Ward Consolidated 16 Theaters
Friday, September 10, 2010
Special screening: 9am
Additional times through the week, check listings

The movie was written and produced by Japanese film maker, Junichi Suzuki. Suzuki tells the very personal accounts of the war as documented by the stories told by the actual soldiers who fought in the 442nd and 100th Battalion. During WWII, soldiers of the 442nd Infantry Regiment, composed mainly of Japanese Americans, fought not only against the enemy, but fought against prejudice, facing severe racial discrimination in America.

As documentaries go, 442: Live with Honor, Die with Dignity is very easy to relate to. Our parents all have their stories of WWII and many of us have family or friends who fought or spent time in the internment camps. There is a line in the movie as told by Sen. Daniel Inouye which brings it all home for me. It connects how this group of men, racially discriminated against in the US, fought with such valor and commitment to become the most decorated unit for its size and length of service in the history of the United States military. This movie says as much about bravery as it does about family values. It is a must see!

The special screening on September 10th at 9am will also feature opening remarks from George Takei, famed Asian-American actor for his role in Star Trek. He spent several years as a youth in the internment camps both in California and Arkansas. Ryan Ozawa and I got a chance to interview George for this Wed (9/8) Bytemarks Cafe. We asked him how being in the internment camps shaped who he is today:

It was a defining experience in my life. At that time I was too young to really understand what was going on. But in my teenage years, I became very curious about why we had spent our wartime years behind those barbed wire fences. I studied up on it a lot, I had discussions with my father. My father was an extraordinary man, he was the one that suffered the pain of internment and the loss involved in that the most. And yet he was able to say to me that both the strength and the weakness of American democracy is in the fact that it’s a true people’s democracy, and it can be as great as people can be, and it is as fallible as people are. And when Pearl Harbor was bombed, this country was swept up by war hysteria. And the fallibility of Americans, their inability to draw a distinction between the Soldiers of Imperial Japan and American citizens of Japanese ancestry prevailed, and we were summarily rounded up in the most unconstitutional way. There were no charges, no trial, no due process, and we were summarily imprisoned. And how that experience shaped me is that made me an activist on civil rights issues. I was involved in the civil rights movements in the 60s and 70s. I testified for the redress and reparations on the unconstitutional imprisonment of Japanese Americans. And the big civil rights issue of our generation today is equality for gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgendered people. So in that sense the internment was a defining experience for me.

George Takei will also talk at the Japanese Cultural Center on Sunday, September 12, 2010 from 1:30 – 3:30pm. The event is called No Shame!: Talking About the Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgender Japanese American Experience in Hawai‘i. George will deliver the keynote speech: Embracing Change.

On Thursday, Sept. 9th at 6pm, HMAUS presents a hands-on workshop on how to add Google Analytics code to your website. Marco Morawec, a Senior Research Associate at Kamehameha Schools will conduct the workshop. Marco did an earlier workshop on Aug 26 introducing the topic of Google Analytics and this is a follow on. In this upcoming session Marco will help you brainstorm some measurable goals for your site, then insert the code and see where and how the data will be displayed. This is hands on and you are encouraged to bring your laptop so you can DIY and see how it works. There is a nominal $5 charge at the door and you need to sign up here to guaranty your spot.

Then on Saturday, Sept 11, at 9am, HMAUS presents Joe Kissell, who will demonstrate iChat Theater for sharing presentations, videos, pictures and computer screens, from his home half way around the world in Paris, France! Joe will be live from Paris, a 12 hours time zone difference. Joe is also the Senior Editor of Tidbits magazine, one of the longest running online publications. This presentation is free and open to the public. If you are interesting in iChat Theater and MobileMe this is the place to be.

Both presentations, Google Analytics on Sept 9th and iChat on Sept 11th will take place at ING Direct, 1958 Kalakaua Avenue Waikiki. Hope to see you all there.

• System: Supporters save medical technology program | University of Hawaii News – Financial support from two of Hawai’i’s largest clinical testing companies has helped save the state’s only professional training program in the field of medical technology.
• REV Awarded Contract to Provide First of Its Kind Ancillary Power Vehicles for US Military TARDEC Program – Production has begun at the Rapid Electric Vehicles (REV) headquarters on a revolutionary new automotive solution: 100% electric bi-directional charging.
• NSF awards $20M to jazz up university research networks | NetworkWorld.com Community – The National Science Foundation this week said it spread $20 million across 17 universities or state education groups to enhance broadband access and bolster Internet connectivity for academic research at schools.
• UH to admit medical technology students again – Hawaii News Now – KGMB and KHNL Home – Donations are enabling the University of Hawaii to once again admit students to its medical technology baccalaureate degree program.

