Blogging the Aloha State and Beyond
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...
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, a local tech company has launched a new dating and networking app that’s designed to connect people based on where and when they’re available to meet. Moment Romance launched last week on both the iOS and Android app store. While most dating apps have fallen back on...
Some Hawaii’s newest full-stack software developers have unveiled a new website designed to take a mountain of government data and turn it into a visual, browsable, useful resource for Hawaii’s largest and most vital industry. HiViz makes it easy to explore visitor market data that’s currently published only in spreadsheet form by the Hawaii...
An internationally acclaimed “fashionable technology” designer Anouk Wipprecht is coming to Honolulu next week to lead workshops that will culminate in a Saturday fashion show. Wipprecht’s work has captured imaginations worldwide, harnessing 3-D printers, sensors, lights, motors, and other materials and tools to create things like her metal electric dress, smoke...
“Once you taste this coffee, you’ll never go back to Starbucks again.” That’s the bold pitch for Carta Coffee Merchants, founded in Kona by third-generation winemaker Scott Burr. “I grew up on a small winery south of San Francisco, where I learned firsthand that it takes a lot of hard work...
San Francisco musician Curt Yagi is flying out for a short Honolulu tour next week, following up a set of successful gigs on Maui last year. The award-winning singer songwriter and his band “The People Standing Behind Me” are known throughout the Bay Area for “happy acoustic rock with a touch of...
Hawaiian music legend Cyril Pahinui turned to Kickstarter to fund what he called his “lifetime dream project,” and the community stepped up as his campaign to crowdfund a music video series surpassed its $65,000 goal yesterday. “We received a few texts and calls while at work today with the incredible news,”...
This weekend brings the second annual Hawaii Con, a sci-fi and fantasy convention that seemed like a long shot when it was pitched on Kickstarter in August 2013. Suddenly, it’s one of the local incumbents in a crowd of other conventions staking out territory in the Aloha State. But Hawaii Con...
The eclectic mix of topics and presenters continues with Nerd Nite Honolulu, reconvening on Tuesday with talk of bees, poop, and analytical chemistry. As always, the conversation will be facilitated by live music and alcohol. Honolulu is one of more than 90 cities with Nerd Nite events, which revolve around...
Duke Kahanamoku, Hawaii’s most celebrated surfer and athlete, is the focus of a new, original exhibit that opened today at Bishop Museum. On Thursday, the museum will host documentary film screening and a panel discussion dedicated to his legacy. Born 125 years ago this month, Kahanamoku was a beach boy...
This is the true story of six strangers picked to live in a remote, high-elevation geodesic dome, work together, and have their lives monitored to find out what happens when people stop being polite, and start getting real. Well, not really. But the ongoing series of long-duration space simulation experiments conducted on the slopes...
There is absolutely no doubt that Wally Amos loves making cookies. At age 79, he’s been at it for 40 years, much of it against the odds. And now, the latest incarnation of his cookie business has found a new outlet. “Clearly, I am proving you are never too old to quit, eating...
Local improv comedy maven Kimee Balmilero is leading a pair of concurrent week-long summer camps for kids next week. In addition to another installment of Camp BizGym, dedicated to creating “kidpreneurs,” she is also launching Hawaii’s first “Comedy Camp.” Both camps are open to fifth through twelfth graders, and are a...
Robert Welch is a long-time avid tabletop gaming fan, spending hours playing board games with friends while working as an English as a Second Language teacher. He was a regular customer of Just For Fun, a hobby shop in Aiea, and just happened to be friends with the nephew of owner Glen...
Eric Nakamoto has spent five years chasing the poetic but precarious dream of flying for a living, giving up a stable teaching job, selling his Aiea condo, and taking off for the mainland on a wing and a prayer. “I had to seek training on the mainland because almost everyone...
My obsession with drones (a.k.a. quadcopters, UAVs, UASes, RPASes, yadda yadda yadda) is well documented, and I’m certainly not along among camera and gadget geeks. The images and video clips that they can capture from above can be incredible, and there are hundreds of drone videos uploaded to YouTube every month....
My first introduction to Kimee Balmilero was on “Hi-5,” a kids’ show on Discovery Kids that my family would watch. (We had our TiVo set to always have the last ten episodes on tap.) My wife, who has a good sense of these things, said, “Kimee sounds local.” Sure enough, a...
This was an incredible week for “LOST” fans. With the 10th anniversary of the hit TV show came dozens of tributes from all corners of the world, including a fantastic package of stories by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. The Lost 2014 tour, years in the making, brought hundreds of fans to “The...
Globetrotting dancer Matt Harding has, at long last, posted his latest “Where the Hell is Matt?” video. And among the many clips making up the montage, we see him attempting a fire dance in Kihei on Maui. The two-second scene appears along with other dances in places ranging from Texas to...
The Hawaii Geek Meet will once again be held at Magic Island in Ala Moana Beach Park, Picnic Area #40, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. this Sunday, April 15. You can RSVP on Facebook, but what matters most is that you join us. Bring your friends, your family, some...
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