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Ann Arbor, Mich. – The U.S. Geological Survey awarded a contract last Friday for the construction of a large research vessel for Lakes Huron, Michigan, and Superior to Burger Boat Company of Manitowoc, Wis. 

The vessel will replace the 38-year-old Grayling, bringing the USGS Great Lakes Science Center (GLSC) large vessel fleet up-to-date. The new Grayling will be stationed at the USGS base in Cheboygan, Mich., and will incorporate modern marine standards and state-of-the-art technology to more safely and effectively conduct fisheries research. 

“I am delighted to have achieved this important milestone that will benefit the Great Lakes region for many decades,” said USGS GLSC Director Russell Strach. “This investment would not have been possible without the support from many key partners. The new research vessel will come fully equipped with 21^st century laboratories and scientific instrumentation to support fishery science for the Great Lakes.” 

The funding for this expenditure was accrued from two prior appropriations and held in an account that was not affected by the sequester. 

The replacement vessel is expected to be a commercial grade 78-foot vessel, and will be designed and constructed for a 40 to 50-year service life. This vessel will be capable of performing critical scientific and mission-related tasks, including dragging nets along the lake bottom, catching fish, and using sound-waves to detect fish and assess their abundance.

“The entire Burger team is very excited to be awarded this significant contract,” said Jim Ruffolo, President and CEO of Burger Boat Company. “The Grayling will further reinforce Burger’s commitment to designing and constructing quality vessels that meet each owner’s specific requirements, whether they are custom yachts or commercial vessels.”

This new contract will create additional highly skilled shipbuilding jobs at the Manitowoc shipyard, and the project will help support numerous companies that supply raw materials and equipment for the project.

For over 50 years the USGS GLSC has operated a unique and valuable deepwater fish ecology and assessment program that is the foundation for fisheries management throughout the Great Lakes.

Burger, at 150 years old, is one of the world’s oldest shipyards. From its facility in Manitowoc, Wis., Burger’s craftsmen have built hundreds of high quality vessels as long as 260 feet (80 meters) that can be found in ports around the world. Today, Burger continues its legacy of designing and building vessels to the highest standard from its fully updated shipyard.

JMS Naval Architects of Mystic, Conn., developed the preliminary design of the new Grayling.

The USGS GLSC maintains a fleet of fishery research vessels on each of the Great Lakes to meet the scientific research needs of state, tribal, and federal resource managers for understanding and effectively managing the Great Lakes fishery.

For more information on the USGS GLSC, visit their website.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has pulled the cover off his immigration reform group, outlining its position and naming its advocates in a Washington Post op-ed.

He starts off with an anecdote about a young, undocumented student that he teaches in an after-school class on entrepreneurship. The kid’s family is from Mexico, but he’s live in America basically his whole life. Zuckerberg recalls how the student relating his worries about being able to go to college, given his situation.

“These students are smart and hardworking, and they should be part of our future,” says Zuckerberg.

And with that, Zuckerberg announced FWD.us.

“I am proud to announce FWD.us, a new organization founded by leaders of our nation’s technology community to focus on these issues and advocate a bipartisan policy agenda to build the knowledge economy the United States needs to ensure more jobs, innovation and investment.”

And here some of those tech leaders that have joined Zuckerberg on the project:

Reid Hoffman, Eric Schmidt, Marissa Mayer, Drew Houston, Ron Conway, Chamath Palihapitiya, Joe Green, Jim Breyer, Matt Cohler, John Doerr, Paul Graham, Mary Meeker, Max Levchin, Aditya Agarwal and Ruchi Sanghvi.

“Today’s students should have the same opportunities – but our current system blocks them. We have a strange immigration policy for a nation of immigrants. And it’s a policy unfit for today’s world,” says Zuckerberg.

Zuckerberg gives a basic outline of FWD.us’ agenda. He says that comprehensive immigration reform starts with effective border security and also allows a “path to citizenship” that lets America benefit from its best and brightest. He also calls for higher standards in schools and “investment in breakthrough discoveries in scientific research and assurance that the benefits of the inventions belong to the public and not just to the few.”

Not too specific on the goals thus far, but the message is clear: we have to start keeping the talent here, instead of letting it slip away to other countries.

Zuckerberg says that the group will “work with members of Congress from both parties, the administration and state and local officials. We will use online and offline advocacy tools to build support for policy changes, and we will strongly support those willing to take the tough stands necessary to promote these policies in Washington.”

You can visit FWD.us, today, and connect via Facebook (surpirse, surprise). FWD.us’ landing page asks visitors to “join the tech community in passing immigration reform.”

Side-scrolling games are quite numerous nowadays and those that draw inspiration from classic experiences like Metroid or Castlevania are even bigger in number.

With Guacamelee, Drinkbox Studios wants to prove that such titles can borrow cues from older games but also feature a great experience that can impress without becoming overly nostalgic or by copying mecha… (read more)

The Samsung Galaxy Mega is official folks. As we previously reported, it will come in two sizes: The Galaxy Mega 5.8 and The Galaxy Mega 6.3.  Both of these are aimed at budget-conscious consumers who want a large phone.

