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April 6, 2001 Laid off workers can use their unemployed status as a ticket into San Diego’s newest networking event, "Pink Slip Party," presented on April 23 by UCSD CONNECT, the AeA and the San Diego Tech Force.
Attendees will have an opportunity to meet with technology company human resources representatives, employment outplacement firms and recruiters at the party from 5 to 7:30 p.m. at Karl Strauss Brewery in Sorrento Valley, 9675 Scranton Road.
Lee Hecht Harrison and Drake Beam Morin, both San Diego outplacement firms, are underwriting the "Pink Slip Party."
Their representatives will be at the event, providing information on career services and programs.
Admission and appetizers are free for attendees.
For information and reservations party, e-mail CONNECT by April 20 at connectinfo@ucsd.edu, with "Pink Slip Party" in the subject line and complete contact information in the body of the message.
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Nokia and WFI Scandinavia AB have signed a global agreement to cooperate in delivering network operations services to operators. This non-exclusive agreement will reinforce Nokia's capability to support network operations and help operators achieve peak performance from their 2G/3G networks.
WFI, a subsidiary of San Diego-based Wireless Facilities Inc., will leverage its experience operating GSM networks to support the evolution to next generation systems.
This agreement backs up Nokia's commitment to provide one of the first 3GPP standards compliant 3G networks with open interfaces in 2001, and to offering the fastest time to market for 3G. For new 3G operators, the cooperation will support improved network performance and a more secure investment.
"Nokia's network operations support, which combines our expertise with the skills of partners such as WFI, gives operators crucial resources for orchestrating their transition to 3G," says Matti Makkonen, senior v.p., professional services, Nokia Networks. "By freeing operators to concentrate on their most strategic activities, it also supports their 3G business case."
"We are quite pleased to be working with Nokia to assist operators in better preparing for the challenges of 3G migration," says Lars Högman, managing director for WFI Scandinavia. "With our proven track record in next generation wireless technologies, we can deliver our customers network solutions to ease the transition to 3G as well as secure long-term cost and operational efficiencies essential in a highly competitive marketplace."
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Physicists at UCSD who last year produced a new class of composite materials believed to reverse the behavior of many fundamental electromagnetic properties associated with materials, have experimentally verified the first of these predicted reversals.
Their experiments, detailed in the April 6 issue of Science, demonstrate that electromagnetic radiation travels through the composite material in a manner never before seen in nature.
The achievement is much more than a physical curiosity. The new material could prove useful in the development of novel antennas and other electromagnetic devices. It also may make possible the construction of a "perfect lens," capable of focusing light and other forms of radiation to limits not achievable by normal lenses.
In their experiments, the UCSD physicists built a sample of their material small enough to fit in a hand out of fiberglass and tiny copper wires. They then sent microwaves through it at the same frequency as those used in police radar guns.
What they discovered is exactly what was predicted a year ago-that the microwaves would emerge from the sample in a direction opposite to that predicted by Snell's law, which describes the angle of refraction produced by the slowing of light and other forms of electromagnetic radiation through water, glass and other ordinary material.
"The experiments we report confirm earlier theoretical predictions that a new, unique class of materials can cause electromagnetic waves, such as radar and microwaves, to bend in a direction opposite to the way they travel through all other known materials," says Sheldon Schultz, a professor of physics at UCSD.
He reported the advance with UCSD physicists David R. Smith and Richard A. Shelby.
"If these effects turn out to be possible at optical frequencies, this material would have the crazy property that a small flashlight shining on a flat slab would produce a focus at a point on the other side," says Schultz. "There's no way you can do that with just a flat sheet of ordinary material."
Physicists measure the bending of light, microwaves and other forms of radiation through a material by its "index of refraction."
The bigger a material's index, the slower light travels through it, and the more it "bends," or changes direction when going from one material to a different one.
"This is the first demonstration of any material which has a negative index of refraction," says Smith. "Since no existing material has this property, we needed to demonstrate the effect using a 'metamaterial'-a composite material fabricated from repeated elements, specifically engineered to produce a desired electromagnetic behavior."
