Awesome view from the snowy summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii with a glowing orb floating among the high tech telescopes. What is that glowing orb floating around? A UFO? Or an artifact easily explained by the science of optics and light?
Category Archives: Random Tech
Mauna Kea Observatory at Sunset
Panoramic view of sunset from the Mauna Kea Astronomical Observatory using the Samsung Nexus panoramic image capture function of the built in camera. With high winds and well below freezing wind chill biting at my fingers, I wasn’t as smooth as I would like panning the phone across the horizon. The phone still managed to capture a decent panoramic photo of an amazing sunset from over 13,000 feet with some of the worlds most advanced ground based telescopes in the foreground.
View from Hawaiian Volcano Observatory at Night
The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory has been keeping a careful watch of the volcanoes on the Big Island of Hawaii for 100 years now. From here you can peer out to the edge of the Halema`uma`u crater which currently has lava a few hundred feet below the crater rim.
SiliconCali.com is back to work on Monday! Check out the resources at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory website and Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Akira Yoshizawa Gets His Own Origami Inspired Google Doodle
Akira Yoshizawa’s birthday is honored by a Google doodle celebrating his origami skill. Why is origami important? From parachutes to solar panels to high gain radio antennas, all of these must be folded to fit in a small space capsule before getting shot into space. The process of folding these delicate parts so that they deploy smoothly in space is both an art and a science.
Squishable Androids Party on the Couch
Why yes, even giant Squishable Androids need a break from all that flying around the circuits of your smartphones and tablets.
SiliconCali.com will be taking a break this week. Many more posts coming that will cover Unix, Linux and Windows sysadmin as well as tech and travel. Have a good week!
Bloomberg West Celebrates One Year of Covering the Business of Tech
Bloomberg Television’s Bloomberg West turns one this week. In that one year span of time there has been a lot of breaking tech news of which the effects were felt around the world.
The one hour show is mainly about innovation and it’s relation to the tech industry. The VC deals and new technologies that fuel the innovation that Silicon Valley is known for are part of Bloomberg West’s important coverage for those that follow tech. You’ll routinely see some of the top names in tech being interviewed on Bloomberg West.
A few of these titans of tech include:
Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen
eBay CEO John Donahoe
LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner
The Bloomberg West Team is:
Emily Chang
Cory Johnson
Jon Erlichman
Look for them to cover news on the iPad 3, Facebook’s IPO, The iPhone 5 and Google’s unannounced possible Android Tablet in the coming year.
If you’re not watching Bloomberg West, you’re missing the best hour of tech business coverage.
Below is their “A Year in Tech in 90 Seconds” clip showcasing the biggest stories of Bloomberg West’s first year on the air. (Yes this video is actually longer than 90 seconds, but includes the 90 second clip)
Strong Solar Flare Could Spark Geomagnetic Storm
A large sunspot, number 1429, sparked a powerful solar flare that sent super energetic particles towards earth. They are expected to impact earth in the early morning hours.
NASA’s Goddard Space Weather Lab forecast track here.
A strong solar flare like this one can trigger a geomagnetic storm when the proton stream impacts Earth’s protective magnetic field causing disruptions to radio and satellite based communications. It may also cause colorful auroras to be seen at lower latitudes where they aren’t normally visible.
Mars Closest to Earth for 2012 Tonight
Be sure to step outside tonight and take in the bright red glow of Mars closest approach to Earth for 2012.
Even though the planet Mars is at it’s closest to Earth for 2012, there isn’t any danger of invading Martian tripods attacking tonight. They’re waiting for December 2012. 😉
Pictures from tonight:
Or have aliens already landed?
Snow for WordPress Melts Away
With Silicon Valley temperatures climbing to the mid 70’s today, it’s time to switch off the snow for WordPress plugin. There may still be snow up in Tahoe, but it’s downright balmy down here in Silicon Cali. I’ve been using the Snow Storm plugin by Scott Schiller.
| Snow Storm
Activate | Edit | Delete
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Add’s Javascript snow effect to your blog, thanks to Scott Schiller |
Mars at Opposition
Mars is at opposition tonight. If your skies are clear go outside and take a look. If not take a look at Google Sky and see a digital model of the red planet.
