Innovate MIA puts spotlight on startup community

If you think the next week is all about art, you may be surprised to learn there are also six entrepreneurship events vying for your time.

And that is all by design.

In much the way that Art Basel helped put Miami’s arts community on the international map, organizers of the first Innovate MIA hope their weeklong grouping of events will shine a light on the city’s growing tech startup community and its position as the gateway to Latin America.

Many of the events — ending with Florida International University’s Americas Venture Capital Conference — are after Art Basel. That’s also why the third annual AVCC was moved to Dec. 13-14 from its previous mid-November dates.

“Our message is come for Art Basel, and stay for AVCC,” said Juan Pablo Cappello, a lawyer, entrepreneur and investor who is on the steering committee of the venture capital conference and several other Innovate MIA events. And all week, there will be plenty of opportunities for Miami’s entrepreneurs, creatives and investors to mingle with their counterparts from all over the Americas and beyond.

In addition to the AVCC, there’s Incubate Miami’s DemoDay, where its class of startups present their companies, the martial arts-inspired TekFight and HackDay, which dangles a $50,000 cash prize. Endeavor, the global nonprofit that promotes high-impact entrepreneurship in emerging economies, is bringing its two-day International Selection Panel to Miami, and Wayra, an international accelerator, is holding a one-day event to showcase its promising startups from Latin America and Spain. It’s all part of Innovate MIA week: “I don’t think anything like it has ever been organized here in South Florida,” Cappello said.

The AVCC will be the big draw, with about 300 people expected to attend the two-day event at the JW Marriott Brickell. The conference, themed “Data, Design & Dollars,” will feature thought leaders from all over the world, particularly Latin America, and presentations by 29 selected companies. This year, the format has been overhauled and energized, with lots of short talks and more time for question-and-answer sessions and networking, said Jerry Haar, associate dean of FIU’s College of Business, director of the Pino Global Entrepreneurship Center and AVCC co-chair.

The AVCC’s 36 speakers include Martin Varsavsky, Argentine tech entrepreneur, investor and founder of Viatel, Ya.com, Jazztel and FON; Hernan J. Kazah, co-founder and managing partner at Kaszek Ventures and co-founder of Mercadolibre; and Jason L. Baptiste, CEO and co-founder of Onswipe. There’s also Michael Jackson, former COO of Skype and now a venture capitalist; Albert Santalo, founder and CEO of Miami-based CareCloud; and Bedy Yang of 500 Startups.

Chosen from more than 100 applicants, the 29 presenting companies hailing from all over the Americas will be giving either two-minute or five-minute pitches, fielding questions from a panel of judges and competing for prize packages valued at about $50,000. Eight of the startups are from South Florida: itMD, Kairos, Trapezoid Digital Security, Esenem, LiveNinja, OnTrade, Rokk3r Labs and Zavee.

The presenting companies have “proven innovation, proven management teams and the ability to scale well and be a pan-regional player,” said Faquiry Diaz Cala, president of Tres Mares Group and co-chair of AVCC. “The word is out this is a great place to come and pitch to great investors in addition to potentially being one of the prize winners.”

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On shared stage, Sen. Marco Rubio and U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan take steps toward 2016

WASHINGTON --
Just days after he was sworn in, Sen. Marco Rubio was trying to knock down speculation.

"This is the one job that I wanted. I wanted to be a U.S. senator, not a vice presidential candidate, not a presidential candidate," he told a radio interviewer in January 2011. "I didn’t run to use it as a stepping-stone."

But Tuesday night at the Mayflower Renaissance Hotel, Rubio took another step in reaching for the next thing.

Encircled by the buzz over a potential run for president in 2016, the Florida Republican delivered a speech on ways to lift the middle class, calling it "the answer to the most pressing challenges we face" as he tried to project a fresh outlook for a GOP still reeling from last month’s election.

Rubio shared the stage, and a similar message, with another GOP hotshot and likely presidential candidate, U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan. The ambitious, young politicians — Rubio, 41, Ryan, 42 — competed for the spotlight under the watch of several hundred guests, more than two dozen reporters and viewers of C-SPAN.

Rubio is more polished and charismatic, using the emotional power of his immigrant parents’ tale to drive his message. But Ryan, of Wisconsin, is beloved among conservatives and was equally well received.

The positioning was acknowledged only through a joke.

