GLITR Monday, August 31, 2009

Your report for Monday, August 31, 2009

Foundation's online giving campaign smashes past expectations
The Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan released a preliminary report last week on the amount of operating funds generated for the 75 arts and cultural organizations participating in the “Community Foundation Challenge - Arts and Culture.” The report indicated the challenge has secured a total of nearly $4.8 million, surpassing the original goal of $3 million, thanks to the strong online outpouring of support from donors and the hard work of the 75 participating organizations. The Community Foundation increased its initial commitment of $1 million to match donor gifts by ultimately providing nearly $ 1.6 million in matching funds. More at www.cfsem.org. More on the story from the GLITR Web site.

New Web site offers frank information on dating, relationships
Oakland County entrepreneur Zach Lipson wants to help your next relationship go better. Or maybe even the one you're already in. He's founded a Web site, Leftos.com, where you can engage in frank and anonymous conversations with the opposite sex about what works and what doesn't in any relationship -- as well as in the dating game. The name of the site is an acronym for Lessons From The Opposite Sex. More.

Visteon brings aftermarket navigation compatibility to Ford SYNC
The Van Buren Township auto supplier Visteon Corp. Friday announced it has developed an electronic interface which, for the first time, brings aftermarket navigation capability to Ford vehicles equipped with SYNC in North America. An aftermarket kit allowing SYNC to interface with Visteon's Navigation Radio System is now available for most Ford and Lincoln models through dealers and distributors. The kit includes an easy-to-install direct connect harness and interface box that enables SYNC to be operated from the touch screen on the Visteon Navigation Radio System. More.

Wayne State med school to study Detroit cops' stress
A Wayne State University School of Medicine researcher has secured a National Institutes of Health grant to further research training methods that lessen the health impacts of stress on police officers, and will conduct that research with the Detroit Police Department. Bengt Arnetz, a physician and professor in the Department of Family Medicine and director of the Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, received $680,000 from the National Institute of Mental Health for his study, “Imagery-Based Trauma-Resiliency Training for Urban Police.” He called this research the first “scientific evaluation of a primary prevention program for trauma-related mental health and behavioral effects in high-risk professionals” in the United States. More.

NSF awards Alma College grant to study flu-fighters
The National Science Foundation has granted $150,000 to Alma College for research that could eventually lead to the development of more effective drugs to treat and prevent certain kinds of influenza, including human infections of swine and avian flu. The three-year grant through the NSF’s Research in Undergraduate Institutions program will involve both faculty and students in the synthesis of a new generation of neuraminidase inhibitors that principal investigator Jeff Turk believes will provide new information to guide the future development of antiviral drugs. More.

Dewpoint helps libraries implement new cataloging technology

Obviously libraries are in the information business.

And now Lansing-based Dewpoint is helping them manage that information more effectively for their customers.

Dewpoint has provided professional services, consulting, architecture development and preferred pricing for a couple of major library engagements this year, producing happy library mangers and happier information seekers.

The first engagement was for The Library Network, http://tln.lib.mi.us/, the Southgate-based public library cooperative serving 65 libraries in southeast Michigan.

Like many libraries, The Library Network used a comprehensive, integrated cataloging system from Sirsi/Dynix, the Provo, Utah developer of library management software.

A recent Sirsi/Dynix upgrade required more hardware capacity. And Dewpoint provided assistance with deployment of the infrastructure. Dewpoint kept the project on schedule and within budget, and in just two weeks, the system had been prepared for the library IT staff to complete the implementation.

And Dewpoint's relationship with Sun Microsystems paid off -- Dewpoint was able to secure special hardware pricing for the effort.

Shortly after the TLN Sun SPARC/Solaris Enterprise M4000 technology acquisition from Dewpoint, the Detroit Public Library was looking to replace its SIRSI/Dynix technology.

Dewpoint proposed a similar solution for DPL, focusing on the recent TLN decision. Decision makers from DPL reviewed their options with TLN and selected redundant systems, identical to TLN's single-server environment to support their catalog/library loan application.

Dewpoint public sector specialist Don Dougherty said the system runs best on SPARC but will also run on Intel or AMD equipment.

Due to Dewpoint's attractive pricing, Dougherty said the Detroit library decided to by dual systems for redundancy and maximum application availability.

For more information on how Dewpoint can help other applications run more effectively, contact Kristine Buyers at (517) 316-2896 or Kristine.Buyers@Dewpoint.com.

Note: Today's Blue Box is sponsored by Dewpoint. For information on how you can sponsor content in the Blue Box, contact Jeff Lasser at (248) 455-7319 or jeff.lasser@cbsradio.com

Printing industry helps Ferris State student to national competition
As students return to Ferris State University’s campus, one is preparing to go to Calgary, Alberta, Canada to compete for gold. Amela Mujkic, a print management and new media printing and publishing senior from Clinton Township, has has spent the summer training to be the first person to represent the United States in Offset Printing at WorldSkills Sept. 1-7. According to Pat Klarecki, professor of printing and imaging technology and director of the School of Fabrication and Design at Ferris, without the support of industry here in Michigan and around the country, Mujkic’s run for the gold could not have happened. More.

