Happy Independence Day Silicon Valley and the Bay Area!
Have a safe and happy 4th!
Category Archives: American Ingenuity
Hopaggedon Time
Now that the Zombie Apocalypse is upon us, (well at least a movie about it), it’s time to break out Napa Smith Brewery’s Hopageddon. This hoppy masterpeice goes down smooth and doesn’t have any of the bitterness associated with some hoppy brews.
13 days until Fedora 19 release
Fedora 19’s final release date is set for 13 days from now on July 2nd. Fedora 19 will offer support for 3D printing, BIND 10, GLIBC 2.17, PHP 5.5 and many other improvements and updates. Many of the updates to Fedora 19 or “Schrödinger’s Cat” will be incorporated into Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 (RHEL 7) to be released in the second half of 2013.
Update: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 was finally released on June 10th 2014. Read the Red Hat press release on RHEL 7 here.
Science students in Bishop, CA put a cow up to the edge of space
Launched on April 22nd 2013 to get a view of our planet on World Earth Day, EVA the cow braved the edge of space (without a helmet!) and parachuted back down to the surface. EVA is from Tauranga, New Zealand but made the trip to the California Edge of Space Port to ride a weather balloon to the altitude of 120,000 feet above the planet.
After parachuting into the harsh desert environment of Death Valley, EVA used the opportunity to begin training for her next mission: Jumping over the Moon!
Props to the Earth to Sky Science club for another successful Edge of Space mission.
The students of Earth to Sky Calculus continue to tap the “ESCape” button on Earth’s gravity with high altitude balloon launches and hope to launch a satellite in the future.
Rock out to the sound of dial-up internet
For those that remember the days before high speed internet via wifi and 4G cellular networks here’s a site to rock out to: http://www.dialupsound.com/
Have a good weekend and enjoy the sweet retro sounds of the dial-up modem.
Rain finally returns to Silicon Valley, break out the ThinkGeek umbrellas!
The radars at Weather.gov are showing the green blob of rain heading towards Silicon Valley and the Bay Area.
Be prepared with these geeky umbrellas from ThinkGeek!
Virgin America announces flights to Austin and Anchorage from San Francisco
Virgin America announced new scheduled flights from their hub at San Francisco International Airport. The still growing airline will offer direct flights to the Texas tech capital of Austin and summer seasonal to Anchorage, Alaska.
Virgin America is the only airline that has an airplane in the fleet named with a hashtag, #nerdbird in honor of their tech savvy, wired regular customers.
Read the Virgin America press release here.
Happy Groundhog Day Silicon Valley!
Well, here we are again. February 2nd. Groundhog Day. With no sign of Bill Murray, Punxsutawney Phil climbed out of his burrow in the small Pennsylvania town and didn’t see his shadow. What does that mean? Spring is just around the corner for you winter weary residents of Silicon Valley. Tired of temperatures dipping below 40 degrees and cold winter rain? Soon the warm sun of spring will be greeting you. At least according to the great groundhog prognosticator of Punxsutawney Phil. Or you could just check out NBC Bay Area’s site for a more accurate prediction.
Five Guys Burgers and Fries opens another location in Silicon Valley
Five Guys, famous for their burgers and fries, just opened a new location in San Jose, California at the Westlake Shopping Center on Prospect Avenue. This brings the total Silicon Valley area Five Guy’s locations to 9 with locations in Sunnyvale, Fremont, Belmont, Redwood City and multiple locations within the sprawling borders of the city of San Jose.
Check out the Five Guys store locator map here.
Airship Ventures ceases operations
Sadly, as of November 14th 2012, Airship Ventures ceased operations. No more will their giant airship Eureka be seen floating over SiliconCali and the Bay Area.
Due to the nature of Zeppelin travel, a slow moving airship with a large cross section that gets pushed around by the wind, weather conditions can cancel a planned trip at any time. This probably didn’t help the profitability of the company as people that book flights don’t realize the fickle nature of lighter than air vessels. And they never managed to secure a full time financial sponsor.
#saveeureka
Airship Ventures press release:
AIRSHIP VENTURES CEASES OPERATIONS
Airship Ventures Ceases Operations
Lacking Sponsorship, World’s Largest Passenger Airship Grounded as of Today
MOFFETT FIELD, Calif., November 14, 2012 – Airship Ventures, operators of the world’s largest passenger airship, the Zeppelin Eureka, have announced today that despite history-making successes and a stellar performance and safety record, they will be ceasing operations immediately.
“Operating this unique aircraft has been an inspiring experience and it is with a very heavy heart that we’ve come to this point requiring us to cease operations and ground Eureka,” commented Airship Ventures CEO Brian Hall. “Our team is the best at what they do and their dedication to Eureka, our passengers and our dream of flying a Zeppelin in the USA has been remarkable. I’m beyond sad to disband their talents and leave Moffett Field, our friends and fans without an active airship.”
Blending the romance of the “golden age of aviation” with the latest in high-technology, Airship Ventures, founded in 2007, brought a Zeppelin NT (“New Technology”) airship to the USA for flightseeing, science missions, media and advertising operations.
Passenger flights began in 2008 in the Bay Area (Silicon Valley, Oakland and San Francisco) and Long Beach, and most recently expanded to California’s beautiful wine country. 2012 saw the addition of behind-the-scenes educational ground tours of the airship. In addition to passenger flights and advertising, the Eureka had performed a wide variety of special missions for government, science and research groups, including recent expansion into airship design, research and development.
Since its founding, the company had faced challenges including the economic recession that impacted regular passenger numbers and demanded the need for a regular sponsorship partner for the company to remain viable. Adding to this, a world helium shortage increased the company’s operating costs and pressure for a long-term sponsor that had not materialized.
However, even in the face of these challenges, Airship Ventures marked more than a few distinguished milestones:
• Created the first large scale passenger airship operation in the US since the 1930s.
• Welcomed the 20,000th passenger during a flightseeing tour over San Francisco in 2012.
• Celebrated four years of passenger operations in 2012.
• Completed a history-making, six-month coast to coast cross country tour in 2011.
• Covered 459.3 miles and broke the standing Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) airship distance record in 2010.
• Provided aerial coverage for the Rose Bowl Game, ESPN’s College Game Day, the Farmer’s Insurance Open, Zurich Classic, US Open of Surfing, Dew Tour, and Red Bull Flugtag
• Partnered with NASA and SETI on meteorite seeking missions over Sacramento and Sonoma, California, and with SETI on the study of extremophiles in the bay area salt ponds.
• Acted as a training vessel for the U.S. Air Force’s test pilots.
• Hired and trained both the first female Zeppelin pilot and first American female Zeppelin pilot
• Certified and demonstrated the use of Raymarine Radar and FLIR Systems infrared systems for use in the roles of Maritime Patrol and Search and Rescue with the airship.
• Did the first skydive over downtown Los Angeles from an airship in support of a major media event, and the first wingsuit jump from an airship over downtown San Francisco during a major technology conference
• Launched a social media campaign displaying the world’s largest Twitter hashtag as a decal on the airship.
Their website, airshipventures.com, is still active.
Though the scenario was likely faked for entertainment value, Top Gear’s infamous flying caravan zeppelin troubles demonstrate the problems with trying to fly in a particular direction in a lighter than air craft. And it was built from a hot air balloon, so technically it wasn’t a zeppelin.