Several hundred members of Colorado’s high-tech community were out in full force Thursday for DemoGala, a day-long event of tech-focused talks and exhibitions. Gov. Bill Ritter kicked off the event with his announcement of the formation of an Innovation Panel, while local companies, some familiar, like Mapquest, and some new ones, like Lijit Networks – a Boulder social networking search service – showed why the state is still pumping its fist for more tech innovation.
A lot of ears perked up when Ritter said the state would consolidate its IT infrastructure. The announcement definitely caught the attention of Domenic Gianfrancesco, vice president of sales for Secure 64 in Greenwood Village. The company has developed high-performing application servers and software that it says are virtually impenetrable to denial-of-service and other malicious attacks.
“I thought, ‘Governor, have I got something to talk to you about,”‘ said Gianfrancesco, after Ritter’s remarks.
Cable, satellite, it’s all good. While DemoGala boasted a Google vice president as its keynote speaker Thursday, hundreds of other execs were instead gathered at the Magness Arena at the University of Denver for the Annual Cable Hall of Fame dinner.
High rollers from nearly every cable network were on hand to mix and mingle and honor five new inductees. Some locals were there, perhaps more interested in the Rockies game than some of the introductory and acceptance speeches.
“I’ll tell you the Rockies score if you all sit down,” said master of ceremonies Tom Bergeron, of “Hollywood Squares” and “Dancing With the Stars” fame. The score was 4-1 Rockies at the time, and since most had flown in from the East and West coasts, only a few people cheered.
Greg Maffei, CEO of Liberty Media, was on hand along with other company executives.
“We’re kind of satellite guys now,” he said, referring to Liberty’s 38 percent stake in DirecTV. He was standing off to the side with Mike Fries, CEO of Liberty Global.
Liberty’s John Malone was inducted into the Cable Hall Fame several years ago.
Telemarketing rumor an “urban legend.” An e-mail warning consumers that cellphone numbers will soon be released to telemarketers is making the rounds again, and government officials have a key detail they’d like to add: It’s totally bogus.
The e-mails say that recipients must add their cellphone numbers to the federal government’s Do Not Call registry by a certain deadline in order to avoid being deluged by telemarketing calls.
But there is no deadline; cellphone numbers aren’t about to be released to telemarketers; and it is already illegal for most telemarketers to call mobile phones, the Federal Trade Commission said Friday.
It’s against the law for telemarketers to use automated dialing to reach cellphones, pagers or any other service in which the recipient has to pay for the call. Automated dialing is used by most telemarketers.
The e-mail rumor has circulated before, but Mitchell Katz, a spokesman for the FTC, said the agency has experienced a recent surge in calls and inquiries about it.
“This is an urban legend that will not die,” Katz said.
Is TV imitating your work life? When you crack a joke at work, does a laugh track chime in? Do you end each day in a dramatic boardroom meeting, dreading the words “You’re fired”?
Work environments on popular television shows may be made up, but many real-life employees can relate, according to a new poll.
An overwhelming 53 percent of respondents said the “boring and mismanaged” workplace depicted in “The Office” was most like their own, the nonscientific online poll by employee website found.
The fast-paced environment on hospital drama “ER” garnered 23 percent of the vote, followed by Donald Trump’s reality show “The Apprentice,” which 13 percent of respondents said was cutthroat and competitive like their own workplaces.
The personal theatrics and romance on medical drama “Grey’s Anatomy” won 11 percent of the votes.
The poll results were based on more than 4,800 votes cast on the home page.
