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October 2006
Why is MostChoice in the headlines now?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
MostChoice.com CEO Martin Fleischmann is a man on the move these days. The company he co-founded with friend Michael Levy is being named to lists of fast-growing tech companies left and right, and now he’s getting headlines as a click fraud-fighting executive in the Oct. 2 edition of BusinessWeek magazine.
Click fraud is the practice of building Web sites filled with nothing but lists of pay-per-click advertisements under affiliate agreements with major search sites, then using automated programs or low-paid workers to click on the links to generate revenue.
MostChoice’s paid ads have ended up on such sites, costing the company tens of thousands of dollars because paid search results are one of the avenues through which it develops the leads it sells to insurance and other financial services agents across the country, Fleischmann said.
Still, the company is doing exceedingly well, being named earlier this month as Georgia’s fastest-growing technology company, and last month to the Inc. 500 list of fast-growing companies nationwide.
The company started as an online insurance agency in 1999 and survived the dot-com bust of 2001, primarily because it hadn’t raised the kind of venture capital that other companies brought in. That forced Fleischmann and Levy to maintain their frugal ways until they hit on a better business model —- which was selling leads and leaving the insurance writing to others.
“Everything we tried to do to be like the dot-coms didn’t work out and everything we did to build a correct business model did,” he said.
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Would you try farming by remote control?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Roswell and agricultural technology seem to have a long history. After all, it wasn’t farming that gave rise to the city, but the cotton mills.
Now, a Roswell company that specializes in bringing broadband to the boonies has partnered with a Lilburn company to commercialize methods of using technology to automate farm work.
Camvera Networks recently demonstrated an early version of the tools at the Sunbelt Agricultural Exposition in Moultrie. This incarnation allows workers at three testing facilities and one working farm to measure the moisture content and temperature of their soils, key indicators for farmers, said Camvera co-founder John Overly.
Eventually, the company’s technology partner, Presoft Ag Solutions, hopes to offer tools that will allow farmers to start and stop irrigation systems from anywhere in the world using a Web-enabled desktop, laptop or even PDA. They would also be able to use video cameras to monitor activity in fields, and deploy tractor-mounted tools to precisely plant crop rows and harvest crops more efficiently.
Such tools could help farmers reduce water and energy usage, among other things, Overly said.
Camvera’s primary role is in developing the infrastructure to tie the technologies together and make remote data access possible, Overly said.
Demonstration projects are ongoing at the USDA National Research Peanut Lab in Dawson, the Agricultural Innovation Center in Tifton and a private farm.
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Meet Rupak Ganguly, big picture guy and gadgetophile
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
You might figure Rupak Ganguly, our featured gadgetophile of the week, is a man of diverse interests by taking a peek at his favorite movie list. It begins with “Forrest Gump,” takes a detour through “Nemo” and ends up at “Dil Chahata Hai,” a 2001 Indian film that focuses on the “lives and loves of three close friends,” according to 1-World Festival of Foreign Films.com.
But a peek at the Cumming tech worker’s technology blog will seal the conclusion. Just below his latest entry dissecting Microsoft’s Zune media player, you’ll find Ganguly enthusing about “ClipCode DSL Tool for GOF Patterns.”
We don’t know what that means, but Ganguly —- a software solutions architect (fancy words for Big Picture Guy) assures us it’s really, really cool.
Ganguly’s diverse interests reflect his professional life, where he spans the worlds of technology and business, taking what the folks in the suits say they want and translating that into terminology the techies understand.
In his blog, Developer’s Shelf, he tries not to just gush over technology he finds cool, but take a technologist’s perspective on it, examining not just the wow factor, but also the things that make the technology work —- or not.
He’s currently working on a series about how Microsoft’s Media Center capabilities built into the upcoming release of the Vista operating system will begin to change the way in which people receive and use digital entertainment at home.
Not all that many people read the blog, he says, but that’s not really the point.
“It’s just an expression. It’s just how people write poems or paint,” he said.
You can find Ganguly’s blog at developershelf.blogspot.com.
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Gadgets: Do you need this LCD TV?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tech Circuit is taking a look today at the Samsung LN-S4695D 1080p 46” LCD TV
Who’s gotta have it?
Rupak Ganguly, who just bought a new house in Cumming and needs lots of new electronics to fill it up. He’s going for an LCD over a plasma, the other high-definition system, because plasmas don’t offer the highest resolutions available. So what if television signals aren’t going out in that higher resolution? “I am a videophile/audiophile,” he says.
Why you gotta have it
Well let’s see. Um, it’s big. It’s got such a wide viewing angle you might be able to watch “South Park” standing behind the danged thing, and it’s so fast at drawing images that you could hook your XBox up to it and forget you’re not really on the football field when you play Madden ‘07. At around three grand, let’s hope so.
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North Fulton’s Red Hot Tech Sector
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
What is it about the Northside that makes it such a great spot for technology companies?
Consulting firm Deloitte & Touche USA has come out with its 2006 list of the state’s 50-fastest growing tech companies, and six of the top 10 are located there.
According to Deloitte, MostChoice.com, a Sandy Springs company that connects people seeking financial services with local professionals, is the state’s fastest growing tech company, with revenue growth of 11,107 percent over the last five years.
