GSA Technology Council

Greenville, SC — KEMET Corporation announced today that a paper presented at the Capacitor and Resistor Technology Symposium (CARTS) USA in March 2007 by Dr. Mike Randall, Director, Advanced Technology, was awarded The John D. Moynihan Best Paper Award at CARTS USA 2008, held March 17-20 in Newport Beach, California. The paper, entitled Thin Film MLCC, was co-authored by Dr. Randall, Dr. Dan Skamser, Tony Kinard, Dr. Javaid Qazi, and Aziz Tajuddin of KEMET, and Dr. Susan Trolier-McKinstry, Dr. Clive Randall, Dr. Song Won Ko, and Tanawadee Dechakupt of Pennsylvania State University. The Best Paper is selected each year by the attendees and the Program Committee.

In addition, Dr. Yuri Freeman, Principal Scientist, Tantalum, was awarded one of two Outstanding Paper awards for a paper he presented at CARTS Europe 2006, entitled Effects of Thermal Oxide of Ta on Anodic Oxide of Ta. Winning papers were selected by the 2006 CARTS Delegates and Program Committee, and awards were presented at CARTS Europe held 29 October – 1 November 2007 in Barcelona, Spain.

“It gives me great pleasure to congratulate our scientists for this recognition of their success and continued pursuit of excellence in capacitance technology,” said Dr. Philip Lessner, KEMET’s Chief Technology Officer and Chief Scientist. “Quality work such as this helps ensure that KEMET remains a technology leader as we continue on our journey toward becoming ‘The Capacitance Company.’”

CARTS is an annual forum featuring the latest developments in passive technology solutions, test and measurement methods, and applications via symposium presentations, seminars, and exhibits to a network of raw material suppliers, manufacturers, design engineers, and academia. It is sponsored by the Electronic Components Association (ECA) and co-sponsored by the European Electronic Component Manufacturers Association and the European Passive Components Industry Association. KEMET is one of three Corporate Sponsors.

KEMET has been an active contributor to CARTS, winning awards for technical submissions numerous times during the symposium’s history. Of the 37 papers presented during CARTS USA 2008, eight were presented by KEMET scientists. In addition, KEMET’s John Prymak, Director, Advanced Applications, and Dr. Erik Reed, Director, Electrical Characterization, were members of the CARTS USA 2008 Program Committee, and Dr. Reed chaired a conference session on New Technology and Manufacturing Processes.

via KEMET

The next Tech After Five (Ta5) will be held at Barley’s on April 16! We get together for fun and beverage and a lot of great networking. All Tech Professionals and Entrepreneur types are invited. Remember that if you sign up in advance and bring a business card with you, the first beer is on us!

Adam Gautsch has supplied us with photos from March’s Tech After Five:

Even more photos…

GE Security, Inc., a business of GE Enterprise Solutions, today announced enhancements to Simon XT, a full featured home security system that now offers homeowners a complete and secure advanced wireless security solution including powerful new Web-enabled capabilities through interactive services provider Alarm.com.Simon XT, a wireless security system offering burglary and fire protection functionality, is the first two-way, voice-over-GSM wireless communications platform that communicates critical alarm signals to the central station and allows instant, hands-free audio communication with response personnel. Simon XT’s GSM wireless communications eliminates a would-be intruder’s ability to disable it by cutting the home’s phone or cable line.

Simon XT’s robust lineup of enhanced features, and the associated portfolio of DesignLine wireless peripherals, further solidifies its position as the industry’s leading UL-listed, GSM enabled, 40-zone, self-contained wireless residential alarm panel solution.

Simon XT also offers customers Web-enabled services through Alarm.com, enabling a host of new capabilities including remote monitoring and control from any Internet-connected computer or PDA. Also from Alarm.com, Simon XT uses patented Crash and Smashâ„¢ technology, which can safeguard security system communications even if the system is tampered with or dismantled.

“GE Security is pleased to introduce the industry’s first two-way voice over GSM residential alarm panel with advanced interactive functionality,” said Dean Seavers, president and CEO, GE Security. “We are committed to providing our partners with the latest intrusion detection technology to help them exceed their end user customers’ expectations. With Simon XT, the DesignLine wireless peripherals portfolio, and our winning relationship with Alarm.com, we are confident that is exactly what we are doing.”

“We’re very pleased to work with GE Security to enhance Simon XT, the most advanced and reliable wireless security system, with Alarm.com’s two-way digital wireless communication and full Web-based interactive control,” said Steve Trundle, president and CEO, Alarm.com.

