Careers Come Out of Street Tech

Careers Come Out of Street Tech: SAN PABLO: Program Tries to Help Those in Poverty Find Employment Opportunity
By Kimberly S. Wetzel, Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, Calif.
Dec. 27--When Andrea Ceja first heard about the Street Tech computer training program, she immediately thought it would be a great opportunity for a friend seeking a career.
But after speaking to a Street Tech instructor, the 24-year-old Richmond resident realized she could benefit as well.
"I didn't know how to use a computer; I didn't know how to make a resume," the former stay-at-home mom said. "I didn't even know how to browse the Internet."
Figuring she had nothing to lose and a lot to gain, she went for it.
After several months of intensive computer training, Ceja graduated recently from Street Tech with advanced certification in computer programming. She now plans to take another advanced class through the program so she can start a career as a desktop technician.
Street Tech, Ceja said, has changed her life.
"I feel very good about computers, and I feel better about myself," she said.
Since 2000, San Pablo-based Street Tech has helped hundreds of adults from around the Bay Area earn certification in various types of computer training and programming at low or no cost. The only prerequisites are that prospective students live in California and come from a low-income household ($64,100 annually for a family of four) or are at risk, meaning they've had trouble with drugs, alcohol or have had involvement in the justice system.

"The whole purpose of the program is to get people caught in the cycles of poverty into a viable career," said Barrie Hathaway, executive director of Street Tech.
In addition to computer training, Street Tech offers comprehensive instruction on how to dress and behave in a work environment. Students are required to come to school in business casual clothing, and they have their own cubicles. They are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner and will be kicked out for misbehaving.
"The program is designed for someone who could never be successful in a traditional program," Hathaway said. "Those are the people we're trying to help."
Street Tech also arms graduates with resumes, business cards, an internship, free computer equipment, interview and work clothes, their own Web sites and blogs, and memberships to several career and social networking sites.
"Really, the sky's the limit for these folks if they're willing to take advantage of what we have to offer," Hathaway said.
The program also teaches students how to advance their own certification, and unlike many other technical schools, it focuses less on a rigid program and more on students' individual needs. Street Tech is the only organization of its kind in the Bay Area, Hathaway said, and classes are capped at 15 people, so there is a lot of personal interaction. Classes are offered year-round and last from 14 to 22 weeks depending on the level of certification sought.
Street Tech was created after founders noticed that gang members had no career options. The program has served more than 500 people and relies on funding through the state Employment Department, other state and federal agencies and private donations.
Recently, the East Bay Community Foundation, a Bay Area endowment organization, offered Street Tech a $25,000 grant with the stipulation that the program raise matching funds by the end of the year. Street Tech is currently seeking help from the public so it can continue to help people such as Ceja.
"The course has really helped me out in a lot of ways," Ceja said. "Technology has really turned me around."
Reach Kimberly S. Wetzel at 510-262-2798 or kwetzel@cctimes.com.
HOW TO HELP
--WHAT: Street Tech is a nonprofit organization that offers low- or no-cost computer training for adults 18 and older who are from disadvantaged communities in the Bay Area.
--DONATING MONEY: The organization just earned a $25,000 grant from the East Bay Community Foundation but to collect the money, it must have matching funds by the end of the year. To donate or for details, go to streettech.org/index.asp or call 510-234-1300.
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Copyright (c) 2006, Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, Calif.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

Source: Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, Calif.)

BartPE utilities disk

Awww if Gerald hasnt already talked about it in class I bet you just ruined it for him. =( He told our class about it and I immediatly went home and made one, however Geralds is still better than mine but I'm improving it. They are great and I suggest everyone work on building their own unless you want to try and talk Gerald out of a copy of his.... there are requirements though =P

I would just like to add a link that may help in creating your bart cd
help on slipstreaming service packs into your cd can be found here http://www.helpwithwindows.com/WindowsXP/winxp-sp2-bootcd.html

Good post Chris, I hope you didnt ruin it for Gerald =P

Websites

Hrrmmm you got a tough one started...

