Apple Worldwide Developers Conference
The Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, is a conference held annually in California by Apple Inc. The conference is used by Apple to showcase its new software, attendees can participate in hands-on labs with Apple engineers, and in-depth sessions covering a wide variety of topics. WWDC began in 1983 in Monterey, until 2007, the number of attendees varied between 2,000 and 4,200, during WWDC2007, Steve Jobs noted that there were more than 5,000 attendees. The WWDC events held from 2008 to 2015 were capped, since 1998, the conference has generally started with a keynote presentation. It was usually delivered by Jobs, resulting in their becoming termed Stevenotes, after Jobs 2011 resignation and death, his successor Tim Cook delivered the keynotes. In 1991, first public demonstration of QuickTime, in 1995, WWDC95 focused almost fully on the Copland project, which by this time was able to be demonstrated to some degree. Gil Amelio stated that the system was on-schedule to ship in beta form in summer with an initial commercial release in the very late fall.
However, very few live demos were offered, and no beta of the system was offered. In 1996, WWDC96s primary emphasis was a new software component technology called OpenDoc, the OpenDoc consortium included Adobe, Lotus and Apple. Apple touted OpenDoc as the foundation for application structure under Mac OS. In 1997, WWDC97 was the first show after the purchase of NeXT, the show focused mainly on the work in progress, including a short history of development efforts since the two development teams had been merged on February 4. Several new additions to the system were demonstrated, including tabbed and outline views. Under the original Rhapsody plans, classic applications would run in sandboxed installation of the classic Mac OS, to receive new features, such as protected memory and preemptive multitasking, developers had to rewrite applications using the Yellow Box API. Developer complaints about the major porting effort to what was a market and warnings that they might simply abandon the platform.
Carbon addressed the problem by reducing the effort needed, while exposing some of the new functions of the underlying OS. Another major introduction at WWDC98 was the Quartz imaging model, which replaced Display PostScript with something akin to display PDF, although the reasons for this switch remain unclear, Quartz included better support for the extant QuickDraw model from the classic OS, and Java2D. Supporting QuickDraw directly in the model led to a related announcement. In 1999, WWDC99 was essentially a report as the plans outlined in WWDC98 came to fruition
Caltrain
Caltrain is a California commuter rail line on the San Francisco Peninsula and in the Santa Clara Valley. The northern terminus of the line is in San Francisco at 4th, extra trains were often run for special events held in AT&T Park in San Francisco, Stanford Stadium in Palo Alto, and SAP Center in San Jose. Caltrain operates 92 weekday trains,6 of which are extended to Gilroy, weekday ridership in February 2016 averaged 62,416, up 83% since 2010. Caltrain is governed by the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board which consists of agencies from the three counties served by Caltrain, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara, each member agency has three representatives on a nine-member Board of Directors. The member agencies are the City and County of San Francisco, SamTrans, Caltrain has 29 regular stops, one football-only stop, and two weekend-only stops. As of October 2012 Caltrain runs 92 weekday trains,36 Saturday, the original commuter railroad built in 1863 was the San Francisco and San Jose Rail Road, it was purchased by Southern Pacific in 1870.
Southern Pacific double-tracked the line in 1904 and rerouted it via Bayshore, after 1945, ridership declined with the rise in automobile use, in 1977 SP petitioned the state Public Utilities Commission to discontinue the commute operation because of ongoing losses. To preserve the service, in 1980 Caltrans contracted with SP. Caltrans purchased new locomotives and rolling stock, replacing SP equipment in 1985, Caltrans upgraded stations, added shuttle buses to nearby employers, and dubbed the operation CalTrain. The Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board was formed in 1987 to manage the line, San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties commissioned Earth Metrics, Inc. to prepare an Environmental Impact Report on right-of-way acquisition and expansion of operations. With state and local funding, the PCJPB bought the right of way between San Francisco and San Jose from SP in 1991. The following year, PCJPB took responsibility for CalTrain operations and selected Amtrak as the contract operator, PCJPB extended the CalTrain service from San Jose to Gilroy, connecting to VTA Light Rail at Tamien Station in San Jose.