"You’re joining an elite group of past recipients — so far, it’s just me and you," Ryan said to Rubio, who was given a leadership award by the Jack Kemp Foundation at the group’s banquet Tuesday at the Mayflower. "I’ll see you at the reunion dinner — table for two. Know any good diners in Iowa or New Hampshire?’’

Rubio, who traveled to Iowa on Nov. 17, later joked, "I will not stand by and watch the people of South Carolina ignored."

For Rubio, who arrived in Washington by defeating a sitting governor knocked as a relentless office climber, his continued national emergence is a delicate balance of managing his vow to focus on the Senate with his political drive. He played down talk of becoming Mitt Romney’s running mate, a job that went to Ryan, but with the GOP left without a clear leader and searching for direction, Rubio won’t close doors.

Romney’s loss and other election disappointments have left the party searching for a new direction, and Rubio’s and Ryan’s speeches reflected their efforts to appeal to a broader group of voters. Both made an effort to distance themselves from the impression Romney left that half the country is hopelessly dependent on government — the infamous "47 percent" comments delivered at a private fundraiser in Boca Raton.

They pulled back on partisan rhetoric and tried to project a more hopeful and inclusive vision with a heavy focus on middle-class families.

"Some say that our problem is that the American people have changed," said Rubio, born in Miami to Cuban immigrants who worked blue-collar jobs. "That too many people want things from government. But I am still convinced that the overwhelming majority of our people just want what my parents had — a chance."

Ryan, in his first speech since the election, said: "We’ve got to set aside partisan considerations in favor of one overriding concern: How can we work together to repair the economy? How can we provide real security and upward mobility for all Americans — especially those in need?"

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Adorable Tots: Celebs and their Cute Kids!

Mariah Carey & Nick Cannon

"Monroe's in paradise," posted Mariah Carey along with an adorable snap of her daughter lounging in a room full of Hello Kitty toys as her twin brother Moroccan looks on.

"Roc doesn't share the fascination lol," she remarked.

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Seasoned straphangers turning into wall huggers

Leonard Greene

He swears he isn’t nervous. After all, he’s from Bay Ridge, and he’s been taking the train since before he was old enough to put on his own pants.

Still, Richard DeAngelis finds he’s having trouble peeling himself off the wall of a Manhattan subway platform when the hulking Q train rumbles in on the tracks.

It was here, at the 49th Street station, that a rider was pushed to his death, and DeAngelis — even with a small army of uniformed police on the platform — isn’t taking any chances.

“I have to take the train,” said DeAngelis, a public-safety officer at NYU. “But I’m staying away from the edge of the platform.”

Warzer Jaff

WAAAY BEHIND THE YELLOW LINE: Riders at the 81st Street station stand well clear of the platform edge yesterday as a train rolls in a day after the deadly subway horror.

Desmond Hardison says it’s going to take a mighty big guy to push him in front of a train.

Even so, that doesn’t stop the head above his thick neck and shoulders from swiveling back and forth, looking around, just in case someone wants to give it a try.

“It pays to watch out all the time,” said Hardison, 64, of Queens, who retired from a career in the Army several years ago. “It’s New York. You need to keep your eyes open.”

Even the most hardened New Yorker is forced to pause when a random rider is suddenly pushed to his death in front of a speeding subway train.

That’s what cops say happened to Ki Suk Han, 58, Monday afternoon when he crossed paths with a deranged man on a narrow subway platform north of Times Square.

In a city beset by terrorism strikes and hurricane catastrophes, getting pushed onto a subway track in front of a speeding train is still the worst possible nightmare.

“It’s just very scary,” said Sarah Chandler as she stepped off a Q train and into the middle of a police investigation.

Yards away, at a bank of turnstiles, police are handing out fliers with the suspect’s picture.

Chandler, who works in software product management, is rushing to a job interview. Her last job ended three months ago, and she’s desperate to get back to work.

But she manages to find time to stop and learn about the tragedy.

When another rider tells her about Han’s final, terrifying moments, Chandler instinctively moves closer to the wall, even though the train is already in the station and won’t move for another few minutes.

Leigh Weingus, a Manhattan Web-site editor, actually witnessed the fatal encounter. She’s not sure if she’s traumatized over the event, but that doesn’t stop her from swiping her MetroCard the next day at the same time and place.

But before she boards the train, she huddles with a police investigator who’s trying piece together the horror.

“Everyone was screaming,” Weingus said. “It was horrifying. It was terrible. Everyone was running toward the booth. When the Q train was coming, everyone was trying to stop the train; there was a man on the track. All I saw was that it clearly didn’t stop in time for him to survive.”

