A Tech Tour-like
Friday at Wayne State University Twice
a year I head off for the hinterlands of Michigan on the Great Lakes
IT Report Tech Tours. As you might know by now, the fall tech tour has
a back-to-school theme and deals with university tech transfer and research
spinoffs. But because the whole idea of the Tech Tour is to get me out
to the other half of Michigan's population once in a while -- i.e.,
the non-metro-Detroit part -- the universities in southeast Michigan
usually aren't included. Well, this year Julie O'Connor, director of
research communications at Wayne State University, did something about
that. She put together an absolutely fascinating Tech Tour-style series
of meetings for me Friday. More.
Ford,
Azure to deliver battery electric commercial van in 2010 Ford Motor Co. announced
Friday that Oak Park-based Azure Dynamics Corp. has joined in a collaborative
effort to deliver a pure battery electric Ford Transit Connect van for
the United States and Canadian markets in 2010.More.
ACD
wins $8 million jury verdict against AT&T Michigan Last week the Ingham County
Circuit Court entered a judgment ordering AT&T Michigan to pay ACD
Telecom $7,994,590 in damages for breach of contract. The judgment was
the result of a three week jury trial and is the latest step in a six
year long dispute between the two companies. AT&T vows to appeal.
More.
Midland
biz incubator celebrates 'graduation' Midland's MidMichigan Innovation
Center Friday celebrated a new empty space.That's what business incubators
are supposed to do - launch new companies into their own offices. And
that's just what the MMIC celebrated, the "graduation" of
CDI Engineering Solutions into its own offices. More.
SolidThinking
gets reseller for Australia, New Zealand
The Troy industrial design and styling software company solidThinking
Inc. has signed Delineate Pty Ltd. to market, sell and support solidThinking
-- the industrial design community’s most user-centric product
design tool -- in Australia and New Zealand. Delineate,
one of Australia’s leading 3D specialists, is the latest software
provider to join solidThinking’s growing roster of value-added
resellers. More.
The Week Ahead: Couple more busy weeks, then -- holidays?!
The past two weeks have been completely
insane schedule-wise, with tons of major tech conferences in Michigan.
This week is no exception, with two major
conferences overlapping about 150 miles away.
The American Wind Energy Association is
holding a national conference in Detroit Tuesday through Thursday on
small and community wind installations, at Cobo Center.
Meanwhile, in Kalamazoo on Tuesday and
Wednesday, MichBio, the state's life sciences industry association,
is hosting MichBio Expo, its annual celebration of all things pharmaceutical
and medical device-y.
So what's a reporter to do? Split the difference.
I'll be in Kalamazoo Wednesday for the second day of MichBio and back
in Detroit on Tuesday and Thursday for the AWEA events.
Also cool this week are two days of nanotech
discussions at Mott Community College in Flint, a keynote from S3 founder
Cindy Pasky at an "Influential Women" event, and Friday's
eighth annual Symposium for Excellence in Online Education at Macomb
Community College, where the morning keynote is scheduled to be delivered
by, well, uh, me.
Also a mention of a really cool event Nov.
10 -- WWJ Newsradio 950, in conjunction with the Engineering Society
of Detroit and the University of Michigan, is sponsoring an event on
Michigan's new Blue Economy -- putting our huge and precious water resources
to work for our economic benefit. Sign
up here. But after that week, it's pretty much crickets, as the
holiday doldrums set in.
Check it all out on
the Michigan IT Calendar, the state's most comprehensive IT event calendar,
at this
link. And see you out there!
Note: For information
on how you can sponsor content in the Blue Box, contact Jeff Lasser
at (248) 455-7319 or jeff.lasser@cbsradio.com.
New Web
site for Bay development groups The Great Lakes Bay Economic
Development Partnership has launched a new Web site, MiGreatLakesBaySites.com,
putting access to powerful business information research only a mouse-click
away. The innovative Web site is an online program to attract and expand
businesses and jobs in the Great Lakes Bay Region, which consists of
Bay, Midland and Saginaw counties. More.
Michigan's
renewable energy certification program launched
The Michigan Public Service
Commission Friday said the state’s renewable energy certification
system that will track credits for Michigan’s renewable energy
standard is up and running. In August, the MPSC approved the contract
that designated APX Inc. as the state’s administrator of the Michigan
Renewable Energy Certification System (MIRECS). More.
UM
study discovers key to 'triggering event' in cancer
Researchers at the University
of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center have discovered what leads to
two genes fusing together, a phenomenon that has been shown to cause
prostate cancer to develop. The study found that pieces of chromosome
relocate near each other after exposure to the hormone androgen. This
sets the scene for the gene fusion to occur. The finding is reported
online Oct. 29 in Science Express. More.
