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Former tech execs start search firm: Three former tech executives with Detroit-area firms have established Executive Search Partners of Farmington Hills. The company specializes in recruiting IT, sales, business development and consulting executives in southeast Michigan, although the company will place executives in other regions as requested by clients. The founders are Gary Erickson, Gary Robertson and Larry Hamilton. More at www.execsearchpartners.com. Erickson has held a variety of management and executive positions including CIO, COO, director of sales and global director of quality and manufacturing. He is a founding member of the Detroit chapter of the Society of Information Management and is on its board of directors. Robertson has served as CIO and plant manager at Delco Electronics and chief technology officer at Delphi Corp. He is on the board of the Michigan chapter of the SIM and the Technology Business Committee of Automation Alley. Hamilton has served as manager of information systems for Budd Co., vice president of information systems for Textron Automotive and global director of manufacturing plant floor systems for General Motors Corp. A Six Sigma green belt certified by the University of Michigan College of Manufacturing Engineering, Hamilton holds an e-business certification from the Gartner Group and is a founding member of a the Detroit chapter of SIM. | ||||||||||
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| Client win for Lewis IG: Royal Oak-based
Lewis IG said Wednesday it had been chosen to provide computer network
installation and maintenance services to the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan
in Detroit. The Diocese is comprised of 93 congregations in southeastern lower Michigan. Lewis IG has specialized in computer networking, IT
services and Internet connectivity since 1991. More at www.lewisig.com.
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| WWJ Newsradio 950 now streaming
online: Completely self-serving new Web site notice alert: WWJ
Newsradio 950, the all-news radio station in Southfield that produces this
here IT Report, will begin streaming live on the Internet Monday. Word
came from the station's owner, New York City-based Infinity Broadcasting
Inc., which said all 11 of its news and talk stations would be online.
That means you can also now listen to all-news WINS in New York City,
KFWB-AM from Los Angeles, KNX-AM from Los Angeles, WBBM-AM from
Chicago, KYW-AM from Philadelphia, and WBZ-AM from Boston.
Also online are news-talk stations KMOX-AM in St. Louis, KDKA-AM in
Pittsburgh and KRLD-AM in Dallas. Infinity's other all-news station,
WCBS-AM, was previously launched online last December. Infinity operates
183 radio stations and is a division of Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA, VIAB).
(And remember, the Great Lakes IT Report is on the air at 5:23 and 8:23
a.m. weekdays, now for your streaming pleasure too.)
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Wayne State gets $1 million grant for disaster management: An effort led by Wayne State University to coordinate first responders throughout the Detroit area has received a five-year, $1.05 million grant from the National Science Foundation. The organization, called MAJOR (for Multiple Agency and Jurisdiction Organized Response), aims to coordinate more than 200 jurisdictions, thousands of public and private entities and those controlling a key international border to improve disaster management. MAJOR is comprised of the Institute for Information Technology and Culture, in partnership with three other departments at Wayne State University and the Michigan Public Health Institute. The grant will fund a project to work with local agencies to develop simulations and exercises that will be used as both a training tool and a planning tool. For further information, regarding this project or IITC, contact Allen W. Batteau, IITC director, at a.batteau@wayne.edu, or (313) 874-7010, or visit www.iitc.wayne.edu. | ||||||||||
| SBC launches fund for Wayne State
journalism students: Saturday's annual Helen Thomas Spirit of
Diversity Awards reception at Wayne State University will feature a
special award from SBC Communications Inc. The San Antonio, Texas telecom
giant, Michigan's largest phone company, will make a $5,000 gift to WSU's
Journalism Institute for Minorities. The event runs from 6 to 9 pm. at the
Detroit Institute of Arts. The gift establishes the "Going Beyond the
Call" fund to fill a financial void that exists for JIM students who
require additional funding for
critical necessities that aren't covered by their scholarships, which only
pay tuition. The reception is held to honor distinguished Wayne State alum
and veteran White House reporter Helen Thomas and to raise funds for the
JIM, a professional honors program at Wayne State.
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| Also Saturday at Wayne State:
The annual Science Bowl for middle and high school students. This
event runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Wayne State Science Hall on Cass Avenue,
north of Warren Avenue on Wayne State's main campus. For more information
contact Keith Williams at (313) 577-0278.
