LANSING - Michigan could start attracting millions more in investment dollars from film companies "tomorrow" if it upped the ante on its incentive package by allowing moviemakers to write off 40 percent of their production costs, film producers and writers told the House Commerce Committee on Tuesday. They added that the "headline making move" would
ANN ARBOR ? The Michigan Usability Professional's Association December meeting is marking World Usability Day December 3 with a holiday networking session at Leopold Brothers, a pub in Ann Arbor. The meeting will give members a chance to strengthen local ties the Usability community, or forge new ones. Also will give members a chance to
REDMOND, Wa. - New tests have revealed that XP with the beta Service Pack 3 has twice the performance of Vista, even with its long-awaited Service Pack 1. Vista's first service pack, to be released early next year, is intended to boost the operating system's performance, CNET News.Com reported. However, when Vista with the Service
LANSING - There was no official action taken on the expanded sales tax on services on Monday, but the leading lawmakers working out the issue have been holding discussions on changes. Rep. Steve Bieda (D-Warren), Sen. Jud Gilbert (R-Algonac) and Sen. Mark Jansen (R-Gaines Twp.) have been in conversations trying to reach agreement on a
ANN ARBOR ? The Frankel Commercialization Fund, a student-managed venture capital seed fund at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, has made its first investment, $85,000 in Arbor Photonics an Ann Arbor company commercializing technology that originated in the U-M's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Ann Arbor-based RPM Ventures, which invests
TROY - Automation Alley has received a contract from the U.S. Army Tank-Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center and the National Automotive Center to provide an analysis of the Small Business Innovation Research program and to propose a strategy for improving the commercialization of SBIR technologies. No dollar figures was provided. The SBIR program is
LANSING ? A greatly expanded telemedicine network throughout the state will allow state residents to rural areas to stay closer to home when in need of medical treatments thanks to a $20.9 million, three-year grant from the Federal Communications Commission. The money will be used to extend high speed Internet connections to 390 public hospitals,
LANSING - On a 20-16 straight party-line vote the Michigan Senate has passed a proposal to replace the expanded sales tax on services with a temporary business tax surcharge, but action on HB 5408 leaves open the dispute on resolving the issue before the tax takes effect on December 1. The Senate changes cuts the
GRAND RAPIDS ? The GLIMA Network, about to undergo a major name change and face lift, has lost one of its founding chapters, the former GLIMAWest, now called AimWest. The separation, begun last August when the GLIMA Network sent internal messages to its eight chapters statewide, culminated with the official split this month. Both sides
ANN ARBOR ? Internet2 is accepting submissions for the 2008 round of the Internet2 IDEA Awards ? for existing or proposed applications that increase the impact of next-generation networks around the world. New this year is the Wave of the Future category for advanced applications that specifically require or make use of a dedicated optical