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"Welcome In" to American Express' Newest Brand Campaign Entitled, "The Membership Effect"

Note to visitors: We have moved!  For current news and information, please visit our successor blogs: http://JBK-BizTech.blogspot.com and http://JBK-Current-Events.blogspot.com.  Thank you."Welcome In" to American Express' Newest Brand Campaign Entitled, "The Membership Effect"Television Spots Featuring Actor/Comedian Aziz Ansari, Restaurateur Thomas Keller and Small Business Saturday Highlight Unique Benefits and Value American Express Provides Consumers and Merchants

Broadcast and Cable Presence for Ads Across Two Dozen Networks

NEW YORK,  March 28, 2012 -- 

American Express announced the launch of its latest television and digital brand campaign entitled, "The Membership Effect," which chronicles the power of the unique benefits and innovations available to the millions of American Express Cardmembers and merchant partners connecting globally every day.

The campaign is the centerpiece of a broader effort that American Express is taking to educate its customers about the potential that American Express offers to connect people to possibilities through the power of its network, or "The Membership Effect." The American Express network connects millions of consumers, merchants and businesses around the globe in a payments and commerce ecosystem that creates value for all its participants. American Express is built on relationships, insights gleaned from data, and the ability to use these assets to enhance lives and build business success for its customers.

The campaign aims to showcase how American Express delivers benefits, rewards, savings and experiences for customers and services and relationships that help its merchant partners succeed through television spots featuring actor/comedian Aziz Ansari, chef/restaurateur Thomas Keller and the Company's Small Business Saturday initiative.

The campaign also introduces a new tagline for American Express, "Welcome In," to highlight that membership in a networked world is inclusive, ambitious and emphasizes the advantages that come from belonging to the American Express community, called out as "the power of all of us."

The campaign kicked off on March 15 and has aired during primetime lineups on CBS, NBC and Fox and will include such network hits as American Idol, Glee, CSI, Big Bang Theory, Saturday Night Live, Touch, Smash and The Voice. Thirty-second and sixty-second versions of the Keller and Small Business Saturday executions will air across more than two dozen broadcast and cable networks including AMC, ESPN, TBS and Comedy Central throughout the spring. The digital campaign includes a heavy presence across Facebook, Twitter and Apple's iAd mobile platform.

Two new executions featuring Ansari begin airing today.

"Through the unique American Express ecosystem of buyers and sellers, we have the ability to offer our Cardmembers and merchant partners additional value and service. Nowhere is that more evident than with our collaborations with Facebook, foursquare and, most recently, Twitter -- which allow us to connect and facilitate both experiences and commerce between Cardmembers and merchants," said John Hayes, Chief Marketing Officer, American Express. "The Membership Effect captures that idea, of how American Express is creating powerful connections and shared value between the members of the American Express community of consumers, merchants and small business owners."

Several American Express programs that capitalize on the power and potential of "The Membership Effect" are highlighted in the advertising campaign, including:

Creating Rich Experiences for Cardmembers
American Express partnered with Aziz Ansari to develop three humorous spots showing how he is able to take advantage of exclusive offers for American Express Cardmembers by "syncing" his Card to Facebook, Twitter and foursquare. A :60 spot takes Ansari on a journey with the help of his American Express Card following his quest to win the heart of a young woman, and two :30 versions show Ansari feeding his love of kayaking and the tuba. The ads illustrate how American Express uses social media platforms to add value to Cardmembers by allowing seamless redemption of merchant offers without the need for coupons or special codes.

Delivering Value to Businesses
The spots featuring Thomas Keller share how "The Membership Effect" benefits him as a small business owner and American Express merchant partner. Throughout the spot, Keller shares how American Express harnesses the power of its network of buyers and sellers to grow his business and provides insights and tools that help him expand his customer base and support the local economy in Yountville, California, home to his first restaurant The French Laundry, and beyond.

