AutoMatters & More: 50 years of inspiration & fun at the Fleet Science Center, plus BACKUP your computer!
For 50 years and with 26 million visitors, since opening in 1973 as the “Reuben H. Fleet Space Theater and Science Center,” what is now known as the “Fleet Science Center” has been making science not only accessible, but also entertaining for all — young and old alike. Since 2013, under the innovative and ambitious leadership of Dr. Steven Snyder, Ph.D., community outreach extends beyond its home, in San Diego’s world-famous Balboa Park, to classrooms and schools throughout San Diego County, as well as to rec centers, bars, restaurants, parks, beaches and pretty much anywhere else that science matters — even at San Diego Comic-Con! To celebrate and commemorate this historic milestone event, The Fleet has begun a marvelous, year-long celebration.
Through June fourth, the FLASHBACK exhibit provides an amazing look back through all five decades of Fleet history. Back in 1973, The Fleet had the world’s first of its kind, domed, giant-screen theater, now with a state-of-the-art, next generation IMAX laser digital projection system. FLASHBACK includes historical photos, artifacts and also several especially memorable — and interactive — elements from previous exhibits for you to experience again, or for the first time. Build a catenary arch and then test it to see it stand on its own; light up the hopscotch floor as you and your kids jump for joy; and much, much more! Every decade is an experience.
With more than 100 interactive exhibits, IMAX films in the Heikoff Giant Dome Theater and more, there is so much to see and do at The Fleet, and they’re continually adding new things. I have been going there for decades and I always enjoy it. Become a member and, in addition to the many added and valuable benefits, you will help bring science education to the entire community.
Back by popular demand is the interactive “Design Zone,” where you will go behind the scenes to see and experience how video game developers, music producers and other creative problem-solvers do the amazing things that they do, and explore the underlying mathematical concepts that artists, architects, engineers, musicians and other innovators use. There are new, limited-engagement exhibitions on their way, including (in July) “The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Experience,” where you will be able to build your survival smarts as you diffuse a bomb and escape from zombies!
To see the theater schedule and learn more about the many other activities, visit the Fleet Science Center online at: https://www.fleetscience.org.
A Personal Note from Me to You
Those of you who enjoy this column regularly may have noticed that there has not been a new “AutoMatters & More” column for the past two weeks. I will spare you the painful details but I suffered a major computer system storage failure. Since then I’ve worked with hardware and software manufacturers, tech support representatives and vendors to ultimately figure out what was wrong with my computer system and then repair it.
To that end I purchased and installed a new, 48TB, eight-disk, enterprise-class external storage device, and was able to get its old (2016), malfunctioning, 40TB counterpart reformatted and working again (although it does have a persistent overheating problem that I still need to address).
Hopefully I will never again find myself in a situation where I have no backup of my huge photo library and 782+ column files. I could have lost the past 20 years of my life’s work! Luckily, I was able to read and eventually transfer all 25TB of that data to my new storage device and then copy it over to my old, reformatted storage device as a backup.
I would like to offer you some parting advice regarding computers. Before it is too late, BACKUP, BACKUP, BACKUP — stored in more than one place and ideally on more than one recording medium. I learned that a RAID system is NOT a backup. It just protects your system against up to two disk failures. If your computer system experiences serious file corruption, that might bring down your entire system. Learn what to do to backup everything you care about keeping, from your personal photos to critical work files, and do that — NOW.
To explore a wide variety of content dating back to 2002, with the most photos and the latest text, visit “AutoMatters & More” at https://automatters.net. Search by title or topic in the Search Bar in the middle of the Home Page, or click on the blue ‘years’ boxes and browse.
Copyright © 2023 by Jan Wagner – AutoMatters & More #783
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