Greetings from Silicon Valley

Hello everyone! I'm sorry that I haven't had a chance to write recently, but it's been really busy.

Just the other day Max took me to visit one of his clients - TiVo. The company makes a brand of digital video recorder (DVR) that captures television programming to hard disk storage for later viewing The device also provides an electronic television programming schedule, and provides recording options based on that schedule. You can see a demo of how the system works here.

TiVo is just one of MANY technology companies in San Francisco. In fact, there are so many technology companies in the area that there is an entire area called Silicon Valley.

Silicon Valley is the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The term originally referred to the region's large number of silicon chip innovators and manufacturers, but eventually came to refer to all the high-tech businesses in the area; it is now generally used as a metonym for the high-tech sector. Despite the development of other high-tech economic centers throughout the United States, Silicon Valley continues to be the leading high-tech hub because of its large number of engineers and venture capitalists.

The term Silicon Valley was coined by Ralph Vaerst, a Northern California entrepreneur. Valley refers to the Santa Clara Valley, located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay, while Silicon refers to the high concentration of semiconductor and computer-related industries in the area. These and similar technology and electricity firms slowly replaced the orchards which gave the area its initial nickname, the Valley of Heart's Delight.

Anyways, I have lots more to write about, but I'm out of time tonight. More to come soon, I promise!