Student teams from the Detroit Public Schools, along with students
from Indianapolis and Cincinnati, will compete in their knowledge of
science, engineering and math, in the Midwest region Science Bowl. It's
sponsored by the Office of Minority Student Initiative in Wayne State's
department of chemistry and the National Organization for the Professional
Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers.
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| Lawrence Tech Career Day for
girls coming: More than 150 Detroit-area high school girls will attend
Lawrence Technological University's 10th annual Women's Career Day Friday
at the school's campus in Southfield. They'll learn from alumnae and
faculty about careers in engineering, chemistry, technical communication,
architecture, computer science, psychology and more. Each student will
take part in four interactive career sessions of their choice. They also
will do a self analysis to help find a career that fits, learn what types
of classes their degree requires, and gain resume writing and interviewing
tips from Lawrence Tech's career services staff. The folks at LTU tell me
there's still time to register at (800) CALL-LTU (225-5588) or by visiting
www.ltu.edu/futurestudents/upcoming_events.asp.
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| Client win for ForeSee: Ann
Arbor-based ForeSee Results said Wednesday that it will study customer
satisfaction with the new Web site of Rugs Direct, a subsidiary of
Winchester Carpet & Rug Co., the largest online retailer of area rugs
in the country. The site is at www.rugsdirect.com. Using the
methodology of the University of Michigan's American Customer Satisfaction
Index, ForeSee measures the satisfaction of visitors to Web sites. The
methodology also offers specific steps to drive desired future
behaviors, such as return visits to a site and a willingness to recommend
a site to others. ForeSee is a joint venture of Ann Arbor-based CFI Group,
owned by ACSI developer Claes Fornell, and Detroit's Compuware Corp. More
at www.foreseeresults.com.
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| Gentex shipping mirrors for
Nissan: Zeeland-based Gentex Corp. (NASDAQ: GNTX), which builds technologically advanced
automatic dimming rear view mirrors, said Wednesday it had begun shipping
mirrors for the 2005 Nissan Pathfinder SUV and the Nissan Frontier Crew
Cab truck. Both vehicles are sold in North America. Gentex auto-dimming mirrors automatically darken to
reduce glare from the headlamps of vehicles approaching from the rear. The
brighter the glare, the darker the mirrors become, making nighttime
driving safer. The Gentex mirror is standard equipment on the Pathfinder
SE Off-Road and LE trim levels, as well as the Frontier Crew Cab LE. In
addition to providing glare control, the mirror displays the vehicle's
compass heading and the external temperature. It also includes a fully
integrated Johnson Controls HomeLink Wireless Control System -- three
buttons conveniently located on the bottom of the mirror that can be
programmed to operate garage doors, estate gates, security systems, home
lighting and other radio- frequency-controlled devices. More at www.gentex.com.
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| Events featuring Eiler
speaker postponed: Next week's events featuring
California corporate and financial communications counselor and media
training expert Keith Rowan have been postponed into May due to a conflict
under which Rowan must be in Europe for a client. Rowan was scheduled to
speak at Automation Alley Monday in an event called "Seven Key Things
Smaller Companies Must Know to Compete for Analyst Attention," sponsored
by Ann Arbor-based Eiler Communications Inc. and the Automation Alley
Technology Center. On Tuesday, Rowan was to have made a presentation at
the Ann Arbor IT Zone called "Getting Credit Through Media for the Good
Things You Do." More info on the reschedule dates as they get nearer.
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| Provia showing off at RFID World:
Grand Rapids-based Provia Software Inc., which develops supply chain
execution software, said Wednesday that its ViaWare Warehouse Management
System will be featured as part of Sun Microsystems' new RFID Industry
Solution Architecture for Manufacturing at the RFID World Conference,
taking place this week in Dallas. The Sun system simplifies and
accelerates the process of designing and integrating RFID technology. It's
designed to address the specific challenges of the consumer packaged goods
industry. More about the conference at www.shorecliffcommunications.com/rfid05.
More about Provia at www.provia.com.
