GSA Technology Council

SC Launch company,Ice Dragon Cooling was named one of the top five innovations at the International CES, a convention produced by the Consumer Electronics Association. The convention is the largest and most recognized electronic technology event in the world, and hosts thousands of exhibitors and tens of thousands of attendees each year.

The company, based in Columbia, SC, offers an innovative product that cools electronics systems. The technology combines water, surfactants, and antimicrobial metallic nanoparticles to create a solution for improved cooling performance. This technology is the result of a joint research project of the University of South Carolina and the U.S. Air Force.

“SC Launch was established to support the growth of promising technology-based companies in South Carolina. Ice Dragon has proven to clearly fit this role,” said SC Launch Executive Director Dave McNamara.

“We are thrilled for Ice Dragon to receive this honor and recognition,” said Bill Mahoney, SCRA CEO.
“Ice Dragon’s achievement reflects the world-class science and technology commercialization results which are now consistently emerging from South Carolina.”
The Ice Dragon solution is estimated to reduce temperatures by up to 20% more efficiently than water. Liquid cooled systems can take advantage of cost savings as Ice Dragon is able to reduce pump and radiator fan velocities while maintaining a consistent temperature that is similar to water.

via: SC Launch

The overwhelming majority of Americans (92%) use multiple platforms to get their daily news, according to a new survey conducted jointly by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project and Project for Excellence in Journalism.

The internet is now the third most-popular news platform, behind local and national television news and ahead of national print newspapers, local print newspapers and radio. Getting news online fits into a broad pattern of news consumption by Americans; six in ten (59%) get news from a combination of online and offline sources on a typical day.

The internet and mobile technologies are at the center of the story of how people’s relationship to news is changing. In today’s new multi-platform media environment, news is becoming portable, personalized, and participatory:

* Portable: 33% of cell phone owners now access news on their cell phones.
* Personalized: 28% of internet users have customized their home page to include news from sources and on topics that particularly interest them.
* Participatory: 37% of internet users have contributed to the creation of news, commented about it, or disseminated it via postings on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter.

In addition, people use their social networks and social networking technology to filter, assess, and react to news. And they use traditional email and other tools to swap stories and comment on them. Among those who get news online, 75% get news forwarded through email or posts on social networking sites and 52% share links to news with others via those means.

Despite all of this online activity, the typical online news consumer routinely uses just a handful of news sites and does not have a particular favorite. And overall, Americans have mixed feelings about this “new” news environment. Over half (55%) say it is easier to keep up with news and information today than it was five years ago, but 70% feel the amount of news and information available from different sources is overwhelming.

About the Survey
The results in this report are based on data from telephone interviews conducted by Princeton Survey Research International between December 28, 2009 and January 19, 2010, among a sample of 2,259 adults, 18 and older. For results based on the total sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the error attributable to sampling and other random effects is plus or minus 2.3 percentage points. For results based internet users (n=1,675) or “online news users” (N= 1,582), the margin of sampling error is plus or minus 2.7 percentage points. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting telephone surveys may introduce some error or bias into the findings of opinion polls. This survey was conducted on landline telephones (N=1,697) and cell phones (N=562) and is meant to be representative of all adults in the continental United States.

Immedion, LLC, a South Carolina based dedicated data center and managed services provider is opening a second data center in Columbia, SC. The second site further expands Immedion’s redundancy and disaster recover offerings and allows Immedion to better serve the managed hosting needs of more of South Carolina.

“Locating our second data center in the Innovation Center will better enable us to provide services to businesses in the Midlands as well as throughout the state of South Carolina. In addition, the provisioning of a second, geographically diverse location will allow Immedion to provide uptime for critical technology beyond the capabilities of any single data center location.”

Immedion’s Columbia site is located in the SCRA USC Innovation Center. The location, with easy access to the Columbia Statehouse, airport and University of South Carolina, is an ideal site. The building is adjacent to the USC Engineering School and is also within walking distance of Innovista, USC’s forward-looking campus for research and entrepreneurship.

Today’s announcement “helps expand a knowledge-based company,” SCRA chief executive Bill Mahoney said. “Immedion is the kind of company we are looking for.”

The Columbia site will offer the same services as the Greenville headquarters with the goal of helping customers meet all of their IT Space, Server Power, Disaster Recovery and Regulatory Compliance demands. Immedion’s outsourced data center services and solutions help organizations lower costs, maximize internal resources and keep valuable information technology safe 24×7x365.

via: Immedion

The March 2, 2010 Meeting of the SQL Servers Innovator’s Guild will feature Processing Flat Files with SSIS as the feature presentation. When doing data integration, a common requirement is to work with flat files, whether for importing data into a system from an external source, or to export it to provide to other systems. SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) supports flat files, but there can be a number of challenges when working with them. This is particularly true if your flat files have multiple data formats contained in a single file, the data has complex formatting, or the files have inconsistent formatting. This session will help you to be more efficient when working with these types of files. You’ll learn to handle missing delimiters in the files, and parsing files that have multiple data formats. You’ll also see how to produce complex output formats, like headers and footers that contain summary information.