Consumers and Communities Connecting to Support Small Business
American Express' successful Small Business Saturday initiative – which drives millions of consumers to small businesses around the country – is profiled in multiple television spots to highlight the role that American Express, consumers and merchants play to support an important economic engine: small business.

For more information on "The Membership Effect," visit americanexpress.com/me. All of the spots can be viewed online at youtube.com/americanexpress.

About American Express
American Express is a global services company, providing customers with access to products, insights and experiences that enrich lives and build business success. Learn more at americanexpress.com and connect with us on facebook.com/americanexpress,twitter.com/americanexpress and youtube.com/americanexpress.

Rutgers Teams With IBM to Build Powerful High-Performance Computing Center in New Jersey

IBM provides supercomputing equipment and software resources aimed at improving New Jersey’s economic competitiveness

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NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. - 27 Mar 2012: Rutgers today formally launched a high-performance computing (HPC) center at the university focused on the application of “Big Data” analytics in life sciences, finance, and other industries. The center is aimed at improving the economic competitiveness of New Jersey’s public and private research organizations.

The HPC center will be part of the newly created Rutgers Discovery Informatics Institute (RDI²)and will utilize supercomputing equipment and software provided by IBM in the project’s first phase. Rutgers anticipates future expansion of the center will lead to the university having one of the world’s most powerful academic supercomputers. 

The institute, powered by an IBM Blue Gene®/P supercomputer, has several goals.

·        Creating an HPC resource, with expert support, for industry in New Jersey and the surrounding region

·        Educating the New Jersey workforce and Rutgers students in working with advanced analytics and a state-of-the-art HPC center

·        Providing HPC resources to Rutgers faculty members and regional organizations, who are expanding their use of extremely large data sets 

“There is immense potential here because Rutgers and IBM have some of the best minds in high-performance computing,” said Michael J. Pazzani, vice president for research and economic development and professor of computer science at Rutgers. “The ability to conduct data analysis on a large scale, leveraging the power of ‘big data,’ has become increasingly essential to research and development.” 

“Just as important is the valuable new resource that we are creating for industry,” Pazzani said. “The Institute will collaborate with businesses that need high-performance computing capabilities but can’t justify the cost of building their own system.” 

The collaboration involving Rutgers and IBM scientists and engineers is expected to extend beyond computer science and engineering, to encompass fields such as cancer and genetic research, medical imaging and informatics, advanced manufacturing, environmental and climate research, and materials science.  

“The application of analytics to ‘big data’ has quickly emerged as the new foundry of the 21st century economy,” said Phil Guido, IBM general manager, North America. “IBM is eager to work with Rutgers to help improve New Jersey’s economic competitiveness through this center. IBM firmly believes that public-private collaboration and research can be critical in ensuring our workforce is equipped and empowered with next generation skills like analytics.” 

The IBM Blue Gene supercomputer, housed in the Hill Center for Mathematics on Rutgers’ Busch Campus in Piscataway, will be the only supercomputer available to commercial users in the state. Only eight of the nation’s 62 scientific computation centers have industrial partnership programs. The two Blue Gene/ P racks at Rutgers will be far more powerful than any computer at the university today. “Excalibur” is the name Rutgers has chosen for it, playing off the university’s sports mascot, the Scarlet Knight. 

Rutgers has agreed to purchase hardware and software from IBM, as well as entering into a three-year maintenance agreement for the equipment. . As future funding becomes available, Rutgers expects to add the latest-generation Blue Gene/Q system by the end of the year. Rutgers also envisions building an expanded facility on the Busch campus in 2013 as the system and center grows.  

Blue Gene is among the world’s leading supercomputer technologies. The Blue Gene/P system is operating in six U.S. locations, including four national laboratories and two universities. IBM is the leading manufacturer on the list of the world’s top 500 most powerful computer systems, holding the most entries. 

