New Lenox-based e.Kiosk.com provides public Internet access.
Its main product line is computer kiosks placed in hotels, universities and amusement parks for public use.
Launched in July, the company has eKiosks in a number of major hotel chains, including Hyatt, Sheraton and Westin.
The acquisition of Atlanta-based Continental Fax Corp., the owner of ActionFax, increases eKiosk.com's reach into the business-to-business Internet market, eKiosk.com founder and Chief Executive Officer Don Heidrich said.
"Our eKiosks will bring corporate suppliers and buyers together when they are away from their offices," Heidrich said in a statement announcing the acquisition.
"ActionFax's airport and airline club locations help to put us exactly where we need to be to capture a significant share of this market."
ActionFax has service centers at airports, including JFK International Airport in New York and Dallas International Airport, and a number of airline clubs, including Delta Airlines Crown Room Clubs and Japan Airlines Clubs.
The ActionFax acquisition is one of two deals that eKiosk.com expects will greatly increase its public presence this year.
The company has eKiosks at about 130 locations now, said David Luck, vice president for marketing.
But a recent contract with Hilton Hotel Corp. should increase the number of eKiosk locations to about 3,000 by the end of this year, Luck said.
The company describes as its goal, "To become the `pay phone' of the 21st century" by providing the predominant electronic kiosk company in high-traffic public places.
Electronic kiosks offer hotel guests and other users access to the Internet while away from their personal computers.
At amusement parks, including Six Flags locations, eKiosk.com also has photographic capabilities, allowing visitors to e-mail pictures to family and friends.
Although less than a year old, the company spent five years on product development.
Nurtured by Heidrich, the company also has attracted investors from other parts of the country, Luck said.
The company has a West Coast office in Los Altos, Calif., and an East Coast office in Union City, N.J.
The company has 41 employees and a small manufacturing operation.
But Luck said eKiosk.com is locating a site for a new manufacturing facility in the New Lenox area.
When I was still a very young man - at this point in my life any age before 50 is very young - a clerk in a motel asked if I were a member of AARP.
The sigh that came from deep inside me must have sounded like Al Gore reacting to a George Bush remark in the first presidential debate. I knew what AARP meant. It meant old. Finished. Retired.
I was 46 and still working.
Later, my wife partially rescued my ego by pointing out that anyone 50 or over is eligible for AARP membership. In four years, I'd be 50. So I didn't look much older than I was.
Such are the consolation prizes one receives as the hair turns gray and the eyesight dims.
Why do we need consolation as we grow old? Growing old is natural. It is peaceful in a way. It is soothing and comfortable.
It is also awful, which is why people keep trying to invent ways to cushion the blow.
Consider, for example, the New York couple with a Web site and a contest. The contest isn't about winning money or a trip for two on a slow boat to China, or even a free life membership in AARP.
These folks want another word for retirement. Or as they put it, a word to describe life after work. They think the word retirement sounds too much like life in a rocking chair, which isn't too shabby when you stop to think about it.
Words such as ``graduation'' and ``renaissance'' have been suggested by contestants who feel that life begins at sixty-something.
As a part-timer who has retired from two places and gone back to work for both, I enjoy the best of worlds. I work some; I rock some.
I would like to enter the contest anyway, because on my days off, I feel retired, graduated or whatever. Here are my suggested replacement words for retirement. It should be noted that they apply only to those who have truly stopped work altogether.
Unemployed. This is the most natural word to describe what happens after work. It does not, however, make you eligible for unemployment insurance - only Social Security.
Reclined. The perfect word to describe the lives of those people who spend all their time in an easy chair. Only one recliner in America isn't eligible to use this term. This is the man who is employed by a chair company to spend eight hours a day testing the comfort of its recliners. I'll swear I read a newspaper story about this guy. When he graduates, I intend to apply for his job.
Rich. This is probably the most desirable word. However, you must be a Republican to reach this point in life.
Stiff. No, I don't mean deceased. I mean stiff as in your backbone creaks when you want it to swivel.
Reinvented. Al the sigher invented the Internet and reinvented government. It's a good word.
Eating. This is about all you're good at anymore.
Sleeping. You do it all day because you can't go to sleep at night when you're old no matter how tired you happen to be.
Worried. Will I outlive my money? That's what the financial experts say old folks worry most about. Not me. I worry most about not outliving the money, which can't last much longer at the rate it gets away from you.
Finally, my last entry in the contest to discover a word to replace retirement is . . .
Sad. I'd like to be 46 again and worried about looking old enough to be joining AARP for the first time.
Provided by 7DAYS.ae
Dubai Police will slap fines of dhs300 on motorists who leave their engines switched on when they get out of their cars, it was revealed yesterday.A Last year 150 vehicles were stolen after drivers left their keys in the ignition and failed to switch their motors off, police said.
"In 2006, there were 115 (cars stolen), while last year this rose to 150. There is a need to stop this trend. People have to remember that they have to switch off their engine and lock the door before they leave the vehicle," said Lieutenant Colonel Ali Ahmed Ghanim, Director of Naif Police Station.A "If you're caught violating this, you will be fined dhs300."
Dubai Police has launched a four-day campaign to educate people on the issue under the slogan "Do Not Leave the Vehicle On". Ghanim said the police were going to issue "tens of thousands of flyers and brochures bearing messages mainly for drivers".A Some of the flyers contain messages such as: 'Do not be one of those 1,960 motorists who were fined in 2007 for leaving their vehicles switched on'.
"We have to tell them of the dangers of doing so," he said. Ghanim said leaving the engine running is an environmental hazard as well as being an encouragement to thieves.
[c] 2007 Al Sidra Media LLC
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