Michigan
Makes Movies expo draws a huge crowd If
it had been a movie, it would have been a massive crowd scene in one
of those old 1950s Biblical epics. And none of this green screen computer
effects stuff either. These people were for real and deadly serious.
And they came, 1,300-plus strong, to the CBS Radio Michigan Makes Movies
Expo Sunday at the Rock Financial Showplace. More.
Sprint
adds push-to-talk in Saginaw Sprint Friday announced
the availability of enhanced push-to-talk service for Mid-Michigan Nextel
Direct Connect subscribers. The enhanced service is part of a corporate
expansion that includes push-to-talk capabilities in the Saginaw area.
More.
Gale
in deal for language learning products Farmington Hills-based Gale,
part of Cengage Learning, and K12 Inc. Friday announced an agreement
to develop and distribute a new line of world language-learning products
to libraries. Power-Glide Language Courses, Inc. (known as powerspeaK12),
a subsidiary of K12 Inc., will develop Web-based language courses, which
Gale will distribute exclusively to the library market. Languages will
include Spanish, French, German, Chinese and Spanish ESL. More.
NXGen files
paperwork to rejoin pink sheets Saranac-based NXGen Holdings
Inc. announced Friday that the company the company has filed the necessary
documentation to become fully compliant with Pink OTC Markets Inc. disclosure
guidelines in order to improve its status from caveat emptor. NXGen
Holdings expects the review process to take approximately two weeks.
NXGen makes green cleaning products. More.
Detroit
Free Press added to ProQuest Historical Newspapers database
Ann Arbor-based ProQuest continues to expand
its renowned news program with several significant additions to ProQuest
Historical Newspapers. Later this year the Detroit Free Press will be
added to ProQuest Historical Newspapers allowing users to follow the
history of Detroit from a small frontier town to its growth to the one
of the largest cities in the U.S in the early 20th century. More.
The Week Ahead: A few days off, then the fun stuff resumes
Sure it's summer, but that
doesn't mean there aren't super-cool tech events in Michigan.
Your Michigan IT Calendar,
the state's most comprehensive IT calendar at
this link, has a bunch of winners.
The fun starts Tuesday at
Ann Arbor, where Ann Arbor Spark hosts an open coffee networking event
Tuesday morning and a capital event Tuesday noon. Tuesday also features
an Automation Alley health care IT event in Troy.
Thursday's another big day,
with a Detroit Tech Crawl in the morning and a Grand Valley State University
innovation event in Grand Rapids later in the day.
And Saturday, head up to Michigan's
Thumb for some fun in the village of Elkton, home of Michigan's biggest
wind energy far, where it's Wind Turbine Day.
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
Laptops
for troops project hits 600-machine mark A Plymouth dentist who originated
a program to send donated laptops to Iraq and Afghanistan to help United
States troops keep in touch with loved ones back home, has hit a landmark.
Jim Payne's JDS Computer Donations has hit the 600-computer mark shipped
off to the Middle East. More.
EMU, Mott
CC in new ties for biz, nursing and IT degrees
Ypsilanti's Eastern Michigan
University and Mott Community College in Flint have formalized three
agreements that allow students at MCC to seamlessly transition into
three different degree programs at Eastern. The agreements are effective
Sept. 1. The agreements will allow students to take up to 94 credits
of coursework at MCC and then transfer those credits toward a bachelor’s
degree in either nursing or technology management at EMU, or 85 credits
toward a bachelor’s degree in business administration. More.
Grid4
to showcase new space, new jobs with Automation Alley event Troy-based Grid4 Communications
is gearing up to host the Automation Alley Summer Networking Event at
its headquarters in Troy on Thursday, July 23. This ‘Summer BBQ'
themed event will start at 5:30 p.m. and conclude at 8 p.m. Ken Rogers,
Executive Director of Automation Alley and Chris Hopkins, CEO of Grid4,
will offer encouraging remarks during the event. Hopkins said the company
has renovated 25,000 more square feet of space in anticipation of 75
new technology jobs Grid4 plans to add by the end of 2010. He said the
event will "showcase Grid4's new Technology and Conference Center."
More.