In July 1995 CalTrain became accessible to passengers in wheelchairs, five months later, CalTrain increased the bicycle limit to 24 per train, making the service attractive to commuters in bicycle-friendly cities such as San Francisco and Palo Alto. In July 1997 the current logo was adopted, and the name became Caltrain. A year later, VTA extended its rail service from north Santa Clara to the Mountain View Caltrain station. In June 2003, a connection for the Bay Area Rapid Transit. In 2006, Caltrain announced that wireless internet access would be available on trains at no additional charge, Caltrain invested more than $1 million in researching and testing WiFi in 2006. Caltrain still hopes to offer the service eventually as part of a comprehensive communication package
Build (developer conference)
Microsoft Build is an annual conference event held by Microsoft, aimed towards software enginieers and web developers using Windows, Windows Phone, Microsoft Azure and other Microsoft technologies. First held in 2011, it serves as a successor for Microsofts previous developer events, Build 2011 was held from September 13 to September 16,2011 in Anaheim, California. The conference heavily focused on Windows 8, Windows Server 2012 and Visual Studio 2012, attendees received a Samsung tablet shipping with the Windows 8 Developer Preview build. Held on Microsofts campus in Redmond from October 30 to November 2,2012, attendees received a Surface RT tablet with Touch Cover, a Nokia Lumia 920 smartphone, and 100GB of free SkyDrive storage. Build 2013 was held from June 26 to June 28,2013 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, the conference was primarily used to unveil the Windows 8.1 update for Windows 8. Each attendee received a Surface Pro, Acer Iconia W3 with a Bluetooth keyboard, one year of Adobe Creative Cloud, Build 2014 was held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco from April 2 to April 4,2014.
The date and venue of Build 2014 were prematurely published by Microsofts website on December 12,2013, Microsoft ultimately made an official announcement on the next day. Build attendees received a free Xbox One and a $500 Microsoft Store gift card, registration fee is $2095, and opened at 9, 00am PST on Thursday, January 22 and sold out in under an hour with an unspecified number of attendees. Build attendees received a free HP Spectre x360 ultrabook, the price was increased by $100 compared to the previous year. The conference was out in 1 minute. Unlike previous years, there were no hardware gifts for attendees, remoted iOS Simulator for Windows The 2017 Build conference is planned to be in Downtown Seattle, Washington from May 10 to May 12,2017. Official website Build Event on MSDN Channel 9
Bill Valentine (architect)
William Bill Valentine, FAIA, is an American architect who has practiced at HOK since beginning his career in the St. Louis office in 1962. In 1970, he moved to California to help open HOKs San Francisco office, in 2000, he was named president and design principal of HOK and in 2005 he assumed the role of chairman. Valentine retired from HOK in 2012, after 50 years with the firm and he remains HOK chairman emeritus and lives in Mill Valley, California. Valentine received a Bachelor of Architecture degree from North Carolina State University and he is a Lecturer in Architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He is a leader for sustainability within the architectural profession. Valentine is a self-proclaimed evangelist for affordable net zero carbon emissions design, in 2009-2010, he led an HOK team that collaborated with The Weidt Group to create a market-rate, zero-emissions prototype design for a Class A commercial office building in St. Louis, Missouri. R&D Campus,1993 King Khalid International Airport,1983 Levi Strauss & Co, the Legend honor recognizes individuals whose lifetime achievements have contributed in a significant way to improving the practice of commercial interior design and architecture.
