Federal money could accelerate Arizona’s push toward digital health records, making staples such as paper charts, written prescriptions and doctor’s-office clipboards a thing of the past.

As part of its stimulus package, the government will pump more than $19 billion into computers and software systems that promise to connect hospitals, doctors, pharmacies and other health-care players.

Widespread use of electronic health records would save lives and money and eliminate waste in the complex world of health care, medical experts agree.

Arizona doctors appear to be adapting to electronic records faster than the national rate, but getting there can be costly and frustrating.

Arizona’s medical community is poised to collect as much as $500 million in stimulus funds beginning in 2011, local officials estimate, provided health-care organizations adopt “meaningful use” of such digital systems.

“Automation is eventually going to be everywhere,” said David Landrith, the Arizona Medical Association’s vice president of policy and political affairs.

Proponents say electronic health records are superior in many ways.

A physician can verify a patient’s prescription-drug regimen, helping to avoid harmful drug combinations. Nurses can use a hand-held scanner to zap a patient’s medication to ensure they are giving the right drug to the right person.

Multiple caregivers can simultaneously view a patient’s medical charts, making care more efficient.

Still, there are challenges. Some worry that a wide range of computer systems and standards may block effective communication. Systems that cost $100,000 or more are too expensive for smaller doctor’s offices. Comprehensive hospital systems can range from $20 million to $100 million.

Also, worries about patients’ privacy persist.

Studies show varying degrees of adoption rates for computerized records. A New England Journal of Medicine survey indicated that 17 percent of doctors have some type of electronic health-records system, while another survey indicated hospitals’ use of electronic health records vary widely.

Arizona health-care providers have turned to computerized systems at a faster clip, with at least 30 percent of physicians employing some type of digital system, according to Brad Tritle, executive director of the Arizona Health-e Connection, a nonprofit group established to orchestrate Arizona’s digital health initiative.

Tritle said that figure comes from an ongoing survey of licensed doctors performed by Arizona State University and funded by the state’s Medicaid program.

Arizona’s digital health push isn’t new. While governor, Janet Napolitano signed an executive order calling for statewide adoption of digital-records systems for prescribing drugs. Arizona Health-e Connection has spearheaded the effort to research and develop model policies in the state.

Banner Estrella Medical Center was among the nation’s first hospitals to go all digital when it opened in January 2005. Other hospitals that have established digital records include Banner Gateway Medical Center, Mayo Clinic, Cancer Treatment Centers of America and University Medical Center in Tucson.

With federal stimulus dollars providing a tailwind, Tritle said he expects the use of digital health records to accelerate.

Even the biggest backers of a health-information revolution acknowledge that questions remain about cost, training and standards.

Sources: eHealth Initiative, Arizona Health-e Connection, Republic research

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$19.5 billion boost from stimulus cash

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provides $19.5 billion to set up electronic health records systems.

How the money will be distributed:

$2 billion: Discretionary funds controlled by Health and Human Services. Part of that pool may include $300 million for states or agencies to establish “health-information exchanges” that coordinate electronic health records standards.

The rest: Incentives paid by Medicare and Medicaid to physicians, hospitals and other health-care providers to establish electronic records systems.

How it will be paid:

Doctors: Physicians who demonstrate “meaningful use” of electronic health records can receive up to $44,000 over five years through Medicare beginning in 2011. Doctors also can get a Medicaid payment of $55,250 over five years.

Hospitals: The nation’s largest hospitals would be able to secure Medicare payments up to $11 million, based on patient discharges, in-patient days, revenue and free care for the poor.

(Lil) Green Patch is a Facebook application that helps raise money for The Nature Conservancy

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. – Meredith Bowen was getting tired of requests from Facebook friends to exchange make-believe pansies, daffodils and tiny cartoon characters for her “(Lil) Green Patch,” a virtual garden that sprouted on her social-networking page about a year ago.

She was ready to delete it, until she learned The Nature Conservancy was getting a portion of the ad revenue generated by the game.

“I’ve saved like 133 square feet of rainforest,” the 31-year-old Holt resident said.

Bowen illustrates both the potential upside and downside for charitable causes hoping to cash in on the popularity of social-networking sites such as Facebook and News Corp.’s MySpace.

With millions of users worldwide, the sites would seem fertile ground for fundraising experiments – especially ones where users aren’t asked to make direct contributions.

But it’s far from certain that social networking will prove as effective as more traditional fundraising methods such as direct mail, telephone solicitation and even e-mails to past donors.

One hurdle to overcome is the sheer deluge of information online.

As Facebook users are bombarded with invitations to send and receive virtual beers, throw snowballs, sign petitions and take quizzes, applications benefiting charities can seem like just another silly game.