The UCSD researchers have filed a patent application covering the construction of the new composite material.
Their study was supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Air Force Office for Science Research, which are investigating potential applications.
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Science Applications International Corp. earned a profit of $2.1 billion on revenue of $5.9 billion for the fiscal year ended Jan. 31, compared to profit of $620 million on revenue of $5.5 billion a year earlier.
SAIC says the growth in its revenue reflects increases in both the government and commercial business areas.
"Our growth during the past fiscal year can be attributed to our overall business strategy, our continuing success in the government marketplace, and our employee ownership," says Dr. J.R. Beyster, SAIC chair, president and CEO.
Net income in fiscal 2001 grew to $2.1 billion as compared to the previous year’s net income of $620 million.
The year’s profit included $1.7 billion in net after tax gains on marketable securities. On a pre-tax basis, these net gains were $2.6 billion, comprised of $4 billion in gains primarily from the sale of SAIC's shares in Network Solutions Inc. and the exchange of Network shares for VeriSign shares, and a $1.4 billion charge at the close of fiscal 2001 for the impairment of the company’s investment in VeriSign and certain other investments due to a decline in their market value.
Problems with the VeriSign investment resulted in fourth quarter charges of $1.4 billion, causing the company to report a loss for the quarter of $736 million, compared with a profit of $41 million a year earlier.
Excluding the impairment charges from the fourth quarter results brings the company’s profit for the quarter to $169 million. This increase in net income reflects strong operating performance in the company’s government business area and includes gains after taxes of $63 million primarily from the sale of the Global Integrity Corp. and Pathology Associates International Corp. business units.
"Although our equity investments in VeriSign Inc. and certain other companies were adversely affected by the faltering stock market in the fourth quarter, it is important to note that even after the related impairment charges, our net gain before taxes on our investments sold during the year exceeded $2.6 billion," Beyster says. "While the economic climate has continued to put pressure on the value of our investments in fiscal 2002 as well as challenge us to achieve our goals from an operating performance perspective, our record $10.5 billion in contract awards in fiscal 2001 and our resulting funded backlog of $5.1 billion going into the year should help us meet this challenge."
The remaining overall net income increase in fiscal 2001 is attributable to stronger operating performance in the government business area, higher interest income, gains on the sale of other equity investments and certain business units, and a lower effective tax rate, the company says.
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AirFiber Inc. has received $50 million in the first closing of its third round of equity financing.
The round, lead by GM Capital Partners, also included London Merchant Securities and several of AirFiber's existing investors.
AirFiber will apply the proceeds to the continued development, sales and marketing, customer support and distribution of its advanced wireless optical networking equipment.
"We are pleased with the level of interest in AirFiber among new investors and appreciate the backing that our previous investors have shown," says Jim Dunn, CEO of AirFiber. "This financing is a show of support, not only for AirFiber and its advanced products, but for the wireless optical networking market as a whole. The investment, in addition to our existing OEM distribution agreement with global telecom equipment leader Nortel Networks, reinforces our leadership in the category."
"AirFiber stood out in a rapidly growing market and can make a real difference in the telecommunications industry," says Charles Froland of GM Capital Partners. "We have been looking to expand our investments in the telecommunications sector and are pleased to have AirFiber as the first investment for our new fund."
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Path 1 Network Technologies Inc. has named Peter P. Savage as interim president and CEO to replace Michael T. Elliott, who will continue as a consultant to Path 1 with his emphasis on developing strategic relationships for the company.
Savage was formerly the chairman, president and CEO of Applied Digital Access, a private venture funded start-up company that he joined in November 1990. Savage took ADA public on Nasdaq in March 1994 as "ADAX." Dynatech Inc. acquired ADA in November 1999. Savage also will be assisting in Path 1's search for a permanent CEO.
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Entropia Inc. has launched SaferMarkets, a joint effort with financial experts to predict stock market volatility so that its effects can be mitigated.
Entropia's global distributed computing grid of PCs will provide supercomputer-scale power to enable this computationally intensive project for researchers at the William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Rochester.
