IBM and the University of California San Diego have announced a multi-year project to enhance quality of life and independence for aging populations through the new Artificial Intelligence for Healthy Living Center (AIHL), located on the campus of UC San Diego. The groundbreaking center will bring together the technology, artificial intelligence and life sciences knowledge of IBM and UC San Diego to promote critical research and applications in two thematic areas: Healthy Aging and the Human Microbiome.

IBM today announced the first clients to tap into its IBM Q™ early-access commercial quantum computing systems to explore practical applications important to business and science. They include: JPMorgan Chase, Daimler AG, Samsung, JSR Corporation, Barclays, Hitachi Metals, Honda, Nagase, Keio University, Oak Ridge National Lab, Oxford University and University of Melbourne.

IBM has been recognized as a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Solid-State Arrays (SSA) for the fourth year in a row.

IBM has been recognized as a storage software Leader in the 2017 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data Center Backup and Recovery Solutions1. In its Magic Quadrants’, Gartner analysts evaluate technology and solutions with an ‘Ability to Execute’ and a ‘Completeness of Vision’.

IBM today announced two significant milestones in making the on-premises IBM Cloud Object Storage System much more accessible for customers with new compliance-enabled vaults and concentrated dispersal mode capabilities.

The Weather Company, an IBM Business, and PRISA Noticias, one of the world’s leading Spanish-language media groups and owner of EL PAÍS newspaper, announced today a collaboration to combine the most accurate forecasts with one of the Spanish-speaking world’s largest media groups. The Weather Company will provide in-depth weather data and forecasts, as well as tailored content across PRISA properties. In turn, PRISA Noticias will provide locally relevant articles, photos and video content within the Spanish versions of The Weather Channel app and website (weather.com). The collaboration will also enable local marketers to access advanced data-driven advertising solutions from IBM Watson Advertising (formerly The Weather Company’s ad sales business) across both companies’ properties.

Walmart, JD.com, IBM, and Tsinghua University National Engineering Laboratory for E-Commerce Technologies announced today they will work together in a Blockchain Food Safety Alliance that will kick off with a collaboration designed to enhance food tracking, traceability and safety in China, to achieve greater transparency across the food supply chain.

IBM Security today announced it has been positioned by Gartner, Inc. as a Leader for the sixth consecutive year in the Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Mobility Management Suites1 for its ability to execute and completeness of vision.

IBM and West Virginia University’s Center for Disability Inclusion (CDI) today announced they are developing a first generation mobile workplace accommodation case management app to help U.S. businesses create inclusive workplaces for employees with disabilities.

IBM today announced an expansion of its mobile portfolio for enterprises as it continues to create analytics-driven and cognitive enabled enterprise iOS apps that enable organizations to accelerate digital reinvention and transform how businesses engage across industries.

IBM announced today that Acrow, one of Australia’s leading suppliers of scaffolding and formwork for the construction industry, has selected IBM and IT Easy , to implement a total infrastructure refresh built around IBM Cloud, mobile, and network technology.

Pets at Home, the UK’s leading pet specialist retailer and IBM today announced the launch of Sales Assist, an IBM MobileFirst for iOS app for iPad which will be used across 440 stores nationwide to make it easier and simpler for customers to purchase the products they need.

IBM today announced that it will help deliver a tailored fan experience through the IBM Cloud at Atlanta’s new Mercedes-Benz Stadium, scheduled to open later this month.

Today IBM and Eurobank announced the first cloud-based digital platform for online international commercial trading. Using IBM's industry-leading Digital Experience software, with advanced cloud capabilities and social offerings, Eurobank is uniting exporters and importers from around the globe to enhance international trade operations and increase transactions.

IBM today announced that Vissensa, a UK-based managed service provider (MSP), has taken delivery of the IBM Enterprise Cloud System, which will help the company offer new and improved cloud services to its customers.

Today, Allianz and IBM concluded an agreement in Munich regarding support for the operation of Allianz's data centers. IBM will be acting as the global provider of IT operation services for Allianz in effect from April 1, 2014, supporting the transformation of the company's global IT infrastructure.

IBM today announced that Clarient Global LLC (“Clarient”), a joint venture established to transform client data and document management in the financial services industry, has selected VMware Cloud Foundation on IBM Cloud to continue to enhance its existing SoftLayer private cloud implementation for its Clarient Entity Hub platform.

