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0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? e-edition | subscribe | newsletter | deals Home News Latest Stories Iron Mike loses his rifle ... again Commissioner's race: Ankerberg touts financial expertise Commissioner's race: Moro lauds energy efficiency jobs Commissioner's race: Dyer wants to attract high-tech jobs Applegate Dam hydroelectric project dead in water Crime, Courts and Emergency Services Iron Mike loses his rifle ... again Emergency services Ashland's Iron Mike statue has its gun stolen Hoppe and Peterson at it again in Jackson County judge's race Motorcycle crash southwest of Grants Pass kills one Politics and Elections Commissioner's race: Ankerberg touts financial expertise Commissioner's race: Moro lauds energy efficiency jobs Commissioner's race: Dyer wants to attract high-tech jobs Hoppe and Peterson at it again in Jackson County judge's race Oregon gubernatorial candidates debate in Medford Education Foundation kicks off ambitious 'Count Me In' fundraising campaign 100 hours and counting SOU students protest university's free-speech zone Boys & Girls Clubs bursting at the seams Phoenix High School restores homecoming parade Environment Applegate Dam hydroelectric project dead in water Fear of orphaned cubs nixes new spring bear hunt Josephine County ballot measure would ban commercial and government pesticide use Low water exposes Emigrant Lake's past Wagner Creek work would restore streambank State news Nation - World Obituaries Alvin Simmons Death Notices James Waldo Littlefield Francis Bagley Cecile (DeLozier) Weather Photo Galleries Since You Asked Videos Web Cams Mail Tribune 100 Sports Latest Stories Ashland defeats Marist in OT in boys soccer Frosh Schaan ignites Cascade Christian Panthers rumble past Axemen Springfield trips Ashland in battle of powers Junior Steelheads down Spartans Varsity 541 College Sports Raiders record sixth straight win Will Petersen have same magic against Ducks? Division races heating up in the Pac-12 No. 20 Utah sinks Beavers in two OTs Third-ranked Concordia fights off SOU, 3-1 Pro Sports Big finish gives Putnam piece of lead Seahawks trade Harvin to Jets It'll be seasoned Giants versus fresh Royals Ishikawa's homer sends Giants to World Series Patriots survive scare from Jets, 27-25 Community Sports LOCAL EVENTS LOCAL RESULTS Business Latest Stories Rogue Credit Union awaits southeast Medford opportunity People in Business Blog: Early Holiday Shopping Hundreds look for work at Harry & David hiring fair Frontier Airlines to end Eugene-Denver service Real Estate News Lithia buys Clovis dealership Rental vacancies increase Jackson County real estate sales, prices continue rebound Pallet Wine Co. expands in downtown Medford Medford's Pixel Productions moves to new quarters People In Business People in Business Transportation Frontier Airlines to end Eugene-Denver service Business Resource Fair has answers Erickson's Navy contract extended Lithia buys Clovis dealership Agriculture Hundreds look for work at Harry & David hiring fair Umpqua Holdings more than doubles net earnings Harry & David will hold hiring fair Thursday Ranchers offer livestock exchange 1-800-Flowers CEO: Labor shortage an issue for Harry & David Opinion Latest Reversing course: Hoppe for judge Letters to the editor Letters to the Editor, Oct. 17 Our view: With respect, our support goes to Bates Isolation won't work for U.S. or the world Editorials Reversing course: Hoppe for judge Our view: With respect, our support goes to Bates Our View: Bearnson, Stine, Lane for Medford council Our View: No clear favorite for county commissioner, position 1 Our View: It's time to legalize marijuana Letters to the Editor Letters to the editor Letters to the Editor, Oct. 17 Letters to the Editor, Oct. 16 Letters to the Editor, Oct. 15 Election Letters, Oct. 14 Guest Opinions Infill is the answer to growth issues Guest Opinion: Who’s really to blame for 2014 wildfires? Mt. Ashland is responding to community concerns Siskiyou Plus Spring Bear Hunt: What lies beneath? Guest Opinion: Who's to blame for 2014 wildfires? Lifestyle Latest stories Community blog: My New Best Selling Book Scenic with a capital 'S' New trails could garner scenic designation Community blog: Southern Oregon Micro and Nano Brewing Scene Fall 2014 Dr. Jeff Hersh: The enterovirus is not new Food Community blog: