Russell Kirsch…a true hero!

I will never forget the day that Russell Kirsch called and left a message on my cell phone. I had written a blog about him and he wanted to say thank you. So he managed to find me by simply calling everyone in the Portland metropolitan area with my last name. I think he had good luck because my last name is not very common. My granddaughter gave him my cell phone number and the rest is history.

To say that it frightened me to even talk to a man like Mr. Kirsch is the understatement of the century. But I called the number he left and we had a delightful and memorable conversation. He was a charming and engaging man.

Now you say, who is Russell Kirsch? Well he is in fact the man that created the first computer that could see and took the first ever picture with a digital device.


He was working at the time with the federal government on a project to create the digital computer and later worked at a not-for-profit organization called National Institute of Standards and Technology as head of the Artificial Intelligence . He began his work at the government level in 1951 and he career there spanned 30 years. Part of his job there included thermonuclear weapons calculations. 


But all that is not why I was so impressed. He, like so many computer geeks after him, spent a certain amount of his time at the government computers working on things other than calculation. He, in fact, spent that time figuring out how to take a picture with his computer. This venture led to such devices as CT scanners, satellite imaging, bar-code scanners, desktop publishing, blood-cell analyzers as well as the digital camera.

The original picture he created about 50 years ago appeared in Life magazine as one of the images that helped change the world. The image was of his infant son, a man that is now employed by Intel. 


So to say that I admire Russell Kirsch is not all of the story.. I have written before about him. He is in fact one of my heroes. I give you Russell Kirsch, the inventor of the square pixel, the man that wondered if a computer could see, the man that thought that a picture of a baby might be more important that “thermonuclear weapons calculations”! 


b 

Education and Technology…two of the innovations of 2007

When Jeff Utech talks about technology in education people tend to listen. Jeff, owner of The Think Stick blog, has carved an enviable niche out for himself in the cyber world while working in one of the most prestigious school systems in the international school community. Shanghai American Schools (SAS) with it’s two campuses on opposite edges of the largest city in the world, Shanghai, China, has become a hot bed of technology innovation with Jeff and his school administrators leading the movement.

So when I ask him the other day what the “stickiest” pieces of technology were in the year 2007, I knew I had gone to the right person. I thought I might hear that new computer speeds, programs for the computer or add on components were tipping the computer world. I was surprised and interested at the simplicity of his answers.

The email he sent back to me mentioned two new websites, one that schools were using and one that the general population is working with.

The first website he talked about was called Voice Thread.com. Teachers are using this site to encourage students to talk about their work and in many other innovative ways. SAS has a project on their website where students describe their artwork and the thought process that went into their creation. When I visited Voice Thread, I was delighted with the ease of posting pictures and adding to the comments either verbally or with the written word and linking to a website or a blog. The beauty of this is it does not require any computer pre-work or memory space. For people with older computers or those that lack editing programs this is a wonderful way to go.

The second site Jeff mentioned was one called Ustream.tv. I think the key word here is TV. Ustream is a video recording website that allows people what are given pre-appointed schedules of event to watch live. But the beauty of it is that is also allows you to watch/rerun the program later. The events are recorded online, no memory space use by you, and you can rerun the event at your leisure. I sat and watched a presentation about Twenty First Century Communication that Jeff made in Kuala Lumpur in November. In his words he said he “freaked himself out” when more people were watching online that were sitting in the room. And that didn’t include those that reran the segment at a time more convenient. Very interesting. I keep hoping that there will be a way that schools in the US can allow their students to communicate with other students around the world without fear of vicious viruses and unwanted content appearing willy nilly.

In a new year that saw me learn how to use Twitter accounts,YouTube, Flicker, etc, I am seeing a trend toward the community of computer users being able to access, communicate or share using common online servers. It would seem that the person that simply wanted to communicate and word process, a very simple machine would do. In fact, with the advent of ICHAT and AIM accounts, my cell telephone is getting less and less use. I can talk to my family in China for over an hour using my Imac video chat component for nothing. We seldom use our phone for over seas calls anymore. (Incidentally, we gave up our land line phone and only have a cell phone.)

