Curry takes on Silicon Valley Day 7: RIP Spring Break 2015, Hello Curry! 3/14/2015

Curry takes on Silicon Valley Day 7: RIP Spring Break 2015, Hello Curry!

3/14/2015

Rest in Peace Spring Break 2015! We left the hotel at 10:00 ish, for I think a 1:00 flight. I had some sandwiches from Klein’s Deli at the airport. I’m still mad they don’t have corned beef. A Jewish deli not serving corned beef? Ridiculous! Plane ride wasn’t bad. It had outlets and personal TV monitors this time. I think the plane landed around 9:30 or so.

It was raining while we waiting for our luggage. It was weird to see snow again. A few people went their separate ways while others waited for the bus back to the Braintree station. I went with John and dropped Greg off at Curry. I slept at John’s house last night and realized that I left a bunch of clothing and personal items at the hotel! I called the hotel the next morning and arrange for them to ship my items to me.

Curry takes on Silicon Valley Day 6: TuneIn, Target, San Francisco! 3/13/2015

Curry takes on Silicon Valley Day 6: TuneIn, Target, San Francisco!

3/13/2015

In the morning we met with Andrew Brock at TuneIn. Andrew told us his story about how he came to TuneIn. He worked for a radio station and eventually joined TuneIn. TuneIn basically broadcasts radio stations of various sizes, in addition to broadcasting podcasts. We also got a super soft t-shirt from Tunein, which was pretty cool.

Then we went to see Shawn Edge at Target. He told us about the research and development side of Target, which was pretty interesting. I didn’t expect Target to have much engineering or R&D. He presented to us about engineering at Target. Some Target engineers work on mobile games or apps for mobile devices. Target gave us some swag, including a portable mobile device charger, which was awesome.

Next was San Francisco. I met up with a friend from Curry, and she took me around San Fran. We ate (authentic?) Mexican food in the Mission district (I think it was the Mission). We drove around the Mission, through the Castro, and up a hill where we could see all of SF. We also walked along the beach by the Golden Gate Bridge and played with the dogs.  

Curry takes on Silicon Valley Day 5: Apple, Facebook, Wakatime 3/12/2015

Curry takes on Silicon Valley Day 5: Apple, Facebook, Wakatime

3/12/2015

It was extremely nice of Dominic (Tom’s father) to let us into Apple. There were no pictures allowed anywhere inside the Apple building. We went into a conference room with some speakers/friends of Dom. Dom spoke about how he works with stores like BestBuy, Radioshack, Walmart, and Target on selling Apple products. The other two guys in the conference room were in product development. Tomas spoke about how he immigrated to the US and became interested in software engineering. I forgot what the other guy did. Ann came in and spoke with us about how she was also in product development.

We had a lunch/Q+A session with a few of Dom’s friends. Then we went up to the top floor and saw the new apple facility from a distance. We went to 1 Infinite Loop and saw the Apple store.

It was a hassle parking at Facebook. The lots were completely full and valet was double-parking cars. We eventually got in and toured Facebook HQ. The campus was unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. From the facilities and restaurants on campus it was obvious Facebook only wanted employees to commute from home to work, and run their errands while on campus.

We met with Priya something, a co-founder of Wakatime, during happy hour at our hotel’s pool. Wakatime is a plugin for text editors that tracks how much time is spent working.  I plan on using this tool in the future.

Curry takes on Silicon Valley, Day 4: Google, Museum/Lunch, Boxfish, Criteo, Alumni dinner - 3/11/2015

Google kind of fell through. We had trouble getting in touch with our contact at Google. At first we spoke with the Google greeters in the visitor’s lobby. We were unable to get badges, so we roamed around campus. A few of the group members rode on the Google bikes which was pretty funny. A few of us got away with it but Google Security stopped a few of us on the bike. We eventually got surrounded by Security and we left campus. The experience was fun and it was still very interesting to see the Google campus.

We went back to the Computer History Museum for lunch, but I don’t think anybody went inside, I got lunch with Tex and Tom.

At Boxfish, Owen (spelled phonetically) spoke about how his company essentially indexes the words/closed captioning of television and streaming services (e.g., Netflix, Hulu), and combined then with social media buzz, provides content for targeted advertising.

Amber Rice, the Curry alumni, hosted us at Criteo. Criteo (“Crit”-“ee”-“oh”?). Criteo recommends sites/social media sites on where to best advertise for customers based on the clickthroughs. Amber is an Administrative Assistant (but more like a VP). Later that night we met Amber, Shawn Edge (another Curry alumn), and Tom’s father, Dominic. The dinner was a lot of fun and it was nice getting to know the Curry alumni's and Tom’s father.  

Curry takes on Silicon Valley, Day 3: Stanford, Comp History Museum, HackerDojo, Concastic 3/10/2015

We hit Stanford pretty early in the morning. We took a tour around the campus and facilities. It’s interesting to be on a college tour while you’re a college student. You gain a new perspective of the school. The campus was gorgeous, as expected.

At the computer history museum we didn’t have access to anything past the first floor, but it was interesting nonetheless. The Google Earth and Google Car exhibits were fun.

