Showing posts with label CADAM. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CADAM. Show all posts

I remember that Dad bought some Land in the Mountains behind Saratoga and we went there to SURVEY it. Dad used the Transit and I climbed up the mountain and held the Rod. Whenever you buy land, it is important to have an accurate Map so you can plan for builders to construct a home on it.

 There are laws that say how far you have to be away from a creek. There are also practical restrictions due to the slope of the ground. Dad worked as a Professional Surveyor for Decades. He measured the land for the San Francisco Airport. Then he worked at San Jose Title Company drawing Maps of Santa Clara County. VERY Handy to know who owns what and where. When he became a Realtor he used that information to arrange good locations for customers. "Just Ask Van..."
The land is located up Highway Nine. You go up a couple of miles and take a left hand turn at the road that goes to a Rod and Gun Club. There is a Shooting Range at the end of the road. Los Altos Rod and Gun Club?

Anyway, the land he bought was UNUSABLE for construction of a Home... and Unsellable... So he donated it to West Valley College as a Biology Classroom. Then He simply DEFINED the value of the Donation and wrote it off on his income taxes.

Strangely, neither my brother nor I went to work as Realtors... Often a son simply inherits the family business but... Martin became a Biologist at Genentech and I designed Computers for the Air Force... and the NSA... and then later Sold Electronic Equipment for Radio Shack. My work for the NSA was very interesting. I helped build a Secure Telephone in a Briefcase. Data Encryption and Telecommunication so Soldiers could talk without the enemy listening in... I met some Brilliant engineers there. One fellow knew how to predict which horse was going to win a horse race... we went to the track and won money... Just do what John Does and WIN! That man also beat me at Chess 9 out of 10 times... and then we stopped playing...

One piece of land that he DID subdivide was Apollo Heights. The name of the street is "On Orbit Drive" Saratoga. Driving down Highway Nine towards Saratoga you take a left hand turn at the Library and drive past the Cemetery and JUST KEEP ON GOING AND GOING AND GOING... His Saleslady, Dadi Nogerath Named the Street. In the German Language, "ON Orbit" is the correct term for what we call "IN Orbit" in English. She took customers up to see the property and before the roads were constructed, she rode a burro over the hills... Her Husband, Wolfgang, worked at Laugh Head (Lockheed)... They were people that came to America at the End of WW2. Just like Dr Wehner von Braun... I wish that I had worked for Lockheed and One time I was almost Hired. I was at a Job Fair at the Santa Clara Convention Center and there were hundreds of Companies recruiting... The representative from Lockheed said they wanted to hire me because I had work experience in the Computer Aided Design program CADAM. He said go to building number XXX on Monday morning for a Second Interview. I went and the office HAD NO PEOPLE. Just a Computer and an IN Basket to drop off your resume. I dropped off my resume and NOTHING EVERY HAPPENED. I Believe that at that time. Lockheed was Laying Off and the only reason they had a booth at the Job Fair was to KEEP UP APPEARANCES... so no one would know that their business was in trouble... this was in the late 1990s...

One basic problem with Facebook is My Words Vanish after about a Month... No matter how far I scroll down the page, they are gone. That's Why I copy and paste everything into Googles Blogger so my words are preserved forever... ALSO, it's important to me that Google knows everything about my life so that when THE SINGULARITY happens I can be born again as an Iduru... Just like in that CyberPunk novel by William Gibson...

During my time at Analytics I ran my own business for one year as a consultant.

 I was working for a Job-Shop and I got paid seven dollars an hour but the shop charged the company ten dollars an hour. I made an arrangement with the company to pay me the entire ten dollars and hour by billing them directly. I had to pay my own Social Security payments, file quarterly income tax withholding and collect the money from the company. One month the company simply told me that I had to wait for my payment. They were having cash flow problems and owed money to INTEL and Me. They selected to pay INTEL. After running my own consulting business for a year I re-hired the job shop as they were entirely worth the $3 an hour. They were happy to re-hire me and said: "Oh, we knew you would be back. Everyone thinks they can do better as a consultant... Until they try it."

Then I got a job offer at a higher rate of pay from Pulse Engineering of College Park. A salesman that visited  Analytics also did business with Pulse and he made the contact. I took the job and we did custom electronic design for the NSA (National Security Agency). This was in a building with no windows and I got a Secret Clearance to work there. We made many things but I had no idea what they were. I was only told enough information to do my job and no more. We had a Faraday Cage in the factory. A room with grounded metal mesh walls. That room prevented any radio waves from leaving the room. Our work had to pass TEMPEST testing. That was a DoD standard that required electronic equipment NOT broadcast radio waves. The basic idea was that the Russians could use a custom Radio Receiver to spy on equipment... and be able to read what was printed on a computer's display. One product that we made was an encrypted telephone in a briefcase. That allowed people to go to a remote location and talk securely with the home base. This was during the 1980's and President Reagan was spending a lot of money in a cold war with the Russians. Eventually, I got fired from that job for not showing up. I was smoking a lot of Hashish at that time and I had gone to a Grateful Dead concert in Philadelphia and failed to come home and go to work on time. The owners came over to my house, found out that I was safe and then fired me. Then I took a five month vacation. Driving around the East Coast of the USA.

The next job was in the Engineering department of the United States Postal Service. I was hired to lead a team of CAD draftsmen who were redrawing the pencil and paper drawings into a computer system. Our goal was to incorporate new changes to the design of a stamp vending machine. It took six people about a year to complete that task. We used the software system called CADAM. Later I found out that computer system was only used at the USPS and Lockheed. A more popular system called AUTOCAD was used everywhere else. When I wen looking for a job as a CADAM designer, no one was interested. I never worked as a draftsman again.

I played music at the USPS Christmas Party. Richard Verril played piano and I played Guitar. I had created a book with all the lyrics and chord changes of my favorite songs. I remember that we played "Light my Fire" by the Doors and Richard knew all the notes for the organ solo. I was really impressed. He had played in a band in High School and they played all the block parties in Philadelphia.

Eventually I got fired from that Job for showing up late to work. The office was in Virginia and I lived in Maryland so I had to cross the Woodrow Wilson Bridge over the Potomac. Traffic Jams were unpredictable and so I got fired. Then I took an eight month vacation. I spent that time playing original music in my home recording studio. Synthesizers, guitars and drum machine.

Read more at: http://gvan42.blogspot.com/2018/03/growing-up-in-los-gatos-california-in.html

Popular Posts