Citrix founder launches new venture in Florida
Citrix Systems founder Edward Iacobucci announced a new venture on Wednesday that he says will address "data sprawl" for small-to-medium sized companies. "It's an 800-pound gorilla that everybody's ignoring and that's getting worse and worse," said Iacobucci, founder and chief executive of the new venture, VirtualWorks Group. VirtualWorks, which is based in Boca Raton with some operations in Norway, also said it has secured $8.5 million in funding. The investors have not been disclosed. "It's not just a company doing a product. We're building a platform," said Iacobucci, a former IBM engineer who first struck out on his own in 1989 with Citrix, a pioneer software company. He left the company in 2000 to pursue other entrepreneurial ventures. Retrieving data on multiple computer servers, systems, e-mail and databases has become a growing problem for many businesses, Iacobucci said. VirtualWorks is building a structure to index data so companies can retrieve files from any application, location or device, he said. He said research has shown that workers spend 25 percent of their time looking for items on their computers and other devices. VirtualWorks new platform is a tool that "will increase the productivity of a company significantly," Iacobucci said. [Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel]
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Internet Coast Meets Innovation Hub
MUST-KNOW FLORIDIAN
Meet Marco Pahor, Chairman, Department of Aging and Geriatrics Research, University of Florida. Under his direction, the institute has received more than 90 grants and has 40 more grant proposals pending. The grants include UF's largest — $64 million from the National Institute on Aging — to determine conclusively whether physical activity or a successful aging health education program can help older adults remain mobile longer. Pahor is one of Florida Trend's Research Stars. |
NBA Finals: Watch out for counterfeit Miami Heat tickets
Maybe those Miami Heat tickets you snagged for the NBA Finals this week aren't such a white hot deal. Major sporting events often draw con artists offering counterfeit tickets or hawking non-existent seats on the street corner, law enforcement and consumer advocates say.
Heat officials said they have not received any reports of phony tickets. But Jimmy Sigendorf, president and CEO of Premium Seats USA in Hollywood, said unlike Super Bowl tickets, those for the NBA finals don't have any built-in holograms, stamps or other security features designed to deter fraud.
"Buyers should be careful who they are dealing with," said Sigendorf, on the board of the National Ticket Brokers Association. "Nowadays, it's gotten easy [to make fakes]."
Last year, the Better Business Bureau received 1,263 complaints nationwide about ticket sales to events. Here's how to protect yourself. [Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel]
'Man v. Food' comes to Pasco
James Morgan, known to many as "Captain," dons a dust mask as he prepares a batch of Davy Jones Wings at Rapscallions, the restaurant he runs with his wife and "First Mate," Shael. Inked on the mask are a skull and crossbones.
Morgan yells, "Davy in the hole!" as he swirls 10 cooked chicken wings in a metal bowl containing a thick, brick-colored sauce so potent that protection is necessary to guard against the simple act of breathing fumes.
The "Davy'' is the Davy Jones sauce that Shael Morgan created after thinking many other restaurants' hottest sauces really weren't that hot and certainly weren't "knock you off your butt" hot. Thus was born the Davy Jones Challenge. The Davy Jones Challenge consists of one eater, 10 wings and 30 minutes. Once the white ceramic plate hits the table and the clock starts ticking, the contender cannot have anything else besides the hot-sauce slathered wings. No drink. No bleu cheese. No nothing. If the challenger beats the heat and the clock, he must sit for five more minutes after the last bite to endure the "after-burn" before being deemed a champion. The challenge has become so popular that it caught the attention of producers for Travel Channel's Man v. Food Nation. The host of the show, Adam Richman, and crew visited Rapscallions in late February and filmed a segment featuring the hot-wing challenge with the pro-wrestling tag team the Nasty Boys, Brian Knobbs and Jerry Saggs. The show airs tonight at 9.
[Source: St. Petersburg Times]
Pomegranates could become new cash crop for Florida
Supplies of a nutritious and popular fruit could increase in Florida in the next few years, thanks to the research of a University of Florida professor emeritus.
William Castle, who specializes in horticultural science at UF's Citrus Research and Education Center in Lake Alfred, is studying the viability of pomegranate production in Florida. The fruit is not currently produced commercially in the state.
Pomegranates are small, shrubby trees native to the Middle East and have apple-sized fruits with a red exterior and numerous juicy, edible arils inside. The aril covers the pomegranate seed and has a sweet, tart taste. The fruit contains healthy compounds such as antioxidants, nutrients and vitamins.
Castle, a member of UF's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, started the study in 2009. He and Jim Baldwin, a senior biologist at the Citrus REC, are examining nutrition and irrigation requirements, pest, weed and disease threats, maintenance needs, and genetic differences among more than 80 types of pomegranates in two locations in Central Florida — the Citrus REC and a water reuse site called Water Conserv II in Winter Garden.
The researchers enlisted the help of more than 30 growers from around the state to plant pomegranates and gauge their performance.
[Source: UF News]
Dustup over Florida wind farm
Florida is the latest battleground for greens anguished about the ecological costs of green power.
This time, a proposal for a sprawling wind farm just north of the Everglades is facing blowback from environmental groups that worry it could become an avian Cuisinart for the wading birds, raptors and waterfowl that teem in the sprawling marshes nearby.
At least one statewide conservation organization has come out against the project by the St. Louis-based Wind Capital Group, which would feature as many as 100 turbines as tall as the Statue of Liberty stretched across a 20,000-acre swath of sugar cane and vegetable farms in western Palm Beach County.
The National Audubon Society's Florida affiliate is also taking a hard look at the wind proposal, although it has yet to take a position.
"We think alternative energy is absolutely necessary," said Jane Graham, Audubon's Everglades policy associate. "You see what's happening with coal plants and climate change. ... But as far as the location of this wind farm, that has raised serious concerns."
[Source: Politico]
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