Bytemarks

Guy Kawasaki Tweetup [Flickr]

Bytemarks — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 03:52:14 -0500

Bytemarks posted a photo:

Group shot.

Guy Kawasaki Tweetup [Flickr]

Bytemarks — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 03:52:00 -0500

Bytemarks posted a photo:

@guykawasaki

Guy Kawasaki Tweetup [Flickr]

Bytemarks — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 03:51:42 -0500

Bytemarks posted a photo:

@infinitypro and crew.

Guy Kawasaki Tweetup [Flickr]

Bytemarks — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 03:51:26 -0500

Bytemarks posted a photo:

@hawaii and @fashiontribe sneaking up from behind.

Guy Kawasaki Tweetup [Flickr]

Bytemarks — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 03:51:07 -0500

Bytemarks posted a photo:

@roxannedarling, @shane and @sakuzaku

The times the are a changin'

noreply@blogger.com (Burt Lum) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 14:50:39 -0500

There was quite a monumental change in policy at work this week worth noting. After years of being banned, the corporate powers that be, opened up the company Internet to sites like Myspace, Facebook, Youtube, Bebo, Google video and my favorite Twitter. This seachange in corporate policy is quite refreshing and an indication that upper management recognizes (or at least accepts) that social

Where's the Party?

noreply@blogger.com (Burt Lum) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 15:51:35 -0500

This past Wednesday's, June 18 big announcement at HMSA hit all the major media in Hawaii. HMSA, in partnership with American Well and Microsoft HealthVault will offer online health services to the residents of Hawaii. The Star-Bulletin had an article by Kristen Constillio that went into good detail about what the service will entail. The article was also linked to a video that ran on KITV on the

2nd Friday Tech Download

noreply@blogger.com (Burt Lum) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 03:03:20 -0500

Every second Friday of the month the Hawaii Science & Technology Council host their monthly breakfast. Although this breakfast meeting has been going on for some time, this is the first full meeting I attended. The format is as follows, continental breakfast for the first 30 minutes then several companies in similar fields will present a company overview and current projects. This past Friday,

Links for 2008-06-15 [del.icio.us]

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Planning, Startups, Stories

Manoa Geeks @ Oceanit

noreply@blogger.com (Burt Lum) — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 02:21:57 -0500

It was quite an emotional scene at the last Manoa Geeks meetup on Thursday, June 4, 2008. Aaron Dragushan (@dragushan) is moving from Hawaii to Washington D.C. He announced that this would be his last attendance at Manoa Geeks, at least in person. The Manoa Geeks meetups have evolved from small gatherings at Starbuck's in Manoa to standing room only crowds in downtown Honolulu tech companies. The

Phoenix Mars Mission - A Shared Experience

noreply@blogger.com (Burt Lum) — Mon, 26 May 2008 15:24:01 -0500

Monitoring the tweet flow on Sunday morning I started to see postings about the Phoenix Mars Mission live webcast on NASA.TV. They were going to show the live play by play of the landing of the Phoenix payload on the Martian surface. At the time of separation and landing most of the video action was of mission control scientists and engineers hugging and high-fiving. The thing that struck me was

iPod Touch

noreply@blogger.com (Burt Lum) — Sun, 11 May 2008 19:24:10 -0500

I finally treated myself to a new gadget. It was a toss up between getting an EeePC or the iPod Touch. Although I think the EeePC is a pretty cool device and affordably priced, I decided to go for the iPod Touch. I've been looking for something that added mobility to my online life, but I wasn't up to paying at&t $80 a month for the iPhone. Granted the iPod Touch is limited to only available wifi

Bytemarks Cafe

noreply@blogger.com (Burt Lum) — Sun, 04 May 2008 12:22:02 -0500

I just got word this past week that I'll be doing a weekly radio show on KIPO-FM 89.3, one of the Hawaii Public Radio stations here in Honolulu. Of course the show will be called Bytemarks Cafe and will be about tech and the Internet, mainly oriented around the people doing cool and interesting things in our community. It'll be a magazine format with news bytes, interviews, cool websites and an

Links for 2008-04-27 [del.icio.us]