IBM today announced plans to acquire Promontory Financial Group, a global market-leading risk management and regulatory compliance consulting firm. Upon close, the capabilities of Promontory combined with IBM's deep industry expertise and Watson’s cognitive capabilities will directly address the massive operational effort and manual cost of escalating regulation and risk management requirements.

Forty-one years ago this summer I was a young investigator working in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and Washington, DC for the President’s Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island, a big federal investigation chaired by Dartmouth Professor John Kemeny, who is best known as the father of the BASIC programming language. I learned a lot that summer and fall not only about nuclear accidents but about how governments and industries respond to crises. Some of those lessons apply to the current COVID-19 pandemic, which is also being poorly managed. This may surprise you (that 41-year-old lessons can still apply) but governments, especially, change at a glacial pace. The two federal agencies with which I mainly dealt were the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Nuclear […]






Digital Branding
Web Design
Marketing

My last column was about crisis management lessons I learned back in 1979 while investigating the Federal Emergency Management Agency for the President’s Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island (TMI). Let’s just say that FEMA wasn’t ready for a nuclear meltdown. Today we turn to the other federal agency I investigated at that same time — the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). While FEMA was simply unprepared and incompetent, the NRC was unprepared and lied about it. Like FEMA, the NRC had recently undergone a rebranding from its previous identity as the Atomic Energy Commission — a schizoid agency that had been charged with both regulating nuclear power and promoting it. It’s difficult to be the major booster of technology while at the same […]






Digital Branding
Web Design
Marketing

IBM and Box today announced a global partnership that will combine the best-in-class technologies and resources of both companies to transform work in the cloud. Together, the companies plan to integrate their existing products and services and develop new, innovative solutions targeted across industries and professions ranging from medical teams working on complex cases to individuals negotiating consumer loans by mobile phone to engineers and researchers identifying patterns in patents, reports and academic journals.

IBM and Hootsuite announced plans to integrate several of their respective cloud and social technologies as well as expertise, to provide Hootsuite clients a fast and reliable social experience.

IBM today announced continuing momentum for its social business offerings with clients around the world ushering in the next era of collaboration with IBM Verse and Connections. IBM also announced expanded capabilities in its collaboration portfolio with new innovations that make it easier for clients to gain and share business insights across teams.

The Weather Company, an IBM Business announced today that The Weather Channel has launched a cognitive weather bot for Facebook Messenger – powered by IBM Watson. Around the world, Messenger is used to stay in touch with friends and family. Now with The Weather Channel bot, it offers a way to view and share personalized weather-related news content, current conditions, forecasts, severe weather notifications, and other relevant weather information.

Millions of consumers depend on The Weather Channel and weather.com for their daily forecasts, breaking weather news, and the latest in health and travel. And, on August 21, they will be able to experience a solar eclipse like never before. The Weather Channel digital properties and Twitter have teamed up for a live stream of this once-in-a lifetime celestial event, which will allow consumers to chase the total solar eclipse in real time as it moves from coast-to-coast.

IBM and MIT today announced that IBM plans to make a 10-year, $240 million investment to create the MIT–IBM Watson AI Lab in partnership with MIT. The lab will carry out fundamental artificial intelligence (AI) research and seek to propel scientific breakthroughs that unlock the potential of AI. The collaboration aims to advance AI hardware, software and algorithms related to deep learning and other areas, increase AI’s impact on industries, such as health care and cybersecurity, and explore the economic and ethical implications of AI on society. IBM’s $240 million investment in the lab will support research by IBM and MIT scientists.

The U.S. Chamber Foundation’s Corporate Citizenship Center and IBM today issued a new report that explores how efforts by businesses to be a positive force in communities – commonly referred to as corporate social responsibility (CSR) – influences public perception of those companies.

IBM Watson Health and Tiatros Inc, a digital health company, today announced that the Tiatros-enabled post-traumatic stress disorder programs achieved up to 73% completion rate for veterans who begin the PTSD sessions. The Tiatros Post Traumatic Growth for Veterans is a Tiatros psychotherapy program designed as a secure social network to support veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. The program connects veterans with their peers online, in a platform that is designed to reduce barriers to access and deliver evidence-based cognitive behavioral therapy that is personalized to each individual, with help from Watson APIs.

