Hawaiʻi's Technology Community

Daniel Leuck's Blog (146)

Synergy Between New & Traditional Media

With all the hype over Facebook, Twitter and other flashy social media channels the cries of, "Traditional Media is Dead!" are everywhere. Its clear that the traditional 30 second TV ad spot doesn't have the efficacy it once did, and papers that can't make the transition to well designed interactive web properties are in trouble. That being said, the declaration of the death of traditional media is premature.

When TechHui is mentioned on a local news channel or covered in a local… Continue

Added by Daniel Leuck on August 30, 2009 at 11:00am — 4 Comments

Featured Techie: Astrodynamicist Moriba Jah

We had the pleasure of e-meeting Dr. Jah on TechHui a few months ago. We were excited to hear about the type of work he is doing on Maui at ASTRIA and AFRL in the areas of …

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Added by Daniel Leuck on August 6, 2009 at 10:30am — 3 Comments

First TechHui Conference: Mahalo to All Participants & A Call for Feedback

Aloha e TechHuians. We just returned from taking neighbor island panelists to the airport. We are exhausted, but I wanted to make sure to thank the Lt. Governor, keynotes, moderators, panelists, sponsors, AV folks, volunteers and everyone who attended for contributing. The keynote speakers did a fantastic job. Kaz's Blue Mars is a thing of beauty. Moriba made us put on our thinking… Continue

Added by Daniel Leuck on July 25, 2009 at 8:30pm — 12 Comments

Tech Attorneys

Recently I've talked to a number of tech entrepreneurs looking for an attorney to help with structuring a company or protecting their intellectual property. Its always helpful to find an attorney who has experience dealing with technology start-ups. There are a lot of attorneys in Hawaii and it can be difficult to pick the right one for your company. I've dealt with about a dozen Hawaii based attorneys for things ranging from QHTB filings to structuring a company and filing a patent. Here…

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Added by Daniel Leuck on July 19, 2009 at 9:30am — 1 Comment

Tech Industry Awaits Lingle's Final Decision on SB 199

Posted on behalf of Jay Fidell from ThinkTech and the July 12, 2009 Honolulu Advertiser

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In her veto list of June 30, Gov. Linda Lingle said she would veto SB 199, the bill that pulled the wings off Act 221, the high-tech tax credit.

This unleashed an endless chain of e-mail within the tech industry. Some were… Continue

Added by Daniel Leuck on July 13, 2009 at 11:00am — 9 Comments

Featured Techie: Labels That Talk President Ken Berkun

I first met Ken on TechHui. He was an early member and a frequent participant in our groups and forums. I was intrigued by his company's product, Soundpaper, which encodes audio in high density barcodes. In Japan I frequently see bar codes used to encode URLs that can be read by mobile phone cameras. You find them everywhere from vending machines to magazines. The user points their mobile camera at the barcode to access media (sound, image or video) over the network. Soundpaper is… Continue

Added by Daniel Leuck on July 1, 2009 at 3:00pm — 4 Comments

Silverlight 3.0 - The First Real Threat to Flex

I just finished reviewing the API docs for Silverlight 3. I'm really impressed with the 3.0 framework. Silverlight has always had good underpinnings including an elegant and clean API, a declarative UI, a solid VM and an excellent programming language (C#). The problem has been a lack of polish in the UI, missing high level components and missing key features already found in… Continue

Added by Daniel Leuck on June 28, 2009 at 8:00pm — 7 Comments

Star Trek Tech Today: 3D Printing

I recently had the chance to spend some time at RAPID Technology's offices in the Executive Center. Prior to my visit I knew very little about the world of 3D printing. I'd heard of it, but assumed 3D printers were still in laboratories at MIT. I was amazed to learn 3D printing is being used today by businesses for everything from product prototypes and prosthetics to costume armor for movies. It can even be used to print working mechanical devices with moving parts. The… Continue

Added by Daniel Leuck on June 5, 2009 at 2:00pm — 13 Comments

Featured Techie: Pipeline CTO Dr. Seri Lee

What do Game Boxes, Graphics Cards, Blade Servers, Lasers, Concentrated Photovoltaics and High Power LEDs all have in common? They all get WAY too hot. Thus, these technologies have significant potential to benefit from Pipeline Micro's patented micro-scale liquid cooling systems. How does Pipeline compete in this space with mainland and Japanese firms? They hire their best engineers. In a year… Continue

Added by Daniel Leuck on June 2, 2009 at 4:30pm — No Comments

The Three Horse Advanced Web UI Race

During this trip I had the opportunity to chat with a customer about bringing a complex financial desktop application to the web. For this type of application the options we look at are Flex, GWT and Silverlight. All three technologies are capable of producing rich, desktop-like UIs. All are backed by software giants (Adobe, Google and Microsoft respectively.) A good team of… Continue

Added by Daniel Leuck on May 25, 2009 at 1:30pm — 5 Comments

Web Companies Can Still Have Successful IPOs

Online restaurant reservation system provider OpenTable is up 40% from its $20 initial offering price on its first day of trading. This puts the company's market cap at a healthy $605 million. This is good news for tech entrepreneurs and VCs swimming in news of doom and gloom. OpenTable recieved $48M in venture backing over three rounds.

