Bytemarks

Each week I pore through Google alerts to find Hawaii’s science and tech news. These are my finds for December 26th through December 28th:

• Solar Companies Get Another Boost from the PUC – State regulators have rejected a proposal by Hawaiian Electric Co. to require solar companies to install expensive remote monitoring systems for small solar photovoltaic systems.
• Navy gets OK to buy two Hawaiian superferries – Congress has given the Navy the green light to spend up to $35 million to acquire two Hawaiian superferries from the U.S. Maritime Administration.
• Honolulu Civil Beat – Civil Beat Business – OluKai To Present TEDxMaui Conference – Olukai has announced it will present its first version of the independently produced TED conference. The spin off, dubbed TEDxMaui, will be a one-day event featuring 18 speakers from the islands of Hawaii and beyond.
• Pilot program to advance Race to the Top initiatives | Hawaii 24/7 – The state Department of Education has announced the creation of a new three-year pilot program to begin in the 2012-13 school year.

John Heckathorn was a prominent figure in Hawaii's media and journalism circles. He was a publisher, columnist, teacher and a friend to many. John was one of the few traditional media personalities that made the successful transition to new media. He passed on Christmas day of a heart attack.

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John Heckathorn, we'll miss you.
Everyone who got a chance to cross paths with John knows his passion, humor and intelligence. He will be missed but he will live on in our hearts.

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Each week I pore through Google alerts to find Hawaii’s science and tech news. These are my finds for December 18th through December 24th:

• Honolulu Seawater Air Conditioning does pipeline survey – Honolulu Seawater Air Conditioning announced Monday it has completed a pipeline survey that moves its $250 million project forward.
• Earth Has Two Moons, But It’s Not What You Think – Technology – The Atlantic Wire – In a day packed with astronomy news, researchers at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu came out today and declared that earth probably has two moons at any one time.
• Hawaii utility to make gas from vegetable oil – Hawaii’s gas utility has a new plant that will transform vegetable oil, coconut oil, and other fats and oils into gas.
• Closest Type Ia supernova in decades solves a cosmic mystery | e! Science News – On August 24 of this year, searching data as it poured into DOE’s National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) from an automated telescope on Palomar Mountain in California, Nugent spotted a remarkable object. It was shortly confirmed as a Type Ia supernova in the Pinwheel Galaxy, some 21 million light-years distant.
• Cosmic Log – Moon telescope tested on Earth – After a wild night on top of Hawaii’s Mauna Kea volcano, researchers report that they’ve successfully tested the remote-control system for a prototype telescope that could someday be looking at the cosmos from the surface of the moon.
• Governor Tours Proposed Maui Food Innovation Center | Maui Now – Governor Neil Abercrombie visited the University of Hawai’i Maui College and toured the site of a proposed food innovation center that would be housed in the college’s former cafeteria.

Bytemarks Cafe with Sonny Bhagowalia, Hawaii's CIO and Sandy Park, HTDC

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Historically, I usually get my new year calendar out at the beginning of the year. This year I had enough people nudge me by asking when my calendar was going to be ready. So in lieu of Xmas cards, here is my 2012 New Year calendar. I usually hand printed copies out personally since I find the face to face meaningful but in the off chance that I don’t see you in the coming weeks, you are welcome to download a copy and print up as many as you wish.

You might recognize some of the photos. The top photo is a sunrise shot of Diamond Head taken from the Kewalo end of Ala Moana Beach. It’s usually when I finish my morning run that the sun just peaks over the horizon.

The photo on the bottom left is a zen brush painting of a stylized character for dragon. 2012 is the year of the dragon so you can expect 2012 to be a dynamic year. In the middle is our daughter Mochi, sometimes referred to as Princess Mochi. She is half pug, half Tibetan spaniel. She welcomes me with all her heart when I come home. On the right is a ceramic piece my wife  Rochelle did of the Hindu deity Ganesh. He grants success, prosperity and protection against adversity. He also places and removes obstacles to keep us in check.

I hope you enjoy this year’s calendar. For my next blog post I am thinking about the top 10 things that made 2011 memorable. What made it on your list?

Impressive shots by Dallas Nagata of today's Arrival Ceremony at Hickam Air Force Base. The remains of fallen soldiers from WWII and the Vietnam War are being return to U.S. soil to be identified at the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command labs.

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December 9th, 2011 – JPAC Arrival Ceremony
December 9th, 2011 – JPAC Arrival Ceremony. Blog, Military, Photography Ceremony Hickam AFB Joint POW/MIA Accountability Command JPAC military No Comments. Today, I had the privilege of attending anot…

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Thank you to all for being an integral part of Honolulu’s first CityCamp. It was by all measures a great success, all because of you. I love how the community came together, shared knowledge and brainstormed ideas. It was inspiring to see City employees collaborating with the community in a productive, can-do environment.

As the day concluded, many people asked, what’s next? CityCamp Honolulu was just a catalyst, a spark that we must now nurture and fuel to create lasting change. As Forest Frizzell said, “we will continue to have monthly meetups throughout 2012 as we usher in Code for America.”

Some key dates to keep in mind:

• Fri-Sat, January 20-21, 2012 - CityCampHNL Hack-a-thon
• Saturday, February 25, 2012 – Unconferenz 2012

We will also keep you informed of any meetups that get scheduled through our Facebook page, Twitter and blog.

We wil also continue the conversation and develop our ideas online. Here are a couple resources I encourage you to participate in:

• CityCampHNL Google Group (Forum): This is where email threaded discussions can take place and be archived: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/citycamphnl
• CityCampHNL Wiki: This is where we are archiving the notes from the sessions and ideas as they develop: http://citycamphnl.wikispaces.com/

We got some great coverage of the event thanks to citizen journalist and the media:

• Restoring trust in government (Jason Hibbets, OpenSource.com)
• CityCamp Honolulu Advances Open Government Vision (Ryan Ozawa, HawaiiWeblog)
• Forward Thinking from Honolulu Hale (John Temple, Civil Beat)
• Hawaii joins the “city camp” initiative (KHON)
• Social Wire: CityCamp Honolulu (KITV)
• Tweet stream (Collected tweets from the event)
• Photos from OpenSource.com  (Opensource.com photo album)
• Pictures on Flickr: bytemarks, hawaii, madmarv
• CityCamp Honolulu (Video by Ryan Ozawa)

Thanks again for being a part of CityCamp Honolulu. We’ve made a great first step and I look forward to being a part of this ground breaking journey.

The first CityCamp Honolulu took place on December 3rd that brought together City specialists and engage citizens to explore ways to use technology to leverage City data. It's the first step in what many hope to be a path to Open Data, government transparency and civic engagement. Notes from CityCampHNL will be posted to http://citycamphnl.org. In the meantime here are photos from the event: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bytemarks/sets/72157628270251487/

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CityCamp Honolulu (97)
CityCamp Honolulu took place on Dec 3, 2011 at the Univ. of Hawaii Campus Center Ballroom. It was an opportunity to look at turning available City data into novel applications and drive citizen engagement.

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You can literally watch as the fronts move in. On a recent trip there most of the day was spent in a conference room teaching a class. The view out of our window was the Astoria Megler Bridge. There was a bit of sun on the first afternoon but a winter front rolled in bringing 50-60 mile an hour winds and freezing (horizontal) rain. It's beautiful country but it chilled me to the bone.

In album Astoria Megler Bridge (2 photos)

Astoria Megler Bridge 11/15

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In album Astoria Megler Bridge

Astoria Megler Bridge 11/16

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