Toledo Solar power research mentioned in the AP

I know this really isn't a story but it is nice to see some favorable press about our area. An AP writer reported on the solar research being done in the Toledo.

Give it a read: link
The Regional Growth Partnership was the source.

“Computer Friends” Stack the Memory

Funny Nerdy video. Singing about upgrading.

Business Incubator Breaking Ground

A new technology business incubator is breaking ground today October 30th at 10:00 AM. with a check presentation and groundbreaking ceremony. Speakers at the event will include Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, Mr. Nitschke and state government representatives. The event will take place near the Nitschke auditorium.

The University of Toledo received a total of $4,000,000. The donors include Norman Nitschke and grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration and some State and local money as well.

The grant will go toward a new, 40,000-square-foot building that will consist of laboratories and office space to house a mix of technology startup companies. Construction is expected to be complete in fall 2009.

Link to UTNews
Link to ToledoBlade

Intro to Linux

I'm going to the TALUG,(Toledo area Linux User Group) tonight 6:30 PM at UT North Engineering Building . The topic is an "Intro to Linux". I've got a bit of exposure to Linux but I'm sure that there are some things that I can learn. I'm mostly self/web taught. I'm looking to make better use of the Linux operating system in the near future so I'm hoping this will be a good crash course. See you there.

First Solar gets Tax Credit

First Solar (FSLR)is getting a tax credit worth $175,126. This tax credit will go towards The building of a Research and Technology Center in Perrysburg Township, a suburb of Toledo.

Source (Toledo Blade)

Toledo Regional Growth Parntnership Featured on Fox Business.

Steve Weathers, CEO of the RGP speaks with one of Fox Business's Corespondents. I think that he does a great job of getting information out about the region and the alternative energy scene in Toledo. Something that I thought was interesting was that the corespondent did not really seem to have done any real research on our region outside of the usual headlines of unemployment. Mr. Weathers did a wonderful job of making sure that usual stuff wasn't all that was heard.

NWNUG meeting on Oct 20th

The NWNUG crew is going to be having a meeting on a Monday which is a little unusual for their meetings but it looks like they are bringing in a heavy hitter for their meeting. They are bringing in Wally McClure who I ran across a couple of years ago when I was looking around for some podcasts on topics that interested me. Wally's Podcast happened to be one that followed for a little while. It got very technical and I like to be able to look at code so audio didn't work for me. Anyway they haven't decided on what the topic for the meeting will be but I'm sure that it will be entertaining and informative.

Xunlight Gets 11 Million more in funding

Hope I didn't get you news hounds too excited this is kind of old news but I thought I'd mention it.

Toledo based solar power start-up Xunlight recently, August 29th 2008 announced that they raised 11 million in funding from Rabo Ventures. The funding will go toward their manufacturing facilities.

They are also going to be exhibiting at Solar Power International October 13th through 16th
Booth #1145.

NWNUG Meeting Sept. 16th

The NWNUG is having a meeting on September 16th where they have a speaker, David Giard, who is covering two topics. MEF and Velocity.



Official Link

Upcoming

Yahoo releases documentation on YQL and Social APIs

Yahoo has been on a mad dash to go ultra open with all of their properties. They have been talking for the last couple of months, around the time of the MS take over bid. They have had APIs(application program interface basically tools to give you access to their programs), available for products like Upcoming, Flickr, Fire Eagle, Mobile, etc... Recently they have opened up their Search APIs with Search Monkey and BOSS. This new batch of programming tools will give you access with their Social Directory, Contacts, User Status and Updates and also YQL. Unfortunately we only get to read about what these new tools can do for us. Hopefully they will release the code soon but for now we can only read the documentation.

We will have to see if opening up all of their properties will draw the developers in to program on their platform and add value to their properties like it did for the likes of Facebook, the iPhone, Meebo, and many of the other sites and tools that have opened up.

Boss mashable challenge

Yahoo is running a contest. Write the best application using their BOSS API and win $2000 for first prize and $1000 for second prize. Submissions must be made by Sept. 28th. Details at http://mashable.com/boss .

Microsoft new ad with Jerry Seinfeld

Here is the new Microsoft ad in a series of ads that Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld are doing together to sell Vista.



Initial impression to me is that there had better be more this first ad was pretty underwhelming.

Upcoming My Weapon of Choice

Most everyone in Toledo knows that it can sometimes seem like there is nothing going on in town but often what is the problem is that the promoters/organizers have not done a good enough job of getting the word out.

I like to look up and report about events that are going on around Toledo which is why I started this blog in the first place. I've been mulling over how people learn about and find events going on in town. I know from first hand that it is very difficult to find out what is going on. There are a lot of people who post on their organization's website but that is as far as they get which to the uninitiated is too difficult to find.

There are quite a few sites out there that try to put things together. Eventful, Eventsetter, Craigslist, various local solutions, Toledo.com, dotoledo.org . No product is perfect and some of these products fill a void that others don't but Out of all of them I think that due to the social aspect of the site my vote is with Upcoming.

With Upcoming you can post an event and make it public or private (telling only some of your friends). I believe you can make the location of the event public or private. You can create groups which are moderatable for those of you involved in churches, clubs, governments, classes, families, major public events, whatever.

For those of us who are interested enough you can develop a program that uses it API. Some people already have. You can put an Upcoming badge on your website, blog, myspace page. There is a Facebook application that you can hook your account up to notify the people closest to you about events.

The main problem is that there just aren't that many current active posting users. There are currently some interesting events that the library, zoo and some local bands have posted but I think that there need to be more posters on this site to make it more effective. I'm going to start posting event that I find around town. Initially I'll probably start with only the ones that I find interesting but who knows. This site is wholely user generated content so it is up to us to fill it.