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| Oakland Schools Global
Trade Mission under way: One of the neatest programs for area high
school students is under way today through Saturday. The Oakland Schools'
Seventh Annual Global Trade Mission offers high school students an opportunity to learn and use
the tools and information of international business. They will be
introduced to new career options in the global economy, and benefit from
the insight and experience provided by adult volunteers. Each four-student team must
develop a comprehensive business plan that focuses on the development,
marketing and selling of a specific product. Each student will assume one
of four roles: Vice President of International Relations, Vice President
of Exports, Vice President of Marketing and Sales, and Vice President of
Engineering and Research. Automation Alley, DaimlerChrysler and
Cobasys are major sponsors, in partnership with Oakland Schools and
Oakland Community College. Students from 15 high schools are
involved.
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| Cypress to show off at SAP show:
Rochester Hills-based document management software developers Cypress
Corp. will be showcasing its Content Processing Facility at the SAP
Financials Trade Show March 14-15 in Orlando, Fla. The Cypress system
offers document automation for SAP users. Cypress said the CPF system
helped one financial institution discover a million-dollar error on a bank
statement representing a large number of checks, by comparing the total of
all the checks posted on the accompanying statement with the total of the
individual dollar amount on all the checks. Cypress clients also use the
CPR to compare invoice amounts with inventory and shipping documents to
reduce inventory theft, and to combine client statements that are run in
parallel on different systems to eliminate manual sorting. More at www.cypress-software.com.
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| Engineering Society of
Detroit sets 'green building' session: The
Engineering Society of Detroit is co-sponsoring a half-day conference
March 17 in Pontiac that will give building owners, architects and
contractors the latest technology in "green building." The event will
cover the costs and benefits of building according to Leadership in Energy
and Environmental Design standards, including first-hand accounts from
project engineers and facilities managers. Speakers will discuss "green" projects such as the Ford Rouge
Visitors Center, the Visteon Village Project, the General Motors Lansing
Assembly Complex, the Toyota North American Sales Headquarters and the new
academic building at St. Mary's College in Maryland, the first recipient
of LEED Platinum rating. The event runs from 7 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at
the General Motors Corp. Centerpoint Campus North in Pontiac. The cost is
$95 for members of sponsoring organizations and $125 for non-members. To
register, visit www.esd.org or contact
Nancy Strodl at nstrodl@esd.org or
(248) 353-0735, ext. 4152.
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| Verizon sets
two-week deadline for Qwest-MCI talks: The battle over the acquisition of MCI Inc. took a fresh turn
Wednesday after Verizon Communications (VZ:
news,
chart,
profile)
said it has agreed to allow the telecom operator to pursue further merger
discussions with Qwest Communications Inc. (Q:
news,
chart,
profile)
through March 17. Verizon said the talks between the two telephone
companies will be subject to the terms of a Feb. 14 agreement, under which
Verizon agreed to acquire MCI for $6.75 billion. Qwest shares ended down 3
percent at $3.93, while shares of Verizon edged up 0.6 percent to $36.47.
MCI stock gained 0.4 percent to $23.46. See
full story.
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| SBC gets data deal with law firm:
San Antonio, Texas-based telecom giant SBC Communications Inc. (NYSE:
SBC) Wednesday announced a new five-year data networking contract with
Dickinson Wright P.L.L.C. Dickinson is a Detroit-based law firm with more
than 200 attorneys. SBC is currently the firm's primary provider for local
and long distance services. Now it will provide Dickinson Wright with
Cisco Systems Architecture for Voice, Video and Integrated Data (AVVID) to
replace older PBX switches for the firm's five Michigan locations and its
Washington, D.C. office. More at www.sbc.com or www.dickinsonwright.com.
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| SBC offers DSL deal with online
order: San Antonio, Texas-based SBC Communications Inc. has cut the
price for its SBC Yahoo DSL high-speed Internet connection to $19.95 a
month if the service is ordered online. Previously, consumers had to order
a bundle of local and long distance phone services called All Distance for
an additional $48.95 a month to get the cheap DSL deal. The offer is good
through March 31, SBC said. More at www.sbc.com or www.sbc.yahoo.com.
