California computer geography questions
Lars Petrus
For many years now I've been hearing about legendary places in California
that are not on any map I've ever seen. So could you *please* tell me:
1) Where is Cupertino, the home of Apple?
2) Where is Silicon Valley? Is it the big valley west of the Sierra Nevada,
going from Redding to Bakersfield?
- - - -
"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from
mediocre minds." - Albert Einstein
Lars Petrus, Solna, Sweden - pet...@stacken.kth.se
Aaron Priven
In article <1992Nov30....@kth.se> pet...@stacken.kth.se (Lars Petrus) writes:
>1) Where is Cupertino, the home of Apple?
>
>2) Where is Silicon Valley? Is it the big valley west of the Sierra Nevada,
>going from Redding to Bakersfield?
Hello.
The big valley (immortalized in an old TV show called "The Big Valley")
is not Silicon Valley; that is the Central Valley, home of large
agricultural businesses. The northern part is known as the Sacramento
Valley and the southern part as the San Joaquin Valley, after the
major rivers that run down the center. (They both flow out into
San Francisco Bay.)
Silicon Valley is a nickname for the Santa Clara Valley, which is why
you can't find it on a map. It is a much smaller valley on the south
end of San Francisco Bay. There are several towns in it, including
Cupertino, Sunnyvale, and Santa Clara, among others.
How's Sweden this time of year?
=Aaron=
--
Aaron Priven, fuzz...@cats.ucsc.edu
Bring in the workers, and bring up the rails;
We're gonna lay down the tracks, and tear up the trails.
Open her heart, let the life-blood flow,
Gotta get on our way 'cause we're movin' too slow.
-- Gordon Lightfoot, "Canadian Railroad Trilogy"
Eugene N. Miya
>that are not on any map I've ever seen. So could you *please* tell me:
Legends after a couple of decades?...
>2) Where is Silicon Valley? Is it the big valley west of the Sierra Nevada,
>going from Redding to Bakersfield?
That is the Central or San Joaquin Valley.
"Silicon Valley" or "Silicon Gulch" is properly known as the Santa Clara
Valley, largely located on the very Southern tip of the San Francisco Bay.
It includes tiny parts of surrounding counties, but close enough.
The major cities are generally ack'ed to include Sunnyvale, Santa Clara,
etc. You have to include Cupertino, Palo Alto [home of H-P and Xerox PARC],
San Jose, even Mountain View and Fremont......
>1) Where is Cupertino, the home of Apple?
A suburb, just South of Sunnyvale.
I remember a computer engineer from CDC from the Twin Cities being amazed
by billboards for software and for VLSI fab facilities.
The group discussed nice places in CA and in particular Northern CA.
I tend to like most of the State, it is difficult to describe the geographic
diversity from volcanos, dense and light forests, plains, deserts, etc.,
but it occurred to me that one of my all time favorite places is right above
this Valley. One engages four wheel drive to get to the land inherited
by a friend's family. Their mother's house [1960's bomb shelter architecture]
sits on a hill top next to a winery once held by the family. Grape vines
surround most of the direction facing their new neighbors (the electronics
industries). We pick grapes every fall for the "family" vintage. A different
pace of life and a different concept of "yield."
--eugene miya, NASA Ames Research Center, eug...@orville.nas.nasa.gov
Associate Editor, Software and Publication Reviews
Scientific Programming
{uunet,mailrus,other gateways}!ames!eugene
Seeking Books to buy: Bongard, Pattern Recognition
3 down 1 to go.
Pete Zakel
In the South San Francisco Bay area, next to Sunnyvale, just touching the
westernmost edge of San Jose, about 40 miles south of San Francisco.
>2) Where is Silicon Valley? Is it the big valley west of the Sierra Nevada,
>going from Redding to Bakersfield?
No, the Silicon Valley is pretty much synonymous with the Santa Clara Valley.
Cupertino is definitely part of it, along with Sunnyvale and San Jose (as
well as other cities I left out for no good reason at all).
-Pete Zakel
(p...@cadence.com or ..!uunet!cadence!phz)
The best book on programming for the layman is "Alice in Wonderland";
but that's because it's the best book on anything for the layman.
Alan R. Weiss
>that are not on any map I've ever seen. So could you *please* tell me:
Too much bad advertising, no doubt!
>
>1) Where is Cupertino, the home of Apple?
>
>2) Where is Silicon Valley? Is it the big valley west of the Sierra Nevada,
>going from Redding to Bakersfield?
>
>
>Lars Petrus, Solna, Sweden - pet...@stacken.kth.se
No, it is not the Central Valley (the big valley west of the Sierra Nevada).
Get out your trusty map of California. Find San Francisco. Now,
go down the Peninsula from San Francisco until you hit San Jose.
Between San Francisco and San Jose is, roughly speaking,
Silicon Valley. Now, from San Jose, travel roughly northeast
to the eastern side of the San Francisco Bay. Go up to Berkeley.
The area from Berkeley to San Jose is ALSO "Silicon Valley."
Now, travel back down to San Jose, and go over the mountains
to Santa Cruz, passing Scotts Valley. That *too* is Sili Valley!
"Silicon Valley" is composed of citys such as San Jose, Mountain View,
Cupertino (which is west of Mountain View, towards the Coastal Mountains),
Fremont, Redwood City, Sunnyvale, Santa Cruz (virtual Silicon Valley :-),
Santa Clara, etc.
Now, here's a better exercise: find Texas on your map of the USA.
