 95113

I’m a big fan of gadgets. I don’t go anywhere without my smartphone, iPod, and GPS receiver (that last one just in case a new geocache shows up). So when I heard about the San José Public Library’s new collection of gadgets, I got all excited and stuff.

The tricks that SJPL’s technology team has up its collective sleeve include an iGoogle tool which allows you to search for library materials right from your Google base page. There’s also a Google-like search bar that you can add to Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox.

But my favorite gadget on the widgets and web tools page is the library lookup bookmarklet for Firefox. You just drag the bookmarklet onto your links bar in Firefox. Then, say you’re looking at a book’s page on Amazon and you’re wondering if the library has it. Just click on the bookmarklet and pow! — you get the library’s catalog page showing the availability of the book. This bookmarklet functions on any page with an ISBN on it. Wow, cool, huh? My favorite bookmarklets, which I use every day, have long been the Google Reader subscription bookmarklet and the “share on Facebook” bookmarklet, but this library one rivals them for usefulness.

The library is promising more gadgets to come, so keep an eye on this page for further developments. And enjoy these gadgets!

Got a simple question for a librarian? As of this month, you can text your question to a San José Public Library librarian at short code 66746; be sure to start your message with “AskSJ” (without the quotes). You can send your question anytime, but questions are actually answered Monday through Friday between 1 and 6 p.m.

Nielsen Mobile statistics quoted in the library’s press release state that U.S. teens “sent and received an average of 1,742 text messages per month in Q2 2008.” The library has tapped into that trend with this great new service.

This service is absolutely free. Those averse to texting can always access other options for getting answers to questions on the library’s Ask a Librarian page. Options include email, chat, and telephone help, as well as traditional in-person assistance.

Back in 2007 MetroFi Inc, setup Wi-Fi access points (antennas) on streetlights and utility poles in Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Santa Clara, Foster City, Concord, and downtown San Jose. Then, in mid-2008 MetroFi went belly up.

Recently, Santa Clara’s Silicon Valley Power paid $205,000 for MetroFi’s Santa Clara network. Silicon Valley Power will use the Wi-Fi to collect information from the new home energy meters every fifteen minutes and in return relay immediate usage information to the customer.

The system is currently being tested on a few thousand meters; then about 45,000 residential meters and 6,000 commercial meters are expected to be installed throughout the city.

There may be challenges with using these Wi-Fi access points as meter readers, since they did a very poor job providing Wi-Fi access to Internet users; however, electricity meters are typically on the outside of homes/businesses.

The outdoor Wi-Fi service is available to residents for free Internet access. Indoor usage may require a Wi-Fi modem to boost the signal.

Connect to the SSID network name “Metro_WiFi” or “MetroFi.” Your computer may automatically discover the Wi-Fi network.

Megan McArthur

Megan McArthur, a Silicon Valley native who graduated from St. Francis High School in Mountain View in 1989, will be making her first spaceflight She is one of seven astronauts picked to fly in an 11-day mission to repair and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope. Atlantis (STS-125) Hubble Servicing Mission scheduled to launch Monday May 11 at 11:01 am.

McArthur’s parents currently live in San Jose, and she considers California her home state, although she was born in Hawaii. She has a doctorate in oceanography from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego.

For the Hubble mission she will be responsible for the robotic arm operations during the capture and release of Hubble, as well as during the spacewalks and Atlantis’ heat shield inspections. She also will serve as the flight engineer, assisting on the flight deck during ascent and landing.

Atlantis’ 11-day mission will include five spacewalks to refurbish the Hubble Space Telescope with state-of-the-art science instruments, expanding the telescope’s capabilities and extending its lifetime through at least 2014.

Refurbishing and restoring will include installing new Battery Module Units, new Rate Sensor Units, New Outer Blanket Layer material, an upgraded Fine Guidance Sensor, Advanced Camera for Surveys, Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph, along with upgrading the Wide Field Camera and the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph. Now you know.

Identifying the Spacewalkers:
John Grunsfeld – Solid red stripes
Drew Feustel – No markings (solid white suit)
Mike Massimino – Broken horizontal red stripes
Michael Good – Diagonal red stripes (barber pole)

Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission 4 – STS-125
Launch: May 11 – 11:01 am PDT
Landing: May 22 – 8:41 am PDT

Follow the mission on NASA TV, Twitter, and other Social Networking Sites

February 25 – March 8, 2009 Cinequest will transform a three block area of San Jose through celebration, innovation, humor, love, provocation, and inspiration.

Opening night: ‘Wake’ (as in funeral) starring Bijou Phillips, Danny Masterson, and Jane Seymour makes its world premiere here in San Jose. Mezcal at 25 W San Fernando and Billy Berk’s at 99 S. 1st St. are hosting the post screening party(s). Will actors and filmmakers show up at both? General admission price of $12.00, or $40.00 if you include the party. 7 PM at the California Theatre.