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Bob Sutton

Matt Mullenweg @ HMAUS

noreply@blogger.com (Burt Lum) — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 13:11:56 -0500

Thanks to the Hawaii Macintosh Apple Users group, Matt Mullenweg (aka @photomatt, ma.tt, automattic.com) spoke at their annual event on Saturday, April 26. Of course the discussion was mostly about WordPress and blogging but that is what the 50 or so people, crammed into the lecture room in Krauss Hall @ UH wanted to hear. It's one thing to use Wordpress, it's another thing to hear the founding

Links for 2008-04-26 [del.icio.us]

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0500

1st Annual Hawaii Geek Meet

noreply@blogger.com (Burt Lum) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 09:19:17 -0500

Everyone has their passion and for Ron it's Amateur Radio. Ever since I've known Ron, now going on close to 18 years, he's been the ham radio guy. But that's what a geek is, someone who is extremely interested in something almost to the point of obsessive. Normal people might find this peculiar but deep down inside we all have our geek tendencies, if you don't then you just might be a tad boring.

Hawaii.alltop.com

noreply@blogger.com (Burt Lum) — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 13:12:30 -0500

Thanks to Neenz and fellow Iolani alum Guy Kawasaki, Bytemarks is now on Hawaii.alltop.com. I know Guy's been working on Truemors.com and now Alltop.com but it has really been Neenz that brought the awareness of the sites to top of mind, for me at least. I was just captivated when Neenz was telling me the story about how she met Guy and through a simple introduction and show of enthusiasm she

Links for 2008-04-20 [del.icio.us]

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Today's Blog Music / The Hype Machine - discover, listen and buy music discussed on the best mp3 blogs

Google vs. IT Depts.

noreply@blogger.com (Burt Lum) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 11:50:27 -0500

Now that I work in an good size IT department, articles like these from TechRepublic catch my attention. I've been a longtime fan of Google and find myself using them more and more in my personal and small business computing. My Firefox home page is set to iGoogle, I am always on Gmail and get my Tweets get sent directly to Google Talk. I use Google Reader, Google Docs, Google Analytics and the

Links for 2008-04-13 [del.icio.us]

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Google Blogoscoped

Tweetcloud

noreply@blogger.com (Burt Lum) — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 19:55:58 -0500

I started to see people's Tweetclouds posted to Flickr and announced on Twitter so I thought I would give it a try. Information visualization has this strange attraction to me. I loved it back in the late 90's when Apple was experimenting with Project X aka HotSauce. Nowadays there are all manner of ways to visualize information. Tweetcloud basically goes through your public tweets and tabulates

What do I do?

noreply@blogger.com (Burt Lum) — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 13:13:53 -0500

That is probably the most frequently asked question I get these days. Simply put I am a technical liaison between the HMSA business units and the IS dept. Cool huh. Well, the devil is in the details and believe me there are a lot of details but for the most part that is what I do. Technology, whether it's the Internet, telecom, enterprise IT systems or networking has a level of complexity that

HMSA Center

noreply@blogger.com (Burt Lum) — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 13:15:55 -0500

It's official, I got my badge. This is the home of my new job and where I will be spending the better part of the day. Our first day was spent in new employee orientation but I get the feeling that orientation is going to take a lot longer than one day. Where telecom has its share of acronyms, HMSA and the medical insurance coverage business has its own unique set of alphabet soup. It'll be like

New Chapter Starting

noreply@blogger.com (Burt Lum) — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 20:22:25 -0500

It's been about 2 months since getting let go from Hawaiian Telcom and having those two months to clear my mind has been invaluable. I look back at the day I walked out of that HT exit door and see it as the day I walked into a great new life! I got to experience the culture of Bhutan, played the Samurai Game, kept in touch with the Bytemarks lunch bunch, Manoa Geeks and Flickr Friday meetups,

Utterz

noreply@blogger.com (Burt Lum) — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 20:21:53 -0500

Found a new social network tool to play with. It's cool to be able to drop an audio file into a blog or send it straight to Twitter. The thing that will keep me coming back is it's ease of use. When the moment hits me, I just pick up the phone, call Utterz and the audio file gets posted. I tend to like the short message format rather than coming up with 20-30 minutes worth of audio for a full

Samurai Game

noreply@blogger.com (Burt Lum) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 11:52:14 -0500

A haiku poem I wrote while contemplating life the morning of the Samurai Game: Spring is in the air The Sun pierces through the trees Gecko leaps from rock. And the day after: The morning is here Your life has begun anew Don't waste the moment!

