Archive: Business & Technology

You're lying in bed when you hear a loud noise outside.  What do you do?

A) Run frantically to the front door, barefoot in your pajamas
B) Pull the covers up over your head and make believe you didn't hear anything
C) Say, "Alexa show driveway camera" and look at the screen on your alarm clock.

I recently tried choice C for the first time, and I have to say that sometimes technology does make our lives better.  As gadgets have become ubiquitous they have been learning to talk to one another.  Amazon is a leader in this trend.  The Amazon digital assistant Alexa passed 80,000 skills in January.  In the Alexa universe skills are the connection between you talking to Alexa and some other device or action.  For example you can ask Alexa to find your robotic vacuum cleaner.  Or to turn on the lights in the family room.  Or to show you the live feed from your security camera.  But not all skills are as skillful as others.  You want devices that offer skills that connect to Alexa reliably and have a good range of actual skills enabled by the Alexa 'skill'.  Inexpensive is good (also rare).

All that led me to try Wyze cameras, both the stationary Wyze Cam and the Wyze Cam Pan, which can view a 360 degree radius.

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today called on the Department of Financial Services to investigate reports that state-regulated advertisers are using Facebook, Inc.'s advertising platform to discriminate against protected classes.

"The allegations against Facebook advertisers are extremely troubling and fly in the face of everything that New York stands for," Cuomo said. "I am calling on the Department of Financial Services to investigate these claims and help ensure that New Yorkers seeking housing for themselves and their families are not discriminated against in any way. We will take aggressive action and ensure that those who are behind these reprehensible alleged practices are held fully accountable."

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A Savona, NY resident became the next lucky big winner in Tops Monopoly Collect and Win! John Paul Zisk is the 9th winner of a new car in the series with other winners spread throughout the chains footprint. Zisk is a frequent shopper at the Tops located at 309 West Morris Street, Bath, NY and didn't realize at first that he was holding the keys to such a big prize.

“When I got the tickets I didn’t open them right away so it wasn’t until a few days later that I realized I had won,” John told Tops officials. John said they had played Monopoly in the past but have never won anything like this before. “You can bet I’ll be playing from now on!” John was surrounded by his family as he celebrated at the store with the Tops team.

The proposed conversion of the Cayuga Power Plant to a data centre along with a similar proposed project in Somerset, NY have received support from various organizations and entities. The Lansing project would involve $100M in capital investment for renovations and a 15MW solar farm and would create 30-40 full-time jobs with average salaries of $40,000-$60,000, as well as 100 construction jobs.

A letter in The Buffalo News, authored by Jim Cahill, President of the New York Building and Construction Trades and Lisa Dix, Senior New York Campaign Manager for Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign expressed their organizations' support of the proposed projects.

Alternatives and Planned Parenthood of the Southern Finger Lakes (PPSFL) announced the next phase of their partnership will be TransAction Financial Empowerment Program.

One of the first programs in the United States specifically for transgender and non-binary community members, TransAction provides access to funds to support transition-related care and expenses, such as hormone therapy, vocal coaching, accessing more fitting wardrobes, legal documentation updates, and surgeries and other medical procedures—without the risks of high-interest credit or predatory lenders.

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced Tuesday that he will host an economic development roundtable with Israeli businesses during his solidarity trip. The Governor will depart tomorrow Wednesday, June 26, arriving in Israel on Thursday, June 27 and returning to New York in the evening on Friday, June 28. During the roundtable, the Governor and State officials will work to identify opportunities with Israeli businesses that can strengthen the state's economic development agenda, including in Unmanned Aerial Systems technology, train navigation software and healthcare.

"Israel isn't just a friend and ally to New York - it's also an extremely important trade partner, and this economic development roundtable will help make that partnership even stronger and show solidarity during this rash of anti-Semitism plaguing our nation," Cuomo said. "This summit will focus specifically on our economic development agenda and we will be meeting with some of the best and brightest minds in the UAS technology, healthcare, software and transportation sectors. I look forward to seeing the results of these discussions which I am confident will be mutually beneficial for the State of New York and Israel."

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced last week the settlement of one of New York's largest environmental enforcement actions in state history. The settlement requires the FMC Corporation to clean up arsenic and other hazardous contamination affecting areas in and around its facility in Middleport, Niagara County, and includes $2.4 million in penalties and $1 million for a community-based environmental benefit project.

"When the health of our communities is threatened, we aggressively pursue polluters and hold them accountable," Cuomo said. "The state is already working diligently to protect the public from contamination released by the FMC Corporation and this comprehensive enforcement agreement requires the company to reimburse taxpayers millions of dollars for past cleanup actions and invest hundreds of millions more until the job is done."

Washington, DC - Congressman Tom Reed Tuesday highlighted how recent bills introduced along with the United States Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA) will help New York manufacturing.

"We are proud to be a constant advocate for U.S. manufacturing in the halls of Congress, and the bills introduced will help give our local manufacturers fair access to resources they need to boost jobs," Reed said. "However, this is only one piece of the puzzle. Speaker Pelosi must put USMCA on the floor for a vote to keep the success of U.S. manufacturing moving in the right direction – otherwise the New York manufacturing jobs we care about could be in jeopardy."

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced Tuesday that the 22nd Annual Cyber Security Conference, New York's premier cyber security event, begins today in Albany, bringing over 1,300 cyber security professionals from state and local government, academia, and the private sector to discuss emerging developments in the industry and best practices designed to improve the security of New York State. The conference, held at the Empire State Plaza through tomorrow, June 5, aligns with the Governor's longstanding commitment to protect New Yorkers and businesses from cyber threats and improve the safety and security of the State.

"The Annual Cyber Security Conference brings industry professionals from across the state together in one place, working toward the common goal to increase New York's cyber security infrastructure," Cuomo said. "As we face increased cyber threats across the globe, this longstanding conference is more critical than ever to ensure we can continue to lead the nation to protect New Yorkers from devastating cybercrimes."

Groundswell Center for Local Food & Farming has been named the winner of the 2019 Community Food Funders (CFF) Champions Award! This prestigious award - given to one organization annually - was created to recognize leaders empowering food system change in Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York.

Seven funders in the Community Food Funders network, plus the 2018 winner Brooklyn-based East New York Farms, comprised the selection committee. Groundswell Center was chosen in recognition of their efforts to train the next generation of sustainable farmers, targeting these programs to marginalized communities, providing business and technical assistance to help farmers flourish, and doing so with a social justice and equity framework. Put together the organization's efforts represent the triple bottom line approach to food systems change. And done with a shoestring budget!

New York's Industrial Development Agencies (IDAs) reported providing $751 million in net tax exemptions for local economic development efforts in 2017, up more than 5 percent from 2016, according to a report issued today by State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli.

The gap in net job gains created by IDA-sponsored projects narrowed between upstate and downstate regions in 2017, according to the most recent data submitted by the state's 109 active IDAs. Through 2017, downstate areas accounted for 51 percent of the nearly 200,000 total net jobs gained through IDA projects versus 49 percent gained in upstate regions. The prior year, downstate outpaced the rest of the state with 57 percent of the total.