museum

VC turns office into Apollo museum

The last time I went to talk with venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson, managing director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, I spent more time ogling his museum of NASA Apollo gear than I did talking about his startup investments.

So I made an appointment to go see him again, with enough time to snap pictures of the equipment in his office in Palo Alto, Calif., office.

Click through our slideshow for a view into this small, private, and unique collection of space artifacts. … Read more

Driving America exhibit shows U.S. history through automobiles

Vehicles play a big part in the last century of United States history, with such icons as the presidential limousine in which John F. Kennedy was assassinated to the bus where Rosa Parks was arrested.

These vehicles and more are on display at a new exhibit from the Henry Ford Museum called Driving America. CNET Australia took a tour of the exhibit just prior to the opening.

Click here to see the photo gallery.

Although there are some significant vehicles from Ford in the exhibit, such as the 1962 concept car on which the Mustang was based, vehicles from a … Read more

Steam power engine maker to sponsor conference

Sacramento, Calif. is going to get a little steamy this weekend as the International Association for the Advancement of Steam Power and the Steam Automobile Club of America kick off a conference on the latest developments in steam power technology.

Ten steam-powered cars will be on display at the first-ever IAASP conference, to be held January 13, 14, and 15 at the California Automobile Museum. Conference participants will include steam automobile owners and developers, modern steam locomotive experts, small steam power plant developers and manufacturers, engineers, and enthusiasts.

Cyclone Power Technologies, the company that created the engine for a Cyclone-Williams LSR streamliner, … Read more

Display of James Bond cars opens in the U.K. next month

In celebration of the 50th year of James Bond films, a new exhibit of James Bond vehicles is opening Jan. 17, 2012 at the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu, Brockenhurst, Hampshire, U.K.

The exhibit include 50 vehicles--both Bond- and villain-driven. Several of the vehicles, such as the Ford Mustang Mach 1 from "Diamonds Are Forever," villain Zukovsky's Rolls Royce Silver Shadow II from "The World Is Not Enough," and the vintage 1962 Rolls Royce, pushed into a lake by May Day and Zorin with Bond still inside, in "A View to a Kill,&… Read more

Larry's museum of dead technology

I paid Larry Marcus, of Walden Venture Capital, a visit recently to talk about social and mobile apps. But we ended up talking mostly about the collection of old technology that he's curating in his San Francisco office.

Click through to the slides to see a small sampling of what he's acquired, including his first-ever charcoal rubbing of Steve Jobs' signature from the inside of an original Macintosh.

Larry also tried to get me to part with an old, historic portable computer (guess which one) I have sitting in my closet. I'm glad I didn't tell … Read more

Tech Awards: Water-cleaning device, solar in a suitcase

Technology projects that range from delivering clean drinking water to implementing a cheaper bank infrastructure in developing countries were honored last night at the Tech Awards in San Jose, Calif.

Five of the 15 projects honored also received $50,000 each for developing technology that benefits humanity and supports sustainability.

The Tech Awards, sponsored by The Tech Museum in San Jose, were established in 2001, to recognize 15 projects annually in five categories: environment, education, equality, health, and economic development.

"The tens of thousands of people who didn't have clean water to cook or bathe in Honduras now … Read more

Dead Sea Scrolls come to life on the Web

Discovered in 1947, the Dead Sea Scrolls have been available for viewing only in a museum in Israel...until now.

Thanks to some expert digital photography and a project set up by Google, high-resolution photos of five of the seven original Dead Sea Scrolls can now be seen online. The Digital Dead Sea Scrolls Web site offers a peek into the distant past, allowing people to view and examine the scrolls in fine detail.

Photographed by digital photographer Ardon Bar-Hama, the images contain as many as 1,200 megapixels, according to Google, so that people can zoom in to get … Read more

A tour of 600 years of watchmaking history

GENEVA, Switzerland--If you're the kind of person who understands that watches can be art, you would be wise to make your way to this city of the world in order to check out what has to be one of the best collections of historical timepieces on the planet.

Housed at the Patek Philippe Museum, hundreds of watches spanning nearly 600 years greet visitors to this stately early-20th century mansion. While much of the museum is dedicated to famous watchmaker Patek Philippe's own works, it is the historical archives that truly reward those who take the time to visit. … Read more

The 404 880: Where we separate the hacks from the cracks (podcast)

If you leave your Facebook logged in on a friend's computer and that person posts an embarrassing photo for all your friends to see, would you say you got hacked?

Today's episode of the podcast takes issue with the misuse of the word "hacked." With news stories about Stuxnet, PlayStation 3, and News of the World throwing around the term with no specific definition, we hope to define exactly what it means to hack...at least according to the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

First, we'll explore the origins of hacking by breaking the definition down into subcategories like phreaking, cracking, and spoofing. Then we'll tell you why the courts decided that sending out too many e-mails to someone can be considered computer hacking, and we'll introduce the 23-year-old Assistant Commissioner hired by the NYPD to spearhead its new social media unit.

Finally, we close today's show with an exploration into the changing landscape of "Sesame Street," and why some of the LGBT community is pushing Bert and Ernie to finally tie the knot on the air.

The 404 Digest for Episode 880

Stock art meant for news stories about cybercrime. NYPD forms new social media unit to mine Facebook and Twitter for mayhem. Court deems e- mail spam is considered a form of computer hacking. iPad cases made out of Bernie Madoff's auctioned clothing. Slice Harvester shows every pizza spot in NYC on a Google map. Petition asks Bert and Ernie to get married already. Working in an office is bad for your brain.

Episode 880 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

At the BMW Museum, 82 years of carmaking shines

MUNICH, Germany--I might have thought I was in Frank Lloyd Wright's famous Guggenheim Museum, but that was just a visual trick brought on by the spiral ramp.

Actually, I was at the BMW Museum, the car-maker's homage to its eight decades of making automobiles, motorcycles, and engines. And with 125 of its most beloved machines displayed for its biggest fans and most loyal customers, it was hard not to be taken in by the history of what the company long called the "ultimate driving machine."

As part of Road Trip 2011, I took some time to … Read more