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After successfully 3D printing a high capacity magazine, Defense Distributed got back to work on perfecting its 3D printed AR lower. The first attempt failed after firing six shots, but the group was obviously not going to give up.

In a recent blog post, the group said it had “printed AR lowers figured out.” It also shared the following image:

As you can see, the AR lower looks pretty much the same as last time. The team presumably made some structural changes in the build, however, to make it stand up to the heat and pressure created by firing multiple rounds at once.

The new lower has exceeded expectations by staying intact and operational even after firing 600 rounds from an AR-15. Here’s the video:

The team hasn’t shared what it’s going to work on next, but a question posed on their blog indicates that the team may be working on making 3D printed magazines for more gun types.

The first two letters of LTE may stand for “long-term,” but there’s not much long-term about the status of the mobile network technology today. Operators have built more than 60 LTE networks worldwide. The networks are in place, but according to Ericsson CEO Hans Vestberg, operators are now wrestling with new questions: how and what do they charge for these fancy new 4G services?

In an interview with GigaOM, Vestberg said that 4G business models, not infrastructure or devices, was the far bigger theme at Mobile World Congress this year – it’s what he’s spending time talking about in Barcelona this week with Ericsson’s hundreds of carrier customers

“We’re at this inflection point where we’ve built the networks, but we still haven’t worked out the business models,” Vestberg said. “Some of our customers are taking very different directions.”

European operators are testing the potential of 4G being a premium-priced data service, charging more for a megabyte of LTE than a megabyte of HSPA. In the U.S., AT&T and Verizon are barreling ahead with shared data plans. Vestberg says he’s witnessing many more business models emerging as operators start experimenting with enterprise and machine-to-machine data plans as well as continuing to tinker with their consumer data pricing.

Carriers are still debating whether they should be big pipes selling mobile broadband by the gigabyte, or applications and data services providers that inject something tangible into that bitstream, Vestberg said.

Many operators have begun to think beyond smartphones and focus on the internet of things, Vestberg said, connecting everything from tablets to cars to home appliances. At Mobile World Congress, for example, AT&T and General Motors announced plans to embed LTE into millions of future cars as an upgrade to GM’s OnStar service. Several other carriers were demonstrating connected home and connected city applications at MWC, sticking LTE radios in smart utility meters, public transit and healthcare devices.

“What devices can we connect that will create a more efficient life for people?” Vestberg said. “[Carriers have] already identified a lot of those devices. It’s more a question of who and how and when they’ll monetize them.”

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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“Let’s talk about what’s in our heads and how to get it out,” says Mary Lou Jepsen as she begins her talk at TED2013.

Jepsen, a display engineer, recently had brain surgery. Afterward she faced a stigma: “Are you still smart? If not, can you make yourself smart again?” Well, her surgery gave her a chance to experiment in an extraordinary way. Because of nature of the surgery, she had to decide what amounts of over a dozen chemicals to take to stay alive, and to thrive.

As an experimentalist, she was amazed by how tiny changes in dose changed her sense of self, her thinking, and her behavior. Over several years she tried many combinations. For a while she took a combination typical of a male in his early 20s, and “I was angry all the time, I thought about sex constantly, and I thought I was the smartest person in the world.” That gave new appreciation of men and what they might go through.

For her, though, the tuning was really about getting herself back. In particular, getting her idea flow back. As a visual thinker, she uses images in her head for rapid prototyping. There is a thought that ideas are images and images are ideas. That’s disputed, but for her images are central.

It worked, and now she has lots of them. And that brings her to the next bottleneck, and one she thinks she can solve: how to get those images out of her head and onto the screen. Directly. “Can you imagine,” she asks, “a movie director using her imagination alone to direct the world in front of her?”

Amazingly, the biggest roadblock to that is just increasing the resolution of brain-scan systems. Just this week, the White House announced support of a new project to do exactly this. It’s aimed at treating disease, but will have an impact in many, many areas, including this kind of thought reading. ”Could you imagine,” she asks, “if we could communicate directly with our thoughts? What would we be capable of? And how will we deal with that?”

How is this possible? Jepsen shows two recent experiments.

