Tech Tour Day 2: WiMax coming soon to an Internet near you WiMax is the next generation of the Internet -- and it's finally here and growing fast. That was the assessment of morning speakers on the opening day of WiMax World 2008 at Chicago's McCormick Place. Thousands of industry participants, vendors and the media gathered in a packed Skyline Ballroom to hear from several industry leaders in the general session portion of Wednesday's program before highly technical sessions in the afternoon. WiMax is a Wi-Fi-like broadband wireless signal -- only instead of a hot spot a few hundred feet in diameter, WiMax is a powerful signal from a tall broadcast tower, reaching as far as a TV or FM radio station. More.
Notes from the WiMax World conference Last year's keynotes took place in the historic, 4,200-seat Arie Crown Theatre, which hosted some of the most legendary names in rock 'n' roll. (For example, the Rolling Stones' first U.S. tour in 1965.) It's in the oldest, easternmost, lakeside building of the McCormick Place complex, the part that's about the same size as Detroit's Cobo Center. This year's keynotes are in the newest, westernmost part of the building, in the Skyline Ballroom, where you cannot, of course, see the skyline. More.
A stroll around the WiMax World exhibit floor Anyone who doubts the energy and buzz -- and the global nature -- of the new market in WiMax wireless Internet communications should spend a while on the show floor at WiMax World 2008 this week in Chicago. The more than 150 exhibitors represent a melting pot of every corner of the world (and if you don't believe me, check out the names of the people I'm quoting below). There are lots of chipmakers and antenna system builders, some software vendors and some all-around tech giants -- all showing intriguing possibilities about the future of the Web through WiMax. More.
Domino's introduces Pizza Tracker Poll for the political season
When buying pizza, do Democrats spend more money than Republicans? Do Republicans rely more on credit? Do liberals buy more veggie pizzas? Do independents purchase more "half and half" pizzas? These and more political pie questions may be answered as Domino's Pizza introduces a new Pizza Tracker Poll between now and Nov. 4. More.
UM students to build small satellites
A satellite about the size of a loaf of bread will be designed and built at the University of Michigan and deployed to study space weather, thanks to a new grant from the National Science Foundation. Undergraduate and graduate students will be heavily involved in this Radio Aurora Explorer project, led by the University of Michigan and SRI International, a California-based independent research and technology development organization. More.
Rochester Hills auto, tech staffing and training firm on the grow
A Rochester Hills automotive technology staffing and training company is on the verge of breakthrough growth, according to its CEO.
Lori Blaker now runs Technical Training Inc., a company founded by her father in 1976 to print service training manuals for automotive mechanics.
From her original location, she's grown the company to operations on three continents and offices in Japan, China, Thailand, Mexico, Chile, Venezuela and Brazil. Offices are to open by the end of the year in the United Kingdom and Russia, and next year in India.
The company now has nearly 1,000 employees, about 225 of which are in Michigan.
Despite a sluggish economy sales grew 15 percent last year and should grow at least 20 percent this year -- and Blaker said the company may double in size if it lands a couple of major contracts it now has out on proposal.
TTI has also grown beyond its roots in the auto industry, although Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC remain customers,
Blaker said the company started to grow when customers began asking TTI to provide instructors to lead the courses it was printing the manuals for. And it really took off when TTI began using the Web, began expanding into other industries and started expanding the work roles for which it provides training. Today it's not just mechanics -- it's soft skills for sellers and client service staff at banks, hotels and health care providers.
Blaker said the company keeps a "hands on" component for many of its online courses because "the reason these people are technicians is that they like to work with their hands -- they like to take things apart and put them back together."
Blaker said she markets TTI mostly by industry networking. The company recently snagged a large training contract for a finance firm and two telecom providers in Brazil.
Despite the company's growth and size, Blaker said she remains committed to retaining the work culture of a nimble startup. "I've worked very hard to keep our management flat," she said. "We don't have a lot of management team. We have key managers in key markets and we just communicate. Now with technology we just use the Internet and I talk to them more than ever."
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CruiseCam gets Japanese distributor Birmingham-based CruiseCam International Inc. said Wednesday that it had executed an agreement for sales and distribution of CruiseCam products in the Japanese and neighboring markets. In the next few weeks the parties will work towards an agreement on a strategy designed to penetrate the Japanese market and to establish the first foreign language representation of the CruiseCam. More.
New DOT rules hit lithium-ion cell phone battery recycling
New Federal Department of Transportation Hazardous Materials Regulations covering lithium-ion batteries -- which took effect Wednesday -- will impact both the cell-phone recycling industry and consumers who want to ship their wireless handsets for recycling, according to Dexter-based ReCellular, the cell phone recycling giant. More.
Economics Dept.: September purchasing managers index rises Employment rose, production and prices fell steeply, and new orders fell back during September, according to the monthly metro Detroit Purchasing Managers Report compiled by economist and Walsh College Director of Doctoral Programs David Allardice. The composite index -- which measures production, new orders, employment, inventory, vendor deliveries, and commodity prices -- rose 0.6 points, to 48.8. Readings below 50 in the diffusion index generally indicate a shrinking economy, while readings above 50 indicate growth. More.
THE WORLD IN TECH
Diller: IAC 'extremely lucky' to split company when it did Could playing computer games enhance mental agility enough to turn people over 50 into better drivers? Allstate Corp. wants to find out, and if the answer is yes, it might offer insurance discounts to people who play the games. Under a new pilot program called InSight, Allstate will offer specialized computer games to 100,000 customers in Pennsylvania aged 50 to 75. The games' developer, San Francisco-based Posit Science, will track the total number of hours these drivers play. Then the group's accident rates will be compared to a control group of people who do not play the games. More.
