Newsbytes - Internationa…ews 1983 May to 1994 June/Newsbytes - International Computing Industry News 1994 Edition - May 1983 - June 1994 - Wayzata Technologies (5045) (1994).iso/mac/Text/Mac Text/1992/nb920804

Text File | 1992-08-04 | 64KB | 1,386 lines

(NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00001)

New For Networks: EtherProbe Protocol Analyzer 08/04/92
REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1992 AUG 4 (NB) -- A bilingual,
software-only Ethernet network protocol analyzer is being introduced
by General Software.

The new product -- Etherprobe -- uses predominantly software-only
technology. The company does supply a network interface card when you
buy the program, but this is mainly to ensure access to the network
itself.

Etherprobe is considered bilingual in that it accepts and can decode
both Novell Netware and Microsoft LAN Manager packets and decode them
properly. In addition to this capability, the program is fully
featured and can fulfill a variety of roles for the network
administrator.

The program comes with 35 different drivers to support the complete
variety of network interface cards that exist. As the data is
captured, the program has four real-time displays. They
include a display of network utilization in terms of packets/second as
well as KB/second. A second display shows the amount of data by the
type of protocol that it is. A third display is determined by the
request type of the packet and the fourth is by the packet type being
Unicast, multicast, or broadcast.

In addition to the raw data, the information can be captured to a file
that is compatible with Network General's Sniffer product. Sniffer
files can be read by Etherprobe as well. The data that is captured can
be filtered and focused so only that information that is of particular
interest at any time will be captured. This is done via a series of
filters that the user can set. Timing on the product is possible at
0.83 Microsecond intervals.

Etherprobe is shipping now. The product costs $995 and comes with a
choice of network cards. The customer can specify whether they want a
Novell NE1000 compatible card or a Western Digital compatible card.
The company will not guarantee the specific make and model of the
cards as that depends on what they can get at the time of the order.

(Naor Wallach/19920804/Press Contact: Steve Jones, General Software,
206-391-4285)


(NEWS)(IBM)(LAX)(00002)

77 Million Home And Business Listings On CD 08/04/92
SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1992 AUG 4 (NB) -- DAK is still
going strong, despite filing for Chapter 11 in June, and it
may be offering your name and address for sale to its customers on CD-
ROM (compact disc read-only memory).

The company is offering a CD of white pages telephone listings of 70
million US residents and a CD yellow pages of over 7 million US
businesses in its latest catalog.

The Phonedisc USA CDs are a set that include both residential and
business listings. The white pages CD is the equivalent of 5,000 phone
books and DAK claims that the CD covers 80 to 90 percent of all listed
residences in the US. The Phonedisc Business Edition offers business
information such as the 307 grocery stores in central Boston and the
75,410 CPAs in the entire US.

The CD comes with a search engine that allows the user to search by
states, cities, area codes, zip codes, and even by street. The
Phonedisc USA set is offered for $129.90 and the company is also still
offering a CD-ROM drive to users for the unheard of price of $199.

Offering such CDs may be a controversial move, but the information is
public. DAK says now the average guy can track down old friends, do
genealogy searches, and of course, create customer and supplier
databases.

DAK's president and name-sake, Drew A. Kaplan, also writes a long
letter to DAK customers on the front of the new catalog explaining why
the company filed Chapter 11. Kaplan says he borrows money, buys up
bargains, sells the bargains, and pays back the money.

All of that worked fine, until a "new multinational bank" offered
Kaplan a new line of credit that allowed him to expand, but then
unexpectedly pulled the credit line. So, with dried up cash flow, DAK
had to file Chapter 11 to keep going, DAK representative Brian Eggers
told Newsbytes.

Kaplan says, "Sometimes the knight wins and sometimes the dragon
wins," but claims his armor is barely singed. The bottom line for
"DAKonians" is, of course, a sale. To his credit, Kaplan also thanks
his creditors and his customers.

Eggers told Newsbytes that shipments are going out the door at the
rate of 8,000 a day and the company expects to be out of "this whole
ugly business" by January.

(Linda Rohrbough/19920804/Press Contact: Brian Eggers, DAK, tel 818-
716-6219, fax [phone]; Public Contact: 800-325-0800)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEL)(00003)

Mystery Illness Strikes Scientists During INSAT 2A Launch 08/04/92
NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1992 AUG 4 (NB) -- Several of the 55 scientists of
the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) who were stationed at
Kourou, preparing India's first communications satellite Insat 2A for
its launch on July 10, came down with some mysterious illness,
Newsbytes has learned.

During the launch build-up, the Indian Embassy in Paris received
frantic calls for medical help and money. The result of ISRO's
internal enquiry about the cause and nature of sickness have all been
kept under wraps, according to industry reports.

The affected scientists had wide-ranging problems such as nausea and
stomach upset to dizziness and deafness. Some of the cases were
serious enough to warrant medical treatment at the Red Cross hospital
in Kourou. An official spokesman could not say if food poisoning was
involved. He, however, did not rule out insect bites. Newsbytes notes
that Kourou is a village in the middle of a jungle.

The specialist team, engaged in crucial tests for the satellite's
functioning, have been stationed at Kourou since last April. Due to
high cost of hotel rooms and constrained by the modest per-diem
allowance, most of the scientists, except for the seniors, were
content to share an apartment.

Professor U R Rao, head of the ISRO, said that the apartment-sharing
arrangements are not as strange as might first appear, since the local
hotel food in Kourou is unsuitable for Indian stomachs -- all too
often, he said, the food is cold and spicy, including alligator meat
and jungle snakes as ingredients.

(C.T. Mahabharat/19920804)


(NEWS)(APPLE)(DEN)(00004)

New For Macintosh: Letterperfect 2.1 08/04/92
OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1992 AUG 4 (NB) -- Wordperfect has announced it is
now shipping Letterperfect 2.1 for the Mac. The company claims that
the package is a streamlined version of Wordperfect 2.1 for the Mac
and, like its PC counterpart, Letterperfect, has been designed
specifically for laptop computers, in this case, the Mac Powerbook.

Features in the program include a ruler, used to set margins, tabs,
and paragraph indents; change justification (the alignment of text
along the right, left, or both margins); create columns; change
line spacing; and center the text vertically, so the top and bottom
margins are the same.

Ruler settings can be copied to the clipboard, then applied to
paragraphs in other documents. The ruler can be set to display only
the tab and margin settings, or the pop-up format menus, a feature
Wordperfect says was included to make the program more usable on small
screens.

The column feature allows users to create and modify columns,
including columns of irregular widths. Different column settings can
be applied to a single page.

A graphics feature allows graphics to be added, moved, sized or
cropped from the editing screen. Text automatically reformats around
the images. Letterperfect can use TIFF, PICT, GIF, MacPaint and EPS-
formatted image files. There's also a feature that allows the user to
turn off display of the images, which will speed up screen redrawing.

A stationary feature lets users create template documents such as
memos, letterhead, and envelopes. Stationary files are stored in their
own folder, and the program comes with several sample stationary
files.

Wordperfect says it created Letterperfect 2.1 for the Mac so its file
format is identical with Wordperfect 2.1 for the Mac. A user could
create a document on the office Mac using Wordperfect, then work on
the same document on a PowerBook without having to convert the file
format. Files can also be imported into Letterperfect from various
other word processors, including Microsoft Word, MacWrite II, and
Wordperfect 5.x.

Other Wordperfect features found in Letterperfect include merge, a
spell checker, a thesaurus, headers and footers, footnotes and
end notes, date insertion, and word count. The program does not support
drawing, sort, user-defined styles, text boxes, borders, nor
QuickTime.

To use Letterperfect 2.1 for the Mac, you'll need at least 1
megabyte (MB) of system memory if you're using Apple's System 6.x, and
2MB if you use System 7. The package carries a suggested list price of
$149, and includes unlimited toll-free telephone support.

(Jim Mallory/19920804/Press contact: Dave Terran, Wordperfect
Corporation, 801-228-5013; Reader contact: Wordperfect Corporation,
801-225-5000, fax [phone])


(NEWS)(APPLE)(BOS)(00005)

New For Macintosh: RightWriter And Typing Tutor 08/04/92
CARMEL, INDIANA, U.S.A., 1992 AUG 4 (NB) -- Que Software has announced
new versions of RightWriter and Typing Tutor. The two products are
being demonstrated at Macworld Expo which runs all this week at
Boston's Bayside Expo Center.

According to the company, Typing Tutor teaches users touch typing,
while RightWriter is a grammar checking program.

New features of RightWriter 5 include an interactive editing mode,
unlimited writing styles, and more than 2,000 additional grammar
rules. Compatible with the Apple's System 7 operating system for the
Macintosh, the program includes a cut, copy, and paste feature that
allows text from Macintosh applications other than word processors to
be checked.

Until now, RightWriter has been available only for DOS and Windows
users. The program proofreads documents for errors in grammar, style,
word usage, capitalization and punctuation, and makes recommendations
for correction. Corrections can be made interactively as errors are
found, or a mark-up mode can be used to review the entire copy, then
go back and make changes. The program also has an "Undo" button to
reverse any corrections already made.

The program allows users to start anywhere in the document, and a
block of text can be checked, rather than the entire document, if
desired. A bookmark feature allows the user to return to a designated
spot when the document is reopened. There's also a graphical display
of the parse tree, or parts of speech, for sentence.

RightWriter 5 summarizes documents for writing readability, strength
of delivery, sentence structure, and use of descriptive words and
jargon. The summary can be viewed by the user at any time. The user
can select a standard help mode which displays a one-line comment for
each error. There's also an extended mode which activates the
program's on-line grammar and style guide.

Typing Tutor, scheduled for shipment in mid-August, included a mouse
tutor designed to improve users mouse skills, and there's an arcade-
type game called "Mouse Invaders" designed to improve hand-eye
co-ordination. Typing Tutor provides lessons, tests, reports, and
graphs. Lessons and tests can be designed by the user.

RightWriter 5 requires a Mac with a 3.5-inch disk drive, a hard disk,
and 1 megabyte (MB) of random access memory (RAM) if you're using the
System 6 operating system. If you are running under System 7, you need
2MB of RAM. The program has a suggested list price of $99.95.

Typing Tutor requires a Macintosh Plus or higher, 1MB of RAM, and
System 6.0.3 or higher. It carries a price tag of $49.95.

(Jim Mallory/19920804/Press contact: Susan Earabino, The Marketing
Partnership for Que Software, 617-876-9516; Reader contact: Que
Software, 317-573-2500, fax [phone])


(NEWS)(APPLE)(BOS)(00006)

New For Macintosh: "Lowest-Priced" Bernoulli Drive 08/04/92
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1992 AUG 4 (NB) -- Hoping to cash in on
the demand for external storage media for the Mac, Iomega has
introduced, what the company claims, is its lowest priced external,
self-powered Bernoulli drive.

According to the company, the new Bernoulli MacTransportable 90 PRO,
is a complete system especially designed for the Macintosh, and costs
40 percent less than Bernoulli drives cost three months ago.

The Bernoulli MacTransportable 90 PRO drive come with the drive
itself, a 90 megabyte (MB) disk with shareware, a SCSI (Small Computer
Systems Interface) system cable, and the Iomega Driver and Workshop
Utilities.

According to the company the drive's effective access time is 18
milliseconds, and 13 milliseconds with caching software. The drive
carries a suggested list price of $713.

Mike Joseph, vice president of marketing for Iomega, said: "The
Bernoulli MacTransportable now makes the benefits of Bernoulli
available to more Macintosh users. Users will not only enjoy the
advantage of the Bernoulli MacTransportable's low price, but they will
still enjoy the same high quality that Bernoulli is well known for.
Macintosh users can now buy a product that is not only price-
competitive with hard drives, but that is actually more rugged and
reliable than hard drives."

According to Iomega, the Bernoulli MacTransportable drive now offers
Macintosh users a more economic option, because once users have the
Bernoulli drive, storage capacity is easy to expand. Rather than
buying another hard drive, they can buy a Bernoulli cartridge at a
third of the price of a hard drive, claims the company.

Steve Wise, Apple product marketing manager for Iomega, said:
"Multimedia, graphics and desktop publishing applications are
continuously increasing the storage needs of Macintosh users."

"Therefore, incremental storage purchases are occurring more often.
The traditional option has been for Macintosh users to purchase
another hard drive or to settle for a removable storage product that
lacked performance, was too expensive, or failed to provide the
ruggedness users want for worry-free use," he added.

(Ian Stokell/19920804/Press Contact: Cara O'Sullivan, Iomega Corp.,
801-778-3712)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00007)

Infonet: Little-Known Packet Data Net 08/04/92
LONDON, ENGLAND, 1992 AUG 4 (NB) -- International subscribers to
online services such as Compuserve and MCI Mail may not be aware of
it, but the Infonet dial-up network offers a real alternative to
accessing the service world-wide.

Both Compuserve and MCI Mail promote Infonet as a means of access to
their respective online services where no other access is obtainable.
Unfortunately, much of the information online about Infonet on these
two services is out of date and partially complete.

Newsbytes has been doing some research and discovered that Infonet
dial-up ports are available in most major countries around the world
and, in many instances, at speeds of 9,600 bits per second (bps) --
faster than many countries' own native packet data network dial-up
ports.

Surcharges for using Infonet vary country by country. On Compuserve,
Infonet access in Western Europe costs $11 an hour over and above
the normal hourly connect rates. In certain situations, Infonet access
is a useful backstop, and can even work out cheaper than conventional
access routes in East European countries.

Infonet charges are added to the subscriber's account on the home
system, such as Compuserve. The advantage here is that no preparation
is needed -- modem users just log onto their nearest Infonet port.

Infonet maintains its own online information service. Information on
how to access this service can be obtained from any Infonet service
office, or by calling your local Infonet service port (e.g. London
[phone]) and pressing ENTER or RETURN until the hash (#)
prompt is seen.

At this point, callers should key in C (enter/return) and then:

HH GPS ZAL608, ZAL608

Callers are then routed to the Infonet help system, which includes
details of the Infonet network, contact addresses and all aspects of
the service.

(Steve Gold/19920804/Press & Public Contact: Infonet US - Tel: 310-
335-2600; Infonet Europe - Tel: Belgium [phone]; Infonet
Japan - Tel: [phone])


(NEWS)(IBM)(LON)(00008)

Wordperfect Readies Drawperfect 2.0 For DOS & Windows 08/04/92
ADDLESTONE, SURREY, ENGLAND, 1992 AUG 4 (NB) -- Wordperfect
Corporation is preparing to launch new DOS and Windows versions of its
Drawperfect during the fourth quarter of this year.

According to the company, Drawperfect 2.0 offers advanced
presentation, charting, drawing, painting and new sound capabilities
in both its DOS and Windows versions.

Both the new versions have gone into beta testing in preparation for
launch in the fourth quarter of this year. Provisional pricing on the
package has been set at UKP 399.

Existing (registered) users of either version of the package will be
allowed to upgrade to Drawperfect 2.0 for free, provided they
purchased the software after 23 June this year. In addition, selected
users of competing packages will be able to trade up for a nominal
fee, details of which will be announced closer to actual shipment
date.

Announcing the planned shipments of Drawperfect 2.0, David Godwin,
general manager of sales and marketing with Wordperfect, said that
Drawperfect is a key component of the company's WISE (Wordperfect
Information System Environment).

The idea of WISE is that information processing, information sharing
and information presentation are all brought under one umbrella.

Another interesting feature of Drawperfect 2.0 is that both the
DOS and Windows versions have the same user interface. According
to Wordperfect, this is the first time the company has created an
exactly similar user interface on two products.

(Steve Gold/199200804/Press & Public Contact: Wordperfect U.K. -Tel:
0932-850500; Fax: [phone])


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00009)

Newsnet Available Internationally Via Sprintnet 08/04/92
SUNNINGDALE, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1992 AUG 4 (NB) -- Newsnet, the
Pennsylvania, US-based online service featuring hundreds of
newsletters, wire services, and other databases online, has
been formally launched in the UK.

The service, which is accessible via the London Sprintnet port at all
modem speeds to 9,600 bits per second (bps), claims to have more than
150 full text publications available on a keyword search basis.

Geoff Thompson, managing director of Thompson Henry, the UK agents
for Newsnet, said that having access to the latest information is
getting more and more critical when it comes to making important
business decisions.

"Through Newsnet, information technology managers can provide senior
management with the information they require on their industry,
clients and competitors, efficiently and more importantly, cost
effectively," he said.

Publications covered by Newsnet include those from McGraw-Hill, CMP
Publications, Phillips Publishing and several others. International
news wire services such as Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, The
Business Wire, Newsbytes News Network, and the PR Newswire are also
available on Newsnet.

Newsnet pricing remains the same as in the US. According to Thompson,
billing is handled in the US for UK subscribers although longer
term, plans call for billing to be handled here in the UK.

"We'll still price the service in dollars, doing a current currency
conversion. One thing we'd never do is to price the service in
sterling, as we've seen too many US companies end up charging
customers too high a price," Thompson told Newsbytes.

Thompson also added that, because of the Sprintnet access port being
available in London, Newsnet will also discuss flat-rate contracts
with major subscribers. Newsbytes notes, however, that such contracts
are priced extremely high for average UK subscribers.

Founded in 1982, Newsnet claims to deliver the full text of almost 600
news sources in 30 industry areas, including technology, finance,
defence, environment and health care markets. Included with the
service are 500 business newsletters and 20 worldwide newswires, most
of which are accessible in real time.

(Steve Gold/19920804/Press & Public Contact: Thompson Henry -Tel:
0344-24615; Fax: [phone])


(NEWS)(UNIX)(LON)(00010)

New For Unix: Olivetti "Paperless Office" 08/04/92
LONDON, ENGLAND, 1992 AUG 4 (NB) -- Olivetti has unveiled a new
version of its IBIsys Unix-based office information system. According
to the company, the new release includes image processing and
procedure tracking facilities which help minimize the involvement of
paper in routine office processes.

IBIsys is an operating environment which integrates multi-vendor
applications at both client and server levels. This, Olivetti claims,
allows transparent communication to take place between similar
platforms on a Unix host system.

The basic version of IBIsys supports object-oriented filing,
electronic mail, diary and administration (printing) services. The
package claims to be wholly compatible with the seven layers of
Olivetti's open systems architecture (OSA).

So what is IBIsys in plain English? According to Peter Bartlam, OSA
marketing manager with Olivetti UK, the package could be called a
groupware product, except that it is unique "in that it integrates
existing applications while adding new functionality, so simplifying
the user interface."

Bartlam reckons that IBIsys introduces a new method by which documents
flow round the office. Instead of paper moving from desk to desk, a
copy of a document is passed to all appropriate users on the network,
with each transaction on the document logged centrally.

"It's all about making sure that the right person sees the right
document at the right time, and that they do the right things to it,
without a single piece of paper being exchanged," he explained.

Pricing on IBIsys depends on site licensing requirements. The
customizable software can be tailored to a user's requirements,
subject only to the fact that the Unix operating system must be
present on the computers concerned.

(Steve Gold/19920804/Press & Public Contact: Olivetti U.K. - Tel:
081-785-6666)


(NEWS)(GOVT)(MOW)(00011)

Moscow: 100 Databases Available 08/04/92
MOSCOW, RUSSIA, 1992 AUG 4 (NB) -- The demonstration hall of the
International Bureau of Information and Telecommunications (IBIT)
has announced the immediate availability of 100 databases on various
business and technical matters, all related to the territories of the
former Soviet Union.

On offer are databases containing the addresses of thousands of
industrial and agricultural companies; companies selling and buying
from abroad; foreign companies operating in the country; the financial
and trading institutions; scientific companies and research
institutes; two "who's who" databases; advertising materials that
have been scanned and typed into a computer database; statistical
data; high-tech materials and technologies on offer; plus a wide
selection of legal documents.

Several rare databases, with topics such as man-made disasters,
radiation impact, Russian kings genealogy, and various dictionaries,
are also included.

Prices for the databases are in the range of 2,000 to 10,000 rubles
($150 to $750) making them affordable, even for local buyers.

The demonstration hall of IBIT is located in the Almaz building at
the Soviet space defence research center, and is open between
10am and 6pm daily. The hall can complete searches of its
databases on request, so providing customers with the information
they need, without recourse to a computer, officials with IBIT
said.

(Kirill Tchashchin/19920804/Press & Public Contact: International
Bureau of Information and Telecommunications, Tel: [phone];
Fax: [phone] )


(NEWS)(IBM)(SYD)(00012)

Australia: Microsoft Hosts Word Vs. Wordperfect Challenge 08/04/92
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1992 AUG 4 (NB) -- Microsoft has repeated its famous
US Microsoft Word for Windows 2.0 versus Wordperfect for Windows 5.1
challenge using 51 Wordperfect for DOS users. 76 percent said they
preferred the Microsoft product and 75 percent said they would buy
Word rather than Wordperfect for Windows, Microsoft says.

The test was conducted over seven days in Sydney by the National
Software Testing Laboratory. Microsoft said the tests were modified
where necessary for local conditions and practice. The users were
asked to perform a number of normal word processing tasks, with
emphasis on the graphical environment. They were all given a basic
introduction to Windows and then the programs were started, but with
the names concealed so users didn't know what product they were using,
Microsoft claims.

The users were recruited from a personnel agency, and carefully
screened with an initial 20-minute phone interview. It was essential
to eliminate anyone with experience using any version of Word or
Windows as the test was meant to determine if a DOS user of
Wordperfect would automatically prefer to move to the Windows version
over another product.

The test consisted of eight tasks: create a letterhead with box;
boldface two words; indent and bullet two paragraphs; bold and
italicize a sentence; insert a row into an existing table; preview and
make adjustments; print; create and print an envelope. The users were
then given 11 open-ended questions relating to preference, ease of use
and general impressions.

(Paul Zucker/19920804/Contact: Jennifer Zanich, Microsoft Australia
tel [phone] fax [phone])


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(SYD)(00013)

Australia Creates Plastic Money 08/04/92
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1992 AUG 4 (NB) -- There's a new Australian
banknote, and while it breaks new ground, it's having a bit of trouble
too. The new plastic note is meant to be uncopyable, but it's also
easy to deface.

Australia converted to decimal currency in 1966 and received a brand
new set of colorful paper notes which have aged well, but the mint
has decided to update. In the past few years the one and two dollar
bills have been withdrawn from circulation, and have been replaced
with small, thick coins. This meant that the five dollar note was the
smallest denomination, so the new note was made smaller (65x130mm).
As the other notes ($10, 20, 50 and 100) are converted to plastic,
each will be 7mm longer than the prior denomination.

As one of the main reasons for changing was the threat of improved
counterfeiting methods, the new note incorporates many countercopying
features: there is a 'watermark' of the Australian coat of arms; a
seven-point star is printed half on one side and half on the other so
that it forms a complete star when held up to the light, certain
printed areas use raised print; there is a transparent area inside a
eucalyptus flower; the printing includes microfine detail which could
not have been produced on paper.

So what's the problem? The portrait of Australian historical figure
Caroline Chisholm on the old note was replaced with one of Queen
Elizabeth II on the new note. Whether it's the recent upswing in those
wanting Australia to become a republic, or whether it's just mischief,
people soon found that the Queens face could be completely removed
from the note.

It can either be done by scratching, or by using certain solvents,
including acetone. One joker even quipped that the government could
make money by turning the notes into $5 scratch lottery tickets,
placing a prize beneath the Queen's face on some notes.

Also this year, the Australian one and two cent coins have been
removed from circulation, with all cash amounts being rounded to the
nearest five cents.

(Paul Zucker/19920804)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00014)

Eurotunnel Rents Out Telecom Facilities 08/04/92
PARIS, FRANCE, 1992 AUG 4 (NB) -- Eurotunnel, the group of contractor
companies working on the undersea tunnel between England and France,
has leased an unspecified portion of its telecom capacity to the
British and French rail authorities, the company has revealed.

Plans call for all of the spare telecom capacity, mostly using fiber
optic links, to be sublet in this way. British Rail, Newsbytes notes,
already has a telecom operator licence to offer telecom services to
the public in the UK.

Eurotunnel is not revealing any financial details of its dealings with
the two country rail authorities, but officials said that they expect
the telecom capacity to generate a significant element of income as
the bandwidth/cabling capacity is leased out.

Trains are expected to run over the England-France link within the
next two years although continuing problems with the near-40 kilometer
underground tunnel continue to cause problems, mostly on the financing
side.

(Steve Gold/19920804)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00015)

UK: Mercury Cable Reaches Isle Of Man 08/04/92
PEEL, ISLE OF MAN, 1992 AUG 4 (NB) -- Mercury has announced it has
made landfall with its fiber optic cabling links between Britain, the
Isle of Man, a populated island mid-way between Britain and Ireland.

Landfall with the English-Isle of Man cables took place on Sunday,
July 5, while the Irish-Isle link was completed on July 17. Both ends
of the link are now being strung together on the Isle of Man.

According to Mercury, the fiber optic cable link will be able to carry
the equivalent of 46,000 simultaneous telephone calls and forms part
of a 500-kilometer digital network extension that will link Northern
Ireland into the mainland UK network at a cost of UKP 41.5 million.

Two undersea cables will connect the UK mainland with Northern
Ireland. One from Blackpool via the isle of Man to Ballwater in County
Down and the other from Troon in Scotland to Whitehead in County
Antrim.

Once the cable link between the UK mainland and Ireland is
operational, which is anticipated by the end of this year, Mercury
will be able offer its services in Northern Ireland to a wide variety
of subscribers, ranging from residential to business users with
multiple line installations.

(Steve Gold/19920804/Press & Public Contact: Mercury Communications -
Tel: [phone])


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00016)

Pixel's New Digital MPC Video Chips 08/04/92
PLANO, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1992 AUG 4 (NB) -- Pixel Semiconductor has
announced its family of new digital video chips that can process and
display multiple streams of full motion video. The company claims that
the chips are ideal for personal computer and video teleconferencing
applications.

Pixel, a subsidiary of Cirrus Logic, announced the CL-PX2070 Digital
Video Processor and the CL-PX2080 MediaDAC chip, which have the
ability to add and overlay graphics and text to video in sequences,
edit between single and multiple streams of video, and to display the
data in multiple windows, all in real time.

The company says that the chips are ideal for multimedia applications
ranging from low cost VGA video capture and playback systems, to high
performance 1024 X 768 resolution true color video authoring, video
presentation, and video teleconferencing systems.

Pixel spokesperson Connie Duncan told Newsbytes that the chips will be
built onto add-in cards which will probably sell for under $1,000. A
typical application would be a user building a presentation, with
input from a live video camera being mixed with a demonstration stored
on a VCR tape, said Duncan.

The PX2070 enables the capture, storage, processing, and routing of
multiple independent streams of full motion video. It can receive
different data types from multiple video devices and from the host
system through either an ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) or an
MCA (Micro Channel Architecture) bus.

Pixel says the chips support a variety of data formats, such as NTSC
(the US television standard) or PAL (the European TV standard), as
well as YUV-encoded data of red, green, and blue (RGB), allowing the
device to receive data from virtually any existing source.

The CL-PX2070 has a memory capacity of up to 8MB (megabytes) of DRAM
(dynamic random access memory) or VRAM (virtual random access memory),
and can store multiple sources of data for editing applications, while
its bidirectional data paths and format conversion capabilities let
it simultaneously send video and graphics data to various connected
I/O (input/output) devices for video preview and capture.

Pixel says the chip uses interpolation filters to create "substitute"
pixels (picture elements, the dots that make up a screen image),
providing a better image.

According to the company, the CL-PX2080 is the only chip that
digitally mixes and simultaneously displays graphics with multiple
independent streams of live video. The chip provides multiple
viewports into the video memory, and displays the contents of each
viewport on the computer screen.

(Jim Mallory/19920804/Press contact: Connie Duncan, Cirrus Logic, 510-
226-2346)


(NEWS)(IBM)(DEN)(00017)

New For PC: Microsoft's Movie Guide For Multimedia PCs 08/04/92
REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1992 AUG 4 (NB) -- As predicted by its
chairman last month and reported by Newsbytes, Microsoft has announced
"Cinemania," a software program for Windows which Microsoft describes
as "a fun movie guide for the Multimedia PC."

Late last month, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates told analysts that
while he doesn't expect the company to introduce a blockbuster upgrade
or new product this year, he sees "enormous potential" for
three new areas: database, workgroup, and consumer software. One
specific consumer product Gates mentioned was "Cinemania."

Cinemania, which runs under Windows, lists 19,000 reviews of movies
issued between 1914 and 1991. In addition to the review, the program
offers biographies of actors, directors and producers; a listing of
Academy Award winners; and using the multimedia capabilities of the
PC, movie stills and dialog from classic films.

Multimedia brings to life a combination of interactive text, stills,
and dialog. By clicking the buttons of the on-screen "remote control"
users can locate capsule summaries from the complete text of film
critic Leonard Maltin's Movie and Video Guide 1992, or browse through
thousands of entries from The Motion Picture Guide and The
Encyclopedia of Film supplied by Baseline, an information service for
the entertainment industry, Microsoft says.

A search feature allows the user to search by genre, actor, director,
star rating, Academy Awards, or the MPAA rating. For instance, you
could list all the films that starred John Wayne and were directed by
John Ford, then check the film credits, or review an actor's
background.

Cinemania also includes an extensive glossary of terms used in the
movie industry. Don't know what a "best boy" is, or a "second unit?"
Cinemania can tell you what those and thousands of other terms mean.
There's also a listmaker feature than can be used to make notes or to
print out a list to take to the video store.

Microsoft said Cinemania, which has a suggested list price of $79.95,
will ship in September. To run the program, you'll need an MPC
(Multimedia PC), a system with a 386SX or higher processor, 2MB of
RAM, a 30 MB hard drive, a CD-ROM drive, an audio board, mouse, and
VGA or better display. Software requirements include Windows 3.1 or
Extensions 2.2 or later, or Windows graphical environment 3.0 with
Multimedia Extensions, a CD-ROM drive and headphones or speakers.

The company said that it expects to introduce 600 new products in
fiscal 93, which it expects to account for 35 to 40 percent of
expected revenues. According to Jesse Berst, editor of Windows
Watcher, Microsoft even has a project going with Nintendo.

(Jim Mallory/19920804/Press contact: Karen Meredith, Microsoft, 206-
882-8080; Reader contact: 800-426-9400)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00018)

United Equips Sales Force With Toshiba Portables 08/04/92
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1992 AUG 4 (NB) -- United Airlines has
announced plans to equip its 400-plus field sales representatives in
the US with a system of portables and software packaged under the
term "Insight."

Insight is a hardware-software combination which will contain business
account and personal management tools that will allow the sales reps
to provide better service to corporate accounts and the 33,000 travel
agencies the reps call on across the country.

Using the Insight system, the sales reps will be able to generate
contracts on the spot, improve response by United to competitive
initiatives, and eventually to access Apollo, United's worldwide
reservation computer system, United spokesperson Joe Hopkins told
Newsbytes.

Hopkins said that this is the first use of notebook computers by
United, although some flight attendants use a hand-held device to
manage liquor supplies and track duty-free items.

Insight's software is being developed in conjunction with Shepherd
Systems, a Houston-based software development firm. The hardware,
selected after six months of field testing, will be Toshiba T4400SXC
active matrix color notebooks powered by a 25 megahertz 496 chip. The
systems will be equipped with 120 MB (megabyte) hard disks. The reps
will also carry a six-pound Kodak Diconix 701 portable battery-powered
printer. The printers have a built-in sheet feeder and can produce
multiple type fonts.

(Jim Mallory/19920804/Press contact: Joe Hopkins, United Airlines,
708-952-4088)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00019)

Ingres DBMS Now Available For Crays 08/04/92
EAGAN, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1992 AUG 4 (NB) -- Claiming it is responding
to customer demand, Cray Research has announced that Ingres, a
relational database management system, is now available on the Cray Y-
MP supercomputer product line.

According to Sara Graffunder, senior director of applications at Cray
Research, large computations such as those run by commercial and
government users, use vast amounts of data. Running Ingres gives uses
the capacity of up to 32 gigabytes of memory. "Database management has
become an increasingly crucial element in time-to-market for new
products," said Graffunder.

Graffunder added that customers have learned over the past ten years
that they can spend a great deal of time sharing data throughout the
organization. "Reducing that time is now a key to success for any
enterprise," she said.

Graffunder said that another advantage of Ingres is the ability to
integrate large scientific and engineering applications in a way that
allows the data to be passed among those applications in a more
transparent fashion.

Ingres runs under Cray's network supercomputing strategy, allowing
users to send data from their desktop workstations to a supercomputer
or other network resource to solve large-scale problems.

Cray says users who have used Ingres on other platforms will feel
right at home, since the interface on Cray Research systems has the
same look and feel as does Ingres on other platforms. Through the
Ingres gateway, users can also access data from databases other than
Ingres, including IBM's DB2.

(Jim Mallory/19920804/Press contact: Mardi Schmieder, Cray Research,
612-683-3538)


(NEWS)(GOVT)(TOR)(00020)

 ****Quebec Dealer Convicted Of Software Piracy 08/04/92
QUEBEC CITY, QUEBEC, CANADA, 1992 AUG 4 (NB) -- Centre d'ordinateurs
Microbec, a chain of four computer stores, has been handed the largest
software-copyright fine in the province's history. The company was
fined C$63,000 for selling computers loaded with illegal copies of the
MS-DOS operating system.

The fine is not the worst of it for Microbec. When the Royal Canadian
Mounted Police raided the company last October, they seized about 140
computers carrying the illegal software as evidence. Since the company
was convicted, the seized hardware will not be returned, said Allan
Reynolds, manager of the Canadian Alliance Against Software Theft
(CAAST), a Toronto-based group of major software vendors set up to
fight software piracy. Reynolds said the value of the seized computers
is "more than double the fine amount in terms of revenue value."

It could have been worse, though: the Copyright Act allows for fines
of as much as $1 million or imprisonment for up to five years in cases
of this type. Charges against the managers of three Microbec stores
have been dropped, and charges against the company's owner, Guy
Painchaud, will be dropped as long as the fine is paid by January 17,
1995, CAAST said.

CAAST's members are Autodesk Canada, Borland Canada, Lotus Development
Canada, Microsoft Canada, Novell Canada, and Quarterdeck Canada.
Reynolds said the group hopes to announce the signing of another major
software vendor in the next couple of months.

(Grant Buckler/19920804/Press Contact: Allan Reynolds, CAAST, 416-598-
8988, fax [phone]; Public Contact: CAAST, 416-598-8988)


(NEWS)(GOVT)(TOR)(00021)

Mexico Signs Outsourcing Contract On Television 08/04/92
MEXICO CITY, MEXICO, 1992 AUG 4 (NB) -- Computer outsourcing isn't
exactly Monday Night Football, and no officials of the Mexican systems
management firm Gervassi Clark or Canada's SHL Systemhouse are
believed to have been in the running to replace Tonight Show host
Johnny Carson when he retired earlier this year. But a deal to turn
over a substantial chunk of the Mexican government's computer
operations to those two firms made prime-time television here
recently.

On Mexican state television on Friday evening, Mexico's minister of
finance signed a 10-year, US$500 million (about 1.5 trillion Mexican
pesos) contract under which Gervassi Clark and Systemhouse will build
and manage the information systems necessary to support taxpayer and
customs requirements for the ministry.

A joint venture company set up by Gervassi Clark and Systemhouse will
take over about 2,000 employees who currently work with the finance
ministry's computer systems. John Bunnell, a Systemhouse executive
vice-president based in Dallas, told Newsbytes no Mexican jobs are
expected to be lost as a result of the deal, and the company will
probably have to hire some additional staff in Mexico.

Systemhouse also plans to draw on tax processing and technical
expertise of employees at its headquarters in Ottawa, Bunnell added.

Bunnell said that the contract represents a beachhead for Systemhouse
in Central America, and the company hopes to expand its presence there
with further contracts in the near future. "The whole Mexican strategy
was to very publicly come into the country in a big way," he said. He
compared the Mexican deal to recent deals in Venezuela that gave his
company a presence in South America.

(Grant Buckler/19920804/Press Contact: Peter Sandiford, SHL
Systemhouse, 613-236-1428; John Bunnell, SHL Systemhouse, 214-369-
5456; Rolando Gervassi, Gervassi Clark, 525-515-6735 or 525-271-1955;
Public Contact: SHL Systemhouse, 613-236-1428)


(NEWS)(UNIX)(TOR)(00022)

Lotus To Port 1-2-3, Ami Pro To DEC Alpha 08/04/92
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1992 AUG 4 (NB) -- Lotus Development
and Digital Equipment have announced a development agreement under
which Lotus will develop Unix versions of its 1-2-3 spreadsheet and
Ami Pro word processing software for Digital's Alpha workstations.

Lotus said that a version of the next generation of 1-2-3 will run on
the Alpha systems. The software company also announced it has chosen
Digital's systems as the development environment for Unix versions of
Ami Pro.

The 1-2-3 spreadsheet is currently available for a variety of
operating systems, including Unix International's System V, which is
not the version that runs on DEC Alpha workstations. Ami Pro currently
runs on personal computers with Microsoft Windows.

Under this agreement, Lotus will develop and support these desktop
applications, and Digital help sell them worldwide. Product delivery
schedules and financial details of the agreement were not disclosed. A
spokeswoman for Lotus said the software will be available on Alpha
systems some time next year.

Digital announced Alpha, a new 64-bit computing architecture expected
to be the basis of the company's products for some years to come,
early this year. Alpha is designed to support a broad family of
systems and multiple operating environments, including a version of
Digital's VMS operating system, the OSF/1 variant of Unix, and
Microsoft's upcoming Windows NT. In addition to building its own
systems around the Alpha technology, Digital plans to license it to
other hardware vendors.

(Grant Buckler/19920804/Press Contact: Bryan Simmons, Lotus, 617-693-
1697; Lynn Berman, Digital, 508-467-4419; Lisa Burke, McGlinchey &
Paul for Lotus, 617-862-4514; Public Contact: Lotus Development, 617-
577-8500)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00023)

 ****Computer Ethics Institute Offers "Ten Commandments" 08/04/92
WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1992 AUG 4 (NB) -- With the backing of IBM,
the Brookings Institution, the Washington Theological Consortium, and
the Washington Consulting Group, the Computer Ethics Institute has set
out to tackle questions of computers and ethics.

An informal group has held several seminars and produced a number of
publications over the past five years, said Dr. Ramon C. Barquin,
president of the institute. It was important "that this effort be
institutionalized," he said, hence the formal founding of the Computer
Ethics Institute.

As one of its first official acts, the institute has released what it
calls the Ten Commandments of Computer Ethics. They are:

[1] Thou shalt not use a computer to harm other people.

[2] Thou shalt not interfere with other people's computer work.

[3] Thou shalt not snoop around in other people's computer files.

[4] Thou shalt not use a computer to steal.

[5] Thou shalt not use a computer to bear false witness.

[6] Thou shalt not copy or use proprietary software for which
you have not paid.

[7] Thou shalt not use other people's computer resources
without authorization or proper compensation.

[8] Thou shalt not appropriate other people's intellectual output.

[9] Thou shalt think about the social consequences of the program
you are writing or the system you are designing.

[10] Thou shalt always use a computer in ways that insure
consideration and respect for your fellow humans.

Barquin admitted the commandments "restate a lot of the motherhood and
apple pie type of things which had never really been put down in a
very simple and call it user-friendly mode." While some of the
statements seem obvious to computer professionals, he said, they are
valuable to the general public.

A number of newspapers, radio stations and other media have reported
on the commandments, Barquin said, and the Computer Ethics Institute
plans to publicize them through electronic bulletin board systems and
through the IEEE Computer Society.

