American Ingenuity, Astronomy Tech

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.

American Ingenuity

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.

Bay Area Travel

San Francisco Zoo debuts new sumatran tiger cub!

The San Francisco Zoo has a new super cute resident, a baby sumatran tiger cub!

Proud tiger parents Larry and Leanne have yet to name their new cub.

The San Francisco Zoo has a page dedicated to the new tiger cub at this link.

Sumatran tigers have an estimated population in the wild of less than 400 tigers.

If you want to help the plight of these endangered animals, you can adopt a sumatran tiger.

If you aren’t into cute animals, perhaps you’d be more interested in the particle zoo.

For more cuteness check out this baby ostrich stampede:

Silicon Valley Running

Tough Mudder NorCal Summer 2013 location announced

Are you ready to get muddy? Prepare yourself to be bruised and shocked while you run and climb over multiple obstacles on the course. This you must do if you want to earn your orange Tough Mudder finisher headband.

Tought Mudder Headband and T-shirt

 

 

 

 

 

Check out the Tough Mudder NorCal (Tahoe) 2012 Official Video:

 

From the Tahoe Tough Mudder press realease:

Tahoe Summer Mudders,

We’ve chosen a venue for Tough Mudder Tahoe Summer 2013 on July 13 & 14, 2013:

Northstar California Resort

5001 Northstar Drive

Truckee, CA 96161

Travel Time

From Tahoe City, CA: 30 minutes
From Reno, NV: 45 minutes

From Sacramento, CA: 2 hours

Fix My Problem

Non-System disk error after installing graphics card

If you are getting the following Non-System disk error after replacing or changing a graphics card:

“Error – Non-System disk or disk error. Replace and strike any key when ready.”

You may be experiencing a common problem.

If your system has a raid card, check to make sure all of the SATA cables are still tightly connected and make sure the RAID card is seated the PCI slot.

Or if you have an HP computer there is a known problem with certain Seagate disks that can be fixed by updating the disk firmware:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en&docname=c01676224

A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools. ~ Douglas Adams

Google Doodles

Google features long dead German plant artist in Google Doodle

Today’s Google doodle features the German naturalist and botanic artist Maria Sibylla Merian, who if she had been a vampire, would be 366 years old today. This artistically rendered doodle will probably prove less controversial than the Easter Sunday Cesar Chavez Google doodle, but fans of Charlemagne may be disappointed. I’m sure his twitter account will be blowing up all day about being dissed by Google on his 1271st birthday.

Maria_Sibylla_Merian_Google_doodle_silicon_cali

American Ingenuity, Technology Entrepreneurship

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!Rain_Radar_SiliconCali.com_Bay_Area_20130330

Random Tech, Tech/Sci-Fi

Happy Pi Day Silicon Valley!

  Today, March 14, or 3.14 is Pi Day. It also happens to be Albert Einstein’s birthday. Though he hasn’t celebrated one in a while. Pi day is popularly celebrated by geek culture with copious amounts of pie.

Prince-of-pi-Larry-Shaw-California-pi-day
Larry Shaw, founder of the first organized Pi Day in 1988.

 

 

Magnum_P.I.-Higgins
Thomas Sullivan Magnum IV and Jonathan Quayle Higgins III in Magnum P.I. not Magnum Pi.

 

 

 

Originally organized in 1988 by this guy:

 

 

Not this mustached guy:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So while you’re munching a slice of apple pie and woofing down some pizza pi, remember pi is what makes circles so tasty.

A few digits of pi:

3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510582097494459230781640628620899862803482534211706798214808651328230664709384460955058223172535940812848111745028410270193852110555964462294895493038196442881097566593344612847564823378678316527120190914564856692346034861045432664821339360726024914127372458700660631558817488152092096282925409171536436789259036001133053

And a couple of Think Geek pi t-shirts:

Think-Geek-Pi-Day-t-shirts-20130314-pizza-pi-sc

Silicon Valley Running

Running the 408K Race to the Row in San Jose, California

The 2nd annual 408k 8k road race in San Jose kicked off today on a beautiful SiliconCali morning. At the start of the run the temperature was in the 40’s with no wind. Perfect running weather. The top finishers ran the 8 kilometer course in just under 25 minutes.

408k_Race_to_the_Row_2013_course_map
The flat and fast 8k course runs from HP Pavilion in San Jose to Santana Row.

 

The fast course winds it’s way from HP Pavilion in San Jose all the way to Santana Row. Along the course, you’ll encounter a few mariachi bands as you run the Mariachi Mile starting at mile 4. When you start rounding that corner around Valley Fair Mall, you know you are close to the finish at the row just across Stevens Creek.

The race was very well organized and much smaller than the big Rock n Roll Marathon series races. Transportation was provided for those that parked at HP Pavilion from Santana Row to get back to the starting area.

408k_race_to_the_row_finisher_medal_t-shirt
The 408k finisher medal and tech t-shirt from the 2013 race.

 

 

The 8k road race is named for the famous 408 area code of San Jose and surrounding areas.

Check out the results from this year’s 408k Race to the Row here.

Here’s the main web site for 401k road race.

Silicon Cali Travel

Neon boneyard tour in Las Vegas, Nevada.

stardust-neon-sign-las-vegas
The famous Stardust sign at the Neon Boneyard in Las Vegas

Living and working in Silicon Valley