Programmer Releases App for South Shore Commuters

A northern Indiana man has developed a smartphone app that allows commuters using the South Shore train line to check on the status of their train.Greg Koons began developing phone applications in 2011 with fellow Purdue University graduates working for in a startup company. One of the 31-year-old Hobart man's recent creations is his iSouthShore app that's available for both Android and Apple phones.Koons told the Post-Tribune that since commuters on South Shore trains are often working on their phones or playing games, he took that trend further and created an app that allows them to check on the status of their train.Shortly after that, he built the iMetra app for Illinois commuters on Apple phones. Both smartphone apps are available for 99 cents.

The University of Rochester is one of the country's top-tier research universities. Our 158 buildings house more than 200 academic majors, more than 2,000 faculty and instructional staff,OBD Connector of Autoboss V30 and some 10,500 students–approximately half of whom are women. Learning at the University of Rochester is on a very personal scale. Rochester remains one of the smallest and most collegiate among top research universities, with smaller classes, a low 10:1 student to teacher ratio, and increased interactions with faculty.Install and maintain application integration software and layered products on several computer platforms.  Troubleshoot problems and provide consultation to clients about configuration and use of these platforms.  Communicate to staff planned and implemented changes and status of problem resolution.  Be responsive to end-user and IS requests for services.

Coordinate with staff, including applications,Main Cable of Autoboss V30 customer services, the help desk and the data center.  Function as the project leader for major application integration implementations by defining the project plan, identifying the required resources, coordinating the tasks of the project team, and the project schedule.  Provide technical consulting services within and outside the department.  Mentor staff.  Serve on hospital teams as an active participant.Design, program, test, document and install application integration software.  At least 5 years experience in Java programming.  Some knowledge in Shell Languages and/or Perl is desirable.

Golden Heart Plaza clock programmer puts holiday sound in downtown

If you've enjoyed the Christmas music at Golden Heart Plaza in downtown Fairbanks during the past few weeks, you can thank John "Benny Benevento.The clock tower is supposed to play a random tune five minutes after every bell chime. But for much of its history it's been silent,X-431 Diagun a victim to Alaska engineering obstacles including an earthquake, interference from car auto starts and ice-clogged electrical conduits.The clock tower has been the project, and sometimes the nemesis, of Benevento, a retired electrical engineer, since the Fairbanks Rotary Club put it up in 1990. But as of this spring, Benevento's latest system has been successfully bringing music to downtown Fairbanks. During the year it plays a mixture of patriotic music, show tunes, jazz and old traditionals. Beginning in December, it switches to a holiday format.

Benevento, 78, wore a Christmas-colored hat with the words "bah humbug," as he stood in a snowbank and worked on the controls of the clock tower at Golden Heart Plaza on Tuesday morning.Benevento is contemptuous of a handful of clock tower-programmed songs including "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" and "The Little Drummer Boy." But far from being a Scrooge, he takes his responsibility of adding Christmas cheer to the downtown square seriously.He stood in the snow for more than an hour, blowing on his hands occasionally to keep them warm, as he manually programed the clock to play a Christmas song after every 15 minute bell chime from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.."It's got some Christmas music, but there should be more," he said." His favorites are the more-religious songs like "Hark the Harold Angels Sing" but he programs the clock to play a variety, including the ones he doesn't like.

Benevento grew up in an orphanage in Massachusetts and got his electrical engineering training by correspondence course aboard the USS Roanoke while serving in the U.S. Navy. Before coming to Fairbanks, his work for NASA brought him to Wallops Island, Va., where he worked alongside some of the first astronauts in the U.S. space program including "Sam the Monkey," one the first animals in space.He settled in Alaska in the mid-1980s to help start the Poker Flat Research Range,LAUNCH X-431 Master AUTO DIAGNOSTIC Scanner a rocket launching facility on the Steese Highway operated by the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute.

