Tech Tour
Day Nine: Flint's Kettering U a fitting wrap-up A
revitalized downtown soon to be full of college students, with four
new restaurants and more nightlife on the way? A business-tech park
along the shores of the Flint River, in what used to be a Chevrolet
plant and what is now a post-industrial wasteland? Institutions of higher
learning actually working collaboratively to each other's strengths,
with the actual assistance of government, and going after $30 million
plus in sponsored research? Can this possibly be Flint? Yes, Flint.
The former General Motors company town, last seen at or near the bottom
of places-to-live and places-to-raise-a-family lists, appears to have
some hope. More.
Two
recent grads offer eco-friendly home gear online Two Michigan university
students have started their own e-commerce Web site, www.verdelifestyles.com,
selling eco-friendly home décor. The environmentally conscious
business offers their customers quality products as well as an interactive
online community. More.
Ford
says new engine = 125 patents Ford Motor Co. said Friday
that its new EcoBoost gasoline direct injection turbocharged engine
technology adds 125 United States patents and patent applications to
Ford's 4,618 active patents. EcoBoost patents involve powertrain management
and the proprietary methods Ford uses to eliminate 'turbo lag.' More.
Caraco buys
assets in legal settlement Detroit-based Caraco Pharmaceutical
Laboratories Ltd. said last week that as part of the previously announced
settlement of the legal proceedings related to Lexapro (escitalopram
oxalate) tablets, it closed an asset purchase agreement transaction
with Forest Laboratories Inc. to acquire several products from Forest's
Inwood line of business. More.
Oakland
County offers e-mail election reminder service
A new online service that will remind voters about upcoming elections
debuted last week at the Oakland County Clerk & Register of Deeds
Office. Oakland County voters who want to sign up for the free online
service -- believed to be one of the first such services offered in
the country -- may visit the clerk's Web page at www.oakgov.com/clerkrod
and click on the Election Reminder service logo. More.
The Week Ahead: What's up with all this stuff Saturday?
People,
people, people. What is up with scheduling all the cool events on Saturday?
I don't want to say this is a dull week
for events, but it is a bit thin -- only nine events Monday through
Friday on the Michigan IT Calendar, the state's most comprehensive IT
calendar, at
this link.
Highlights include a Wayne State University
CareerBoost event on job hunting in a crummy economy, the latest Compsat
IBM fall briefing, the initial meeting of a mid-Michigan innovators'
club, and a 'Future of Design' contest at the University of Michigan
that bleeds into Saturday.
And there's the rub. This week's calendar
has six tech events on Saturday.
Besides being my only day off, don't you
people realize what time of year it is?! There's college football
on from noon to 2 a.m., for heaven's sake! Not to mention hockey and
playoff baseball, which actually may involve the Detroit Tigers! Where
the devil are your priorities?!
Well, anyway, Saturday's chock-full of
good stuff, from a Great Lakes Software Process Improvement Network
seminar to a repeat of that Wayne State job hunting seminar to a really
fascinating Brand Camp University at Lawrence Technological University
and more.
See you out there, maybe even on Saturday.
And the week following, don't forget the
highlight -- Oct. 15's E2 Detroit entrepreneurship conference at Wayne
State University. I'll be there all day learning. You should be too.
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.
New Web
site for Whitmore Lake firm
Ann Arbor-based Logic Solutions Inc. last week announced the launch
of a new Web site for its client Vanguard USA Inc., a Whitmore Lake-based
merchant of photo, video, hunting and outdoor gear. The Web site can
be viewed at www.vanguardworld.com.
More.
Kuka Robotics
shows off at Las Vegas expo
Clinton Township-based Kuka
Robotics said over the weekend it will display the latest in robotic
innovations for the packaging and palletizing market in front of 21,000
customers and buyers at Pack Expo 2009. The latest innovations include
five new robotic palletizers with superior performance and high payload
capacities, ranging from 300kg (660 pounds) to 1300kg (2,860 pounds),
which rounds out Kuka’s line of palletizing and packaging robots.
More.
MSU
announces premed program for two UP universities In a move to help disadvantaged
students and expand underserved areas of medicine, Michigan State University’s
College of Human Medicine is partnering with two Upper Peninsula universities
to provide links between premedical students and MSU’s medical
school. Officials from Michigan Technological University and Northern
Michigan University joined MSU in announcing the Early Assurance Program
for admission in separate ceremonies Friday on the schools' campuses
in Houghton and Marquette. More.
THE WORLD
IN TECH
Venezuela
to outlaw violent video games, toys Shouts
of "Kill him! Kill him!" ring out as the preteens train their
virtual assault rifles on the last remaining terrorist and spray him
with bullets. Blood splatters. The enemy collapses. And they cheerfully
wrap up another game of "Counter-Strike." The most popular
video games among kids often imitate life outside this Internet cafe
in San Augustin -- one of the many crime-ridden slums in Venezuela's
capital, where residents say too many of the young players easily trade
joysticks for guns. In a bid to curb that trend, Venezuela's National
Assembly is on track to prohibit violent video games and toys. More.
