“Tech startups: Water works, kids' games, shopping (Houston Chronicle)” plus 3 more |
- Tech startups: Water works, kids' games, shopping (Houston Chronicle)
- 100 bowl for kids at fundraiser (The Ames Tribune)
- Free Easter for Kids event set for today (The Springfield News-Leader)
- Youth spend spring break at Kids' College (The Garden City Telegram)
| Tech startups: Water works, kids' games, shopping (Houston Chronicle) Posted: 19 Mar 2010 10:07 PM PDT Todd Spoth: For The ChronicleAllen Schreiber of Severn Trent Services logs data from a control panel at a water treatment facility in Kingwood. The facility has adopted technology from BirdNest Services to streamline information gathering, including entering data via cell phones. Houston is known for energy, but the city is also building a budding technology sector. The world's oil capital is home to scores of hopeful entrepreneurs developing new Web sites, software, medical devices, clean technologies and other innovations. Research at the Texas Medical Center, NASA, local universities and in the energy industry, for example, has given birth to new ventures. Here's one of an occasional set of snapshots of local tech startups. Time will tell if they take off. BirdNest Services • Elevator pitch: Using cell phones to collect data and generate reports for water utilities.• The idea: Water and wastewater plants have historically logged data about water pressure, water volume and chlorine levels on handwritten sheets. That can make creating reports for regulators tedious. BirdNest says its system lets workers input data from the field through their cell phones and then generate reports from the Web.• Users: 6,000 facilities nationwide.• The brains: Before founding the company, Keith Frazier founded OMC Controls, a partnership of three companies that designed and built motor control systems for the oil drilling and steel scrap industry.• The competition: At cash-crunched municipalities, the company's biggest competition is paper. At privately run plants, competitors include Colorado-based Hach Co. and California-based Xora, which have systems for water plants as well. BirdNest's system, however, doesn't require a smart phone or expensive handheld, Frazier said.• The money: Founder Frazier says he invested a "couple of hundred thousand" dollars. The company, which charges a subscription fee for the reports it generates, is already profitable, he said.Free Time Studios • Elevator pitch: Mobile games for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.• The idea: Because they're relatively inexpensive and easy to produce, mobile games have flooded the market. And the ease of selling games through Apple's app store has attracted lots of smaller, independent game developers like Free Time Studios. The company's first game, SlapHappy!, is a digital version of the popular children's hand slap game, slaps.• Users: SlapHappy!, launched last month, has had more than 100 downloads so far and sells for $1.99.• The brains: Founder Nathan Eror previously worked as a developer at the Web hosting company Rackspace Hosting and later for Houston-based Hush Labs, which developed the photo-sharing site Natuba. He left Hush Labs in May to start his own company.• The competition: Just about every low-budget game in the Apple store. Eror said he plans to create games that re-imagine childhood games, also evoking memories for parents.• The money: Eror has raised an undisclosed amount from Rackspace founders Richard Yoo and Morris Miller.Mallwise • Elevator Pitch: Hyper-local advertising targeting mall shoppers.• The idea: With more consumers buying smart phones, mobile advertisers are looking to tap technology in them that can broadcast a person's whereabouts. Mallwise hopes to ride the wave with a smart phone app that would use a phone's location technology to detect when a consumer is in or near a store and send coupons and other offers to the shopper's phone.• Users: Zero. The company hopes to launch the application by October.• The brains: Co-founder Bill Bay is also the managing director for Intrabest, a Katy-based Web developer. Co-founder Scott Muster also works there as director of business development. Jesse Mills, Mallwise's chief operating officer, is managing director of Houston-based Web and marketing firm Virtuacomm.• The competition: Just about any location-based service, from Foursquare to Google Maps, that allows targeted advertising based on a person's location. There's also Placecast, a startup in California that recently launched ShopAlerts, which sends consumers messages and special offers when they're near a specific store.• The money: The three co-founders have put in about $70,000 but hope to raise more funds from investors so they can hire more programmers and speed development.Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| 100 bowl for kids at fundraiser (The Ames Tribune) Posted: 20 Mar 2010 06:52 AM PDT More than 100 bowlers hit the lanes Friday night for the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Iowa-Story County Bowl For Kids' Sake fundraiser event. Bowlers who gathered a minimum of $100 in donations for Big Brothers Big Sisters were treated to two free bowling games and shoe rental at Perfect Games, 1320 Dickinson Ave. Ames resident Ross Buffington was bowling with his wife and his "little brother," Manny. Buffington said he had just joined the Big Brothers Big Sisters program last week, but he and 7-year-old Manny already are starting to hit it off. "We're getting along just fine," Buffington said. "We already went out for dinner earlier this week and next week we're going to the Harlem Globetrotters." He said Manny lives