More on… Continue

Added by Daniel Leuck on May 21, 2009 at 9:00am — 3 Comments

Tech Community Tithe

Recent 221 debates have highlighted an issue that has been simmering for many years in our community. There is a perception that the tech crowd is a a group of elitist "haves" who care nothing for those who are not part of our clique. This type of dynamic is very dangerous, and can quickly degrade into an emotional place where intelligent discourse is impossible. Some of this is our fault. I know many of you… Continue

Added by Daniel Leuck on May 16, 2009 at 2:00pm — 5 Comments

Code Moding (Bugger Off)

I've noticed that certain activities such as designing systems, writing code and writing music put me in a very particular mental state. As this is a tech blog, I'll call it "code mode". Code mode is characterized by a hyper-focused state, a diminished sense of the passing of time and annoyance at any interruption. Its great for productivity, but isn't very practical in a typical office environment… Continue

Added by Daniel Leuck on May 10, 2009 at 7:00pm — 30 Comments

Featured Scientist: Transgenesis Guru Stefan Moisyadi

I recently had the pleasure of meeting molecular biologist Stefan Moisyadi at one of Jay Fidel's ThinkTech meetings. During the meeting, and at lunch, we discussed topics ranging from mammalian transgenesis and microbubble drug delivery systems to the current political climate in Turkey and the proper way to make baklava. Every conversation with… Continue

Added by Daniel Leuck on April 29, 2009 at 9:30am — 3 Comments

Tech Resumes & Interviews

I hope you are all enjoying this beautiful weekend. Over the past few weeks we've received a number of questions about writing resumes and performing well in technical interviews. I thought it best to summarize our advice in a short blog post. Other employers are welcome to contribute.

Resumes

1. Show an interest in the company to which you are applying. Write a cover letter that describes why you are interested in that particular company, and why they should be… Continue

Added by Daniel Leuck on April 25, 2009 at 10:00am — 6 Comments

TechHui Acquired for $10M

We are happy to announce that TechHui has been acquired by Japanese internet powerhouse Joudan K.K. for $10 million dollars. Joudan CEO Saru Usoda had this to say about the deal, which was finalized yesterday, "TechHui will make a fantastic addition to our portfolio of regional niche social networks and blogs." Usoda said Joudan's plans include a redesign, localization to Japanese and the introduction of several custom OpenSocial applications.

TechHui founders Daniel Leuck and his… Continue

Added by Daniel Leuck on April 1, 2009 at 1:05pm — 17 Comments

Featured Techie: Dr. V, Oceanit's Senior Nanotechnology Engineer

Catch Dr. V's Weird Science Show on KGMB9 Sunrise every Tuesday.

Dr. Vinod Veedu has been involved in the development of nanostructures and devices for many years. He is involved with various projects in developing nanocomposite materials at Oceanit including NanoConcrete, which… Continue

Added by Daniel Leuck on March 30, 2009 at 1:30pm — 4 Comments

Font Technology & Design

Over the years I've seen some really interesting font technologies come and go including Apple's GX font morphing, AAT state tables and Adobe's Multiple Master Typeface technology, some of which was rolled into OpenType. These technologies struggled because of the enormous investment required to create a font that makes use of their features, and the limited return on investment for typographers. The latter problem is largely due to the…

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Added by Daniel Leuck on March 26, 2009 at 12:30pm — 7 Comments

Online Media Network Journalists Interrogated by North Korea

This morning my thoughts are with Laura Ling and Euna Lee, American journalists for online media network Current TV, who are currently being interrogated in Pyongyang. These brave journalists were reporting on the gallery of horrors at the border of China and North Korea which include, amongst other things, starving families fleeing for their lives. I… Continue

Added by Daniel Leuck on March 24, 2009 at 8:27am — No Comments

The Nature of Genius

Have you ever met someone and thought, "Wow. He/she is Human 2.0"? There are some individuals who aren't just a little smarter than other people, they are playing in a whole different arena. My first experience with a person like this was a class I took from professor Moshe Lazar at USC. He spoke a dozen languages and had incredible insight on topics ranging from comparative theology and linguistics to mathematics and physics.… Continue

Added by Daniel Leuck on March 15, 2009 at 12:00pm — 21 Comments