Alarm.com provides a Web-based monitoring service, which complements traditional monitoring with wireless control and notification as well as interactive functionality. Alarm.com’s interactive service offers end users attractive features that increase the likelihood they will use their alarms and offers GE Security’s partners access to another potential recurring monthly revenue stream. Moreover, GE Security’s associated DesignLine wireless peripherals portfolio provides dealers with new and better peripheral offerings providing flexibility for virtually any Simon XT installation.

Simon XT is GE Security’s full-featured security system that offers up to 40 zones of burglary and fire protection for residential properties. With a built-in display touchpad and status speaker that provides visual and voice feedback, Simon XT is well suited for most houses, apartments, and condominiums. It supports both Web-based connectivity and off-premise telephone control to arm and disarm the system, check system status, activate no entry delay, or activate the latchkey feature. With latchkey capabilities, the panel can be programmed to notify the owner if the system has not been disarmed at a scheduled time.

Simon XT employs advanced wireless technology for quick and easy installation as well as flexibility in placement of the panel around the home. It also eliminates the clutter and expense of running wires to phone lines, detectors and sensors. System programming can be done from the panel using the built-in touchpad or off-site using Enterprise Downloader Software.

via GE

Yahoo! Inc. today announced the launch of Yahoo! Shine (http://shine.yahoo.com), a new website for women that aims to provide the information most relevant to their daily lives. The site offers nine categories ranging from Fashion & Beauty to Parenting, and will feature content from many of the most popular lifestyles publishers, including Condé Nast Publications and Hearst Corporation. Additionally, a new editorial team will develop original stories on a daily basis, and hand pick the best user blog posts to feature prominently on the site. Yahoo! Shine creates a single destination for the approximately 40 million women between the ages of 25 and 54 who already come to Yahoo! each month, making Yahoo! a more relevant starting point for this audience.

The new site will help create a better experience for women on Yahoo!, while providing Yahoo! advertisers with a single lifestyles destination to reach this coveted demographic. Yahoo! Shine brings together the resources of several existing Yahoo! sites, including Yahoo! Food and Yahoo! Astrology, and will incorporate content from Yahoo! Health. Bringing these resources together is an example of Yahoo! Media’s focus on building larger category sites for mass audiences, rather than focusing on niche topics and smaller audiences.

“We’re executing on Yahoo!’s starting point strategy by ensuring that women who start their day with Yahoo! are offered a more relevant experience,” said Scott Moore, senior vice president and head of Yahoo! Media. “Yahoo! Shine adds an important piece to our Media portfolio, which already includes sites that are number one in the News, Sports, Finance and Entertainment categories.”

Editorial Model

Lifestyles publishing veteran Brandon Holley serves as Yahoo! Shine’s editor-in-chief, overseeing a team of seasoned editors who each bring a unique point-of-view to their topic. The editors join Yahoo! from many of the leading print and online lifestyles outlets, including Lucky magazine, The Wall Street Journal’s Career Journal, and BluePrint magazine. Editors will program content in nine categories daily by featuring partner content, stories from a women’s blog network, and developing original stories. Yahoo! Shine’s nine categories are:

“You can count on us to bring attitude and personality, and find humor in almost every topic we cover, whether it’s a post on men who wear skinny jeans, how you can get back into your skinny jeans, or whether you’ll be taken seriously if you wear jeans to work,” Holley said. “Yahoo! Shine speaks to you as a friend, telling you the secrets and tips to simplify your life.”

Yahoo! Shine offers a blog platform for all users to share their thoughts and discoveries in a trusted environment. Editors will handpick entries from these blogs to feature alongside the partner and editorial content.

Like Yahoo!’s other category-leading media properties, Yahoo! Shine has partnered with the top content providers in its category. Yahoo! Shine’s partners will create original content and feature choice magazine content. Partners include:

• Condé Nast Publications and CondéNet – Glamour, Self, Bon Appetit, Lucky, Allure, Domino, Cookie, Style.com, Epicurious.com
• Hearst Corporation – Redbook, Cosmopolitan, Harper’s Bazaar, Good Housekeeping, Marie Claire, Real Age, House Beautiful, Daily Green, Country Living
• Rodale, Inc. – Prevention, Women’s Health, Men’s Health, Best Life
• Time, Inc. – InStyle
• Eating Well Media – Eating Well

“Yahoo! is an ideal partner for us because they are pioneering a unique way to present content online,” said Christopher Johnson, vice president, content and business development, Hearst Magazines Digital Media. “With more than 130 million visitors each month to Yahoo! in the U.S., Yahoo! will become a giant megaphone for us and allow Hearst’s network of bloggers to elevate their voices and be heard by a much larger audience. Increasing the visibility of our blog content is a key element in driving additional traffic and converting passive readers into loyal fans.”