The Galaxy Mega 5.8 will feature a 5.8-inch qHD (960 x 540) display, a 1.4GHz dual-core CPU, 1.5GB of RAM, 8GB of internal memory, microSD slot for expanded memory, 8MP rear camera, 1.9MP front camera, and 2,600mAh battery. It will be 9mm thick and have HSPA+ 21Mbps connectivity. The Galaxy Mega 6.3 will have a 6.3-inch 720p (1280 x 720) LCD display, a 1.7GHz dual-core CPU, 1.5GB of RAM, 8 or 16GB of storage, microSD slot for expanded storage, 8MP rear camera, 1.9MP front camera, and 3,200mAh battery. It’s 7.9mm thick and will have support for LTE as well as HSPA+.

Some of these specs aren’t going to wow you, but both of these phones include really good batteries and IR blasters. They also sport Android 4.2, which means owners of these devices will get the same new features that are going to be on the Galaxy S 4. Most of you guys will baulk at the display resolution and CPU, but they are more than adequate for the average user. It will be interesting to see how successful these bad boys are.

Both devices will be available in May starting in Europe and Russia. No pricing was specified.

Full press release:

Samsung Introduces the GALAXY Mega

New GALAXY Mega offers the latest smartphone features with an extensive viewing experience.

SEOUL, Korea, April 11, 2013 – Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd, a global leader in digital media and digital convergence technologies, today announced the Samsung GALAXY Mega, a device that combines the portability and convenience of a smartphone with the power, multitasking capabilities and extensive viewing experience of a tablet. The newest addition to the GALAXY family balances an optimal viewing experience on a 6.3-inch HD screen, yet is ultra-thin and portable enough to put into a pocket or hold in one hand. The GALAXY Mega offers a mix of popular smartphone and tablet features such as an effortless user experience, a split screen, multitasking between video and other apps and more.

“We are aware of a great potential in the bigger screen for extensive viewing multimedia, web browsing, and more,” said JK Shin, CEO and Head of IT & Mobile Business, Samsung Electronics. “We are excited to provide another choice to meet our consumers’ varying lifestyles, all while maintaining the high-quality features of the award-winning GALAXY series.”

Best of Both Worlds
The GALAXY Mega is an ideal choice for customers who want to get the most out of one device that brings great quality at an even greater value. With a 6.3-inch HD LCD screen with landscape mode support, the GALAXY Mega enables an exceptional widescreen view for various applications including web browsing, video, and SNS.

The GALAXY Mega is also light and thin for incredible portability and easy, convenient mobile phone use. Customers can stay connected with a variety of new phone features including:

• ‘Group Play’: Enables easy content sharing for up to 8 devices on the same Wi-Fi network.
• ‘Samsung WatchON’: Transforms into an IR remote controller for a richer TV experience. Connect the device to your home entertainment system, and it will provide program recommendations, schedules, and even remotely control your TV.
• ‘Samsung Link’: Easily streams photos, videos, notes, or music to your television, tablet or computer.
• ‘S Translator’: Say or text what you need translated into the GALAXY Mega, and it will provide instant translation, using text or voice translation on applications including email, and ChatON.
• ‘ChatON’: Share what’s on your screen with friends to stay more connected.

Productivity and Multimedia for the Multi-Tasker
GALAXY Mega users will accomplish more with the rich, interactive experience and increased usability of the widescreen mode. Split screen capability for a variety of applications including email, messages, ‘MyFiles,’ ‘S Memo,’ ‘S Planner’, and more, makes for increased efficiency. With the popular ‘Air View’ feature, customers can preview information in emails, photos in Gallery, and speed dial contacts.
The GALAXY Mega is equipped with an enhanced 8 megapixel rear-facing camera with a 1.9 megapixel front-facing camera, along with a variety of camera modes including ‘Drama Shot’(merging continuous shots of a moving object), ‘Sound & Shot’ (captures 9 seconds of sound and voice together as the picture is taken to capture moments), ‘Rich tone,’ ‘Sports’ and more. The device also packs various newly-introduced features for endless entertainment, including:

• ‘S Travel’: Provides trip information, local guides and resources and more
• ‘Story Album’: Allows customers to create albums of daily events, keep special moments in one place using a timeline, geo-tag information and publish digital albums in hard copy
For users seeking the same great tablet features with even more portability, Samsung is introducing the GALAXY Mega 5.8. This more compact version features a 5.8-inch screen.

Both GALAXY Mega 6.3 and 5.8 run on the latest Android 4.2 Jelly Bean experience, and feature Dual Core Processor, spacious internal storage along with up to 64GB of expandable memory to store favorite apps, music, videos, photos and more. The devices’ advanced software also facilitates more efficient processor use for improved battery life, meaning users can enjoy longer talk time and multimedia use.

The GALAXY Mega will be available globally beginning May from Europe and Russia. The product availability varies by market and will be rolled out gradually.

