Lowry Computer wins big defense contract
Brighton-based Lowry Computer Products, one of the nation's leading automatic identification and data capture system developers, said Tuesday that it had been selected by the U.S. Army's Information Technology, E-Commerce, and Commercial Contracting Center to provide Automatic Identification Technology to the U.S Department of Defense, U.S Coast Guard, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Coalition Partners and other foreign military sales. The contract, which was awarded to Lowry Computer Products and other awardees, has a potential value in excess of $400 million based on this multiple award indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract. More.
Oneupweb hits the road for interactive marketing "Be relentless." It’s a simple sentence, one that is spoken inside Traverse City-based digital marketing agency Oneupweb’s global headquarters daily. And now, it’s that attitude that they will take on the road, embarking on a 5-day tour of the state in a 1970’s motor home. The goal: To help Michigan businesses makeover their online marketing plans.“We live and work in Michigan, and we happen to like it. But large or small, every business owner in the state is facing tough times right now,” explains Oneupweb CEO and Founder Lisa Wehr. “We wanted to do our part, and help Michigan business owners continue to work and operate here. And that’s when we came up with One for the Road.” Wehr said that in order to help Michigan businesses, Oneupweb is going to drive right to them. And they’ll be offering their nationally recognized online marketing consultation services to Michigan businesses -- free. More.
AAA Michigan launches savings (and social media) Web site Every week from now through October, one lucky participant who enters AAA Michigan's new "Get a Grand Giveaway" on the AAA Michigan Savings Community will win a $1,000 Visa Travel Money card. The card can be used on any purchase where Visa is accepted. The site features blogs with savings advice and information on discounts, opportunities to share savings stories and participate in fun polls. More.
Plante & Moran offers liquidity 'stress test' online Plante & Moran, PLLC, one of the nation’s largest accounting and business advisory firms, has launched a liquidity stress test designed to help companies understand their cash requirements so they can more effectively manage cash flow during the downturn and plan for profitability when the economy turns around. The complimentary liquidity stress test can be downloaded at www.stresstest.plantemoran.com. More.
New version of debugging software from Compuware
Compuware Corp. announced the release of its next generation upgrade of Xpediter with Eclipse 2.0. This latest upgrade of the industry-standard analysis and debugging tool enables new mainframe talent to support mission critical business applications more quickly using a familiar point-and-click environment. More.
Dearborn machine shop on cutting edge of laser technology
When you visit Turchan Technologies Group Inc. in Dearborn, it's almost like you're visiting two companies.
Out back is a machine shop that's comfortingly familiar to any Detroiter, grinding and cutting and boring holes in steel and aluminum, making parts used in Detroit Three automobiles, airplanes and electronics.
But up front, closer to the Ford Road offices, it's a different story -- an honest-to-goodness skunk works where scientists play with lasers and metallurgy just to see what will happen.
On a recent Friday, for example, a laser system was modifying and treating surface of a stainless steel frying pan.
Why? Well, more or less a quick experiment by Turchan laser scientists, just to see what the heck happens, said a fellow with the unlikely but wonderful name of Pravin Mistry, who now resides in the UK and set up Turchan’s operations in Liverpool, England in 2004 to develop and secure global business.
The company has already given other materials the laser treatment and has achieved almost superhuman enhancements -- stuff like dental drill burrs and scissors, metal forming tooling, body armor, stainless steel and other materials used in nuclear power applications. The application list for the process is endless.
Now, Mistry wonders whether his laser treated pots and pans could top Teflon. But that’s not the full story. By the time you read this, Turchan scientists will have claimed another worlds first in a treatment to imbue high temperature super hydrophobic (slippery and non-wetting) characteristics to various products. Beginning with cookware the process will be useful for applications in diversified markets including nuclear and renewable energy, aerospace and defense.
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Icon adds office space, staff Icon Creative Technologies Group recently bought the former Ann Arbor Arts Center building on Felch Street to prepare for expansion. Icon Interactive Agency has also recently added two new employees to the international team of 25. Icon is an Ann Arbor based company servicing several Fortune 100 companies around the globe in Web development and communications. More.
Fisher Coachworks picks AVL to analyze hybrid bus project Oak Park-based Fisher Coachworks Tuesday issued the first of a series of key supplier relationship announcements in support of its final design and production launch of the GTB-40 PHEV Urban Transit Bus. The GTB-40, which is one half the weight of current 40-foot urban hybrid buses, delivers significant energy consumption and emissions benefits over conventional buses, as well as outstanding engineering, reliability, quality and long-term field performance. In support of the final engineering process, Fisher Coachworks selected AVL Powertrain Engineering, Inc. to assess Fisher’s propulsion system component selection and emissions certification strategies. More.
Troy's Netarx buys VAR business of Analysts International Troy-based Netarx LLC has purchased "substantially all" the assets of the value-added reseller business and supporting service offerings from Minneapolis-based Analysts International Corp. The agreement was signed on Aug. 4 and is effective immediately, the two companies announced Tuesday night. Financial terms weren't disclosed. The move will result in more than 165 AIC employees joining Netarx, as well as offices in Ohio and Kentucky. Netarx officials said the business was primarily in Michigan. More.