“I get so many of those requests,” said Nicole Marble, 23, who works at Michigan State University. “Sometimes I pay attention to them, but with a lot of them I’m just clicking ‘Ignore, Ignore, Ignore.’ ”

She took only minor interest in (Lil) Green Patch until learning recently from a reporter that the game’s promise to help save rainforests and fight global warming was genuine.

“I’ll probably look into it a little more now,” Marble said. “I just finished tending my garden, whatever that really means.”

Many appeals on social networks have drawn lots of attention but few dollars.

“You often see where 20,000 people have joined a cause and it’s raised $200,” said Jim Tobin, president of Ignite Social Media, a promotional company in Cary, N.C.

The (Lil) Green Patch game has done better than most, generating $162,150 in little more than a year, said Sue Citro, digital membership director for The Nature Conservancy. It is among the most popular applications that Facebook can add to their profiles, with nearly 6 million active users monthly, according to Facebook.

Players plant virtual “gardens” with flowers and fruits sent by friends and send plants to them in return. Ads are shown alongside the game. Green Patch Inc., the Mountain View, Calif., developer of the game, donates a portion of ad revenue to The Nature Conservancy’s rainforest preservation campaign.

It’s yet another avenue for raising money and awareness, supplementing direct online contributions generated by running ads and sending e-mail to past donors. Social networks can potentially be more effective because they are cheaper and involve referrals from friends.

“A lot of the world is transitioning to using not just the Internet, but the socially connected Internet,” said David King, Green Patch’s founder. “We see this as the beginning of a whole movement where people are able to connect with each other and with foundations representing the causes that are important to them.”

Despite being among the more lucrative Facebook applications, (Lil) Green Patch accounts for less than 3 percent of The Nature Conservancy’s online fundraising – which itself generates just 10 percent of all individual donations to the group, Citro said.

Yet the conservancy is less concerned with raising big bucks than with planting seeds for future support from the younger generation active on social networks.

“It’s really a great branding tool,” Citro said. “It’s helping spread the word, educating people about our organization and its mission.”

The group recommends its social-networking activities to past donors who cannot afford to give cash because of the bad economy but still want to help, she said.

Even if social-networking sites draw relatively little money now, it’s imperative for nonprofits to explore them, said Melissa Brown, associate director of research for the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University.

Surveys by the center show that direct mail and phone solicitation have become less successful in recent years, while Internet fundraising has risen steadily. As more users gravitate to social networks, it makes sense for nonprofit groups to follow.

“This is a time for experimenting with the social networking, figuring out how it can work for your organization,” Brown said.

The Humane Society of the United States used a Facebook application to promote this year’s “Spay Day” drive in support of spaying and neutering.

The campaign invited people to upload photos of their pets to a Humane Society Web site and solicit contributions from family, friends and others. A Facebook application – and other interactive “widgets,” or small programs for blogs and MySpace pages – helped participants reach more potential donors.

The “Spay Day” drive raised $600,000 from about 40,000 participants, said Carie Lewis, the Humane Society’s Internet marketing manager. It’s uncertain how much was generated through Facebook. But this year’s campaign, the first to use the application and other widgets, was more successful than previous ones. In 2008, the 31,000 participants raised only $72,000.

NCM Fathom Events, an entertainment company based in Centennial, Colo., sponsored a four-day fundraiser in March for the anti-poverty group CARE using another rapidly growing site, Twitter.

For every “tweet,” or short message, supporting the campaign, Fathom Events made a pledge. The “tweet-a-thon” raised $5,000 for CARE, said Tobin, whose company promoted it.

Social-networking sites “lower the fundraising barrier,” offering nonprofits an inexpensive way to reach mass audiences, Tobin said.

“Before, you had to have a budget for advertising space,” he said. “What you need to have now is a really good idea that people gravitate toward. If you have that and make it fun or pull at the right heartstrings, you can get a lot of activity going.”

One potential pitfall: “Donor fatigue” might set in as social-networking sites become increasingly cluttered with pleas for help from do-gooders, said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

As people’s time and wallets are stretched ever thinner, they could decide that installing an application is their “charitable good deed for the day,” leaving them less inclined to write a check or volunteer at the soup kitchen, Rainie said.

“This is making the battle for people’s contributions and charity endeavors and volunteer time all the more competitive and brutal,” he said.

Marble, one of the (Lil) Green Patch players, said she appreciates that the game is simple to use and doesn’t badger her to send cash. She just hopes the requests to swap plants don’t get out of hand.

“If it gets too much, I might consider uninstalling or just clicking the ‘ignore’ button on all of them,” she said. “But that hasn’t happened yet, so I’m still playing.”

Google has good news for all the Mike Smiths, Leslie Joneses and others with common names who have trouble looking themselves up on Google.

Tuesday, Google introduced new tools to its search index that give folks named Jones and Smith – common names that often get lost in results – a chance to be found.

