Posts By: JC Strodula

NASA Says Bus-Sized Satellite May Strike Earth Tonight, Not Sure Where

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As of Friday Sept. 23, 2011, at 10:30a.m. EST, NASA’s Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, or UARS, is expected to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere late Friday night or early Saturday morning, EST. Tonight the 6 1/2-ton satellite could make its uncontrolled “death plunge” through Earth’s atmosphere, after the end of a productive scientific life.

NASA scientists cannot yet determine exactly where the satellite will land but earlier said it will fall over a region somewhere between the latitudes of northern Canada and southern South America. Today NASA said there is a low probability any debris that survives re-entry will land in the United States, but the possibility cannot be discounted because of this changing rate of descent

It is still too early to predict the time and location of re-entry with any certainty, but predictions will become more refined in the next 12 to 18 hours.

Calypso’s GPS System for Tumor Tracking Bought For $10 Million

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Calypso Medical Technologies, a medical device and software company which has developed a tracking system to pinpoint tumors in the body, has been acquired for $10 million by Varian Medical Systems of Palo Alto, California.

Timothy E. Guertin, president and CEO of Varian Medical Systems said, “With Calypso’s technology, Varian will be able to offer cancer treatment centers real-time, non-ionizing tumor tracking tools for enhancing the precision of their treatments.”

Calypso, based in Seattle, creates products and software used to do real-time tracking of tumors during cancer treatment. The company does much of its work in prostate cancer treatment and is developing a lung cancer treatment product.

The Calypso® System features GPS for the Body® technology and Beacon® electromagnetic transponders that together currently provide a solution to continuously and accurately track and target location to improve precision of prostate cancer treatments.

Google Faces Senate – Serving Consumers or Threatening Competition?

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Google Says It Is Like GPS of the Web

A US Senate subcommittee tomorrow will hold a hearing, “The Power of Google: Serving Consumers or Threatening Competition?”

Dozens of businesses have come forward to complain on Capitol Hill that Google is giving preferential treatment to some of its products and services by leveraging its dominant position to an unfair advantage. Critics have complained that Google favors its own services and content in the company’s popular search engine.

In the lead-up to Schmidt’s testimony, Google has hired dozens of Washington, D.C., lobbying firms and has touted its pro-competitive behavior in advertisements. And in a recent online post, Google reminded readers that its users have a choice in search engines. Google isn’t a “gateway to the web”–a phrase it suggests critics might use in Wednesday’s Senate Antitrust Subcommittee hearing. Rather, the Mountain View, Calif., company’s service is more like a guide.

White House Pressures General on Lightsquared Testimony

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LightSquared is under attack from Republicans who have asked for an investigation into whether the White House pressured its Air Force Space Commander into changing his testimony on possible GPS interference caused by LightSquared’s activities.

The accusation is fiercely denied by LightSquared and the White House.

William Shelton told lawmakers during a classified briefing earlier this month that the White House tried to persuade him to change his testimony to make it more favorable to a company with ties to a key Democratic donor.

LightSquared Vs. GPS Industry Goes Back To Congress

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The dispute between LightSquared Inc. and the GPS industry recently shifted back to Congress. LightSquared is currently seeking approval from the FCC to move forward with its plans to build out a broadband wireless network. But the company has been facing fierce opposition from many claiming the proposed network will interfere with GPS system signals.

During a hearing before Congress, several lawmakers criticized the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) for “advocating” for LightSquared at the expense of critical GPS operations.

Fired NY State Employee Sues For GPS Tracking Without Consent

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Monitoring Employees With GPS Tracking Without Their Knowledge or Consent – Is It Legal?

Managing employees in the field has always been a challenge. How do you know if employees are where they say they are? What if a customer calls to complain that a driver never showed up, but he swears he did. What is a manager to do? Ths is where GPS tracking can offer huge benefits.

But inevitably ethical and legal issues have been raised about gps tracking aka Big Brother in the workplace. Is it OK to monitor an employee with a GPS tracking device without their knowledge or consent?

How far can the state government go in monitoring a mobile employee?

This question will be addressed by a mid-level appeals court in New York very soon in about 6 weeks. The lawsuit was filed by the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) against the state Labor Department, on behalf of a fired state worker whose personal vehicle was being monitored with a GPS tracking device, without his knowledge or consent.

Middletown Employees No Longer Skip Jobs Thanks To FieldLogix

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When the street sweepers of Middletown go on their assigned routes, they know their work habits had better be squeaky clean. The City of Middletown, Ohio has been using the FieldLogix fleet tracking system for their street sweepers, solid waste trucks, and snow plows since 2008.

According to fleet manager, Michelle Evans, one of their favorite features is the ability to verify the stops made by their vehicles. Mrs. Evans said, “Sometimes drivers skip assigned stops during their shift in order to avoid the extreme temperatures and FieldLogix fleet tracking keeps them accountable. On the other hand, in heavy snow storms you can plow a street and an hour later it doesn’t look like you’ve been there. When we get complaints all I do is access the History Report or the Asset Activity Report and then I have proof that our drivers are out there doing their jobs.”

Sunshine Landscape Sees a ROI in 18 Days with FieldLogix

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Using the fleet tracking system’s activity reports, he quickly realized that his employees were falsifying time sheets. Employees were taking long lunches, leaving early and were not where they were supposed to be during work hours.

But all this changed after installing a fleet tracking system. Once Mr. Contreras had a reliable way to measure his employee’s actual work hours, his overtime costs dropped immediately.

****In fact, his overtime costs dropped by more than 2 hours per man per day with no change in the workload. Based on these calculations, Mr. Contreras paid for the entire first year of the system within the first 18 days. ****

New Sprint App Prevents Texting and Talking While Driving

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Texting and talking on the phone while driving is very dangerous. We all know this, yet many people continue to do it. The Governors Highway Safety Association combed through a decade’s worth of statistics and research papers about the causes of car crashes, and found that cell phone-related distractions accounted for 15 to 25 percent of crashes, according to PC Mag. The figure is likely even higher since law enforcers might not catch every driver using his cell phone before an accident.

To combat distracted driving, Sprint (NYSE: S) has launched a new app called Sprint Drive First. The app locks your phone when you’re driving over 10 miles per hour, and alerts your parent or spouse when the phone has been locked.