Archive: Business & Technology

New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli announced Thursday that Fortune 500 retailers Dollar Tree and Dillard’s have agreed to new reporting standards that will help ensure greater transparency and safety in their suppliers’ factories.  The agreements will help safeguard the companies and their investors against the financial and reputational damage that can result when suppliers fail to uphold recognized standards of labor and workplace safety. As a result of the substantive agreements, DiNapoli has withdrawn his shareholder proposals asking the companies to strengthen their supply chain accountability.

“There’s a growing community of corporations who understand that their suppliers’ ability to maintain safe conditions is key to their business model,” Comptroller DiNapoli said. “Companies like Dillard’s and Dollar Store are helping to make progress, but there’s a lot more work to do.  I firmly believe that greater transparency and accountability surrounding workers’ rights result in stronger, more sustainable companies and better returns on the Common Retirement Fund’s investments. Sadly, it took the deaths of more than 1,100 workers in a Bangladesh factory collapse one year ago to spur global action on these supply chain issues.  We will continue to urge our companies to embrace robust reporting standards on workplace safety.”

The new Cornell Store in the Shops at Ithaca Mall will be holding a grand opening celebration on Saturday, April 19 from 10:00am – 9:00pm. After operating in a temporary location in the mall, The Cornell Store now has a new permanent store on a main corridor.

The Cornell Store at The Shops at Ithaca Mall features high quality apparel and gift items celebrating Cornell University. In contrast to the store’s location on campus, the store at the mall offers many conveniences, including extensive free parking, evening and weekend hours, and proximity to other retailers the community values. The store will be open during the mall’s open hours.

Cayuga Medical Center will provide specially trained Rasa Spa massage therapists to patients who will go to their bedside and give comfort massages based on the needs of the patient. In-bed massage is available to any patient on request by patient, family, CMC staff or physician regardless of the type and severity of their condition.

Pubs are a dime a dozen, but brew-pubs are special.  They have a cachet that makes them stand out because you get to drink the beer in the place where it was brewed.  For the past six years the Scale House Brew Pub has offered beer on tap, served directly from the tanks behind the bar.  Now owner Steve Fazzary is taking it to the next level.  Until now his pub-made beer has been brewed from a limited selection of extracts.  Now Fazzary has installed a 2 barrel pilot plant for all grain brewing that may be the start of a major expansion for the restaurateur.

"With the all grain system we can diversify," he says. "We can tweak, mix, come up with our own formulas and tastes and color.  It's going to be a huge boost for us here.  We're going to keep the extract beers that we already make, but we're going to add a minimum of three and possibly six more beers on tap.  And down the road for retail."

Have you ever wanted to get a picture off your iPhone quickly?  Or save that precious voicemail from your cute little niece or nephew?  Or get a picture off your iCloud photo stream?  I often do, and I have been frustrated by the tools Apple provides.  iTunes is great for many things, but not really great for accessing all the files on your phone.  iPhoto is terrible, and Image Capture, while better, is just OK.  So I was pleasantly surprised at the scope of features and ease of use when I tried DiskAid by DigiDNA.

DiskAid is desktop software for Windows or Mac that connects to your iPhone or iPad and gives you easy tools to transfer files to and from your mobile devices and your computer.  You can also access the files directly on your mobile device.  For example, this morning I loaded a picture from my phone directly into Photoshop on my computer  after manipulating it I used 'Save As' to save the edited version onto my computer.  Then I listened to old voicemails through my computer speakers.  Then I copied pictures from my phone to a folder on my computer using simple drag and drop from DiskAid to Finder on my Mac.

TCAD President Michael Stamm joined others for a press conference in Albany to announce the result of a new study, 'Manufacturing Executives: Attitudes, Operations, Expectations & Opportunities.' The results indicate that while the manufacturing sector still finds the economic climate to be challenging, they continue to invest in capital and operation in New York State.