Where
are the devices to locate missing kids? With
a computer or cell phone and an electronic tracking device, you can
locate a missing pet, follow the path of a stolen car, find a skier
buried in an avalanche and rescue a hiker lost in the woods. So what
about a child snatched by a stranger? About 800,000 children are reported
missing in the U.S. each year. The vast majority are runaways, followed
by parental abductions. About 58,000 children are kidnapped by strangers,
and 99 percent of those come home fairly quickly, often victims of sexual
abuse. Then there are the approximately 115 children a year like Jaycee
Dugard, who are snatched then murdered, ransomed or kept for several
years. Ever since Dugard's recovery in August after nearly two decades
of allegedly being held in a Northern California backyard, parents and
others have written on blogs and commented online to articles about
ways to protect kids. There are technological tools that give parents
some peace of mind, from clip-on alarms to GPS locators that can be
dropped in a backpack or stuffed in a teddy bear, but experts caution
that the gadgets are not without their limitations and can even raise
safety concerns of their own. More.
Another
use for your phone -- 'augmented reality' You're
walking down the street, looking for a good place to eat. You hold up
your cell phone and use it like the viewfinder on a camera, so the screen
shows what's in front of you. But it also shows things you couldn't
see before: Brightly colored markers indicating nearby restaurants and
bars. Turn a corner, and the markers reflect the new scene. Click a
marker for a restaurant, and you can see customer reviews and price
information. Decide you'd rather be sightseeing? The indicators are
easily changed to give information about the buildings you're passing.
This computer-enhanced view of the world is not just available to cyborgs
in science-fiction movies. Increasingly it can be found on cell phones,
for free or on the cheap, through programs that provide "augmented
reality." More.
Cybersecurity
starts at home and in the office When
swine flu broke out, the government revved up a massive information
campaign centered on three words: Wash your hands. The Obama administration
now wants to convey similarly clear and concise guidance about one of
the biggest national security threats in your home and office -- the
computer. Think before you click. Know who's on the other side of that
instant message. What you say or do in cyberspace stays in cyberspace
-- for many to see, steal and use against you or your government. More.
Stocks:
Shares fall following disappointing jobs report Investors retreated further
from stocks Friday as the pile of disappointing economic reports grew
larger. The loss Friday came as the government said employers cut more
jobs than economists had expected last month and that orders at factories
fell. The reports added to concerns that the economy's recovery could
be further off than had been hoped. The Labor Department surprised investors
with its report that employers shed 263,000 jobs last month. The cuts
went beyond the 201,000 jobs lost in August and were far larger than
the 180,000 economists expected. The unemployment rate ticked up to
9.8 percent from 9.7 percent as forecast. Meanwhile, the surprise drop
in factory orders added to the lackluster economic readings of the past
two weeks. The Commerce Department said factory orders fell 0.8 percent
in August. Analysts had been expecting an increase. More.
The Nasdaq Composite Index (COMP)
fell 9,37 points or 0.5 percent to 2,048.11. The Dow Jones Industrial
Average ($INDU)
fell 21.61 points or 0.2 percent to 9,487.67. The Philadelphia Semiconductor
Index ($SOX)
fell 3.38 points or 1.1 percent to 306.59. The Morgan Stanley High Tech
35 Index (MSH)
fell 3.16 points or 0.6 percent to 515.78. The NYSE Arca Pharmaceutical
Index (DRG)
rose 0.49 points or 0.2 percent to 282.73. The NYSE Arca Biotech Index
(BTK)
fell 1.52 points or 0.2 percent to 888.9. Finally, the Standard & Poor's
500 (SPX)
fell 4.64 points or 0.5 percent to 1,025.21.
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.
LEGAL NOTICE: This email
may be considered an advertising or promotional message. If you no longer
wish to receive commercial email from this station, please reply to
this email by sending a reply email by clicking on the "reply"
button at the top of this page or by sending an e-mail to
Matt Roush or
Georgeann Herbert. Or you can change your subscriber profile: «Reserved.Unsubscribe»
You must use this method to notify GLITR and WWJ of your opt-out request, as we cannot guarantee that other methods of notification will be effective. Please be aware that we may continue to contact you
via email for administrative or informational purposes, including follow-up messages regarding contests you have entered or other transactions you have undertaken. By law, such messages are not considered to be commercial e-mail.
Note: The Great Lakes IT Report is sent in HTML format only. Please make sure you have given us permission to send you an HTML message. If you have any questions, drop an e-mail to
Georgeann Herbert or
Matt Roush.
E-Mail Story
Print Story
A
revitalized downtown soon to be full of college students, with four
new restaurants and more nightlife on the way? A business-tech park
along the shores of the Flint River, in what used to be a Chevrolet
plant and what is now a post-industrial wasteland? Institutions of higher
learning actually working collaboratively to each other's strengths,
with the actual assistance of government, and going after $30 million
plus in sponsored research? Can this possibly be Flint? Yes, Flint.
The former General Motors company town, last seen at or near the bottom
of places-to-live and places-to-raise-a-family lists, appears to have
some hope. 
The Week Ahead: What's up with all this stuff Saturday?
Shouts
of "Kill him! Kill him!" ring out as the preteens train their
virtual assault rifles on the last remaining terrorist and spray him
with bullets. Blood splatters. The enemy collapses. And they cheerfully
wrap up another game of "Counter-Strike." The most popular
video games among kids often imitate life outside this Internet cafe
in San Augustin -- one of the many crime-ridden slums in Venezuela's
capital, where residents say too many of the young players easily trade
joysticks for guns. In a bid to curb that trend, Venezuela's National
Assembly is on track to prohibit violent video games and toys. 