“We’re delighted that Yahoo! has turned to so many of our magazines and websites for content for its new women’s website,” said Rick Levine, vice president, editorial operations, Condé Nast Publications. “By speaking to Yahoo!’s huge audience, this partnership will give our great editorial properties a significant growth opportunity.”

via Yahoo!

Adobe Systems Incorporated today announced that the pre-release alpha version of Adobe AIR software for Linux operating systems is available on Adobe Labs. The Linux community of developers can now use proven Web technologies, such as HTML, Ajax, Adobe Flash and Adobe Flex software, to build rich Internet applications (RIAs) that deploy to desktops across operating systems. RIA developers can extend the reach of their desktop applications on Adobe AIR to Linux users without writing additional platform-specific code, providing access to innovative, branded desktop applications that were previously only available to Mac and Windows users.

An update to the alpha version of Adobe Flex Builder 3 for Linux software is also available on Adobe Labs today, which adds support for creating applications that run on Adobe AIR. The combination of Flex, Adobe AIR and Adobe Flash Player 9 for Linux comprises a well supported, free RIA development platform that enables developers to build, debug and deploy RIAs entirely on Linux, and across browsers and desktops.

“Adobe is committed to delivering the technologies that enable developers everywhere to create the next generation of RIAs for the browser and the desktop,” said David Wadhwani, general manager, Platform business unit at Adobe. “With the alpha release of Adobe AIR for Linux and the Adobe Flex Builder for Linux alpha update, we’re delivering early releases of a first-class application runtime and RIA creation tool to the Linux community. This allows us to have an open conversation with users during our development process, which will give us very valuable developer insights.”

Adobe AIR for Linux and Adobe Flex Builder 3 for Linux demonstrate Adobe’s continued commitment to the Linux community. Also announced today, Adobe joined the Linux Foundation to accelerate the growth of RIA technologies on the Linux platform. Additionally, Adobe recently released the free Flex framework and BlazeDS as open source, and the company continues to contribute to the open source Tamarin virtual machine, hosted by the Mozilla Foundation, which is the core of Adobe Flash Player.

“RIAs in the browser and desktop are an increasingly core part of today’s computing experience and the Linux community plays a big part in innovating the future of RIAs,” commented Randy Linnell, business development manager at Canonical, commercial sponsor of Ubuntu. “We’re pleased Linux is a priority for Adobe and are delighted to work with them on ensuring Adobe AIR and Adobe Flex Builder 3 are available to our developer community. We’re pleased that Adobe is supporting and open sourcing technology involved in RIA development, which we feel will accelerate innovation.”

Flex, Adobe AIR and Adobe Flash Player are key elements of the Adobe technology platform. Flex is a free, open source framework for building highly interactive, expressive RIAs that can be deployed on the desktop with Adobe AIR, or in the browser with Adobe Flash Player. Adobe Flash Player reaches over 98 percent of Internet-enabled PCs and delivers unparalleled creative options, highly engaging user experiences, stunning audio/video playback, and virtually universal reach.

via Adobe

Infor today announced details for its annual user conference, Inforum 2008, to be held at The Venetian Hotel and Sands Expo and Convention Center in Las Vegas, October 14 – 16, and officially opened the Call for Presentations. Inforum is the largest gathering of enterprising Infor customers, partners and experts who want to connect, learn and maximize the value of their Infor solutions.

This year’s theme, Enterprising Connections, highlights new conference features designed to promote more interaction between peers, Infor experts and solutions. Education and information gained from tailored industry and solution training, extensive educational sessions and valuable networking opportunities can help Infor customers drive their business performance. This year’s conference includes:

• Inforum Connections – Like a conference within a conference, this new feature allows attendees to easily identify highly-focused sessions and activities relevant to their interests in specific industries and product groups. Inforum Connections will also host separate general sessions for each of the identified groups.
• Birds of a Feather – A continuation of some of the most popular sessions last year, Inforum 2008 will provide customers and partners the opportunity to arrange Birds of a Feather sessions prior to the conference. Inforum 2008 Birds of a Feather provides attendees the ability to connect with peers in small, private groups to discuss topics pertinent to them and discover best practices to help them solve their business challenges.
• Lab-Based Product Training – Newly added to the 2008 agenda, these sessions enable customers to participate in hands-on lab-based product training to learn the latest features, tips and tricks. These sessions are available during the conference and as an add-on day following Inforum 2008.

