Blogging the Aloha State and Beyond
On the national front, we had the Stop Online Privacy Act (SOPA), beaten back by a massive groundswell of opposition from major internet firms and grassroots geeks alike. Here in Hawaii, a proposed law that would have required internet service providers to track and save user data for two years...
A total of six teams participated in Honolulu’s first civic hackathon this past weekend, each developing anapplication that takes advantage of public data made available online by the city. The top three teams won cash prizes provided by the hackathon’s sponsors, and two of them focused on TheBus and its web...
Gov. Neil Abercrombie yesterday delivered his second “State of the State” address before the Legislature. And technology was one of the priorities he singled out as key to the state’s long-term future. He mentioned the Hawaii Broadband Initiative, consolidation of disparate state systems under the Office of Information Management and Technology,...
This year is looking to be a big year in open data, e-democracy, and Gov 2.0. More information is coming online, and more people are thinking of ways to use it. Among the most interesting areas is in mapping and location-based applications.
Nearly 150 people — including both city and state government officials and employees, as well as local programmers, designers, artists, and activists — were drawn to CityCamp Honolulu on Saturday. Even though it was the weekend, and even though there was a UH home game on the calendar, it was heartening to...
It was over a year ago when “Bartleby’s Book of Buttons,” a delightful digital storybook for iPad, hit Apple’s App Store. Created by Hawaii-born artist Henrik Van Ryzin and his wife Denise, I found the app to be a delightful, wonderful digital storybook for the iPad. That first release was dubbed...
Two middle school students from Kailua and Hilo represented the Aloha State in a national science competition earlier this week. Winners and finalists in the sixth, seventh, and eighth grade from across the country attended at a black-tie gala at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C on Tuesday. Robert...
Check out this real-life “Angry Birds” game, set up by local tech company HONBLUE (and sister company JET Graphics) yesterday at the Pacific Building Trade Expo. “Angry Birds” is one of the hottest, biggest video games out there, and it was inevitable that people would start to recreate it in...
Kids love iPhones (and iPads). And kids love YouTube. The problem is, there are a lot of videos on YouTube that aren’t meant for kids. Among geek parents, it’s a nearly universal challenge, usually involving “helicopter browsing.” And it’s safe to say parents don’t always relish the prospect of watching...
Local developer and dad Mattias Atterbom has designed an iOS app to help solve a familiar family shopping challenge: remembering how old everyone’s children are. Described as “the perfect app for anyone buying gifts for kids,” Kiddori ensures that you always have the ages of your nephews, nieces, and friends’...
Honolulu-born web entrepreneur Eric Nakagawa is back in town, laying the groundwork for his next internet startup with partner Joyce Kim. Called “Simple Honey,” there are few details on what exactly what the company will do, although Nakagawa has described it as a “high profile travel project.” The “About” page tagline reads, “Making...
A federal program to train government employees, first responders, and other disaster response personnel in the use of services like Twitter and Facebook got its first trial run yesterday. The Hawaii-based National Disaster Preparedness Training Center (NDPTC) held a pilot demonstration of its course titled “Social Media for Natural Disaster...
In an effort to help strengthen the local software development community, the High Tech Development Corporation (HTDC) and Blue Planet Foundation are launching a monthly series of networking events called “Thirsty Third Thursday.” The first “Triple T” event is taking place Thursday, July 21, at P.F. Chang’s China Bistro. Henk...
The first ever conference devoted to the open source Drupal content management system is coming this Thursday. Drupal Camp Hawaii is taking place at ING Direct in Waikiki, and will bring together both beginners and experienced Drupal developers to explore the full potential of the platform. While WordPress gets a...
I’m always excited to see new and creative things come out of Hawaii’s tech scene. But “Sushi Star,” a new game for the iPhone, is an app that I’m especially happy to see finally launch. “Sushi Star” hit the Apple App Store last week. A beautifully designed and carefully architected...
Google Street View is going off-road in Hawaii. Or, at least, on college campuses on O’ahu. My friend and radio co-host Burt Lum snapped the above photo this morning on the Kapiolani Community College campus, where the Google Street View Trike is now riding through all of the school’s walking...
I’ve long been intensely interested in “lifelogging.” Though there are many different labels and variations, the basic concept revolves around the constant and automatic recording of your day-to-day life. And while it’s rough around the edges, the Lifelapse app [iTunes Link] for iPhone and iPod touch — just released today...
How much electricity do you use? Chances are, you can only answer that question once a month, when your electricity bill arrives. And if the numbers have gone up, you’ll probably tell yourself you need to cut back. But chances also are that you won’t think about it again. At...
In recent years, there’s been a resurgence of enthusiasm for do-it-yourself projects, particularly with an engineering or technical bent. Though it may inspire visions of Rube Goldberg contraptions and accidental electrocutions, the vibrant movement is growing fast, celebrated at annual Maker Faire events (organized by the publishers of Make Magazine)...
Square is a startup that hopes to do nothing less than transform the way people pay for goods and services. The company was started by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey (who recently returned to Twitter while continuing to lead Square), someone obviously no stranger to disruptive technologies. A tiny, cheap card...
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