Now I am only a novice computer user in the world of cyberspace. My grandmotherly status does not require that I learn about advertising or computer spread sheets. As Jeff said, the “stickiness” is an illusive thing when you think about the multitude of uses computers are put to these days. But in the world of communication and education these are two websites you might want to check out. Very interesting.

b

My New imac!!!!!

The other day I posted a poem for a prompt. It went

Traveling, serenity.
Family, love, memory, ocean tides are all the same.
They are in her mind.
The place she travels most often.

It was about my Imaginary Life. Barbara’s Travels is where I write about my life both intangible and real. While I do travel and am getting ready to do so again next month, most of the traveling I do actually happens inside my head. In one day just this last week I posted a blog about teachers and traveled to Jeff Utech’s website The Think Stick that is written in China. I then traveled over to David Warlick, writer of the 2 cents worth blog. He lives in North Carolina I believe. Even though they are a world apart, in my head these two men are only a click away. When you add this to Other blogs like Taylor Made Design (Massachusetts), Tongue in Cheek (France), Kalilly Times (northern California) you can see that I do get around a lot… inside my head.

On that same day my husband and I traveled to a local Apple store (we have three in our area believe it or not) and bought me a new 20″ Mac computer, had it up graded with more memory, got a a new printer and a nano ipod. We actually got in a car and drove for about 30 minutes so I guess you might count that as a bit of traveling. But inside my head this store is a whole universe away from the rest of the world. Even when I click!

The education community owes such a debt of gratitude to Apple for making it possible for so many educators to have wonderful, easy to use computers in their homes. We have owned an apple computer since our youngest son was in his early teens. He is 36 now. I had an Apple computer in my kindergarten class room so that I could pilot programs and recommend vendors and programs to classroom teachers in our school district. Several other teachers at the kindergarten level did the same thing in each of the elementary schools in the district. That was over ten years ago.

I will have to admit I have traveled a great distance both in my head and in the air since those days. And I have to thank my computer for much of the travel that goes on inside my head. My new computer even smells new and my head is about to explode. I am fasinated by the way the screen simply sparkles. It makes the one I used in my classroom look like a Model T. I love where my computer takes me, who I get to talk to, and the adventures I find.

Thank you Apple Computer. You just keep getting it right!

Todays Picks:

Wired is a magazine for computer geek and those of us that just like to tune in and watch. It had a great article about X Prizes and other big money prizes for what seems like impossible achievements.

Paris Breakfast is just a fun blog from a New York artist. You will love the words and the art. She also has a blog called Paris Breakfast Art. If you love art, water colors and New York I think you will love this one too.

imac, ipod, ismile!!!

I am already the proud owner of a G4 Power Book made by Apple and I love this baby more than anything. It is sleek, easy to transport and my life is contained within it’s covers. Granted it is several years old, it got a sick tummy a couple of weeks ago and my husband backed up all his information on an external hard drive. But a new computer? I asked. My husband let me know they have brand new stuff out, a duo processor, more storage, it is “screaming fast” and it is made of recycled aluminum and glass. I am a green kind of girl, live in Oregon, and well, I love my computers….a lot!!! It all makes such good sense. The best part might be that my husband (not me) is buying it. When the moon lines up with the stars and every sign is positive I say just go for it!

I do not plan on giving up my laptop. It will go in my bedroom. But when I write I will for sure be at my imac. My vision is not so good and never really was. This will help a lot. We have always wanted to have the option of using PC applications and this will allow that. It comes loaded with Vista AND my husband has a new SKYCADDY to use on the golf course. He needs the PC application to get that done. (I am seeing that this new computer works for him too.)

I had always thought that as my life progressed my world would get smaller and smaller as I gave up this and then that. But I am telling you right now, I may live to be a thousand so I am not letting the world get small. Not yet. I think purchases like this might even let it get bigger.