Local digest: Police ID body near Beltway

A bomb threat to the Swedish Embassy caused road closures Thursday that slowed evening-rush traffic to a crawl on parts of the Rock Creek Parkway, Whitehurst Freeway and other commuter routes.Brian Leary, a spokesman for the Secret Service, said someone called in a threat to the embassy at about 3:30 p.m. After law enforcement officers searched the embassy in the 2900 block of K Street NW for about three hours, the roads were reopened.Montgomery County police on Thursday identified the man whose body was found along the Capital Beltway as Honorio Nava-Paredes, 31, of the 1100 block of Massachusetts Avenue in Washington. An autopsy has been conducted, but doctors haven't ruled on the cause of death, police said. On Tuesday, authorities received a report of a body off the side of the inner loop of the Beltway, between Georgia Avenue and Colesville Road.

A house cleaner stole tens of thousands of dollars from an elderly client in Alexandria, police said Thursday.Tisa Dorsey, 29, of Greenbelt, Md., was arrested by Alexandria police on Dec. 11. Between May 2012 and August of this year, according to police and court documents, Dorsey stole more than 100 checks from her employer and cashed them for $87,415. Dorsey has been charged under a law dealing with financial exploitation of a mentally incapacitated person, which went into effect in July.An alleged MS-13 gang member charged in connection with two 2008 gang-related shootings in Northern Virginia appeared in federal court for the first time Thursday after government officials in El Salvador took the unusual step of extraditing one of their own citizens to face attempted murder and gun charges abroad.

Edgar Benitez Hernandez, 25, used a translator during the hearing in federal district court in Alexandria and said he understood that the charges against him carry a possible life sentence. Under an agreement with El Salvador, prosecutors intend to pursue four of the eight charges on which Hernandez was indicted — all connected to a Sept. 13, 2008, double shooting in Loudoun County.

William Hoover Swept Up Big Bucks With His Vacuum

Some see necessity as the mother of invention.Yet without proper production values and marketing techniques, an invention can go nowhere.Consider Howard Johnson, who didn't invent ice cream, but recognized its value, mass-produced it and made 28 flavors the cornerstone of his restaurant empire.Hoover plugged the country into James Spangler's invention.Hoover plugged the country into James Spangler's invention.Consider Richard Sears and Alvah Roebuck, who didn't invent the direct-market catalog, but built the largest catalog sales company in America.William Hoover, like Johnson, Sears and Roebuck, stands as an entrepreneurial giant.Hoover didn't invent the electric suction sweeper, but recognized its utility and used his production and marketing wits to transform it into a trusted and desirable product — the Hoover Vacuum Cleaner — as well as found the global Hoover Co.

"The idea for a new invention or enterprise doesn't have to always spring from the mind of the entrepreneur," Fordham University business professor Robert Hurley, an expert on innovation and marketing, told IBD. "But for entrepreneurs to be successful, there needs to be someone on the team —x431 GDS like William H. Hoover — who is able to notice big ideas and make sure they get executed fast and well."Ahead of Hoover's climb were the 1907 doings of an aspiring inventor named James Spangler, who cleaned floors for a living in a Canton, Ohio, department store.Spangler used a clumsy, heavy, inefficient carpet sweeper that kicked up dust. That worsened his asthma, so he had to act: Quit his job or figure out how to craft a dustless electric suction sweeper.

Rather than quit work, he developed the prototype for what would be the Hoover vacuum cleaner.Spangler patented his invention in 1908 and began selling it door-to-door in the Canton area.In "Entrepreneurs: The Men and Women Behind Famous Brand Names and How They Made It," authors Joseph and Suzy Fucini recounted how Hoover discovered the new contraption:"One of the first sales that Spangler made was to his cousin, Susan Hoover,China x431 solo OBD the wife of a prosperous Ohio saddle maker. ... When Susan's husband, William H. Hoover, saw her new sweeper, he was impressed. A former railroad president and the first elected mayor of New Berlin, Ohio, Hoover had a well-deserved reputation for being an astute businessman."

