User Rating: / 2
PoorBest 

Wednesday, 15 February 2012 10:37

Written by Jon Schmitz

Before we start, a little chest-clearing: TV newscasters who urge drivers to be cautious because of the possibility of icy spots might as well just go outside and howl at the moon. Those cautions were aired this morning and people still drove like maniacs on I-79; if there had been icy patches there would've been a 20-car pileup.

And another thing: When did it become OK to drive with high beams always on? What happened to the courtesy of dimming lights while other traffic is around? Pennsylvania law requires low beams whenever you are within 500 feet of an oncoming vehicle and when you are following a vehicle within 300 feet.

Sign-ery

(Funny-picture.org)

Now to the traffic tips:

Southbound Route 28 will be restricted to one lane at times in the big construction zone in Millvale and the North Side after 8 p.m. weeknights through March 31 as crews continue to build retaining walls. Restrictions lift by 5 a.m. daily.

Single-lane traffic is possible at times on northbound Saw Mill Run Boulevard between Crane Avenue and Woodruff Street from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays starting Thursday and continuing through March 2. Crews will be removing debris from the hillside.

Lane closures are possible on Bunola River Road in Forward between Kerr Street and Route 136 at the bridge to Monongahela from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday as crews drill to test pavement conditions.

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Twitter: @pgtraffic

Tuesday, 14 February 2012 07:53

Written by Jon Schmitz

The start of a $12.9 million project to replace the Route 30 bridges over Electric Avenue in North Braddock and Chalfant will cause the closure of the eastbound off-ramp from Route 30 to Electric Avenue at 7 a.m. Monday. It will remain closed through late April. Initial work involves water and sewer line improvements on the off-ramp. Later in the season traffic will be reduced to one lane and crossed over while one bridge is replaced. Same prescription for next year.

Intermittent single-lane closures will occur at several locations on the Parkway North and Route 28 on Wednesday and Thursday between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. during guide rail repairs: on the parkway in both directions between I-79 and Perrysville Avenue (Exit 8) and on Route 28 in both directions from Millvale (Exit 3) to Millerstown (Exit 16).

Lane closures are possible on Interstate 79 in the area of the Bridgeville exit from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday. Crews will install barrier delineation, or as we call it, those reflector thingys.

If they build it, will you drive on it? PennDOT has opened the left lane from the Steuben Street connector to southbound Route 60, aka South Main Street, in the West End Circle, after removing the low railroad overpass that was snagging tall trucks. The department says people are still trying to merge right. Stopping and merging are no longer required.

Monday, 13 February 2012 09:05

Written by Ced Kurtz

The Telegraph ITV warns Apple on name

Mashable Tweets beat media on Whitney Houston's death by 45 minutes

MercuryNews.com Google building secret hardware testing labs

User Rating: / 3
PoorBest 

Sunday, 12 February 2012 18:57

Written by Ced Kurtz

The conventional wisdom is that, in business, innovation brings success.

But there is a necessary corollary: Only continued innovation can ensure survival.

An example of that emerged last week when Eastman Kodak Co., an innovator in traditional and digital photography for more than 100 years, announced that it was quitting the camera business.

Kodak entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy last month, and this is the first major step to restructure the company by eliminating unprofitable businesses.

Kodak, which has not been making its own cameras recently, will continue to license its brand. So while you may be able to buy a Kodak camera in the future, the only connection to Kodak will be that it is being paid for the use of its name.

While Kodak will no longer be in the digital camera, digital video or digital picture frame business, it will continue its inkjet printer line, online Kodak Gallery, photo kiosks and labs, film and photographic paper, and camera accessories and batteries.

For those who own a Kodak camera, it plans to continue to honor warranties and provide technical support.

Kodak is one of those iconic brand names that so dominated the market that its company name was its product, like Frigidaire or Xerox.

Just some of the innovations Kodak is credited with:

• The invention of roll film, the basis for motion picture film, in 1885

• Introduction of early folding cameras, pocket cameras and folding pocket cameras in the 1890s

• The Brownie camera in 1900, which created a mass market for photography

• Kodachrome, a color stock for movie and slide film (and later the title of a Paul Simon song) in 1935

• The Instamatic, an early point-and-shoot camera in 1963

• The digital camera, invented by Steven Sasson, an electrical engineer at Kodak, in 1975

• The world's first megapixel sensor in 1986

• The first multilayer Organic Light Emitting Diode in 1987.

• The world's first printer-and-camera dock combination in 2003.

In 1976, Kodak owned 90 percent of the film market and 85 percent of the camera market in the U.S. But then the company made three fatal mistakes.

First, it believed that its brand was sacrosanct, and so it paid too little heed when Japanese firm Fujifilm entered the U.S. film market. Kodak turned down the chance to become the official film of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Fujifilm took the sponsorship, and that gave it a foothold in the U.S. Through aggressive marketing and price cutting, the Japanese firm steadily eroded Kodak's hold on the film market.

Then, despite being the inventor of the digital camera, Kodak was slow to realize how quickly its invention would kill the traditional camera and film business. After partnering with Apple to bring out one of the earliest digital cameras, 1994's QuickTake under Apple's brand but made by Kodak, the company did little to advance in the digital market. The QuickTake never really caught on, and Apple killed it in 1997.

Kodak did get going in the consumer digital market later, and again innovation led the way. The company decided that consumers were frustrated by how hard it was to get pictures from a digital camera into a computer. So it put out digital camera model that made it easier to share photos. And it brought out the first printer-camera dock.

By 2005, Kodak ranked No. 1 in U.S. digital camera sales. But by then it had made its third big blunder. It failed to realize how quickly digital cameras would become a commodity, driven by Asian competitors introducing cheaper and cheaper products. In 2001, Kodak was No. 2 in the U.S. digital camera market, but it lost $60 on every camera it sold.

As the digital camera market grew, its cash-cow film business shrank.

By 2010, Kodak was in seventh place in U.S. digital camera sales -- behind Canon, Sony, Nikon and others -- and it held only 7 percent of the market.

And the bankruptcy handwriting was on the wall.

At one time, Kodak was the Apple of the photography business. But by ceasing to innovate, being arrogant toward its competitors and underestimating change in the market, it fell from grace.

Will Apple and other dominant companies like it suffer the same fate?

In these days of lightning change, no one is immune.

Bought a BlackBerry lately?