Manish Parashar, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Rutgers, is the university’s lead faculty member on the project and will direct the new institute. He said: “There is a strong correlation between having this level of sophisticated research infrastructure and research productivity. It will enable research at a scale we could not support at Rutgers before and allow students and industry to have access to HPC to a much greater degree. And this installation is the first step in creating a large-scale infrastructure at the institute, so it’s a huge milestone.” 

Parashar is director of Rutgers’ Center for Cloud and Autonomic Computing and the Applied Software Systems Laboratory, and associate director of the Center for Information Assurance. He was program director of the National Science Foundation’s Office of Cyberinfrastructure, where he managed an approximately $150 million research portfolio, from 2009 to 2011.

“HPC is a real need because large-scale data is now central to all sciences and engineering,” Parashar said. “Science is changing dramatically, becoming very computation and data-intensive. Large-scale computing is now critical for scientists to address research challenges in diverse fields from biochemistry and genomics to material sciences and climate modeling.” 

Margaret Brennan-Tonetta, associate vice president for economic development, has been working with Parashar to launch the Rutgers Discovery Informatics Institute. 

“We intend to develop a premier center that sets a new standard for industry collaboration in high-performance computing,” Brennan-Tonetta said. “The institute will be engaging business and provide a valuable resource that goes far beyond hardware and software, offering real expertise and assistance. Industry will be able to come here with a problem involving data analysis and our experts will help them develop a solution.” 

Two industrial advisory panels for the RDI² are being formed, one for large-scale computation and data analytics in finance and a second for the healthcare and life sciences industries. The initial meetings of each are set for April. 

The Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development promotes excellence in research at Rutgers. Research is fundamental to the university’s overall mission and enhances its education and service missions. Research also contributes to economic development. Rutgers increasingly is engaged in commercialization of research through the transfer of new technologies to industry, contributing to economic development in New Jersey and nationally. From the discovery of streptomycin — the first cure for tuberculosis — to the technology behind Ask.com, Rutgers continues to make a tremendous impact in the commercial world.

Videotron Launches illico TV New Generation with Cisco High-Definition Digital Video Recording Services

PRESS RELEASE

Videotron Launches illico TV New Generation with Cisco High-Definition Digital Video Recording Services

Enhanced user interface and new advanced features deliver next-generation viewing experience

Montreal, Quebec – March 27, 2012 – Videotron, a leading Canadian telecommunications operator providing communications and broadband entertainment services, announced today it has chosen Cisco's HD set-top box platform to deploy the next generation of its enhanced illico digital TV service. 

Videotron will use the Cisco Explorer® 8642 HD-DVR and 4642 HD set-top boxes to deliver a best-in-class enhanced entertainment experience. Available in the province of Quebec, illico TV New Generation offers a new customer experience including advanced video services and faster navigation.  

Highlights:

·         illico TV New Generation subscribers can use their remotes to access interactive entertainment and information embedded in particular programs, such as music, weather, local information, voting and polling, and other services. Subscribers may also benefit from Digital Video Recorder (DVR) functionality, Video-on-Demand, Electronic Program Guide, Pay-Per-View, Caller ID, Weather, and the ability to choose tailor-made entertainment packages. 

·         The Cisco 8642 HD-DVR optimizes Videotron's existing Cisco-powered cable head-end infrastructure and DOCSIS® network to give consumers greater access to broader video and entertainment experiences including broadcast television and video-on-demand.

·         The Cisco Explorer 4642 HD and 8642 HD-DVR set-top boxes give service providers the opportunity to:

·         Advance their video service plans by integrating the quality of high-definition video, digital video recording, and new service application features.

·         Offer consumer innovative features such as a 500-gigabyte DVR hard disc drive that supports up to 280 hours of standard-definition and up to 55 hours of high-definition programming, hybrid video service support, open standard support, multiple tuner support as well as USB 2.0 and Ethernet connectivity.

·         Qualified to meet ENERGY STAR® Tier 1 strict energy-efficiency guidelines, the Cisco 8642 HD-DVR requires less than 1 watt of power consumption in standby mode, and is capable of ‘light sleep' mode.  