A “Profiles” section on Google search results lists the top four people at the top and others underneath. Users who take the time to get a Google ID and beef up their profile can show up there.

Danny Sullivan, editor of website Search Engine Land, says this is Google’s attempt to take on Facebook and Twitter, sites frequented by people trying to connect with past and new friends.

“This improves Google’s relevancy in people search,” he says.

Many people use Google to search for themselves, just to see how they’re presented to the outside world, and are unhappy with the results, says Joe Kraus, Google’s director of product management.

“They have little control over how they appear in Google,” he says. “And sometimes the search results are dominated by people with a large Web presence.”

While Kraus says that Google made these moves to improve the overall experience for searchers, analyst Greg Sterling of Sterling Market Intelligence says the change is also a way to get Internet users more linked to the Google ID feature – and potential services.

Once you have the ID, you might be more inclined to shop with Google Checkout, post pictures at Picasa Web Albums or build a blog on Google’s Blogger, all areas where Google stands to profit with either fees or ads, Sterling says. “It deepens your engagement with Google.”

Currently, names show up at the top of search results for people who either are well known, or have large Web presences and take the time to link their website, blog, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and other sites. Leaving comments on other blogs and sites can also improve your position in search results.

The Profiles section previously listed your name and included a photo. Now the section allows multiple photos, relevant links to your website and blog, age and employment information – similar to information that sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook showcase.

Kraus says the online profiles will level the playing field a bit for searches. But interested people must take the time to add to their personal and Web data.

The most prominent names will still probably be listed on top, Kraus says, but the fact that all the Mike Smiths, for instance, will be linked together in a people section means “you won’t have to hunt and peck through the entire index looking for that person,” he says. “It helps you narrow the results down to people.”

To sign up, go to google.com/profiles.

Shares in Texas Instruments Inc. fell Tuesday after the chip maker reported that first-quarter profit and revenue tumbled as competition heightened and demand for its chips shrank amid the recession.

Texas Instruments has a plant in Tucson.

In reporting financial results Monday, the company said customers have begun to whittle down inventories of TI’s chips, which are used in cell phones and other gadgets. Orders for TI chips have risen each month since hitting bottom in December.

The results beat the company’s own expectations as well as Wall Street’s, but executives stopped short of declaring a rebound.

“We remain cautious,” said Ron Slaymaker, vice president of investor relations. “What we’re really watching for are broad-based increases in consumption and we’re not seeing that today.”

Shares fell 30 cents, or 1.7 percent, to $17.02 in morning trading Tuesday, when many tech stocks rose.

The Dallas-based chip maker posted a profit of $17 million, or 1 cent a share, during the first quarter, down 97 percent from $662 million, or 49 cents a share, in the same period last year.

Excluding a restructuring charge for job cuts, TI earned 7 cents a share during the latest period. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected a profit of 3 cents a share.

Revenue tumbled 36 percent to $2.09 billion from $3.27 billion. Analysts expected revenue of $1.9 billion.

TI’s profit and revenue estimates for the second quarter were rosier than Wall Street forecasts. The company projected a profit of 1 cent to 15 cents a share, compared with the analyst estimate of 2 cents a share. TI’s estimate includes a charge of 5 cents a share for restructuring costs.

The company estimated second-quarter revenue of $1.95 billion to $2.4 billion, compared with the analyst estimate of $1.94 billion.

Demand for TI’s chips has shrunk amid the recession, prompting deep job cuts. Slaymaker said the company remains committed to plans announced in January to cut 3,400 jobs, or 12 percent of its work force, through layoffs or attrition.

TI expects annual savings of $700 million when combined with another round of cuts announced in October to eliminate 650 jobs.

Still, there have been some encouraging signs.

Last month, TI revised its estimate of first-quarter revenue toward the high end of its January prediction, suggesting that sales were not as weak as the company initially feared. TI has lost its dominant grip on the market for chips that run many functions of cell phones. Nokia Corp., the world’s largest handset maker and a major TI customer, has shifted to multiple suppliers.

TI has turned its focus to other areas: Its largest division makes “analog” chips used in digital music players and other gadgets, while its “embedded” division makes small computers that go into machinery and cars.

Q My question to you is how do I get my Web site optimized so that the various search engines can not only find it but rank it on the first page of their listings?

I have tried reading about optimization but just don’t understand the language. I would like to hire someone to do it for me. The Tucson-based companies listed in the Yellow Pages deal only with large corporations who have thousands of dollars to spend.

Is there anything you could suggest to help me. I purchased “Website Optimization For Dummies” but gave up after the second chapter, so that was no help.

C. Matthiasson

A: SEO or search engine optimization is major concern of most businesses. There have been studies that show that the majority of search engine users don’t look beyond the first couple of search results pages. In some cases, users only consider the first few items listed. This makes the first few items prime real estate.

