Hundreds, maybe thousands of medical records have been found at the home of a Baptist employee. Rather than repeating the limited info already posted on several sites I will just give you the links. This seems to be at least the second time that Baptist has had issues with missing records.

But, police now say a Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center employee, Linda Turner, stole hundreds, possibly thousands, of people’s medical records.

They say she kept the files in the basement of a home she owned. The hospital fired her just last night— this is going beyond a job situation…

Baptist Hospital Employee Charged After Medical Files Found

Wake Forest Baptist medical records found in rental home owned by employee

Friday is Data Privacy Day, don’t ask me who made it so I just know it is. Anyway as such Microsoft has put up a nice PDF on using location based services safely and being aware of how these services work.

If your not up on this new trend you may be using Location Based Services without even knowing it. If your using one of these nice new smartphones with built-in GPS are you aware your images may be tagged with the GPS location of the photo. Imagine those pictures of your kids playing in the backyard and you posted those images to Flickr or other sites and in doing so you just posted your home’s location down to the foot. Even with Geo Tagging (the tagging of GPS data to an image) turned off your phone still places a ton of information in the photo such as the phone model, date, time and more, all of which could pass more information than you thought.

Of course other services such as FourSquare are all about posting your current location to the web, I hope I don’t have to say how dangerous this could be. The objective was to allow for meet-ups with your friends or like minded folks that might be in your general area which in the early days worked pretty well but now with millions using the service can you see the downside? I will give you an example of a post I saw a few weeks back:

Just arrived in Winston-Salem, bored and alone. Thank goodness the Hilton has a whirlpool, going down for a good long soak.

I think it’s pretty obvious just how stupid that post was especially since her profile also includes a picture. Unfortunately many people are just to trusting and just don’t give a post like that second thoughts until it’s to late.

So anyway check out the attached PDF put together by Microsoft on this subject.

This is called a QR Code, a matrix bar code, that users can create, share, scan to link to just about anything. To create your own QR code for say your business website or even business card just check out qrcode.kaywa.com.

Antimicrobial Technologies Group recently visited Winston-Salem having meetings with Meridian Reality and Grande Peak Technologies. CEO Simon Johnston and the management team from ATG reviewed the area for potential sites and appears to have expressed a serious interesting in the RJR Whitaker site.

Antimicrobial Technologies Group makes anti-bacterial, anti-viral, anti-fungal and anti-odor fabrics, fibers, plastics and paints. They are looking for a facility in the 100,000 square foot range however commented that they could easily outgrow such a site within a few years. ATG is a relatively new company derived from the research of a professor at the University of South Dakota.  They had a ribbon cutting of their South Dakota facility just last year at which time they employed just a handful of people. Dr. YuYu Sun discovered a N-Halamine molecule which is claimed to fight germs, fungus, mold and viruses, a very bold claim I would think. ATG holds the rights to that molecule and looks to deploy it in everything from paint to textiles, textiles being where Winston-Salem comes in. Read the rest of this entry »

Nathan Jones, founder of the Winston-Salem Tea Party announced his candidacy for the NC Senate seat currently help by Linda Garrou.  Nathan has been active politically for the last several years and was struck by what he saw as a need for the people to be represented fairly, honestly, and with a vision toward developing a better future. He is a graduate of Wake Forest University for both his Bachelors degree and his MBA. As the President and small Business owner of a local company, Nathan has direct experience at not just managing finances, but he has direct experience in guiding a business in tough times with a view toward overcoming problems proactively.

Ms. Garrou has held the current seat in District 32 for the last 12 years and is seen as one of the major architects of the fiscal problems that plague North Carolina. Over the last ten years increases in spending have been four times greater than increases in population. This shows the clear willingness to spend without regard for fiscal responsibility. As a result taxes on every front across the state have been increased.  In the current session North Carolina was able to close much of their budget deficits only because of billions of dollars that were provided by the Federal government as part of their ill conceived stimulus package. Those funds however, will not be forthcoming next year and North Carolinians will be put in a difficult position as the State Legislature is forced to cut benefits and services to close a multi billion dollar budget gap. Once a resort state that provided a haven for businesses and tourists alike, North Carolina now has one of the highest sales taxes, unfriendly business taxes, and is losing people to neighboring states which have a much more friendly environment.

Nathan enters the race committed to bringing down the rate of unemployment in North Carolina and avoiding any repetition of the mistakes that have led to the current state of affairs. He wants to make sure that the state fosters an environment which attracts investment and promote job growth. Nathan has been clear that his goals if elected are to work diligently to reduce wasteful government spending. He is committed to reducing taxes so that business and industry will once again see North Carolina as a good place to locate their businesses. It is also important that government be limited to its constitutional size and responsibilities to ensure long term economic growth. As a member of the state Senate Nathan Jones will make the people of North Carolina and the proper conduct of their business and representation the business of his Senatorial Office.

Well Dell has extended again the final closing of it’s Winston-Salem plant, why do we say Winston-Salem anyway considering where it’s located but I digress. Anyway most likely due to labor issues in Mexico Dell has decided to keep the plant open allowing some 400 employees per The Journal to keep getting those paychecks. I say per The Journal because the reports I have put that number a good bit less but that’s all rumor.