Although probably not my favorite tech site http://hackaday.com/ is deffinately one of them.
Some other good ones I find myself visiting often when troubleshooting problems are:
http://www.driversguide.com
http://www.techweb.com
http://www.extremetech.com
http://www.insertmanufacturerwebsitehere.com

and of course http://support.microsoft.com for who knows windows better than microsoft?

although I know none of these are forums, I resort to forum searching as a last resort if I can't find my answers directly from the manufacturer. And in that event I don't usually have a specific forum I goto, I'll google it and end up at a forum where someone had already dealt with a similar issue. Hope you enjoy browsing these though, lots of neat tricks to try if you have the spare time + equipment.

The Terrafugia Transition

Awww, Looks like I missed Tech Tuesday. Hope you all are enjoying Geralds class as much as I did, and sorry I'm late on this but I guess Gerald can't really get mad at me anymore. =P
Just playin Gerald. I still read this blog so you cats in Street Tech Gen:13 better stay on your toes. In any case I wish I'da known about this yesterday but its better late than never.
Here Goes...

July 26, 2006 An interesting new flying car is being launched this week at Oshkosh. The Transition is a Personal Air Vehicle (PAV) designed to make general aviation more practical for personal transportation. From start-up company Terrafugi, the Transition drives like a car on public roads and can transition into an aircraft at the nearest airport by lowering its 27-foot wings and taking off. As an aircraft it has a top speed of 130mph, a range of 500 miles and can carry a payload of 430 pounds. One stop gives you over a thousand miles of range inside eight hours. Then you land and fold up the wings and you’re back on the road.

I want mine to be midnight blue though so I can blend in with the sky at night. Soo Tight. If you guys (or gals) would like to read more on this, you can find the complete article ---> Here
In the meantime I have an order I need to go place... mmm...bells&whistles...&missiles!

Tech Tuesday - Blood Cleaner

No bigger than a pen, this device filters smallpox, Ebola and other viruses from the blood

The Hemopurifier resembles a shrunken dialysis cartridge, the rolling-pin-size device that purifies the blood of patients whose kidneys have failed. Both use a filter to remove toxins from blood. But unlike traditional dialysis, the Hemo-purifier also includes plant-derived antibodies, such as cyanovirin, that bind to a variety of viruses and eliminates them from the bloodstream. The plant solution can be modified to weed out even genetically engineered germs.

You can read more on this --> here.

Tech Tuesday - Mar 21st

The main light source of the future will almost surely not be a bulb. It might be a table, a wall, or even a fork.
An accidental discovery announced this week has taken LED lighting to a new level, suggesting it could soon offer a cheaper, longer-lasting alternative to the traditional light bulb. The miniature breakthrough adds to a growing trend that is likely to eventually make Thomas Edison's bright invention obsolete.

Now I know this doesnt sound like much, but until recently LED's couldn't emit a white light. Now knowing that a LED runs for longer and brighter than a regular 60 watt lightbulb and also uses less power, this is a great advancement in lowering costs to lighting your home.

Not only that but because it can be developed as a reactive paint, just think of walking into your bathroom, and instead of flipping a light switch to turn on a little dim light above the sink, you could flip a switch and the entire cieling would glow a soft white with a gentle blue hue, AND COST LESS THAN A LIGHTBULB TO POWER!!! =D Read this article here and think about the possibilities.

Tech Tuesday - Cyberhand

Scientists invent the Cyberhand, a brain-controlled robotoic hand with fingers that can actually feel

Last October we reported on the first mind-controlled bionic limb, a multimillion-dollar prosthetic arm built by scientists at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago [“A Toast to the Bionic Man”]. Now a team of European scientists led by Paolo Dario, a professor of biomedical robotics at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa, Italy, has unveiled the first brain-controlled prosthetic hand. The metal-clad prototype, dubbed the Cyberhand, combines unprecedented mechanical dexterity with a sophisticated computer system designed to harness brain signals from the wearer, allowing him to move and feel the hand as though it were his own.

You can read more on this here.

Also of note was this other article I didn't get to talk about, The Army's Robot Sherpa.

Meet BigDog, a mechanical mutt that does more than snare Frisbees and irrigate fire hydrants. It totes hundreds of pounds of gear so soldiers won’t have to, and it will never spook under fire. Developed by Boston Dynamics with funding from the U.S. military, the BigDog prototype is arguably the world’s most ambitious legged robot. Its stability and awareness of its own orientation make it the first robot that can handle the unknown challenges of the battlefield. The Great Dane–size ’bot can trot more than three miles an hour, climb inclines of up to 45 degrees, and carry up to 120 pounds—even in rough terrain impenetrable to wheeled or tracked vehicles. But this one is just a puppy; Boston Dynamics expects the next iteration, ready this summer, to be at least twice as fast and carry more than twice as much.