Takeaways:
1. Learn to handle complex formatting in flat files
2. See the techniques to deal with poorly formatted input files
3. See the available open source components for processing flat files

via: SSIG

Need a program in order to get the most out of Tech After Five? Here is a plan anyone can follow. Meet the following three people tonight.

We’ve pulled out three of the people we know are going to be at tonight’s Tech After Five and we’re going to let you know about them ahead of time. While you are at tonight’s event, why not seek out these three people and make a point to meet them and see if you can help them find what they are looking for.

Courtney (Steele) Byington, PMP is a Professional Project & Program Manager, with a PMP (Project Management Professional) certification and a background in Information Technology & Services Management. She now offers customized training that helps others achieve their PMP certification.

Looking For: Aspiring PMP’s

Brent Nelsen is relatively new to the GSATC, but this is not his first Tech After Five. Brent is a Political Science professor at Furman University and a candidate for South Carolina State Superintendent of Education.

Looking For: Social Networking Campaign Manager

Stacy Anthony is not just a fan of Tech After Five and the GSATC, she has a day job at Acumen getting businesses connected with storage solutions. She is helping us getting people checked in at tonight’s event, so she may be the easiest of the three to spot.

Looking for: Networking

Want to see more of the people who are coming tonight? Check out this list.

Immedion, LLC, South Carolina’s first dedicated data center and managed services provider has promoted Don Poinsette from Marketing Associate to Account Executive. In his new role, Don will be responsible for bringing in new customers and he will be focusing heavily on the healthcare market.

Before becoming an Account Executive, Don was responsible for lead generation for Immedion. He has been with Immedion for over a year and a half and has proven to be a valuable member of the Immedion team.

“As Immedion’s customer base continues to grow, we’ve realized some markets need more focused attention due to government regulations and compliance concerns,” says Frank Mobley, CEO of Immedion. “There are many reasons for the healthcare industry to utilize the benefits of an outsourced data center and with government mandates and regulations, the healthcare industry needs a little more attention ” adds Mobley. “With compliance, disaster recovery, and electronic medical record requirements, I think it’s very important to have an Immedion representative focused on this vertical and Don is a strong fit.”

via: Immedion

Today at Mobile World Congress 2010, Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer unveiled the next generation of Windows® Phones, Windows Phone 7 Series. With this new platform, Microsoft offers a fresh approach to phone software, distinguished by smart design and truly integrated experiences that bring to the surface the content people care about from the Web and applications. For the first time ever, Microsoft will bring together Xbox LIVE games and the Zune music and video experience on a mobile phone, exclusively on Windows Phone 7 Series. Partners have already started building phones; customers will be able to purchase the first phones in stores by holiday 2010.

“Today, I’m proud to introduce Windows Phone 7 Series, the next generation of Windows Phones,” said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer at Microsoft. “In a crowded market filled with phones that look the same and do the same things, I challenged the team to deliver a different kind of mobile experience. Windows Phone 7 Series marks a turning point toward phones that truly reflect the speed of people’s lives and their need to connect to other people and all kinds of seamless experiences.”

Designed for Life in Motion

With Windows Phone 7 Series, Microsoft takes a fundamentally different approach to phone software. Smart design begins with a new, holistic design system that informs every aspect of the phone, from its visually appealing layout and motion to its function and hardware integration. On the Start screen, dynamically updated “live tiles” show users real-time content directly, breaking the mold of static icons that serve as an intermediate step on the way to an application. Create a tile of a friend, and the user gains a readable, up-to-date view of a friend’s latest pictures and posts, just by glancing at Start.

Every Windows Phone 7 Series phone will come with a dedicated hardware button for Bing, providing one-click access to search from anywhere on the phone, while a special implementation of Bing search provides intent-specific results, delivering the most relevant Web or local results, depending on the type of query.

Windows Phone 7 Series creates an unrivaled set of integrated experiences on a phone through Windows Phone hubs. Hubs bring together related content from the Web, applications and services into a single view to simplify common tasks. Windows Phone 7 Series includes six hubs built on specific themes reflecting activities that matter most to people:

People. This hub delivers an engaging social experience by bringing together relevant content based on the person, including his or her live feeds from social networks and photos. It also provides a central place from which to post updates to Facebook and Windows Live in one step.
Pictures. This hub makes it easy to share pictures and video to a social network in one step. Windows Phone 7 Series also brings together a user’s photos by integrating with the Web and PC, making the phone the ideal place to view a person’s entire picture and video collection.

Games. This hub delivers the first and only official Xbox LIVE experience on a phone, including Xbox LIVE games, Spotlight feed and the ability to see a gamer’s avatar, Achievements and gamer profile. With more than 23 million active members around the world, Xbox LIVE unlocks a world of friends, games and entertainment on Xbox 360, and now also on Windows Phone 7 Series.