"Our research is so computationally intensive that it would either take six centuries to complete with existing tools, or we would have to work with simple models that do not reflect the true complexity of the market," says Christopher Jones, assistant professor of finance at the Simon School. "With the power provided by Entropia's distributed computing network, we have the unique ability to study more realistic models that we believe will capture subtle but critical market dynamics and thus enable us to predict market volatility more accurately than ever before. We are looking forward to publishing the results so everyone can benefit."
"Beginning today, critical financial research will be vastly accelerated. Entropia enables enterprises and researchers to have dramatically faster time to solutions using the largest source of computing power on Earth, the combined power of PCs around the world," says Jim Madsen, Entropia CEO and president. "We are pleased that our global distributed computing grid enables yet another important research effort. SaferMarkets joins FightAIDSatHome, which is speeding the search for better drugs to combat the AIDS virus. People can choose to support both research projects at the same time if they wish."
The SaferMarkets project will be deployed in three phases. In Phase I, simulated historical data will be created and analyzed to test and refine mathematical formulas for predicting the probability, degree and duration of future market volatility. In Phase II, researchers will run the best formulas identified in Phase I against historical data from the Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500 indices and five currency exchanges against the U.S. dollar. The final phase will explore applicability of these formulas to individual equities.
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Dr. Eliezer Masliah of UCSD is one of 15 scientists awarded a grant from the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research for the pursuit of a cure for Parkinson's disease.
The grants total more than $1.5 million.
Michael J. Fox established the foundation for Parkinson's research in 2000, after publicly disclosing in 1998 that he had been diagnosed with the disease seven years earlier.
In keeping with its mission to expedite a cure for the disease, the foundation implemented a rigorous, accelerated grant application review process for its initial round of research funding. It received nearly 200 grant applications from scientists representing 20 countries.
"This initial round of research grant funding represents an exciting first-step in our foundation's active involvement in the search for a Parkinson's cure,” Fox says. “The overwhelming number of proposals that were submitted affirm our belief that promising research opportunities exist, merely awaiting much-deserved funding. The Foundation remains committed to supporting as much research as possible — and at that end we hope to make additional awards within the next few months."
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The percentage of households in California able to afford a median-priced home increased for the first time in 23 months in February compared to a year ago, says to a report released today by the California Association of Realtors.
San Diego is the sixth least affordable county in the state with only 25 percent of its households earning enough to afford the median home. San Diego is followed by Orange County at 28 percent. San Francisco remains the least affordable county in the state at 11 percent.
The February 2001 Housing Affordability Index stood at 35 percent, up one point from February 2000, CAR reports.
"Over the last few months we’ve finally begun to see the impact of lower interest rates translate into an improvement in housing affordability," says CAR President Gary Thomas. "The month-to-month affordability index has been increasing since October 2000."
The monthly housing affordability index measures the percentage of households that can afford to purchase a median-priced home in California.
CAR also reports housing affordability indexes for regions and selected counties within the state. The index is the most fundamental measure of housing well-being in the state.
With housing affordability at 64 percent, the High Desert remains the most affordable region in the state.
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A record $1.1 million was raised this past weekend at the National Multiple Sclerosis Society's two-day 5K and 10K MS WALKS.
A total of 3,012 people walked through the Carlsbad Flower Fields on Saturday morning and another 5,852 at Seaport Village on Sunday morning.
One reason for the annual event's success, compared to other local charity walks and runs, is corporate support. More than 80 businesses participated as sponsors, including San Diego Metropolitan, Daily Business Report, North Park News, Uptown Examiner and sandiego360.magazine.
Another reason is the free treats provided to walkers who collect pledges. Over the two days, walkers and volunteers consumed 8,000 Pizza Hut 6-inch pizzas, 6,000 bread sticks and 500 pounds of salad from Oscars, 4,200 Krispy Kreme doughnuts, 110 gallons of coffee from Superior Coffee, 200 liters of Ceres juices, 4,500 cans of Pepsi and 1,500 cans of Metabolife breakfast drink.
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