Valentines passion and unbridled enthusiasm for design and life are still apparent in everything he does. His current and ongoing passion for design in architecture and his genuine humility. He presented the essentials of building as a Master Speaker at Greenbuild 2005 in Atlanta. Official HOK website Collection of video interviews with Bill Valentine
Gensler
M. Arthur Gensler Jr. & Associates, Inc. referred to as Gensler, is an American design and architecture firm headquartered in San Francisco. In 2015, Gensler generated $1.18 billion in revenue, as of 2015, it operated offices in 46 cities in 16 countries worldwide. Art and Drue Gensler, and their associate, James Follett and it is involved in planning and urban design, brand strategy, environmental graphic design, mission-critical facilities, sustainable design consulting and other areas. As of 2015, the firm employed more than 5,000 people working in 46 offices in 16 countries, genslers newest offices is at the Custard Factory in Birmingham UK which was opened in 2016. Gensler was awarded the Architecture Firm Award in 2000 by the American Institute of Architects, in 2015, Gensler was awarded for their proposed London Underline project. Founder Art Gensler received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Design Futures Council in 2016, Arthur Gensler - AIACC Lifetime Achievement Award. Art Gensler proud of design, largest architect firm in world
Muni Metro
Muni Metro is a light rail/streetcar hybrid system serving San Francisco, operated by the San Francisco Municipal Railway, a division of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. With an average ridership of 128,500 passengers as of the fourth quarter of 2014. Muni Metro operates a fleet of 151 light rail vehicles made by Breda, Muni Metro is the modern incarnation of the traditional streetcar system that had served San Francisco since the late 19th century. Recently, the system has undergone expansion, most notably the Third Street Light Rail Project, completed in 2007, other projects, such as the Central Subway, are underway. Muni Metro descended from the traditional streetcar system started on December 28,1912. The first streetcar line, the A Geary, ran from Kearny and Market Streets in the Financial District to Fulton Street, the system slowly expanded, opening the Twin Peaks Tunnel in 1917, allowing streetcars to run to the southwestern quadrant of the city. By 1921, the city was operating 304 miles of trolley lines and 25 miles of cable car lines.
The last line to service before 2007 was the N Judah. However, five heavily used streetcar lines traveled for at least part of their routes through tunnels or otherwise reserved right-of-way, as a result, these lines, running PCC streetcars, continued in operation. The new tunnel would be connected to the existing Twin Peaks Tunnel, the new underground stations would feature high platforms, and the older stations would be retrofitted with the same, which meant that the PCCs could not be used in them. Hence, a fleet of new rail vehicles was ordered from Boeing-Vertol. The K and M lines were extended to Balboa Park during this time, on February 18,1980, the Muni Metro was officially inaugurated, with weekday N line service in the subway. The Metro service was implemented in phases, and the subway was served only on weekdays until 1982. The K Ingleside line began using the Metro subway on weekdays on June 11,1980, the L Taraval and M Ocean View lines on December 17,1980, and lastly the J Church line on June 17,1981.
Meanwhile, weekend service on all five lines continued to use PCC cars operating on the surface of Market Street through to the Transbay Terminal, finally, on November 20,1982, the Muni Metro subway began operating seven days a week. At the time, there were no plans to revive any service on the surface of Market Street or return PCCs to regular running. However, tracks were rehabilitated for the 1983 Historic Trolley Festival, Muni criticism had been something of a feature of life in San Francisco, and not without reason. The Boeing trains were sub-par and grew crowded quickly, Muni did take steps to address these problems
AECOM
AECOM is an American multinational engineering firm that provides design, consulting and management services to a wide range of clients. AECOM has approximately 95,000 employees, and is number 156 on the 2016 Fortune 500 list, Fortune named AECOM as one of 2015 Worlds Most Admired Companies, and again in 2016 &2017. Engineering News-Record ranked AECOM as Number 1 Global Design Firm, the companys official name from 1990 to early January 2015 was AECOM Technology Corporation. Today, it is simply as AECOM. The company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol ACM and he gained control of some 200,000 acres and formed Swiss Oil Company in Lexington. In 1924 Miles launched an operation called Ashland Refining Company. In 1966 Ashland acquired Warren Brothers and became involved in the construction and construction materials business. The company was now able to take advantage of refinery byproducts used to produce asphalt. Ashland grew into one of the nations major road-construction firms and laid a foundation for AECOM.