A new computer!!! WOW

A nod to Russel Kirsch…the technology that he so ingeniously gave to us 50 years ago is the gift that keeps on giving!!!

Yesterday my Tuesday mail came and in it was the book that I had ordered from Kristin Taylor Yarrington. If you will go back to the blog titled “Tuesday Gifts Are the Best” you will find the blog about my friend Mary Grace and her Tuesday Gifts. Tuesday Gifts are those gifts given for no reason..not a birthday or a holiday. Just because!!!

Well I received my first Tuesday Gifts yesterday… on a Tuesday. The first was the book I had ordered from Taylor Made Designs at the Etsy store. I gave myself the gift of a small lavender book that Kristen Yarrington had made. She somehow knew that I needed it to arrive on Tuesday and it did. The second was a letter from Mary Grace, the Tuesday Gift lady. Mary Grace received a pair of those Crok shoes we all want with pictures painted all over them. They arrived on a Tuesday and they were from her daughter. They were given just because it was Tuesday!!!

The book and my card both arrive on Tuesday and I thought it was a lovely serendipitous surprise. I had a hard time opening the book without tearing the paper. I reminded myself of my grandmother, hording the beautiful paper for another use later. Of course I needed to take a picture of it with my digital camera (thank you Russel Kirsch!). To top it all off when I opened the Taylor Made Design blog posted on Tuesday, there was a picture of my package. Tuesday’s are getting better all the time.

I keep thinking that we should all thank Russel Kirsch where ever he may be. The square pixel may not be perfect but it started a revolution and we all benefit from it each and every day. Incidentally if you will type “pixel” in the search function on this website you will see some pretty amazing stuff. The human mind is an amazing computer all on its own and that is why technology is advancing at such a rapid pace. I don’t know what shape the pixel are inside my head but I bet some of them are square!!!!

He taught computer to see….Russel Kirsch

I’ve just spent the last 45 minutes online trying to find information on the man that invented the square pixel that we use in our cameras today. “The Man that Taught Computers to See” is one Russell Kirsch. He lives in the West Hill of Portland and his son now works for our local industrial giant, Intel, helping run their worldwide internal news organization. This son, now 50, was the subject of the older Kirsch’s first digital image.

Interestingly enough, Russell Kirsch says that the square pixel was a bad idea that survived. Pictures would indeed be far clearer if he had chosen to use some other shape. He did not say what that might have been. The original picture appeared in Life magazine as one of the images that helped change the world.

The Oregonian in the article “The man who taught computers to see; Personal Tech: The world’s first digital image” published on May 11, 2007, said this wonder of engineering was responsible for “CT scanners, satellite imaging, bar-code scanners, desktop publishing, blood-cell analyzers and digital photography, among others.” I was so impressed by the man that did such a wonderful thing.

What really caught my eye was his comment that he spent a certain part of his time on the computer available to him doing this sort of exploration instead of what he was really suppose to be doing. Does that sound familiar to you computer geeks out there? Thermonuclear weapons calculations was part of his job. He said that the unauthorized use of the computer in the work place has probably lead to many, many computer applications that would never have been discovered. Some of the most powerful thinking happen when we are having fun being creative.

I also loved that he had 2 (two) Mac Books and that he and his wife, an art historian, were looking at art with the computer. A whole new way of seeing the world of art has inspired them and Kirsch say that, if he had done his research in the beginning, the pixel would indeed have not been square.

The way a man’s mind works is a wonderful thing. But the fact that the mind continues to work and learn as we grow older is an inspiration. As I said yesterday, “Learn something new. And remember a smile makes you look and feel alive.”

So, I am dedicating this week to Russel Kirsch, the inventor or the square pixel, the man that wondered if a computer could see, the man that thought that maybe a picture of a baby might be more important that “thermonuclear weapons calculations”! I love it!!!!

b

Fred (the computer) Didn’t Leave the Living Room

BARBARA HAS AN OPINION!

Fred was an ordinary man. He loved TV and watched Scrubs as often as possible. He ate macaroni and cheese every Saturday night. Of course he had to live in a one room apartment because he would not leave his living room.