Closing Night: The world premiere of ‘The Nature of Existence’. What a deal. A documentary that explains it all… Why are we here? Does God exist, etc.? All for only the general admission price of $12.00, or $40.00 if you include the party – appetizers, desserts, cocktails and entertainment at E & O Trading Co. 7:30 PM at the California Theatre

Maverick Spirit Recipients:

* Louis Gossett Jr – Academy Award winner® – ‘An Officer and a Gentleman’.

Award presentation and screening of ‘The Least Among You’.

March 3rd, 7:00 PM – California Theatre – General Admission $10.00

* Kevin Pollak – The Usual Suspects’, ‘The Whole Nine Yards”, ‘That Thing You Do’; ‘Casino’

The evening includes stand-up film comedy by Pollak.

March 4th, 7:00 PM – California Theatre – General Admission – $20:00

* Diablo Cody – Academy Award winning® screenwriter – ‘Juno’.

March 6th, 3 PM – San Jose Repertory Theatre – $15 ticket for the conversation – moderated by Lew Hunter.

Local Filmmakers World Premieres:

* ‘All About Dad’ by, Mark Tran a Vietnamese-American comedy.

* ‘Canary’ by, Alejandro Adams (Around the Bay, Cinequest 2008) Organ harvesting.

Get a Cinequest Mobile iPhone – iPod Touch App

As noted at Ars Technica, CNet, and elsewhere, today marks the 25th anniversary of the Macintosh computer from Apple, probably one of Silicon Valley’s most widely known contributions to world history. The “1984″ Super Bowl ad that launched the Mac 25 years ago can be seen on YouTube.

The anniversary makes it a good day to mention one of the most interesting computer history sites on the net. The Original Macintosh at Folklore.org collects over 100 stories about the early development of the Mac. Most of the stories come from Andy Hertzfeld’s book Revolution in The Valley: The Insanely Great Story of How the Mac Was Made.

It’s also a good day to share a photo (left) from my previous journalistic days as photographer at Davis Senior High School’s The Hub. That computer (maybe the third or fourth Mac model) was used for all the stories in the school paper, and produced camera-ready copy to be pasted up on galleys and taken down to the Davis Enterprise for printing. That computer is ridiculously overpowered by even a low-cost cell phone today, but back then it was a fantastic way to generate a polished looking newspaper at a really reasonable price.<

Jean Bartik with Linda O

Tonight, the Computer History Museum in Mountain View presented a conversation with Jean Jennings Bartik, one of the original programmers of ENIAC. Last night Bartik was named a Fellow of the Computer History Museum, along with Ethernet inventor Bob Metcalfe and Linux originator Linus Torvalds. Tonight’s program was presented in an interview format, hosted by Northern California Public Broadcasting (KQED & KTEH) chief content officer Linda O’Bryon.

ENIAC was “the first general-purpose electronic computer”, according to Wikipedia, although in truth it was built with one main project in mind: calculating firing tables for World War II artillery. In fact, Bartik was first hired to the job of “computer” herself, using a desktop calculator to compute shell trajectories at the rate of about one per week. When a position working on the secret ENIAC project opened up, she took it hoping to use her math skills for less repetitive jobs than the manual calculations she had been doing.

Bartik was responsible for converting ENIAC, which was originally programmed by physically turning switches and connecting wires between components, to a stored-program computer. Later she continued to work for ENIAC’s inventors at the Eckert & Mauchly Corporation, which she called a “technical Camelot”, and then at Remington-Rand which she described as a “job from hell”. Then, she left the field for 16 years to raise a family, but returned to work with minicomputers after her children were grown.

Bartik and the other five original ENIAC programmers received little attention when ENIAC was revealed to the public, with most honors going to the engineers who designed the electronic hardware. Only 30 years later did these pioneers start to gain notice as their story was uncovered by journalists interested in the important role women played in the early history of computers.

The presentation was an excellent opportunity to hear the reminiscences and observations of one of the world’s first computer programmers, who for most of a long career received little credit for her contributions to the earliest development of computing.

My newest obsession lately is goofing around in Second Life. I’m still very much a newbie, but I’ve found some pretty spiffy places to kill time in and I’ve made a few random objects.

What I like to do is find any of the corporate-created sites. For example, Scion has some land – Scion City. You can drive around a Grand Theft Auto-Vice City-ish land. Or if you do a quick search, you can find yourself in Comcast’s themepark.

I already knew about San Jose State’s virtual campus (classes are held there, students create work, etc) and I have to admit, being able to sit on the chair that dangles from the Tower – that was kind of cool (in of course, a completely silly way.)

But I found another spot – The Tech!

When you visit The Tech in Second Life you can check out all sorts of exhibits and art. Even the IMAX works. Actually I’m not 100% sure on that one.. it says it’ll play a movie, but I have yet to get it to work. (Remember, still a newbie!)

Oh and for those that are super confused…

Second Life® is a 3-D virtual world created by its Residents. Since opening to the public in 2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by millions of Residents from around the globe.

That’s not nearly enough to explain what Second Life is all about – check out the link to find out more.

Links:
Second Life
The Tech Museum SLurl: (this worked earlier, hopefully it’ll work for you – if it doesn’t, just search for “The Tech”)