Archive: April 2009
And now something lighter (and about security)
April 30, 2009Martha Entwistle
Congratulations to Charles S. “Scott” Mandel, president of Asset Protection & Security Services LP, for taking home the Entrepreneurial Success (regional and district winner) award at the Corpus Christie Small Business Association luncheon this week.
Unfortunately, Mandel lost out on the Small Business People of the Year Award to the owners of Mr. Fancy Pants.
Please also note that the Women in Business Champion was Yvette Maldonado, co-owner of Pete’s Chicken-N-More. Which raises the question:...
You knew this was going to happen...
April 30, 2009Martha Entwistle
After yesterday's rant about the swine flu, of course it would be reported last night that we now have swine flu here in Maine.
Baldacci and Dr. Dora Anne Mills of the Maine Center for Disease Control said all three victims are adults who are recovering at home, two from Kennebec County in central Maine and one from York County in the southernmost part of the state.
Details were limited. One of those stricken had a "travel history," Mills said.
Yikes! I have a "travel history!" I travel all the...
This Blog's on Fire (And Other Stuff)
ADT parent posts earnings
April 30, 2009Tess Nacelewicz
Tyco International today reported second quarter earnings.
From the release:
Tyco International Ltd. (NYSE: TYC) today reported a loss of $5.40 in diluted earnings per share (EPS) from continuing operations for the fiscal second quarter of 2009 and diluted EPS from continuing operations before special items of $0.55 per share. Revenue in the quarter of $4.2 billion declined 15% versus the prior year, mostly due to the impact of the stronger U.S. dollar against foreign currencies. Organic revenue...
Media=bad at flu reporting
April 29, 2009Martha Entwistle
This is tangentially related to the security industry, but ASIS is tracking the swine flu and people do sell flu-detecting cameras, so I figure it's fair game for me.
Basically, the mainstream press sucks at reporting about this whole swine flu thing. Sure, it could be a worldwide pandemic, and I'm not underestimating the potential loss of life and general scariness a flu pandemic can really cause, but it's not quite there yet and what we generally have are a bunch of breathless reports that quote...
False alarm ordinance compliance push pays off in Seattle
April 29, 2009Daniel Gelinas
Following up on an earlier story I wrote for SSN, false alarm ordinance compliance efforts in Seattle have been successful, according to a recent press release from SIAC. False alarm dispatches have fallen by 26 percent. That's a good sign that something's working.
Earlier in the year when I wrote about the initial compliance push, Seattle PD detective Christopher Hall, false alarm administrator at the SPD, said compliance was not about cracking down. “In 2004, they rewrote the law that basically...
Municipalities getting into residential video monitoring
April 28, 2009Daniel Gelinas
I just came across this story from the Silicon Valley Mercury News. Looks like another municipality is contemplating getting into the security industry. I wrote a story a while back about another municipality getting into intrusion alarm monitoring.
I've got calls out to the appropriate AHJ and will follow up on this story as it develops.
Monitronics announces ISC West '09 contest winners
April 28, 2009Daniel Gelinas
Monitronics last week announced the winners, selected at random, of the contests it held out of its booth at ISC West this year. Monitronics gave away to Spokane, Wash.-based King Marketing owner/operator Brady Nelson an all expense paid trip to see a UFC match between Chuck "The Iceman" Liddell and Mauricio "Shogun" Rua which took place April 18. Liddell had been a celebrity booth presence for Monitronics at ISC West.
[caption id="attachment_1845" align="aligncenter" width="200" caption="Monitronics...
Busting on security at RSA
April 27, 2009Martha Entwistle
Here's a fun little post from the Tech Herald regarding security procedures at RSA Security. I'm not sure "Epic Fail" is the appropriate headline, but it's still kind of an entertaining outline of wireless and physical security letdowns at the show.
Here's my favorite paragraph, though:
Why is this important? For one, you always hear about the security risks with laptops, the danger they pose to a company if they are lost or stolen and contain sensitive information. Here were six laptops, just...
Go east, everyone?
April 27, 2009Martha Entwistle
Riffing on some of the themes of John Honovich's trip to the Far East for SecuTech (this is a good discussion of OEM practices, and you'll see I chime in), I just got notice that MDI is now the exclusive master distributor in the U.S. for Truen, a Korean IP video company.
IP video products are commoditizing quickly, and I think you'll see more Korean/Chinese/etc. companies making inroads into the North American market through well-known manufacturers and integrators. With all of the great reference...
This Blog's on Fire (And Other Stuff)
ADT helps out
April 27, 2009Tess Nacelewicz
ADT announced Friday that it's providing money and security equipment to Interact Family Safety & Empowerment Center, a new Domestic Violence Resource Center in Raleigh, N.C. Here's the release.
ADT's providing access control, panic alarms, video systems and emergency call stations to the center which serves more than 36,000 people, including 6,400 direct victims of crime and their families.