THE WORLD IN TECH
Microsoft to hire at least 400 Yahoo workers Microsoft will hire at least 400 workers from Yahoo as part of the companies' proposed Internet search partnership. The plans detailed in a regulatory filing Tuesday affect about 3 percent of Yahoo's 13,000 employees. Microsoft currently has about 91,000 workers. Sunnyvale-based Yahoo said when the alliance was announced last week that some employees would be offered jobs at Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft, but didn't provide a specific number. More.
Web site tracks world online censorship reports When Shanghai blogger Isaac Mao tried to watch a YouTube clip of Chinese police beating Tibetans, all he got was an error message. Mao thought the error -- just after the one-year anniversary of a crackdown on Tibetan protesters in China -- was too suspicious to be coincidental, so he reported it on a new Harvard-based Web site that tracks online censorship. Meanwhile, more than 100 other people in China did the same thing. The spike in reports on Herdict.org in March pointed to government interference rather than a run-of-the-mill technical glitch, even before Google Inc. confirmed China was blocking its YouTube video-sharing site. More.
New Sony e-book reader $100 cheaper than Kindle Electronic books are often mentioned in the same breath as Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle digital reader. Now e-book rival Sony Corp. is determined to recapture consumers' attention with a smaller reader that's also $100 cheaper. On Wednesday, Sony is expected to announce that it will release the Reader Pocket Edition by the end of August. Like the Kindle and Sony's previous Readers, the Pocket Edition will come with an "electronic ink" display, which shows dark gray text on a lighter gray background. As the word "pocket" implies, its five-inch screen will be smaller than that on the Kindle and other Sony models. Unlike other Readers, the Pocket Edition won't play digital music files, and it won't have a slot for a memory card to supplement internal storage that can hold 350 books. More.
Julie Powell found fame with her blog. Can you? Julie Powell says she wasn't thinking book or movie deal when she began blogging her recipe-by-recipe adventure through Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." She was just looking for an escape from a series of dead end jobs that had put a damper on her dreams of becoming a writer. But Powell found more than an outlet with her "Julie & Julia Project." Her blog became a memoir, "Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen," which was later, "Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously," which then became a movie - "Julie & Julia" opening Aug. 7 with Meryl Streep and Amy Adams as stars. (The movie is also based on Child's "My Life in France.") More. (Oh, and here are some AP tips on successful blogging.)
Stocks: Investors nudge rally forward with small gains Investors made few big moves Tuesday after stocks rocketed 14 percent in just 16 days. The market closed with modest gains as many traders held their positions and looked toward the Labor Department's employment report on Friday. But the Commerce Department's report of an increase in consumer spending and the National Association of Realtors' report of a rise in pending home sales provided evidence that the economy could be stabilizing. And Caterpillar Inc. predicted that cost cuts and other efforts will enable it to turn profits in the coming years even if the economy is slow to recover. More. The Nasdaq Composite Index (COMP) rose 2.7 points or 0.1 percent to 2,011.31. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ($INDU) rose 33.63 points or 0.4 percent, to 9,320.19. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index ($SOX) rose 0.2 points or 0.1 percent to 307.22. The Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index (MSH) rose 0.64 points or 0.1 percent to 501.29. The NYSE Arca Pharmaceutical Index (DRG) rose 0.57 points or 0.2 percent to 281.95. The NYSE Arca Biotech Index (BTK) rose 20.06 points or 2.3 percent to 897.56. Finally, the Standard & Poor's 500 (SPX) rose 3.02 points or 0.3 percent to 1,005.65.
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Dearborn machine shop on cutting edge of laser technology
When Shanghai blogger Isaac Mao tried to watch a YouTube clip of Chinese police beating Tibetans, all he got was an error message. Mao thought the error -- just after the one-year anniversary of a crackdown on Tibetan protesters in China -- was too suspicious to be coincidental, so he reported it on a new Harvard-based Web site that tracks online censorship. Meanwhile, more than 100 other people in China did the same thing. The spike in reports on Herdict.org in March pointed to government interference rather than a run-of-the-mill technical glitch, even before Google Inc. confirmed China was blocking its YouTube video-sharing site. 
Electronic books are often mentioned in the same breath as Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle digital reader. Now e-book rival Sony Corp. is determined to recapture consumers' attention with a smaller reader that's also $100 cheaper. On Wednesday, Sony is expected to announce that it will release the Reader Pocket Edition by the end of August. Like the Kindle and Sony's previous Readers, the Pocket Edition will come with an "electronic ink" display, which shows dark gray text on a lighter gray background. As the word "pocket" implies, its five-inch screen will be smaller than that on the Kindle and other Sony models. Unlike other Readers, the Pocket Edition won't play digital music files, and it won't have a slot for a memory card to supplement internal storage that can hold 350 books. 
Julie Powell says she wasn't thinking book or movie deal when she began blogging her recipe-by-recipe adventure through Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." She was just looking for an escape from a series of dead end jobs that had put a damper on her dreams of becoming a writer. But Powell found more than an outlet with her "Julie & Julia Project." Her blog became a memoir, "Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen," which was later, "Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously," which then became a movie - "Julie & Julia" opening Aug. 7 with Meryl Streep and Amy Adams as stars. (The movie is also based on Child's "My Life in France.") 