Raishaud Brady heard about Han’s death on the news, but not for a minute did he think about taking the bus or a cab from The Bronx where he lives to his job at a Midtown restaurant.

“Things like this happen all the time,” says Brady, 29, a chef. “I feel bad. But I’m still going to ride the Q train.”

Among the passengers on one Q train car was a man talking to himself for several stops. On any other day, Brady says, riders would have paid him no mind.

“But you could see all the people getting nervous,” rider Raishaud Brady said. “There’s a lot of fear.”

Not everywhere. At the Port Authority station, just 10 blocks away from where the worst possible thing that can happen on the subway has happened, straphangers are as matter-of-fact about Han’s death as they are about a fare hike.

A young man stands near the platform edge, his Beats By Dre headphones booming in his ears.

A young woman types incessantly on her iPhone, oblivious to any underground threat. Her device is called a smartphone, which is more than anyone can say about her.

Bart Daudelin, meanwhile, doesn’t miss a thing. He says he’s old school for carrying a newspaper on the train, but he’s far less distracted when he’s standing on the platform.

“I’ve seen things on the train my whole life,” said Daudelin, 43, a labor-union executive. “It could happen to anybody anytime. You see people texting and stuff at the edge of the platform. You’re just asking for it.”

leonard.greene@nypost.com

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iPad’sdominance limits apps for other tablets

Q. When are companies going to start writing applications for tablet computers other than the iPad? I own a Pandigital tablet, and when I try to download apps, I’m told they’re either for the iPad or iPhone.

LeRoy Hilton,

Oro Valley, Ariz.

You can expect more apps for non-Apple tablet computers when those devices gain more market share. How soon, or if, that will happen is anyone’s guess.

People who write apps are motivated by the revenue they’re likely to get. They can maximize that revenue by focusing on the tablet computer that is owned by the largest number of people.

Right now, the best opportunity for app writers is the iPad, which in the first three months of 2012 accounted for 68 percent of the 17.4 million tablet computers sold worldwide, according to market research firm IDC. The iPad’s chief competitors, in order of market share, are tablets made by Samsung, Amazon, Lenovo and Barnes & Noble. Pandigital is further down the list.Q. I recently bought a Kindle Fire tablet computer, and I’m disappointed that it cannot be read in the sunshine as other Kindle devices can. Is there anything I can do to make the screen more readable outdoors, such as buying an anti-glare screen protector?

Mary Jo Ready,

Shoreview, Minn.

An anti-glare protector won’t help. The issue is that your Kindle Fire’s LCD, or liquid crystal display, screen is lit from inside, but isn’t bright enough to compete with sunlight. Your only outdoor options are to raise the screen brightness and find some shade. A video that explains how to adjust screen brightness can be found on Amazon’s help pages, at http://www.tinyurl.com/7289vlo. Q. My Windows task bar was always at the bottom of my screen, but the other day it went to the top for some reason. How can I get it back to the bottom of the screen?

Kathleen Gignac,

Bartow, Fla.

The task bar can be dragged to a new location using your mouse. Left-click a blank space on the task bar and, while holding down the mouse button, drag the bar to the bottom of the screen.

You can skip this manual process if you are using Windows XP or Windows Vista. Just go to http://www.tinyurl.com/c7qwp8 and click the automatic “fix it” button. That will return the task bar to its default position at the bottom of the screen.

If you have problems with either of these techniques, the task bar may have become “locked” in its current position. There are directions on the same Web page that explain how to “unlock” the tool bar’s location so it can be moved.

Contact Steve Alexander at Tech Q&A, 425 Portland Ave. S., Minneapolis, Minn. 55488-0002; e-mail steve.j.alexander@gmail.com.

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Son of slain Miami Gardens car wash owner: ‘He put his own life before someone else’

When Dameion Peart got the phone call from his uncle, he didn’t believe it. He drove to his father’s Miami Gardens car wash to see for himself. He hoped the news wouldn’t be too bad, or maybe the shooting happened someplace else.

He pulled up, saw flashing lights and police tape, and knew it was true.

His father, Errold Peart, had been trying to protect a customer Sunday afternoon from armed robbers at the car wash he ran at Northwest 191st Street and First Place.

The robbers turned their gun on Peart, killing him.

“He put his own life before someone else,” his son said.

Now, Peart’s family began the unexpected task of planning a memorial. He was five days away from his 60th birthday.

He won’t get to see his daughter, Mishka Peart, 23, graduate from the University of Miami’s medical school.