Southern Oregon Micro and Nano Brewing Scene Fall 2014 Community blog: Eggs make for economical, unconventional curry Mobile meals perfect for autumn forays Community blog: Green beans go global from gleaning garden Kitchen Call: Pumpkin is nothing without the spice Home and Garden Dear Monty: Is your real estate agent a secret agent? The best way to store your books A list to help you get ready for winter How to create a fashionable painted floor cloth Dear Monty: 7 prepping tips for home showings Health Community blog: My New Best Selling Book Dr. Jeff Hersh: The enterovirus is not new Dr. Murray Feingold: The first successful uterus transplant Health Watch: Skip the energy drink and reenergize naturally Officials warn of frauds touting fake Ebola cures Hiking Biking Faith Religion Briefs Religion Briefs Religion Briefs Religion briefs First Church of Nazarene plans cleanup Milestones and Achievements Southern Oregon Pride parade celebrates gay marriage ruling New Arrivals Still stifling laughter 40 years after 'Young Frankenstein' New Arrivals Columnist for a Day Rogue Healthy Aging Tempo Latest stories Yu's Yummy Yan's offers great take-out A cappella fellas sing for schools Theater's haunted house not for faint of heart Tutunov Piano Series begins at SOU Third Fridays in downtown Medford Theater Camelot presents 'The Lion in Winter' 'Carnage' is short, smart, darkly funny Randall Theatre presents 'Blithe Spirit' A tribute to a great lyricist 'Mrs. Mannerly' is a matter of manners Music A cappella fellas sing for schools The Farr Side: Bryan Adams releases album of influential hits Tutunov Piano Series begins at SOU Benefit for Nita Day at The Wild Goose Cafe in Ashland Call for musicians Community Events Theater's haunted house not for faint of heart Third Fridays in downtown Medford Works in progress Southern Oregon Pride Festival celebrates diversity Greater Medford Multicultural Fair Dining Yu's Yummy Yan's offers great take-out Agave offers tasty tacos Asian cuisine for all seasons at Misoya Bistro Spoons 'Get Giddy' at Porters Tempo Videos Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » Obituaries Blogs TV Listings Movie Listings Oregon Outdoors Oregon Healthy Living Magazines & Special Sections NEWS NOW Ashland's Iron Mike statue has its gun stolen ... Oregon gubernatorial candidates debate in Medford ... Elk season starts damp but not snowy ... Ashland's Iron Mike statue has its gun stolen ... Oregon gubernatorial candidates debate in Medford ... Elk season starts damp but not snowy ... Glimmers of Silicon in the Rogue Software pioneers came for the quality of life, made marks with groundbreaking technologies Software pioneers came for the quality of life, made marks with groundbreaking technologies By John Darling MailTribune.com By John Darling Posted Apr. 18, 2010 @ 2:00 am By John Darling Posted Apr. 18, 2010 @ 2:00 am Locals develop more than 100 iPhone and iPad ap... --> Rogue Valley residents continue to lead the computer world in new developments, particularly applications for Apple's iPhone and recently released iPad. Alan Oppenheimer of Open Door Networks in... » Read more X Locals develop more than 100 iPhone and iPad applications Rogue Valley residents continue to lead the computer world in new developments, particularly applications for Apple's iPhone and recently released iPad. Alan Oppenheimer of Open Door Networks in Ashland has developed more than 100 applications, most of them browsers that surf other Web sites and flash them on the screen. Selling anywhere from 99 cents to $10 each, the applications cover art, cars, fashion, haircuts, travel — all the things users want to explore without having to Google them individually. Oppenheimer and his partners have sold several hundred thousand apps, for which inventors receive 70 percent. The most popular and expensive one, the $10 ArtEnvi, lets users surf 40,000 works by 1,000 fine artists over many centuries. "We hope to take a break now," says Oppenheimer. "The last three years (since release of the iPhone) have been absurd." Their apps, viewable at http://we-envision.com/Page.asp?NavID=27 , cover an amazing array of hobbies, passions and fascinations, including Harley motorcycles, Porsches, training tools, dresses, shoes, decade events, Hubble space pictures — the list goes on. You shop and buy them on iTunes. Chris Ostmo, a self-taught app inventor and president of