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| EDS confirms $4 billion
U.K. win, largest deal since '02: Electronic Data
Systems Corp. (EDS)
confirmed its consortium won a 2.3 billion pound ($4 billion), 10-year
contract to upgrade desktops for the U.K. Ministry of Defense, winning
over a rival group led by CSC (CSC)
that included BT Group (BT)
and Thales, a French defense group. The total contract is worth 4 billion
pounds, or over $7 billion. A spokesman for EDS noted the IT services
group "will be in a good position for additional increments" in the
contract. The first increment involves rolling the first 70,000 seats on
the network, he said. The contract is EDS' largest win since 2002. The EDS
group includes Fujitsu Services, EADS Defence and Security Systems,
General Dynamics (GD)
and LogicaCMG.
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| New Microsoft browser due for
summer: A test version of a new
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)
Web browser is expected to be available mid-year, according to the IDG
News Service. Word comes as WebSideStory yesterday reported Internet
Explorer's share of usage by Web surfers has slipped below 90 percent. The
IE team at Microsoft wrote on its Web log the new browser would be
suitable for the most recent versions of its systems, including Windows XP
and Windows Server 2003. An update of the free Outlook Express e-mail
program is not likely to be part of IE 7. That will come in the next
release of Windows, IDG reported.
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| ITunes sells 300 millionth song:
Apple Computer (AAPL)
announced that music fans have purchased and downloaded more than 300
million songs from the ITunes Music Store. The company also announced that
a song released only through the music store, to benefit survivors of the
Asian tsunami, debuted as number 22 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart
making it the most successful exclusive digital track ever in its first
week of release.
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| Amateur cybersleuths flock to BTK
case: Day by day, James Keith became
more obsessed with the BTK serial killer. Just one more clue, he thought,
and he could crack the case that had baffled authorities in Wichita, Kan.,
since the 1970s. "I was going 24 hours a day, even in my sleep, trying to
figure it out," he said. "I was totally obsessed. My daughter woke me up
one night and told me I was having a dream about it." But Keith is no
homicide cop. He's an aerospace contract worker from Albuquerque, N.M. --
one of hundreds of amateur cybersleuths who publish Web logs and post to
Web sites and message boards devoted to the BTK case. Some, like
printer Terry Eckert of Austin, Texas, had a personal connection to the
case. He was a childhood friend of Joseph Otero II, one of four family
members killed by BTK in 1974. But most, like Keith, came for the
intellectual challenge and the chance to share their views with other
amateur investigators. And when Dennis L. Rader was arrested Friday and
eventually charged with killing 10 people in and around Wichita from 1974
to 1991, it only fueled Internet interest in the case. Posters and
bloggers speculated about motives, swapped rumors about clues that might
have cracked the case and combed through old messages to see if BTK -
whoever the killer turns out to be - had been reading and posting right
along with them. More.
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| Judge dismisses California
woman's spam conviction: A judge
dismissed a felony spamming conviction that had been called one of the
first of its kind, saying he found no "rational basis" for the verdict and
wondering if jurors were confused by technical evidence. Ruling Tuesday, Judge Thomas D. Horne also said jurors
may have gotten "lost" when navigating Virginia's new anti-spam law in the
case of Jessica DeGroot. But Horne upheld the conviction of her brother,
Jeremy Jaynes, who prosecutors said led the operation from his Raleigh,
N.C., area home. DeGroot, 28, and Jaynes, 30, were each convicted in
November for using false Internet addresses to send mass e-mail ads
through an AOL server in Loudoun. The jury recommended that Jaynes spend
nine years in prison and that DeGroot pay $7,500 in fines. Prosecutors had
called the felony convictions the nation's first for spamming. They said
the siblings and a third defendant, Richard Rutkowski, sent more than
10,000 spam e-mails over three days in July 2003. Rutkowski was acquitted.
Jaynes' attorney, David A. Oblon, had argued that the spamming was not
conducted in Virginia and that there was no evidence that e-mails were
unsolicited. Oblon said he would appeal.
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| Microsoft patent infringement
award reversed: The U.S. Court of Appeals on
Wednesday reversed a jury verdict against Microsoft Corp. in a patent
infringement case related to its Internet Explorer Web browser. The
software giant had been ordered to pay $521 million in damages.
Originally filed in 1999 by start-up Eolas Technologies, the
lawsuit alleged Microsoft (MSFT:
news,
chart,
profile)
used patented Internet browser technology that lets small "applet"
applications work with Internet Explorer. The appeals court sent the case
back to the lower court. "We have maintained throughout this process that
the Eolas patent is not valid and today's ruling is a clear affirmation of
our position," Microsoft, of Redmond, Wash., said. Eolas couldn't be
reached for comment. Microsoft spokeswoman Stacy Drake said the company
hadn't paid the damages or taken a charge to earnings to account for them.