In the 1970s Ashland Oil & Refining became Ashland Oil, five years the company consolidated its construction assets into a construction division and formed a coal subsidiary, indicative of a changing focus at Ashland. Although it generated more than $1 billion a year in sales, by 1980 Ashland sold off its production assets, and a year was reorganized as a modified holding company. A new corporate strategy was implemented as Ashland now focused on refining and marketing, in 1984 Ashland acquired Daniel, Johnson & Mendenall, a global provider of transportation-related engineering services. Originally focused on projects, after World War II it had become one of the first integrated engineering. The acquisition of DMJM included its president, Richard G. Newman, AECOMs future chief executive, in 1985 DMJM became part of a new subsidiary, Ashland Technology Corporation. Two years Newman was named its new president, architects Ellerbe Becket and Davis Langdon, the quantity surveyors and construction consultants.
AECOM went public during May 2007 with a public offering on the NYSE. On January 8,2008 AECOM acquired The Services Group, Inc. a provider of consulting services to the US Agency for International Development and other multi-lateral donor organizations. On July 28,2008, AECOM completed its purchase of Earth Tech Inc. a consulting and engineering firm, from Tyco International for $510 million
Democratic National Convention
The Democratic National Convention is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1832 by the United States Democratic Party. They have been administered by the Democratic National Committee since the 1852 national convention, the primary goal of the Democratic National Convention is to nominate and confirm a candidate for president and vice president, adopt a comprehensive party platform and unify the party. Pledged delegates from all fifty U. S, like the Republican National Convention, the Democratic National Convention marks the formal end of the primary election period and the start of the general election season. The partys presidential nominee is chosen in a series of state caucuses. Superdelegates, delegates whose votes are not bound to the outcome of a caucus or primary. To secure the nomination for the Democratic party in 2016, a candidate must secure 2,383 delegates and this number includes both pledged delegates and superdelegates. Prior to 1936, nomination for president was required, not merely by a majority, unless there was a popular incumbent, something that only happened three times between the Civil War and World War II, getting that many votes on the first ballot was implausible.
The choice was a contentious debate that riled the passions of party leaders. Delegates were forced to vote for a nominee repeatedly until someone could capture a number of delegates needed. In 1912,1920 and most notoriously in 1924, the voting went on for dozens and dozens of ballots, backroom deals by party bosses were normal and often resulted in compromise nominees that became known as dark horse candidates. Dark horse candidates were people who never imagined they would run for president until the last moments of the convention, dark horse candidates were chosen in order to break deadlocks between more popular and powerful prospective nominees that blocked each other from gaining enough delegates to be nominated. The rules were changed to a majority in 1936. Since only one multi-ballot convention has taken place, before about 1970, the partys choice of the vice-presidential nominee was usually not known until the last evening of the convention. This was because the nominee had little to do with the process.
In order to prevent such things happening in the future, the presumptive nominee has, since 1984, announced his choice before the convention even opened. By 1824, the nominating caucus had fallen into disrepute and collapsed as a method of nominating presidential. A national convention idea had been brought up but nothing occurred until the next decade, state conventions and state legislatures emerged as the nomination apparatus until they were supplanted by the national convention method of nominating candidates. The first national convention of the Democratic Party began in Baltimore on May 21,1832, in that year the 2/3 rule was created, requiring a 2/3 vote to nominate a candidate, in order to show the partys unanimous support of Martin Van Buren for vice president
Keith Haring
Keith Allen Haring was an American artist and social activist whose work responded to the New York City street culture of the 1980s by expressing concepts of birth, death and war. Harings work was often political and his imagery has become a widely recognized visual language of the 20th century. Keith Haring was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, on May 4,1958 and he was raised in Kutztown, Pennsylvania, by his mother Joan Haring, and father Allen Haring, an engineer and amateur cartoonist. He had three sisters, Kay and Kristen. Haring became interested in art at an early age spending time with his father producing creative drawings. His early influences included Walt Disney cartoons, Dr. Seuss, Charles Schulz, in Harings teenage years, he left his religious background behind and hitchhiked across the country, selling vintage t-shirts and experimenting with drugs. He studied commercial art from 1976 to 1978 at Pittsburghs Ivy School of Professional Art and he made the decision to leave after having read Robert Henris The Art Spirit which inspired him to concentrate on his own art.