Supporting Quotes:

Pierre Roy, vice president, Engineering, Research and Development, Videotron:

"The latest generation of Cisco Explorer set-top boxes supports the Tru2way open standard allowing us to offer a tailored customer experience to a broader audience. The Cisco Explorer set-top boxes help us to differentiate our innovative service and applications while retaining our market leadership."

Mark Kummer, vice president, Service Provider Operations, Cisco Canada:

"Videotron is a leader in bringing the capabilities and convenience of HD and DVR services to Canada, and Cisco is proud to help further the company's vision. With illico TV New Generation, Videotron can continue to advance its video strategy by utilizing its head-end and DOCSIS fibre optic networks combined with Cisco's set-top technology to deliver best-in-class video entertainment   experiences on air, online, on demand."

Additional Resources:

·         About Videotron

·         Cisco Explorer

About Videotron

Videotron, a wholly owned subsidiary of Quebecor Media Inc., is an integrated communications company engaged in cable television, interactive multimedia development, and Internet access, cable telephone and mobile telephone services. Videotron is a leader in new technologies with its interactive Digital TV service and its broadband network, which supports high-speed cable Internet access, analog and digital cable television, and other services.

About Cisco
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Cisco Canada Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of Cisco, has offices across Canada dedicated to customer support, sales and service. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com/canada/.

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Former NBA Player and CEO of The George Group Indicted in Ponzi Scheme 

U.S. Attorney’s OfficeMarch 23, 2012

District of New Jersey(973) 645-2700

NEWARK—C. Tate George, former NBA basketball player and the CEO of purported real estate development firm The George Group, was indicted today by a Newark grand jury for allegedly orchestrating a $2 million investment fraud scheme, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

George, 43, of Newark, was indicted on four counts of wire fraud. He was previously charged by criminal complaint with one count of wire fraud. He will be arraigned on the new charges in Newark federal court on a date to be determined.

According to the indictment and other documents filed in this case:

George, a former player for the New Jersey Nets and Milwaukee Bucks, held himself out as the CEO of The George Group and claimed to have more than $500 million in assets under management. He pitched prospective investors, including several former professional athletes, to invest with the firm and told them their money would be used to fund The George Group’s purchase and development of real estate development projects, including projects in Connecticut and New Jersey. George represented to some prospective investors that their funds would be held in an attorney trust account and personally guaranteed the return of their investments, with interest.

Based on George’s representations, investors invested more than $2 million in The George Group between 2005 and 2011, which he deposited in both the firm’s and his personal bank accounts. Instead of using investments to fund real estate development projects as promised, George used the money from new investors to pay existing investors in Ponzi scheme fashion. He also used some of the money for home improvement projects, meals at restaurants, clothing, and gas. The George Group had virtually no income-generating operations.

Under the wire fraud counts with which he is charged, George faces a maximum potential penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each count.

U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Michael B. Ward; postal inspectors of the USPIS, under the direction of Postal Inspector in Charge Philip R. Bartlett; and the Securities and Exchange Commission, under the direction of George S. Canellos, director of the New York Regional Office, with the investigation leading to today’s Indictment.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Kelly of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Economic Crimes Unit in Newark.

The charges and allegations contained in the indictment are merely accusations and the defendant is considered innocent unless and until proven guilty.

If you believe you are a victim of or otherwise have information concerning this alleged scheme, you are encouraged to contact the FBI at 973-792-3000.

This case was brought in coordination with President Barack Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force. President Obama established the interagency Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force to wage an aggressive, coordinated, and proactive effort to investigate and prosecute financial crimes. The task force includes representatives from a broad range of federal agencies, regulatory authorities, inspectors general, and state and local law enforcement who, working together, bring to bear a powerful array of criminal and civil enforcement resources. The task force is working to improve efforts across the federal executive branch, and with state and local partners, to investigate and prosecute significant financial crimes, ensure just and effective punishment for those who perpetrate financial crimes, combat discrimination in the lending and financial markets, and recover proceeds for victims of financial crimes.