When entering the world of search engine optimization, it helps to understand how the process works. This can be of benefit if you are going to optimize your own Web site or hire it out. Otherwise, it may be difficult to know if you are receiving what you are paying for.

Since Google dominates the search engine genre, I will provide a general explanation of how its search results listing works.

Google uses a program called a spider that goes out over the Internet, makes copies of the Web pages it finds and returns those copies to Google’s database to be indexed. These indexed pages are then evaluated by a secret and constantly changing set of criteria. It is this evaluation that determines how relevant a Web page is to any given performed search. The degree of relevance is supposed to determine the ranking of a Web site on Google’s search results page.

Before hiring a company to optimize your Web site, there are a few things you can do yourself. If your business is about doulas, then have one of your Web pages named doulas.html. Also, the description of each page of your Web site should be clear and concise. Historically, the more Web sites that link to your site may increase your ranking. For this reason, you may want to consider joining groups that swap links.

Now if you have made the modifications previously listed and you still want a higher ranking – and who wouldn’t want a higher ranking? – you can hire an SEO company. They can be prohibitively expensive, but the most expensive ones have well established track records.

That is what you are looking for when vetting an SEO company. Ask to speak with some of their customers and find out their level of satisfaction and results. Don’t limit yourself to local companies. SEO can be done from anywhere.

Quincey Hobbs is a team member at the University of Arizona’s Center for Computing and Information Technology and an instructor at Pima Community College. Send questions to quinceyresponds @yahoo.com.

The Arizona Department of Commerce and Albiasa Solar of Spain will announce Monday a $1 billion solar-thermal power plant will be built near Kingman next year, generating enough power for 50,000 homes at once when it opens in 2013.

It’s the third large Arizona solar plant announced in less than 18 months, although one of the first two has been scrapped and the other won’t be running until 2011.

The Kingman plant will create 2,000 construction jobs and 100 permanent jobs, according to the Commerce Department.

“The arrival of Albiasa Corp. is yet another big step toward establishing Arizona as a leader in the sustainable-industries sector,” Gov. Jan Brewer said.

The Spanish company incorporated a U.S. subsidiary in August, officials said, and has been scouting the Southwest desert from offices in Phoenix and San Francisco.

Although Albiasa officials won’t disclose the exact location of the 1,400 acres where they have secured the rights to build the plant, they said they chose the Kingman area because it was one of the few places with transmission capability on power lines.

“With the power loads in the Southwest cities, there are not a whole lot of power lines to get the power over there,” said Jesse Tippett, managing director for Albiasa’s U.S. operations.

Tippett and Albiasa’s chief project engineer Albert Fong said they are negotiating with utilities in the region to purchase the power from the plant, which is a major factor in getting financing for large power projects.

They also said that they are looking to utilities, such as Arizona Public Service Co. or Pacific Gas and Electric in California, that might be willing to finance the power plant now that utilities qualify for the same federal incentives that only developers qualified for last year.

Albiasa is building a 50-megawatt plant in Spain, and plans to use the same technology in Arizona, Fong said.

One megawatt of power-generating capacity is enough for about 250 homes in Arizona at once while a power plant is running.

Solar-thermal power plants don’t use the common black panels to make electricity. Instead, they use mirrors to focus sunlight on liquid-filled tubes. They use the hot fluid to make steam and spin turbines, much like coal, natural-gas and nuclear plants operate, but without the need for fuel.

Albiasa officials said they planned to use molten salt to store heat from the plant so it can keep generating power after sunset.

That also is the plan for Solana Generating Station, a 280-megawatt solar-thermal plant planned for Gila Bend by Abengoa Solar Inc. of Spain.

APS announced that it would buy the energy from that power plant once it is running in 2011. Last year, officials said they were struggling to get financing for the project, but APS spokesman Steven Gotfried said Friday the plans were moving forward.

Another 250-megawatt solar-thermal plant announced in December 2007 by APS, Salt River Project, Tucson Electric Power Co. and several smaller utilities has been shelved because the power companies apparently couldn’t come to agreement on the project.

WASHINGTON – The EPA on Friday declared that carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases sent off by cars and many industrial plants “endanger public health and welfare,” setting the stage for regulating them under federal clean air laws.

The action by the Environmental Protection Agency marks the first step toward requiring power plants, cars and trucks to curtail their release of climate-changing pollution, especially carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said while the agency is prepared to move forward with regulations under the Clean Air Act, the Obama administration would prefer that Congress addressed the climate issue through “cap-and-trade” legislation limiting pollution that can contribute to global warming.

Limits on carbon dioxide and the other greenhouse gases would have widespread economic and social impact, from requiring better fuel efficiency for automobiles to limiting emissions from power plants and industrial sources, changing the way the nation produces energy.

In announcing the proposed finding, Jackson said the EPA analysis “confirms that greenhouse gas pollution is a serious problem now and for future generations” and warrants steps to curtail it.

