Cd'A native a pro at speeding up computers
A 22-year-old Coeur d'Alene entrepreneur, Travis Jank, owns NexGen Computer Systems. By way of Coeur d'Alene High School and the Bridge Academy, Travis is also a world-renowned and award-winning expert in the field of overclocking.
Until this weekend I'd never heard of overclocking but Travis' mom, Pam Jank, gave a fascinating explanation. Travis invents cooling systems that help push a computer to extreme speeds. Companies like ASUS, Intel & Koolance use Travis to demonstrate his Extreme Cooling System inventions, using their computer chips and motherboards in order to help rate them as the "World's Fastest," and trusting him with their newest unreleased chips to overclock. This is no small thing as the chips can be valued at $100,000.
Can you just imagine how far this visionary and talented inventor could go with financial "angel" support? ***
Last week KVNI's Teresa Lukens noticed my sister, Janna Scharf's, name in this column. Teresa e-mailed that her maiden name is Scharf, and wondered if there might be a chance they were from the same Scharf lineage. So I put Teresa in contact with Janna and while nothing is official, there's a likelihood that my brother-in-law Rick's Canadian family and Teresa's Minnesota relatives just might be connected by blood. Small world.***
Busy mom-of-three Katie Ogle needed a knight in shining armor last Friday when she found herself underdressed and running on empty. It was a rainy, windy day when she hurried off from her Hayden home to get her son, Brock, to Canfield Middle School.After dropping him off she was about a mile from home on Honeysuckle when the car sputtered. She attempted to make a U-turn to head back to a gas station when the car died in the middle of the road. So there was Katie in her flannel pajamas, robe and slippers pushing her car to the side of the road.
Since her husband Bryan was out of town, Katie called all of her neighbors and no one was home. Ron Ayers returned her call and came to the rescue with a can of gas and some robust laughter. Says Katie, "Lesson learned ... fill up the car when the gas light goes on, even if it is the usual rain/hail/sun/cloudy/snow/40-mph winds, Spring day in north Idaho. Oh, and always wear cute pajamas."
Good advice, Katie.***
Take the whole family out to the Greyhound Park tomorrow from 4 to 7 p.m. for the Post Falls Chamber's annual Commerce and Community Fair. You can visit over 80 booths and win lots of door prizes!***
Today's birthdays are being celebrated by Mark Robitaille and Joan Harmon. Tomorrow is tax deadline day and nephew Dallas Scharf turns 30 at Fort Benning, Ga., where he's in boot camp with the Idaho Army National Guard. Randy Teall, Tori Gray, Ian Waltz and Doug Harms share his April 15 birthday. On Friday J.D. Dickinson, Tom Fisher, Kevin Johnson and Leslie Gourley blow out the candles. Pat Krug and Peggy Fairfield have birthdays on Saturday and John Cross, Lisa Johnson and Branson McAlister are Sunday's birthday celebrants. Our son-in-law Rick Gonzalez shares an April 19 birthday with Rich Piazza and Rick Seymour. Hard to believe that my father would have turned 81 on Monday. My mother, Alice Rankin celebrates her 79th on Tuesday, sharing the birthdate with Jerome Pollos.***
THERE'S MORE: New stories and photos almost every day at More Main Street. There's a link on the righthand rail for adding your birthday to the Main Street Birthday Club for 2010!***
Kerri Rankin Thoreson is a member of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and the former publisher of the Post Falls Tribune. Main Street appears every Wednesday in The Press. More Main Street blog is at http://moremainstreet.blogspot.com. Kerri can be reached at mainstreet@cdapress.com.