• One group used fMRI to scan an individual looking at a picture. Then they scanned the same same individual imagining the picture. Those images are almost identical. That means that imagining an image has the same brain pattern as seeing it.
• Another group at the University of California, Berkeley has been able to decode a brain-wave into a recognizable shape. They showed people in a brain scanner a set of YouTube videos and scanned them to build a library. Then they were shown a new video. After scanning their brains, the computer could decode the image. The resolution is bad, but it’s clearly right, and it’s stunning. (Read about it here.)

So, as Jepsen says, they just need to up the resolution. All they need is a thousand-fold increase. How do they get that? Traditionally, better resolution comes from bigger magnets in the MRI machine. Jepsen, however, is looking at techniques to arrange the magnets more cleverly. If successful, they could build a device to do an instant read-out 1000x times better than today. “That’s the dream.”

And Jepsen says it’s not a matter of if this happens. “It’s coming. We’re going to be able to dump our ideas directly to digital media.” It might take 5 or 15 years, but it’s coming. That, of course, leads to very real concerns about privacy.

In the near term, this will be a personal tool — someone driving by your house won’t be able to scan your brain and download your thoughts. It will be used for personal enhancement, or to possibly treat Alzheimers and related diseases.

But Jepsen emphasizes, if we want to understand ourselves better, we need to do this.  And if we do that, “We need to learn how to take this step together.”

There may come a day when diehard video game fans ditch their consoles completely in favor of PC gaming. Following the unveiling of Sony’s (SNE) PlayStation 4 console, and just ahead of Microsoft’s (MSFT) next Xbox’s debut, the CEO of leading game lab Crytek offered Eurogamer a grim dose of reality: neither of these next-generation consoles can compete with PCs in terms of the technology that powers them.

Continue reading…

When it comes to online storage, we live in a time of plenty: Products like Google’s Chromebook Pixel offer 1 TB of online storage (enough to save 1,000 hours of video), while services like DropBox let us deposit huge files in the cloud for free, and most email providers offer virtually unlimited space.

It’s easy to forget that it wasn’t always this way. Remember when you had to delete emails before receiving new ones? Back in the late ’90s, providers like Hotmail and Yahoo allowed users on a couple of megabytes—essentially, the size of a single song.

From Hotmail to Gmail to Dropbox, here’s a look back at some of the key moments in the evolution of free online storage.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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Verdesian Life Sciences, which is backed by Paine & Partners, has acquired Northwest Agricultural Products. Financial terms weren’t announced. Pasco, Wa.-based Northwest Agricultural provides specialty agricultural products.