Check me out on Upcoming.yahoo.com http://upcoming.yahoo.com/user/185306/ my username is Laser... yeah I know it is kind of lame but so what maybe I'll change it sometime but I kind of like it.

If you feel like joining the fun start posting your events and maybe people will start to realize that there really are things going on in Toledo.

NWOACM having a social dinner

The NWOACM is having a social dinner August 21st at 6:30 PM at Cucina di Betto in Bowling Green. All are welcome just notify chair at nwoacm dot org.

http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/990640/

I know I'll be there.

NWNUG Meeting: Building Web Applications with the Microsoft ASP.NET MVC Framework

The NWNUG are having their monthly meeting on August 19th 2008 at 6:00 PM till 8:00.


http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/990675

I don't know if I can make it but it sounds interesting.

Playing on Twitter

I've been playing on Twitter an awful lot lately. I've run into some people in the area who I don't think that I ever would have in other circumstances. The ability to follow people and message them is incredibly easy. I'm finding it very rewarding to be able to post any old thought or happening online. The shortness of the messages, (140 characters) make it very quick. The omnipresence of the tool is also a great feature. You can connect to it with your mobile phone through mobile web or text messaging, there are also apps for all the smart phones. You can connect to it on your computer using their web interface or you can connect with a third party application like twhirl (my personal favorite)

There is a bit of a friend curve. It is more fun the more people you follow and talk to. So if you want to try it out you can follow one of the top twitterati they give you a good idea of what you can do with Twitter but don't forget that they are Celebrities and most likely will not have time to talk to you. Some of these are followed by thousands of people. To get the most out of Twitter you will want to enlist your friends or you can just search for people in your area.

I'll probably be posting about the developments that I come across this service. So stay tuned.

Hulu Days of summer

I've become a fan of Hulu, a joint venture between NBC and Fox, over the last couple of months. It allows me to watch some shows that I would have missed during their regular schedule. Hulu is now going to be releasing something everyday till the end of summer. They have a widget that I'm going to embed to test it out below.

NWNUG Iron Python Launch Event

The guys at NWNUG are having an Iron Python Launch event on Tuesday May 13th.

They will be giving away copies of Visual Studio 2008 and possibly raffling Windows Vista Ultimate ( Must be more than 20 people in attendance) .

Link

NWOACM Social Dinner April 17th 6:30

There is going to be another social meeting with ACM. I'm planning on being there.

The Northwest Ohio chapter of ACM is holding a social gathering at Cucina di
Betto’s in Bowling Green on Thursday, April 17, 2008. We will be there
from 6:30 to 8:30 enjoying some drinks and dining. Anyone interested in
attending, please respond to this email or send one directly to chair@nwoacm.org by 8:00 pm on Wednesday, April 16, 2008 so we
can reserve enough seating at the restaurant.

Jing Screencasting

One of the coolest programs that I have run into for a while, Jing, written by TechSmith. What it does it you can capture a screen image, or capture video and audio (including microphone) of your desktop and send a url. You can use it to show users what you want them to do rather than trying to explain it on the phone or through e-mail. I recently used it and it saved me like 20 minutes of explaining. It was great. If you ever need to explain anything to anyone about computers then you will love this program. Check it out

link

Computer Recycling

Goodwill has started accepting computers for donation. They are working in cooperation with Dell Computers. They will be accepting donations at 15 donation centers areawide.

A word of caution about this is that if you are going to donate your computer with old sensitive data on it either run a data wipe program, (format isn't necessarily the best option) or remove your hard drive from the computer completely.

This is a great option for people who have an old computer that they aren't going to use anymore.

Link

MS launch event in Detroit

Looks like Microsoft is doing another launch event for Visual Studio 2008, Server 2008, and SQL server 2008. There is one in Cleveland on the 13th of March 2008 and there is one in Detroit on March 18th 2008. Looks like they are giving away copies of all the software. I think that I may have to go.

Series of posts

I've got an idea for a series of posts. I am going to cover some of my thoughts on trends dealing with computer maintenance, security also some thoughts on the internet. If there is anything that you would like to know about feel free to ask. I'll try to cover any topic that I feel I have a relatively good amount of knowledge about.

NWOACM Social Dinner

The Northwest Ohio chapter of ACM is holding a social gathering at Cucina di Betto’s in Bowling Green on Thursday, February 21, 2008. They will be there from 6:30 to 8:30 enjoying some drinks and dining. Anyone interested in attending, please RSVP to chair at nwoacm.org by 8:00 pm on Wednesday, February 20, 2008 so they can reserve enough seating at the restaurant.

Topic: Whatever suits the mood
Date: February 21, 2008
Time: 6:30pm - 8:30pm
Where: Cucina di Betto, 121 S. Main St., Bowling Green, OH, 43402

Yahoo! Mobile Platform

I have to admit that I've always had a soft spot for Yahoo. I use their e-mail service for my personal e-mail, I use flickr for photo sharing, and del.icio.us for keeping and sharing bookmarks, and Upcoming to post events online. They have a mobile service that lets you do web searches, check e-mail, maps and more.

They have launched a 3rd party platform for developers that allows you to add widgets to their mobile service. You can do something as simple just attach a RSS feed or you can write an XML based application. You do have to use their simplified markup language called Blueprint. It seems pretty straight forward. I'm kind of tempted to write something for it. Unfortunately I don't have a mobile data plan so I wouldn't be able to test it but I seems easy enough you could probably throw something together in a matter of a couple of hours. MySpace is launching a widget that will allow you to post and see your friends moods, browse photos, and send messages.

One of the benefits of this is that Yahoo wrote the platform which works on many different types of cell phones so you don't have to write your application for every different type of phone.
Link