Give The Little Guy A Break

US Representative Joe Sestak (D-Delaware County) is holding a
"business procurement summit" on Friday, March 27 to help small businesses find out if they might be able to access stimulus funds and if so, how to go about applying for them. Great idea! Rather than hold it at a public facility at no cost to the attendee, however, it will be held at the Springfield Country Club (Delaware County) and will cost $40 for individuals to attend.
Now, unlike some of our friends in the new administration I've got no problem with business people getting together in nice places to learn, share information, or socialize. But when you are talking about small businesses trying to obtain public information about government programs that may be there to help them, the cost of attending can be rather objectionable. For very small businesses, or people just trying to get one off the ground, being asked to fork out another $40 can be a real issue.

A Little Downtime?

I'm sorry, there was probably some downtime today because I was testing out a new domain name, and although I was quite
sure I had switched it back to the usual name apparently something didn't quite work. Things should be back to normal now,
anyway.

Cisco Launches Bid To Capture The Data Center (ZDNet Blogs)

Unisys, Down but Not Out (Server Watch)
Detailed look at where Unisys stands in server market.

Going beyond the norm for Cézanne (Philadelphia Business Journal)

Passwords of 8,000 Comcast Customers Exposed (New York Times: Bits)

Phila. Newspapers hearing rescheduled (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Sony-Comcast Store Has Tru2way 'Set-Back' Box (Light Reading: Cable Digital News)

No Familiar Faces On Comcast's MMOD ‘Boss Button'
Top Op Sponsors Application On CBS Sports's Internet Package For March Madness (Multichannel News)

SAP lays off undisclosed number of workers (IT World)

IBM, SAP Make Cloud Computing Breakthrough (Channel Insider)

Demystifying SaaS vs. Cloud
(The Boomi Blog)

TMX Interactive Celebrates 10 Years of Marketing, Technology and Customer Experience
(PR Newswire)

Governor Rendell: PA Directs $2.5 Million to Recruit Faculty, Develop Advanced Technology at Colleges, Research Institutions (PR Newswire)

SEC Charges MedQuist Inc. and Former Senior Executives with Securities Fraud (SEC Press Release via Trading Markets)
Settlement reached with MedQuist, but some former execs still on the hook.
MedQuist Reports Fourth Quarter and Year End 2008 Results (PR Newswire)

Ben Franklin group aids local tech companies (Lehigh Valley Live)

Queplix Unveils Universal Search Solution
Securely Unlocks Value of Structured Data in Enterprise and Cloud Applications (PR Newswire)


InvestorForce Announces INSIGHT. WEB Portal Provides Transparency to Institutional Investment Consultants and Their Clients. (Business Wire)



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Philly Tech Events

Municipal Wi-Fi A Growing Competitor To WiMax, LTE
Cable companies hope to make an end-around the two dominant 4G wireless networks with faster service and wider adoption. (Information Week)

Comcast will launch wireless Internet services via Clearwire
Portland will be the first city where Comcast will offer WiMAX service (The Oregonian)

Comcast and NFL Network Continue to Haggle (New York Times: Sports Business)

Plaxo Adds Commenting And Trip Info Sharing Features To Pulse (TechCrunch IT)

Infonetics Analyst Jeff Heynan on Home Networks, Bandwidth Caps, & More (Zatz Not Funny!)

Philadelphia Ad Agency Goes Virtual (Media Bistro: AgencySpy)

OLED market set to skyrocket in 2011, says DisplaySearch (Engadget)
Should be good news for Universal Display of Ewing.

Comcast, Sony to open joint retail store at Comcast Center

Comcast, Sony to open joint retail store (Canadian Press via Google News)

Sony StyleComcast Labs to open on Tuesday.

People News 3/15/09

GSI Commerce Appoints Ronald C. Williamson as Senior Vice President of Customer Care
(PR Newswire)

Unisys Names Lazane Smith Senior Vice President, Corporate Development (Business Wire)

Precyse Solutions Adds Executives, Realigns Around Service Lines (PR Newswire)

Barr Pharma Ex-CEO Takes On VC (Wall Street Journal: Venture Capital Dispatch)

Michael Forte Joins CONNEXION Healthcare as Chief Operations Officer (PR Newswire)

Bradley Sheares Elected to IMS Health Board of Directors (Business Wire)

Colleen Borys Joins VINtek as Project Manager (Business Wire)



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Wharton Venture Initiation Program

Interesting overview of the mostly prototype or very early stage ventures currently in the Wharton Venture Initiation Program. These companies were founded by recent Wharton grads or current students. There are some very good ideas here.

Schweiker-backed start-up folds (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Federal CIO on leave following FBI sting at DC offices (ZDNet
Blogs)
Instant analysis: Bribery case may undo Kundra's Web 2.0 vision (Computerworld)

Sunoco To Cut 20% Of Salaried Workers In Pa. (Dow Jones via CNN Money)

NextStage, Murex put $3.2M in AnySource 'Internet HDTV' (Philly.com: Phiily Deals)
AnySource Media Secures $3.2M in Funding (Company Press Release)

Ben Franklin TechVentures plans expansion (Lehigh Valley Live)

NitroSecurity nabs UK’s Chronicle Solutions (Mass High Tech)
NitroSecurity acquired Philly area company RippleTech Inc. last year and is backed by NewSpring Capital.

RedVision Raises $6.8 Million (PE Hub)
Backed by Edison Venture Fund.

Key Hearing for Philly Dailies is Delayed (Editor & Publisher)

610 WIP Philadelphia to move to FM? (Radio Insight)

Be Mindful Of Online Consequences (The Bulletin)



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SAP to Reduce Business ByDesign Staff?

I think that's what this Bloomberg article is saying when it refers to SAP's "rental software project". The article also says the "workforce will be reduced to 1,800 from 2,600 as large parts of the software are already developed".

Update:
SAP: Business ByDesign SaaS Is 'Mature' (Information Week)
How can a product that's only being tested by 10 to 20 customers be considered "mature"?

Another thought: Does it really take 2600 people to create some SaaS software? Maybe thats been their problem.