Golden Heart Plaza clock programmer puts holiday sound in downtown

If you've enjoyed the Christmas music at Golden Heart Plaza in downtown Fairbanks during the past few weeks, you can thank John "Benny Benevento.The clock tower is supposed to play a random tune five minutes after every bell chime. But for much of its history it's been silent, a victim to Alaska engineering obstacles including an earthquake, interference from car auto starts and ice-clogged electrical conduits.The clock tower has been the project, and sometimes the nemesis, of Benevento, a retired electrical engineer, since the Fairbanks Rotary Club put it up in 1990. But as of this spring, Benevento's latest system has been successfully bringing music to downtown Fairbanks. During the year it plays a mixture of patriotic music, show tunes, jazz and old traditionals. Beginning in December, it switches to a holiday format.

Benevento, 78, wore a Christmas-colored hat with the words "bah humbug," as he stood in a snowbank and worked on the controls of the clock tower at Golden Heart Plaza on Tuesday morning.Benevento is contemptuous of a handful of clock tower-programmed songs including "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" and "The Little Drummer Boy." But far from being a Scrooge, he takes his responsibility of adding Christmas cheer to the downtown square seriously.He stood in the snow for more than an hour, blowing on his hands occasionally to keep them warm, as he manually programed the clock to play a Christmas song after every 15 minute bell chime from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.."It's got some Christmas music, but there should be more," he said." His favorites are the more-religious songs like "Hark the Harold Angels Sing" but he programs the clock to play a variety, including the ones he doesn't like.

Benevento grew up in an orphanage in Massachusetts and got his electrical engineering training by correspondence course aboard the USS Roanoke while serving in the U.S. Navy. Before coming to Fairbanks, his work for NASA brought him to Wallops Island, Va., where he worked alongside some of the first astronauts in the U.S. space program including "Sam the Monkey," one the first animals in space.He settled in Alaska in the mid-1980s to help start the Poker Flat Research Range, a rocket launching facility on the Steese Highway operated by the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute.

Beatrix's creative catchall in hotel setting

Coherence is overrated. That's the conclusion I draw from Beatrix, an agreeable hodgepodge of a restaurant that opened six months ago in River North and has been doing brisk business ever since.

Focus? Fuggedaboutit. This Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises concept features three chefs, serves breakfast, lunch, dinner and brunch, and also features a coffee bar and grab-and-go pastry case.

Beatrix sits just off the lobby of the extremely hip Aloft Chicago City Center hotel and is essentially Lettuce Chairman Rich Melman's re-imagining of the hotel restaurant. Beatrix is dimly lit, energetic and hip; the concrete floors, wood beams and exposed mechanicals give the space an urban-loft vibe even though the construction is brand new. The no-frills look is belied by very comfortable seating (the heavy leather chairs are wonderful, though the fabric ones apparently stain too easily).

You could rename the menu "Stuff Rich likes to eat," and you wouldn't be far off. The back story is that every dish at Beatrix was developed in Lettuce's test kitchen but never made it onto a Lettuce Restaurant menu, a sort of culinary version of the "Island of Misfit Toys."

"These are recipes we all loved," says John Chiakulas, part of the three-headed chef hydra that runs Beatrix (Rita Dever and Susan Weaver are the other chefs), "but for whatever reason never made it into those stores."

OK, "Island of Misfit Toys" is too harsh. The menu may defy categorization, but the individual dishes are well conceived and, unlike the fabled misfit toys (a train with square wheels, a boat that can't float), tend to work.

The bottom of the menu bears the slogan "Taste over Trend," and that's not exactly right either. No insult intended to the taste half of the equation, but the menu is loaded with trendy influences, current and recent. Korean-spiced beef, check; hamachi crudo, check. There's raw kale with the burger, and braised kale with the turkey "neatloaf." Quinoa appears on the menu twice, and that's still trending well, at least until Foodie Nation goes freaky for freekeh. Which is also on the menu.

The urban look and the playful menu names mask the fact that Beatrix's menu plays things about as cautiously as you might expect a hotel dining room to do. There are salads, some pasta and meatloaf comfort-food items, a couple of fish, some braised dishes, a steak. Two things distinguish the collection: A good selection of lighter, health-conscious touches (which the menu doesn't even point out) and enough clever twists from the kitchen to keep the audience from nodding off.