“Following last year’s success we listened to attendee feedback and added more education, training and other opportunities to help attendees make enterprising connections with other Infor customers, partners and experts,” said Rick Parker, senior vice president marketing, Infor. “This is the premier event to bring together the Infor community, share our best practices and learn from each other.”

Again this year, the Inforum Solutions Expo will offer hands-on demonstrations of Infor and partner solutions. Here, customers will have the opportunity to interact with Infor’s domain experts and technology partners, and participate in technical demonstrations of Infor’s software solutions.

The conference kicks off on Tuesday, October 14 with a full day of educational sessions, followed by the welcome reception and grand opening of the Solutions Expo. Jim Schaper, Infor president and CEO, will keynote Wednesday morning’s general session, followed by educational sessions, an evening reception and live entertainment. Thursday, October 16 continues with a full day of educational sessions and half-day exhibition.

New to the conference this year is the option of a Day Pass, giving attendees an opportunity to participate in Inforum activities, including general session, education and entertainment, in a single day.

Infor relies on insight from customers and partners for the topics that matter most to build the sessions agenda for the conference. A Call for Presentations has been issued and customers and partners are invited to submit their presentation ideas by April 11, 2008 by visiting https://inforum.inforum2008.com/portal/cfp/.

For more information on Inforum 2008 please visit www.inforum2008.com.

via Infor

SYNNEX Corporation, a leading business process services company, today announced that Kevin M. Murai has been appointed Co-Chief Executive Officer and has been elected to the SYNNEX Board of Directors. In addition to joining the SYNNEX Board of Directors, Mr. Murai has been appointed to the Company’s Executive Committee.

Mr. Murai will share the Chief Executive Officer role with current President and Chief Executive Officer, Bob Huang, and will have co-responsibility for the leadership of the entire SYNNEX organization. As a senior executive with more than 19 years of distribution channel experience, Mr. Murai joins the SYNNEX team with very strong operational and industry experience, as well as established relationships in both the customer and vendor communities.

In November 2008, it is expected that Mr. Huang will retire and, upon approval of the SYNNEX Board of Directors, that he will be named Chairman of the SYNNEX Board with Mr. Murai becoming the sole Chief Executive Officer. As part of this planned transition, Matthew Miau, current SYNNEX Chairman, will remain on the Board of Directors.

“I am very pleased that Kevin will be joining SYNNEX and co-leading the organization with me,” said Bob Huang, President and Co-Chief Executive Officer. “With his deep industry knowledge, exceptional operational skills and global management experience, I am quite certain Kevin will quickly integrate into the SYNNEX culture. He is poised to help lead the execution of strategic initiatives designed to improve the business model and diversify our business process service offerings.”

“Kevin has a solid reputation and excellent history in the IT supply chain and we welcome him to the management team and Board of Directors of SYNNEX,” stated Matthew Miau, Chairman of SYNNEX Corporation. “We look forward to his leadership in driving additional shareholder value at SYNNEX.”

Before joining SYNNEX, Mr. Murai, was employed for 19 years at Ingram Micro, Inc., most recently as President and Chief Operating Officer, as well as serving on the Ingram Micro Board of Directors. Mr. Murai has a Bachelor of Applied Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Waterloo.

“I am excited to join SYNNEX at this very key time in the history of the organization,” stated Mr. Murai. “I look forward to working with Bob to further execute on the strategic vision he has set for the organization as well as working with all the SYNNEX team members, who are well known for their operational excellence and customer and vendor service.”

With Mr. Murai’s appointment, the SYNNEX Board of Directors will include eight members, five of whom are independent directors.

via Synnex

Charleston, SC — Blackbaud, Inc., announced today the availability of an exclusively-SaaS version of its website management solution Blackbaud NetCommunity. The “Universal” version will provide a Blackbaud solution for Internet marketing and communications to nonprofits with third-party CRM databases without sacrificing the vital holistic view of constituents.

Leveraging the power and extensibility of the Infinity platform, Blackbaud NetCommunity Universal (formerly code-named “Scorpio”) will enable distributed executive reporting on key performance indicators (KPIs), robust data exchange through an open web services API, and automated batch processes for rapid processing and data integrity protection.

