Blogging the Aloha State and Beyond
The Hawaii Venture Capital Association (HVCA) will hand out a whole slate of awards on Thursday. The “Startup Paradise” community is invited to the Waialae Country Club to celebrate the best of local innovation in the past year. Described as the 15th annual awards gala, next week’s event comes after a...
On Tuesday, local professionals in information and communications technology (ICT) will meet at a “first annual” conference to explore the latest technology trends. But anyone who has been in the industry for even a little while will feel a bit of deja vu. The event is being organized by the Hawaii Information...
Adventure seekers love to push boundaries and take risks. If they were invincible and immortal, this wouldn’t be a problem. But nobody is invincible and immortal, and too often in Hawaii, crossing the line is not a victimless crime. Just yesterday the Honolulu Board of Water Supply said it no longer wants...
It seems as if I can’t go more than a few days without writing something about drones. Things are definitely changing quickly in the UAV space. If you’re either a drone pilot or want to become one, there are a couple of notable opportunities coming up to learn more. This Friday, preeminent...
The University of Hawaii system is offering its first joint video game development class between its Mānoa and West O‘ahu campuses, with students connectinve live across 15 miles thanks to the CyberCANOE. The CANOE (Collaborative, Analytics, Navigation and Observation Environment) is an immersive space that allows students and researchers to explore worlds of data in...
While the Federal Aviation Administration today took a big step forward in its regulation of unmanned aerial vehicles, Hawaii state lawmakers are still struggling to things out at the local level. A proposed Hawaii senate bill, SB579, would make it “unlawful for any law enforcement agency to use an unmanned...
“It is good to love many things, for therein lies the true strength,” Vincent Van Gogh is said to have said, and on this Valentine’s Day, there was a special gathering for people who love the First Amendment. The Davis Levin First Amendment Conference was held today, organized by the ACLU of...
The web is littered with videos of drone crashes. Some of them are pretty spectacular, but fortunately few of them are captured in Hawaii. But last weekend, a local quadcopter pilot created one of Honolulu’s most memorable entries. In a video posted to YouTube, we watch and listen as a DJI Phantom quadcopter loses contact...
The monthly “Honolulu Science Cafe” meetups enter their seventh year this month, with Tuesday’s event featuring Andy Kaufman the University of Hawaii researcher (not Andy Kaufman the late “eccentric American entertainer”). Kaufman is going to be talking about the “Aloha of Plants,” exploring the power of plants in our everyday lives. “Honolulu Science Cafe”...
Sony Pictures today released the first trailer for its upcoming filmed-in-Hawaii feature titled, simply, “Aloha.” And its pedigree is impressive. It’s directed by Cameron Crowe, who was also behind the Oscar-winning films “Jerry Maguire” and “Almost Famous” (and my wife’s favorite film, “Say Anything”). It stars Bradley Cooper (still riding high...
In the works for more than a year, California-based Real Office Centers is preparing to open its sixth location (and its first outside the Golden State) in Honolulu, with a “sneak peek” preview event on Thursday. ROC taken over a 15,000-square-foot corner office building in Chinatown, at the former Won Kwok...
With Valentine’s Day on Saturday, I’m probably not alone in looking for something special for someone special this week. While I’d love to scour the island day and night, chances are I’m going to have to do my treasure hunting from my office in Dole Cannery. Fortunately, there are some interesting options...
When I heard about this weekend’s WordCamp Maui event, I figured some people might have other plans for Valentine’s Day. Turns out you can also spend Friday, Feb. 13 and Saturday, Feb. 14 at The Sullivan Center at ʻIolani School at a Mobile App Hackathon. The event, cosponsored by the University of...
Today, over 100 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute. Every minute. And videos account for 78 percent of all internet traffic (and that number is expected to hit 84 percent by 2018). It’s hard to believe just how hard it was to do online video less than two...
Hawaii lawmakers are considering a bill that would allocate half a million dollars to host makerspaces in public libraries. As longstanding hubs of knowledge for communities, it makes sense for libraries to expand their offerings — from books to internet access, and now tools for tinkering and creating. Last month, Sen. Glenn Wakai...
I confess, I’m hopelessly unqualified to fully appreciate rap and hip hop music. But it turns out there’s a way to start with rap and hip hop music, add in some databases and algorithms, and with some serious talent in design and data visualization, generate a whole new level of art. Two...
Common sense says that you shouldn’t post anything to Facebook that you wouldn’t want your boss to see. But because common sense isn’t especially common, a bill before the Hawaii state legislature this session hopes to set some boundaries. The House committee on labor and public employment yesterday considered a bill...
I’m not too swift when it comes to coding. But a meetup next week has nonetheless piqued my interest. Two years ago, my New Year’s resolutions included “get my ham radio license” and “learn to code.” Last year, I said I wanted to “get my real estate license” and “learn...
The summer of 1995. Bill Clinton was president. A First Class stamp cost $0.32. The first Boeing 777 entered service for United Airlines, and Joe Montana announced that he was retiring from football. I was 20 years old, very much in love with my girlfriend (now wife), and living in...
I’m one of those sports ball neophytes who’s more interested in Super Bowl commercials than the game itself. And obviously, the NFL would rather people talk about deflated footballs than some of its messier problems. But this year’s big game ads did tackle some heavier topics, from the chilling “NO...
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