The handset will work over hotspot networks allowing Vonage customers to use their service while roaming. Boingo and Vonage had a deal in place to test out VoIP over Wi-Fi hotspots, but it?s unclear here in the late evening how that ties together. Also, Vonage?s site doesn?t yet list the announcement, so we don?t know if they?ve partnered with various networks to ease authentication.
Skype is another option.
The Wisconsin Counties Association wants all 72 counties to ask voters in April whether the state – instead of counties – should pay for the judicial and human services systems it mandates, according to Jennie Tunkieicz. Interesting, but I’m not sure that this intramural government battle is money well spent for the taxpayers.
Christian Davenport says that the National Security Agency is opening up and looking for small business to help in the war on terror.
“I’m looking for new ideas,” said Daniel G. Wolf, the NSA’s information assurance director. “We want to hear what you have.”
In November, the agency announced that it would pump $445,000 into the center, whose companies are at the vanguard of security technology: finding cures for bioterrorism diseases, protecting computer networks from hackers, developing software designed to find terrorists.
As the intelligence industry continues to expand since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the clandestine agency is playing a more prominent — and visible — role in the Washington region. With plans to hire 7,500 new employees over five years, the NSA, already Anne Arundel County’s largest employer, is undergoing its largest recruiting drive since the Cold War.
The agency is also increasingly opening its doors to private companies for help in developing spy technologies.
Sunday’s Doonesbury is simply classic.
Atlanta (ouch!) based Rayovac is expected to announce a $476M acquisition of closely held United Industries, a consumer-products maker of such brands as Cutter insect repellant, Sta-Green fertilizer, and Eight in One Pet supplies, according to Dennis Berman
The move is the latest in Rayovac’s plan to transform itself from a seller of low-cost batteries, which has been its focus for nearly 100 years, into a diversified purveyor of consumer products. In acquiring United, which operates under the Spectrum Brands name in the U.S., Rayovac expects its battery sales to account for just 40% of overall revenue, down from 67%.
The deal will pay St. Louis-based United a total of $406 million in Rayovac shares, which closed trading Monday on the New York Stock Exchange at $29.56. Rayovac will also pay $70 million in cash to United’s shareholders, while redeeming or replacing $900 million of United’s outstanding debt. The companies are targeting cost savings of about $70 million to $75 million, company executives said. They said the deal will be immediately accretive to Rayovac’s earnings.
Seems rather strange that a battery company would acquire a fertilizer and insect repellant firm, until I read that “both have long been under the wing of private-equity firm Thomas H. Lee Partners“. Ah, sounds like packaging for a bigger deal. Madison has growing risk here with respect to Rayovac’s ongoing employment.
There’s now shortage of discussion online regarding Saturday’s Badger loss in the Outback bowl to the Georgia Bulldogs. Michael Hunt, I think, captures the essence. Many links here. Keep clicking.
I talked briefly with a Madisonian who was quite a good Samaritan Saturday. This person lives at the bottom of two hills which a number of people slid down during the freezing rain. Several of those people spent the night at his family’s home. One, a Korean woman and her young child had never driven on ice before…. Here’s the story of the Good Samaritan….
Wisconsin’s legislature continues to consider a Taxpayer Bill of Rights. Colorado passed a taxpayer bill of rights in 1992. Steven Walters visits the front range to talk with locals about their version of TABOR. Why did TABOR happen in Colorado? The numbers tell the story:
Much more here:
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Click on the photos to view larger versions of the images. Visiting the “house of the sun” is quite an experience. Maui’s Haleakala crater sites at 10,000 feet. It’s quite a drive up from the beach – at 4:00a.m.
Mark Twain described Maui’s Haleakala Sunrise as follows:
It was the sublimest spectacle I ever witnessed, and I think the memory of it will remain with me always.
Enjoy the complete sunrise via this Maui Haleakala Crater Sunrise Movie with music. Webcam.
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