Blogging the Aloha State and Beyond
My latest “Civil Geeks” column features a new website designed to help Hawaii residents cope with life downwind of an active volcano. The website — along with a booklet of frequently asked questions, a brochure and poster about protecting yourself during vog episodes — came together following a 2015 study by Horwell, which looked at how...
The latest Geek Beat segment is inspired by the World Conservation Congress, held in Hawaii and the U.S. for the first time in more than 60 years. In addition to the IUCN event, we talk about a new app out of the University of Hawaii called Landscape M.D., and a...
I got to interview one of my favorite scientists for my latest “Civil Geeks” column. Christie Wilcox is a beloved and respective science blogger and communicator who recently published her first book. “Venomous: How Earth’s Deadliest Creatures Mastered Biochemistry“: “The book gave me the chance to share the awesomeness of...
On the latest Geek Beat, we cover the introduction of Instagram Stories (a shot across the bow of Snapchat), the expanding of Twitter Moments, and an update to Pokemon Go to help players find the Pokemon they seek.
Astronomers in Hawaii play a critical role in the search for planets orbiting stars beyond our own solar system. My latest “Civil Geeks” column explores a recent sky survey that identified over 100 new exoplanets. Although the existence of alien life will be hard to prove, it’s becoming increasingly probable....
For this morning’s “Geek Beat” segment on the Hawaii News Now Sunrise morning news show, we tackled a trio of tech stories: The ability to applied for “Verified” status on Twitter: I’ve coveted the “blue checkmark” since they first showed up, but up until now there was no way to...
As much as I love the latest and greatest technology, I appreciate the classics. After spending time with a bunch of local ham radio operators at an early Hawaii Geek Meet, my friend Burt and I were inspired to get our ham radio licenses. (I’m KH6WEB, nice to meet you.) Amateur...
There was no way to avoid talking about Pokemon Go this morning, considering how massively popular the newly launched game has become in just a few days. But this morning’s Sunrise “Geek Beat” segment allowed me to spend a little time giving credit where credit is due. Before there was...
Though touched on in last week’s “Geek Beat” morning news segment, I devoted today’s Civil Beat “Civil Geeks” column to a deeper dive into the opportunities available to local businesses now that the FAA has finally announced its new rules for the commercial operation of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASes), or...
New rules for commercial drone use led off this week’s “Geek Beat” segment on the Hawaii News Now “Sunrise” morning show. We also touched on the growing popularity of first-person view (FPV) drone racing, including a recent competition on Maui and the upcoming Drone Worlds championships taking place at Kualoa Ranch in October....
My latest “Civil Geeks” column for Civil Beat introduces the everyday people behind one of the most popular navigation apps in the world. Waze, acquired by Google in 2013, incorporates traffic and incident reports from its more than 50 million users, giving it unmatched real-time information on everything from accidents to...
Two big tech conferences kicked off this week: Apple’s World-Wide Developers Conference and E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo. We shared the highlights on this morning’s “Geek Beat” segment on the Hawaii News Now Sunrise morning news show. Apple’s big keynote covered all four of the company’s software platforms: iOS (for...
My latest “Civil Geeks” column for Civil Beat is an island-hopping survey of the Hawaii maker movement. I check in with The Makery in Hilo, Kauai Makerspace, Maui Makers, and Oahu Makerspace, as well as Honolulu Mini Maker Faire organizer Jon Shear. I loved interviewing some of the state’s most...
New alternative keyboards for iOS were the subject of this week’s “Geek Beat” segment for the Sunrise morning news show on Hawaii News Now. Smartphone keyboards are a pretty esoteric topic, nor particularly easy to install, but because of their system-level, cross-application nature, they offer a significant array of new...
My latest “Civil Geeks” column for Civil Beat provides an update on the XLR8UH accelerator program, a partnership between the University of Hawaii and local early-stage startup investment firm Sultan Ventures. Now 18 months in, and on the verge of announcing the members of its fourth cohort for Summer 2016, XLR8UH Managing...
On this week’s “Geek Beat” (part of the “Sunrise” morning news show on Hawaii News Now), Burt Lum and I told Dan Cooke about apps that let you host your own show online. We featured three different ways to share your conversations online: in text, video, and audio. First up...
It was a good week for car geeks, as Tesla unveiled its next and most affordable electric vehicle yet, the Tesla Model 3. It also racked up a ton of pre-orders, mostly from people who hadn’t even seen the car. We also check in on the most established electric vehicle...
Apple’s latest announcements, made at a low-key “Town Hall” hosted at its Cupertino campus, were the focus of this morning’s “Geek Beat” segment on Hawaii News Now’s “Sunrise” morning show. Burt and I talked with Dan Cooke about: The new-ish iPhone SE: Essentially the latest and greatest specs (from the...
On Saturday, the 9th annual Unconferenz will be held at the Neil Blaisdell Center. While the grassroots vibe and dynamic, open program of the very first one in 2008 still makes up the event’s core, there are a lot of bold new ideas taking shape this year. Yes, the Unconferenz still resists the...
The 16th Annual Hawaii Venture Capital Association Deal of the Year Awards were presented last night at the Waialae Country Club. I was there to support my friend and Smart Yields cofounder Vincent Kimura, who was nominated for — and won! — the award for Cleantech/Agtech Entrepreneur of the Year. While the...
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