Business – Page 24 – PhilaNet.com

Lafayette, CA – July 14, 2011 – Quipu Applications, Inc., a Cloud Computing company revolutionizing the way entrepreneurs and VCs communicate and collaborate, announced today its National University and College Branded Communities campaign. Offered at no cost, Quipu’s cloud-based incQubator™ service enables national Technology Transfer Offices to create branded BusinessPlan communities for the secure monitoring of their investment portfolios. The Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution includes Web 2.0 features, cloud-based instrumentation and real-time collaboration tools that empower incubated companies to create and share the progress of their entire portfolio of licensed technologies, as well as manage all aspects of their investments, including the on-demand monitoring of key performance metrics.

“For the first time, U.S. college and university Technology Transfer Offices can manage their entire portfolio of investments in a consistent flexible and secure manner, via a unified dashboard – using Quipu’s incQubator,“ said Michael Issa, CEO, co-founder, Quipu Applications. “Furthermore, these offices can create on-time and on-budget portfolio projects using our proven, systematic approach – while sharing progress and results across a large community of users through permission-based collaboration.”

About BusinessPlan

Quipu’s BusinessPlan is a cloud-based dashboard that empowers users to develop and manage a dynamic living business plan complete with collaboration, financials, documents, project management, integrated blogs, wikis, posts, and grouping. Additionally, all parties can stay informed of progress and updates based on individual permissions and personal preference of notifications.

About incQubator

Quipu’s incQubator allows organizations to provide branded BusinessPlan communities that can be completely monitored and administered via an easy-to-use, cloud-based dashboard complete with instrumentation and collaboration.

Technology Transfer Offices can now manage incubated companies to respective venture methodologies using Quipu’s incQubator Best Practices Curriculum. Key performance metrics can be monitored in real-time, with notifications sent to all those who opted for updates. Furthermore, cloud-based collaboration allows colleges and universities to create, share, manage and monitor their business operations on the incQubator dashboard. Notable capabilities include:

Management of projects, financials and documents.
Monitoring of integrated blogs, wikis, posts, and groups.
Ability to keep all stakeholders informed in real time.
Ability to issue individual permissions and personal preference of notifications.

Quipu is offering its National University and College Branded Communities solution at no cost to any U.S.-based college-level, two- or four-year academic institution. The free branded incQubator and BusinessPlan service requires the approval of a university authority including university and college technology transfer executives. Dashboard access can be granted to staff and faculty of the institution, students and part-time contractor-based employees, alumnae, and satellite campuses – both nationally and globally.

Higher Education institutions are urged to signup and launch their branded community with Quipu’s incQubator. To request a Demo visit www.quipuapps.com/invitation_to_share.php

About Quipu Applications, Inc.

Quipu Applications, Inc. is a software development company focused on streamlining business applications while utilizing the power of online technology. Quipu’s products are designed for entrepreneurs, investors, accelerators and their communities of interest. For more information, visit www.QuipuApps.com.

Any unreleased services or features referenced in this or other press releases or public statements are not currently available and may not be delivered on time or at all. Customers who purchase Quipu Applications, Inc. services should make their purchase decisions based upon features that are currently available. Quipu Applications, Inc. has headquarters in Lafayette, CA, and offices in Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, and in Asia. For more information please visit http://www.QuipuApps.com.

Quarrying Pennsylvania Bluestone in the Endless Mountains

Posted on August 24, 2010 by admin

Tunkhannock, PA – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For more info contact Endless Mountain Fieldstone Supply at (888) 836-ROCK (7625).

Bluestone mines that dot the Meshoppen, Wyoming County PA, area contain a durable and colorful sandstone unique to the Endless Mountains of Pennsylvania.

For over 100 years, miners have been blasting into these jagged mountainsides to uncover bluish snad grains cemented by percolating marine waters over 350 million years ago. Owner and miner Matt McClain refers to his mines simply as “the quarry.”

In the quarry, mud puddles splash the surface as an employee, Porky, slices an 18-inch-square, glassy chunk using a gas-powered saw that operates like a lawn mower. Off to one side, Kerby, Matt’s older brother, and co-worker Hyram Stevens are layering chunks into thinner slices. “These men split 1,000 feet of stone a day,” McClain points out.

At McClain’s mill, Endless Mountain Fieldstone Supply located in neighboring Tunkhannock, bluestone slabs are trimmed and sized. The mill property consists of a gravel driveway and a sky-blue shed filled with the buzzing sound of an electric saw. Finished one- two- and three-foot squares of the stone are layered onto pallets. Building contractors order 24-ton tractor trailer loads of these for curbing, flagging and building materials.

Natural 1″ to 2″ thick layers are split and prepared for shipment.

Explaining the varieties of bluestone comes naturally to McClain, who started mining at the age of 8 in his family’s backyard quarry in Meshoppen. “In center deposits, you’ll find the blue-blue color,” he says. “Customers pay extra for its durability and natural look, although it fades to green in the sun.”

Irregular standing patios call for scraggy pieces found on the fringes of a quarry in shades of lilac, yellow, buff, brown and green. “People want natural, rustic-looking material that’s not necessarily blue in color,” McClain explains.

Tawny bluestone boulders called fieldstone add authenticity to waterfall landscapes, cob-textured porches, steps and paths. Said to be “glaciated in” from the highlands during an ice age, this type of stone was traditionally used by farmers as fencing to keep cattle away from crops.

McClain began mining over 40 years ago in a quarry behind his family’s two-story, white Meshoppen farmhouse. His father, George McClain, gave up being a pastor of a small Methodist church when his income wasn’t supporting his family of nine boys and one girl, and entered the bluestone mining market.

Leaving the family business at age 16, Matt traveled the countryside searching for a less strenuous livelihood. Construction work paid his bills over the next 10 years, until he felt the urge to return to the family tradition of mining bluestone in the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania.

His 29-year-old son, Stace, also left and then returned to the stone industry. He operates an area fieldstone yard. Sitting behind his desk in his office trailer, Stace discusses with his father why they both left and later returned to the bluestone business. Family pride, it seems, had a great deal to do with it, a quality as durable as the stone the family has mined for 40 years.

Endless Mountain Fieldstone Supply proudly serves Wyoming County PA, Lackawanna County PA, Luzerne County PA, ASUllivan County PA,
Susquehanna County PA, Bradford County PA. We will also deliver to large and small customers in Southeastern PA and the Philadelphia and Lehigh Valley regions.