New Office Designs Offer Room to Roam and to Think

Excerpt from an article in

The New York Times

Sunday, March 18, 2012

New Office Designs Offer Room to Roam and to Think

By LAWRENCE W. CHEEK

SEATTLE

MARTHA CHOE’S ideal working space is not her private office, nice though it is, but rather a long, narrow table in the vast atrium of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation headquarters here.

The table, situated in a 33-foot-high open mezzanine, enjoys great swaths of daylight through the atrium’s quarter-acre of glass, and has a stunning view of the Space Needle three blocks away. It’s not private, or quiet, but Ms. Choe has everything she needs stuffed into her laptop, and she finds the space inspirational.

She points out one further attraction: “That’s Nelson Mandela’s shirt on the wall behind the table.”

Ms. Choe, a former member of the City Council here, is the foundation’s chief administrative officer, and she had considerable input in the building’s design. One objective from the start was to give the 1,000 employees a variety of spaces to accommodate different kinds of work. “There’s a recognition that we work in different modes, and we’ve designed spaces to accommodate them,” she says. “I think one of the lessons is to understand your business, and understand what your people need to do their best work.”

The building was designed by NBBJ, a 700-employee architecture firm whose largest operation is in Seattle. The structure is a culmination of ideas about the 21st-century workplace that NBBJ has been exploring in corporate office designs worldwide, including its own offices here.

These are the main concepts: Buzz — conversational noise and commotion — is good. Private offices and expressions of hierarchy are of debatable value. Less space per worker may be inevitable for cost-effectiveness, but it can enhance the working environment, not degrade it. Daylight, lots of it, is indispensable. Chance encounters yield creative energy. And mobility is essential.

This isn’t a suddenly exploding trend. NBBJ’s research has found that two-thirds of American office space is now configured in some sort of open arrangement. But even as these designs save employers space and money, they can make office workers feel like so many cattle. So how to humanize the setting?

SEATTLE serves as a test tube because of several converging factors: There’s a lot of money here to experiment with projects. The work force is relatively young and open to innovation. And the local culture places a high value on informality, autonomy and egalitarianism. People will put in long hours under high pressure if they feel respected, but they won’t tolerate being treated like Dilberts.

Most office workers in Seattle and elsewhere labor in environments much less inspiring than Ms. Choe’s. And most employers have much less to spend to make things pleasant. (Bill and Melinda Gates personally contributed $350 million of the campus’s $500 million cost.) But staying competitive requires coming up with the best ideas, and the office environment can be the incubator for them.

Fans, entrepreneurs among first buyers of new iPad - KansasCity.com

MADISON, Wis. -- Apple's latest iPad drew the customary lines of die-hard fans looking to be first and entrepreneurs looking to make a quick profit.

Many buyers lined up for hours, and in some cases overnight, as the tablet computer went on sale in the U.S. and nine other countries. They did so even though Apple started accepting online orders a week ago.
The new model comes with a faster processor, a much sharper screen and an improved camera, though the changes aren't as big as the upgrade from the original model to the iPad 2.

As with the previous models, prices start at $499 in the U.S.

For more, click the link below:


Fans, entrepreneurs among first buyers of new iPad - KansasCity.com

The New iPad Is Much the Same

Excerpt from an article in

The New York Times

Thursday, March 15, 2012

The New iPad Is Much the Same, Only Better

By DAVID POGUE

On Friday, the new iPad goes on sale. Be sure to ask for it by name: the iPad.

Because if you ask for the iPad 3, the Apple representatives will look at you funny. Last year’s model was called the iPad 2, but this third-generation model is just called the iPad. (Why not continue the numbering pattern? “That would have been too predictable,” says Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president for marketing.)

