Green River’s Municipal Court is looking at new software to help them become more efficient in completing daily court tasks.

Lynn Birch, clerk of court for the city, told the Green River City Council the current computer software used by the court will not receive any new updates from the company they purchased it from.

Birch said the software has been the source of problems for the court staff, such as it adding funds to a defendant’s deposition — an error staff has to find and correct immediately.

Birch said the court has been isolated from other departments, which causes it to still rely on hand written receipts and only accept payment through cash, money orders and cashiers checks. She added the court’s inability to process credit and debit cards is an inconvenience to residents trying to pay fines and other fees through the court.

The court looked for a system able to share data with other agencies, such as the Green River Police Department and city finance department; contained scheduling and document management features; had minimal reliance on third-party software programs and had customer support and service available to the court.

The program the court decided to seek city funding for is inCode by Tyler Technologies.

Birch said the program would eliminate the need for duplicating entries and could be integrated to electronic hand-held devices. With the software, the court could use a scanner to link attachments such as photos, proof of insurance and police and court cards to any court record.

Additionally, it would allow the court to directly integrate with the city’s finance department to transfer funds to the city. Currently, the court has to write a check to the finance department to transfer money.

Birch said she would be able to use the program from any location through an internet-connected computer, and Judge Jason Petri would be able to approve documents from any location using an Apple computer or iPad.

With payments, people could pay court fees online and defendants could request a driving class or similar court-ordered training while posting bond for their situations.

Birch said they tried a demonstration version of the program and found it to be very user friendly and accessible.

While discussing what the program cost, two options are available to the court. The first is a subscription-based service where all the court’s documents would be hosted from a remote server and accessible from the Internet. That service would cost $46,675, plus travel, during the first year and $20,340 each year after.

The second option would be to purchase the hardware and software needed to host the court’s documents at the court itself. That total, which includes services, license fees, web modules and travel is $68,295, with an annual maintenance fee of $12,333 due 90 days after installation.

Birch said she believes the subscription service would be better for the city because it would allow court staff to access records from any computer and would eliminate the worry about purchasing and installation of new software if the inCode program becomes obsolete.

Birch told the Council she called a number of courts around the country using the software already and hasn’t heard anything but good comments from court employees. She added one court went as far to say it was the best program they had ever used.

Councilwoman Lisa Maes said from what she’s seen, it would integrate well with the rest of the city.

Councilman Adam Coppolo said he doesn’t understand why the municipal court is so far behind everyone else.

“I’ve seen you going through the card files, and that looks very tedious, to say the least,” Coppolo said.

In general, the Council voiced support for the new software, with the exception of Councilman Tom McCullough, who claimed not to believe in the “black hole of computers.”

McCullough said for the cost of the subscription, the city could hire a part-time employee without benefits at $15,000 a year and save money. He also said he expects to hear about problems after the software is implemented due to employees learning how to use the court program, which would cut into the productivity of the court’s staff.

However, McCullough also acknowledged that he was the lone dissenting voice on the issue.

Birch said she hopes the city will budget funds for the program in the 2012-2013 budget .

Source:http://www.greenriverstar.com/articles/2012/01/11/news/doc4f0e1bbea6285950741766.txt

The city clerk and tax and finance offices will be closed Jan. 26 and 27 for a computer software upgrade.

Interim City Manager Don Gerrish said the departments are doing a major upgrade to the financial services software.

Residents can use the city’s website, www.auburnmaine.org, to take care of clerk and finance department business while the Auburn Hall offices are closed. Residents can purchase dog and hunting licenses online and can get information about marriage licenses, garage sale permits and voter information on the city clerk’s page on the Web site.

Residents can re-register most cars off a link from the Finance Department’s page on the website.

No other city offices will be closed. The clerk and finance offices will reopen at 8 a.m. Monday, Jan. 30.

Source:http://www.sunjournal.com/news/city/2012/01/12/software-upgrade-closing-city-offices-auburn/1139166

A federal judge has rejected most of Marin County’s racketeering claims against the computer consultants who allegedly sold the county a $30 million software lemon.

But the judge also denied a motion by Ernest Culver, a former assistant county auditor, to dismiss outright the county’s lawsuit against him. The county claims software vendor SAP bribed Culver with a job offer while he was still managing the doomed computer project for the county.

Judge Susan Illston issued the decision Tuesday in federal court in San Francisco. The county has 20 days to amend its lawsuit with more factual information to support the racketeering allegations.

The lawsuit is part of an expensive legal war Marin has mounted over the accounting software, which the county ordered in 2005 to help with financial and personnel management. The county says the software does not work and must be replaced.

The county claims the defendants fraudulently induced Marin to buy the software, failed to implement it properly and covered up its failings. The defendants — Culver, SAP and Deloitte Consulting LLP — deny the allegations.

Last week, county supervisors approved another $1 million for legal expenses, on top of the $2.5 million the county has already spent.

The county has one lawsuit in Marin Superior Court and a racketeering suit in federal court. Judge Illston’s decision Tuesday addressed motions by Culver and SAP to dismiss the federal action.

The decision was largely favorable to SAP. The judge ruled that Marin had failed to allege enough evidence to support claims of mail fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy.

“We are encouraged and think that in this action, the court did the right thing,” said Andy Kendzie, a SAP spokesman based in Washington D.C.

However, the judge allowed a bribery claim against SAP and Culver to go forward. Culver went to work for SAP after the software project imploded, and the county claims SAP baited Culver with a future job to keep the software project funded.

“Although a thin reed, the Court finds the County has alleged sufficient facts to state a plausible claim of bribery,” Illston wrote.