Haring had a job at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts and was able to explore the art of Jean Dubuffet, Jackson Pollock. His most critical influences at this time were a 1977 retrospective of the work of Pierre Alechinsky, alechinskys work, connected to the international Expressionist group CoBrA, gave Haring confidence to create larger paintings of calligraphic images. Christo introduced him to the possibilities of involving the public with his art, Harings first important one-man exhibition was in Pittsburgh at the Center for the Arts in 1978. He moved to New York to study painting at the School of Visual Arts and he studied semiotics with Bill Beckley as well as exploring the possibilities of video and performance art. Profoundly influenced at this time by the writings of William Burroughs, he was inspired to experiment with the cross-referencing and interconnection of images. In his junior/senior year, he was behind on credits, because his professors could not give him credit for the very loose artwork he was doing with themes of social activism and he first received public attention with his public art in subways.
Starting in 1980, he organized exhibitions at Club 57, which were filmed by the photographer Tseng Kwong Chi, around this time, The Radiant Baby became his symbol. His bold lines, vivid colors, and active figures carry strong messages of life and he participated in the Times Square Exhibition and drew animals and human faces for the first time. That same year, he photocopied and pasted provocative collages made from cut-up, in 1981, he sketched his first chalk drawings on black paper and painted plastic and found objects. By 1982, Haring had established friendships with fellow emerging artists Futura 2000, Kenny Scharf, Madonna and he created more than 50 public works between 1982 and 1989 in dozens of cities around the world. His Crack is Wack mural, created in 1986, is visible from New Yorks FDR Drive and he got to know Andy Warhol, who was the theme of several of Harings pieces, including Andy Mouse
George Moscone
George Richard Moscone was an Italian-American attorney and Democratic politician. He was the 37th mayor of San Francisco, California from January 1976 until his assassination in November 1978, Moscone served in the California State Senate from 1967 until becoming Mayor. In the Senate, he served as Majority Leader, Moscone was born in the Italian-American enclave of San Franciscos Marina District, California. His father was George Joseph Moscone, a guard at nearby San Quentin. Moscone attended St. Brigids, and St. Ignatius College Preparatory and he attended College of the Pacific and played basketball for the Tigers. While in college, Moscone befriended John L. Burton, who would become a member of the U. S. House of Representatives. Moscone studied at University of California, Hastings College of the Law and he met and married Gina Bondanza, in 1954. The Moscones would go on to have four children, after serving in the United States Navy, Moscone started private practice in 1956. John Burtons brother, Phillip, a member of the California State Assembly, though he lost that race, Moscone would go on to win a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1963.
On the Board, Moscone was known for his defense of the poor, racial minorities, in 1966 Moscone ran for and won a seat in the California State Senate, representing the 10th District in San Francisco County. This alliance was known as the Burton Machine and included John Burton, Phillip Burton, soon after his election to the State Senate, Moscone was elected by his party to serve as Majority Leader. He was reelected to the 10th District seat in 1970 and to the newly redistricted 6th District seat, representing parts of San Francisco and San Mateo Counties and he successfully sponsored legislation to institute a school lunch program for California students. In 1974 Moscone briefly considered a run for governor of California, as a heterosexual, Moscone was considered ahead of his time as an early proponent of gay rights. In conjunction with his friend and ally in the Assembly, Willie Brown, the repeal was signed into law by California Governor Jerry Brown. Moscone decided in 1975 to run for Mayor of San Francisco, in a close race in November of that year, Moscone placed first with conservative city supervisor John Barbagelata second and moderate supervisor Dianne Feinstein coming in third.
Moscone and Barbagelata thus both advanced to the runoff election in December where Moscone narrowly defeated the conservative supervisor by fewer than 5,000 votes. Liberals won the other top executive offices that year as Joseph Freitas was elected District attorney. Members of the Peoples Temple leftist religious cult saturated San Francisco neighborhoods, distributing slate cards for Moscone, Joseph Freitas, the Peoples Temple worked to get out the vote in precincts where Moscone received a 12 to 1 vote margin over Barbagelata
