Shop Talk: TruePosition knows exactly where you are right now

Stock photo courtesy of TruePosition.

In the mid-90s, the FCC mandated that mobile network operators would have to come up with a way to locate mobile handsets making emergency 911 phone calls.

In stepped Berwyn-based TruePosition.

Unlike a handful of competitors, the technology that TruePosition utilized—Uplink Time Difference of Arrival (U-TDOA)—required no hardware installation on the handsets themselves; instead, U-TDOA collects location data from hardware installed on cellular towers.

Since, the subsidiary of Liberty Media Corporation has installed 75,000 measurement units in the U.S., locates 5 million emergency calls per month and serves 100 million people daily.

Are you a customer of AT&T or T-Mobile? The carriers can locate you in a moment’s notice—using Philly hardware. TruePosition does more than $175 million in revenue each year.

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Comcast set to launch “enhanced cordless phone”

Comcast is due for a nationwide launch of what has been called an “enhanced cordless phone,” connecting its VoIP service with e-mail, voice mail, Web access and other features, according to Cable Digital News.

Finally some news about which they want to boast; Comcast has taken a brusing lately.

The announcement comes on the heels of a company investigation into widespread reports from Comcast.net free e-mail users that their accounts were down for long portions of Saturday and they claimed messages were lost. Though less than in previous years, CEO Brian Roberts took some heat when it was announced he was the country’s 13th highest paid chief executive.

Please, $24.7 million ain’t no thang.

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Comcast’s Brian Roberts 13th highest paid CEO

In a report that was sneakily filed when most of the cable industry’s attention was turned toward The Cable Show industry trade show last week, Comcast revealed that CEO Brian Roberts received $24.7 million in 2008, making him the 13th highest paid CEO in the world.

Hating on CEO pay has, of course, been the thing to do lately, but Roberts’ 2008 salary was below his 2006 take. Roberts agreed to several concessions including axing his “golden coffin” clause that pays his heirs five years of his base pay plus a bonus should he pass away. Roberts also agreed to freeze his pay until 2010.

Still, Comcast cut 3,300 jobs last year while Roberts was making an eight figure salary.

Roberts’ pay package makes him the third highest paid in the entertainment/media sector behind Disney’s Bob Iger (paid $51.1 million) and News Corp’s Rupert Murdoch ($30.1 million).

While Comcast’s stock fell 7.6 percent in 2008, the company outperformed the NASDAQ index, which fell 44 percent.

Philly gets no love from latest Ben Franklin Tech Partners investments

At its quarterly meeting this week, the Ben Franklin Technology Development Authority announced that several universities and Keystone Zones will receive state money to help foster the growth of green technologies. Absent in the latest round, however, were any local businesses, though Chester did get some cash thrown its way for its Keystone Innovation Zone.

Now, to be fair, the Southeastern branch of Ben Franklin Technology Partners certainly has shelled out some cash in the past. However, being the Philly cheerleaders we are, its hard not to be disappointed.

In addition to allocating some money for green initiatives, each branch of the four regional branches of the Ben Franklin Technology Partners also discussed where to place the money received from the Alternative Energy Investment Fund.

According to Governor Rendell, the Ben Franklin Technology Development Authority has invested $4 billion since 2003 and has created 27,000 jobs.

Read the full list of recent investments after the jump.

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Solve the Philadelphia budget crisis online

Somebody please figure out this city’s budget shortfall so we can go back to prospering.

It can be Mayor Michael Nutter or city council or, Hell, maybe Larry West.

Maybe you can figure it out with a new, very cool online toy from the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia, the research and analysis nonprofit based on the Avenue of the Arts.

At EconomyLeague.com/Budget, users get a snapshot of the budget battle, by having to close a $200 million hole with 15 options.

“Through the Philadelphia Budget Challenge as well as the Mayor’s budget forums in February, citizens are getting a look behind the curtain at the real trade-offs city managers have to make,” said Allison Kelsey, a spokeswoman for the Economy League. “It makes for better-informed constituents and voters who can then be better advocates for themselves, their neighborhoods and their city.”

See what went into the project, read how I fared and share your own choices below.