We got a quick tour of the HackerDojo, which is essentially a non-profit, membership-driven organization, where engineers meet up and do work.

At Concastic Si spoke to us about his product. I personally learned more about businesses and founding startups than the actual technology, which was really cool.

Curry takes on Silicon Valley, Day 2: VMware, Netapp - 3/9/2015

I fell asleep writing the blog last night, so I’m finishing it in the morning.

Yesterday was our first day in the Valley. We visited VMware at around 10:00 or so. I was exhausted and fell asleep on Greg a few times in the van. We met with Jeff Goodall at VMware. Everybody picked up on his energy and enthusiasm. He took us around the campus and the facilities. The campus was built as a resort on a college campus, which seems completely accurate. We were all surprised as to how green the campus was. Every building, piece of furniture, and material was built from recycled material.

We hit Netapp that afternoon for lunch. Netapp has a very different, much more corporate feel than VMware’s resort-on-college-campus feel. We spoke with some Netapp employees over lunch and discussed the company, their backgrounds, and the internship program. We took a tour around the Netapp buildings. One of the university relations employees (or whatever it’s called), Justin Rowland, presented to us and the end of our time at Netapp. He spoke about the internship program which was interesting.

After Netapp we stopped at some place and had a few hours of free time. So far I’m having the most fun spending time and hanging out with the group, whether exploring San Jose, or sitting by the pool eating dinner and having drinks.

Day #1: 3/8/15 - First day in California!

We’re all exhausted, but we finally made it to California! Obviously the first thing we noticed was the weather. We’re out of the snow! So excited! It’s still kind of hard to believe that we’re actually in California. This morning I was wearing my heavy winter coat in 20 something degree weather. And this afternoon I was sitting in the sun in shorts and a T-shirt, drinking a margarita by the poolside.

Between daylight savings and losing an hour of sleep, and losing three hours from flying (back in time) to Cali, I think I can speak for the group when I say that we ere a bit tired today. The plane ride wasn’t too bad. The group slept on the plane.

Some of the group members took shuttle to the hotel, and other went with Gordon and Gibbs. The ride to the hotel was fun. The driver was funny, and taking in new sights and trees and people and architecture of California was interesting.

The hotel is really, really nice. Rooms are spacious, facilities are clean and pretty. After unpacking our bags we hung out by the poolside and ate lunch. It was nice to order drinks and chill with our peers in a laid back, unrestrictive environment. The entire group eventually got together, and we took a trip to see the garage where HP was born (or something). We also stopped by the Jobs’ house and went grocery shopping at Fairway.  

Reflection on the innovation of Silicon Valley

This blog post is based on Lisa Krieger’s article, “Silicon Valley really is more innovative, study finds." 

Silicon Valley has a preceding reputation of fostering innovation, growth, and tech startups.  Many have researched as to what makes areas, such as Silicon Valley, and the San Francisco Bay Area, so fertile for high-quality startup growth. Researches have studied and failed to identify locations similar to these areas, as the research was based around the quantity, not the quality of startups.

MIT conducted a statistical study of entrepreneurial economies. The Scott Stern, co-author of the study discussed that “the highest-quality startups are centered around research institutions, such as universities and laboratories.”

My take on the innovation and energy of Silicon Valley it comes from the people and the culture. Many of the residents of the Silicon Valley area are well-educated, highly ambitious college grads that seek to “realize their dreams in their own ventures, not buried in a large company” (Steve Ciesinski).     

Steve Ciesinski, president of Global Partnerships at Menlo Park’s SRI International commented on the MIT study. "Research centers attract extremely bright, curious, energetic and ambitious people -- people who want to change the world in a positive way. Increasingly, they want to realize their dreams in their own ventures, not buried in a large company."

The combination of well educated, highly ambitious people living and working in a close area, who have access to university and laboratory resources, and want to follow their dreams, provides the ingredients for startups to grow and prosper.   

The entire environment in the Bay Area is supportive of startup growth and ambition. The venture capitalists in the area put money back into their communities to fund and support startup and economic growth.

http://www.siliconvalley.com/news/ci_27467035/silicon-valley-innovation-geography-is-destiny-says-study

About me

I am is a Senior Information Technology major at Curry College, is expecting to graduate in the spring of 2015. Jake volunteers as an academic IT tutor for software engineering, networking, database, and web page classes.      He enjoys software engineering because he treats it like a puzzle, a challenge to conquer. The feeling of accomplishment from overcoming challenges and obstacles drives Jake to pursue more challenges.      Jake is seeking a job as a database administrator, software engineer, or web page developer, based on his academic experiences and personal interests.

     Jake is a thorough and detail-oriented worker, with excellent critical-thinking and analytical skills. His personality is driven by his sense of humour, curiosity, and relax take on life. Jake is enthusiastic about learning, and seeks knowledge and new experiences.

Jake is a thorough and detail-oriented worker, with excellent critical-thinking and analytical skills. His personality is driven by his sense of humour, curiosity, and relax take on life. Jake is enthusiastic about learning, and seeks knowledge and new experiences.