William Penn Life, 2012 (47. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

2012-09-01 / 9. szám

Tibor's Take with Tibor Check, Jr.

Entering the Digital Age

Using the Internet as an archive

MY FATHER TAKES PHOTOS of everything.

Birthdays?.. .Photos.

Car shows?...Photos.

Hungarian events?...Photos.

At times, it can be annoying, but I have begun to understand why my father insists on creating a photographic record of what we are doing: he is stitching together a historical narrative comprised of photos. I guess the idea is that when our grandchildren want to see what life was like in the early 21st Century, or when historical chroniclers try to write books about Hungarian culture in America, these will be valuable artifacts.

In an unfortunate (for us) turn of events, my father has discovered the wonders of digital photography and the ability to store thousands of photos on a small plastic card for later viewing. This small development is related to the basis for this month's Tibor's Take.

On hot summer nights, when it is too uncomfortable to go to sleep, I often lie awake thinking. In the sweltering heat, many of my ephemeral ideas come to me as if emerging from a mirage. In a second or two, they are gone. A few, however, stay around long enough to be committed to paper for later analysis. One such idea came to me recently, and, a few days later, I emailed William Penn Life's managing editor John Lovász about it.

Perhaps it's tradition, but I try to incorporate some ground-breaking (so might say controversial) material into my Takes this time of year, when I mark the anniversary of my first Take (published in September 2009) and

when we gather for WPA's Great Fraternal Fest at Scenic View. To me, there is no better time to showcase what is great about our culture and what we all can do to preserve it. Therefore, this month, I humbly submit for your approval a new feature to Tibor's Take, the "Hungarian Website of the Month."

I am sure many readers of William Penn Life have limited experience with the tools of the Digital Age. The computer, the word processor, Internet browsers and software programs are all very daunting parts of the electronic renaissance. Yet, these strange new tools are leading humanity down a new course of technological, social and cultural development. The historian in me likens this shift to those early humans who put down stone axes and picked up newly fashioned spears and swords of bronze.

In recognition of this shift, I believe the Hungarian community must utilize the Internet as not just a tool but as an ally. For example, by using the Internet, individuals can speak with one another, talk face-to-face and chat even if the distance separating them is many thousands of miles. While I was in Belgium on a recent business trip, the most reliable and inexpensive way for me to communicate with my family back in the States was via the Internet. When my great-grandparents made a similar voyage to America almost 100 years ago, there was no way for them to contact their family back in Hungary beyond a slow and unreliable postal system. But, today,

I can send letters, photos, videos and even books across vast distances in a matter of seconds. This power can be

Did you know they're Hungarian?

Continuing in the spirit of recent musings about American-Magyars and WPA members using new technologies to preserve our past, I present another Hungarian-born American who is a major force in computers: Andy Grove.

Dairy farmers Gabor and Mari Grof celebrated the birth of their son András on Sept. 2, 1936. The family soon moved from rural Hungary to Budapest in search of better opportunities. For the first 20 years of his life, András experienced a long series of oppressive governments led by Communists, Russians and Nazis. During the waning days of the 1956 Revolution, he escaped from Hungary. After spending several months as a refugee in Austria, he was able to come to America and lived with relatives in Brooklyn, New York. In 1958, he met another Magyar refugee, Eva Kastan, and soon married.

While attending college, he decided to change his last name to “Grove.” In I960, he received a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering and, three years later, a doctorate from the University of California. He could have obtained a well-paying job as an engineer but chose to shift gears career-wise and explore the world of computer electronics.

Soon after graduation, he was hired by Fairchild Industries. There he became deeply involved in the early production of mainframe computers. Within a few years, he co-founded the now famous INTEL Corporation. He was instrumental in transforming the company from a memory chip maker to a producer of microprocessors. This transition helped his fledgling company become the world’s largest manufacturer of this vital computer component. He also helped develop the Pentium processor.

In 1997, Time magazine named him its “Man of the Year.” The author of several books, Grove has been critical of American manufacturers that develop new products here but produce the actual items in a different country.

Andy and Eva have two daughters. He is a prostate cancer survivor and in 2000 was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. Ö

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