Come comment on this article: Samsung Galaxy Mega 5.8 and 6.2 officially announced

Lance Armstrong has had a rough couple of years. Once the most beloved athlete in the U.S. for his story of overcoming cancer to become a seven-time Tour de France winner, the cyclist has now fallen into disgrace. After years of litigation, the International Cycling Union (UCI) and the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency last year stripped Armstrong of his titles and banned him from the sport of cycling. Armstrong has lost the support of sponsors and is now facing several lawsuits related to the doping scandal. He recently gave an interview with Oprah Winfrey in which he issued an apology and admitted to doping.

This week, the Austin American-Statesman is reporting that Armstrong has sold his 1.7-acre estate in Austin, Texas. The report stated that Al Koehler, the founder of Royalty Clearinghouse, has taken out a $3.1 million loan to purchase Armstrong’s estate, which includes a 7,850-square foot house.

Armstrong bought the estate in 2004 and renovated it, hanging his seven yellow Tour de France victory jersey’s on the walls of the house. The athlete also owns a home on Hawaii’s Big Island.

Armstrong was recently spotted in Los Angeles and is rumored to be in talks with movie studios over a biopic of his life. If the cyclist is planning a more permanent move to L.A., he could look into buying the infamous Playboy Bunny House, which just went up for sale and is located directly across the street from the Playboy Mansion.

Last week I had the pleasure of talking with Carissa Swenson, the Owner and Technology Specialist of TechTECS, a technology training, education, consulting and support company based out of North Dakota. She and I connected indirectly through the recent Minnesota Telecom Alliance Conference.

Carissa recently started a business to promote broadband adoption through digital literacy training. Here is a list of current training topics:

• iPads for Directors
• Digital Citizenship
• Cloud Productivity Tools

I suspect that list is growing as new topics come up and as she posts more online. I know we discussed topics such as cyber bullying and child safety. (I mention those topics because of another post I’m working on.)

Carissa has worked with/through local providers. I think it’s a great way to get local investment and local involvement. Her approach is a train-the-trainer model. The goal being to increase local capacity for future training and support for ongoing digital literacy. I’ll borrow from her site to explain her process…

Broadband adoption is the focus of many rural telecommunication companies.  Fiber-to-the-home initiatives are expensive so you want to make sure your rural customers are utilizing the high speed connections.  The connections are there but why would they adopt broadband if they don’t really know how it can help them?  Your future customers need someone to show them how a broadband connection can help to improve their lives.  TechTECS has developed a program to help telecommunications companies educate their communities on the many benefits of broadband.

Before starting out on her own, Carissa worked for a state program that provided training to teachers with the expectation that they would become the local experts and trainers to support and increase local digital literacy. I loved the program idea. The idea was to bring in the teachers, pay they for their time (key point!), train them on the digital literacy issues and ask them to pay back with 12 hours of training back in their community.

The innovation comes from the opportunity to get funding for schools. So they got creative with a great way to expand opportunity beyond the school.

Sounded like some programs worth mentioning as Minnesota communities tackle broadband adoption and digital literacy.

To help jump start customer projects for big data, Oracle (ORCL) announced new additions to its Big Data Appliance product family, promising faster performance for all Oracle applications. The announcements were made in Denver this week from Collaborate13, the technology and applications forum for the Oracle community.

Big Data Appliance Enhancements

Oracle announced the availability of Oracle Big Data Appliance X3-2 Starter Rack and X3-2 In-Rack Expansion. This allows customers to select an optimally sized appliance, and the expansion helps them easily and cost-effectively scale their footprint as their data grows. These new configurations contain six Oracle Sun servers within a full-sized rack with redundant Infiniband switches and power distribution units; as well as Oracle Big Data Appliance X3-2 In-Rack Expansion, which includes a pack of six additional servers to expand the above configuration to 12 nodes and then to a full rack of 18 nodes. Both systems include  Cloudera’s Distribution Including Apache Hadoop (CDH), Cloudera Manager and Oracle NoSQL Database.

The Oracle Big Data Appliance X3-2 in a full rack configuration is now available through Oracle Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), offered as on-premise, behind a customer firewall, or for a monthly fee. The X3-2 product family is comprised of Engineered Systems that simplify the implementation and management of Big Data by integrating hardware and software to acquire, organize and analyze Big Data.

Oracle In-Memory Applications

Oracle announced new In-Memory applications for Oracle Engineered Systems, leveraging DRAM, flash memories and the near zero latency InfiniBand network fabric. Many applications within PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, Oracle Supply Chain Management and Siebel product families are now available as Oracle In-Memory applications. Existing Oracle Applications run as much as 16X faster on Oracle Engineered Systems and deliver tangible business benefits for customers by providing extreme performance, energy efficiency, lower total cost of ownership, reliability and scalability.

“Oracle continues to demonstrate its commitment to innovation that produces business results and value for Oracle Applications running on Oracle Engineered Systems,” said Steve Miranda, Oracle Executive Vice President of Application Development. “The release of Oracle In-Memory Applications will help organizations not only complete load runs faster, but also discover new insights for efficiencies that would have been previously overlooked.”