MAP Health Management and IBM Watson Health today announced a partnership that aims to address the pervasive problem of relapse among Americans suffering from Substance Use Disorder, a chronic disease. MAP will integrate Watson cognitive technologies into the MAP Recovery Network Platform to enhance the platform’s existing capabilities around patient risk models. In doing so, it is anticipated that behavioral health and substance abuse treatment providers that use the MAP platform will be better able to predict and prevent incidence of relapse nationwide.

The Weather Company, an IBM Business and Rogers Media announced today an agreement to provide weather information and content customized specifically for the Canadian market. With this agreement, The Weather Company will provide in-depth weather data and forecasts, as well as curated content, across Rogers Media properties. In turn, Rogers Media will provide locally relevant articles, photos and video content across the Canadian versions of The Weather Channel app and website (weather.com) to provide residents with the most pertinent information possible. The Weather Company and Rogers Media will also align to enhance advertising across both companies’ properties, with Rogers leveraging its ad sales capabilities to monetize The Weather Channel properties in Canada.

IBM announced today that Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU) has integrated IBM Watson Analytics to help create new services and programs based on data-driven insights to improve students’ academic achievement and development.

IBM today announced that Joanne Wright, Vice President, IBM Watson Supply Chain and Jeanette Barlow, Vice President of Offering Management and Strategy for IBM Watson Supply Chain will be participating in the “Industry Value Chain Exchange Series,” part of the Gartner Supply Chain Management Executive Conference. The conference takes place from May 23-25 in Phoenix, Arizona.

IBM today announced that Joanne Wright, Vice President Supply Chain has been selected to speak at the upcoming Supply Chain Summit Conference, which takes place in Chicago on June 14-16.

IBM today announced that Joanne Wright, Vice President Supply Chain has been selected to speak at the upcoming Supply Chain Leaders in Action Business Forum, which takes place in Naples, Florida on June 5-7.

IBM today announced that Fast Company has named IBM’s Harriet Green one of its 100 Most Creative People in Business for 2017. The annual list honors an influential and diverse group of leading thinkers from a vast range of global industries.

IBM today announced that for the seventh consecutive year, Gartner, Inc. has named IBM as a leader in the April 2017 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Multichannel Campaign Management.

IBM today announced that Mammoth Resorts, the leading four-season mountain resort operator in California, is using Watson Customer Engagement solutions on the IBM Cloud to create customized offers that are helping to drive record numbers of visitors to the resort every year.

IBM today announced new offerings to its Watson Data Platform, including data cataloging and data refining, which is designed to make it easier for developers and data scientists to analyze and prepare enterprise data for AI applications, regardless of its structure or where it resides. By improving data visibility and helping to better enforce data security policies, users can now connect and share data across public and private cloud environments.

IBM today announced that Vancouver-based company Fusion Genomics selected IBM’s cloud capabilities to help advance Fusion’s ability to detect pandemics before they happen. Fusion Genomics has developed disruptive DNA and RNA technology that it believes can positively identify infectious diseases and enhance the surveillance of emerging pathogens like MERS, SARS, avian flu, and swine flu.

When the No Parking signs aren't doing the job, I add some of my own.

I added my own commentary to Sacramento Gun Show signs

Stacy and Angela painted the alphabet on the wall of their living room, hung lights, and it looks amazing. I built a web app that lets you compose and deliver a creepy message to a friend!

Discovering buried treasure is every fourth-grader's dream afternoon.

was inspired to make a giant geometrical shape, that of the 20-side die, or isocahedron.

If your timing is just exactly right, you can experience a Disneyland ghost town

Photos and Descriptions of where to find Electrical Outlets in the Magic Kingdom

Photos of Menu Signs from 2011-2019

A batch of advice for visiting Disneyland with two young teens

I lowered my NOx emissions by 234 PPM

Bank of Montreal (BMO), CaixaBank, Commerzbank and Erste Group have joined an initiative launched by UBS and IBM in 2016 to build a new global trade platform based on blockchain technology. This new platform, called Batavia, is built to be openly accessed by organisations of all sizes anywhere in the world, and can support trade finance for transactions across all modes of trade, whether goods are being transported by air, land or sea.