Steelhead Advertising in Ashland, in 2001 started AppIdeas — www.APPideas.com — and marketed journalPad, an app that serves as an e-book reader or allows you to keep a digital diary. The Eagle Point native also invented the Time Logger, which lets you punch in and out of projects you're working on, so you can accurately bill for your time. Writing apps, Ostmo says, is complex work in computer programming code. But is it hard? "That's like asking a mechanic if putting in a transmission is hard," he says. "It would be hard for you and me, but not for him." — John Darling » Social News Every time you type a letter on the computer, surf through a website, back up data or run an "app" on your iPhone, think of home — for some of the computer world's most significant breakthroughs were invented in the Rogue Valley. The area's natural beauty, quality of life and, most recently, reliable Internet infrastructure, have attracted masters of the digital age ever since Paul Lutus developed the first word processing program while living on a ridgetop cabin in the wilds of Southern Oregon. The Rogue Valley plays host to inventors of all kinds, some of whom are featured in "Inventions and Innovations: A Legacy of Blue Sky Ideas From Southern Oregon Thinkers and Tinkerers," this year's Our Valley edition included in today's Mail Tribune. Lutus was living in a tiny, homemade cabin outside Ashland when he developed Apple Writer, one of the original and most popular word processing programs. Released in 1979 for Mac users, that version limited users to writing only in capital letters. Two years later, the company released Lutus' Apple Writer II, which would become a staple in word processing and help propel Apple on its skyward trajectory. Calling himself a "cottage computer programmer," Lutus was a former NASA engineer who wrote poetry and tended a vegetable garden. In 1976, after he helped design the electronics for the space shuttle, he happened to see an ad in Scientific American for an Apple II. He promptly rode his bike to the post office and ordered one. Within weeks he'd written programs that made the Apple II draw pictures and play music — and Apple paid him for the programs, bringing in more money than he'd spent on the computer. A writer, Lutus decided to create the world's first word program, for which Apple paid him $7,500. Lutus didn't ask for royalties, an oversight he corrected in his newer Apple Writer program, according to the biography on his Web site, http://arachnoid.com. They became the most popular word programs of the day — and Lutus' world changed. He bought an airplane he likes to fly around Oregon and also a sailboat, which he sailed around the world and wrote about in "Confessions of a Long-Distance Sailor." Now he likes to photograph wildlife in remote areas. "Lutus was an extraordinary early pioneer who totally got what software was supposed to do," said Charlie McHenry, a computer historian and former member of the Oregon Telecommunications Forum Council. "It was the first write program for Apple. There was no word processing available 'til him." Paul Mace of Ashland achieved industry fame in the mid-1980s by saving owners of personal computers a lot of grief from crashed or accidentally erased hard drives. Most people thought if you erased a disk, there was nothing on it. But Mace said he figured out, while trying to write a defragmentation program, that "it's not gone." "I was the first to take the next step, and if I made a copy of the indexing information, I could put you back where you were," Mace said. His success with Mace Utilities was a story of coincidences, with influential Infoworld columnist John C. Dvorak getting an "over the transom" copy from Mace right after a hard drive crash. Mace was in Sunnyvale, Calif., in conference with a company that was about to buy the rights for 20 cents a copy, when his wife called and told him Dvorak was going to review it. Mace knew if Dvorak wrote that his software worked, he'd be famous, and if it didn't, he'd get clobbered. The call from his wife was on a speakerphone as the potential buyers were literally thrusting a pen into Mace's hand. "Instead, I went home, set up business lines, hired people and started production in an outbuilding," said Mace. The offices for Paul Mace Software went in across from the Ashland post office. "It was a whole new category of software," Mace said. Once it was