{"id":230,"date":"2013-09-21T15:23:45","date_gmt":"2013-09-21T20:23:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thomashillconsulting.com\/blog\/?p=230"},"modified":"2013-11-01T19:07:40","modified_gmt":"2013-11-02T00:07:40","slug":"pilgrimage-to-tecca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thomashillconsulting.com\/blog\/?p=230","title":{"rendered":"Pilgrimage to Tecca"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/h1>\n
A pilgrimage is a journey or search of moral or spiritual significance.\r\n<\/code><\/pre>\n
I recently made my second trip to Palo Alto, this one was to help my wife’s best friend Bev celebrate a significant birthday. But while there, I realized I was making a journey of my own. A pilgrimage to the heart of what I hold dear. Without realizing it I had come home. To me, Silicon Valley is the Mecca of technology.<\/p>\n
Route 101<\/h2>\n
The pilgrimage starts when you step off the plane in San Francisco. The corridor walls are plastered with billboards proclaiming the latest and greatest in Tech; Apple iPads, Blackberry and Android Phones; applications abound. Driving down the 101, the skyline is full of reminders of technology. Evernote, Checkpoint, Oracle and Core Logic all have buildings visible from the roadway.<\/p>\n
Voices<\/h2>\n
Anne, Bev and I had lunch at Royal Siam, a very nice Thai restaurant in the middle of Palo Alto. As we were leaving, Bev remarked about a group of six individuals, talking about some technology. “They are your people.” This got me thinking about what I truly enjoy in my life. Anne was headed towards a mani \/ pedi and I had a couple of hours to myself, so I went to Mountain View.<\/p>\n
Computer History Museum<\/h2>\n
Is where I realized that the valley was Tecca. The history of the computer is familiar to me, as I have lived it. Not as long as the computer has been around, but certainly my life has been wound around it. My father was in the Air Force and when I accompanied him to his shop, I remember seeing some of the terminals and mini computers that are now on display.<\/p>\n
The first computer my family owned was a Franklin Ace. I learned about programming on a TRS-80, used Wordstar and VisiCalc on an IBM PC in College. I Missed a Hall and Oates concert becuase Wordstar ate my 5 1\/2 disk drive and I had to completely rewrite the report. I discovered shareware software and dropped Wordstar for PC-Write. I studied how to build and host a forum on Compuserve.<\/p>\n
I deployed Zenith 248 computers in the Army and dabbled with Dbase II. I took a computer programming class and learned C on a PDP\/11. I had a .mil email account. I tested and integrated modems with the German Telephone system.<\/p>\n
After the Army I worked with Banyan Vines and built my first clone; my vice was Compuserve. I represented my employer as part of the PCWeek Corporate Partner Program, which gave me an opportunity to beta tested Microsoft 95 and Internet Explorer among other software. I saw my future in e-mail and implemented an X.400 gateway between Microsoft Exchange and Banyan Vines to talk with a Microsoft Mail Post office. Tech happens and I found myself learning about Lotus Notes, Checkpoint firewalls, HP switches and Cisco Routers.<\/p>\n
Today I’m working with Cisco technologies in routing, switching, security and wireless networking. I play with tablets, smartphones and other gadgets and study how they can make our lives better and yet, I am constantly tired of work.<\/p>\n
It took a trip through Tecca and the Computer History Museum<\/a> to remind me of why I love all things tech. It refreshed me spirtually and prepared me for the next phase of my life. The Internet of things.<\/p>\n
Just what a pilgrimage is meant to do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A pilgrimage is a journey or search of moral or spiritual significance. I recently made my second trip to Palo Alto, this one was to help my wife’s best friend Bev celebrate a significant birthday. But while there, I realized I was making a journey of my own. A pilgrimage to the heart of what I hold dear. Without realizing…  Read more → <\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thomashillconsulting.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thomashillconsulting.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thomashillconsulting.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thomashillconsulting.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thomashillconsulting.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=230"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/thomashillconsulting.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":260,"href":"http:\/\/thomashillconsulting.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230\/revisions\/260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thomashillconsulting.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thomashillconsulting.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thomashillconsulting.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}