Author: Patricia Vollmer

Patricia Vollmer is the proud mother of two sons, ages 16 & 18, who are as geeky as she is. She's been writing for the Geek Family Network since 2011. She is a meteorologist who works for the U.S. Air Force in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Hobbies include running, despite no one chasing her, sharing her love for Disney, Marvel, and Star Wars, and exploring the world with her boys. Ask her why the sky is blue at your own risk.

AcuRite's Professional Weather Center: Wireless Weather Data at a Great Price

Patricia Vollmer16

Even though my family is moving in the month of June, we took the time to install the AcuRite Professional Weather Center (Model 1050C) and have it collect data side-by-side with our other professional-grade weather station for about 45 days. In this review I’ll go over what comes in the box, installation, data viewing options, and then I’ll present a side-by-side comparison with our incumbent professional weather station on our property: a Davis Instruments Vantage Pro2 that we first got in 2004.

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Just in Time for Memorial Day*: Enjoy the 2013 Doodle4Google Winner

Patricia Vollmer5

A Wisconsin 12th grader is singlehandedly bringing millions of people — especially military spouses, military children and servicemembers — to tears. For her winning 2013 Doodle4Google contest entry, Sabrina Brady wholeheartedly deserves the $30,000 scholarship, new Chromebook and $50,000 technology grant to her school that come with winning the 2013 Doodle4Google competition.

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Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0: Confessions of an Android Newbie

Patricia Vollmer13

When I received an invitation to try out the new Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0, I was excited to get a chance to really crack into Apple’s nemesis: the Android operating system. I had a brief exposure to the Android OS — with Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0 — when I reviewed the Ematic FunTab Pro last holiday season. But that system had a kid-friendly GUI face that shielded users from the meat and potatoes of the OS. This time around, I dove right in.

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Just HOW Badly Do You Need that A in Math?

Patricia Vollmer5

This month a research team at Oxford University reported on their continuation of a study that repeated and built upon a 2010 experiment on a different group of patients: for 5 days, the patients either received real or false electrical stimulations while performing math tasks. Those who received the real stimulations were performing the math tasks two to five times faster than those without.

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Realtor.com’s Mobile App School Search Feature: Godsend for Parents

Patricia Vollmer2

About 10 days prior to our trip to buy a new house in Colorado last week, I found out about an update for the realtor.com mobile app service that I’ve relied on to send me customized search results for the areas in which we’re looking to live. This update would make realtor.com to be the first mobile real estate search capability to fully integrate school information in their app.

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LA Femme Film Festival: Taking Submissions Now

Patricia Vollmer

The LA Femme Film Festival is a celebration of women in film — not just in front of the screen, but also the creative energy behind it. Join in on the festivities on October 11-17, 2013 in Hollywood, and act soon if you feel you have a piece worth submitting. You don’t have to be a woman to submit a film, but a female is required to be in a leadership role: writer, director, or producer.

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Neil deGrasse Tyson Explains The Origins Of Atomic Elements

Patricia Vollmer1

In our favorite astrophysicist’s latest installment on AOL On’s “School of Thought” series, Neil deGrasse Tyson discusses a little-known-about paper written in the 1950s, titled “Synthesis of the Elements in Stars” and published in several scholarly journals such as Reviews of Modern Physics. This paper discussed the formation of the fundamental elements on earth, those that are taught to us in the periodic table of the elements.

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