It should be easy to find: south-central. Now, find the state
capital, Austin. This is part of the Texas Hill Country, and
your finger is now pointing on Silicon Hills :-) :-)
This is the home of about 100 high tech companies, and growing every day.
IBM-Austin, Tandem, Schlumberger, Motorola, AMD, Apple, Texas Instruments,
Sematech, MCC, etc. all have plants here.
The water's drinkable, the traffic is light, the air is cleaner,
the houses are much bigger and more affordable, the people are
friendlier -- and the workstations are faster!
--
_ Alan R. Weiss IBM AWS Austin-AIX Kernel 11501 Burnet Rd, Bld 905
_| ~-. alan%auntbea.aus...@ibmpa.awdpa.ibm.com | Austin, TX 78758
\, *_} auntbea.austin.ibm.com!al...@ibmpa.awdpa.ibm.com | 512-838-8281
\( DISCLAIMER: Working at, not speaking for, IBM | alan@auntbea
Timothy Fox
> "Silicon Valley" is composed of citys such as San Jose, Mountain View,
> Cupertino (which is west of Mountain View, towards the Coastal Mountains),
> Fremont, Redwood City, Sunnyvale, Santa Cruz (virtual Silicon Valley :-),
> Santa Clara, etc.
I note from your address that I'm about to argue with an
industry expert, but as a lifelong RESIDENT of the Bay
Area I'll go ahead.
I would hesistate to call cities as far north as Redwood
City "Silicon Valley." Some would draw the line at Palo
Alto, and certainly the Portola Valley/Menlo Park/Atherton
suburban buffer zone insulates the rest of the Peninsula
from Silicondom.
Granted, there ARE software company headquarters north of
Palo Alto (Oracle of Redwood Shores and MacUser magazine
in Foster City are two notable examples), but the overall
character of the Peninsula is not as dependent on the
pulse of the microcomputer industry as the Santa Clara
Valley.
Some recent efforts to rehabilitate East Palo Alto by
encouraging software companies to move in might change
this, however. God knows, they need it.
Tim
> _ Alan R. Weiss IBM AWS Austin-AIX Kernel 11501 Burnet Rd, Bld 905
> _| ~-. alan%auntbea.aus...@ibmpa.awdpa.ibm.com | Austin, TX 78758
> \, *_} auntbea.austin.ibm.com!al...@ibmpa.awdpa.ibm.com | 512-838-8281
> \( DISCLAIMER: Working at, not speaking for, IBM | alan@auntbea
(Who would have guessed that IBM would have a machine
named "auntbea"?)
--
Timothy Fox |
tj...@faraday.clas.Virginia.EDU |
tj...@Virginia.EDU |
|
Alan R. Weiss
>al...@auntbea.austin.ibm.com writes:
>> "Silicon Valley" is composed of citys such as San Jose, Mountain View,
>> Cupertino (which is west of Mountain View, towards the Coastal Mountains),
>> Fremont, Redwood City, Sunnyvale, Santa Cruz (virtual Silicon Valley :-),
>> Santa Clara, etc.
>
>I note from your address that I'm about to argue with an
>industry expert, but as a lifelong RESIDENT of the Bay
>Area I'll go ahead.
Welllllll .... I dunno about "industry expert." I grew up
in L.A., and used to travel quite a bit to Sili Valley.
My brother-in-law lives in Pleasanton, lots of friends
live in San Jose/Saratoga areas, etc. Which means, of
course, absolutely nothing :-)
>I would hesistate to call cities as far north as Redwood
>City "Silicon Valley." Some would draw the line at Palo
>Alto, and certainly the Portola Valley/Menlo Park/Atherton
>suburban buffer zone insulates the rest of the Peninsula
>from Silicondom.
>
>Granted, there ARE software company headquarters north of
>Palo Alto (Oracle of Redwood Shores and MacUser magazine
>in Foster City are two notable examples), but the overall
>character of the Peninsula is not as dependent on the
>pulse of the microcomputer industry as the Santa Clara
>Valley.
Yeah, it was a stretch. I thought, hell, with Oracle
now in Redword Shores (used to be in Belmont), GO Corp.
in Foster City, and such that it made some degree of sense.
I apologize if I offended.
>Some recent efforts to rehabilitate East Palo Alto by
>encouraging software companies to move in might change
>this, however. God knows, they need it.
>
>Tim
Sure. The EastBay area is a little more spread out --
firms are in Walnut Creek, Lafayette, Amador Valley,
Berkeley, etc. I think Sili Valley is more a state
of mind than a particular city.
>(Who would have guessed that IBM would have a machine
>named "auntbea"?)
>
>--
> Timothy Fox |
> tj...@faraday.clas.Virginia.EDU |
> tj...@Virginia.EDU |
And, considering its an IBM RS/6000 Model 930 PowerServer,
the ol' lady really hauls, too :-)
Not my naming convention.
--
Eugene N. Miya
tj...@faraday.clas.Virginia.EDU (Timothy Fox) writes:
>City "Silicon Valley."
>
>character of the Peninsula is not as dependent on the
>pulse of the microcomputer industry as the Santa Clara Valley.
Actually a good example. Redwood City is also home to Ampex.
We held a SIGGRAPH performance evaluation meeting there once.
Okay, here's the hardware company response for video tape recorders.
We walked through their museum of magnetic tape (recommended, very
impressive). Can you say ADO? Yeah, I would call Ampex a part of
the Valley, however remote. Call them Silicon Foot Hills, well, they
are flat. Okay Symbolic Silicon Foothill. The similar question is
how far up the East Bay it extends. It goes to Fremont now, and
probably further North.