While EPA officials said the agency may still be many months from actually issuing such regulation, the threat of dealing with climate change by regulation could spur some hesitant members of Congress to find another way to address the problem.

“The (EPA) decision is a game changer. It now changes the playing field with respect to legislation,” said Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., whose Energy and Commerce subcommittee is crafting broad limits on greenhouse emissions. “It’s now no longer doing a bill or doing nothing. It is now a choice between regulation and legislation.”

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee responsible for climate legislation, said EPA’s action is “a wake-up call for Congress” — deal with it directly through legislation or let the EPA regulate.

Friday’s action by the EPA triggered a 60-day comment period before the agency issues a final endangerment ruling. That would be followed by a proposal on how to regulate the emissions.

The agency said in its finding that “in both magnitude and probability, climate change is an enormous problem” and that carbon dioxide and five other gases “that are responsible for it endanger public health and welfare within the meaning of the Clean Air Act.”

The EPA concluded that the science pointing to man-made pollution as a cause of global warming is “compelling and overwhelming.” It also said tailpipe emissions from motor vehicles contribute to climate change.

The EPA action was prompted by a Supreme Court ruling two years ago that said greenhouse gases are pollutants under the Clean Air Act and must be regulated if found to be a danger to human health or public welfare.

The Bush administration strongly opposed using the Clean Air Act to address climate change and stalled on producing the so-called “endangerment finding” demanded by the high court in its April 2007 ruling.

The court case, brought by Massachusetts, focused only on emissions from automobiles. But it is widely assumed that if the EPA must regulate emissions from cars and trucks, it will have no choice but to control similar pollution from power plants and industrial sources.

Congress is considering imposing an economy-wide cap on greenhouse gas emissions along with giving industry the ability to trade emission allowances to mitigate costs. Legislation could be considered by the House before the August congressional recess.

In addition to carbon dioxide, a product of burning fossil fuels, the EPA finding covers five other emissions that scientists believe are warming the earth when they concentrate in the atmosphere: Methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6).

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ON THE WEB

The Environmental Protection Agency: www.epa.gov

President Barack Obama called Thursday for the country to move swiftly to a system of high-speed rail travel, saying it will relieve congestion, help clean the air and save on energy.

Appearing with Vice President Joe Biden and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Obama said the country cannot afford not to invest in a major upgrade to rail travel. He said he understands it necessarily will be “a long-term project” but said the time to start is now.

The president allocated $8 billion in the enormous $787 billion economic stimulus spending package for a start on establishing high-speed rail corridors nationwide.

Obama said, “This is not some fanciful, pie-in-the-sky vision of the future. It’s happening now. The problem is, it’s happening elsewhere.” He cited superior high-speed rail travel in countries like China, Japan, France and Spain.

The rail upgrades are critically needed, Obama said, because the nation’s highways and airways “are clogged with traffic.”

The money will go to high-speed rail development as well as a parallel effort to improve rail service along existing lines — upgrades that would allow faster train travel.

The White House said funding will move into the rail system through three channels, first to upgrade projects already approved and only in need of funding, thus providing jobs in the short term. The second and third channels would focus on high-speed rail planning and then a commitment to help in the execution of those plans far into the future when the stimulus funds are no longer available.

Transportation Department officials say about six proposed routes with federal approval for high-speed rail stand a good chance of getting some of the $8 billion award. Those routes include parts of Texas, Florida, the Chicago region, and routes in the Southeast through North Carolina and Louisiana.

The U.S. Federal Railroad Administration says the term “high-speed rail” applies to trains traveling more than 90 mph. The European Union standard is above 125 mph.

Many overseas bullet trains — most powered by overhead electricity lines — run faster than that. In France, for example, the TGV (Train a Grande Vitesse) covers the 250 miles between Paris and Lyon in one hour, 55 minutes at an average speed of about 133 mph.

In Japan, which opened the first high-speed rail in the 1960s and with a system that carries more passengers than any other country, the Japanese Shinkansen trains hurtle through the countryside at an average of about 180 mph.

Super-fast trains also run in Germany, Spain and China, at speeds up to 140 mph, according to a 2007 survey in the trade publication Railway Gazette.

The only rail service that qualifies under America’s lower high-speed standard is Amtrak’s 9-year-old Acela Express route connecting Boston to Washington, D.C.

The trains are built to reach speeds up to 150 mph, but only average about 80 mph because of curving tracks and slower-moving freight and passenger trains that share the route. On the heavily traveled line from New York City to the nation’s capital, the Acela arrives just about 20 minutes earlier than standard service, at more than twice the cost during peak travel times.

Technical preview will be available to many during third quarter

SEATTLE – Microsoft Corp.’s next version of its Office desktop programs will reach consumers next year, though not likely in conjunction with the Windows 7 operating system.

