By David Sims
[email protected]
The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music
is Short, Sharp, Shocked by Michelle
Shocked:
The last total eclipse
of the sun as spectacular as the one yesterday was in November 2003. That
one was best viewed from Antarctica, said Alex Young, a NASA scientist involved
in solar research, according to the Associated Press.
God was a little kinder to the scientific set this time
around, though, as the eclipse was best viewed in Antalya, a comfortable resort
on Turkey’s beautiful Mediterranean coast.
Talk about timing: First Coffee lives in Istanbul, but until
this past December lived in Antalya. I kid you not when I say that two years
ago – two – we were getting e-mails from our friends in America to come and,
well, gee, it’s been a long time since we’ve seen you guys, so why don’t we
come to visit, oh, let’s say end of March 2006, how does that work for you?
You think I’m exaggerating. Last summer, as soon as we told
our friends we were moving to Istanbul – not on the eclipse path – they
suddenly had all kinds of unforeseen scheduling problems, maybe next year?
But here in Turkey, the eclipse was not looked forward to by
certain members of the population. In 1999, six days after a solar eclipse, a
vicious earthquake killed 17,000 people. In the hard-hit region of Tokat in
northwestern Turkey people have been busily putting up tents and makeshift
shelters in preparation for the earthquake to follow this one.
My wife and mine’s best friends here in Istanbul, the South
African couple pastoring the International Church here, went to Cappadocia in
central Turkey to view the eclipse. She’s a scientist. He’s along for the ride.
…
Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. is announcing the launch of its voice and
video software engines, the “eSound” and “eVideo.” These software
engines support triple play communication, according to company officials, “delivering
excellent video and voice quality for conversations over full IP broadband
networks.”
Oki is marketing these engines to the telecommunications,
digital home appliance, in-vehicle system, and security system markets, which
are increasing their use of IP.
Telecom infrastructure at homes and enterprises that are
based on PSTNs and mobile communications, are being consolidated into Fixed
Mobile Convergence-based IP networks, which Oki officials call “the ideal Next
Generation Network that Japanese telecom carriers have been seeking.”
What this means is various terminals that had been connected
through conventional networks will now connect through an IP network. This is
the market need Oki’s selling its eSound, with high quality VoIP technology and
eVideo, the high quality video codec.
Katsuyoshi Koide, President of Multimedia Messaging Company
at Oki Electric said that while IP video and phones are known to dramatically
reduce communication costs, quality degradation caused by packet losses and
jitter that can occur over an IP network is still an issue.
He says Oki took that into account: “Because we have made
the engines compliant with several coding methods, they can be installed in
various applications, enabling users to enjoy video or phone conversations with
as strong a sense of realism as if they were talking in person.”
…
Stockgroup Information Systems Inc. has announced today the appointment of Susan
Lovell as the Chief Financial Officer.
Lovell brings to Stockgroup over 10 years of senior
management experience, including six years with Crystal Decisions, a business
intelligence software which was acquired by Business Objects in 2003.
Lovell was also the former Controller of GaleForce
Solutions, a vendor of CRM software for the financial services industry.
…
DataDirect Technologies, a vendor of data
connectivity and mainframe integration, and an operating company of Progress
Software Corporation, has announced that Flagstar
Bank, the largest publicly held savings bank in the Midwest, will be using DataDirect’s premier data
connectivity components as the foundation for building an enhanced data
mart for better customer relationship management (CRM) capability.
Distributed Database Consulting, a database and systems
integrator assisted the company with its CRM project and recommended DataDirect
Connect for ODBC to them.
The deployment will use DataDirect Connect for ODBC, a suite
of ODBC drivers for all major databases, to serve as a foundation for linking
data housed in multiple sources across a variety of platforms.
Flagstar officials say they want to linking disparate data
across the enterprise to improve operations at two major divisions at Flagstar,
Mortgage and Banking.
…
McGraw-Hill Construction has announced that
it is working with Oracle to integrate Oracle’s Siebel CRM OnDemand into the McGraw-Hill
Construction Network platform, helping Network subscribers manage their
lead pipeline.
This effort will improve McGraw-Hill’s ability to identify
and prioritize people and projects, track bid status through the sales cycle
and maximize their personal productivity through integration with Microsoft
Outlook and PDAs.
“The combination of these two offerings delivers a powerful,
comprehensive product to members of the design and construction community,”
said Norbert W. Young, Jr., FAIA, president, McGraw-Hill Construction.
The McGraw-Hill Construction Network, and its newest
addition, the McGraw-Hill Construction Network for products, is an online,
integrated marketing and sales products platform.
Siebel CRM OnDemand is a Web-based, hosted CRM offering that
delivers complete sales, marketing, and service functionality, built-in
customer analytics and embedded best practices based on over 10 years of CRM
experience and nearly 4 million users worldwide.
In addition to managing leads passed directly from the
Construction Network, Siebel CRM OnDemand can integrate with a subscriber’s
existing systems to extend the reach and value of the McGraw-Hill Construction
offering within their organization, enabling the unification, tracking and
management of all customer-facing business processes.
…
Epicor Software Corporation, listed on
Nasdaq, a vendor of enterprise software products for the global midmarket including CRM and ERP, has
announced it will be added to the
Standard & Poor’s SmallCap 600 Index.
According to a list of changes issued by Standard & Poor’s,
Epicor will be added to the index on a date to be announced later and will be
classified under the Global Industry Classification Standard economic sector “Information
Technology” and GICS sub-industry “Application Software.”
The S&P SmallCap 600 covers approximately 3 percent of
the U.S. equities market. The S&P SmallCap 600 is designed to be an
efficient portfolio of companies that meet specific inclusion criteria,
including U.S. company status, market capitalization in the range of $300
million to $1 billion, financial viability, adequate liquidity and reasonable
price, public float of at least 50 percent, sector representation and an
operating company status.
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