Pitt's Bytes 7.23.07

Whither the Cupcake Class? Long-suffering Pittsblog (and Post-Gazette) readers will remember a series of posts from the early weeks of 2007 that chronicled the rise and relevance of Pittsburgh's upscale cupcake retailers, serving a bellweather constituency that I labeled -- tongue-in-cheek -- the "Cupcake Class." The series culminated in this P-G op-ed, with typically astute companion commentary and data wrangling from Chris Briem. Several months onward, what have we learned? This email alighted in my in-box last week: The author was "particularly impressed with your analysis of Cupcake Trends. It is among the most important and enjoyable analysis of the region that I have come across." Seriously. If we have to explain the joke . . . . Pittsburgh renewal is in the air: Jason Head of Refresh Pittsburgh let me know that the group meets regularly to promote the Net developer community in Pittsburgh. The next gathering is July 25 at the Creative Treehouse in Bellevue. . . . Pittsburgh native and CMU alum Hooman Rafdar is one of Business Week's "Wizards of Widgets." With fellow CMU alum Austin Fath, Hooman is the co-founder of ClearSpring, born in Pittsburgh and now located in Northern Virginia. He blogs at Widgify. . . . Press Release Time: Monroeville-based LearningPoint has changed its name to SimonShows. CEO Kevin Orzechowski says that the company has several new web-sharing tools for the media-rich environment in the pipeline -- for both corporate and consumer users. . . . Adobe's AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime - previously Apollo) Bus Tour will be rolling into town on August 17th.The event will be happening at the Heinz History Center. For more information on the upcoming Adobe AIR tour event, visit onair.adobe.com. . . . KDKA's Jon Delano interviewed Ansys CEO James Cashman and Tech Council rep Kevin Lane on the Sunday Business Page yesterday.