albuquerque

Cathedral of steam: Inside Albuquerque's abandoned locomotive shops

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.--There are a lot of reasons film scouts for sci-fi movies visit the abandoned Santa Fe Railway locomotive repair shops here and go crazy over the crumbling industrial cathedral. The buildings are massive and lined with tiles of white and green windows. Old machinery rusts overhead and in corners. The shops just scream "movie set."

I'm visiting this ode to railroading history with a tour guide from The New Mexico Steam Locomotive and Railroad Historical Society. These are the same people who are rebuilding an entire steam engine on the other end of town. The guide lets our tour group through the locked gate and we step back in time about 80 years.… Read more

Symphonic lowriders, phone-y birds at electronic-art fest

The International Symposium on Electronic Art came to New Mexico for 2012 to show off the intersection of art, nature, and technology under the theme of "Machine Wilderness."

For two weeks, the notable art corridor between Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Taos played host to ISEA with a full schedule of panels, keynotes, performances, and all sorts of interesting and interactive art installations. … Read more

Recycled cell phones take wing as robotic birds

A very odd flock of birds landed in Albuquerque, N.M., this past week. There wasn't a feather in sight as four winged creatures sat on bare branches, flashing their eyes and lifting their wings. These art objects are fashioned entirely from recycled phone parts.

Escape, an installation piece by U.K. artists Neil Mendoza and Anthony Goh, turns unremarkable phone scrap into curious and engaging little birds. Each bird contains an Arduino controller.

When hooked up to the cell network in Europe, the birds can take and make phone calls. Here in New Mexico, they are reprogrammed to react to the proximity of people approaching them. … Read more

Phone history, full of steampunk designs and rotary dials

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.--Standing in front of a row of rotary telephones, a volunteer at the Telephone Museum of New Mexico tells me most kids have no idea how to use them. Most have never even seen a rotary phone before.

I'm familiar with rotary phones from my childhood, but there are even older phones here I've only seen in old movies.

This museum is the place to go to see how we got to modern smartphones from Alexander Graham Bell's cone-shaped devices that carried the first sentence by telephone in 1876: "Mr. Watson, come here. I want to see you." Bell's utterance to his assistant allegedly came as a result of spilling acid on his hand. All these years later, we still use our phones to summon help.

The Telephone Museum of New Mexico is one of those little specialty places that most people who live in Albuquerque have never heard about. It has four stories full of phones, switchboards, maintenance gear, and scale models of Telstar satellites. Be still, my geeky heart.… Read more

Microsoft's Albuquerque Group--then and now

Almost 30 years ago, as Microsoft was preparing to leave Albuquerque, N.M., for Seattle, the original team gathered on Dec. 7, 1978, to pose for a photo. Pictured are, back row, from left: Steve Wood, Bob Wallace, Jim Lane; second row, from left: Bob O' Rear, Bob Greenberg, Marc McDonald, Gordon Letwin; front row, from left: Bill Gates, Andrea Lewis, Marla Wood, Paul Allen.

In this recent update of the original "Albuquerque Group," almost all are in their same positions. The notable changes are the addition of Miriam Lubow, an office manager who missed the original seating … Read more