New York SBDC Research Network

Here's the current time in places all over the world. I suppose one could just find out the UTC (Coordinated Universal Time), a/k/a Greenwich Mean Time or Zulu Time, and subtract five for the eastern U.S. Except that Britain is currently on Daylight Saving Time, which started a week before the United States in 2006. Except that DST will start the second weekend in MARCH in the U.S. in 2007. BTW, Australia went OFF DST the same weekend the US went ON DST this year. Of course, parts of the U.S. (Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, the parts of Arizona not controlled by the Navajo) DON'T go to DST. Starting in 2006, all of Indiana is now on DST. Thus, the web link. Note, that it's Daylight Saving Time, not Savings - it's a common mistake.

Old Norwegian bachelor farmer Darrin Conroy is getting married tomorrow. O.K., he's not that old, I'm fairly certain he's not Norwegian, and his horticultural skills may be in question. But Darrin and Suzy are indeed tying the knot. They became good friends some years ago when they worked in the same building, before it evolved into romance. Before he left work Wednesday, I reminded Darrin not to forget to breathe tomorrow. He indicated that was the exact same advice he got when he went skydiving, almost exactly a decade ago. He wondered if there was a relationship between matrimony and skydiving. I say Yes - both involve jumping, one the broom, the other, out of the plane. Even though it will be a Christian wedding, both Suzy and Darrin have agreed to take the Buddhist approach to the busyness that leads up to the ceremony and take it as it comes. If you'd like to contact Darrin, please be aware that he'll be out of the office until June 8. If you call him, the mes...

While driving to work on Monday, I was listening to a story on Market Place on NPR called Chasing Innovation by Scott Jagow. It started off discussing research & development departments of large business and how things have changed from striving to maintain secrets and maintain the lead to finding new ways to be competitive. This broadcast discusses how huge companies like Proctor & Gamble are looking to small businesses for their next best thing. The transcript is available on American Public Media . With small businesses always looking at how to get their products marketed, this feature offers some advice on what partnering with the likes of P&G can offer as well as how the entrepreneur should protect him/herself.

Meetings: we can't stand them, but we don't seem able to live without them. Either the meeeings are pointless, overlong, or all top down. You sit there waiting for that three minutes of a kernel of an idea that made your hour and and a half investment marginally valuable. Perhaps these articles from BNET can help. Registration is required, but it's free. Reinventing The Staff Meeting Solutions At A Meeting Meeting-Speak: What to Say and How to Say It Take A Hike - Planning Dynamic Business Meetings The Gang's All Here We've Got to Have a Meeting. How Do We Ensure that It Is Productive?

Last December, you might remember that the SBDC's 2004 publication "What's Your Signage?" was recognized by the New York Library Association as being one of two winners of the 2004 New York State Notable Documents Award. Each May, the Library Journal announces winners of Notable Documents from Federal, State, and International agencies. Among other nice things, our earlier recognition resulted in the book being entered into this competition. I'm happy (and humbled) to announce, then, that, on May 15th, I received word that "What's Your Signage?" was designated as being one of the most Notable Government Documents in the U.S. in the State category, one of only 10 winners so honored. One of the judges remarked that "it has been a while" since New York had a document on the list. (If you care to know of the others, there's a lengthy article here: http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6332169.html .) The Library Journal is the profess...

Just some basic info on where we are now and how you can reach us, in case you've lost the email that went out on the subject, here it is again: Our new physical address for UPS, FedEx, Airborne etc. is: NYS SBDC State University of New York 3rd Floor 22 Corporate Woods Albany, NY 12211 The US Postal Service address is: NYS SBDC State University Plaza Corporate Woods Building Albany, NY 12246 Main Line 518-443-5398 Fax Line 518-443-5275 Amelia Birdsall 518-641-0603 Frances Carner 518-641-0604 Darrin Conroy 518-641-0605 Kevin Crider 518-641-0606 Josee Fonseca 518-641-0607 Beverly Ford 518-641-0608 Brian Goldstein 518-641-0609 Roger Green 518-641-0610 Cheryl Hoffman 518-641-0611 Mary Hoffman 518-641-0620 John Joel 518-641-0612 Jim King 518-641-0613 Lori Kitchen 518-641-0614 Martha Pollock 518-641-0616 Mike Ross 518-641-0617 Al Scher 518-641-0618 Jinshui Zhang 518-641-0619 As you may have noticed, we are just starting to get back on our feet. We are still experiencing some lack of ser...

You're writing something and you discover you have been using the same word repeatedly. Do you reach for a dictionary or a thesaurus? Maybe. Anoother possibility is to go to the Word Web dictionary and word finder of over 280,000 words and phrases. A free software version at the site adds proper nouns, pronounciations and more definitions. There's also a paid version ($19) which allows for wild card word searches, the ability to solve anagrams and more. I found the information above in a magazine called Searcher: The Magazine for Database Professional. Each month, there is at least one free article online: April 2006: The People’s Law: Free Legal Help and Legal Research on the Web with a list of sites. March 2006: Wikipedia and Britannica: The Kid’s All Right (And So’s the Old Man) January 2006: Shhh!!: Keeping Current on Government Secrecy November/December 2005: Another Phine Kettle of Phish: Identity Theft Prevention