| Avista says new system helps in outages
When roughly 60,000 Avista Utilities customers lost power last week during a violent wind storm, the Spokane companys new high-tech, power-outage reporting system, which it developed over several years at a cost of $10 million, got its biggest test. Avista hasnt determined yet exactly how much time the new system saved crews when restoring power to customers, but the repair process went much more smoothly than it would have in the past, says Al Fisher, the companys director of operations. Several weeks ago, when another storm tore through the Inland Northwest and cut power to 20,000 Avista customers, the new system shaved an estimated 12 to 24 hours off the time it took the company to restore power to its customers, Fisher says. This helps us organize our work and efficiently manage outages, he says.
Notebooks Poised to Surge Ahead of Desktops in '07
For the past few years, we've seen the rise of the notebook computer. The variety in the market has begun to expand, we've seen specifications that more favorably compare with their desktop brethren and we've seen prices come down to reasonable levels in the past year.
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