You see, Fred was afraid of catching a virus. He had heard that if you leave the living room you would or could catch a terrible virus that would invade his system and cause him to simply shut down. So he did not go out into the world. He did not talk to people, even those living next door and he never tasted or experienced any of the wonders of life. People that knew him wondered if his creation had simply been a waste and if his body could not have been used better by someone less fearful. Fred lived a long life, free of virus and devoid of experience.

I was told that the Hillsboro School District would not allow it’s teachers and their students to open and participate in blogs from around the world because they were fearful of a virus invading their system. The blogs I sent from China to my granddaughter in February about the Chinese New Year celebration were never opened. What a shame and waste of computer learning. They could have learned so much about other cultures and their celebrations. The world may be getting ‘flatter’ but it may also have a huge firewall built around it.

Fred needs to get out more!!!!!!!

The Computer, Part II

So here is the deal. Even though I have my very computer and I am still thrilled to death with it, I really do want a new computer. I received a comment yesterday from a reader talking about her “screaming” fast G5 Apple computer. I want one of those!!!

But when I saw the comment my husband left on my blog I knew that some work was going to have to be done on the home front before that was going to happen. He said:

Dear wife, I just want you to know I was not moving your “stuff” around in the computer files just to be mean. I just knew there was “my way” of organization which made a whole lot more sense, at least to me. However, now that you have your “own” computer you can just stuff your file drawers with all the junk you want. Seriously, I love that you are such a techie and use the computer to communicate world-wide. Continue to use it but don’t be bugging me about a new computer; your is just fine.

E.

I think I need a new computer. I hear the new Apples with the non-titanium cases are much better when used on a wireless connection. They have a built in camera (we video chat with our son in China often) and if I want, a duo processer allowing me to use both Windows and system X. You just set the wall in the computer to tell it how much memory you want to give to each side and there is a program called Parallel (?) that sounds like it might work. It will allow you to have both systems open at the same time.

I am going to start looking when I get home to Oregon. We have a couple of Apple stores near by. Wish me luck.

Wish me luck!!!

The Computer

My husband and I do not share a computer. You may think this is the ultimate in extravagance. Let me explain. My husband gets on my computer and plays around in all my computer drawers. It just drives me nuts!!!!

When my husband and I retired, we began sharing the duties around the house. I had been a stay at home mom and usually only worked part time. He, on the other hand, was an assistant superintendent of schools in a mid sized school and had a schedule that would have killed a lesser man. So I had been in charge of the “drawers” for 36 years. I was emotionally willing to share our household duties with him. But I did not count on old habits kicking in. I could not find the silver ware six month after it had been moved to the other side of the kitchen.

And then there was the computer. We had always been Apple users so our computer was easy to use. But when both of us kept moving thing about organizing and reorganizing to suit our own style the ONE COMPUTER in our house simply crashed one day. We did replace it with only one computer. Then when I turned sixty, I received my very own computer. A beautiful
PowerBook G4 was my very own!!! I jumped up and down like a 3 year old at the sheer wonder and delight of it all and our life has not been the same since. Peace had finally come to our house. I now have drawers I can call my very own.

You Tube or Life in a Fish Bowl

I am watching TV. It is Sunday morning (big paper day), my husband will cook breakfast. It is cold in the RV but will be hot later in the day so we won’t turn on the heat. I have a big blanket on my lap. I am on vacation. I am writing a travel blog.

The first You Tube awards will be given out soon and it made me wonder what compels You Tubers (phones in the blender?) to do such crazy things and why do they want people to watch? The biggest question yet is why do people watch????? I will admit I was a little fascinated by the man that danced badly all over the world…I want to do that.

I guess when I blog I hope that anyone that reads my blog will agree with me. I am not for putting myself out for the ridicule that I read on some other blog sights. But then again, I am always wondering who my audience is. I would like to think I do it so that I can get my thoughts on paper and therefore I only do it for myself. Maybe so. Maybe so. But I am not up for a video blog…yet!