In 2003, a jury awarded Eolas and the University of California the damages
based on a calculation that $1.47 per unit represented a fair royalty for
the 354 million copies of Microsoft's Windows operating system sold from
November 1998 to September 2001. The average selling price of Microsoft's
operating software during that period was $61. Microsoft had argued before
the jury in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
that its technology was different from the one patented by Eolas in 1998.
Eolas is a private company founded by former University of California
professor Michael Doyle. See
archived story. In its initial suit, Eolas had demanded $1.2 billion.
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| Illegal drug sales booming on
Web: Illegal drug sales on the Internet are booming as unlicensed
online pharmacies selling drugs like morphine evade a patchy global effort
to stop them, the United Nations narcotics watchdog said on Wednesday. In
its 2004 annual report, the International Narcotics Control Board said
Internet pharmacies sell several billion doses of medicine illicitly each
year and deliver them by post, making them an alternative drug-trafficking
route. More.
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| Lycos to use Ask Jeeves search
technology: Lycos Inc. selected Ask Jeeves Inc.'s search technology
for use on its Lycos.com search engine, the companies said on Wednesday,
sending Ask Jeeves shares up more than 2 percent. Ask Jeeves also
syndicates its search technologies and advertising products to other Web
sites, including, InfoSpace, BellSouth, Mamma.com and CNET Networks. Terms
were not disclosed. Lycos.com had previously used technology from Yahoo
Inc.'s Inktomi unit.
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| Cell phone use by drivers
on the rise: About 8 percent of U.S. drivers are
using cell phones at any given moment during the day, up from 6 percent in
2002 and 4 percent in 2000, according to a new survey by the National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The survey says young people and
women lead the trend. It reports usage among drivers who are between 16
and 24 years old jumped from 5 percent in 2002 to 8 percent last year. For
women drivers of all ages, the frequency of hand-held phone use climbed
from 4 percent to 6 percent over the period. Usage by men has held steady
at 4 percent. NHTSA says drivers are three times as likely to use a cell
phone when driving alone. More.
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| Layoffs jump due to
M&A: Layoffs at U.S.
corporations jumped 17 percent in February to 108,387, boosted by
increased merger and acquisition activity, international outplacement firm
Challenger Gray & Christmas reported Wednesday. Nearly 50,000
of the announced layoffs, or more than 40 percent, were directly due to
mergers, the firm said. Most of the merger-related cuts were in
telecommunications. During the month, SBC Communications announced plans
to acquire AT&T, while MCI agreed to a deal with Verizon. February was
the fourth month in the last five in which announced job cuts exceeded
100,000. Layoffs were up 40 percent from February 2004's 77,250. The
Challenger survey covers announcements of job reductions at U.S.
companies, not actual layoffs. The announced cuts can take place
immediately or over a period of months, sometimes through voluntary
actions such as quitting or retiring. "The numbers do not necessarily mean the job market or the economy
are backsliding," said John Challenger, CEO of the outplacement firm. "In
fact, the cuts are probably more indicative of an energized economy that
is continuing to build momentum. There is a unique labor market
environment where both job creation and job destruction occur
simultaneously."
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| Stocks: U.S. stocks ended lower Wednesday in choppy trading as crude
spiked to a four-month high prompting investors to lock in recent gains on
concern rising energy prices will hurt economic growth. The Dow
Jones Industrial Average ($INDU:
news,
chart,
profile)
ended down 18.03 points at 10,811.97, after briefly tapping a four-year
high of 10,869.83 in the wake of benign congressional testimony from Fed
chief Alan Greenspan. The Nasdaq Composite Index ($COMPQ:
news,
chart,
profile)
slipped 3.75 points to 2,067.50 while the S&P 500 Index ($SPX:
news,
chart,
profile)
ended virtually unchanged, down 0.33 points at 1,210.08. The Amex
Biotechnology Index (BTK:
news,
chart,
profile)
gained 0.3 percent to close at 503.71, while the Amex Pharmaceutical Index
(DRG:
news,
chart,
profile)
lost 0.2 percent to 318.93.
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