GLITR Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Your report for Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Michigan, Detroit-Ann Arbor region move up in biotech VC ranking
Michigan is now the No. 3 state in the Midwest for health care venture funding, and the Detroit-Ann Arbor area is the No. 2 metro. That's the word from the latest Midwest Health Care Venture Investment Report from Cleveland-based BioEnterprise. Overall, Midwest health care startups reported $593 million in total investments across 140 companies through the first three quarters of 2009, according to the BioEnterprise Midwest Health Care Venture Investment Report. This year's funding is lower than the prior two years -- $896 million in 2008 and an even $1 billion in 2007 -- in similar proportions to national venture industry reductions for health care investments. However, surprisingly, the number of companies receiving investment is greater than the prior two years and is on pace to set a new record for Midwest health care venture transactions. More.

Several green energy projects on Tuesday's MEGA agenda
Look for several alternative energy and other green companies to get tax breaks at Tuesday's Michigan Economic Growth Authority meeting in Lansing. The agenda for the meeting calls for battery jobs credits to go to Johnson Controls and Saft Advanced Power Solutions LLC. Brownfield Michigan Business Tax credits are on the agenda for Lansing-based Auto Owners Insurance Co. And MEGA credits are on the agenda to Clairvoyant Energy Solar Panel Manufacturing Inc., the Detroit tech firm Strategic Staffing Solutions LLC, and Xtreme Power Inc. More.

Citizen satisfaction with e-gov Web sites hits all time high
Citizen satisfaction with federal government Web sites surged to a new all-time high in the third quarter of 2009, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index E-Government Satisfaction Index. The Index reached 75.2 on the ACSI’s 100-point scale, an increase of 2.2 percent since the second quarter and 1.8 percent higher than one year ago. The previous high was reached in the fourth quarter of 2008. The increase in e-government satisfaction also brings government more into pace with the private sector. More.

Detroit free clinic gets help from pharma firm
The Wilmington, Del.-based pharmaceutical manufacturer AstraZeneca said Monday it will provide free medication to Mercy Primary Care Center in Detroit under one of the company's prescription savings programs. The AZ&Me Prescription Savings program for health care facilities provides medicines free of charge to community free clinics, community health centers, hospitals and other qualifying facilities that serve the uninsured. This enables patients to quickly get the medicines they need, often at the same place they receive their medical care. More.

A visit from an automotive technology CEO
The man behind some of the coolest car electronics on the planet visited GLITR Monday morning. Henry Seydoux is president of Parrot, the Paris-based manufacturer of Bluetooth and car stereo products used around the world. Specifically, Seydoux was here to push the just-released Parrot RKi8400, a fully integrated car stereo dedicated to the Apple iPhone with a Bluetooth hands-free system. The nifty looking front cover of the radio comes off to reveal an empty bin behind. Plug your iPhone into that bin, replace the front cover, and you get full access to all iPhone functions. Travelers can listen to music stored on their iPhone (or for that matter iPod) while benefiting from Parrot’s expertise in digital acoustics for in-car phone conversations and voice recognition. More.

Green Bridge Technologies subsidiary finishes second phase of test
Linden-based Green Bridge Technologies International Inc. said Monday that its subsidiary, Vapor Technologies, has just completed its Phase Two sequence of testing on its proprietary vapor technology for diesel engines. The test results from the second phase of testing this past week provided very valuable information, which allowed the Company's engineers to move up the timeline of when they expect the product to be ready for market. The testing was performed in the company's new laboratory in Auburn. More.

New Sprint feature tracks your little goblin
A new feature from Sprint is helping Michigan and Indiana parents keep track of their little ghouls and goblins this Halloween. Family Locator, a service available with any GPS-enabled phone, is a convenient, reliable and secure way to find family members instantly from any Web-enabled mobile phone or computer. More.

MSU scientists: Simple moves make big greenhouse difference
New technologies and policies that save energy, remove atmospheric carbon and limit greenhouse gas emissions are needed to fight global climate change -- but face daunting technological, economic and political hurdles, a Michigan State University scientist said. The good news: Basic actions taken by everyday people can yield fast savings at low cost, according to MSU Professor Thomas Dietz and colleagues. Cutting consumer energy waste is a good place to start, said Dietz, a professor of sociology and environmental science and policy at MSU. Household energy consumption accounts for 38 percent of carbon emissions in the United States and 8 percent of world emissions, he said. More.

Dewpoint: New Microsoft releases make this great upgrade time

New product releases from Microsoft Corp. make it a perfect time to upgrade your business and personal technology.

That's the word from Dewpoint Inc., the Michigan-based IT consulting and implementation firm.

Dewpoint has a thriving practice in Microsoft technologies. And while the new Windows 7 operating system may be grabbing most of the headlines, other Microsoft releases also promise lower computing costs, greater flexibility and new features to surprise and even delight.

Jeff Geasler is technical lead of the Microsoft practice at Dewpoint, and offered presentations at two of the big Microsoft product launch events recently -- Oct. 7 in Detroit and Oct. 12 in Cleveland.

Geasler said the latest corporate version of Windows, Microsoft Server 2008 R2, will offer technologically competitive server virtualization "at a much lower price" than competing products.

Server virtualization allows one server to do the work of several -- in some cases, even dozens -- by creating secure walled-off areas within a single machine. At one client, Geasler said, Dewpoint was able to consolidate 20 servers down to three -- resulting in huge cost savings in hardware and energy.

New Microsoft communication products also offer unheard-of functions, Geasler said.