PRESS RELEASE

Verdesian Life Sciences, LLC (“Verdesian”), a Paine & Partners, LLC (“Paine & Partners”) company, today announced that it has acquired Northwest Agricultural Products, LLC (“NAP”), a world-class provider of specialty agricultural products. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
NAP specializes in eco-friendly products designed to meet the diverse needs of the agricultural community through advanced chemical and biological innovation, with a focus on enhanced plant health, optimized crop yields and overall quality. The company’s strong portfolio of products is highlighted by Sterics®, which enhance the absorption of phosphorous, and PolyAmines, which deliver essential micronutrients. It also produces biostimulants and biopesticides, with its Intracept and Bloomtime FD product lines. NAP’s technical strengths include plant pathology and physiology, advanced fermentation, bioprocess development and chemical, biochemical and environmental engineering. As a subsidiary of Verdesian, NAP will continue to operate independently out of Pasco, WA, through the 2013 season.
JJ Grow, Chief Executive Officer of Verdesian Life Sciences, said, “We are excited about our transaction with NAP, which is an important next step in Verdesian’s growth strategy. The acquisition of NAP underscores Verdesian’s strategic focus on plant technologies that enhance the uptake of key nutrients using multiple modes of action as well as aligning plant health nutritional technologies with agronomic practices. NAP’s differentiated products – its bioscience lines, in particular – are highly complementary to Biagro Western’s, which Verdesian acquired in 2012. NAP has built a strong position in its markets, and Verdesian will leverage its international platform to expand NAP’s customer base to take it to a new level of growth. We look forward to working with NAP’s employees and we welcome them to the Verdesian family.”
David Bergevin , Founder of NAP, said, “We are excited to team up with Verdesian – a strong platform that offers the experience and resources necessary to help a highly specialized company like NAP to grow and develop. We are confident that NAP can use the Verdesian platform to expand its business and energize its sales and marketing capabilities so that its products can enhance plant health and nutrition in markets where they are needed most.”
Verdesian focuses on investments in plant health and nutrition and was established in September 2012 by Paine & Partners, a global private equity investment firm that specializes in the food and agribusiness industry globally. Verdesian acquired Biagro Western Sales, LLC, a leader in protected technologies for developing plant health and plant nutrition products, in September 2012. Further information about Verdesian is available at www.VLSci.com.
About Northwest Agricultural Products, LLC
Established in 1989 by David Bergevin in Pasco, WA, Northwest Agricultural Products, LLC is a world-class provider of specialty agricultural products. The eco-friendly products are designed to meet the diverse needs of the agricultural community through advanced chemical and biological innovation, with a focus on enhanced plant health, optimized crop yields and overall quality. Its strong portfolio of products is highlighted by Sterics® and PolyAmines. Northwest Agricultural Products also produces biostimulants and biopesticides, with its Intracept and Bloomtime FD product lines. The Company’s technical strengths include plant pathology and physiology, advanced fermentation, bioprocess development and chemical, biochemical and environmental engineering.
About Verdesian Life Sciences, LLC
Verdesian Life Sciences focuses on investments in plant health and nutrition. Verdesian’s strategy is geared towards plant technologies that enhance the uptake of key nutrients using multiple modes of action as well as aligning plant health nutritional technologies with agronomic practices. In September 2012, Verdesian acquired Biagro Western Sales, LLC, which focuses on protected technologies for developing plant health and plant nutrition products. Further information about Verdesian is available at www.VLSci.com.
About Paine & Partners, LLC
Paine & Partners provides equity capital for management buyouts, going private transactions, and company expansion and growth programs. Paine & Partners engages exclusively in friendly transactions developed in cooperation with a company’s management, board of directors and shareholders. The firm currently makes investments through its $1.2 billion fund, Paine & Partners Capital Fund III, L. P. and related entities.
Paine & Partners focuses on the food and agribusiness industry globally, and its principals, through a predecessor fund, have made successful strategic investments in Seminis, then the world’s leading global developer, producer and marketer of vegetable and fruit seeds; and Advanta Netherlands Holdings BV, at the time, the largest independent agronomic seed company in the world. Paine & Partners also invested in Icicle Seafoods, a leading producer, harvester and processer of salmon, pollock, halibut, cod, crab and other seafood products with operations in North and South America and sales globally. Paine & Partners’ most recent investments include Eurodrip, a global manufacturer and supplier of drip irrigation solutions; Verdesian Life Sciences, LLC, a U.S.-based plant health and nutrition investment platform; Scanbio Marine Group, a leading Norwegian producer of fish protein concentrate, fish meal, and fish oil; and Costa Group, Australia’s largest integrated grower, packer and marketer of fresh fruits and vegetables. The complex investment opportunities in today’s rapidly evolving agribusiness environment play to the strengths of Paine & Partners’ differentiated approach. For further information, see www.painepartners.com.

The post Verdesian Buys Northwest Agricultural Products appeared first on peHUB.

Don’t call 911 asking for a cheeseburger. You may think your hunger is an emergency requiring swift action by the police and/or EMT, but I can assure you, it’s not. One Indiana man apparently didn’t understand that.

WSBT reports that 52-year-old Gregory Jackson Sr. was so hungry last week that he called 911, and asked that they give him a cheeseburger. The dispatcher hung up on him, but that wasn’t enough to deter Jackson. He reportedly called 911 nine times over a 90 minute period asking for a cheeseburger over and over again.

After the ninth time, it’s reported that the dispatcher was concerned for Jackson’s safety and sent an officer to his residence. It was found then that he was actually wanted on a warrant for failing to appear in court. He also had a pretty sizable criminal record, mostly alcohol related. The report doesn’t mention if alcohol or drugs played a part in his “emergency calls.”