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Technically Not Tech: Graphic novelist Duane Swierczynski

Crazed graphic novelist and Philadelphia-native Duane Swierczynski isn’t the first comic-author using social media.

Last month, we spoke to the South Philly minds behind the Black Cherry Bombshells. But Swierczynski, 37, who has blogged since October 2004 and tweeted since last summer, recalls when fan chasing was a real game.

“I remember writing a fan letter to Clive Barker back in 1988, and I went through a lot of trouble trying to figure out the address, typing the letter, retyping the letter when I realized that I made a few bone-headed mistakes, and finally, waiting many, many weeks for a response,” Swierczynski said. “I still have the letter framed.”

“Now it’s extremely easy to reach out and say “yo” to your favorite writer. This is great, but perhaps some of the magic has been lost, too.”

That’s because fans of the man behind the newest editions of The Punisher for Marvel Comics can just get online and come find Duane Swierczynski in an instant.

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Events highlights for the week of April 6 – April 12, 2009

This week, there’s a ton of good stuff happening in the community, all listed on our events calendar. On Monday, Refresh Philly is taking a break from its lecture modus operandi to kick back with some beers at National Mechanics. It could be a great way to network with some of the city’s most innovative brains.

Net Tuesday Philly will be focused on GIS and maps this month, and have invited Robert Cheetham, founder and president of Avencia, a No Libs-based geographic software design company that works often with the public sector. Learn how GIS can help your non-profit. And if you’re for-profit, sneak in anyway. You’ll at least be able to ask someone how to work that darned GPS you’ve been toting around.

Brian Frantz and Jon Graves of Center City West-based The Neat Co. will be talking clean code at the Foundation Series Workshop Wednesday night, and Thursday has a burgeoning NJ and Philly Tech meetup. Be there. And by “there,” we mean at every single event.

Events listed in our highlights are free to attend. Please check our Events calendar for more information and read more after the jump.

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Friday Q&A: Chris Barron of Bentley Systems

Bentley Systems, an infrastructure software company based in Exton and run by four brothers, might  ride the wave of federal stimulus dollars in the region.

With more than 450 employees in southeastern Pennsylvania, including at least 300 in tech fields, Bentley is a major player in the region’s creative economy.

“Bentley has a large number of users throughout Pennsylvania designing, building, and managing infrastructure for water and waste water, roads and bridges, rail and transit, power generation and alternative energy, and green buildings and environmentally sensitive land development,” said Chris Barron, the company’s vice president for corporate marketing. “Some” of their clients will be involved with projects that will benefit from the stimulus spending, though he declined to go into specifics.

Though four brothers are the top dogs, Barron says he’s never confused them — “They are all very unique individuals,” he says — but, after the jump, he does share with us his favorite Bentley clan story and suggests, if they were superheroes, just what superheros they’d be.

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Penn and Academic Earth part of open source education movement

Two giants in higher education’s growing open source movement seem to be circling.

At the end of January, the University of Pennsylvania’s College of Liberal and Professional Studies opened its Open Learning Commons, just about when Academic Earth launched itself.

Academic Earth, of course, is the growing aggregator of academic lectures that is creating a controversial stir in higher education. A stir not chronicled in write ups by Slate or Likehacker or by TechCrunch, though I mentioned it in this week’s Philadelphia Weekly.

“A lot of universities were excited at first [by Academic Earth], but now take issue with a for-profit.” said Jennifer Maden a Penn program implementation manager. “It’s going to depend on the licensing.”

That might get dicey because Richard Ludlow, CEO and founder of Academic Earth has suggested his hopes to enter into the college-heavy Philadelphia market.

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Friday Tech Links: State of the City, rumors of Comcast eyeing Sprint, and ‘one big diff’

In which we link out to the tech news from Philly and elsewhere (when it matters) that slips through the cracks and make it way fun.

Because that’s what we do best.

• The Pew Charitable Trusts released its first annual State of the City, with a ton of interesting information. Maybe one of the best things the Inquirer has done for the city in a decade or more was squeezing former national political writer Larry Eichel out in November. He went to Pew and has been making moves since.

Have more link fun after the jump and find out just what the H that photo is of.

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