Hollywood studios agree to digital rollout
Five Hollywood studios have agreed to help pay for a $1 billion-plus rollout of digital technology on about 20,000 movie screens in North America, a precursor to showing movies in 3-D. Digital Cinema Implementation Partners, a consortium of major theater chains, announced the deal Wednesday. The rollout in the U.S. and Canada, covering about half of all screens, is planned to start early next year. To help offset the costs -- about $70,000 per screen -- the studios plan to pay the consortium slightly under $1,000 per movie per screen, roughly the same amount it costs them to print and ship a celluloid film copy. Adding digital equipment is the critical first step in the technological upgrade to being able to show 3-D movies. More.
Allstate testing whether games can improve driving
Could playing computer games enhance mental agility enough to turn people over 50 into better drivers? Allstate Corp. wants to find out, and if the answer is yes, it might offer insurance discounts to people who play the games. Under a new pilot program called InSight, Allstate will offer specialized computer games to 100,000 customers in Pennsylvania aged 50 to 75. The games' developer, San Francisco-based Posit Science, will track the total number of hours these drivers play. Then the group's accident rates will be compared to a control group of people who do not play the games. More.
Apple drops secrecy pledge for iPhone developers Apple Inc. will no longer force iPhone software developers to sign a nondisclosure agreement that many had said was hampering their ability to work. The switch, announced Wednesday, comes a week after the introduction of the first phone loaded with Google Inc.'s Android software, an open-source operating system that lets developers make and sell programs without restriction. In contrast, Apple had required every person who downloaded the iPhone software developer kit to pledge not to speak about its contents, even to fellow developers. Recently, the Cupertino, Calif.-based company also barred programmers whose applications it rejected from iTunes - the only legitimate place to sell iPhone "apps" - from posting the reasons for rejection on the Web. More.
Stocks: Tech stocks follow broad market and close with losses Technology stocks remained volatile Wednesday, with most sector bellwethers closing in the red as the broader market awaited a U.S. Senate vote on the $700 billion Wall Street bailout package. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index (COMP) fell 22.48 points or 1.1 percent to 2,069.4. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ($INDU) fell 19.59 points or 0.2 percent to 10,831.07. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index ($SOX) fell 3.66 points or 1.2 percent to 303.23 and the Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index (MSH) fell 10.22 points or 2.2 percent to 463.72. The Amex Pharmaceutical Index ($DRG) rose 1.84 points or 0.6 percent to 294.32, while the Amex Biotech Index (BTK) fell 7.82 points or 1 percent to 776.34. The S&P 500 (SPX) fell 5.3 points, or 0.5 percent, to 1,161.06. In a sign of the market's concerns over the credit crisis and its impact on the U.S. and global economy, energy, materials and industrial stocks fell the most in the broad market. A national manufacturing survey also revealed weaker-than-expected conditions, suggesting the economy is already in recession. The ISM index fell to 43.5 from 49.6 in August, much lower than the 49.6 that had been expected by economists surveyed by MarketWatch. Separately, the ADP employment report showed the private sector lost 8,000 jobs in September. Economists had been looking for the ADP index to fall 65,000 after it lost a revised 37,000 in August.
Today a fair number of local extras: Eastern Michigan University business school will produce the next Michigan Women's Leadership Index; tax credits for plug-in cars are stuck in neutral; NxtGen offers an advanced diesel exhaust scrubber; a University of Michigan-Dearborn scholarship honors a beloved engineering prof; Strategic Staffing Solutions supports an important charity and celebrates a birthday; and Garden City Hospital offers improved HR software. Elsewhere in Techland: Congress passes a bill to help save Internet radio; an app to aid the digitizing of paper documents; a deal with Starz adds more streamed movies to Netflix; Standard Microsystems third quarter guidance disappoints; Micron Technology points a wider fourth quarter loss; a Senate bill sets guidelines for a cybersecurity center; Netflix is coming soon to a Mac near you; Boxee Media Center hacks its way into AppleTV; where were you in 2001? -- just check Google's old index; Apple says there's no evidence of benzene emissions from the Mac Pro; business says hasta la Vista to Microsoft's newest OS; Microsoft's Xbox Live hit with yet another outage; a rumor says Nintendo will roll out a new Wii by 2011; Dilbert's cartoonist is making serious contributions to the economic discourse; McCain's homeland security strategy would take an 'eBay approach'; an app called Splicd lets you edit other people's YouTube videos; an indie music distributor forecasts layoffs; the social site Buzznet poaches a New York Times editor; scientists at MIT move closer to an artificial nose; a new estimate finds the AIDS virus has been circulating in the human race for about 100 years; and scientists wonder whether the Earth's neighborhood an empty bubble of spacetime.
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Anyone who doubts the energy and buzz -- and the global nature -- of the new market in WiMax wireless Internet communications should spend a while on the show floor at WiMax World 2008 this week in Chicago. The more than 150 exhibitors represent a melting pot of every corner of the world (and if you don't believe me, check out the names of the people I'm quoting below). There are lots of chipmakers and antenna system builders, some software vendors and some all-around tech giants -- all showing intriguing possibilities about the future of the Web through WiMax. 
Rochester Hills auto, tech staffing and training firm on the grow