In recap, it’s funny to order a cheeseburger at a shoe store, but it’s not funny to order a cheeseburger over an emergency line. Doing so is stupid, and it might just land you in jail.

Oh, and don’t call 911 to complain about crappy cheeseburgers either.

[Image: WISH-TV]

Has Stone Temple Pilots lead singer Scott Weiland been fired from the band? Yes, according to a statement from the rest of the band. But apparently it’s all news to him.

Earlier today the band announced that they had fired Weiland in a one-sentence release:

“Stone Temple Pilots have announced they have officially terminated Scott Weiland.” That’s all it said – nothing more.

According to Rolling Stone, the rumors all began a couple of months ago and were perpetuated by Slash.

“Slash doesn’t know anything about STP. We’re talking right now about when we want to tour next,” he told the magazine on Tuesday.

Within the last hour, Weiland issued a statement on his Facebook page. In it, the singer seems a bit perplexed as to how he has been fired from his own band:

Either way, Weiland is scheduled to begin a solo tour next month.

The market for Hadoop software continues to attract new players. Intel (INTC) announced the availability of its Distribution for Apache Hadoop, including new management tools. More than 20 partners announced support for Intel’s Hadoop offering, including Cisco, Red Hat, Cray and Supermicro.

Intel’s move comes a day after EMC rolled out its own Pivotal HD Hadoop distribution integrating Greenplum’s massively parallel processing (MPP) database. Intel and EMC will compete with newer players including Map R, Hortonworks and Cloudera in the growing market for Hadoop solutions.

Apache Hadoop is a software framework that supports data-intensive distributed applications. It has become one of the most important technologies for managing large volumes of data, and has given rise to a growing ecosystem of tools and applications that can store and analyze large datasets on commodity hardware.

“Transformational Opportunity” of Big Data

“People and machines are producing valuable information that could enrich our lives in so many ways, from pinpoint accuracy in predicting severe weather to developing customized treatments for terminal diseases,” said Boyd Davis, vice president and general manager of Intel’s Datacenter Software Division. “Intel is committed to contributing its enhancements made to use all of the computing horsepower available to the open source community to provide the industry with a better foundation from which it can push the limits of innovation and realize the transformational opportunity of big data.”

The Intel open platform was built from the ground up, on Apache Hadoop, and will keep pace with the rapid evolution of big data analytics. Intel says its distribution is the first to provide complete encryption with support of Intel AES New Instructions (Intel AES-NI) in the Intel Xeon processor. Silicon-based encryption allows organizations to more securely analyze their data sets without compromising performance.

Intel Manager for Apache Hadoop simplifies the deployment, configuration and monitoring of the cluster for system administrators as they look to deploy new applications. The new Intel Active Tuner automatically configures and optimizes performance for Hadoop.

Intel has worked with strategic partners to integrate this software into a number of next-generation platforms and solutions, including:

• Red Hat plans to build solutions using Intel Distribution integrated with Red Hat solutions, such as Red Hat Storage Server 2.0 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Big data solutions resulting from the expanded Red Hat and Intel alliance will be designed to meet enterprise expectations for availability, performance, and compatibility. This builds upon Red Hat’s plans announced last week surrounding big data strategy.
• Cray announced that it will introduce a new solution combining the Intel Distribution for Apache Hadoop software with the Cray Xtreme line of supercomputers. The new offering will add to Cray’s portfolio of  ”Big Data” solutions and give customers the ability to leverage the fusion of supercomputing and Big Data. “Cray has enabled customers to achieve modeling and simulation at the highest scale possible, and we are excited to work with Intel to provide dramatic new levels of data assimilation combined with modeling and simulation – driving the analytics needed for knowledge discovery and optimal decision making,” said Bill Blake, senior vice president and CTO of Cray. “The new features added to the Intel Distribution, such as greater security, improved real-time handling of sensor data, and improved performance throughout the storage hierarchy will benefit Cray’s traditional customers in big science and supercomputing, in addition to new commercial customers who need the combination of supercomputing capabilities and an enterprise-strength approach to Big Data.”
• Supermicro announced it is expanding its Hadoop Big Data initiatives with support for the new Intel Distribution for Apache Hadoop. Supermicro’s Hadoop-optimized server and storage systems have undergone rigorous testing and validation.
• RainStor announced  that its Big Data Analytics on Hadoop product has been validated with the Intel Distribution for Apache Hadoop software. The solution provides faster, more flexible analytics using Standard SQL, BI Tools and MapReduce without the need to move data out of the Hadoop environment.
• Zettaset announced that it supports the launch of the Intel Distribution for Apache Hadoop. Joint customers of Zettaset and Intel can now benefit from the ease of use of a Hadoop installation and management solution that works with the only distribution of Apache Hadoop built from the silicon up.“Intel has worked diligently with their partners to ensure compatibility and deliver a robust, high performance Big Data solution for the enterprise,” said Zettaset President and CEO Jim Vogt. “We are excited to be included in Intel’s growing Big Data ecosystem and look forward to helping our joint customers to easily install, manage and secure their Intel-powered Hadoop deployments.”