The judge also rejected Culver’s claim that he is immune from the lawsuit because he was acting in his capacity as a public official.

County Counsel Patrick Faulkner could not be reached for comment Wednesday. Culver’s attorneys, Thomas Mayhew and Christina Rose Hollander, are out of their office until next week.

Source:http://www.marinij.com/marinnews/ci_19634990

By analyzing 50 years of the greatest music known to man, scientists from the University of Bristol, England have created software that can accurately predict whether a new chart entry will be a pop success — or not.

With an accuracy of 60%, the Bristolian formula can predict whether a song will be a smash hit and make it to the top five of the UK Top 40 Singles chart, or flop and never make it above position 30. To do this, a combination of computer hearing and machine learning; computer hearing to analyze a song’s loudness, danceability, duration, and 20 other features that might predict a hit or flop, and machine learning to integrate the findings from a huge corpus of tunes that span five decades into some kind of magic formula that actually works.

Unlike previous attempts at understanding the success of pop music, which didn’t work, the Bristolians used a different approach to increase accuracy. Basically, what constitutes a pop song changes over time; a harmonic song from the ’60s probably wouldn’t be a success in today’s rather dissonant market — but other studies, for some reason, didn’t take this into account. The University of Bristol’s software uses last year’s and last week’s hits to pick out the shifting trend. As a result, of course, the team now have authoritative data on the standout features of music throughout the ages:

In the 1950s and ’60s, harmonically simple songs were more popular — but in the last two decades, the opposite is true.
Music is getting louder! From the ’60s right up until recently, pop music has got louder and louder. The last few years has shown a decline, however.
Before the 1980s, the danceability of a song wasn’t very important — but ever since, it has remained a very significant factor.
The late ’70s and early ’80s were particularly creative periods. The Bristolian software was least accurate during this period, as it struggled to keep up with the rapid emergence of disco, electronica, and myriad sub-genres.
The first half of the ’90s, and from the year 2000 onwards, creativity seemed to be at an all time low — and as a result, the algorithm was most accurate during this period.
Embedded below is a video that shows the progression of these trends — but it moves quite quickly, so be prepared to pause it often.

One of the main reasons the software’s accuracy never got too far above 60% is because of non-musical factors, such as marketing, real world factors, or just when a song simply becomes larger than itself. The 1984 hit Feed The World is a good example, as is Michael Jackson’s re-release of Man In The Mirror in 2009.

For lots more info about how the software itself, how the algorithm evolves over time, and some other interesting appendices, hit up the Score A Hit website. One particularly interesting section is Hidden Gems, where the computer scientists list the songs that should’ve been a success, but weren’t. You can also see Live Predictions for the UK singles chart; it’s looking good for George Michael’s Christmas song at the moment…

Source:http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/109569-computer-software-accurately-predicts-pop-songs-chart-success

With only a few shopping days left for the holiday season, there is no doubt the big gifts have been purchased. In today’s high-tech world, kids are living digitally, and, subsequently, topping their wishlists with dreams of netbooks, laptops, and cell phones. Bottom line: a lot of high-tech toys are sure to be unwrapped this December. Pandora Corporation, the maker of PC Pandora computer monitoring software, is reminding parents to be smart when giving teens and tweens their own PC this holiday season.
“What parents tend to forget is that these high tech toys are a doorway between your child and the rest of the world,” explains Leasure. “Remember, that door swings both ways. It is absolutely imperative that parents have a tool in place to monitor who their child is talking to online, how they are interacting with others and how they are representing themselves on the Internet.”
Over the last decade, times have changed dramatically. While it is still not the best idea to let a child have their own computer and Internet connection, it is an unavoidable reality in 2011, due to the amount of school work requiring a computer and the increased pressure from peers to be socially active online. Leasure says parents must adopt to the times and step up the parenting game. New rules must be enforced and questions should be asked; discussions should be held and computers must be monitored.
“As you get ready to give them the ‘big gift’ this year, make sure it is outfitted with proper parental control and monitoring software,” says Leasure. “Tools like our PC Pandora make it easy to find that safe, happy medium between teens being able to freely use the Internet socially, and parents not being left in the dark about their child’s online activity.”
PC Pandora is computer monitoring software that records all user activity on a computer. First-rate monitoring capabilities take sequential snapshots of everything that happens on the computer, allowing parents to see first-hand everything their child does both on and offline. Details of user activity , including websites visited, social network activity, instant messenger chats, peer-2-peer files shared, keystrokes, programs accessed, Internet search queries and more, are made available in text-based files and easy-to-read charts. In less than 10 minutes, parents can verify their children are using their new toys safely or uncover a situation that needs parental attention.
“PC Pandora is essentially a DVR for your child’s computer,” says Leasure. “If your child is talking to strangers on social networks, creating and maintaining multiple social network profiles, visiting websites you don’t approve of, downloading illegal music and movies, or falling victim to or – even worse – acting as a cyberbully, you will know about it if you are monitoring their internet activity.”
In addition, the built-in IRIS feature can send the text-based data files right to a parent’s email, and the PC Pandora LIVE! add-on allows parents to check screenshots and adjust parental controls though a secure web login. Both are invaluable features for working parents who can’t always be home when their kids are online.
Leasure adds: “Conversation, education and awareness are essential, but a child with an Internet-connected device can still lead to unwanted and potentially harmful situations. That’s why it’s important to monitor what they are doing with those very powerful tools you place in their hands.”

Source:http://www.prweb.com/releases/PCPandora/PCMonitoringSoftware/prweb9047971.htm