THE WORLD
IN TECH
Hebrew,
Hindi, Chinese, Arabic Web addresses coming The nonprofit body that
oversees Internet addresses approved Friday the use of Hebrew, Hindi,
Korean and other scripts not based on Latin characters in a decision
that could make the Web dramatically more inclusive. The board of the
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers voted to allow such
scripts in so-called domain names at the conclusion of a weeklong meeting
in Seoul, South Korea's capital. The result clears the way for governments
or their designees to submit requests for specific names, likely beginning
Nov. 16. Internet users could start seeing them in use early next year,
particularly in Arabic, Chinese and other scripts in which demand has
been among the highest. More.
PCs
shedding pounds, CD drives, gain touch screens Personal
computers are changing -- and not just because of the recent launch
of Windows 7. Visit an electronics store and you might also find laptops
are missing a familiar component. You could experiment with new ways
of controlling some computers. And you'll see portable PCs slimming
down. Even with all the attention lavished on Apple's iPhone and Amazon.com
Inc.'s Kindle this year, your PC likely is still the center of your
digital universe. Here's a look at what the season's computer trends
mean for you. More.
School
sued over disciplining girls for MySpace photos Two sophomore girls have
sued their school district after they were punished for posting sexually
suggestive photos on MySpace during their summer vacation. The American
Civil Liberties Union, in a federal lawsuit filed last week on behalf
of the girls, argues that Churubusco High School violated the girls'
free speech rights when it banned them from extracurricular activities
for a joke that didn't involve the school. They say the district humiliated
the girls by requiring them to apologize to an all-male coaches' board
and undergo counseling. More.
IPhone
comes to China without a key feature Apple's
iPhone is making its long-awaited formal debut in the world's most populous
mobile phone market, without a key feature and at higher prices than
widely available black market models. Apple's local service provider,
China Unicom Ltd., hopes the iPhone will give it an edge against giant
rival China Mobile Ltd., the world's biggest phone company by subscribers.
Unicom was to start selling iPhones equipped for third-generation service
Friday night at 2,000 stores in areas as farflung as Tibet. Chinese
news reports say Unicom hopes to sell 5 million in three years, but
the company declined to confirm that. Unicom's first iPhones lack WiFi,
a possible handicap with sophisticated, demanding Chinese buyers. More.
Stocks:
Markets swoon as worries about the economy return Grim signals about consumer
spending ripped through the markets Friday, sending stocks tumbling
as investors raced for safe havens. The Standard & Poor's 500 index
and the Nasdaq composite index ended with losses for October, breaking
a streak of seven months of gains. The Dow Jones industrial average
tumbled 250 points, erasing a gain of 200 Thursday and ending the month
flat. Drops in key barometers of the health of consumers -- what they're
spending, what they're earning and how they're feeling -- fanned worries
that an economic recovery celebrated by the market only a day earlier
won't last. The huge reversal in market sentiment reflected how desperate
stock investors are to reach conclusions about how the economy is doing,
and how quickly they are willing to abandon those convictions. More.
The Nasdaq Composite Index (COMP)
fell 52.44 points or 2.5 percent to 2,045.11. The Dow Jones Industrial
Average ($INDU)
fell 249.85 points or 2.5 percent to 9,712.73. The Philadelphia Semiconductor
Index ($SOX)
fell 10.65 points or 3.5 percent to 296.61. The Morgan Stanley High
Tech 35 Index (MSH)
fell 14.38 points or 2.7 percent to 516.5. The NYSE Arca Pharmaceutical
Index (DRG)
fell 4.24 points or 1.5 percent to 287.25. The NYSE Arca Biotech Index
(BTK)
fell 17.66 points or 2.1 percent to 821.04. Finally, the Standard &
Poor's 500 (SPX)
fell 29.92 points or 2.8 percent to 1,036.19.
All contents copyright 2009 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS Radio & Eye logo trademarked and copyright 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. Written and edited
by Matt Roush, Technology Editor, WWJ Newsradio 950, Detroit. GLITR may contain material from the Associated Press, CNET, News.com, MarketWatch.com or Reuters, used by permission. For coverage comments or news tips, e-mail Matt Roush at
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Twice
a year I head off for the hinterlands of Michigan on the Great Lakes
IT Report Tech Tours. As you might know by now, the fall tech tour has
a back-to-school theme and deals with university tech transfer and research
spinoffs. But because the whole idea of the Tech Tour is to get me out
to the other half of Michigan's population once in a while -- i.e.,
the non-metro-Detroit part -- the universities in southeast Michigan
usually aren't included. Well, this year Julie O'Connor, director of
research communications at Wayne State University, did something about
that. She put together an absolutely fascinating Tech Tour-style series
of meetings for me Friday. 
The Week Ahead: Couple more busy weeks, then -- holidays?!
Personal
computers are changing -- and not just because of the recent launch
of Windows 7. Visit an electronics store and you might also find laptops
are missing a familiar component. You could experiment with new ways
of controlling some computers. And you'll see portable PCs slimming
down. Even with all the attention lavished on Apple's iPhone and Amazon.com
Inc.'s Kindle this year, your PC likely is still the center of your
digital universe. Here's a look at what the season's computer trends
mean for you. 