Microsoft is set to announce Wednesday that Office 2010 will be finished and ready to send to manufacturers in the first half of next year.

From there, it can take six weeks to four months or more for the programs to reach PC users, said Chris Capossela, a senior vice president in the Microsoft group that makes Office. The timing will differ for big businesses and individual consumers, and for people who buy packaged software versus those who download it.

Some industry watchers had expected a new version of Office this year, but Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer extinguished that rumor at a meeting with analysts in February.

Capossela declined to be more specific about a launch date. Windows 7, the successor to Windows Vista, is scheduled to reach consumers by the end of January 2010.

Office 2010 – previously known by the code name “Office 14″ – will include slimmed-down versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote that let people create and edit documents in a Web browser. Consumers will have access to a free, ad-supported version, and Capossela said the company is still hammering out what to charge businesses that want a version without ads.

Microsoft plans to let hundreds of thousands of people test a technical preview of the new Office portfolio starting in the third quarter of 2009, Capossela said. The company did not say whether average PC users will have a chance to test a more polished beta version.

Microsoft also said a new version of its Exchange e-mail server will be available for purchase in the second half of 2009.

When paired with the next version of Microsoft’s Outlook e-mail program, Exchange 2010 aims to prevent e-mail faux pas and would warn people against trying to “reply all” to a huge distribution list. Microsoft said it can also be tweaked to stop people from sending e-mail outside the organization, helping businesses cut down on unnecessary e-mail and prevent leaks.

A beta version of Exchange 2010 was to be made available on Wednesday.

A Scottsdale-based investment fund is looking for mid-size renewable-energy projects in need of a loan, and is hoping to capitalize on incentives that utilities and the federal stimulus are pouring into such projects.

The Ethos Fund is targeting all types of renewable-energy projects in the Western states, including solar, wind, landfill-gas recovery and everything else eligible for big rebates.

Executives said such a fund is needed because while lots of public money is available for energy projects, few are being built because none of the incentives help developers with up-front costs, and the credit crunch has cut off most other funding.

“If you’ve tried to get a mortgage lately, you can imagine what it would be like for a renewable-energy developer (to get a loan),” said Adam Boucher, president of the fund planned at $150 million.

The Ethos Fund is looking to make short-term loans of six to 12 months to provide the up-front financing, with the energy projects and incentives serving as collateral.

Ethos is targeting projects that need between $250,000 and $5 million in start-up financing, or have an electrical-generating capacity between 100 and 200 kilowatts.

Most household solar systems or backyard wind turbines can produce less than 10 kilowatts, while solar and wind power plants produce several thousand kilowatts.

Boucher said mid-size projects are uncommon because there are few ways to finance them, a niche he wants to fill.

While federal and utility rebates can cover more than half the cost of renewable-energy projects, those incentives only are available once the projects are built.

“They will only be paying interest for a short period of time,” Boucher said.

Boucher has been putting the fund together for two years, but with the changes in the federal-stimulus package passed in February for renewable energy, Boucher expects to find many more eligible borrowers.

Many renewable projects are eligible for a 30 percent tax credit, but the stimulus allows projects to get that tax credit as a single payment in the form of a grant, so developers don’t have to wait until tax season to get their money back.

Boucher, who has been doing private lending since 2003 when he moved to Scottsdale from the San Francisco Bay Area, said he sees the most potential in alternative energy.

“I compare it to the race to the moon,” Boucher said of the nationwide alternative-energy push.

Small banks aren’t experts in renewable-energy rebates and credits, which gives Ethos an advantage, he said.

The fund intends to charge interest rates between 10 to 15 percent, and pay investors returns of 12.7 to 14.1 percent, according to the fund’s executive summary. Ethos is asking a minimum investment of $100,000.

But the fund needs to find borrowers, and has yet to make a loan.

The fund principals are renewable-energy supporters, including senior underwriter Larry Farris, who makes biodiesel fuel in his garage, Boucher said.

“Our underlying business model gives us a significant comfort level with these projects,” he said.

At least one executive who develops alternative-energy systems like those that Ethos is targeting said such financing is needed.

John Ellers is CEO of Solid USA, which sells large hot-water and air-cooling systems powered by the sun. Solid is based in Austria and is selling systems in the United States.

Even before the current credit crunch, large banks only wanted to lend to larger solar projects in the range of $20 million or more, he said, leaving the mid-size projects struggling to find loans.

“It certainly is something that is needed today given the dearth of traditional construction financing that is available,” Ellers said.

In some cases, Ellers has turned to Austrian banks to finance U.S. projects because American banks are unfamiliar with the technology, he said.

“The major banks in Austria look at these projects and are comfortable with the technology being used . . . so they can do the underwriting much more easily and cost-effectively and at a lower risk than other lenders,” he said.