"All messages will be stored in a single repository and accessed by a single repository -- not only e-mails but IMs and voice mails," Geasler said. "With unified communications you are able to retrieve all those messages, not only from a computer but from a phone. With voice commands, you can have your e-mail messages read to you over the phone. You can do calendar entries and check your schedule over the phone." Web meetings are folded in as well.

With Microsoft's new unified communications products, Geasler said, "If I want to talk to a coworker, I can hover over her e-mail address and it will tell me if she's available, it will tell me if she's on the phone, it will tell me if she's in a meeting. If she's available I might IM her. If she's in a meeting, I may e-mail her. And if she's not busy I can call her."

And stay tuned, Geasler said: "There's a lot of new usability in the new Exchange 2010 that's coming out in the near future."

Geasler said Dewpoint is working with the new Microsoft technologies for clients in insurance, education, manufacturing, medical supply and biotech.

Geasler is also leading Dewpoint's migration to the Windows 7 operating system, which he gives high marks.

"I've been running Windows 7 since April ... and I think it's great," Geasler said. "I give it my full recommendation."

In fact, Geasler said, "we've had a little departure from our norm. We normally let people pick what operating system they want to run -- if they want to run XP, they run XP, if they want to run Vista we let them run Vista. But now, we're pretty much saying everybody's going to be on Windows 7 because we like it so much. It's just so stable."

Dewpoint is currently offering free Microsoft Infrastructure
Optimization Assessments, valued at $1,000. They include an in-depth report regarding how you can reduce costs today with the Microsoft technologies you already own; customized IT roadmaps that will provide you a personalized technical analysis for your company’s unique needs, structure and future, and guidelines to any financial support you may be eligible to receive from Microsoft in order to deploy your current Microsoft solutions or invest in new ones.

For more information, visit www.dewpoint.com/solutions/computer-systems/MSConsulting.

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

THE WORLD IN TECH

Internet set for change with non-English addresses
The Internet is set to undergo one of the biggest changes in its four-decade history with the expected approval this week of international domain names -- or addresses -- that can be written in languages other than English, according to Peter Dengate Thrush, chairman of the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers, pictured at right. ICANN is holding a meeting this week in Seoul, South Korea. One of the key issues to be taken up by ICANN's board at this week's gathering is whether to allow for the first time entire Internet addresses to be in scripts that are not based on Latin letters. More.

Rhode Island tracking swine flu through electronic records
State health officials are tracking the spread of swine flu through electronic prescription records, developing what they believe is a model that could help doctors more easily identify and respond to an outbreak of the illness. Rhode Island is believed to be the first state to use electronic pharmacy prescription data to track swine flu among its entire population, said Rob Cronin, a spokesman for Surescripts, which operates the country's largest electronic prescriptions network. The company says it believes the state is also the first to have all of its pharmacies set up to receive electronic prescriptions from doctors. Surescripts is using information supplied by pharmacies to document how much Tamiflu and other antivirals are being dispensed to patients. The company is giving the data -- categorized by ZIP Codes of the pharmacies where the medicine is dispensed and the age group of the patient receiving it -- to epidemiologists at the state health department. More.

Netflix movie streaming coming to PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3 owners will soon be able to stream movies and TV shows from Netflix to their TVs using the gaming console, just as Xbox 360 owners have been able to do for a year. Sony Corp. and the DVD rental company announced the service Monday and plan to launch it next month. It will be available for free to PlayStation 3 owners who have a Netflix subscription that starts at $9. Netflix streaming is already available on a broad range of devices, such as the Roku digital video player, Internet-connected TV sets (including Sony's) and Blu-ray players -- and the PlayStation 3's archrival, Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360. On the Xbox, however, the Netflix streaming is available only to Xbox Live "Gold" members, who pay $50 a year mainly to play games online with friends in other places. More.

FairPoint phone company files for bankruptcy
FairPoint Communications Inc. had its work cut out when it grew sixfold overnight by buying Verizon Communications' land line and Internet operations in three New England states. But the nation's credit crisis and a bungled technology transfer made the task virtually impossible. With a battered financial sheet and a tattered reputation, FairPoint filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday, barely 18 months after becoming the dominant telecommunications company in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. The bankruptcy filing was widely anticipated and fulfilled critics' predictions that FairPoint was taking on more than it could handle when it bought the Verizon properties for $2.3 billion. More.

Stocks: Shares slide as rising dollar hits oil prices
A strengthening dollar and worries about an overheated market pounded stocks. Stock indexes started higher Monday but turned sharply lower at midmorning as a rebound in the value of the dollar stalled a rally in commodities. Early gains in prices for oil and other commodities had pushed up shares of energy and materials companies. The sharp swings in currency and commodities markets sent the Dow Jones industrial average whipsawing in a 200-point range, surrendering an early advance for a loss of 104 points. Stocks have fallen in four of the last five days. More. The Nasdaq Composite Index (COMP) fell 12.62 points or 0.6 percent to 2,141.85. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ($INDU) fell 104.22 points or 1.1 percent to rose 96.28 points or 1 percent to 9,867.96. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index ($SOX) rose 1.03 points or 0.3 percent to 317.44. The Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index (MSH) fell 3.77 points or 0.7 percent to 539.55. The NYSE Arca Pharmaceutical Index (DRG) fell 3.77 points or 1.1 percent to 288.97. The NYSE Arca Biotech Index (BTK) fell 16.44 points or 1.9 percent to 860.63. Finally, the Standard & Poor's 500 (SPX) fell 12.65 points or 1.2 percent to 1,066.95.

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