FIRST READ COMMENTARY: Providing valuable, credible information can be the foundation of a sound business model, something the earliest online business learned in a hurry.Take Autobytel, for example. The web’s first car-buying website launched in 1995, supplying consumers with information they’d never before had access to: how much automotive dealers paid for new cars. “The dealers hated it,” recalls Thomas Heshion, a former executive.Autobytel will always be remembered as the first dot-com to advertise on the Super Bowl, but it’s thriving more than a decade later because it supplies information that helps car buyers better understand what they’re buying, and
With creative use of laser scanning, Alberici Constructors has shaved four weeks off its schedule to install two 120-ton steel vertical-lift gates that are part of a $165-million complex.
A team of researchers recently shifted its operations to Edmonton, Alberta, from Hong Kong to continue development of a new alignment-control and surveying system for tunnel-boring operations. The city is helping with on-the job testing of the system, which is based on a successfully tested, smaller version for utility tunnels. Researchers aim to have a fully operational system for use in the construction of a large-diameter drainage tunnel this April.“The tunneling industry is losing productivity and having problems with quality control” because it lacks real-time survey data, says Ming Lu, associate professor at the University of Alberta. He says the
Image courtesy of Lantronix The xPrintServer by Lantronix helps iPads print. As elegant as they are, the Apple iPhones and iPads surging into the workplace still have a few rough edges, including the limited number of printers that work with them.But that's about to change.In February, Lantronix, an Irvine, Calif.-based technology firm, will start shipping the xPrintServer, a $149 plug-and-play device that can be added to any network Ethernet port, allowing wireless iOS devices to print out at almost any subnet printer. Early testers rave about it.The need stems from Apple's iOS engineering, which supports only AirPrint-compatible printers. While the
Bottom: PHoto courtesy of Lantronix, TOP: Photo courtesy of Air Burners Inc. Good FIT Air Burners Inc. puts QR codes on new equipment to get manuals, and sends out stickers for old rigs, too. At all hours, the staff at Air Burners Inc., Palm City, Fla., answers phone calls and e-mails about maintenance and repair questions from operators of the company's waste processing units around the world.The company's air-curtain burners cost up to $150,000 and are used in rugged environments such as landfills, construction sites and military operational zones—which leads to a problem. "They're usually far from where the manuals
Rendering Courtesy of Cornell University The Cornell-Technion team will receive a 99-year lease and $100 million in city funding to help with building and related costs of the campus. New York City is on its way to becoming the "world's capital of technological innovation" with the selection of Cornell University and its partner Technion-Israel Institute of Technology to build a state-of-the-art applied sciences campus, says NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The Cornell-Technion team's proposal for an 11-acre, $2-billion-plus campus on Roosevelt Island beat out several other proposals under the mayor's Applied Sciences NYC initiative, which aims to boost the city's global
Related Links: LightSquared's Press Release LightSquared Faces Critics, Floats GPS Plan Changes GPS Industry Groups Reject LightSquared's Network Fix The ongoing fight over the future of LightSquared's plans to build a broadband satellite network using GPS spectrum entered a new phase this week.The Reston, Va.-based LightSquared filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission on Dec. 20, seeking a declaratory ruling on whether it can make use of the spectrum it has been licensed for its proposed 4G LTE broadband network.The network plans would occupy frequencies adjacent to those used by most of the GPS receivers currently in use. GPS
Related Links: Make Way for App Builders in Construction Top Paid and Free Construction Apps Tablets Take Off in Construction Even though tablets and smart phones are spreading onto jobsites at a swift pace in construction, chief financial officers from major A/E/C firms say technology purchases must come with solid returns on investment as part of that adoption. This was one of many technology issues highlighted during the two-day ENR FutureTech conference held by McGraw-Hill Construction in San Francisco this week.Two panel discussions, "Chief Information Officer Roundtable" and "IT from the CFO Perspective," on Dec. 13 reinforced the industry-wide movement
Related Links: Software Roundup: Make Way for App Builders in Construction MWH Global Spin-Off Innovyze Leads With 'Wet' Infrastructure Apps Top Paid and Free Construction Apps As part of its ongoing review of productivity apps for construction professionals, ENR reached out to its readers, Twitter followers, Facebook friends and other social network users for their favorite construction and productivity apps.Listed here are some of the apps that came through ENR's social graph, including some apps from engineering students at George Mason University.Although by no means complete, this latest review will be published and updated online on at ENR.com/technology/social_media with the
GRAPH COURTESY OF CURT A survey conducted by a committee of young professionals in the Construction Users Roundtable offers a profile of technology use, adoption and attitudes across four age groups in the industry, suggesting strong engagement among the youngest but also the oldest, with a sag in the middle.The results of the 30-question survey, conducted by CURT's Young Professionals Committee, are being analyzed. A report will be available on the CURT website soon, but a peek at the data is provocative.Of 304 respondents, the largest number, 110 (36%) came from the cohort 51 years old or older. The second