Emcore Fiber Optics in Albuquerque attacked by armed gunman

In Albuquerque at 9 am local time, a 911 call reported a shooter at Emcore Fiber Optics. Reports are still mixed as to how numerous employees were injured or killed by the Emcore shooter. Classified as a “domestic dispute in the workplace,” this act of violence doesn’t seem to appear to be related to Emcore’s business or recent patent infringement rulings.

Resource for this article: Emcore Fiber Optics in Albuquerque attacked by armed gunman by Personal Money Store

Emcore shooter attacks Albuquerque offices

The Albuquerque shooting at the Emcore offices might have been carried out by a former employee. At 9:29 a.m. local time, the 911 call accounted “multiple people injured.” Police officers that were on the scene found between two and five individuals dead on the scene and at least four more have been transported to local hospitals. The suspected shooter was found dead on the scene with a self inflicted gunshot wound.

Albuquerque shooting called a ‘domestic workplace dispute’

According to police on the scene, the Albuquerque shooting was probably a “domestic workplace dispute.” This means that a domestic dispute between the shooter and his wife was carried over into the Emcore offices. There is no report on the situation of the shooter or his wife. The shooter was a former employee of Emcore, and his wife is a current employee. There’s no report on the shooter’s wife’s condition.

Difficulties in the Emcore business

The specific office where the Albuquerque shootings took place, Emcore, is the headquarters of an embattled fiber optic and solar manufacturing company. On the same day as the Albuquerque shootings, Emcore was barred from importing some fiber optics. The U.S. International Trade Commission ruled in May that some of Emcore’s technology violated a patent. Today, the U.S. Trade panel officially barred the business from importing any of the products that infringe a patent owned by competitor Avago Technologies.

Sources:

CBS News

cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20010291-504083.html

Reuters

uk.reuters.com/article/idUKN1226453320100712

ABC News

abcnews.go.com/US/shooter-kills-albuquerque-business-killing/story?id=11146499

Vision Airlines - US Government flies Russian spies in style

While US and Russian spies were being swapped on a tarmac, the U.S.A. was represented by a private charter jet. The business of Vision Airlines is usually vacation travel, however they got the contract for this flight. You will find some politicians asking why a private company was used for government business.

Post resource: Vision Airlines – US Government flies Russian spies in style by Personal Money Store

Spies swapped using Vision Airlines

This morning, a Vision Airlines jet met up with a Russian Emergency Ministry Jet in Vienna. Ten accused Russian agents got on the Russian plane while four “Western Sympathizers” got on the Vision Airlines jet. The biggest post-Cold War era spy drama was hopefully over once both planes took off.

How Vision Airlines got the job

The decision to send the Russian agents back home and bring the American agents back to the U.S. on a luxury charter jet is an interesting one. An official Russian plane was used for the transfer. What exactly were US officials thinking with this choice? Or were all the accessible planes already taken? It is possible that both the United States and Russia agreed to not use military planes, just in case. No matter why, using a luxury charter jet is an intriguing choice. No word on if the several thousand dollar flight fee was donated, or if the bill is going to the government. Vision Airlines is certainly getting attention for the choice – their website has crashed multiple times today.

Keeping tepid relations going

According to Rahm Emanuel’s discussion with PBS’s “NewsHour,” the President was “briefed” on the spy swap decision. The choice to use Vision Airlines rather than military planes, to not make announcements, and to keep the spy swap as low profile as they could all point to a desire to not start a fight. Both countries have said that they really want to try and “warm up” relations.

Any person can create phone apps with Google App Inventor for Android

Google App Inventor for Android gives virtually anybody the power to create their own smartphone apps. It is easy for any person who doesn’t know any code to use App Inventor, a new tool in Google Labs for creating mobile apps. Instead of learning Android’s Java code, App Inventor lets you to drag and drop the fundamental building blocks of basic apps to build unique Android apps from scratch.

Article source: Google App Inventor for Android lets everybody create custom apps by Personal Money Store

App Inventor blows Android market wide open

Monday Google said App Inventor for Android was created because people should be able to create their own applications as smartphones become the computer relied upon most . The New York Times reports that App Inventor is one more element of Google’s strategy to gain the upper hand in the Android market by opening its technology to all developers. The strategy starkly contrasts that of Apple, Google’s main smartphone rival, which is known to have notoriously strict standards for iPhone app development. The strategy appears to be working within the Android/Apple battle. Within the first quarter this year, Android phones outsold Apple’s iPhone.

App Inventor upsets geek community

The concept behind App Inventor is that if everyone can be app creators, Android will supplant Apple’s iPhone as the dominant smartphone platform. Google’s Android/Apple market strategy doesn’t sit well with geeks within the ivory towers of the programming priesthood. Tech Crunch wonders if App Inventor is “a Doomsday device that will muck up native app development on the platform” and calls the program’s interface “ugly”. Tech Crunch laments the rise of WYSIWYG HTML editors, saying the tools that made it easy for anybody to create web pages quickly filled the web with garbage.