Despite ill omens, the IDC report about PC volume decline hitting -14% in the first quarter shows once again how much trouble the tech industry is having when it comes to dealing with the ongoing computer meltdown. As I wrote last December, IDC has been completely out to lunch about this key trend for years. In March of 2012, IDC was still expecting “desktop and laptop sales to take off in the second half of 2012.” Last December, IDC cheerfully predicted 1.2% growth in computer sales between 2012 and 2016. Of course, the PC industry is tucking into a majestic swan dive that makes those projections downright surreal. How can one of the most respected research firms in the computer sector be so disconnected from reality? The answer is simple: Analysts from largest research firms simply aren’t allowed to call major turning points.

Continue reading…

The iPad mini is a unique device in that it offers much more portability than the standard iPad, while still providing a much bigger screen than the iPhone for more enjoyable gaming. Techdy has recognized that as an opportunity to build a game controller specifically for Apple’s smaller tablet, which aims to turn it into a much more capable gaming rig.

The Game D is a controller designed with a standard physical d-pad and four-button arrangement, as well as start/select buttons. The controller is designed to fit inside a slim aluminum shell, not unlike Logitech’s Ultraslim Keyboard for iPad mini, and it also uses magnets to operate. It can be used in two gaming positions, either with the iPad mini mounted in a slot on the keyboard itself, or snapped magnetically to the back of the iPad, for a more traditional gaming layout. Plus, it doubles as a smart cover.

Techdy is looking to crowdfund the development of the Game D, with its own self-run campaign. Reservations for the Game D start at $39, and there’s a Pro version upgrade available for $59 that adds backlit keys, vibration feedback and two analog gamepads. There’s also a Nexus 7-specific model available for Android gamers.

A lot of aspects of the Game D’s eventual design and branding are still up to backers, including its final shipping product name (“Game D” is just a placeholder) and custom color choices, as well as app interfaces for controlling the hardware itself. The development for the Game D is progressing nicely, with a working hardware prototype designed to function with iCade-compatible games, according to co-founder Cyril Chang. He also says that they’ll eventually offer their own open-source game developer kit (GDK), as well as continue to support iCade games at launch.

I’d love a gamepad for my iPad mini, even if it might be a little more taxing on the forearms and biceps than using an iPhone. Techdy hopes to ship these in August of 2013, if it meets its $500,000 target funding goal by the middle of May.

PRO’s: Quick, nimble, smiles-for-miles little hot-rod.

CON’s: Big price tag, lack of limited-slip-differential.

FINAL THOUGHT: The 2013 BMW 135is is a little pocket-rocket of a car that will make you rediscover driving at its core. It’s fun, fast and has the ability to make even grown men giggle.

Buying a car is not a rational decision, it’s an emotional one. We look at style, performance and how that particular vehicle makes us feel. Does it make us smile when we open the garage door. Does it make the right sound when we turn the key. Above all, does it get our adrenaline flowing when we simply go out for a drive. In a day and age where cars are weighed down by government safety regulations, technology and each company trying to outdo the next guy, it’s nice to see that BMW makes at least one car that throws up its middle finger and shows us that a car can still be a good time.

Enter the 2013 BMW 135is. A little pocket rocket of a car that not only puts some serious fun back into driving, but reminds us of a time when cars were cars, not computers. Before we begin let’s get one thing straight. The 135is is not a BMW “M” car, regardless of the fact that it has a few “M” badges here and there. Instead, it’s a BMW 135i with some nifty add-ons from BMW’s parts bin.

A performance exhaust system and power performance kit (updated engine ECU software) help bump horsepower from the standard 300 hp and 300 lb.ft of torque, to 320 hp and 317 lb.ft. Not a monumental increase mind you, but enough to make you feel like you got something for all that extra cheddar. The single turbo straight-6 engine is as smooth as they come. Power delivery is linear all through the rev-range, however once you’re over 2000 rpms, you’ll feel this thing pull like a mini freight train.

My tester was equipped with a six-speed manual transmission that was nothing short of sublime. Gear changes were crisp and smooth with short throws, while a perfectly weighted clutch made driving, even in traffic, a pretty enjoyable experience. I flogged this little car mercilessly on my favorite back roads, and the harder I pushed it, the more enjoyable the car became.

Wrap your hands around the thick steering wheel, turn the traction control off and dump the clutch and you’ll find that the 135is is a deceivingly quick little car. 0-60 mph comes up in under 5-seconds with reserve power always on hand. Find the tightest road you can just so you can shift gears at every opportunity.

I have to say that the Performance Exhaust is a nice touch, as on deceleration you’re treated to some wonderful burbles and pops that will definitely turn heads. If there is one slight in the performance department, it’s the absence of a limited slip differential. I did the ole’ one-wheel peel more than a few times while tearing up the canyons. Not a deal breaker by any means, but something I would definitely remedy if I were to take the 135is to a track day.

Climb inside and immediately you’ll notice that the fit, finish and materials used throughout the cabin are all top notch. However one thing that struck me immediately was the lack of a large screen in the center of the dash, something that we’re so accustomed to seeing these days in newer cars. There was no navigation, no touch-screen and nothing that took away from the simplistic appeal of the cars interior. In short, it was fantastic.