In this video, Davis and Paul Perez, Cisco Vice President and CTO, Data Center Group discuss the extended relationship between the companies into big data.

Car Finder by DroidOmics is a handy GPS utility that bookmarks a location and helps you navigate to it later. Handy for finding your car, hotel, or any meeting spot that you decide, it even works without a data connection.

The app has more location and GPS services so you don’t have to swap between Car Finder and other navigation apps. The app shows your current heading and speed, as well as a special blue marker for the exact direction and elevation of your car. It also has a speedometer complete with your latitude and longitude details.

Download Car Finder free for BlackBerry 10 and the PlayBook tablet.

Click here to buy Car Finder Pro for BlackBerry 10 and the PlayBook tablet.

The Datacentres Europe 2013 event will take place in Nice, France on May 29-30. The event, run by BroadGroup, is focused on end users in vertical markets and the data centre and IT infrastructure they use.

BroadGroup research forecasts that strong vertical market demand will drive growth in outsourcing to third-party data centres in Europe, but this still leaves approximately 70 percent of the market that has not yet outsourced by 2016. However, the consulting firm also believes that this linear perspective of the market will largely disappear as the computing environment changes. BroadGroup’s research suggests that IT departments emerge as cloud brokers, hosting applications across a range of datacentres and distributed architectures. Businesses will be offered a flexible menu of options, automated and on demand. For data centres and users, this dénouement brings a completely new set of challenges and opportunities.

Sponsors of the event include Schneider Electric, Hewlett Packard, Bird & Bird, eco Verband der deutschen Internetwirtschaft e.V., APL, MigSolv, Cofely GDF Suez, Invest in Iceland, Scholzegruppe, Future Facilities, ABB, Bouygues, EBRC, DEF, Scottish Development International, Conteg, Smacs, Partner Organizations are the European Data Centre Association (EUDCA) and CESIT. Industry Partners include Colo-X, Colo Research, Globeron and EPI.

The event includes an industry exhibition with more than 70 companies represented.

For more information visit, Datacentres Europe 2013 website. The event advanced discount offers close on Feb. 28.

Venue
Palais des Congrès Acropolis
Nice, Côte d’Azur, France

Hotel information can be found on the conference website.

For more events, please return to the Data Center Knowledge Events Calendar.

NASA today revealed that it has teamed up with the European Space Agency (ESA) to, for the first time, measure the spin rate of a supermassive black hole.

Using NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) and the ESA’s XMM-Newton, astronomers were able to observe the black hole that lies at the center of the galaxy NGC 1365. The object was found to be spinning nearly as fast as physics will allow, providing researchers with new information about how black holes behave.

“This is hugely important to the field of black hole science,” said Lou Kaluzienski, a NuSTAR program scientist at NASA Headquarters.

The measurements, to be published in the journal Nature, also provide clear evidence for Einstein’s theory of general relativity. The data shows that X-rays around the black hole are being warped by the object’s high gravity.

