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FUNNY BUSINESS: Pushing my luck with two good trips to the BMV

Like a lot of people-which is to say, most Indiana residents-I have long greeted going to the license bureau with the enthusiasm customarily reserved for dental surgery. The difference, of course, is that you get drugs for your root canal, but not even a double helping of nitrous oxide could make a fun afternoon out of getting new license plates. Well, hold on to your hats. I had to go to the license bureau twice last month, once for a…

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Health care top choice in career poll: Student interest in technology jobs holds steady, state survey finds

Recent results from an annual survey show health services remains the most popular career choice among Indiana high-school juniors planning to go to college. The questionnaire was administered by Learn More Indiana, an effort to promote college and career planning supported by the Indiana Commission for Higher Education, as well as a few other state agencies. Learn More Indiana has existed for about 20 years, but had been known as the Indiana College Admissions and Placement Center before the arrival…

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EYE ON THE PIE: Resurrecting important tax reforms

With new mayors and council members in many of our cities, it’s time to drag out some previous suggestions for fiscal reform. First, it’s time to reconsider propertytax abatement. But we can’t understand property taxes and their abatement if we don’t understand assessment practices. And, it is not clear what is happening these days with property assessment. For example, does a property’s assessed value change automatically when it is sold, or does it change only in line with the trend…

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Bariatric product key for software firm’s growth: Former WellPoint execs heading up young company

Medical Animatics LLC hopes its latest product helps double its size while helping patients shrink theirs. The small Indianapolis firm plans to roll out bariatric-education software by yearend. By tapping the popular surgery procedure, Medical Animatics’ officers hope that product grows sales enough to double its nine-person work force in a year. The new product launch is the first major initiative for Medical Animatics since it secured angel investments from two former WellPoint Inc. officers earlier this year. Jane Niederberger…

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RETURN ON TECHNOLOGY: With Vista, the view is anything but grand

As you probably know, early this year Microsoft released its new operating system, known as “Vista.” I first wrote about it in March 2006. I got my initial look at it when it was code-named “Longhorn” in 2005, and I wasn’t impressed. It hasn’t improved with age. You’d think that, after creating operating systems since 1985, Microsoft would know what it’s doing. You’d think wrong. Reading the articles, blogs and other commentary about Vista is like cracking open the door…

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Commentary: A bibliophile’s view of Indianapolis

A public library preserves the record of humanity’s intellectual, scientific and artistic achievements, as well as its failures. Those records and the people who facilitate the community’s access to them support democracy, encourage economic development, sustain lifelong learning, and foster an information- and technology-literate community. A community’s investment in its public library system symbolizes the importance of the civic role of public libraries in ensuring an informed society. In our community, the Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library Foundation raised more than…

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City looks to business for efficiency advice: Using Six Sigma, Fort Wayne saved $30 million

Seeking to increase its efficiency, Marion County government is enlisting a group of volunteer business experts. Their recommendations could lead to lower taxes and better service-just the sort of initiative incoming Mayor Greg Ballard says he wants to embrace. The new High Performance Government Team was approved last month by the City-County Council. Created on the recommendation of the Greater Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce, it is modeled on a similar effort in Fort Wayne, where Mayor Graham Richard, a Democrat,…

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Corporate meeting rooms become high-tech wonders: High-definition videoconferencing a growing option

Corporate PowerPoint presentations are becoming so passé. Just as consumers are craving high-definition television sets for their living rooms, corporations and hotels are taking the next step and integrating the technology into their boardrooms and meeting space. Besides videoconferencing in high definition, other high-tech gadgetry now available for both the business and hospitality sectors includes digital signage displaying messages for employees or guests, and digital room scheduling alerting when meeting rooms are in use. While some companies are upgrading to…

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ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: World War II veterans built economy into juggernaut

Veterans Day is upon us again, and the slow passing of the World War II generation sparks thought on their contributions. I will let others dwell on their considerable wartime achievements. I am an economist, not a historian, after all. Our 16 million World War II veterans emerged from conflict in the late summer of 1945 to a muchfractured world. The production of goods-where facilities had survived bombs and artillery-was almost wholly focused on the demands of war. A worldwide…

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Medical-device startup lands venture capital: Symbios bringing orphan Biomet technology to market