“It’s just sad,” Dameion Peart said. “It was unnecessary.”

When the community heard of the shooting, they started dropping by the scene. They were the ones who lived nearby, longtime customers and friends, each with their own tale of how his father had helped them through the years.

They talked about the times Peart, 59, didn’t charge for carwashes to people short on money. They told Dameion Peart, 32, how his father would give money to people who needed help paying for water and electricity, never asking for the money back.

They shared stories about people who couldn’t get jobs because they had convictions — until Peart gave them work.

One of the younger employees told him it was Errold Peart who convinced her to go back to school.

“He was a very good, kindhearted person and a good father at the same time,” Dameion Peart said. “The community where his business is located, he really helped them out here.”

Errold Peart hailed from Jamaica, where he played cricket and worked at one point at a school for problem children, his son said. He eventually came to the United States, where he continued to play cricket for the USA national team.

Peart represented the USA in five matches at the 1990 International Cricket Council Trophy in the Netherlands, where the batsman was the team’s leading scorer, ESPN reported. The USA made it through the first round that year before losing in the second, according to ESPN.

At first, Peart worked with an airline, his son said, but later decided to open his own business.

He started the car wash more than a decade ago, his son said. He chose the location because it was near a busy stretch of U.S. 441 and near Florida’s Turnpike, the Palmetto Expressway and Interstate 95.

“It was like a landmark,” Dameion Peart said. “Everyone knew him.”

But Peart worried about safety.

“He didn’t like guns. But every year, around this time, for the past three years he got held up at gunpoint and people tried to rob him,” Dameion Peart said. “The last time they even followed him home.”

So Errold Peart got a concealed weapons permit.

On Sunday afternoon, he noticed a pair of young men trying to rob a customer. Errold Peart went out to try and stop it, his son said, only to be shot himself.

The men ran away, leaving behind the customer and a bleeding Peart.

Miami Gardens Police still were looking for the suspects on Monday.

Anyone with information is asked to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477.

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$120 tablet that runs both Android and Linux to launch in early 2013

For anyone who has ever used his or her Android tablet and wished that it could double as a desktop-style device, PengPod has a product just for you. Ars Technica reports that the new PengPod tablet, which runs both Android and Linux, has met its crowd-sourced fundraising goals and will so on sale in January for $ 120 a 7-inch model and $ 185 for a 10-inch model. According to Ars, the tablet will be able to “dual-boot Android 4.0 and a version of Linux with the touch-friendly KDE Plasma Active interface.” Overall, the tablet received funding of nearly $ 73,000, or around 49% more than the $ 49,000 that the company had been seeking.

Get more from BGR.com: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook

Linux/Open Source News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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First Look at TLC's Neat Freaks

Think you're a neat freak? Meet Alfreta.

Video-'Crazy Obsession': The $150K Love Doll Collection

The self-confessed germophobe not only spends the majority of her day scrubbing her home with gallons of bleach (as well as public bathrooms and friend's houses when she gets the chance), she utilizes her favorite cleanser to sanitize her meals before eating.

Check out a sneak peek in the player above!

Neat Freaks premieres Wednesday, December 5th on TLC.

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Belcher spent night with a gal pal before killing

KANSAS CITY, Mo — He was playing the field.

Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher had a boozy dinner with another woman and spent the night at her apartment before he went home, fought with and killed his girlfriend, and then ended his own life in a practice-facility parking lot, sources said yesterday.

After dinner and drinks Friday night at a local tavern, the former Long Island high-school star took the woman, Brittni Glass, to her home, but spent the next several hours asleep in his Bentley outside her building, neighbors said.

After cops roused him from his drunken slumber at about 2:30 a.m., Belcher went inside Glass’ building and re-emerged about four hours later.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Jovan Belcher

KASANDRA PERKINSSlain baby mama.

“I was with him that night, that’s it,” a reluctant Glass told The Post yesterday.

Belcher drove away at about 6:45 a.m., making the 10-minute ride to the home he shared with Kasandra Perkins, the mother of his 3-month-old daughter.

Cops said Belcher quarreled with Perkins and shot her nine times as his own mom watched in horror. Perkins’ body was found on a bathroom floor.

Belcher then drove to the Chiefs’ practice facility at 8 a.m. and shot himself in the head with a different gun in front of the team’s coach and general manager.

Glass said she told police they had been together that night.

Cops confirmed that several people came forward to tell them about Belcher’s visit.

