Bytemarks

Maybe I would have been a rocket scientist or a brain surgeon if summer sessions like this were available back in my day. Pacific Center for Environmental Studies (PaCES) is a six-week intensive course for high school juniors and seniors held at Windward Community College. This past Tuesday, I had a chance to spend an [...]

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Rather quietly, the Kaiwo Maru slipped into Honolulu Harbor just returning from a 150 year Anniversary celebration in San Francisco. The Kaiwo Maru is a modern day replica of the Kanrin Maru sailing vessel that made the first historic all-Japanese trans-Pacific voyage from Toyko to San Francisco back in 1860. It was at a time [...]

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Graffiti art or street art as I like to refer to these pieces, stirs feelings that range from awe to disgust in those that view it. Born out of the street punk movement dating back to the late 70′s and early 80′s in the subways of New York City, this was a statement by rebellious [...]

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This year’s VEX Robotics Competition, held on Dec 4-5, involved the clearing of balls from one side of the field onto the other. Opponents needed to build robots that could pick up nerf size soccer balls and footballs and either dump them into the opponents area, shove them through a small window or throw them [...]

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This week of Thanksgiving is special for a number of reasons. Family and friends are always always top of mind but it is a time to take stock of the goodness that has come your way in 2009. It is also the start of the Makahiki season and a time to rejoice in rejuvenation of [...]

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Update 9/19/09: The Discovery Channel website has since updated their Native Hawaiian Snail picture with an actual Achatinella photo. While researching news items for Bytemarks Cafe I came across this story on the Discovery website about rats devastating the Native Hawaiian snail population. Interesting story but I was taken aback by this photo supposedly depicting [...]

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A couple of Friday’s ago, while I was standing in line at the Empty Bowl fundraiser for Hawaii Potter’s Guild at Art at Mark’s Garage, Lesa Griffith comes up to me and hands me this flyer. I was already in sensory overload with my bowl in had, Mochi on her leash, people everywhere and me [...]

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The VEX competition is a relatively new program in Hawaii. It’s an intermediary program between the Lego League and First Robotics and offers it participants continued involvement with robotics initiated first by Lego League and building up to the more rigorous First Robotics competition. This competition took place this past weekend at the Honolulu Convention [...]

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The State of Hawaii Dept. of Education and Dept. of Business, Economic Development and Tourism have successfully implemented various robotics competitions and now getting widespread participation throughout Hawaii and beyond. The VEX Robotics Competition is the most recent event taking place in December. Here are some of the highlights: The Pan Pacific VEX Robotics Championship [...]

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