Recent labor events in Mexico and problems with PC Electronics component maker Foxconn are likely the cause for this extension.

In a total affront to any and all privacy The North Carolina Department Of Revenue FLEW to Seattle to demand Amazon product all records for purchases by North Carolina residents from 2003-2010. Note I capitalized “FLEW” because instead of licking a stamp or using a courier service some enterprising soul in Raleigh figure out how to get a free vacation on you on me by hand delivering the demand letter to Amazon. So not only does the state want to know what you have been reading but they want you to pay for them to find it out while they take cross country flights, stay in hotels and have a nice dinner!

Amazon seeks a declaration that the DOR’s ongoing demand for information that will disclose the names, addresses and purchasing habits of Amazon’s North Carolina customers violates the rights of Amazon to sell, and its customers to purchase, books, movies, music, and other lawful expressive content free from government intrusion into the customers’ reading, viewing and listening choices.  These rights are secured under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, Article I, sections 4 and 5 of the Washington State Constitution, and federal law.  The DOR’s demand for the identity of customers who purchased video material also violates the Video Privacy Protection Act of 1988, 18 U.S.C. § 2710.  Declaratory relief from this Court is necessary to avoid piecemeal litigation or inconsistent rulings in the event other states make similar demands for customer data.

Of course Amazon has turned around and filed an immediate suit to block this request as it flies in the face of any number of court rulings that such information is private however now guess what, we get to send lawyers and their team to Seattle to argue that North Carolina does have a right to this information. Not only are you being asked to provide the state with Federally protected information but your being forced to pay to argue against your own personal rights in a court clear across the country!

The DOR has no business seeking to uncover the identity of Amazon’s customers who purchased expressive content … let alone associating customers’ names and addresses with the specific books, music, and video content that they have purchased,” Amazon wrote. “The collection and disclosure of the customer data … will link those purchases directly to the customers’ names and addresses, exposing their otherwise private reading, viewing, listening and other personal choices to government scrutiny

Please everyone take the time to read this great post on cnet which highlights exactly why North Carolina has no legal right to this information and contact your Representatives in Raleigh immediately. This is not a Left or Right side of the issue debate this is your personal privacy, protected by multiple Federal laws and court cases which the fools in Raleigh don’t seem to care about. While you have your Representative on the phone ask them who went to Seattle, did they fly coach and at what cost, where did they stay and eat and what was the final tally for hand delivering a letter to Amazon.

ACTION ALERT…NC Gov Bev Perdue Demands To Know What you Bought at Amazon

Amazon: NC bid to track taxes violates free speech

To read the full complaint Amazon has filed click here: Amazon v. Kenneth Lay

This is a reprint or repost from an article by Amy Babinchak of ThirdTier who granted permission for this reprint.

“Dell Inc. will spend $3.9 billion for the technology services company Perot Systems Corp. in an attempt to expand beyond the PC business”

“Dell’s purchase of MessageOne, coming on the heels of its acquisition of EqualLogic in November, may signal that the manufacturer is looking to build its own storage brand…”

“Dell Computer has acquired privately-held Plural Inc., a Web application development and services company…”

“Dell has completed the acquisition of Everdream, a leading provider of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions for remote-service management, providing Dell with an expanded presence in the rapidly growing Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)-enabled managed services market….”

I could go on and on posting news snippets from the last two years that demonstrate Dell’s progress out of its core business of providing great PC’s and Servers to businesses. Dell has purchased 10 companies all of which have nothing to do with making a good computer for you.

Dell has also reduced the sales and support for partners like Harbor Computer Services. Whereas, we used to have a team at Dell that was dedicated to helping us get you the best configuration for the specific needs of your business, we no longer have that team. Support for business sales is dismal and is moving in the direction of Dell’s customers support – off shore and disinterested.

Recently Dell moved it’s assembly plant from Texas to Mexico. With this move, Dell is no longer able to provide shipping time estimates for custom products. Our customers have experienced month long wait times and this unfortunately isn’t something that Dell intends to fix. It in in fact part of their plan to move away from providing custom computers for business needs.

Given the problems we have been experiencing, coupled with the news that Dell is moving its focus away from building great PC’s and Servers, we have decided to begin the move away from using Dell products. After significant research and agonizing over loosing a long term supplier, we have made our selection. We have been a HUGE Dell fan in the past, so this decision was not taken lightly or quickly – it has in fact been somewhat painful.

Our new preferred partner is Equus. Equus is an American business with 100% of its assembly, support and service in the USA. They build computers from Intel components. They are Intel’s 7th largest customer. They have been in business for 21 years. They are employee owned. They have an office in Novi and are headquartered in Minneapolis. We are confident that we have found the right hardware supplier. 

Building computers is what Equus does. Support partners like Harbor Computer Services is all that their support department does. They are good at what they do and have been well respected in the industry for many years.

We hope that you will move along with us in the transition from Dell to Equus. We will still be able to obtain Dell equipment for you, but we no longer feel confident in recommending them as the preferred solution. Ted, Diana and Amy can answer any questions and address concerns that you may have. Change is difficult and uneasy but sometimes necessary. This is one of those cases.