New York SBDC Research Network

For those inventors looking to develop a prototype, the eMachineShop may be one way to produce it. A recent article at Wired.com, The Dream Factory , describes how it's done. Read on. "Boot up your computer and design whatever object you can imagine, press a button to send the CAD file to Lewis' headquarters in New Jersey, and two or three weeks later he'll FedEx you the physical object. Lewis launched eMachineShop a year and a half ago, and customers are using his service to create engine-block parts for hot rods, gears for home-brew robots, telescope mounts - even special soles for tap dance shoes. 'Designing stuff used to be just for experts,' Lewis says. 'We're bringing it to the masses.' The eMachineShop software, he explains, includes artificial intelligence that operates like a 'virtual machinist.' In the background - invisible to the user - it runs a precise emulation of the real-world machines that fabricate parts, to determine whet

As Hurricane Katrina pounds the south, with damage estimated in the billions of dollars, businesses are forced to activate disaster plans, backing up systems and many are already trying to deal with the aftermath. This brings to mind how often many businesses are not fully prepared for catastrophic events. There is an enormous amount of information available about how to go about it. I’ve listed just a few sites that offer tips and checklists. Something to think about. SBA’s Disaster Preparedness Considerations on the SBA website offers tips on creating a disaster planning toolkit covering issues such as operations, insurance and communications. Expect the Unexpected Create a monster plan to disaster-proof your business.Business Start-Ups magazine - January 1997 By Julie Cook Books in our collection: Alesch, Daniel J. ; Holly, James N.; Nagy, Robert Organizations at risk: What happens when small businesses and not-for-profits encounter natural disasters Schneid, Thomas D. Disaster

[Here's an article from the Census Bureau. The nformation particularly pertinent to New York State is in italics .] The first observance of Labor Day is believed to have been a parade on Sept. 5, 1882, in New York City, probably organized by Peter J. McGuire, a Carpenters and Joiners Union secretary. By 1893, more than half the states were observing a "Labor Day" on one day or another, and a bill to establish a federal holiday was passed by Congress in 1894. President Grover Cleveland signed the bill soon afterward, designating the first Monday in September as Labor Day. Who Are We Celebrating? 149.1 million Number of people age 16 or older in the nation's labor force in May 2005. Among the nation's workers are 80.0 million men and 69.1 million women. These men and women represent 66 percent of the civilian noninstitutionalized adult population. Employee Benefits 82% Percentage of full-time workers age 18 to 64 covered by health insurance during all or part of 2

Not long ago, Mary Beth posted a blog on Web sites & other resources that exist as forums for people to report scams. Good thing I knew about some of them, because recently we've had our very own scam to contend with. Last March, I received a faxed invoice from ProMedia Resources, a company reputedly based in New Jersey. Soon after, a rep from the company called as a follow-up. He claimed that, five years earlier, we entered into an agreement to have our library contact information included on a CD-ROM directory of theirs titled the "American Business Resource Guide". The five years, he said, were up, and we owed them $400. This smelled fishy, as we don't enter into multi-year agreements as a matter of practicality. Nor are we interested in marketing our private services to the general public - we exist solely to serve the New York SBDC staff. I do research for a living. A preliminary investigation of mine found that no one affiliated with the Research Netwo

Mark Wan called the Research Network recently. Besides asking a reference question, he added a personal note: He's engaged! We at the Research Network extend our congratulations to Mark and his bride-to-be. Best, Darrin, Josée, Mary Beth and Roger Today's blog is the first of a new series, "The Occasional Friday Blog," providing news of interest to the NYS SBDC community on an irregular basis at the discretion of the Research Network. If you would like to contribute, please call the Central office at x.149.

Have you had a news article printed about your center? Send us articles and press releases to add to the News page —examples include: center quotes for articles profiles of clients in the news press releases generated internally or by your host college, and anything else noteworthy. Electronic copies are preferred, but not required. Also, the Central office will need to get permission from the publisher to post articles on the Web site so be sure to include the date the article appeared and the name of the newspaper/magazine. Visit the News page for updates from around the state at http://www.nyssbdc.org/News/news.cfm . Send news items to Mary Beth, m.bobish at nyssbdc.org.

JK3430.P976 2001 New York Public Sector: JK671.F43 2005 Federal yellow book: JK3430.N49 2005-2006 New York State directory 2005/2006 Peachtree accounting 2005 (software) HD62.5 .L53 1996 Gregg A Lichtenstein; Thomas S Lyons Incubating new enterprises: HD30.28 .R644 2004 Rogoff, Edward G., Bankable business plans / TK5105.888.N54 1996 Niederst, Jennifer. ; Freedman, Edie. Designing for the web: HV7936.S56 1999 The NRA range sourcebook HD61 .R378 2004 Author Reiss, Claire Lee. Title Risk management for small business /