You can read up more on both of these articles at www.popsci.com

Both are very cool. I mean think of what both companies could do if they combined efforts. You could have a replacement robotic dog in your home that would feel like a real dog as well as help carry in your groceries, and my favorite, won't goto the bathroom on your floor.

Couple these with some of the other Tech Tuesdays I've posted, the xfinger, and the slime controlled robot, and we could easily replace our familyies with more likeables versions. =D

Hell I could replace myself and send it to work in my stead, as long as it could perform all the abilities my job required me to perform, while I was making soup. Mental Note: Make sure replacement me CAN'T replace me completely.

How-To: Embed video into your blog

Embeding video into your blog can be fairly simple given your blog host can support it. While I am still pretty new to blogging, I have an understanding of HTML.

It took me about 3 mins to google a fairly simple walkthrough on embeding video intoyour web site(s) and you can view that by clicking this link ---> HERE

To start you'll need a video file to embed, whether it is on your hard disk or hosted over the internet. Once you have that, you need to imbed it into your blog with a simple command like
"embed src=fielname.???""/embed" where the quotes are replaced by <> to start and close the command, also, "filename.???" is replaced by the name or URL of your file. If done right you should get results along the lines of this video.


You can also adjust the width and height of your embeded video but I suggest setting these parameters to the same specifications of the video itself or you'll get alot of unused space.
You, can set the video to loop or auto start, give it audio, forward and back controls, etc. If you would like to view the code I used to embed this video you can do so by clicking the "View" menu at the top of your web browser and choosing "Source" or "View Source" depending on your browser, and the browser will open a window with all the HTML used in the current web page you are viewing.

There are also many different types of video files, some including (but not limited to) .asf .mpg .avi .wma. .mov and many others. I have yet to embed a .mov file, but I'm sure its not much different that embeding other types as long as the correct call to a viewer that can play that file type is made. As an example, here is a flash video being played in its own viewer on my own private blog here at wayne-stgen12.blogspot.com/

test

Applications: RobotWorx has integrated robotic systems for a wide spectrum of applications. Consulting customers on projects from start to finish, we have built a reputation for delivering a quality product at an affordable price. Our expert engineers can help your company find the solution for any application. Many successful projects have been completed for the following applications: arc welding, plasma cutting, spot welding, material handling, grinding, drilling, thermal spray, bonding/sealing, robot assembly, laser welding, and many others. Let us help you find the right industrial robot system for your application.

HELP..

im still trying to get this video link runnin http://robolb.asx i have to get more time to really get this goin ...ok thats all ....damn is frustratin ....lol

Tech Tuesday - Hydrogen Powered Bike!

The ENV (Emissions Neutral Vehicle) bike was designed to Intelligent Energy's brief by a British team, led by multi-award-winning designers Seymourpowell. The ENV bike is fully-functioning and has been engineered and purpose-built (based around Intelligent Energy's CORE fuel cell) from the ground up, demonstrating the real, everyday applicability of fuel cell technology. The CORE, which is completely detachable from the bike, is a radically compact and efficient fuel cell, capable of powering anything from a motorboat to a small domestic property.

I found this while trying to hunt down specs on a wood fueled engine for a motorcycle, I read about a few months back. Let me tell you this blows that bike away... James Bond all over again.

If you would like more info on this Bike you can find it at... www.fuelcellsworks.com/Supppage2251.html

Didrick Medical Inc. is proud to introduce the X-Finger
The X-Finger® is the worlds first active-function artificial finger assembly designed specifically for partial finger amputees. The device allows users to regain complete control of the flexion and extension movements of an artificial finger in a self-contained device. It is designed to bend a silicone finger sheath in a realistic manner.