“We can trace matter as it swirls into a black hole using X-rays emitted from regions very close to the black hole,” said Fiona Harrison, coauthor of a new study, NuSTAR principal investigator of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. “The radiation we see is warped and distorted by the motions of particles and the black hole’s incredibly strong gravity.”

Both the NuSTAR and XMM-Newton telescopes were needed to penetrate the gas clouds that obscure NGC 1365′s center. NuSTAR detects high-energy X-ray radiation, while the XMM-Newton detects lower-energy X-rays. By simultaneously observing the X-rays emitted by iron in the black hole’s accretion disc, the telescopes were able to determine that the X-ray distortion was coming from the black hole instead of gas clouds. This means that astronomers can now use iron signature distortions to measure black hole spin rates.

“If I could have added one instrument to XMM-Newton, it would have been a telescope like NuSTAR,” said Norbert Schartel, XMM-Newton Project Scientist at the European Space Astronomy Center. “The high-energy X-rays provided an essential missing puzzle piece for solving this problem.”

(Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Brothers Rich + Tone Talauega are choreographers whose energy is so powerful one performance makes the whole room seem to vibrate. This morning at TED, with the help of music producer Keith Harris, they unleash an eclectic menagerie of dance forms that meld martial arts, hip-hop and classical dance. The intensity is palpable across the theater as we watch dancers from across the world float, fight, shake, bend, fold, pirouette.

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The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Pennsylvania have sent a letter to the Governor Mifflin School District in Shillington, PA which threatens legal action if the district doesn’t address the claims of high school student Maison Fioravante. While performing research on Governor Mifflin High School computers, Fioravante discovered that many educational LGBT sites were being blocked by the school’s content filter.

When she tried to access certain LGBT sites for research purposes, Fioravante was met with a filter notice that cited a “sexuality” filter as the reason for the blocking. She posted a YouTube video detailing her situation and also began a petition on change.org asking the high school to stop blocking LGBT sites. The petition has amassed over 3,300 signatures and drew the attention of the ACLU.

In their letter, the ACLU notes that this sort of filtering is considered viewpoint discrimination that was recently ruled unconstitutional in a recent court case.

They state that the “sexuality” filter seems to be only blocking LGBT-oriented sites.

But it’s not just LGBT sites that the school district’s filter (running Smoothwall software) is blocking. Apparently, the firewall is preventing access to anti-gay websites from organizations like the National Organization for Marriage and the the Family Research Council. The reason given is that these sites are blocked due to “intolerance.”

The ACLU says that this is also ill-advised, as blocking even an “intolerant” viewpoint is an independent violation of the First Amendment.

The ACLU gives the school district until March 14th to address their concerns before they proceed with legal action.

“The ACLU respectfully requests that Governor Mifflin School District immediately reconfigure its Smoothwall filtering system so that it operates in a viewpoint-neutral manner or the District should find an alternate software vendor with a product that satisfies the requirements of both the Children’s Internet Protection Act (“CIPA”) and the First Amendment. Please contact us by Thursday, March 14, to advise us whether you will make the requested changes to the filter and if so, how you intend to do so,” says the letter.

[h/t The Verge]

M/C Partners and Columbia Capital said Wednesday that they have agreed to sell the assets of Baja Broadband. The buyer is Telephone and Data Systems, which announced the acquisition yesterday. Baja, of Alamogordo, New Mexico, provides video, high-speed broadband and voice services to residential and commercial customers in Colorado, New Mexico, Texas and Utah.

PRESS RELEASE

M/C Partners and Columbia Capital announced today that they have agreed to sell the assets of Baja Broadband, LLC (“Baja”) to Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. (NYSE: TDS), parent company to TDS Telecommunications Corp. (“TDS Telecom”).

Baja Broadband, which is owned and controlled by M/C Partners and Columbia, is a full-service communications company providing video, high-speed broadband and voice services to residential and commercial customers in Colorado, New Mexico, Texas and Utah.

“Baja has been a successful investment for us, and we have enjoyed a terrific working relationship with the management team,” said Gillis Cashman of M/C Partners. “We are pleased with this transaction and believe that TDS Telecom is the ideal owner of Baja going forward.”

