technology

News

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

ACFD Battles Fire on Patrick Henry Drive — On Thursday morning Arlington County firefighters assisted in battling a two-alarm blaze at an apartment building on the 3000 block of Patrick Henry Drive, just across the border in Fairfax County. [Twitter, Twitter]

Arlington Doubling Down on Startups — Arlington Economic Development plans to use the $1.5 million in one-time additional funds it’s allocated in County Manager Mark Schwartz’s budget to target early-stage tech companies and help them lease offices between 5,000 and 20,000 square feet. [Washington Business Journal]

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Where to Go Tonight? New ‘Mobile Concierge’ Ouli Gives 3 Choices, Learns Your Likes

Ouli is a free app that helps narrow your selection to three nearby, viable choices that become more refined to your needs and tastes the more you use it.

“Ouli is a mobile concierge in the palm of your hand,” said Pierre Malko, CEO of Dante Inc., the Arlington-based software company that’s been building technological innovation since 1998. “It reduces the time spent to have a great experience.”

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News

Opower Staying in Arlington, Gov. McAuliffe Announces

By ARLnow.com
Gov. Terry McAuliffe and County Board Chair Libby Garvey (photo courtesy Arlington County)

Publicly-traded energy tech firm Opower is staying in Arlington, Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) announced at a press conference this morning, marking some good news for a county beset by the departures of large government agencies.

McAuliffe and County Board Chair Libby Garvey were among those making the announcement at Opower’s current headquarters at 1515 N. Courthouse Road in Courthouse, which President Obama visited in 2010, when the company was still a startup.

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Schools

Could APS Students Telecommute During Snow Days?

By ARLnow.com

Care-free snow days, however, could eventually become a thing of the past.

APS is likely, in the near future, to consider the idea of having students “telecommute” from home when school is cancelled. They would do so from their school-issued computers — APS is in the process of outfitting every high school student with a Macbook Air and every second- through eighth-grader with an iPad.

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News

Tech Firm Shift to Build $20 Million Hub in Crystal City

By Buzz McClain

Arlington’s population of engineers and project managers will grow by 100 by 2017 as San Francisco-based disruptive technology firm Shift builds a technology operation in Crystal City.

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe announced today that Shift will invest $20 million in its East Coast engineering center in Arlington as part of its national expansion. The announcement was made during a reception at Crystal City business incubator 1776, where the company will have its local headquarters.

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News

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Arlington Police HQ Evacuated Due to Bomb Threat — The Arlington County Police headquarters in Courthouse was evacuated for several hours Saturday night after police received an “automated phone call” that made a bomb threat. Bomb-sniffing dogs got a “preliminary hit” but a sweep of the building came up empty. [WJLA]

Arlington’s MLK Tribute — Arlington County held its 47th annual tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr. on Sunday. County Board members were among those in attendance, honoring Dr. King. [WTOP]

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News

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Opower Staying in Arlington — In a “symbolic economic development win” for Arlington, Courthouse-based tech firm Opower will be staying put, at least for a couple of years. The company, which was visited by President Obama in 2010 and went public in 2014, was considering a move and was being courted by property owners in D.C. It has renewed its 42,000 square foot lease in Courthouse Tower (1515 N. Courthouse Road) through May 2018. [Washington Business Journal]

Arlington Has ‘Scars’ from Former Railroad Lines — Even in places in Arlington that have since been paved over with development, you can still see the “scars” from former rail lines in aerial photos. D.C. also has its fair share of “scarhitecture.” [Greater Greater Washington]

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News

Belated Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

ARLnow Suffers Server Issue — ARLnow.com’s web server was down this morning due to a technical problem. It came back up at almost exactly noon. We apologize for any inconvenience. For those seeking an explanation of what went wrong, we’ve compiled some of our tweets from this morning. [Storify]

Big Apartment Development Proposed in Pentagon City — Vornado, which recently put several planned projects in Crystal City on hold, has filed a preliminary site plan application for a huge new apartment tower in Pentagon City. The 22-story, 558-unit residential building would be part of the Metropolitan Park development, next to a currently under-construction, Whole Foods-anchored apartment building, also owned by Vornado. Expect objections from some residents in nearby single-family home neighborhoods, who are already fretting about Vornado’s proposed addition of 1,100 apartments at the RiverHouse complex. [Washington Business Journal]

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News

County’s Mobile and Email Success Spurs Plan for More Tech Improvements in 2016

By Jennifer Currier

According to the county’s Digital Communications Manager Jennifer Smith, 37 percent of site traffic is from mobile devices, up from 25 percent before the upgrade. Mobile phones account for 30 percent of site traffic, with the remaining 7 percent attributed to tablets.

“When we first redesigned the site our goal was to make it mobile-friendly,” Smith said. “Having mobile use increase from about a quarter to more than a third is huge, and the importance of being mobile-friendly is more critical than ever.”

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Sea Change in Credit Card Liability Coming for Small Business

EMV chip-and-sign reduces the amount of account information compromised from insecure credit card terminals.  It also prevents a malicious party from easily stealing customers’ card swipe data to create counterfeit copies.

The EMV chip is visible on most newer cards as a small gold-colored square (see the above right graphic).  The primary goal of EMV chip technology is to reduce fraud and improve credit card security.  EMV is an industry acronym that stands for Europay, MasterCard and Visa.

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Schools

School Board Funds Teacher Training for iPad, Laptop Initiative

By Heather Mongilio

The funding was approved after an amendment to stop it failed one to four.

The professional development will help teachers be able to better incorporate digital tools, such as laptops or iPads, in lesson plans. It is part of the Arlington Public Schools’ digital learning initiative, which has the goal of equipping children in second to eighth grades with an iPad and high school students with Macbook Airs.

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Why the Cloud Isn’t the Answer to All Your Technology Needs

In the last few years there has been an increasing hype regarding cloud-based offerings. From outsourcing the office file or mail server to powering entire complex web sites, collaboration and outsourcing of voice over IP as well as CRM.  The cloud is also touted as a solution for off-site backup services. The term cloud has come to mean just about anything not on your local network. The broadening definition combined with the reduction of reliability, security and accountability is a troubling trend, though.

What is a cloud?

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