Silicon Valley wants a landmark. What should it be? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Sredni
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 12, 2019, 08:44:09 am
content: Silicon Valley wants a landmark. What should it be?https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-47533596If Paris has its Eiffel Tower, London its Big Ben and New York its Empire State. But what kind of landmark would best represent Silicon Valley?That will be the decision of an 11-member jury in an upcoming competition that wants to determine how to pay homage to tech industry’s epicentre.The winning design will (if all goes to plan) be built in a park in San Jose, the city which sits at the Valley’s foot. The non-profit organisation behind the idea should find out on Tuesday if it has the go-ahead to start planning.It is hoped the project will be nearing completion by 2021.Apart from a giant statue of Bob Widlar flipping the bird, if it's not a transistor or a diffusion junction, what could it be?

author: magic
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 12, 2019, 10:25:12 am
content: It may be my software background showing but I think you are behind the times and most people associate "Silicon Valley tech industry" with computers nowadays.My humble proposal is a giant statue of Mark Zuckerberg captionedthose idiots trust me with their data.Seriously though, I'm curious what will come out of it. Having spent some time on American software forums, one thing I surely expect is drama, you can already get a taste of it from that article:QuoteThere will be many who will wonder. And others will wonder whether it should be about software or hardware, or perhaps business management. And others will ask if a bunch of white males really deserve yet another monument. That's the reality of SV today, in my experience.If I were to bet, I would say it will fail for lack of consensus and funding or become some "statement of unity and diversity" thing built by a small group of corporate donors like Google or Intel. But I will believe it when I see it.

author: sokoloff
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 12, 2019, 10:36:58 am
content: I’d suggest a garage. Make the garage a functional space for eating perhaps with photos and descriptions of key garages (and other starting places) for Silicon Valley key events. HP, Apple, Google all started in garages.

author: coppice
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 12, 2019, 10:45:28 am
content: They want some kind of stone edifice to epitomise industry in silicon valley? Like a big chunk of silicon, maybe? Use a whole crystal, and it will look like a finger, combining a homage to the electronics industry, with a the current tech industry's attitude to the public.

author: dzseki
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 12, 2019, 10:51:43 am
content: Quote from: coppice on March 12, 2019, 10:45:28 amLike umm... a middle finger? Like a Widlar salute?

author: tggzzz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 12, 2019, 11:01:35 am
content: Quote from: Sredni on March 12, 2019, 08:44:09 amTHE garage is already an official landmark, much to Bill's disgust "it should have been torn down decades ago".

author: HalFET
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 12, 2019, 12:46:15 pm
content: A sculpture of "Apple Factory Suicide Nets" might be fitting.But if they really want a landmark, maybe a few homeless shelters and some affordable housing might work?

author: Bud
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 12, 2019, 12:57:40 pm
content: Quote from: dzseki on March 12, 2019, 10:51:43 am"The Bit" sculpture could also work that way.

author: schmitt trigger
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 12, 2019, 01:39:16 pm
content: It should be like an Egyptian Obelisk or Roman column, engraved with flowing imagery of the Valley's greatest people and their iconic achievements (think Steve Jobs announcing the IPhone 1, or the "traitorous eight" leaving Shockley Semiconductor).With some companies logos spread around for good measure.

author: Benta
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 12, 2019, 09:54:50 pm
content: It should be this, in highest quality bronze, the first transistor:

author: electromotive
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 12, 2019, 10:48:23 pm
content: It should be a spine, because Silicon Valley lacks one. Dead serious on that one.

author: raptor1956
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 13, 2019, 12:26:12 am
content: Quote from: Benta on March 12, 2019, 09:54:50 pmWell, although Silicon Valley did much to make the transistor more valuable the transistor was not invented there -- that honor goes to Bell Labs in New Jersey.Brian

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 13, 2019, 12:35:12 am
content: Stature of Bill & Dave in front of a garage door, obviously.

author: MT
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 13, 2019, 01:27:52 am
content: A gigantic orange?