App Inventor – one person’s trash is an additional person’s treasure

App Inventor enters a landscape where the quality of Android apps is mediocre to begin with, said Larry Dignan at ZDNet. Dignan said numerous apps are simply useless on Android and iPhone. However, the beauty of App Inventor is that “useless is within the eye of the beholder”. What is, or is not useless could be determined by the marketplace. Apple’s App Store has more than 225,000 apps. AndroidLib estimates that with the introduction of App Inventor the Android marketplace will soon have more than 100,000 mobile apps.

More details about this topic at these websites:

nytimes.com

techcrunch.com

zdnet.com

New Aon Hewitt financial consulting and HR business to merge in November

In a deal worth almost $ 5 billion, consulting and insurance company Aon Corporation is buying HR outsourcing firm Hewitt Associates. The newly-formed Aon Hewitt division will function much like Hewitt Associates did before the purchase. After a few years of transition, the combined company will probably save about $ 355 million each year.

Source for this article – Aon Corporation purchases Hewitt Associates, creates Aon Hewitt by Personal Money Store

The Aon Hewitt purchase

The cost of purchasing Hewitt Associates will be about $ 3.9 billion, to be paid half in cash and half in stock from Aon. Hewitt is going to be getting over 40 percent more per share than they are currently trading with. Hewitt stockholders will be paid $ 25.61 and .63 stocks in Aon. Aon Hewitt will keep the same CEO while combining the back-office operations with Aon offices. Hewitt Associates stock rose while Aon stock fell on this news. Illinois will play host to the new company. This merger will result in the loss of some jobs, though neither company has released official estimates on how many.

How Aon does business

Aon Corporation is a global “risk management and human capital consulting services” business. Clients of Aon get insurance brokerage services and advice. The company is traded on the New York Stock Exchange and is classified as a financial business. Just one year ago, in August of 2009, Aon Corporation shed three separate insurance companies from its business model.

The business that Hewitt Associates uses

Hewitt Associates is a business that focuses on human resource outsourcing. Hewitt offers HR management, benefits, and other administrative services. Hewitt also provides some consulting services. Traded on the New York Stock Exchange, Hewitt is a “commercial service and supply” business. Hewitt Associates has been through some major restructuring lately. Latin American operations have been spun off, and a company called HRAdvance Inc. was combined with Hewitt in May of 2010.

Build your own high performance engine with DIY Corvette

The new GM Corvette program is great for gearheads. If you are purchasing a Corvette Z06 or ZR1, you can pay just a little additional and build the engine yourself. The best part of this GM/Corvette program is, as opposed to doing all of this on your own, you are protected each and every step of the way. Article resource: DIY Corvette – Build your own high performance engine by Car Deal Expert.

Z06 and ZR1 Corvettes

The Chevrolet Corvette Z06 and ZR1 are both high-performance vehicles which were built by U.S. business Chevrolet motors. Costing $ 45,000, these autos are really surprisingly affordable for sports cars. Chevrolet has run into some difficulties with the Corvette brand, by and large a decline in demand. The Z06 is a 7 liter engine, and also the ZR1 is a 6.2 liter engine.

Build your own engine

Building engines has long been a do-it-yourself project for true car enthusiasts. This was taken to a higher level by Chevy. Spend an extra $ 5,800 on your Z06 or ZR1, and you can visit Michigan and help build the engine for your car. Ponying up the extra cash will get you entry to the plant, the ability to help a craftsman hand-build your engine and even a plate with your name placed right on your special engine. This trip may be worth it to some.

The legacy of all hand built engines

Chevy Corvette engines are still hand-built in Michigan. This is how they plan to rebuild the name Chevy. With brands being cut left and right, reinforcing the Corvette brand as a luxury brand is important if Chevy is going to continue to be a viable brand.

Protecting your DIY engine

As opposed to engines built in your garage, the DIY Corvette engine has a couple of protections. Your self-built Corvette engine is totally covered by the standard Corvette five year/100,000 mile powertrain warranty. If you’re spending $ 50,000 or more on a automobile, it makes sense to have at least some kind of warranty.

Is Perfect Citizen legit network security, or Big Brother?

“Perfect Citizen” is a federal government program that empowers the National Security Agency (NSA) to monitor the computer networks of public and private entities. The purpose of Perfect Citizen is to prevent cyber attacks against resources considered vital to national security like public utilities and power plants. Public Citizen is reassuring internet security to some, and a disconcerting intrusion to others, who see its massive automated NSA surveillance of American companies and citizens as Big Brother.

