GLITR Monday, September 28, 2009

Your report for Monday, September 28, 2009

Tech Tour Day Three: A tour de force at Michigan Tech
If you're looking for hope about the future of Michigan, there's noplace better to start than Michigan Technological University. Sure, the pristine setting on the Keweenaw Peninsula helps. But let's see, in eight interviews Saturday, all I learned about was new technologies that are going to solve a big chunk of carbon discharges, revive America's steel and manufacturing industries, boost our car industry back to prominence, keep our forests healthy, provide new sources of fuel, do a better job of detecting cancer and find dangerous space junk. More.

Tech Tour Day Four: More from MTU (and pix soon, I promise)
I got even more good tech news from Michigan Technological University over a breakfast at the famous Suomi Restaurant in downtown Houghton on my way out of town Sunday. Over a breakfast of french toast Finnish style, and then in their laboratories, I met with Ryan J. Gilbert and Jeremy Goldman, two assistant professors of biomedical engineering, and their latest research, which has the promise to alleviate some very serious human suffering. And don't worry, pictures will be up soon. More.

Advanced Photonix enters art, antiquities field
Ann Arbor-based Advanced Photonix Inc. (NYSE Amex: API) announced Friday that its Picometrix LLC, subsidiary, through its representative Spectra Design, has received a purchase order for a T-Ray 4000 terahertz imaging system from the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology in Tokyo, Japan. Within the field of art conservation, the T-Ray 4000 has already been used to evaluate the age of various pigments, look for drawings and frescoes under paint or plaster, study ancient texts without opening them, and examine the age of wood on which artwork has been painted. More.

Saginaw Future helps draw $12.3 million investment, 508 new jobs
In the second quarter of 2009, Saginaw Future Inc. assisted seven companies that invested more than $12.3 million, creating 508 jobs and retaining 71 jobs. Included was a further investment in solar energy by Dow Corning Corp. and several other tech-related projects. More.

Michigan transplant to talk VC for Huffington Post
Jeff Bocan, a new managing director at the Farmington Hills private equity firm Beringea, will begin a blog series about venture investing in Michigan on the online news and commentary site Huffington Post. Bocan’s perspective on the opportunities and challenges awaiting Michigan entrepreneurs and the investors who support them will appear on the site’s Business News and Opinion section alongside regular The Huffington Post contributors. More.

The Week Ahead: While I'm off Tech Touring, a ton's going on

You people planned this, didn't you?

Very crafty. While I'm off gallivanting around Michigan on the 2009 Fall Tech Tour, the Michigan technology community has jam-packed a week with terrific things to do in just about every corner of the state and the tech world.

Try the terrific Secure World Expo in Dearborn Tuesday and Wednesday, or an Automation Alley business financing event Tuesday. That's the same day as the wonderful Michigan Clean Transportation Expo and Awards Gala.

Later in the week, Lawrence Technological University offers Mechatronics Day, while the Engineering Society of Detroit offers another one of its terrific Job Fairs.

It all wraps up Friday with Tech Town's monthly First Friday networking event, and the launch Saturday of the fun University of Michigan fall physics lecture series for the general public.

Get out there yourself!

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.

General Dynamics gets $7 million for tank work in Sterling Heights
General Dynamics Land Systems has been awarded a $7 million contract to continue to design the new Saudi M1A2 (M1A2S) Abrams tank for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The Foreign Military Sales contract for design logistics was awarded by United States Army's Tank Automotive Command Lifecycle Management Command for the Royal Saudi Land Forces. The work will be performed in Sterling Heights. More.

PMV launches continuity planning and IT security offerings
Madison Heights-based PMV Technologies says it is marking National Preparedness Month by introducing business continuity planning with a focus on disaster recovery and information security. Business continuity planning is a critical requirement for all organizations and the addition of this offering to PMV Technologies' proven IT support model, Techcare, enables clients to implement a manageable plan within an already stable and secure infrastructure. More.