“M/C Partners and Columbia Capital have both contributed enormously to developing Baja Broadband into a leading communications operator, and we thank them for their support,” said Peter Kahelin, CEO, Baja Broadband. “I am confident that TDS Telecom’s focus on quality, integrity and outstanding service will enhance our already strong relationships with our customers, our employees and our communities.”

RBC Capital Markets served as an advisor to M/C Partners and Columbia Capital and as the exclusive M&A advisor to Baja Broadband. Waller Capital Partners also served as an advisor to M/C Partners and Columbia Capital on the transaction. Edwards Wildman Palmer LLP served as legal counsel to Baja.

About M/C Partners

M/C Partners is a private equity firm focused exclusively on the communications, media, and information technology sectors. The firm has invested over $1.5 billion into over 100 companies in those sectors. Companies M/C has backed include Brooks Fiber Properties, Cavalier Telephone, Corelink, Fusepoint, Attenda, ICG Communications, Legendary Pictures, PlumChoice, Lightower, MetroPCS, NuVox, AccentHealth and Zayo Group. The firm has strong institutional backing from the nation’s leading pension funds and endowments as well as a long track record of success. M/C Partners has offices in Boston, San Francisco and London. For more information, visit www.mcpartners.com.

About Columbia Capital

Columbia Capital is a premier investment firm in wireless, broadband, media, and enterprise information technology companies. Since its formation in 1989, the firm has invested in over 130 global companies through five investment funds with aggregate capital commitments of $2.5 billion. Columbia has a strong history of forming close partnerships with its entrepreneurs and a reputation for a disciplined and patient approach to building great companies and achieving superior investment returns. The firm’s sector focus allows it to consistently identify disruptive emerging companies and to recognize and build value throughout a company’s lifecycle – from seed stakes of $1 million to late stage capital infusions of $50 million or more. For more information, visit www.colcap.com.

About Baja Broadband

Baja Broadband is a full-service communications company offering best-in-class residential and commercial video, high-speed internet, and voice services. Baja is committed to being the leading provider of entertainment, information, and communication services in the communities it serves. Baja owns and operates broadband networks in communities within Colorado, New Mexico, Texas and Utah. Visit bajabroadband.com for more information. Baja is currently managed by Last Mile Communications, an international management partnering and telecommunications consulting firm. Visit lastmile.net for more information.

About Telephone and Data Systems

Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. (TDS), a Fortune 500® company, provides wireless; broadband, TV and voice; and hosted and managed services to approximately 7 million customers in 36 states through its business units, U.S. Cellular, TDS Telecom and TDS Hosted & Managed Services. Founded in 1969 and headquartered in Chicago, TDS employed 12,300 people as of Dec. 31, 2012. Visit teldta.com for comprehensive financial information, including earnings releases, quarterly and annual filings, shareholder information and more.

About TDS Telecommunications Corp.

TDS Telecommunications Corp. is the seventh largest local exchange telephone company in the U.S. Headquartered in Madison, Wis., it is a wholly owned subsidiary of Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. For 44 years, the company has been connecting people with high-speed Internet, phone, and TV entertainment services in over a hundred rural, suburban, and metropolitan communities across 32 states. Today, TDS has nearly 1 million customer connections in service and 2,900 employees. Business customers select from the latest technologies, including: VoIP (managed IP Hosted) phone service, dedicated high-speed Internet and hosted-managed services. Visit tdstelecom.com or tdsbusiness.com for more information.

The post M/C Partners, Columbia Capital Ink Sale of Baja Broadband appeared first on peHUB.

Last week, Canonical released the Ubuntu Developer Preview for Google’s most recent Nexus devices. Developers immediately got to work and began porting Ubuntu to other Android devices. The results of their work are starting to show as more devices are soon to be supported.

Canonical updated the Ubuntu wiki with a list of Android devices that are compatible with Ubuntu. The original four Nexus devices are still listed as running fine, but now there’s two more tables of compatibilty – “sort of working” and “work in progress.”

The “Sort of working” list contains the devices that are almost ready to welcome Ubuntu with open arms. Here are the devices that should be getting Ubuntu soon: