Mini-T speakers will do in a pinch

These round little orbs are designed to work with computers, televisions and iPhones. At less than 6 inches wide and high, these ultra-compact speakers come in a variety of color options including antique copper and bronze, polished steel and hammered earth.

THE GOOD: There's no denying the craftsmanship of these perfectly round, sleek speakers, compact "subMini" subwoofer and nondescript amplifier. They'll bring style to any shelf, and the overall audio performance was decent to good.

THE BAD: Using a five-year-old pair of Monitor Audio Silver S1 speakers as my reference, the Mini-T speakers failed on some high-range tones. An entire acoustic guitar track was missing when I played my go-to song for audio testing, "Weak and Powerless" by A Perfect Circle.

THE VERDICT: This is a solid audio bundle for small-space living. While unlikely to appeal to steadfast audiophiles, the Mini-T subwoofer and amplifier bundle is a definite upgrade from those speakers that came with your computer, and the price for the bundle is more than reasonable.

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Egypt says militants booby trap border with Gaza

CAIRO — The Egyptian army has discovered a network of booby traps along its border with the Gaza Strip, a military spokesman said Sunday, as he criticized the Palestinian territory's Hamas rulers for poorly controlling their side of the border and urged them to reign in militant groups operating there.

The accusations, made in a news conference explaining the military's ongoing offensive in the volatile northern Sinai area, were a rare public criticism of the Palestinian militant group by the military since the July ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in a coup.

Egyptian media has been pointing the finger at Hamas for meddling in Egypt's affairs, some suggesting that the ouster of Morsi, an ally and fellow Islamist, has prompted the group to cause trouble in Sinai by supporting militant groups there. Hamas officials have denied interfering and complain that Egyptian authorities have imposed the strictest restrictions on the border and its vital Rafah crossing in years.

"Securing borders is a joint mission for those sharing the borders. It is also up to Hamas to exert more effort to control the borders," Col. Ahmed Mohammed Ali said. "Egypt deserves more than the effort we are seeing from the other side to secure the border."

Ali said troops have arrested 309 militants and criminals, including Palestinians, in operations that began in the region in July and were stepped up with an offensive last weekend. They also uncovered weapons caches that included anti-aircraft missiles, long-range mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and tons of explosives, he added.

In the last 48 hours, he said, troops had discovered explosives laid in tunnels along the border and under Egyptian watchtowers, with detonating wires running back into Gaza.

"This will call for new measures ... to deal with these threats that endanger the forces and the borders," Ali told reporters, adding that Egyptian intelligence had also discovered that a number of insurgent attacks in Sinai had been coordinated with Gaza-based extremist groups.

Since Morsi's overthrow, militant attacks against security forces in northern Sinai have escalated, a trend Egyptian authorities blame on Morsi and his allies.

Morsi's supporters insist they are peaceful, but some have openly said the situation in Sinai will not stabilize unless he is restored to power.

In Gaza, Hamas government spokesman Ihab al-Ghussein denied militants were using the Palestinian territory as a staging ground for operations against Egypt.

"We deny any connection between Gaza, its resistance and government, and the tunnels and the explosives which were mentioned by the Egyptian army spokesman today," al-Ghussein told reporters.

Egypt's military launched the recent Sinai offensive last Saturday in response to militant attacks they say have killed more than 100 policemen and soldiers in recent months.

In the worst single attack, gunmen pulled police recruits from buses and shot 25 of them dead on Aug. 19. And last week, in a new escalation, two suicide bombers hit a military intelligence building nearly simultaneously, killing at least six troops.

During the ensuing offensive, Egyptian troops began demolishing homes along the Gaza border to block the flow of militants and weapons. Ali said houses had been knocked down on the Egyptian side up to 1 kilometer (0.06 miles) away, but that the owners would be compensated.

Meanwhile, in a case that highlights the volatility of the situation in Sinai, an Egyptian journalist who lives there was put on military trial on Sunday. Prosecutors accuse him of spreading false information about the army's counterinsurgency operations there.

Ali said freelancer Ahmed Abu-Draa, a resident of Sinai, does not have appropriate press credentials and was arrested in a restricted military zone. Abu-Draa also stands accused of lying about the army attacking mosques and relocating families in Sinai.

He said the journalist's fate will be decided by the military court, and that spreading false information as part of an "information war" is a threat to national security.

The case has caused an outcry among journalists in Egypt, and dozens protested Saturday outside the courthouse in the Suez Canal city of Ismailia. Reporters Without Borders, the press watchdog, has called for his immediate release.

Abu-Draa was detained 11 days ago after he wrote on Facebook that airstrikes ostensibly targeting militants had hit civilian areas. He also accused military officials of misinforming the public and questioned the military's statements about its operations in Sinai.

Few journalists have direct access to what is happening in Sinai because of security restrictions and concerns, forcing many to rely on statements by officials. Abu-Draa, an award-winning reporter who has done investigation stories in Sinai, works for several Egyptian and foreign newspapers and television channels.

Five journalists have been killed since Morsi was removed from office July 3 after nationwide protests against him. Reporters Without Borders says another 80 have been arbitrarily detained— most from outlets that authorities accuse of being pro-Islamist or sympathetic to Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood group.

__________

Associated Press Aya Batrawy in Cairo, Ashraf Sweilam in el-Arish, Sinai, and Ibrahim Barzak in Gaza, Gaza Strip contributed to this report.

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Harvard profs target cure for Lou Gehrig’s

Two Harvard stem-cell scientists are teaming up with a German biotech company to expand the search for a cure for Lou Gehrig's Disease.

Harvard University professors Kevin Eggan and Lee Rubin will conduct amyotrophic lateral sclerosis trials in partnership with Evotec, the university and the company announced.

"We're not a pharmacy company and they're set up for this," said Harvard science spokesman B.D. Colen. "We are doing some of that already, but they're able to do it on a much larger scale."

ALS destroys nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord, eventually leading to paralysis and death. There is currently no known cure or treatment that halts or reverses ALS, although several drugs in clinical trials hold promise.

The new amyotrophic lateral sclerosis trials will expand on Eggan and Rubin's brain motor neuron research and is the university's fourth collaboration with Evotec. The company is led by the former student of another Harvard researcher whose hormone treatment of diabetes sparked an earlier Evotec deal, said Colen.

Eggan, the first researcher to link the deterioration of motor neurons with the onset of ALS, is known for his development of a revolutionary use of stem cells in research that spares patients the danger of taking experimental drugs across the spectrum of human disease, Colen said.

"It literally moves the disease out of the patient and into a lab dish so then you can use it to screen for possible drug treatments," Colen said,

The finances for the ALS deal are confidential, Colen said. "But if ... down the road this does prove successful and it becomes a drug, there will be revenue coming back to the discoverers and to the university."

Efforts by former Gov. Paul Cellucci to fight the debilitating disease that claimed his life did not contribute directly to Rubin and Eggan's research, Colen said, "But in terms of making Massachusetts a hospitable environment to do this kind of research, absolutely."

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Tech talk on tap at cop confab

Tech companies are targeting the law-enforcement market as 3-D printing, Google Glass and other advances open new crime-fighting frontiers — innovations to be showcased at a conference in Cambridge this week that is drawing cops from around the country.

"Technology can help in every aspect of policing," said Dan Riviello, spokesman for the Cambridge Police Department and co-director of the two-day Police Innovation Conference at Microsoft New England, where representatives from police departments including Boston, Cambridge, New Mexico and Michigan will work to improve their use of technology and learn how to use new technology.

"As police forces have had to downsize because of the recession, their workload hasn't decreased," said Joe Rozek, executive director of homeland security and counterterrorism for Microsoft, who helps to put together "fusion centers" — police hubs where cameras, sensors and other real-time information can be collected and disbursed to responders.

"(The center) takes the information and raw data and turns it into actionable intelligence," Rozek said.

The conference will touch on social media, but also new and emerging technologies, like drones and 3-D printing.

"There's a lot to learn about and to harness and to understand. It's all moving very fast," said Peter Olson, founder of WiredBlue, makers of an app police departments can sign up for to better connect with the public.

Riviello will be speaking about the CPD's unique use of Twitter, where dispatch calls are automatically tweeted with the reason for the call and rough location.

"We think an informed community is a safer community," he said.

Mutualink, a Westford company that creates a secure method of interagency communication that is private for both parties, will show off its method for giving hands-free context and tactical awareness to first responders using Google Glass.

That would allow police responding to an incident to see vital information — like a map or surveillance camera feed — without using their hands. For example, in a school shooting, the school could provide law enforcement with a map and live feeds of video cameras that show up on Glass so first responders could make better and quicker decisions.

Still, all the information in the world is only as useful as the back-end system to put it together, experts said.

The key, Rozek said, is not looking at one technology as the "end-all solution."

The answer, and the way to use technology, "is one based on logic and reason."

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DeLoreans getting 'Back to the Future' makeovers

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. — It may not time travel, but the DeLorean sports car is finding its way into the future even without a flux capacitor.

People are spending thousands of dollars to have DeLoreans outfitted to resemble the one that starred in the 1985 movie "Back to the Future."

About 9,000 DeLorean DMC-12 cars were produced from 1981-82 before the original company went bust. About 6,500 are believed to still exist, easily recognizable with their boxy, stainless steel bodies and gullwing doors.

The current brand owner, DeLorean Motor Co. of Huntington Beach, handles everything from oil changes to full reconstructions. But as the 30th anniversary of "Back to the Future" approaches in 2015, there's been an increase in requests to recreate the movie's iconic car, according to the Orange County Register (http://bit.ly/19MDv5j).

"I've grown up around DeLoreans my entire life. I was dropped off to kindergarten in the actual 'Back to the Future' car. A DeLorean was my first car at age 16," said Cameron Wynne, DeLorean Motor Co. general manager. "'Back to the Future' has been a huge part of the business. The car is so well known from a 90-year-old person to a 4-year-old because of that movie. That shows how timeless the car and the brand is."

Some replicas have been ordered for movie cameos, corporate appearances and even as the ride for a newlywed couple.

DeLorean Motor Co. mechanic Danny Botkin has built six movie replica cars so far, relying on photos he took when he helped restored the original "Back to the Future" car.

"'Back to the Future' is getting bigger and bigger, especially among kids who watched the movie in 1985 and now have enough money to own a piece of it," Botkin said.

Each replica costs about $45,000. Passengers can punch in a "destination time" on the control panel and pull a lever to activate the pulsing lights of the time circuit. The parts are recreated using military surplus and other equipment, such as a jet engine oil cooler.

"We've never advertised that we build these," Botkin said. "It's just been a side thing we do. If people ask us to do it, we'll do it."

The current DeLorean Motor Co. was started by Wynne's father, Stephen Wynne.

He bought the original company's remaining parts. The parts, including 1,000 gullwing doors, fill 40,000 square feet of warehouse space in Houston, Cameron Wynne son said.

Seven years ago, DeLorean began re-manufacturing the sports car using donor cars that are stripped and fitted with remaining or remanufactured parts.

"We constantly have customers calling us that have had their cars in storage for 10, 20, 30 years, and they want to get rid of it," Cameron Wynne said.

But the DeLorean isn't resting on its laurels. The company, which has a handful of locations nationwide and one in the Netherlands, is working on an all-electric version. The company wants it to travel 100 miles on a charge and accelerate from 0 to 60 in under 5 seconds.

However, it won't need the 1.21 gigawatts of electricity required by Doc Brown's version.

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Prep test for MBA goes mobile

It took Elad Shoushan five tries to master the Graduate Management Admission Test. But Shoushan turned his circuitous route to Massachsuetts Institue of Technology's Sloan School of Management to his advantage by developing an app that he claims is cheaper, more convenient and ultimately more effective than any test-prep course on the market.

The 31-year-old Israeli native used his experience as a serial GMAT underachiever and former professional basketball player to figure out what he'd been missing.

"As a basketball player, it was very simple to identify what I needed to improve," he said. "But with the GMAT, it's really hard to focus on one weakness at a time."

So in 2012, he founded LTG Exam Preparation Platform, a mobile learning platform for standardized tests. The company's first product, Prep4GMAT, is available for the iPhone and iPad, and categorizes questions based on what concepts they're testing.

When a user gets a question wrong, the app breaks it down based on keywords. Over time, Shoushan said, the app helps the user focus more quickly on keywords inside questions, associating them with the concepts learned.

"You start to see where your deficiencies are so you can really hone in on those areas," said Tarlin Ray, Shoushan's mentor in the 
$1 million startup competition and accelerator MassChallenge, where he is now a finalist.

This approach of dissecting a test through pattern recognition, coupled with the fact that LTG was built "from the ground up" to be a mobile company, distinguishes it from other test-prep companies, said Ray, including Kaplan, where he worked for 3 1⁄2 years.

"It's almost like you have a coach in your pocket," he said.

Alba Medina, 28, needed a 650 on the GMAT to get into a top-10 graduate school. So for help, she turned to three programs — Manhattan Prep, Veritas Prep and Knewton.com — spending between $300 and $800 on each.

"After failing four times, I was desperate," Medina said.

So she tried LTG for $20, she said, and improved her score by 120 points, just enough to get into MIT.

"I didn't have to carry around books with me," Medina said. "The software discovered my weaknesses, so it was easy to concentrate on them."

LTG's other advantages are that it doesn't require users to log into a website that might not be available if they don't have an Internet connection, and, for the next few weeks, it's also free until Shoushan and his team finalize LTG's premium version, which will cost between $30 and $50.

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The Ticker

Wal-Mart to open more smaller stores

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. plans to increase the number of so-called "Neighborhood Market" stores, its smaller concept store, by nearly 75 percent over the next 18 months.

The world's largest retailer plans to have 500 of the smaller stores open within the next 18 months, up from a current 290.

In an effort to reach more customers in urban settings and geographies that can't support a traditional "Supercenter," the Bentonville, Ark.-based company is focusing on two small-store concepts: its Neighborhood Market and Walmart Express, that are meant to compete directly with grocery stores, discount/dollar stores and drug stores.

Wal-Mart's Neighborhood Market stores are sized on average at 38,000 square feet and the small-concept Walmart Express stores average about 15,000 square feet.

TOMORROW

• Federal Reserve releases industrial production for August.

TUESDAY

• Labor Department releases Consumer Price Index for August.
• National Association of Home Builders releases housing market index for September.
• Federal Reserve policymakers begin a two-day meeting to set interest rates.

WEDNESDAY

• Commerce Department releases housing starts for August.
• Federal Reserve policymakers meet to set interest rates.
• FedEx Corp. reports quarterly earnings before the market opens.
• Oracle Corp. reports quarterly earnings after the market closes.

THURSDAY

• Labor Department releases weekly jobless claims.
• Commerce Department releases current account trade deficit for the second quarter.
• Freddie Mac, the mortgage company, releases weekly mortgage rates.
• Conference Board releases leading indicators for August.
• National Association of Realtors releases existing home sales for August.

THE SHUFFLE

• Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in New England announced that Lauren Rabb, left, has been appointed sales manager of the company's Newton and Chestnut Hill offices. Rabb will be responsible for the day-to-day sales and operations of 74 sales associates serving Newton, Brookline and the surrounding communities.
• Putney Inc., a pharmaceutical company focused on the development and sale of generic prescription medicines for pets, has named Ellen Tobias as vice president of technical operations.

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Ponzi schemes proliferate

The Securities and Exchange Commission and law enforcement continue to see a steady stream of Ponzi schemes nearly five years after the Bernard Madoff scandal rocked the securities world.

Since fiscal year 2010 alone, the SEC has brought more than 100 enforcement actions across the nation against nearly 200 people for carrying out Ponzi schemes, prompting the commission to launch a Web page in 2011 for whistle-blowers to report violations of federal securities laws and apply for a financial award.

"Investors should continue to be wary of Ponzi schemes, which we steadily uncover and prosecute in regions throughout the country," said Kevin Callahan, an SEC spokesman. Red flags, such as promises of extraordinarily high returns with little or no risk, can signal that something may be amiss."