Even though the 135is is a small car that doesn’t mean the interior (at least the front portion anyway) was tight. At 6’4″ / 245-pounds, I not only had ample head and shoulder room, but my right leg wasn’t butted up against the center console, something that usually happens in smaller cars. The front sport seats, while comfortable, will be a bit on the narrow side for larger drivers, but never once did I find them annoying. The 135is does come equipped with rear seats, but I wouldn’t recommend them unless you’re child-sized. The same can be said for cargo space. Yes, you’ll get a few duffel bags in the trunk, but I wouldn’t plan a month long getaway in this thing.

This is a car that’s based around the enjoyment of driving, something that I almost think BMW has forgotten about. With the exception of the M3, I honestly can’t think of another BMW that I would actually own as most their cars as so crammed full of tech and luxury that they’re simply no fun to drive. Are they good cars? Absolutely, but for some reason the company has lost their emotional way. The 135is however is the exception, as it inspires it’s drivers to have fun, to enjoy the drive and push the limits a little bit. This car is what the original M3 was; small, light and a riot on the road.

As you can tell I like this car – a lot. However after pricing it out you’ll find that there is a substantial cost for all this fun. With a base price of $43,250, the 135is is not an inexpensive machine, and in fact our tester (loaded with options) was price at just under $49,000. The real question here is – how much are you willing to pay for a little car that has the ability to put a smile on your face every time you drive it?

My bet… it’s around $49k.

Foursquare has announced that the company has secured $41 million in funding from private equity firm Silver Lake Waterman, as well as existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, Spark Capital, and Union Square Ventures.

CEO Dennis Crowley announced the funding Thursday morning.

“The stuff we’re building takes a lot of work. Look at yesterday’s big update, for example. The most amazing thing about it is that it tells you interesting things around you, anywhere in the world, the second you open the app. That’s not easy. We have to crunch your 3,500,000,000 check-ins, layer your social data over it, semantically analyze our tens of millions of tips, and take a look at real-time activity around you. We do all that in under a second, all to recommend two or three places that are perfect for you,” says Crowley.

“We’ve got a ton left to do. We’re building tools for local businesses to connect with their customers. We’re making search better, every single day. We’re building that location layer for the internet – the platform that all other companies use to power location in their apps. This takes time and a lot of work, and great investors.”

On Wednesday, Foursquare launched version 6.0, a significant update to both their iOS and Android platforms that puts local search and recommendations front and center. This update is more in line with the vision that Crowley has for the service – to move well beyond the check-in.

And along with the stated goals of expanding the service and building better tools, you know that Foursquare has to now focus more on monetization.

According to Bloomberg, Foursquare is planning on a whole new slew of ad partnerships, letting every merchant it works with buy ads. They’ll also be expanding their sales team to around 40 people. Foursquare has had ads for a while in the form of sponsored location posts inside the feed and in search results in the app. But they haven’t really taken off, with reports alleging Foursquare only generated about $2 million in revenue last year.

The majority of this $41 million comes in the form of a multiyear loan from Silver Lake, and everything else is convertible debt which can be exchanged for shares later. Taking on this debt allows Foursquare to buy itself some time to figure out how to monetize.

According to Crowley, 1.3 million businesses and 33 million users have “given a try” to Foursquare.

DW Healthcare Partners has promoted two, and added five to its team. Eric Keen was promoted from Vice President to Principal, and works in the firm’s Toronto office. Sameer Mathur was promoted from Associate to Vice President, also in Toronto. The new hires are: Phillip Smith, Karen Jones, Eric Moore, Alex Aptekman, and Philip Edmunds.

PRESS RELEASE
DW Healthcare Partners (DWHP), a healthcare-focused private equity firm, is pleased to announce two promotions and five new hires. The firm has over $500 million of assets under management and an experienced team that now includes 11 investment/operating professionals and three deal-origination professionals. Recent promotions and new hires include:

– Eric Keen, promoted from Vice President to Principal, Toronto Office

– Sameer Mathur, promoted from Associate to Vice President, Toronto Office

– Phillip Smith, hired as Vice President, Park City Office

– Karen Jones, hired as Director, Investment Sourcing, Toronto Office

– Eric Moore, hired as Associate, Toronto Office

– Alex Aptekman, hired as Associate, Toronto Office

– Philip Edmunds, hired as Associate, Park City office

Andrew Carragher, co-founder and Managing Director noted, “We are fortunate, with the launch of our third healthcare fund, to have the opportunity to recognize individual success stories and achievements within our firm. We have also been able to hire talented new professionals with valuable and relevant experience in both the private equity and healthcare industries.”

Eric Keen, has been promoted from Vice President to Principal at DWHP. Mr. Keen’s experience in private equity investments spans more than ten years. Prior to joining DWHP, Mr. Keen worked for The Riverside Company, most recently as a Vice President. During his tenure at Riverside, Eric completed 10 transactions and served on the board of directors of SmartComp LLC, GTI Diagnostics, Inc., Ultravolt, Inc. and Polar Windows of Canada Ltd. Prior to Riverside, Eric worked at Norwest Equity Partners, Marakon Associates and Credit Suisse First Boston.