“His Bentley was parked outside,” a neighbor said. “He went upstairs. He was drunk. He went up to see the girl.’’

Early reports said Belcher flew into a rage after Perkins returned late from a Trey Songz concert at about 1 a.m.

But according to Glass and her neighbors, Belcher wasn’t even home then.

Residents said they had seen Belcher — who had a $1.9 million contract with the Chiefs this year — and his distinctive black Bentley at the building several times in recent months.

Glass said she and Belcher were not in a relationship and declined to say exactly where he slept.

Meanwhile, a new report said Belcher had been violent in a past relationship.

In 2006, while a grid star at the University of Maine, he punched his fist through a window because he was “upset with a girl,’’ said a police report obtained by USA Today.

Less than a year later, campus cops responded to a complaint of disorderly conduct at a dorm after someone “became concerned about the raised voices” of Belcher and a girlfriend outside his room, the paper said..

Yesterday, Perkins’ family broke its silence for the first time since the tragedy.

“Our wish is for Kasi to be remembered for the love she shared with us all. Kasi will be truly missed,” they said in a statement.

As some people questioned why Belcher needed a gun — much less two — some teammates defended the right.

“If you have daughters, you should [have a gun],” said defensive lineman Shaun Smith.

Linebacker Brandon Siler, who had Thanksgiving dinner with Belcher, added, “Most of the time, they’re for self-defense or sport.”

Sports Illustrated said Belcher specifically asked to speak to his coaches before ending his life.

“I came here to tell you thank you,” Belcher told GM Scott Pioli. “Thank you for my chance. I love you, bro.”

He then shot himself.

Additional reporting by Leonard Greene, Selim Algar and Post Wire Services

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The business behind the artist: Miami’s art gallery scene still evolving

This week, thousands of art collectors, museum trustees, artists, journalists and hipsters from around the globe will arrive for the phenomenon known as Art Basel Miami Beach. The centerpiece of the week: works shown at the convention center by more than 260 of the world’s top galleries.

Only two of those are from Miami.

While Art Basel has helped transform the city’s reputation from beach-and-party scene to arts destination in the years since its 2002 Miami Beach debut, the region’s gallery identity is still coming into its own.

“Certainly Miami as an art town registers mightily because of the foundations, the collectors who have done an extraordinary job,” said Linda Blumberg, executive director of the Art Dealers Association of America. “I think there’s a definite international awareness there. But the gallery scene probably has a bit of a ways to go. That doesn’t mean it’s not really fascinating and interesting.”

The gallery business, especially where newer artists are concerned, is a game of risk, faith and passion. Once a gallery takes on an artist who shows promise, they become an evangelist on their behalf, showing their work in-house and at fairs, presenting it to museums and curators and potential collectors and bearing the cost of that promotion.

For contemporary artists, most galleries take work on consignment, meaning they get a cut of as much as 50 percent when works sell. While local art galleries have been growing in number and popularity in the last several years — just try to find parking during the monthly art walk in Miami’s hot Wynwood neighborhood — even some of the area’s top art dealers say that while business overall is good, they struggle in the local marketplace.

“Our problem is that we have to do lots of art fairs in order to connect with the market that we need to connect with to sell the work that we have,” said Fredric Snitzer, a Miami-Dade gallery owner for 35 years. “The better the work is, the harder it is to sell in Miami. And that ain’t good.”

A handful of serious collectors call Miami home and store their own collections in Miami, including the Braman, Rubell, Margulies and de la Cruz families. But outside a relatively small local group, many gallerists say, their clients come from other parts of the country and world.

And some gallerists point out the troubling reality that even the powerhouse Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin could not stay open in Miami for more than a few years.

“The fact that big galleries have not been able to sustain their business models in South Florida tells you we’re obviously not at this high established point,” said gallery owner David Castillo. “It’s not like we’ve arrived, let’s sit back and watch Hauser & Wirth open down the street.”

Still, Miami’s gallery business has come a long way since the early 1970s, when a few dealers on Bay Harbor Island’s Kane Concourse were selling high-end pieces but the local scene was hardly embraced.

Virginia Miller, who owns ArtSpace/Virginia Miller Galleries in Coral Gables, first opened in 1974 to showcase Florida artists, though her focus soon added an international scope. She and other longtime observers credit several factors for Miami’s transformation, including the community’s diversity, the establishment of important museums, the Art Miami fair that started 23 years ago, the presence of major collections and, of course, Art Basel Miami Beach.

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