Computer

Fremont Elementary School was burglarized of an estimated $10,000 worth of computer equipment overnight Thursday, police said. Fourteen classrooms at the school on 3320 Las Palmas Ave. were burglarized of 11 Apple computers and other equipment after shattering or pushing open windows, police reported. The burglars may have gained access to school grounds by scaling the fence at Paloma Avenue and Glencoe Way.  

The Glendale Chamber of Commerce plans to move from its home of more than 40 years in an effort to shed the extra office space once needed for file cabinets and other pre-tech advances. When the chamber moved into the 3,500-square-foot building at 200 S. Louise St. in 1968, there were no computers, so more space was needed for workers and file cabinets, said Judee Kendall, the chamber's executive vice president. Today, computers store information and work has been streamlined considerably, meaning fewer employees are needed.

CITY HALL - When the City Council in 2007 approved a $1.2-million contract for updating an internal computer system, the software was sold as an airtight deal to modernize and streamline city processes. As part of their recommendation, city officials pointed to an extensive eight-month selection process. And then-Asst. City Manager Bob McFall went so far as to describe the contract with Culver City-based firm EdgeSoft as “probably one of the most aggressive performance-related contracts” the city had executed.

There is a class at the Glendale Central Library that might not exist if not for Elizabeth Grigorian. Since 2005, Grigorian, a community outreach coordinator at the library, has taught a free class on computer basics at the library. At first, Grigorian taught her computer class for seniors in the community before noticing that many of Glendale’s Armenian-speaking adults were missing out. Grigorian arranged to teach the same computer class in Armenian. It took her seven months to translate her 125-page instructional booklet from English to Armenian.

Angela Hilliard, a forensics specialist with the Glendale Police Department, didn't know why her eyes were red and dry, or why she was feeling exhausted at the end of the day. As a crime scene investigator on burglaries, robberies, suicides and the very occasional homicide, the four-year veteran of the department is out in the field collecting evidence, including latent fingerprints. She returns to the department to read the fingerprints and view other evidence through a microscope or magnifier.

CITY HALL — The cost of updating an internal city computer system has nearly doubled since the original $1.2-million contract was approved, but officials say it's still less expensive than other alternatives. Just last week, the City Council approved a roughly $100,000 change order with EdgeSoft Inc., the firm installing the updated permitting and licensing computer system. It was the seventh change order approved in recent years, bringing the total tab for the system — called City Services Interface — to $2.2 million.

The 7- and 8-year-olds in Theresa Dau's second- and third-grade class said they've been using computers for as long as they can remember. But the shiny new Apple computers in the three-week-old computer lab at Glenoaks Elementary School are something special, students said, and not just because of their $50,000 price tag. "I like it because they're much bigger than the old computers," said Julia Tharp, a third-grader. "It's fun because usually they are more square and thicker, now they're thinner, and faster too. " From an instructional perspective, they're effective teaching tools, Dau said.

Imagine having all the televisions throughout the house connected to the home computers — Mac and PC — so you can check your e-mail at any time. Or being able to program satellite radio in every room of the house. That technology was the No. 1 priority for homeowner Shawn Khorrami when he worked with his sister, designer Firoozeh Khorrami, on a complete interior and exterior redesign of his La Cañada Flintridge home. The result can be seen Sunday on the 24th annual Pasadena Home & Kitchen Tour presented by the American Society of Interior Designers, Pasadena Chapter.

NORTHEAST GLENDALE — Computer glitches that had been complicating student enrollment at Glendale Community College are beginning to subside, students and officials said. After a rocky start to PeopleSoft, a new enrollment and student registration computer program, campus officials and contractors are on a better track to a smooth start for fall semester than they anticipated last month, said Ricardo Perez, vice president of student services. "We've been resolving issues as they come through," Perez said.

I t was all work for Ben McShane's Lego Robotics class last week as students prepared for competition. McShane's Lincoln Elementary GATE students were preparing for a Lego robotics competition in the Roosevelt Middle School auditorium. Preparations have been intense, with students spending at least eight hours over the last couple of weeks preparing for a full day of competition with students from throughout the district. Points were earned for traversing the obstacle course successfully, not crashing into barriers and collecting plastic hoops and returning them to the starting point.