Sameer Mathur, who joined DWHP in 2009, has been promoted from Associate to Vice President. Prior to joining DWHP, Mr. Mathur worked as an Associate at private equity fund Francisco Partners where he focused on middle market transactions with technology and technology-enabled companies. Mr. Mathur also worked and as a Senior Associate Consultant at Bain & Company where he was involved with private equity diligence, growth strategy, and cost procurement projects across multiple industries.

Phillip Smith has joined the firm as Vice President. Mr. Smith brings five years of healthcare investing, transaction and financing experience to his role. Phillip spent the prior three years working for RoundTable Healthcare Partners, most recently as a Senior Associate. While at RoundTable, his experience included eight investments in medical device and pharmaceutical companies. Prior to RoundTable, Mr. Smith worked as an analyst for Banc of America Securities.

Karen Jones has joined DWHP’s Deal Origination Team as Director, Investment Sourcing. Mrs. Jones’s 25 years of work experience includes acquisitions, investment management, and healthcare technology consulting. She previously worked with Biosense Webster, Johnson & Johnson Medical Products as Clinical Specialist and Territory Manager, Healthwise Diagnostics as Physician Liaison, Enterprise Property Group/Enterprise Investment Management as Vice President Acquisitions, and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board as Portfolio Manager.

Eric Moore was hired as an Associate at DWHP. Prior to working at DWHP, Mr. Moore worked with Nomura Financial Institutions Group, Silver Lake Credit and Caymus Capital Partners.

Alex Aptekman recently joined DWHP as an Associate. Prior to joining DWHP, Mr. Aptekman worked with Union Square Advisors, the Global Investment Banking Group at Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, and JP Morgan in Hong Kong.

Philip Edmunds has joined the DWHP team as an Associate. Mr. Edmunds previously worked with Riveria Investment Group, and Deloitte Consulting.

About DW Healthcare PartnersDW Healthcare Partners is a private equity firm focused exclusively in the healthcare industry. The firm manages over $500 million in committed capital across three funds and invests in profitable healthcare companies with proven management teams. DW Healthcare Partners is led by seasoned healthcare executives with more than 110 years of combined industry experience. The firm provides the capital, strategic guidance, and acquisition expertise to help mid-stage companies realize their potential for growth.

The post DW Healthcare Promotes Two, Adds Five appeared first on peHUB.

Vic Nyman is the co-founder and COO of BlueStripe Software. Vic has more than 20 years of experience in systems management and APM, and has held leadership positions at Wily Technology, IBM Tivoli, and Relicore/Symantec.

Cloud computing is perceived as a significant threat by some data center organizations. By changing the focus away from managing server resources and adopting a Service-Oriented approach to IT Operations, IT organizations can turn that threat into an opportunity while helping to deliver business innovations to their enterprises.

As you know, the corporate data center faces unprecedented competition for their internal customers. The threat of wholesale IT departmental outsourcing has been with us for quite a while, but for the individual employee, an outsourcing contract has often meant keeping the same job, but just being on the payroll of XYZ Systems instead of Venerable Bank and Trust.

Cloud has the potential to be different. It means your company’s applications will run in somebody else’s data center, using somebody else’s employees to manage somebody else’s servers. It means that business-based application groups can bypass the operations process entirely. And while it is considered unlikely that large, critical legacy applications will be moved to cloud in the immediate future, over time Cloud can mean data center consolidations and staff reductions.

At my company, we deal with customers who are facing this issue on a regular basis. One Director of IT Infrastructure recently told a story about trying to impose some discipline on their server management process, and being told flat out, “We can get the server we want from Amazon in 15 minutes.  What’s wrong with you?” Clearly this is a whole new world.

Better Service is Answer

The key for data center teams is to be able to deliver better service than the cloud providers do. Part of the source of demand for cloud services is the promise of hassle-free, efficient delivery on service-levels – that business applications will deploy and run as asked for, with minimal hassles and downtime.

In many companies, the data center teams use a server resource-based approach to managing application performance. The focus is often on machine resource metrics – CPU and memory utilization, disk IO, network performance – metrics that are only loosely correlated with actual application performance. A better approach is to concentrate on application and transaction response times.

We’ve seen customers who take this approach make significant reductions in their key performance metrics. Availability for mission critical applications has far exceeded SLA levels, and IT Operations teams have been freed up to work to deliver new capabilities.

Here’s how they’ve changed the way they manage the delivery of applications:

• First, recognize that transaction response times are more important than resource utilization. In a large, interconnected application with multiple tiers and extensive virtualization, chances are good that some servers will show high CPU utilization. Chances are also good that those servers will not have anything to do with an application slowdown. Focusing on the individual transaction response time will yield the source of the problem, and will help avoid “red herring” activities that don’t contribute to the solution.
• Second, recognize that every component affects transaction response times. Highly distributed, inter-connected services typically involve ten or more servers – sometimes hundreds of servers. Don’t just look at the application server – the team doing the triage needs to consider the web tier, authentication, middleware, database, and even third-party services.
• Last, recognize that within the problem server, every infrastructure layer affects component response times. Every dependency of the problem server is the potential culprit during a slowdown – rather than just looking at CPU and memory utilization, the data center team needs to look at the application component, other applications on the server, the operating system, virtualization, storage, networking, shared services like DNS, and even server management tools.