Entrees are particularly attention-worthy. Branzino is topped with a golden-brown brioche crust that looks like a plank of wood but contributes crunch and buttery notes, and makes the sea bass taste a little like Dover sole. Salmon gets something of a south-of-the-border treatment, topped with a mole-like chocolate-chile glaze and served with corn tortillas and a light coleslaw flecked with smoked almonds.

Energy efficiency

Pine River-Backus Schools looks for energy efficiency in all projects we do. Here are some of the projects we’ve completed in recent years.

Heating: The entire district has been equipped with a building automation system that allows room-by-room or building-by-building control with a single computer program.

This system also allows automated shutoff of district exhaust fans after hours and alternating startup times so we can eliminate peak demand in electric usage and cut costs.

The district has burners on the boilers that allow the burner to modulate down to meet demand without large spikes and drops.

Lighting: The district recently replaced all T12 light fixtures with T8s, which are more efficient. Most classrooms are equipped with motion detectors for the lights. If rooms are left unoccupied for longer than the set period of time, the lights will automatically shut off.

All exit lights were upgraded from incandescent to fluorescent to LED in recent years. The exterior lights and parking lot lights are being converted to LED lights with longer life, higher efficiency and electrical energy savings.

Building additions: In starting new building projects, like the recent early childhood addition, athletic addition and bus garage, the district tries to install energy efficient systems wherever possible.

The new additions are equipped with variable speed/high efficiency control motors on exhaust fans and water supply systems, T8 lighting with motion detectors and energy efficient windows. The additions have also been connected to the district’s building automation system. The bus garage was built with three stalls all equipped with in-floor heat and individual thermostats, allowing regulation of all depending on need.

Cost savings and rebates: We are able to offset the costs of these projects by applying for rebates through Minnesota Power and Xcel Energy. The district has also been awarded grants through the Minnesota Department of Commerce and Minnesota Power.

Over the last five to 10 years this has amounted to more than $55,000 in rebates and grants.

All of these projects are allowing the district to be more energy efficient. Cost savings from any one project are hard to calculate. For every project that saves on energy usage, another project is completed that adds to energy usage — new computer labs, Smart Boards in all classrooms, etc.

While true for some

In today's tech-heavy world, it might seem a given that owners would want their home loaded with the latest in gadgetry but, while true for some, technology is not one of the highest trending options, home builders say.While the front-end price of a custom home has remained steady $300,000 to $500,000 owners are seeking ways to trim the fat on their power bill to save money. One step toward that goal is spray foam insulation, builders say. Despite a cost that's double that of traditional fiberglass, about 90 percent of his clients are choosing more energy-efficient foam, says Dexter White, owner of Dexter W. White Construction on Broad Street"It'll pay itself off in five to seven years," he says. "It has a lot of upfront benefits, like making the house very quiet. They see some instant gratification from it other than just in the power bill."Other features that save on utility costs include tankless water heaters and relocating heating and cooling units indoors, where they don't have to strain against external temperature fluctuations and aren't subject to as much wear and tear.Of course, these by-order features come with a higher cost, sometimes significantly higher than prefabricated and planned community homes.

 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the average single-family home in America in 2012 was 2,505 square feet and cost $270,500. To owners who go the custom route, however, the price tag is worth it if they get what they want, Groves says."If people are building a custom home, it may be their last home," she says. "People are saying, 'I want a nice home, and I'm going to stay there until I have to go to a nursing home.'"For years, custom home owners have invested in showcase kitchens, and the newest homes continue that trend, although they've incorporated a bit of a throwback. After going out of style over the last decade, white cabinets are now requested by owners who want to brighten their kitchens. White cabinetry often is fitted with glass panes and craftsman-style white trim, says Tina Frizzell, vice president of Pratt Home Builders on Hamm Road.Some longtime loves remain popular. Hardwood floors are still in vogue, as are granite kitchen countertops, which many owners want to see in other parts of the home as well."Not just the kitchen in the laundry room and the bathroom," Frizzell says. "They're putting granite in every single room now."