Among the recent local cases is that of Steven and Lori Palladino of West Roxbury, who were indicted earlier this year for allegedly running a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme. Prosecutors allege the couple used their company, Viking Financial Group, to borrow investors' money, which often went into the Palladinos' personal bank accounts to fund their lavish lifestyle. Money from new investors then allegedly was used to repay earlier ones and make monthly payments to all of them. But prosecutors allege it didn't stop there. Earlier this month, Palladino also was charged with one count of usury, or loan-sharking, for allegedly demanding a 40 percent interest rate on a loan his company made to a businesswoman.

"He's continuing to buy time, but inevitably, he needs to answer where our money is," one of their alleged victims, who declined to give his name, said of Steven Palladino. "History tells us we don't always get back what we've lost. But we do want to see justice served."

Prosecutors in the Economic Crimes Unit of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Boston make a point of bringing victims to perpetrators' sentencings so that judges can see firsthand that the impact of the crimes goes beyond dollars.

"People literally find overnight that they're destitute," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Levenson, whose unit has prosecuted 13 Ponzi schemes in the last five years.

Beginning in November, Levenson's office will hold a series of forums to warn the elderly in particular of the dangers of investing with people who promise inordinately high returns.

"It's clear that it is prevalent. It's a form of violence, a form of sociopathology.
 And I think it's becoming increasingly defined that way," said Gaytri Kachroo, a lawyer who has represented hundreds of Madoff victims.

People frustrated with low bank and bond rates "make a very appetizing opportunity" for perpetrators, said Secretary of State William Galvin, whose office has taken action against seven schemes in the past five years.

"The problem with Ponzi schemes is finding them," Galvin said. "They strive for secrecy. When we hear about them, all you have to do is follow the money. The problem is you don't hear about them until they default. It's like a game of musical chairs. Ultimately, the music has to stop, and you're going to be one chair short."

Antonio Planas contributed to this report.

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Downtown carts to be relocated

Ramped-up construction at the former Filene's site will force the relocation of Downtown Crossing pushcart vendors next week.

The move to new locations will expand the reach of the 26-strong street retail program.

Seven vendors in front of the construction site of Millennium Partners' $630 million Millennium Tower project, which includes redevelopment of the adjacent Filene's building, will be moved from Washington Street and Shoppers Park.

"We've been working closely with the property owners and the vendors to identify temporary locations, and we've been able to offer each vendors two possible choices," said Rosemarie Sansone, president of the Downtown Boston Business Improvement District. "The locations are new to the program, and we are all eager to see how well they will work."

Those locations — Winter Street, Summer Street and two spots on Tremont Street — were chosen primarily for their heavy foot traffic.

Plans to move the vendors into the Washington Street pedestrian zone were shelved for safety reasons, according to Sansone.

Two more vendors, including the Lambert's produce and flower stand at the top of Summer Street, will be relocated in December as construction extends around the building.

The vendors will remain in their new locations until March, when the Downtown BID plans to start a new street vendor program that's expected to include permanent and mobile kiosks instead of the current pushcarts. A consulting firm working on the new program is set to make its recommendations to the BID and Boston Redevelopment Authority by mid-October.

Two pushcarts operated by Unique Boutique vendor Craig Caplan will move to Winter Street under the plans unveiled yesterday.

"I guess being moved now and remaining in business until the end of March is a good thing, and I sincerely hope they have something better to offer us next year," said Caplan, who hopes to continue as a street retailer under the new program.

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SJC upholds $20.6 million judgment vs. Toys ‘R’ Us

The Supreme Judicial Court upheld a $20.6 million award to the husband of a woman who died when the inflatable pool slide she was using collapsed.

A jury in 2001 awarded the money to Michael Aleo after it found the slide sold by Toys "R" Us did not comply with federal safety standards. Aleo's wife, Robin, 29, died after slamming her head onto the concrete pool deck at a relative's home in Andover in 2006.

The toy company appealed in May but the Supreme Judicial Court yesterday concluded "there was sufficient evidence," to support the verdict.

A Toys "R" Us spokeswoman declined comment.

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