By applying the Service-Oriented approach, data center teams can greatly improve their results in dealing with application management – making themselves competitive with cloud offerings.

Industry Perspectives is a content channel at Data Center Knowledge highlighting thought leadership in the data center arena. See our guidelines and submission process for information on participating. View previously published Industry Perspectives in our Knowledge Library.

It’s been almost a full year since Google took $1,500 commitments from those that wanted to be among the first to test Google Glass. These Beta versions, now known as Explorer Editions, will finally ship next month based on an announcement made at Google Venture’s Glass Collective event. Those of you that were winners of the “If I Had Glass” contest will also receive your Explorer Editions (for the same $1,500) at the same time, but you will have to travel to either San Francisco, Los Angeles, or NYC to pick them up.

source: TechCrunch

Come comment on this article: Google Glass Explorer Editions shipping next month

LevelEleven, a Detroit-based company focused on enterprise gamification and CRM technology, has completed its $1.5 million seed financing. The seed round was led by Detroit Venture Partners with additional funding from private equity investor Rick Inatome, Hyde Park Venture Partners, and The First Step Fund.

PRESS RELEASE
Detroit-based LevelEleven, a new company focused on enterprise gamification and CRM solutions, today completed its $1.5 million seed financing with an additional $500,000. The seed round was led by Detroit Venture Partners with additional funding from private equity investor Rick Inatome, Hyde Park Venture Partners, and The First Step Fund. The company, located in downtown Detroit’s M@dison Building in the heart of the city’s fast-growing high-tech hub, previously raised the initial $1 million in October 2012.

The new financing will be used to help further accelerate product development and invest in sales and marketing, as momentum for LevelEleven continues to increase. Current clients include Comcast, Dyn, Concur, Delta Airlines, OpenTable and Kelly Services, among many others.

“Over the past quarter we’ve made huge strides in establishing our brand, further developing our software and acquiring new customers, so the timing was perfect to secure additional funding,” says Bob Marsh, LevelEleven CEO. “Having the support of such prominent investors is a real validation of the work we’re doing to help motivate employee behavior in the enterprise sales and CRM space.”

LevelEleven’s initial seed funding was raised by Detroit Venture Partners, the venture capital firm known for investing in seed and early-stage technology companies committed to playing a part of the revitalization of downtown Detroit.

“LevelEleven has experienced significant success since its launch last year and I believe the company is in a great position to capitalize on the growth of the enterprise gamification industry,” said Rick Inatome, who currently serves as the CEO of InfiLaw Corporation, a national consortium of independent law schools. Rick is also a well-known computer industry pioneer who co-founded two multi-billion dollar companies, including Computer City and Inacomp Computer Centers. “I share Bob’s philosophy that meaningful gamification is the key to motivating employees and believe that LevelEleven has tapped into an unmet market need that gives the company tremendous growth potential in the future.”

LevelEleven now has nine team members, and has almost tripled its customer base from 25 to more than 70 clients within the past six months. For more information, visit www.leveleleven.com.

About LevelEleven LevelEleven develops enterprise gamification and CRM solutions to help managers get their sales and service teams focused on the right things by tapping into their competitive nature. LevelEleven’s lead product is an easy-to-use app for salesforce.com that creates high-impact competitions around any data point that can be tracked within a company’s CRM system. Clients including Comcast, Concur, Kelly Services, and Good Technology are experiencing immediate and long-lasting results in securing more client meetings, taking new products to market, improving Salesforce adoption, and closing more business. Originally developed by digital engagement leader ePrize and debuted at Dreamforce 2011, LevelEleven launched as its own company in October 2012, and is ranked as the #1 most popular gamification offering in the Salesforce AppExchange. LevelEleven is based in Detroit, Michigan, and part of the Detroit Venture Partners portfolio of companies.

About Detroit Venture Partners Detroit Venture Partners (www.detroitventurepartners.com) is a venture capital firm that invests in seed and early-stage technology companies with a strong emphasis on Detroit-based startups. In addition to capital, the company provides hands-on coaching, mentorship, support, and resources to help drive growth and success. The firm was founded in 2010 by Josh Linkner, Dan Gilbert and Brian Hermelin. By backing the next generation of Detroit entrepreneurs, DVP aims to create jobs, urban density, and hope.

The post LevelEleven Wraps Up $1.5M Seed Round appeared first on peHUB.

A consortium led by CSL Capital Management has exited PyraMax Ceramics, selling the company to Imerys S.A. The deal was valued at $235 million, plus possible milestone payments of up to $100 million.