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 13, 2019, 01:33:53 am
content: A giant Juicero?

author: notsob
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 13, 2019, 02:01:41 am
content: A 10m high 4k7 axial resistor

author: chickenHeadKnob
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 13, 2019, 02:12:43 am
content: Quote from: EEVblog on March 13, 2019, 12:35:12 amMemorializing HP is all well and good, however most people would consider Fairchild Semiconductor and theTraitorous Eightas the founding icons of the valley.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traitorous_eightAnyway I don't think the intention with this is commemorating history as much as it is making a tourist attraction that will captivate numpties from far away.

author: coppercone2
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 13, 2019, 03:49:07 am
content: software engineers running out of a work building at5pm9pm like this

author: metrologist
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 13, 2019, 03:52:27 am
content: Tuesday is over. What did they decide?

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 13, 2019, 04:01:37 am
content: Quote from: chickenHeadKnob on March 13, 2019, 02:12:43 amYep, it'll be somehow mainstream, like maybe a giant early PC or circuit board you can sit on and look tiny in Instagram photos...

author: HalFET
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 13, 2019, 12:53:54 pm
content: Quote from: Bud on March 12, 2019, 12:57:40 pmTechnically, if you want to go for a Widlar statue, why not one showing how to mow your lawn in an environmentally friendly way:http://readingjimwilliams.blogspot.com/2011/08/app-note-16-and-sheep.html

author: coppice
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 13, 2019, 01:14:08 pm
content: Quote from: HalFET on March 13, 2019, 12:53:54 pmBuy lambs in the spring, as the grass begins to grow. Have them slaughtered them in autumn when the growth slows. Its a wonderful technique, as long as you have suitable fencing around your grass.A friend who does (or at least did) this every year worried what their kids would think the first time their pet lambs appeared on the table as chops. Rather than the expected tears, they had a discussion, based on relative bone size, about which chop came from which lamb.

author: tszaboo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 13, 2019, 02:10:48 pm
content: From bronze, very big, text saying in the bottom that:"We lost 5 trillion dollars and 450.000 white collar jobs"

author: dzseki
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 13, 2019, 02:30:24 pm
content: Quote from: coppercone2 on March 13, 2019, 03:49:07 amHa! That one is located in Hungary

author: Brumby
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 13, 2019, 02:41:33 pm
content: For Silicon Valley, I think it would be poetic to have a large version of a silicon wafer. Each "die" could feature a different iconic element - the first transistor, the HP boys, the Fairchild logo and so on - with several of them being actual dies of classic chips like the 7400, 741, 555.Getting the holographic/rainbow effect would be high on the priority list for me.

author: schmitt trigger
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 13, 2019, 03:25:30 pm
content: Brumby, excellent idea.On a post above, I had suggested an obelisk or column with iconography depicting the many products and great man involved in the SV.......but a silicon wafer would be definitively far more fitting.And to the list of classic chips, I would definitively add the 4004.

author: magic
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 13, 2019, 05:37:49 pm
content: Quote from: notsob on March 13, 2019, 02:01:41 amWith actual 4k7 of resistance between the terminals?That could actually be quite cool, a free resistance standard for the public

author: Brumby
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 14, 2019, 01:08:27 pm
content: Quote from: schmitt trigger on March 13, 2019, 03:25:30 pmYes.I'm sure there would be several chips worthy of inclusion - and depending on the size of the wafer and the scale of dies, there would be the scope for quite a few candidates. You might even have a row depicting the 4004, 8008, 8080, Z80 .... up to something a bit more current. AND I suppose a couple of RISC processors to cover that side of things.This idea has the scope for inclusion of a great number and variety of iconic elements ... and you heard it here on the EEVblog!

author: wilfred
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 14, 2019, 10:22:43 pm
content: No prizes for guessing what someone thinks the big landmark should be in the town of Woodenbong.https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-15/wooden-bong/10901040

author: Oldtestgear
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 16, 2019, 11:07:40 am
content: When I was visiting the valley regularly in the late 1990s / early 2000s the one landmark that almost everyone knew about was the Frys Electronics store on San Jose. Where else but here would a company build a store with a front entrance like an Aztec temple? In some ways highly appropriate as a temple to technology.Is it still there or ha it been redeveloped in the name of progress? Probably now only stocks home appliances & other uninteresting stuff as it was heading there when I last visited in 2005.Phil