When large companies make innovations that don’t fit their business plan, the discovery often ends up gathering dust on a shelf. But entrepreneurs are eager to build new companies around these orphaned technologies. Four years ago, Jeffrey Alholm spotted just such an opportunity. Warsaw-based Biomet Inc. had tabled a promising anesthetic-dispensing device. So Alholm formed Symbios Medical Products LLC and cut a deal to secure its rights. Now, Symbios has a chance to commercialize the device widely, thanks to a…

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Midwest Mole tunnels into large local projects: East-side company in unusual niche makes mark

In the face of a slumping local economy in the early 1980s, several national construction firms packed up and left Indianapolis. One locally based salesman, Len Liotti, was given a choice-move to St. Louis along with his job at tunneling contractor Affholder Inc., or set out on his own. Seeing the void the big players would create when leaving, Liotti started Midwest Mole Inc. in 1982 to fill it. Twenty-five years later, the privately held firm is thriving thanks to…

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New gadget may alter radio biz

If it lives up to the hype, the Portable People Meter could revolutionize radio advertising by providing a more accurate look
at who’s listening to what. The pager-size device tracks radio-listening habits in real time, rather than relying on ratings
survey participants to remember what stations they tuned in during the course of a day.

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EDITORIAL: Tough love for struggling park: State’s high standards deserve praise

Tough love for struggling park State’s high standards deserve praise It would be easy for the state’s certified technology park initiative to degenerate into a handout program with little or no accountability. If communities in all corners of the state get a park, along with the accompanying tax benefits and grants, everyone’s happy, right? Perhaps. But for the Indiana Economic Development Corp. to deploy resources in the most potent manner, it must focus on the parks with the potential to…

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LESSONS LEARNED: Look for ways to overcome obstacles

Flory May isn’t one to back down from challenges. She’d rather work around them. Overcoming obstacles was her job as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army, and not much changed when she left the military and started her own event-planning business. Turns out, her two careers aren’t all that different. “They’re both about creating order out of chaos, bringing people together behind a common mission,” said May, 40. “In some ways, event planning can be more difficult.” Indeed, organizing a…

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Cyber sky is falling, cyber sky is falling-or not: State, IU make nice with Colorado company leasing lines for vital I-Light network linking Indiana universities

Indiana’s network for advanced university research, linked by a web of fiber optics known as I-Light, is now deemed safe by the state and Indiana University. Both have backed away from dire warnings about the network’s future that they issued earlier this month after a key partner in the network changed hands. Indianapolis-based Indiana Fiber Works, which leases hundreds of miles of fiber to I- Light under state contracts not set to expire for nine more years, was purchased Oct….

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RETURN ON TECHNOLOGY: Is your Web site a cost or an investment?

I don’t particularly like to shop, but I like seeing how other people shop, especially online. There are always so many surprises. Of course, the big research is in e-commerce, where buyers spend money online. Studies show the number of people willing to buy online is growing steadily. The Census Bureau shows a consistently upward trendline through August 2007 (www.census.gov/mrts/www/ecomm.html). Most experts seem to believe that not only are more people throwing down their plastic electronically, but established shoppers are…

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Embattled city to get lift from resurgence of Remy:

B e a t e n – d ow n Anderson finally has some good auto-related news: Remy International Inc., headquartered in the industrial city of 60,000, is poised to survive- perhaps even thrive-thanks to a bankruptcy reorganization plan that halves its debt, along with other moves that make it more competitive. “Frankly, I think this is a great piece of information for Anderson,” Anderson Mayor Kevin Smith said of the company’s trip through bankruptcy court, which is expected to…

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INVESTING: Explore biotech universe, but choose selectively

If you look at stock market returns over a 100-year-plus time frame, the highestreturning industries have been pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. Dropping the time frame down to the last 25 years shows a different picture, with technology taking the top spot. But with more than a century of momentum, drug companies can still attract interest. Using a quantitative screen that I run every week, I noticed that biotechnology stocks have been picking up steam lately. This surprised me because the big…

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RETURN ON TECHNOLOGY: Try your hand at running McDonald’s

It’s always fun when I find something on the Web that’s highly critical, vaguely disgusting, entertaining and informative, all at once. Mollieindustria has created an online video game at w w w. m c v i d e o game.comthat lets you run the burger giant McDonald’s, and while it’s not sparing of the company’s faults, it’s a great study in how hard it is to keep the sandwich empire going. The creators say on the site that they built…

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