Tagged: finger lakes

You know how Facebook works: friends, family, “friends” all posting a steady stream of What’s Going On.

Well, ThingWorx is like that - but with machines instead of people.

“We joke: the Facebook for devices,” says ThingWorx marketing director Chris Kuntz. “These are cars, these are buildings, these are appliances. They’re medical devices, they’re windmills, they’re bridges.

“There’s a lot of value in businesses securely connecting to and communicating with smart things.”

That’s where ThingWorx comes in.

This is a how the city of Rochester describes its Inner Loop:

The Inner Loop Expressway rings the City of Rochester’s Central Business District like a noose, strangling the downtown area from adjacent vibrant densely-populated neighborhoods. 

The above is from a failed 2009 application [PDF] for $22.5 million in federal transportation funding. Late last year, the city struck out again with the feds - this time in a bid for a $14.7 million TIGER grant.

Now, in a letter to City Council, Mayor Tom Richards wants to spend $2 million for another shot at filling in the city's sunken expressway.

Angella Luyk, owner of Midnight Janitorial, runs a finger along a wooden banister.

"One of the hard things with an old mansion like this is dust," says Luyk, walking up an ornate stairway. "Dust, dust, dust and cobwebs."

And while Luyk says her cleaners have the dust under control, they joke that occasionally they're plagued by something beyond their expertise: ghosts.

"I don't believe in ghosts, but my hair would stand up like it was really somebody there!" laughs employee Jessica Perez, as she cleans a law office in the converted East Avenue mansion.

"When you walk in the day after we've cleaned, it smells clean, it feels clean," owner Luyk says. "And we're ghost hunters - just kidding about that part."

One thing Luyk isn't kidding about: giving people with disabilities a shot at steady employment.

Roc Brewing Co. got off to an auspicious start.

Last October, the then four-month-old Rochester microbrewery became the first of two beermakers in the country to win mentorship and funding from Boston Beer Co. - the craft beer behemoth behind Samuel Adams.

Boston Beer's $10,000 loan helped Roc Brewing buy a keg cleaner.

Now co-founders Chris Spinelli and Jon Mervine have just returned from their first mentorship session with the company that helped launch the craft beer movement.

"It's great to hear from the big guys and how they did it," says Spinelli. "We got to really learn things that could help us improve and move forward and become successful ourselves."

Sealed Air, a packaging manufacturer with about 26,000 workers worldwide, is closing at least two plants in upstate New York.

The company announced Thursday it was closing its Rochester facility.

A filing with the New York State Department of Labor also shows a plant closing in the Schenectady suburb of Scotia, N.Y.

The Capital Region plant will be shuttered by May 20.

About 180 Sealed Air workers in Rochester will lose their jobs. Another 70 will be affected in Scotia.