Posted 12/25/08 at 08:00:00 AM by Norman Chan

We’ve heard the phrase “visual computing” being used a lot lately – it refers to the use of computers and graphical environments to interact with and manipulate heady data sets and other textbookish content. Well, we’ve encountered one of the most visually stunning and impressive examples of visual computing in San Francisco’s Morrison Planetarium, the new $20 million dollar facility that’s a part of the recently reopened California Academy of Sciences. This isn’t your daddy’s planetarium (nor is it Barack Obama’s famous $3 million dollar star charter, either).

The Morrison Planetarium is a technological marvel, enabling astronomers not only to show traditional star charts, but to guide visitors through an immersive fly-through of our universe – realistically rendered in real-time. We were fortunate enough to be invited for a private screening of the new exhibit, and went behind to scenes to check out exactly what PC hardware drives this modern stellar cartography lab. And before you ask – yes, the system can play Quake. 

We'll guide you through a tour of the planetarium, show you what visitors get to experience in the amazing digital presentation, and then walk you behind the scenes for an exclusive look at how the tech gods who built the whole system make it work.  Trust us, you'll be impressed.

 Hit the jump for the full story!

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Posted 10/31/08 at 02:24:27 PM by The Maximum PC Staff

Happy Halloween, dear readers. We hope you dressed up as something geeky to celebrate. This week, the podcast gang recounts their visit to the amazing Morrison Planetarium, discuss the Oil Immersion PC we have in house, and dish about the recently released X58 Core i7-compatible motherboards. Plus, Norm accepts a challenge and attempts to eat some gross jelly candy (Chuckes after the jump). And as always, answer a load of listener questions (including a call-in that we rate 9.5!).

Plus, hit the jump for a caption contest!

Do you have a tech question? A comment? A tale of technological triumph? Just need to get something off your chest? A secret to share? Email us at maximumpcpodcast@gmail.com or call our 24-hour No BS Podcast hotline at 877.404.1337 x1337--operators are standing by.

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