Source for this article: Is Perfect Citizen national security, or Big Brother in disguise? by Personal Money Store

Perfect Citizen – Internet security on steroids

The story about Perfect Citizen broke within the Wall Street Journal. The Journal reports that the government’s chief eavesdroppers, the NSA will deploy a set of sensors in the computer networks of entities deemed critical that is triggered by spikes that could possibly be warnings of a cyber attack. Defense contractor Raytheon Corp. just lately won a classified contract for phase one of Perfect Citizen, valued at up to $ 100 million. Some industry and government officials who learn about Perfect Citizen see it as an intrusion by the NSA into domestic affairs. Others say it the NSA surveillance is long overdue Internet security for preventing an emerging threat, and that the NSA is the only agency with the gear and experience to deal with the job.

NSA will share data with public companies

The Journal article explains that Perfect Citizen could be applied to older computer networks which were designed before Internet security was an issue. Critical infrastructure like subway systems and air traffic control are run by these older networks. These older networks have become sitting ducks for cyber attack since becoming more efficient by going online. The NSA said Perfect Citizen will allow it to collect and share intelligence on cyber attacks that all companies can use for network security.

Can Big Brother be trusted to behave?

Some people are uneasy about Perfect Citizen, possibly because of its Orwellian title. PC World reports that they’re concerned that Perfect Citizen is just getting began and that all domestic network activity will eventually be monitored by the NSA. Information about the power usage and travel plans of private citizens may also be collected by the NSA with access to the computer networks of entities critical to national security. For now, nobody really knows if Perfect Citizen can enforce national security without trampling on the rights of private citizens.

More information accessible at these websites:

wsj.com

www.nsa.gov

pcworld.com

To fix antenna issues, Apple has a new iPhone software update

The Apple iPhone 4 antenna reception drama continued Friday. The business announced that the iPhone 4 antenna issue could be remedied with an iPhone software update. Apparently there’s no reception problem at all, according to Apple. There is defective software showing inaccurate readings of signal strength. The screen shows that there is more reception than there is. Since the reception is weak to start with, gripping the phone by its lower right side further obscures the signal. Not everybody is getting it.

Source for this article: Apple claims that iPhone software update will fix antenna issues by Personal Money Store

iPhone with their software update and a catch

A media firestorm ensued when complaints came from iPhone 4 owners upset that their ultimate gadget lost reception when held a certain way, which became known as the “death grip.” First Apple dismissed the complaint. Then the Apple/AT and T class action lawsuits started coming. CNN reports that now Apple officially admits the iPhone 4 antenna issue exists. The business says there could be a software update soon – with a catch. Even though signal strength will be correctly represented, it won’t do anything about the reception issues that outraged iPhone 4 users are suffering through now.

iPhone covers sold by Apple

At first, Apple issued a statement saying that $ 30 protective bumpers can lessen the reception issue. The problem occurs when a user’s bare skin bridges the two antennas that are within the edge of the phone. You will find other covers costing much less. Ign.com said that for $ 14.95, a product called GelaSkins are effective in preventing the iPhone 4 death grip issue. But it was reported by Engadget the yellow Lance Armstrong Livestrong rubber bracelet works just as well, and it is only a buck.

Apple could be throwing AT and T under the bus

The official position is posted to Apple's website. Rob Pegoraro who is from The Washington Post reports that Apple “gracefully throws AT and T under the bus,” insisting the iPhone 4 antenna reception issue is not a hardware problem.” Upon investigation, Apple explained the company was stunned to find that AT and T's formula to calculate how bars displayed signal strength is “totally wrong.” The iPhone software update also applies to the earlier iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G. Apparently the AT and T bug affects them too, although none of those iPhone owners hired lawyers to file lawsuits about this.

Wisdom of iPhone software update severely tested

Some do not agree with Apple’s explanation of the iPhone 4 death grip problem or its solution. According to Apple Insider a New York business owner said just touching the bottom left of the phone would cause a call to drop within 10 seconds, in plain view of the cell tower. Also, the iPhone 4 gets better reception than any of the other phones. Also, cupping the iPhone 4 tightly can result in a loss of 24.6 dB of signal. The tests also surely proved the iPhone cover lessened the effects of the iPhone 4 death grip dramatically.

Is it really going to be an Apple iPhone software update or an Apple iPhone bumper? Stay tuned in …

Discover more about this topic here:

CNN

cnn.com/2010/TECH/mobile/07/02/apple.iphone.apology/index.html?npt=NP1

Rob Pegoraro at The Washington Post

voices.washingtonpost.com/fasterforward/2010/07/apple_blames_iphone_4_receptio.html

Apple Insider

appleinsider.com/articles/10/07/02/apple_gives_a_business_free_bumpers_for_iphone_4_reception_issues.html