Automation Alley recognizes tech leaders at Friday gala
Automation Alley, Southeast Michigan's largest technology business association, celebrated its 10th anniversary and announced the winners of its Ninth Annual Awards Gala at the Roostertail in Detroit on Friday, Sept. 25. Winners include Terence E. Adderley, chairman of the board of Kelly Services Inc., and Cynthia J. Pasky, founder, president and CEO of Strategic Staffing Solutions. More.

THE WORLD IN TECH

Endangered Ugandan gorillas join Facebook
He's hairy, his table manners are atrocious, and he wants to be your friend on Facebook. No, it's not the ex-boyfriend. It's Muhozi, an endangered Ugandan mountain gorilla, who's appearing online as part of a fundraising program the Ugandan Wildlife Authority launched Saturday to help save the species. Around 340 mountain gorillas -- nearly half of the 740 remaining worldwide -- live in Uganda's lush Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park and 40 more live in another Ugandan reserve. The rest live in the Virunga mountain range, which stretches from Uganda into Rwanda and the war-ravaged Congo. Despite their size, they're threatened by poachers, farmers and political turmoil. More.

What's the government's role in keeping the Web secure?
There is no kill switch for the Internet, no secret on-off button in an Oval Office drawer. Yet when a Senate committee was exploring ways to secure computer networks, a provision to give the president the power to shut down Internet traffic to compromised Web sites in an emergency set off alarms. Corporate leaders and privacy advocates quickly objected, saying the government must not seize control of the Internet. Lawmakers dropped it, but the debate rages on. How much control should federal authorities have over the Web in a crisis? How much should be left to the private sector? It does own and operate at least 80 percent of the Internet and argues it can do a better job. More.

AT&T complains Google Voice blocks calls it can't
AT&T Inc. said Friday that Google Inc.'s Internet phone program gets an unfair advantage from blocking calls to rural communities where local carriers charge high connection fees. In a letter to federal regulators, AT&T said Google Voice keeps costs low by refusing to connect calls to places where some local carriers give phone numbers to adult chat lines and conference-calling services to draw long distance calls. They share hefty connection fees AT&T must pay. Dallas, Texas-based AT&T, however, has been barred by the Federal Communications Commission from blocking such calls. The high fees force AT&T to raise prices for all of its customers, while Google can offer calls through the Google Voice software at very low rates. More.

Something to tweet about: Twitter valued at $1 billion
Twitter Inc.'s founders now have a billion-dollar baby, and they seem determined to raise it without a corporate parent. That was the message underlying Friday's news that Twitter has lined up $100 million to finance its operations while founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone plot ways to make money off one of the Internet's most popular communications tools. The investment values the 3-year-old company at $1 billion, even though it has yet to generate any meaningful revenue, let alone profits. More.

Stocks: Reports on housing, manufacturing weigh on markets
Investor confidence suffered another blow Friday as disappointing reports on manufacturing and home sales stirred worries that the economy will struggle to recover. Stocks fell for a third straight day to post their biggest weekly losses since early July. The reports on durable goods and sales of new homes reminded investors that while the economy might be improving, it might not do so in a straight line. Durable goods orders, a key indicator for the manufacturing industry, fell unexpectedly in August. The Commerce Department said orders for goods expected to last at least three years slid 2.4 percent, after rising 4.8 percent in July. Economists polled by Thomson Reuters had forecast an increase of 0.5 percent. It was the second drop in three months and the latest sign that any rebound inside the nation's factories is likely to be slow. Meanwhile, the government also reported that new home sales inched up to 429,000 last month, below analysts' expectations. The tepid improvement followed four months of stronger gains in new home sales that had raised investors' hopes that the troubled housing market was improving. More. The Nasdaq Composite Index (COMP) fell 16.69 points or 0.8 percent to 2,090.92. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ($INDU) fell 42.25 points or 0.4 percent to 9,665.19. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index ($SOX) fell 1.99 points or 0.6 points to 321.05. The Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index (MSH) fell 7.79 points or 1.5 percent to 524.21. The NYSE Arca Pharmaceutical Index (DRG) rose 0.39 points or 0.1 percent to 284.1. The NYSE Arca Biotech Index (BTK) fell 1.77 points or 0.2 percent to 926.84. Finally, the Standard & Poor's 500 (SPX) fell 6.4 points or 0.6 percent to 1,044.38.

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