Wow... I think I want 8 of these, one for every finger I have. (I think I'll keep my thumbs) Think of what kind of things can be built off of this technology. Just imagine this type of finger with built in motors and/or powesupplieses, with memory locations for your keyboard, and an uplink to your brain. So instead of actually having to type all you have to do is think it. Much like the fingers of typists in Ghost In The Shell. Sounds better than buggy voice recognition software to me. Yes, Yes, I think I'll have 8 of those please. =D

Another Learning Experience

Another week has pass it seem like is only yesterday...I have learn a lot and studying hard >>>!!
Is scary what I'm goin to accomplish in a 6 months span....and knowing that I didn't know what I wanted a year ago.. Especially the GOAL SETTING it makes you think about your Dreams...and realistically can be reach if you want it that BAD...... Everyone who read this "remember that lecture with Mr BRYANT...........Here is a video link that just check out that new robot that's made in Japan http://video-link.com/jpn.htm

Tech Tuesday ~ Aston Shell

Aston is a new Desktop and Shell replacement for Windows 9X/ME/NT/2K/XP.It replaces the standard Windows Desktop and provides you with a host of new features, such as Sidebars, clock, weather monitor, animated buttons, transparency effects and much more.Aston also supports Themes, which allow you to change its appearance and functionality according to your mood and needs. No matter what visual style you like: XP, Aqua or something else; you can always download hundreds of Themes, created by professional designers or amateurs from Aston's homepage or one of numerous other skin sites.Aston features a powerful and user friendly interface, which lets you change your new desktop's appearance and behavior in few seconds. No need to learn complicated configuration files, everything can be configured in a simple graphical interface.A great balance between performance and appearance allows you to launch Aston even on out of the date PCs or its enjoy many advanced features on more modern computers. Aston is very stable and has a small memory footprint and low CPU usage, so you can free your processor time for other tasks.

(click to enlarge)

This Shell Replacement is fantastic, I use it myself on my home pc. Above is a screen shot of my desktop. Its completely customizable and many users create and upload thier own plugins to the aston shell website. However its not free. =( It has a 1 time setup fee. If you are interested in checking out Aston Shell go here --->Astonshell.com

great thanks

wow>>!!! im amazed how much I learn about computers and their important components I can truly tell you that street tech really works but it takes a patience and a determine individual
and just being in class with hyper energetic Mr Bryant really this man knows what his talking about.....But only a week off about 5 months and a half left.>>>>!!!!!

Today my class learned about blogging. They will post to this site. GGB

The FCC!

The FCC must be busy right now. The chairman of the FCC, Kevin Martin, wants subscribers of cable TV to be able to pick and choose the channels they subscribe to on TV, a la carte. Cable companies are mad, though, because it would be too expensive to offer less popular channels that are currently bundled with more popular channels. But parenting groups say the option is a must to prevent children from watching inappropriate content on TV because the channels are chosen from the cable company, not just blocked at the TV. Here's a link to this story on CNET: click here.

Also, the FCC has stopped Vonage from signing up new subscribers to its Voice over IP telephone service because the company has missed the deadline for implementing enhanced 911 services in its network. More here at USAToday.com.

Food for thought: Does anyone miss Michael Powell?

Windows Supercomputers

Microsoft is now making the move to put supercomputers into the mainstream, with Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003. For more info on this, read CNET's article here.

In other news, here at Street Tech, seven of us have passed the hardware portion of the A+ exam! Thank you for your support and wish us luck with the operating systems portion of the exam in one month.

Street Tech.org

Street Tech

Enjoying reading the Street Tech Divide blog? Wonder where we got our name? You can read the top of this page to know that Street Tech provides computer training to low-income and disadvantaged students in the San Francisco Bay Area. Want to know the website for Street Tech proper? Go to http://www.streettech.org/.

The A+ class at Street Tech is around the halfway point in progress to graduation and certification. Wish us luck with testing!

Free Opera! ... I Mean, Opera is Free!

The alternative web browser Opera is now free as of version 8.5. Previously, Opera was either ad-supported, or paid for. Now, the company that makes the browser, Opera Software AG, has listened to the demands of its people and gave us the one that enables mouse gestures, voice browsing, and complies to W3C standards.. (W3C=World Wide Web Consortium). Here is the link to your all and mighty web browser: http://www.opera.com/

Unfortunately, Blogger does not support Opera completely yet (Compose is limited to plain-text).

But while there are websites that choose to block Opera as it is, Opera can also spoof other web browsers, tricking the website into thinking that it is Mozilla Firefox or Microsoft Internet Explorer. Please try it out despite this, as the more people that use it, the more websites will have to support it!