THE WORLD IN TECH
GM to try
selling new cars on eBay As part of its turnaround
plan, General Motors Corp. said Friday it plans to experiment with auctioning
new cars on eBay, expanding on an existing partnership covering certified
used vehicles on the online marketplace. GM CEO Fritz Henderson said
the company is working on an "innovative new partnership"
with eBay Inc. to let consumers in California bid on vehicles as they
would in a normal eBay auction, or choose a "Buy it Now" option
to purchase the car at a set price. Dealers would still distribute the
cars. A deal between eBay and GM hasn't been completed yet, and both
sides say they have been in discussions. More.
Young
workers push employers for wider Web access Ryan Tracy
thought he'd entered the Dark Ages when he graduated college and arrived
in the working world. His employer blocked access to Facebook, Gmail
and other popular Internet sites. He had no wireless access for his
laptop and often ran to a nearby cafe on work time so he could use its
Wi-Fi connection to send large files. Sure, the barriers did what his
employer intended: They stopped him and his colleagues from using work
time to goof around online. But Tracy says the rules also got in the
way of legitimate work he needed to do as a scientific analyst for a
health care services company. He was sure there had to be a better way.
It's a common complaint from young people who join the work force with
the expectation that their bosses will embrace technology as much as
they do. Then some discover that sites they're supposed to be researching
for work are blocked. Or they can't take a little down time to read
a news story online or check their personal e-mail or social networking
accounts. More.
(And here's a set of common
sense guidelines for workers.)
South
Korea analyzes computers infected in cyberattacks South
Korean police are analyzing a sample of the tens of thousands of infected
computers used to crash Web sites in South Korea and the U.S., but conceded
Sunday they may not lead to the culprit. South Korean intelligence officials
suspect archrival North Korea was involved. South Korea's spy agency
told lawmakers last week that a North Korean military research institute
had been ordered to destroy the South's communications networks, local
media reported. In a statement late Saturday, the National Intelligence
Service said it has "various evidence" of North Korean involvement,
but cautioned it has yet to reach a final conclusion. More.
AP
proposes new article formatting for the Web The
Associated Press is proposing that publishers attach descriptive tags
to news articles online in hopes of taming the free-for-all of news
and information on the Web and generating more traffic for established
media brands. Tags identifying the author, publisher and other information
-- as well as any usage restrictions publishers hope to place on copyright-protected
materials -- would be packaged with each news article in a way that
search engines can more easily identify. More.
Stocks:
Dismal employment numbers push markets lower With little upbeat news
ahead of a crush of corporate earnings reports this week, stocks on
Friday hit their longest losing streak since the market's spring rally
began in early March. Stocks zigzagged during the week, failing to hold
what few gains they could muster. The Dow Jones industrials and the
Standard & Poor's 500 index have now fallen four straight weeks.
The Nasdaq Composite Index (COMP)
rose 3.48, or 0.2 percent, to 1,756.03. A handful of upgrades to technology
shares helped shore up the Nasdaq. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
($INDU)
fell 36.65, or 0.5 percent, to 8,146.52. It was the lowest close for
the blue chips since April 28. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index
($SOX)
rose 1.09 points or 0.4 percent to 259.04. The Morgan Stanley High Tech
35 Index (MSH)
rose 1.41 points or 0.3 percent to 435.59. The NYSE Arca Pharmaceutical
Index (DRG)
fell 2.01 points or 2.3 percent to 257.52. The NYSE Arca Biotech Index
(BTK)
rose 1.22 points or 0.4 percent to 646.68. Finally, the Standard & Poor's
500 (SPX)
lost 3.55, or 0.4 percent, to 879.13. For the week, the Dow lost 1.6
percent, the S&P 500 index slid 1.9 percent and the Nasdaq lost
2.3 percent.
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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If
it had been a movie, it would have been a massive crowd scene in one
of those old 1950s Biblical epics. And none of this green screen computer
effects stuff either. These people were for real and deadly serious.
And they came, 1,300-plus strong, to the CBS Radio Michigan Makes Movies
Expo Sunday at the Rock Financial Showplace. 
The Week Ahead: A few days off, then the fun stuff resumes
South
Korean police are analyzing a sample of the tens of thousands of infected
computers used to crash Web sites in South Korea and the U.S., but conceded
Sunday they may not lead to the culprit. South Korean intelligence officials
suspect archrival North Korea was involved. South Korea's spy agency
told lawmakers last week that a North Korean military research institute
had been ordered to destroy the South's communications networks, local
media reported. In a statement late Saturday, the National Intelligence
Service said it has "various evidence" of North Korean involvement,
but cautioned it has yet to reach a final conclusion. 