"Our study has indicated something we have long known: New York State manufacturers are resilient. Despite the challenging economic climate, manufacturers are seeing success and growth based on their ability to adapt. In this study, we sought to identify just what manufacturers were feeling about the economic climate, and identify how NYS should focus its attention to help grow manufacturing and our economy. Broad-based relief for manufacturers with regards to tax reduction and regulatory reform remain critical for the retention and growth in NYS of our manufacturers," said Manufacturers Alliance President Randy Wolken.

Alternatives FCU’s Student Credit Union Now In All Ithaca Elementary Schools Ithaca, NY – Alternatives Federal Credit Union is pleased to announce the opening of a Student Credit Union branch at Ithaca’s South Hill Elementary School. The opening of the South Hill Branch marks the expansion of the Student Credit Union into all eight Ithaca City School District elementary schools.

South Hill’s new principal, Samantha Little, spearheaded the effort to bring Student Credit Union to the school. “It rocks!" she says.  "We are teaching students responsibility and accountability. Our credit union membership is growing every week. We are grateful to Alternatives Federal Credit Union for the opportunity to collaborate in preparing our students to be financially aware and responsible.”

Horseheads-based Unchained Properties, LLC (UP) announced today that it has finalized a purchase agreement for the former Emerson Power Transmission plant, located on South Aurora Street/Route 96B in Ithaca, New York, and concepts to redevelop the site. A public meeting will be held on April 10 at 5:30pm at Cinemapolis movie theatre (120 E. Green St., Ithaca), to introduce the project to the community and seek their involvement in the process.

The property had been an active manufacturing site since the early 1990's, attracting workers from around the globe seeking jobs in the thriving manufacturing business. From 1928 to 1982 the property was owned by BorgWarner. Emerson Power Transmission continued manufacturing at the site from 1983 until its closure in 2011.

Crowdfunding is the new way to get new products to the market.  Individuals pledge relatively small amounts of cash, but if you get enough of them you can raise millions of dollars to launch the latest greatest thing.  Tech journalists have gone wild over crowdfunded technology, creating a buzz about products that don't actually exist yet.  That gets people excited to click over to a crowdfunding site and pledge money so they will be the first to get the exciting new widget at a discounted price -- because they helped fund the project.

When it goes as planned crowdfunding is a great way to get your product on the market.  But it doesn't always go right.  Young inventors are optimistic about how long it will take to make molds, complete factory runs, debug software, fix hardware design issues...  It shouldn't be a surprise to investors when their super cool gadget doesn't arrive exactly when they hoped it would.  This is a story of how the launch of a reportedly fabulous product called a Lockitron has gone very, very wrong.

Steve NashFreeville, February 24, 2014 – Upscale Remodeling of Freeville NY has been awarded “Best Of Houzz” by Houzz, the leading platform for home remodeling and design. Upscale Remodeling, which just celebrated its 22nd anniversary in business, was chosen by the 16 million monthly users that comprise the Houzz community.

The Best Of Houzz award is given in two categories: Customer Satisfaction and Design.  Customer Satisfaction honors are determined by the number and quality of client reviews that a professional received in 2013.

'Mama Red' Samantha BuyskesAfter two decades of wearing many hats including several successful restaurant locations under the Simply Red brand, cookbook author and culinary educator, Samantha Buyskes, a South African native, is hoping to bring her signature seasonally focused cuisine and exotic spicing to a mobile kitchen and restaurant. Buyskes is looking to the community-fundraising platform Kickstarter for help.

The 'food bus', which will offer cooking classes for children and adults and private dinners is striving to raise $40,000 by April 20 in order to cover the cost of converting a bus into a full-fledged mobile kitchen and restaurant. The Kickstarter campaign offers a range of reward packages available to backers, including private dinner parties and cooking lessons.

The Ithaca Tompkins Regional airport launched a new marketing campaign that invites the business and leisure travel community to make flying out of ITH the first choice when making travel plans. This is part of efforts to keep planes full and to position ITH for new service and lower rates in the long term.

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