Highland Park start-up RemComm Inc. will demonstrate its technology at the Region 13 Twisted Rail Disaster drill today. RemComm has developed software that can be loaded onto a battery-powered laptop that will transmit information via radio waves when all else fails -- as in electricity and phone lines.

Founder and Chief Technology Officer Richard G. Johnson claims his software will be a boon for emergency service workers who have had to drive critical information from one location to another in the middle of disasters, such as last September's floods. The company, founded in 2004, has three full-time employees and Johnson. It's surviving on undisclosed dollars from private investors, Johnson said, until the software product is ready to be sold on the market.

The Class Action suit filed in June 2003 against Printcafe Software Inc., has been settled, sources tell me. Filed in the U.S. District Court in Western Pennsylvania, against Printcafe executives Marc D. Olin and Joseph J. Whang, the suit alleges securities fraud under the Securities Act of 1933. Printcafe, a software firm once based in the Strip District, was one of the region's hottest tech stars during the dot.com heyday. It had an initial public offering in 2002, shortly after which it lost $40 million and shed 75 percent of its value, and was later bought for $53 million by Foster City Calif.-based Electronics For Imaging. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

Carnegie Learning, the Strip District-based educational software company, said its Cognitive Tutor Algebra 1 curriculum received the 2005 "CODiE" Award for "Best Secondary Education Instructional Solution in Mathematics," presented annually by the Washington, D.C.-based Software and Information Industry Association.

The North Side-based Technology Collaborative, the economic development group dedicated to growing the region's digital, robotics and cyber-security clusters, has certified 21 new system-on-a-chip designers in its four-year-old Digital Sandbox program. System-on-a-chip puts electronic components that would usually have to be on a number of separate silicon chips all on one chip, saving time, energy and space. So far, the Digital Sandbox -- a joint project of the University of Pittsburgh, Penn State University and Carnegie Mellon -- has certified 89 chip designers.

Tomorrow, the 8th annual Seagate Pittsburgh Triathlon and Adventure Race will be held at the North Shore Riverfront Park, between PNC Park and Heinz Field. Proceeds will benefit Friends of the Riverfront, a nonprofit dedicated to redeveloping Pittsburgh's riverfront and expanding the Three Rivers Heritage Trail. More than 450 participants are expected, ranging from ages 13 to 80. The event includes an Olympic-distance triathlon course of a 1.5 kilometer swim in the Allegheny River, a 40-kilometer bike ride and a 10-kilometer run along the Three Rivers Heritage Trail. For more information, contact Valerie Kuhns at 610-590-0120.