Wayne State gets $285k for nursing distance learning
More than 25 individuals from across the state recently gathered at the Wayne State University College of Nursing to give special thanks to U.S. Reps. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick and Fred Upton for their ongoing support of nursing education. The special recognition was attributed to their efforts to secure $285,000 in federal funding to support the creation of a graduate distance learning program in psychiatric and public health nursing. It is the only distance-learning program in this specialty in the state. More.

SAE, MIT launch search for automotive innovation
The Detroit Section of the Society of Automotive Engineers and the MIT Enterprise Forum Great Lakes have issued a call for applications for their second annual Innovation Competition. The organizations say the competition's goal is to shortcut the auto industry's filtering process in large organizations to bring new innovations to the industry in a time of need. Qualifying entries should be innovations based on vehicle content (hardware or software), what helps design the vehicle, and what helps produce the vehicle. Target vehicles are limited to driver-driven, land-based vehicles. More.

THE WORLD IN TECH

India loses communications with lunar orbiter
India's national space agency said communications with the country's only satellite orbiting the moon snapped Saturday and that its scientists were no longer controlling the spacecraft. Radio contacts with Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft were abruptly lost at 1:30 a.m. Indian time Saturday (4 p.m. Eastern time Friday), the Indian Space Research Organization said. The agency's monitoring unit near the southern city of Bangalore is no longer receiving data from the spacecraft, spokesman S. Satish told The Associated Press by telephone from Bangalore. The spacecraft had completed 312 days in orbit and orbited the moon more than 3,400 times. More.

As the Internet turns 40, barriers threaten its growth
Goofy videos weren't on the minds of Len Kleinrock and his team at UCLA when they began tests 40 years ago on what would become the Internet. Neither was social networking, for that matter, nor were most of the other easy-to-use applications that have drawn more than a billion people online. Instead the researchers sought to create an open network for freely exchanging information, an openness that ultimately spurred the innovation that would later spawn the likes of YouTube, Facebook and the World Wide Web. There's still plenty of room for innovation today, yet the openness fostering it may be eroding. While the Internet is more widely available and faster than ever, artificial barriers threaten to constrict its growth. More.

Court rejects cap on cable market share -- again
An appeals court overturned a rule that said a cable TV company could not serve more than 30 percent of the nation's subscribers. The verdict Friday was a victory for the largest cable company, Comcast Corp., which has 25 percent share and sued to block the rule. It was an embarrassing decision for the Federal Communications Commission, which had already seen the cap rejected and imposed it again. Friday's ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit called the limit "arbitrary and capricious," and threw it out. Fearing a cable monopoly, Congress in 1992 directed the FCC to set limits on how many customers cable TV operators could reach nationwide. The FCC set the 30 percent limit, but that was thrown out twice by the courts. Two years ago, under then-FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, the same cap was reinstated, prompting the new challenge from Comcast. In the ruling, the appeals court noted -- at times with sarcasm and thinly veiled incredulity -- that the FCC sought to justify the previously rejected cap by recalculating its formula. But the outcome remained the same at 30 percent. More.

FIorida man in largest data heist takes plea deal
A computer hacker accused of masterminding one of the largest cases of identity theft in U.S. history agreed Friday to plead guilty and serve up to 25 years in federal prison for his crimes. Albert Gonzalez of Miami was charged with conspiracy, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft charges in federal courts in New York and Boston. Court documents filed in federal court in Boston indicate the 28-year-old Gonzalez agreed to plead guilty to 19 counts and combine the two cases in federal court in Massachusetts. Additional charges against Gonzalez are still pending in New Jersey, but they are not currently part of the plea deal. The Miami man is accused of swiping the credit and debit card numbers of more than 170 million accounts with officials said Gonzalez was the ringleader of a group that targeted large companies such as T.J. Maxx, Barnes and Noble, Sports Authority and OfficeMax, among others. More.

Stocks: Shares mostly lower; Nasdaq buoyed by Intel news
Investors balked at extending the market's recent rally Friday despite an improved outlook from Intel Corp. Stocks closed mostly lower, as losses among health care stocks offset small gains in technology companies. Trading was quiet, as it has been all week, as summer vacations kept many traders out of the market. With fewer participants, the market lost some of its recent momentum that had sent the major indexes up about 5 percent in less than two weeks. Stocks managed to carve out their sixth weekly advance in seven weeks, but the gains were minimal. More. The Nasdaq Composite Index (COMP) rose 1.04 points or 0.1 percent to 2,028.77. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ($INDU) fell 36.43 points or 0.4 percent, to 9,544.2. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index ($SOX) rose 7.42 points or 2.4 percent to 311.18. The Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index (MSH) rose 2.99 points or 0.6 percent to 509.34. The NYSE Arca Pharmaceutical Index (DRG) fell 2.02 points or 0.7 percent to 284.14. The NYSE Arca Biotech Index (BTK) rose 4.46 points or 0.5 percent to 921.08. Finally, the Standard & Poor's 500 (SPX) rose 2.05 points or 0.2 percent to 1,028.93.

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 mnroush@cbs.com or call (248) 455-7380. For marketing and advertising queries, or with general questions or concerns, contact Pete Kowalski, WWJ's station manager, at prkowalski@cbs.com. To subscribe, e-mail Matt Roush or Georgeann Herbert at gherbert@cbs.com.

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