Nokia N810

noreply@blogger.com (Burt Lum) — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 20:22:54 -0500

You might think this is just a plug for the Nokia N810 but there is a strange edge to this photo. Ian brought his new gadget to the Bytemarks lunch last week and I got this close up photo of it. First thing I did was post it to Flickr. As I went back to view it I noticed the counter was through the roof. On Friday it was already up to 2000. Now if you notice it is nearly 8000. What's up with that

Hawaii Democratic Caucus

noreply@blogger.com (Burt Lum) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 11:53:00 -0500

This couple was standing right behind me in line at Waiau Elementary School to take part in the Hawaii Democratic Caucus. Although we spent about an hour in line it was an upbeat mood. I was there because I wanted to experience this first hand. I think others were there because they felt there needed to be a change implemented in this country. There's been enough damage done by our current

Prepping for the Dragon's Gift

noreply@blogger.com (Burt Lum) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 11:53:58 -0500

I first met these Bhutanese monks during our annual mochi pounding event at Chozen-ji over Christmas holiday. They of course are here for the BIG Bhutan exhibit coming up at the Academy of Arts. Now that I have a bit of free time on my hands one of the things I've been doing is volunteering at the Academy. It's my way of not squandering my free time while learning something about Bhutanese

Links for 2008-03-30 [del.icio.us]

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Own Your Identity

Links for 2008-03-29 [del.icio.us]

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Beyond School

Tim Bajarin - HBTF Meeting

noreply@blogger.com (Burt Lum) — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 21:58:18 -0600

Last week's Hawaii Broadband Task Force meeting was held in the swank 30th floor dining room of First Hawaiian Bank. They also provided an excellent Internet connection as compared to what I have been used to at the State Capitol. Unfortunately I did not get any shots of the view and the shades were down to accommodate the slide presentation. Tim Bajarin, a tech pundit based in the Bay Area did a

Bytemarks Lunch

noreply@blogger.com (Burt Lum) — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 10:24:32 -0600

Probably one of the more intelligent things I have done is to maintain the Bytemarks lunch gatherings downtown. It's a monthly lunch with no agenda and no expectation on who will show up. It wasn't rocket science either, just consistency, sortof. Usually it is the last week of the month on either Wed, Thurs or Fri. We had a good showing given this Wednesday lunch was threatened with off and on

Zengo Sai Dan - Cutting the Before and After

noreply@blogger.com (Burt Lum) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 11:55:01 -0500

Zengo Sai Dan is a short passage in the Fudochi Shimmyo Roku, a collection of writings by Takuan Soho a Zen master in the 1600's. It basically means: The state of mind should be after you cut and discard where the past and present meet. The principle is cutting between past and present and setting it free. This is the principle of not stopping the mind.The character in the image is one of Fudo

The Last Day at Hawaiian Telcom

noreply@blogger.com (Burt Lum) — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 00:07:58 -0600

January 25, 2008, was my last day of employment at Hawaiian Telcom. But it was yesterday that almost 50 management people were processed and removed from the premises. I will admit it was a very strange day. When I arrived in the morning we had heard that our boss was already let go the evening before. For the rest of the morning it was a waiting game to see if you would be summoned to HR for an

Unconferenz - the Event

noreply@blogger.com (Burt Lum) — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 12:07:57 -0600

Wow, now that the Unconferenz has come and gone I have to admit IMHO it was quite an enjoyable experience. The fun part of leaving things to chance is to find that balance between chaos and serendipity. It's a challenge at times but when it comes together as it did at the Unconferenz it is a beautiful feeling. Much Mahalos go out to people like Dori and Blair at JAIMS who supported us with the