“I’m hopeful that in the near term our traditional lending sources for construction financing will get back into this market.”

PALO ALTO, Calif. – It’s an old idea: a central sign-in that would let you log into many of your favorite Internet sites, eliminating the hassle of remembering multiple passwords.

Microsoft’s Passport came and went. Google’s OpenSocial and the independent OpenID group are out there but haven’t picked up many high-profile partner sites. Now Facebook is trying – and so far succeeding – with Facebook Connect, which lets you use your Facebook credentials to log into sites across the Web. Since launching in December, the service has grown from 26 Web sites to more than 8,000.

Netflix, Citysearch, Vimeo, CNet, CNN, Showtime and many other top sites put the Facebook Connect tab on their pages – to encourage new sign-ups and greater use by Facebook’s 200 million members. For Facebook, it’s a way to extend its reach and bring more of the Web to the Facebook community.

When sites work with Connect, “They understand more about you, they know what you like, who you are, where you’re from, how old you are, what gender you are, and now they can custom tailor the site to make it more engaging,” said Ethan Beard, Facebook’s director of platform marketing.

Connect isn’t the first time Facebook has tried to open up its network to other sites. The ill-fated “Beacon” program sent user data to advertisers without member consent. It was quickly pulled back when members howled in protest. With Connect, Facebook has learned from its mistakes, said Charlene Li, an analyst with the Altimeter Group.

Beacon “felt like a violation,” said Li. “This time, it’s clear you’re opting to share the information with the site.”

Facebook said participating Web sites only get to store user information for 24 hours – it must be deleted after that and cannot be shared. Still, partner sites are thrilled to get access to one of the Web’s largest communities.

Video-sharing service Vimeo said 50,000 people have used Facebook Connect to log in since it began offering it earlier this year – 40,000 of them new users.

“Our sign-up process is easy, but with Connect it’s one less text box, and that makes a difference for people,” said Andrew Pile, Vimeo’s director of development.

Video-rental service Netflix grants Facebook members access to their Netflix accounts to talk about movies and share reviews.

“One of the first topics that always comes up during dinners with friends is great movies,” said Mike Hart, director of engineering for Netflix. By offering the Connect feature, “We enable great social interactions.”

Facebook members can’t use their ID to sign up for Netflix service because that is a more detailed registration that requires credit cards, said Hart. Nor can Facebook members add movies to their Netflix rental cue – yet. “We hope to add that in the near future,” he said.

Social Gaming Network produces iPhone games, including iGolf, which simulates a golf swing. Via Connect, folks logged into Facebook can play along.

The company’s more advanced Agency Wars is a multiplayer game that charges a fee to advance to higher levels. CEO Shervin Pishevar said sales have been stronger through Facebook than iTunes “because you can challenge and attack and align yourself with friends on Facebook.”

Microsoft had the same idea a decade ago when it started the Passport program: Make it easier on users to interact with sites and store their credit card information in one place. It gave up in 2004 when many sites – most notably eBay – quit the program.

“Microsoft was 10 years too early,” said Jeremiah Owyang, an analyst for Forrester Research. Now, though, “The influx of people using these social networks is reaching a momentum like we’ve never seen before.”

Both companies and consumers have a clear reason to want to participate, he said. For Web sites like Vimeo and Netflix, adding Connect is simple, Li said. “They don’t have to go out and build a social network, and in turn, they get more engaged users.”

For Facebook, she said, it’s about extending the Facebook experience beyond communication and quick games, things that Facebook does really well.

Beard concurs. He said Connect has taken off because, “We understand that not all the sharing will take place inside Facebook. We want to give users the power to share anywhere, wherever they are on the Web.”

Of course, that also creates the potential for clutter as folks post even more material to profiles. But Gartner analyst Andrew Frank said there are “ways of filtering so not every action shows up.”

Q I have Adobe Professional 6.0 installed on my computer to create .pdf files. Recently I have attempted to open .pdf files that were evidently created on a newer version of Acrobat and got an error message that I needed Acrobat Reader 8.0 or 9.0 to open the files.

I downloaded and installed Reader 9.0, but when I attempt to open one of these .pdf files, Adobe 6.0 opens and then gives me the previous error message. This even happens if I first open Reader 9.0 and then click on the .pdf file. What do you think is causing this and how do I correct it?

G. Fotre

A: Your problem is not uncommon. There can be a number of reasons for the issues that you are experiencing.

Some of the most frequently seen are that a necessary file was deleted or that it is a Web browser issue. Since you can’t read files after opening the Adobe reader from your desktop shortcut, this lowers the likelihood of your Web browser being the source of your problem.

I am of course assuming that you saved the pdf file to your computer and then you tried to open it up and were unsuccessful. If I am wrong in my assumptions, then try saving a pdf to your computer and then opening it up.