Websites:

• If you want to find out about what is happening in the social media scene you must check out @Hawaii‘s new website Hawaii Social Media.com. You’ll find up to date highlights on events, workshops and the occasional provocative article about SM in the local media.
• And if it’s the bon dance schedule you are looking for go to @champuru’s BonDance.com.
• Carolyhi59 brought up DomoDoesTheWorld.com. A creative group collaboration that chronicles the adventures of Domo.
• Madmarv reminded me about Unconferenz 2011 and the fact that it is only 5 months away. Tentatively we are looking at the 3rd week in Feb 2011. I will be more specific as soon as I hear back from KCC.
• We also talked about the end of Metromix and the rise of Nonstop Honolulu. They are going to give TGIF in the Star-Advertiser a run for their money. Nonstop Honolulu has strong sociable personalities whereas TGIF is pretty nondescript. I’m not even sure who is behind their Twitter account.

Miscellaneous:

• Madmarv remembers we talked about DVR to DVD recording. Fringe. Social media in politics. Furloughs. A smidgen of gadget geeking. Civil beat.
• Carolyhi59 tweets us: My DVR is a Toshiba HDD/DVR model # RD-XS52SU. It’s at least 5 yrs old. I found it on Amazon.com.
• Hawaii said he advocated just getting a DVD recorder, available at Costco and Walmart. Otherwise, TiVo all the way!
• Pineapplejuice recalls us talking about: Mufi’s flyer, and how that self-described social media expert said that no (political) campaign was using social media effectively, general mobile device show-and-tell, and geolocation services - Foursquare, Gowalla, and now Facebook Places – and how FP doesn’t work on my phone for some reason.
• Exbor tweeted the fact that we got into deep conversations with the group. He also reminded me that we talked about Google’s new Phone Service and suggested this Lifehacker tip.

That’s it for now. If you are interested in finding out about the next Bytemarks Lunch, just sign up for the Bytemarks Yahoogroup and you will get the notifications. Some of you might think Yahoogroups is old school but back in 2003 when we started the group, Yahoogroups was it! Mahalo to @hawaii for these lunchtime photos.

• ATLAS Telescope To Keep an Eye Out for Asteroids – Softpedia – The Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) will be capable of observing Earth’s neighborhood for any potential threats while keeping mission costs affordable.
• VSE Corporation Acquires Akimeka LLC – MarketWatch – VSE Corporation announced today that it has acquired Akimeka LLC, headquartered in Hawaii with offices in Virginia, Florida and Texas.
• First frozen bank for Hawaiian corals created in an attempt to protect them from extinction and to preserve their diversity in Hawaii – Scientists at the Smithsonian Institution and the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa have created the first frozen bank for Hawaiian corals in an attempt to protect them from extinction and to preserve their diversity in Hawaii.
• Asia Pacific Clean Energy Summit and Expo – The Asia Pacific Clean Energy Summit and Expo will be held Aug. 30 – Sept. 2, 2010 at the Hawaii Convention Center.
• Spacenet gets funding to build Hawaii broadband service – Pacific Business News (Honolulu) – Broadband internet access will be extended to unserved regions in Hawaii thanks to a $7.5 million grant awarded to Spacenet Inc.

As you venture into the Honolulu community events scene, I am sure you will find future Waffle Dog sightings. In the meantime I did find a “how to eat” a Waffle Dog video from Traci Toguchi, who obviously loves it whether eating it or pitching it. (Thanks to Ryan Ozawa for the Twitpic.)

Props go out to Mei Jeanne Wagner of Laird Christiansen Advertising for putting this short video together. Ryan and I spoke to Michael Smith, Artistic Director of the upcoming Cirque Du Soleil show Alegria back on June 9, 2010. Alegria will be coming to Honolulu on October 15, 2010 at the NBC Arena. This is the first time our interview was repurposed for an upcoming event. We are quite flattered.