Music + Video. This hub creates an incredible media experience that brings the best of Zune, including content from a user’s PC, online music services and even a built-in FM radio into one simple place that is all about music and video. Users can turn their media experience into a social one with Zune Social on a PC and share their media recommendations with like-minded music lovers. The playback experience is rich and easy to navigate, and immerses the listener in the content.

Marketplace. This hub allows the user to easily discover and load the phone with certified applications and games.

Office. This hub brings the familiar experience of the world’s leading productivity software to the Windows Phone. With access to Office, OneNote and SharePoint Workspace all in one place, users can easily read, edit and share documents. With the additional power of Outlook Mobile, users stay productive and up to date while on the go.
Availability

Partners from around the world have committed to include Windows Phone 7 Series in their portfolio plans. They include mobile operators AT&T, Deutsche Telekom AG, Orange, SFR, Sprint, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, Telstra, T-Mobile USA, Verizon Wireless and Vodafone, and manufacturers Dell, Garmin-Asus, HTC Corp., HP, LG, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Toshiba and Qualcomm Inc. The first phones will be available by holiday 2010. Customers who would like to receive additional information about Windows Phone 7 Series and be notified when it is available can register at http://www.windowsphone7series.com.

To watch the full replay of Steve Ballmer’s press conference at Mobile World Congress, and to experience Windows Phone 7 Series through an online product demo, readers can visit http://www.microsoft.com/news/windowsphone.

via: Microsoft

Monday Feb. 8th

6:30pm Greenville Mac User’s Group

The Greenville Mac User’s Group meets once a month to share tips, discuss the latest news and enjoy the company of other Macintosh User’s Normally Greenville MUG meets on the second Monday evening of the month (except for special events) in the Choir Room at Grace Baptist Church, 5020 Old Spartanburg Road, Taylors, SC. Come this month to address your specific Mac concerns and learn about the latest developments from Apple including the iPad – The Future of Computing. Rumors of a coming Apple tablet filled the media in the months preceding Apple’s January 27th’s Special Event which introduced the iPad. Apple calls the iPad “our most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary devise at an unbelievable price.”
Please Note
There is no Tues. night MAC Beginnings meeting this month. A venue of the Greenville Macintosh Users Group (GMUG)

Tues Feb. 9th

6:30pm Upstate Linux User’s Group

The speaker for this month’s meeting will be Pete Graner, kernel team manager for Ubuntu/Canonical.

Tues Feb. 9th

6:00 – 8:00pm PMI Study Group

The Palmetto Chapter of PMI, the Project Management Institute, offers a study group for those preparing to sit for the PMP exam. The group is a free service to those who are members of PMI. For more information about the group and the local PMI chapter, visit their website.

Wed. Feb. 10th

11:30am GSATC Learning Lunch

Join us for our February Lunch as we have Peter Coffee of SalesForce.com talk to us about lessons learned in creating communities of your customers.

Thurs Feb. 11th

11:30am Java User’s Group

The group will have an introduction to Apache Maven and how it can be used to manage your development projects. It will discuss what Maven can do and concentrate on the simplicity of its use. Example projects will be constructed. Everyone is encouraged to bring a laptop so they can try it out for themselves.

Verizon Wireless, provider of the nation’s largest and most reliable 3G network, has been ranked highest in customer care among wireless phone service providers in J.D. Power and Associates’ 2010 Wireless Customer Care Performance StudySM – Volume 1, released today.

Based on responses from more than 9,600 wireless subscribers who contacted their wireless service providers by phone, in stores or online last year and were surveyed by J. D. Power and Associates between July and December of 2009, Verizon Wireless continued to perform as an industry leader with an overall satisfaction score of 753, 14 points above the overall industry average. Verizon Wireless’ score included former Alltel customers in retained markets.

Verizon Wireless regularly enhances and expands its customer service capabilities to serve its growing customer base:

· By Phone – Verizon Wireless recently introduced an after-call survey to provide fast, direct feedback from more customers to help the company further improve the customer experience.
· In Stores – Verizon Wireless continues to roll out its evolutionary design in new and existing company-owned and -operated Communications Stores, offering shoppers a high-tech, hands-on experience with wireless voice, data, music and video services.
· Online – Verizon Wireless customers can manage their accounts online using My Verizon, the company’s online account management and customer service tool. My Verizon provides customers with 24/7 online access to all their billing, payment and account-related information and offers customers the ability to view and pay bills online through the company’s Green Bill, check account balances, change addresses, track airtime usage, analyze monthly spending trends or change account features.

via: Verizon Wireless

The stream of the Proterra Annoucement will go live at 2pm EST 2/4/2010.

The event can be viewed at http://www.clemson.edu/tlt/stream/live/