If my assumptions were correct, then that would explain why you were advised to upgrade to the latest version of Adobe Reader. We can follow the missing or corrupted file premise. If you recently performed some system cleanup and deleted old files, you may have gotten rid of more than you expected. You may want to consider a system restore. If that doesn’t correct the problem then you may want to look at some other options.

If your computer still sees Adobe Reader 6.0 as your default pdf reader, then I would suggest uninstalling all versions of Adobe Reader. This can be done via the control panel. It may also require you to uninstall your version of Adobe Professional.

Once you have uninstalled all of the Adobe reader and creation software on your computer, you can reinstall the Adobe Professional and opt out of the option to install the reader program. If you don’t have this option, you may have to uninstall the Professional software and install the latest version of the Adobe Reader first and then reinstall Adobe Professional. This should set the latest version of Adobe Reader as your default pdf reader.

Other options include using another software program to read your pdf files. For this, you may want to consider a free pdf reader named Foxit. You can download it from download.com or foxitsoftware.com. An alternate option is to read pdfs through a Web browser. There are a few free online pdf viewers. Two of the most popular are pdfmenot.com and pdfescape.com.

Quincey Hobbs is a team member at the University of Arizona’s Center for Computing and Information Technology and an instructor at Pima Community College. Send questions to quinceyresponds @yahoo.com.

SEATTLE – Antitrust regulators fined Microsoft Corp.’s German subsidiary 9 million euros ($11.8 million) and said the world’s largest software maker illegally influenced retail prices for its Office 2007 programs.

The Bundeskartellamt, Germany’s economic regulatory body, said in a statement that an undisclosed retailer worked with Microsoft to set the price of Microsoft’s Office Home and Student 2007 software packages before the companies jointly launched an ad campaign.

“Not every contact between supplier and retailer regarding resale prices constitutes an illegal concerted practice,” the German group said in the statement, but such communication can’t lead to agreement about the retailer’s future actions. “In the present case, this boundary has been crossed.”

Microsoft said it will comply with German regulations.

“We will use this case as an opportunity to review our internal commercial processes and ensure that we are in full compliance with German law,” a Microsoft statement said.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. – A cell phone used by a Wyoming 13-year-old to run up a nearly $5,000 phone bill will text no more thanks to her angry father and his hammer.

Dena Christoffersen of Cheyenne sent or received about 20,000 text messages over about a month, and her parents’ phone plan didn’t cover texting.

Gregg Christoffersen told KUSA-TV of Denver this week that he thought texting had been disabled on her daughter’s phone, which he smashed hours after getting a phone bill for more than $4,750.

The family says Verizon has been willing to knock the bill down to a reasonable level.

Dena has been grounded until the end of school. She says she feels bad and has learned her lesson.

When many people think of search engines, they automatically envision Google.

This makes sense given Google’s magnitude; it’s by far the leader among search engines. But being the leader doesn’t always mean that it is the best for every search. The answer to queries could unlock more from the Internet than what is represented in a Google-only search.

Why should you consider another search engine? Google has a large number of Web sites indexed and cataloged, but it doesn’t have the entire Internet indexed and cataloged. Using other search engines may yield useful Web sites that aren’t available on Google. Diversity is the spice of life.

What should people consider when looking for a different search engine? They should try to find an engine that fits their searching style and needs. It can be easy for people to simply assume that Google is the only game in town and they must adapt to it rather than the search engine adapting to them.

One search engine that has been around for a while is alltheweb.com. It may provide Web sites that aren’t on Google.

Another engine that has been in Google’s shadow for years is Dogpile.com. Dogpile is a metasearch engine, and metasearch engines allow you to search several engines at once. This in turn allows you to cast a wider net.

Leapfish.com is a search engine that provides results from MSN, Google and Yahoo. What really makes Leapfish stand out is that when it refreshes, new results can be added to your list.

One of my favorite Google alternatives is Cuil.com. The search tips that are offered after your results are returned make it easy to refine the topic you are looking for.

What are the options for those who just don’t want to let go of Google? The obvious one is to continue to use Google. For those who want to slowly wean themselves from a Google-only diet, they can use Leapfish.com, which searches Google.

Or they can go to Google lite. Ecosmartsearch.com is another search engine that was created by the people at Google. It is designed to be a greener Web site that allows monitors to be more energy efficient.

Although this article may come across as being anti-Google by some, it isn’t intended as such. If you have read some of my previous articles, then you should know that I consistently urge people to try the various incarnations of Google and its many applications.

To truly get the most out of the vast resources of the Internet, you can’t limit yourself to the popular Web sites. Occasionally, stepping off the beaten path could be just what is needed.

Quincey Hobbs is a team member at the University of Arizona’s Center for Computing and Information Technology and an instructor at Pima Community College. Send questions to quinceyresponds @yahoo.com.