ICx Transportation, the company who built the website is quite experienced at providing this integrated information resource which brings together doppler radar sensor data and up to the minute camera shots of the major intersections. Areas like the San Francisco Bay Area and New Jersey also have systems installed like the one in Honolulu. Each site references the number 511 which you can dial for the latest traffic information. Something we do not have here in Hawaii. It is also clear that the highway systems in both the Bay Area and New Jersey area are much more extensive than here requiring an ICx system that scales to include orders of magnitude more sensors and camera. I did notice a mobile version of the 511.org site which hopefully will be available soon for GoAkamai. Of note, ICx Technologies is also involved with the City and County of Honolulu and State of Hawaii’s Dept of Transportation’s Joint Traffic Management Center that just broke ground on the Alapai Transit Center. It will be interesting to monitor what new features get added to the GoAkamai site as the JTMC and rail projects get underway.

We will get a chance to talk to Glen Fromm from ICx this Wed 8/18 at 5:00pm on Bytemarks Cafe KIPO-89.3FM, Hawaii Public Radio. He’ll join us as a news guest to share some insights into the building of GoAkamai.org.

As commented by MacProHawaii, we’ve had a full month of watching US military exercises in Hawaii. The final RIMPAC 2010 exercise was an amphibious assault by the joint forces of the US Marines 3rd Battalion and Royal Australian Regiment. In the above video the amphibious assault vehicles (AAV) are shown leaving the USS Cleveland. Our opportunity to watch the deployment of AAVs from the USS Cleveland was preempted by mechanical problems. Understandably, the USS Cleveland is one of the oldest ships in the fleet, commissioned in 1967. It’s planned decommissioning is for Sept. 2011. But with the combination of Marine Lance Cpl. Kevin Beebe’s video and this video, both shot during RIMPAC 2010, you get a good idea of what the transition from ship to land is like. Once on land the dozen AAVs and 100 troops stormed an area on Kaneohe Marine Corps Base. Their mission was to take this insurgent training camp over the hill. This video by Gabriel Yanagihara nicely captures the exercise. The white smoke billowing from the AAVs is to obstruct viewing as one group of Marines took out a mock insurgent camp. Another group of Marines held the high ground and provided cover fire for the advancing troops. You will notice in the video the constant up and down of the troops as they maneuver for position. I was told it is like a mantra they repeat: I am up, they see me. I am down. Basically it is to minimize getting shot as a standing target. Though out of our field of view, when the Marines finally took the training camp there was a crescendo of gunfire, much like what you hear at the end of the firecracker strand during New Years Eve. I am not surprised this blogger lost her job as a PR person for the Marines. This certainly was not a SNOOZEPAC.

The Droid X demo unit I have is running Android 2.1 (Eclair), not Froyo (Android 2.2) which is not slated to come out until late summer but I also heard as late as November. A couple of cool features with Eclair is the Live Wallpaper. Instead of a static photo you can now have clouds wafting across your screen or in my case autumn leaves floating in a pond. But this is just eye candy. More interesting is the voice to text feature. As an input option, you can speak your messages into the Droid X. Where ever the keyboard comes up, there is a selection for microphone. The key to its operation is short, well articulated phrases. You can’t as an example dictate this blog post. The speech recorder is sensitive to pauses so will automatically stop once a second of silence is encountered. It works great for phrases like “are you available for dinner tonight?” or “where is the nearest Starbucks?” The translation feature is cool too. You can speak Japanese to it and it will give you an English translation. Great for the next time you are in Harajuku ordering sushi. You can also use the voice feature for navigation. GPS knows where you are so when you tell it where you want to go, it will give you directions on how to get there. Another feature of the Droid X is Motorola’s integration with Swype. Thank goodness Motorola dropped the physical keyboard. It was built into the original Droid and I thought it make the phone heavy and the keyboard, to me, was unusable. Swype is a text input selection and allows you to draw the words on the keyboard. Well, when I say draw, it more like connecting the dots or letters. So if you were to want the word “lunch” you would connect the letters with your finger. For those of us that are used to typing with two thumbs, it takes some getting used to. But, if you a new to these screen keyboards, Swype beats the one-finger hunt and peck.

Right  now I am enjoying Pandora on the Droid X. Downloaded it from the Android Market. Droid X is a fun phone which we will be talking more about on this week’s Bytemarks Cafe (Wed. 8/4 at 5pm on KIPO 89.3FM) when we talk about smartphones in general with Angela Keen and Brian Dote. In the meantime I am going to kick around the tires and see what else the Droid X has to offer.