PRESS RELEASE
A consortium led by CSL Capital Management, LLC announced today it has sold PyraMax Ceramics, LLC (“PyraMax”) to Imerys S.A. for a total consideration of USD 235 million and additional payments of up to USD 100 million, subject to meeting certain industrial and commercial performance criteria. PyraMax is in the final stages of completing a state-of-the-art, 500 million pounds per year manufacturing facility comprised of two production lines located in Wrens, GA.
Imerys’ acquisition of PyraMax, added to its current production capacity, will significantly enhance its ability to supply high-quality ceramic proppant to the fast-growing North America non-conventional oil and gas market.
Charles S. Leykum, Founder of CSL Capital Management and Chairman of PyraMax Ceramics, LLC, said “Our management team has done a great job building PyraMax from a greenfield project to near commercial operation. We are excited to work with Imerys, a well-established player in this sector, and think the combination will create a robust supplier to the proppants industry. We wish Don and his team continued success.”
Don Anschutz, President of PyraMax Ceramics, LLC, said “CSL has been an invaluable partner and resource for us and we enjoyed working with them. Their experience building companies and vision for PyraMax to be a state-of-the-art ceramic proppant plant was essential to our success. Joining Imerys will accelerate that vision and give us access to expertise and resources that will increase our ability to anticipate and exceed our customers’ expectations.”
About CSL Capital Management, LLC
CSL Capital Management (“CSL”) is a leading growth equity firm with a value oriented investment strategy focused on energy businesses in the U.S. and internationally. With offices in Houston, TX and Greenwich, CT, the CSL team has deep sector expertise in the energy industry and takes a very hands-on approach to investments; it relies on fundamental growth and strategic thinking, rather than financial engineering, to generate success. Through several investment vehicles, CSL has raised in excess of $650 million of equity capital and commitments.
About Imerys S.A.
Imerys is the world leader in mineral-based specialty solutions for industry with €3.9 billion revenue and 16,000 employees. Imerys transforms a unique range of minerals to deliver functions (heat re- sistance, mechanical strength, conductivity, coverage, barrier effect, etc.) that are essential to its customers’ products and manufacturing processes.
Whether it is mineral components, functional additives, process enablers or finished products, Imerys’ solutions contribute to the quality of a great number of applications in consumer goods, industrial equipment and construction. Combining expertise, creativity and attentiveness to customers’ needs, the Group’s international teams constantly identify new applications and develop high value-added solutions under a determined approach to responsible development. These strengths enable Imerys to develop through a sound, profitable business model.

The post CSL Capital Exits PyraMax Ceramics appeared first on peHUB.

A Canadian woman this week was overwhelmed this week after learning she had won money in the Ontario lottery.

According to a report from Chicago’s ABC 7, 51-year-old Maria Carreiro of Toronto had originally thought she had won only $40,000. When her daughter informed her that she had, in fact, won $40,000,000 she “ran down the street like a crazy woman.”

Though $40,000 is quite a windfall, $40 million is a life-changing amount of money. While accepting her gigantic cardboard check this week, Carreiro danced a jig for the cameras and began singing thanks to her god. The woman related to onlookers that she will be going to Hawaii, as she has never gotten a honeymoon in her 30 years of marriage.

Carreiro reportedly played the same lottery numbers, based on her children’s birthdays, for 20 years. On this occasion, though, she had taken a “quik-pick” ticket.

Google Ventures announced the launch of an “investment syndicate” aimed at funding entrepreneurs building interesting ideas for Google Glass. It’s called the Glass Collective, and includes partners at Google Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

In a a blog post, Google Ventures VP Bill Maris wrote, “Glass is a potentially transformative technology. It’s a window into the world’s information, and a new way to share experiences with those you care about. Here at Google Ventures, my partners and I thought the potential for Glass was significant enough to invite our friends at Andreessen Horowitz and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers to join us in exploring this big opportunity.”

“Smart entrepreneurs and engineers are going to develop amazing experiences through Glass,” he added.

“This is a platform so new, so unlike anything before, that we can’t guess what the killer apps will be,” says John Doerr from KPCB. “But, believe me, they’re coming. The best ideas for the Glass platform will come from entrepreneurs — they always do.”

“The thesis of Glass is profoundly transformational,” says Marc Andreessen from Andreessen Horowitz. “And as with the Internet and smartphones, a huge amount of work will be done by third-party developers to fully realize the Glass vision. Glass brings developers a new springboard for creativity and an amazing new platform to build the defining applications of the future.”

Those building for Google Glass (and this might be a good place to start) are encouraged to contact the Glass Collective partners. Investing partners from each fund will review startup pitches together.

The Glass Collective notes that they’re not only looking for services, but also hardware for Glass.

Yesterday Dropbox for business received a big update with single sign-on. Now, today, the company rolls out new features for the consumer version of its cloud storage service. New updates have been added to the PC, Mac, Linux, web and Android apps, but those on iOS will have to wait.

All versions receive support for six additional languages — Russian, Polish, Indonesian, Malaysian, and Traditional and Simplified Chinese. Reginald Harris of Dropbox claims the company has translated 553,800 words in 43,662 lines of code to make this possible. Harris states this enables “sharing your most important stuff with friends and family — no matter where in the world they are or what language they speak”.

In addition an update has rolled out to Android devices bringing the service to version to 2.3.5 and adding support for viewing all photos in your Dropbox, a feature that began being tested on the web back in January of this year. The new version also adds the aforementioned new languages and the usual performance enhancements.

Dropbox, which was founded by MIT students in 2007, now has more than 100 million users worldwide and claims usage in 95 percent of the Fortune 500 companies.

Photo credit: mojito.mak[dog]gmail[dot]com/Shutterstock