I’ve recently walked through several trade shows and listened to the pitches from the reps who stand for a very long time. The pitches are all familiar because the products are all similar to what’s been hanging around for over 5 years. What is going on? I’ve heard about this “new” technology for several years now. I hear the politicians talk about a bunch of new jobs in the “green” tech world... so where are they???

I see the same old vendors hawking the same old things. I know we are all slow out of the gates since the economy went south, but geesh... can we please get going... we are the best nation on the planet. We better get going... or another year will pass us by and maybe some other things will pass us by too... like innovation, ingenuity, and pride... Hey U.S. tech firms... Let’s Roll!!!

Posted: 2009-09-20

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Communicating with the world is changing, for good and some bad. I was recently watching Michael Vick return to Football and his rather lackluster apology interview on 60 minutes. I do believe that our "twitter" life style will only hold our attention for a short while. Then as the stream of information continues at us, the Vicks of the world may just slip quietly back into our lives as if nothing really happened. I'm not suggesting we don't provide forgiveness or justice, but has our society just run out of capacity or time to care? I suspect that if Vick has a good year on the field, his history will try to be re-written by his handlers. Similar to many of our politicians trying to re-write their viewpoints as the wind blows.

So... If we don't have time or capacity to hold on to so many of these streaming stories, its imperative that we archive all these mea culpa moments or less than truthful announcements. What is old is new again. Archives like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube will hopefully stand the test of time and be there for us, when we need to revisit the true past instead of the marketable re-written history.

Posted: 2009-08-23

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PARIS — Alcatel-Lucent, the French-American telecommunications company, on Thursday posted a quarterly profit for the first time since it was created nearly three years ago. This came after significant layoffs in 2008 and 2009.

The company, the biggest maker of fixed-line equipment, said it eked out a second-quarter net profit of 14 million euros ($20 million), compared with a loss of 181 million euros a year earlier. The news took the market by surprise, as analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had expected a loss of about 191 million euros.

The bottom line was helped by one-time items, including a gain of 255 million euros on the sale of Alcatel-Lucent’s stake in the military company Thales and 129 million euros related to the sale of its satellite business. The company also said it cut its operating expenses by 2.3 percent through a continuing program of job cuts and plant consolidations.

Revenue continued to slump in the April-June period, falling 4.8 percent, to 3.9 billion euros. Sales by its carriers division, its largest business, which supplies technology to telephone companies, fell 10.3 percent. Its services business was a bright spot, with sales up 7.9 percent.

“Operationally, we are seeing positive trends in our top-line, gross margin and operating expenses,” Ben Verwaayen, the chief executive, said in a statement. He predicted that the company would break even at the level of operating income in the second half as margins improved and the company continued to trim its costs.

The company was formed in November 2006 when Alcatel, based in Paris, paid about $11.4 billion to acquire Lucent Technologies, based in Murray Hill, N.J. The combined company has posted about 9 billion euros in losses since its inception.

Alcatel-Lucent, which competes with Ericsson and Nokia Siemens, forecast that the market for global telecommunications equipment and related services would decline 8 to 12 percent this year.

Posted: 2009-08-01

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Microsoft is planning to open its first retail stores in the 2009 fall, with at least some of the locations likely to be right near an Apple store.

The fall timing is not surprising. We can assume Microsoft would want to have the stores open in time for Windows 7's October 22 retail launch and for the holiday selling season.

Look for more stores to open in 2010.

Microsoft first announced its plan to enter the retail arena in February, when it hired David Porter, a Wal-Mart veteran.

Microsoft has also opened an online software store that sells products directly to customers.

In 2000, Microsoft had one retail outlet--at the San Francisco Metreon mall. However, it closed that late in 2001.

Posted: 2009-07-15

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Well, its been a number a years since Office 2007 came out, and since Microsoft is potentially loosing market share to the others on the block, it seems like it was time to raise the bar a bit. 2009 Q3 is when we expect to see the new Office TwentyTen

Posted: 2009-07-13

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We like using YouTube's bandwidth when we can, but it would also be nice to provide local content without having the youtube limitations.

So we've decided to test some different media deliveries at our website. Practice makes perfect... right?

Adobe Flash Player not installed or older than 9.0.115!

Posted: 2009-07-13

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So…When we heard that www.recovery.gov was going to get a redo… we could not believe that (1) we were not asked to bid… and (2) who the hell, but our government, could make a crappy deal like that.

The redesign will cost us taxpayers $9.5 million through January 2010 and then on to a total of $18 million through January 2014, the GSA told us. But they did not tell us what those dollars are being spent on or how many other companies competed for the award. We had to read in the paper last Wednesday to learn that 59 companies were eligible to bid, so we might have been eligible, but we don’t even know if we were on the list!!!!!

Apparently, sometime in June there was some super-secret RFP put out which was just restricted to 59 firms… Did all firms bid? Don’t Know!!! Did we get a chance to bid… NO!!!! Would we have done a great job for about 99% less money to the tax payer… YES!!!! Crazy!!!!

Posted: 2009-07-11

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The snom 820 is a new step in combining high class telephony with an extraordinary design. The snom 820 is the beginning of a superior line of business VoIP phones. It´s extraordinary elegance and performance combines both: latest technology and well knownfeatures. The snom 820 is an amazing new phone taht we are considering adding to the portfolio. Watch the movie and let us know if you'd like to see it work on your desk

Send us note telling us what you think.

Posted: 2009-07-10

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As more and more IT managers and Technology Directors become friendly with social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, Metropark decided to start making hot specials and notable information to be pushed the the business network via these new media sources. Its been fantastic. Make sure anyone who likes to get their info fast and short (140 charactures) signs up. www.metropark.com/join

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