THE LAMORINDAN September 3, 2010

KILLER JAWBONE

The old philosopher Chuck Bove (well, actually quoting Paul Sims) told us it's written that in one day, Samson slew 1,000 Philistines with the jawbone of an ass. Every day, scores of team members have their trust and commitment killed by the same weapon. (Don't let that jawbone hit you, Home Team Members!)

GUESTS

Yolanda Peeks, Lady Number I
Anne Gattis, the Girl Next Door
Palmer Riedel
Allen Rush, Speaker

THE NEW GUY ON THE TRAIL

Ken Thomas, who's been haunting the place for some time, finally got the Chaffey Treatment, and George didn't even give him a 3-day cooling off period before signing him up as the Newest Rotarian. George gave his eloquent dissertation on the fellowship and service of Rotary in general and the family approach of LSR in particular. He and the Prez juggled the folder with all the sheepskins and paperwork appurtenant thereto. Prez Peeks didn't forget Ken's sponsor, one Patrick Flaharty, who added yet another pin to his collection.

Ken and Anne Gattis, the former Girl Next Door when the two of them grew up that way, have now moved even closer, and Annie was here to share in the onslaught of handshakes for the new member. They actually seemed to enjoy the adulation. Don't want to disillusion Ken, but Dennis Kuramai got the same royal treatment a very short time ago, and this morning was a mere red badger peddling raffle tickets. Well, nothing is forever - except the satisfaction of being a part of this great organization.

Ken was born in Vallejo, moved to Orinda in the 3rd grade, is of the Miramonte Class of '67, was a snake driver in Vietnam, did DVC and Sac State in marketing and economics, went into advertising, formed an insurance agency, retired in '99 to Grand Junction, and fortunately came back to his 40th high school reunion in 2007 where he reunited with the Girl Next Door. (Try saying that sentence without taking a breath and you'll end up on the floor!)

Other than radio controlled tanks (don't ask), Ken's main activity seems to be hiking and backpacking. On a typical day, he joins a certain hiking group for a 4-mile hike, and adds 10 miles by himself. This is the kind of perseverance that will serve us well.

THE NEW GIRL IN AMERICA

Her name is Arianne Anez (sorry this typewriter doesn't have a tilde to put over the "n" in the last name). She's from Santa Cruz (do they have a Boardwalk?), Bolivia. She's now into the Reporting mode. On Saturday, to kick things off for the year, she attended an orientation for inbound exchange students from various countries. She also went to Water World and saw a movie. During the week she's going to a certain high school called Acalanes, taking environmental science, English 3, US history, pre-calculus, drama, and chorale. It is unclear as yet whether she'll follow in the footsteps of our last exchange student and get on stage whenever she gets the chance. But she will be on stage at most of our meetings for the school year. So far she appears to be, well, cool. Welcome, Arianne!

SPEAKING OF SCHOOL - DICTIONARIES ARE STILL HOT

Once again, George Chaffey justified our existence. It seems that he knows a whole bunch of outstanding college graduates who used to be in the 3rd grade. When they were in the 3rd grade, they got a certain Dictionary. And that was a very important part of their drive for academic excellence.

We often talk about leading our club as like herding cats, but this morning it was more like dogs on a leash, waiting to pounce on the dictionaries and scatter them to the schools this morning. So much so that the old professor, Thomas Raeth, felt it necessary to admonish everyone not to grab any dictionaries before making sure of the school each was bound for. He was too polite to say so, but this would screw everything up royally. Mike Edwards apparently wasn't convinced that Thomas' words were heeded. He explained with painful clarity the coding system ("B" for Burton Valley, etc.), specified where the books for each school would be, and went through the whole list of who's to go where. Impossible to screw up, right?

A FEW OTHER THINGS GOING ON TOO

The Home Team, of course. Captain Hays Englehart has 3 teams for September 18th, to meet at 8:30 at Gary Fulcher's shop. He encouraged any additional team member wannabees to email him. The prize you'll get is the opportunity to do Home Team in the morning and Art & Wine in the afternoon.

Bob Heinen reminded us of the Homeless Connection event on September 16th (a Thursday) at the County Fairgrounds in Antioch. Volunteers and used clothing, especially winter items, are wanted. A big part of it is to help the folks fill out vital medical forms.

Brad Davis is taking a break from the Garden Park project to embarrass the Lafayette Noon Club again in the Big Golf Tournament on October 4th. It is a mere $125 at the Rossmoor Links. The most interesting new development is the recruiting of Buddy Burke, who has never played golf in his life but will probably be able to talk his way through it.

Chuck Bove the Philosopher was rewarded for his eloquent Thought. He got the White Ball and cleaned out the treasury. As usual the custodian of said treasury was absent, so all that Chuck really got was a promise of future rewards. Good luck with that!

SMILE - YOU'RE ON DIGITAL CAMERA

Allen Rush, CEO of Sierra Imaging, electrical engineer out of Lehigh, graduate computer engineer from Santa Clara U., 20 years in semi-conductor industry, and developer of the Digital Camera (DC), didn't lack for interest from this audience.

He could even prevail over the Lamorinda Sunrise Curse, although at first the projector tried to be a little balky.

Allen started with a history leading up to development of the DC. In the early '90s, film was at its peak. It was low cost, and very large companies were driving it. But change was needed because of film degrading over time and the difficulty of sharing it. The first DC's were designed for high end studio photos (Fillingeresque) and digital scan converters; their sensors were low resolution. PC and embedded technologies were taking off. But these were not focused on imaging.

Allen's idea was to combine embedded processing technology, storage and image processing to create a low cost DC. He knew nothing about starting a company. No market existed for these DCs, so this was technology looking for a place to go. A brief run at Venture Capitalists in silicon valley got the amazing response that no consumer could ever need, or want, a digital camera. The herd mentality strikes again!

The answer was to partner with a large company specializing in consumer electronics, to help do the heavy lifting. Fortunately, Sanyo AV (Audio Video) Group was looking to expand into new areas. Allen also developed a relationship with Epson, a major ink-based printer company. The joint project was finalized in late 1994. Sierra Imaging Inc. evolved without any outside investors, and Epson was the first customer of a consumer grade DC.

There were lots of problems, and many aspects were primitive by today's standards. But the result was embedded images which were stunning. (Things have evolved to where Don Reichert is

very proud to have a 14 pixel DC.)

Comdex, which now has outlived its usefulness, was the launching pad in 1995 and the camera was given one of the four Best Products Awards for that year.

By 1999, 50 million of these devices were sold. By 2003, DC's became mainstream, ubiquitous, indispensable.

Photog Paul Fillinger wanted to know why still images came last, after video. Answer: Resolution for video was much lower than for stills. The eye is much more forgiving with video. It has more time to check out the stills. Also, video is analog, not digital.

Allen asked the question, what's next? He just gave a little smile and a knowing look. We're still waiting with baited breath for the answer.

CALENDAR

9/10:   Beth Lee, Aviator
9/14:   Board meeting, 7:00 a.m.
9/16:   Homeless Connection
9/18:   Home Team, 8:30 a.m., Fulcher's shop
8/18-19:   Art & Wine Festival
9/24:   Expose Yourself, whoever you are

10/2:   Ken Kosich, TGITLFOTM, Sonoma, Saturday!!
10/12:   Board meeting, 7:00 a.m.
10/15:   Josh Cooley, Pixar
10/22:   District Governor

11/4-11/7:   District Conference, Old Town Sacramento