“We are pleased to now offer Blackbaud NetCommunity Universal to nonprofits and marketing organizations that want a powerful independent web solution,” said Shaun Sullivan, Blackbaud’s chief technology officer. “Since its web-centric CRM functionality is built on Infinity, Blackbaud NetCommunity Universal will also serve as a great strategic starting point for an organization planning to ultimately deploy a total Blackbaud solution centered around the Infinity platform.” Blackbaud Enterprise CRM and Blackbaud Direct Marketing were released on the Infinity platform last year.

Blackbaud NetCommunity Universal enables organizations that rely on online communication and fundraising to formulate and execute strategic, integrated multi-channel marketing campaigns by increasing data accessibility and response rates, and enhancing Internet communications.

“Whether an organization is managing an interactive website, or a specific email campaign, Blackbaud NetCommunity Universal reports on critical data in ways that ensure organizations can most effectively reach more supporters, raise more money, and easily track progress of online initiatives,” said Steve MacLaughlin, Blackbaud’s director of Internet solutions. “We are pleased to be the first to introduce KPIs in a product designed specifically for nonprofits—the ease of information sharing will have a huge impact on an organization’s ability to define and measure progress towards its goals.”

Key features of Blackbaud NetCommunity Universal include:

• Distributed reporting on key performance indicators – KPIs can be built on almost any field within the system with just a couple of clicks. These reports can then be shared via RSS feeds, through an Internet browser, with desktop widgets or within the application’s dashboard to benchmark, measure success, and communicate progress.
• Comprehensive online marketing management – eCampaigns will help nonprofit marketers easily test and execute highly targeted, personalized campaigns and share distribution and response data with offline marketing systems.
• Powerful data synchronization – An open web services API for data synchronization enables Blackbaud NetCommunity Universal to quickly extract data and easily transform it for use in other applications, so that marketing data across the organization can be combined for a complete picture.
• Automated batch processes – Unique batch processing templates make it possible to manage large numbers of transactions without the fear of duplicates experienced with other stand alone systems.

via Blackbaud

Apple today released Aperture 2.1, which introduces an open plug-in architecture that makes it easy for photographers to use specialized third party imaging software right from within Aperture. Available today as a free software update, Aperture 2.1 includes the Apple-developed plug-in, Dodge & Burn, which adds brush-based tools for dodge (lighten), burn (darken), contrast, saturation, sharpen and blur. Over the coming months, third party software developers will deliver image editing plug-ins for localized editing, filters and effects, noise analysis and reduction, fisheye lens correction and more.

“The image quality in Aperture 2 has won over the most demanding photographers,” said Rob Schoeben, Apple’s vice president of Applications Product Marketing. “Now, thanks to our open plug-in architecture, users can access an entire industry’s worth of imaging expertise without ever leaving Aperture.”

“To date, maybe two percent of my photographs needed to be touched up outside Aperture,” said John Stanmeyer, founding member of the VII Photo Agency and contributing photographer for Time and National Geographic magazines. “Now that I can dodge and burn right within Aperture’s new plug-in, I can’t imagine when I’ll have to open any other application to tone my images.”

By clicking on one or more images within Aperture, users can choose from a menu of installed plug-ins and apply specialized imaging operations to either TIFF or RAW images. Apple is working closely with key developers to bring the most requested plug-ins to Aperture such as:

• Nik Software’s Viveza plug-in, powered by U Point technology, which provides a powerful, precise and easy way for photographers to selectively control and adjust color and light in their digital images
• PictureCode’s Noise Ninja plug-in that delivers advanced high ISO noise analysis and reduction
• Digital Film Tools’ Power Stroke plug-in that features a simple, stroke-based interface to quickly mask and intuitively perform targeted adjustments
• The Tiffen Company’s Dfx plug-in that provides an expansive suite of creative filters and effects
• dvGarage’s dpMatte plug-in, which is a high performance chroma key tool for creating seamless composites, and the HDRtoner plug-in that enables the selection of multiple photos to create a single high dynamic range (HDR) image
• Image Trends’ plug-ins that include Fisheye-Hemi to quickly and effortlessly correct fisheye lens distortion, ShineOff which automatically removes shine from faces and PearlyWhites that automatically whitens and brightens teeth

 via Apple 

“Sixty Upstate plants were among the 134 plant sites recognized statewide by the South Carolina Manufacturers Alliance for outstanding workplace safety in 2007.

Facilities with a low rate of accidents resulting in lost workdays, job transfers or restrictions were nominated for the safety recognition. Plants submitting an incident rate below the statewide average for their NAICS code received the award.

The awards were presented recently during the SCMA’s Plant Safety Conference in Columbia. Jim Knight, director of community and governmental affairs for the South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, presented the awards.”

read more at Greenvilleonline.com