Really, the new iPad should have been called the iPad 2S. In the past, Apple added the letter S to iPhone models that weren’t exactly new but had been tastefully enhanced (iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4S). That’s exactly what’s going on with the new iPad. Its technical improvements keep it at the forefront of desirability — just ahead of the snapping jaws of its Android competition — but don’t take it in any new directions.

The biggest new feature is what Apple calls the Retina display: like the one on the iPhone 4S, it’s a very, very sharp screen. It’s four times as sharp as the iPad 2 — in fact, it’s the sharpest ever on a mobile device. This screen has 3.1 million pixels, which is 1 million pixels more than on a high-definition TV set. (At least Apple says that that’s how many pixels it has; I quit counting after three days.)

In principle, that avalanche of pixels (and their increased color saturation) means that photos, videos, maps and text should look jaw-droppingly good — and, in apps that have been rewritten for the new screen, they do. Apple’s own apps, like Photos, Maps and iBooks, are just incredibly sharp and clear.

So are Apple’s inexpensive, newly enhanced iPad apps — iMovie, GarageBand, the Numbers spreadsheet and the Pages word processor. And as touch-screen apps go, the new iPhoto for iOS is a masterpiece.

News Release from Apple

New iPad Arrives in the US & Nine Additional Countries on Friday

CUPERTINO, California―March 14, 2012―Apple® today announced the new iPad®, the third generation of its category defining mobile device, will arrive at Apple’s retail stores and the Apple Online Store (www.apple.com) on Friday, March 16 at 8:00 a.m. local time in the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Switzerland and the UK; along with Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.

The new iPad features a stunning new Retina™ display, Apple’s new A5X chip with quad-core graphics and a 5 megapixel iSight® camera with advanced optics for capturing amazing photos and 1080p HD video and still delivers the same all-day 10 hour battery life* while remaining amazingly thin and light. iPad Wi-Fi + 4G supports ultrafast 4G LTE networks in the US and Canada, and fast 3G networks around the world including those based on HSPA+ and DC-HSDPA.** Additionally, iPad 2 is available at a more affordable price starting at just $399.

Every customer who buys a new iPad at an Apple retail store will be offered free Personal Setup service, helping them customize their iPad by setting up email, loading new apps from the App Store™ and more, so they’ll be up and running with their new iPad before they leave the store. Personal Pickup, available at Apple retail stores in the US and a feature of the free Apple Store® app, lets iPad customers shop and buy from anywhere they are, then pick up their purchase at any Apple retail store. In the US the new iPad will also be available at Best Buy, Radio Shack, Sam’s Club, Target and Walmart.

Pricing & Availability
The new iPad Wi-Fi models will be available in black or white starting on Friday, March 16 for a suggested retail price of $499 (US) for the 16GB model, $599 (US) for the 32GB model, and $699 (US) for the 64GB model. iPad Wi-Fi + 4G for ultrafast 4G LTE networks in the US and Canada and fast 3G networks around the world including those based on HSPA+ and DC-HSDPA, will be available for a suggested retail price of $629 (US) for the 16GB model, $729 (US) for the 32GB model and $829 (US) for the 64GB model. iPad will be sold in the US through the Apple Online Store (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores, and select Apple Authorized Resellers. Additionally, the incredible iPad 2 is now offered at a more affordable price of $399 (US) for the 16GB Wi-Fi model and just $529 (US) for the 16GB Wi-Fi + 3G model. iOS 5.1 and iTunes® 10.6 are currently available as free software updates. iPhoto®, iMovie® 1.3 and GarageBand® 1.2 are now available for $4.99 (US) each from the App Store (www.itunes.com/appstore). Keynote® 1.6, Pages® 1.6 and Numbers® 1.6 are available for $9.99 (US) each from the App Store. Updates are available for free to existing customers.

Starting March 23 the new iPad will be available in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Macau, Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden. 

*Battery life depends on device settings, usage and other factors. Actual results vary.

**4G LTE is supported only on AT&T and Verizon networks in the US and on Bell, Rogers and Telus networks in Canada. Data plans sold separately.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.