Also in the top ten are CBeyond Communications of Sandy springs, SPI Dynamics of Dunwoody, Agentek of Alpharetta, TurboChef Technologies of Sand Springs and Knowledgestorm of Alpharetta.wledgestorm, an IT information resource firm, round out the list of the Northside’s fastest-growing.
The rankings are based on percentage revenue growth over five years among tech companies with at least $5 million in operating revenues in 2005.
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Let the console craziness commence
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Lots of people lined up at area videogame stores last week to reserve PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii gaming rigs, so it seems the holiday gaming wars are officially under way.
So will it be a PlayStation for you, a Wii for the kids, or both?
Or will you be like Shadman Siddiqui of Alpharetta, who scored one PlayStation reservation and was fishing around for another one to sell. He figures the PlayStation will be a big seller this fall, primarily because of the technology that allows the console to be used as a Blu-ray video disc player.
“That, in itself, is worth it,� he said. “Try to get a Blu-ray player now, it’s $1,000.�
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Getting the timing right
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sure, it can be tough to wear your heart on your sleeve. But how would you feel about wearing your ovaries on your wrist, ladies?
An Alpharetta company, Health Watch Systems, has gone to market with a gadget that it says can give women up to five days notice of their most fertile days. … Plenty of time to plan a nice romantic dinner with the hubby.
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Tech heaven on the Northside?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
OK, admit it, you’re just a little bit geeked up over Fry’s Electronics impending arrival in Alpharetta, aren’t you?
The new store on Ga. 9 north of Windward Parkway is nearly complete, and while company officials are tight-lipped about grand opening plans, we can’t be more than a few weeks from opening day. And in a place like this, with so-many techies and tech-happy “civilians,” you’d think the place is going to be a zoo when it opens.
For those who aren’t in the know, Fry’s is rambling gadget storehouse that got its start in Silicon Valley in California, providing the original geeks with just about anything they needed to pull off their computing dreams. There’s already one store in metro Atlanta — near Gwinnett Place Mall.
So, who’s going to be there? Who’s going to stay away? Why?
Abel Solutions gives Hands On assistance
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tech workers have a rep for spending long hours in the server room, in front of the terminal or in the lab, but one of the things we found in launching this feature is that lots of you are really involved in the community.
Abel Solutions, for instance, an Alpharetta IT company, is deeply involved with Hands on Atlanta, the community volunteering initiative, and encourages its employees to get involved in their communities as they see fit.
About 10 of the company’s 17 employees traveled to McLendon Elementary School in Decatur on Oct. 7 to remove overgrowth, plant flowers and shrubs and generally help beautify the grounds of the 48-year-old school.
It’s the sixth year the company has been involved in the annual volunteer day, co-founder Kevin Abel said.
How do you and your company get involved?
PHOTO CAPTION: Abel Solutions co-founder Kevin Abel and his son, Eric, haul debris at McLendon Elementary. (Photo by MICHAEL PEARSON)
Gadgets: Something for the golfers
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
What is it? A GPS range finder for golfers
Why do you gotta have it? It can calculate how far you are from up to 40 targets on any hole on almost any golf course while you sip a cold one, talk on the phone and watch your friend drop a nasty shot into the sand trap, that’s why. And with an additional annual membership, you can use it on virtually any golf course, whether or not it’s equipped with GPS technology.
Who’s gotta have it? Marcus Graham of Roswell, and about a zillion other golfers who just can’t quite get their minds, or their spouses, wrapped around spending nearly $400 on another golf gadget. “But this thing is really cool,� Graham pleads. We’re with you, brother.
Where can you get it? www.skygolfgps.com.
Is there a glitzy, shiny gadget out there that you’ve just gotta have? E-mail mpearson@ajc.com and maybe we’ll write about it.
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High praise for ChoicePoint
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
OK, so consumer and privacy advocates are a little lukewarm, but a major voice in the gay, bisexual and transgender community says Alpharetta’s ChoicePoint is A-OK.
The Human Rights Campaign has given the company a perfect 100 on its corporate equality index.
According to the Washington-based anti-discrimination group, ChoicePoint was one of 138 companies nationwide that received perfect scores for their treatment of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees, customers and investors.
ChoicePoint, which collects and sells personal data, made news worldwide last year after revealing it had unintentionally sold personal data to identity thieves.
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A fine day to look for a new employer
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
How confident are you in your tech job? And if you’re looking, particularly on the Northside, how does the market feel?
As many as 500 people turned out at a recent technology job fair at Cobb Galleria Center, and despite some concerns about their current positions being outsourced or unsteady conditions in the contract market, most said they were optimistic about their prospects.
How about you?
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Job sends pair to 7 cities, 2 continents
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A couple of employees for a Roswell firm, Witness Systems, spend a month in Asia every year touting their business and its brand of workforce optimization. They just got back from this year’s trip, and they’re still working off the jetlag. It’s an experience one of them, Bill Durr, says he’d never have had a chance to have if he wasn’t working for the company.
The Texas resident made it through the coup in Thailand unscatched, while his partner, Ocsar Alban of East Cobb, learned to eat chicken feet and had a chance for a sit down with an Australian aborigine.
Assuming you ever get out from under that pile of work you’ve got in front of you, how has working in the tech industry changed your outlook and life?
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