proven successful, he sold it and it eventually was absorbed by Norton Utilities and Symantec. Since then, Mace has done many software projects, including animation software, figuring out how to allocate revenues generated by TiVo digital video recorder and writing a Symbolic Flight program that integrates GoogleEarth and GPS data so pilots always can see what's outside, even if it's foggy or dark. Paralleling the advances of Mace, Michael Burmeister-Brown, formerly of Central Point, created a utility package, Copy II Plus, that allowed the backup and management of files — this in the days of 51/4-inch floppy disks. "Floppies were very fragile," said Burmeister-Brown, in an interview from his Portland home. "The whole computer thing was pretty new. You would get some damage and the computer would no longer work. With Copy II Plus, you could copy a lot of programs and it allowed people to keep using their computers." Burmeister-Brown started his Central Point Software business in 1980. He created PC Tools, a software utilities suite, in 1985 and, with its success, moved operations to Beaverton. He sold CPS in 1994 to Symantec for $60 million, according to The New York Times. Of the early days in computer software, Burmeister-Brown said: "It was a new industry and all the companies were small. It made it easier to compete as a small company or as an individual. Today, it takes more people and it's harder to develop something." Burmeister-Brown said he's still involved in writing software and is now focused on developing wireless capabilities for low-income housing. "Mace and Mike Brown absolutely invented the software utility category," said McHenry. "Mace was the first one to successfully recover data from an inadvertently wiped drive. He was even consulted by the FBI because he could recover data from a drive that took a .45 bullet." Sage Weil of Ashland was only 16 when he invented WebRing, software that manages a collection of Web pages with a common theme, linking them and providing access through a common gateway. Weil developed the software in 1994, formed the WebRing company in 1997 and eventually sold it to Starseed, which was acquired by GeoCities, which in 1999 was acquired by Yahoo. One of the earliest of cyber-pioneers was the late John Backus, inventor in 1957 of Fortran. Early last decade, Backus moved to Ashland to spend his last years with his daughter. He led an IBM team in the development of the first general purpose and procedural programming language, essentially opening the doors for humans to talk to computers. So why were these creative lights ensconced in the relatively remote Rogue Valley, when, by all rights, they should have been in the cyber-hotbed of Silicon Valley? "Of course, these brainiacs came here for the quality of life," McHenry said. "They come on their own and set up shop. The downside has been the profoundly oppressive conservatism of the area. "In the '90s, we thought the Internet might pass the valley by, but the Oregon Telecom plan ... brought in some pretty big pipes to the Internet, and that's been really attractive." The Oregon Telecommunications Forum Council, which McHenry served on from 1997 to 1999, was created in 1995 by then-Gov. John Kitzhaber to develop strategies for expanding the state's telecommunications infrastructure, specifically the Internet. It also was charged with ensuring that access to that infrastructure was available throughout the entire state, including rural areas. John Darling is a freelance writer living in Ashland. E-mail him at [email protected]. By John Darling MailTribune.com By John Darling Posted Apr. 18, 2010 @ 2:00 am » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. calendar Connect with MailTribune.com Facebook Twitter RSS Back to top Reader Services Reader Services Home Subscriptions Subscriber controls Contact us Submissions Photos Events Letters to the editor Corrections Announcements Obituaries Story ideas Since you asked Alerts Email Alerts RSS Feeds Text Alerts Advertise Media Kit Home Products and services Ad rates Advertising contacts Mail Tribune Daily Tidings The Nickel Shop Our Valley Blogs Stay Informed Email newsletter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Your privacy is important, read our privacy policy. © Copyright 2014 Local Media Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 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