Hot answers tagged geek-travel
12
You will definitely want to visit Weird Stuff, which is an enormous warehouse of all kinds of discarded technology located in Sunnyvale. It's a bit out there, but very worth it.
If you're interested in doing any archival research, you might also want to schedule an appointment with Stanford's Silicon Valley Archives.
11
You should definitively go to the Computer History Museum in Mountain View and especially check out the Stackoverflow plaque in the Computer History Museum Wall.
See also the Meta SO thread about it.
11
Yes - CERN has an outreach program which does tours along with other activities. From their Visit CERN page:
CERN welcomes the general public to visit and tour its exhibitions,
experimental areas and other facilities. The admission is free. The
permanent exhibition “Universe of particles” and the Microcosm
exhibition can be visited from Monday to ...
10
The main campus of Penn State University has an educational nuclear reactor facility, the Breazeale reactor, that offers tours to the public. As part of the tour, they take you through the reactor room where you can see the Cerenkov radiation from the uranium. The reactor itself is submerged under something like 15 feet of water, which is ample protection ...
10
I have a few suggestions for you:
Go to the BlizzCon 2011 in Anaheim, only 60 km away from LA. There you can take a look at Diablo 3 and you could use collect some fancy gifts from Blizzard.
Go to the Atomic Testing Museum. I was never there, but a friend of mine really recommends it. And according to the homepage it sounds quite interesting.
I don't know ...
9
The capsules from Soyuz - Apollo flight used to be and Apollo 11 command module is at the Smithsonian Air and Space museum.
A quick search also gives a list of all remaining Apollo spacecraft and their locations based on that there is only one in Europe in London.
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There is a computer museum in Paderborn Germany (North Rhine Westphalia), reportedly the largest in Europe, that was formerly the headquarter of Nixdorf Computer Corporation. It's official website is hnf.de.
8
(Sorry for the late answer)
I've spent about 3 months over the course of a few trips (2 months on my first trip), and I had a list of places I wanted to see. Not all of them are 'attractions' or the usual, but nevertheless something as a geek that's been looking at the things going on in Silicon Valley from a far most of my life I wanted to see:
Computer ...
7
First it seems the name of the piece of art is exactly "Crocodilus Fibonacci".
The museum has a page describing the piece of art. It belongs to the museum, so it might still be on display on the permanent collection floors. But I could not find any reference on the page saying it is actually the case.
Pictures on Flickr of this crocodile date from 2003 to ...
6
I'm surprised noone mentioned the book Geek Silicon Valley
It's been a long while since I read it, and it's 5 years out of date (which is a pretty long time in valley terms), but it has a lot of the sort of thing you're looking for.
I agree with other answers, by the way - the Musee Mecanique, the Computer History Museum, and Weird Stuff are all good ...
6
On http://www.cucm.de/blog/13/computer_museen_in_deutschland/ you find a list of German computer museums (sorry, only German). But maybe you can follow the links.
For the Haus zur Geschichte der IBM Datenverarbeitung Sindelfingen (not for computer in general, only for IBM) there is an English Flyer.
Oldenburg has also an English Website
6
Speaking as someone with similar interests as yourself:
1) Best geek thing to do in Vegas: learn to count cards at blackjack, play poker, or other forms of advantage play. Very few gamblers believe there is anything to learn about gambling, and so it's possible for geeks to learn how to maximize their gambling experience. Poker is the easiest game to become ...
6
This probably shouldn't be an answer, but it's going to be too long for a comment, so I'll put it here. Feel free to convert if you really don't like it here.
Providing tangible rewards for 'crowdsource' feedback hits two major obstacles which have not yet been solved.
Verification. We already have very little way of determining if a review of a ...
6
Been there!
It is a really nice exhibition; but i would have expected a bit more to see. It's not scary at all, more exiting and entertaining in a '1950's amazement' kind of way. You wont see any "death and destruction" there, the worst thing is probably the Declassified U.S. Nuclear Test Film #55.
I think the science part falls a bit to short; but it is ...
6
TLDR They won't post public timetables, so find someone at the university to suggest one and turn up, because people are in academica because they love their subject, love talking about their subject even more, and are highly likely to help you out even if its unofficially. /TLDR
No University I know of has a 'public listing' for 'normal' lectures (not that ...
5
Aｓ many companies have, there is rarely a possibility to see the inside of a plant, but only to see a kind of exhibition, but stocked only with marketing material made for school tours etc.
Currently, nuclear power is the most sensitive and emotional topic in Japan and there are many movements against it. You can actually find a lot of organized tours ...
5
They have a tech museum in San Jose that may be quite savvy, atleast to your tastes.
Of course, you should also visit Palo Alto, not just restricted to Stanford University; it is place known for youthful energy and budding entrepreneurship that is characteristic of the Silicon Valley.
5
Field Guide to American Spacecraft is a great resource for this. There are many, many spacecraft in various museums, and quite a few of the test modules and mockups have been restored to better condition than they started, so that they can be display pieces.
The spacecraft in Europe are:
A Gemini test vehicle at the National Museum of Scotland.
Apollo ...
5
The museum for all things space, including just so, so much from Apollo and other missions - is the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Highly recommend.
Even just seeing their "rocket garden" is incredible, but all the Apollo stuff, including a GIGANTIC Saturn V rocket you can walk under as it hangs horizontally in a large hanger is amazing. Go to the ...
4
There is the Bay Model Visitor Center. It is a huge warehouse with a model of the bay and all water. Although the model is quite old and inaccurate by today's standards, it shows the efforts required to study the water movements prior to computer simulations.
It is controversial - I liked it, my colleague didn't.
Don't expect much interaction there.
...
4
Universities generally have Open Days for prospective students, where they can meet faculty member, attend sample lectures, learn about research activities going on in the department, talk to the current students. These activities may be limited across universities, as they might have different set of offerings and rules as part of these events.
You should ...
3
In Washington DC, there is the Crime Museum. It is near the Spy Museum.
There is also an exhibit at the Newseum that might be up your alley.
3
There is also a computer museum in the Universiy of Amsterdam
The University of Applied Sciences In Kiel(Fachhochschule Kiel) has also a Museum
Technikum29 is a private museum near Frankfurt
2
I'd suggest the Lucky Juju Pacific Pinball Museum in Alameda. It's pricey and also loud, so if you plan to spend a few hours there, take earplugs!
If you're carrying a laptop or other Internet-enabled device, you might enjoy spending a few hours in a coworking location or hackerspace.
1
I visited CERN years ago and toured the underground installations. That was when the LHC was still under construction. Seeing the ATLAS instrument up and close was quite impressive.
Now that the LHC is shut down for maintenance underground tours are supposed to start again, but no mention of them is made on the CERN website. I would suggest you keep ...
1
This geek enjoyed The Neon Museum for its history and tech aspects. Several pictures I took at the Boneyard are now in rotation as desktop backgrounds.
There are tons of non-casino things to do. For example if you like zoo-like activities, at different hotels you can see lions & tigers, flamingos, dolphins, sharks & rays (and you can touch a ray), ...
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