with his grandmother and his baby sister. He doesn't live with his mother anymore, and his father is nowhere to be found, so Buffington said he is trying to fill the void in Manny's life. Buffington and his wife, Diane, have two grown children who recently moved out of the house, so he said he was at a good point in his life to volunteer his time. And Friday was Buffington's lucky night; during his first game, he bowled seven strikes in a row. "Would you believe Diane and I haven't bowled for four years?" Buffington said, laughing after his fourth consecutive strike. But even though Manny bowled more than 100 points lower than his big brother, the joy on his face was undeniable. When he wasn't bowling, Manny showed off his Michael Jackson dance moves and laughed with his big brother. Althea Holcomb, CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Iowa, attended Friday night's fundraiser and said the event is the organization's signature annual event. "It's a unique event, because it's really not about bowling, it's about people caring about other people," Holcomb said. She said the Big Brothers Big Sisters program helps children gain self-confidence, improves their academic performance and have more positive futures. But the program doesn't just benefit the children, she said. It also influences the adults who are helping them. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Free Easter for Kids event set for today (The Springfield News-Leader) Posted: 20 Mar 2010 01:07 AM PDT Zion Lutheran Church of Springfield will host a free Easter for Kids event 10 a.m.-2 p.m. today. The program is for ages 5-12 and includes crafts, games, singing and the Easter story. Lunch and an afternoon snack are provided. No pre-registration is required. The church is located at 4717 S. Farm Road 135/Golden. For more information, call 887-0886. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Youth spend spring break at Kids' College (The Garden City Telegram) Posted: 20 Mar 2010 02:14 AM PDT
Youth spend spring break at Kids' CollegePublished 3/20/2010 in Local News By MONICA SPRINGER
They made games and learned different dances from several countries. And during spring break, they also made claymation movies and did computer activities. Click to Purchase Photo Reprints! 
Brad Nading/Telegram Seth Loeppke, 6, left, demonstrates a game from Japan where a paper fan is used to move a paper fish Friday as his classmates look on in Garden City Community College's academic building lecture hall. The demonstration was part of a project presentation by students in GCCC's Kids' College to their parents. Nine Garden City children ranging in age from 5 to 12 participated in Garden City Community College's first Kids' College Spring Break. They took two classes, including "Lights, Camera, Action!" and "Racing Around the World." On Friday, each child stood in front of a small crowd at the Academic Building lecture hall to share their artwork and experiences during Kids' College. Several kids, including Isaiah Wells, Seth Loeppke and David Johnson said they liked playing on the computers. Garrett Gigot, an 11-year-old fifth-grade student at Bernadine Sitts Intermediate Center, said while on the computer he used Google to look at street views of Garden City, Las Vegas, New York City and China. Gigot said he enjoyed Kids' College and said his favorite part also was the computer lab. GCCC has operated Kids' College each summer since 2001, but is offering a spring break short session for the first time this year. At the end of the presentation, Diana Machotka, community services coordinator, gave each child a certificate and gave them high-fives and hugs. The kids made clay sculptures, then took pictures of the sculptures. On Friday afternoon, the kids showed their parents and GCCC staff slide shows of their claymation movies. And in "Racing Around the World," the kids explored the world without leaving GCCC. They used Google Earth Flight Simulator and Google Earth Street View to look at places in the United States and abroad. In the class, the kids explored Australia, Ireland, Russia, China and Japan. They wrote their names in Russian and Japanese on construction paper then decorated the paper with crayons. On Monday, when they studied Australia, the kids made boomerangs out of cardboard and learned that sheep are raised in Australia. On Tuesday they studied Ireland, where they made traditional green crosses out of paper and old-fashioned tops that the kids used to spin on the floor. The kids demonstrated spinning the toy tops on the desks at GCCC for their parents on Friday, and parents laughed as they watched their kids play with the toys. "We had a blast with the kids," Machotka told parents on Friday, adding that the office staff enjoyed having little ones around for a week. The kids also made lotus flowers on Thursday out of green construction paper and paper plates when they studied China. And on Friday they played a game where they made a paper fan and had to move a tissue paper fish down the hall when they studied Japan. Kristi Hubbard and Michele Michalek served as the teachers for the kids during spring break. Hubbard said the wide age range was a challenge but overall, she and the kids enjoyed the classes. Machotka said some kids returned from the summer session of Kids' College while others were first-time participants. Garden City kids who participated in Kids' College this week include: Jon Kalbeck, Gigot, Johnson, Redmond Carter, Loeppke, Shae Valerio, Madi Pate, Wells and Scott Dunagan. Found 0 comment(s)! Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
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