While the Computer Ethics Institute is not setting itself up to
enforce these commandments, Barquin said, the group would be
interested in hearing about situations where the rules may have been
broken.

But the institute does not plan to stop with the basic issues covered
in its 10 commandments. Barquin said there are plans to tackle complex
ethical questions in future, including such thorny issues as the
ethics of computer simulations.

The institute also hopes to set up a repository of past cases
involving computers and ethical questions, as a reference so that
those facing computer ethics issues can find out what others have done
in similar situations.

And, the group plans to produce educational materials dealing with
computer ethics questions.

(Grant Buckler/19920804/Press Contact: Ramon Barquin, Computer Ethics
Institute, 202-939-3707, fax [phone]; Public Contact: Computer
Ethics Institute, 202-939-3707)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00024)

 ****TDMA Rolling Out As Cellular Industry Worries 08/04/92
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1992 AUG 4 (NB) -- Digital cellular
equipment under TDMA standards is being rolled-out, but the cellular
phone industry itself remains troubled on two fronts.

Hughes Network Systems, a unit of General Motors, is the latest
company to have its dual-standard TDMA equipment approved for
marketing by the Federal Communications Commission. The company claims
60,000 units are on order for its M6100 phone. Canadian regulators
also approved the phone, which was used by AGT Cellular in the first
TDMA calls in Calgary.

The transition to digital standards remains a problem for the
industry, however. While TDMA, patented by International Mobile
Machines, is the only officially-supported standard for digital
cellular, a competing scheme called CDMA is backed by, among others,
Pacific Telesis and NYNEX, who have invested in its inventor,
Qualcomm. And those links have proven controversial, overshadowing
arguments over which technology is best.

The industry is also being challenged in its growth predictions. Some
analysts are worried that, as residential subscribers sign onto the
services, revenue per subscriber and profit margins will both shrink.
As a result, some analysts are dumping some cellular stocks, calling
them overvalued. The industry replies that it has no choice but to go
after the residential market, since the business market is saturated.
But if the business market is saturated, analysts reply, who will pay
for this new digital cellular equipment?

Still, consolidation continues apace. McCaw and Associated
Communications formed a joint venture combining McCaw's 50 percent
interests in a Buffalo franchise and Associated's 6 percent interests
in the San Francisco/San Jose franchise. In return, Associated will
buy out McCaw's interests in Albany, Glens Falls, and Rochester, New
York. The deal settles pending litigation among the two companies and
PacTel.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19920804/Press Contact: McCaw Cellular, Bob
Ratliffe, 206/828-8685, Judy Blake, Hughes, 301-428-7113)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00025)

WDDS Continues Filling Fax-On-Demand Niche 08/04/92
HARPER WOODS, MICHIGAN, U.S.A., 1992 AUG 4 (NB) -- The problem with
the fax-on-demand business is that it lacks really compelling
applications and it's inexpensive to get into. WDDS is trying to deal
with both problems by dealing with major financial players.

Its latest move in this direction is an agreement with McGraw-Hill to
market the economic analysis of its MMS International unit. MMS offers
monthly and quarterly forecasts, US, Asian and European surveys,
critical event calendars, commentary and graphical analyses, and
data on unemployment, inflation, consumer confidence, and retail
sales.

The deal follows the launch of the Kenny S&P "blue list" on the fax-
on-demand service, which delivers municipal and corporate bond
offering prices via fax. WDDS has also been working with the Detroit
Free Press, offering tax forms and mortgage rates.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19920804/Press Contact: Len Stein, for WDDS, 212-
777-4350)


(NEWS)(APPLE)(BOS)(00026)

Mac System 7 Used By 4 Million World-Wide 08/04/92
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1992 AUG 4 (NB) -- Nearly 50 percent of
all Macintosh owners use System 7, which translates to more than four
million customers, according to Apple Computer.

Apple's internal research indicates that the adoption of System 7 by
nearly 50 percent of Macintosh customers is the result of aggressive
upgrading by the installed base and strong sales of new Macintosh
computers. The System 7 operating system, introduced in May 1991, has
been sold as an upgrade product for existing Macintosh users, and has
also shipped with new Mac products.

According to Apple, there are approximately 4,000 Macintosh
applications that are compatible with System 7, with 360 of those
taking advantage of specific System 7 capabilities.

Roger Heinen, Apple's senior vice president and general manager of the
Macintosh software architecture division, said: "Nearly 50 percent
adoption of a new operating system in just 15 months is unprecedented.
This should accelerate now that Apple's system software products are
widely available through software resellers, providing customers with
a convenient opportunity to upgrade.

"System 7 will get another boost when it becomes available for the
first time this fall in Asian markets. It will bring significant and
unique capabilities to these customers, who are becoming a much bigger
part of Apple's business."

The company also claims that upgrades have been motivated by the
introduction of System 7 extensions such as QuickTime, the technology
for full-motion video and image compression on the Macintosh.

Apple expects that the introduction of At Ease, reported on by
Newsbytes recently, which is a new System 7 extension that makes it
easier for customers to share their Macintosh computer with young and
novice users, will provide further motivation among a wide range of
customers.

The company claims that emerging System 7 technologies are also
becoming important in customer decisions to upgrade to the new
operating system, such as Open Collaboration Environment, AppleScript,
QuickDraw GX, and WorldScript.

(Ian Stokell/19920804/Press Contact: Nancy Morrison, Apple Computer
Inc., 408-862-6200)


(NEWS)(APPLE)(BOS)(00027)

Radius Teams With Ray Dream, Intros SCSI Booster/Software 08/04/92
SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1992 AUG 4 (NB) -- Following a
trend toward distributed processing, Radius and Ray Dream
Inc., have entered into an agreement that the companies hope will
deliver breakthrough capabilities for the Macintosh.

At the same time, Radius has also announced RocketShare,
multiprocessing software for Macintosh users and Radius Rocket
accelerators. The company has also introduced the SCSI-2 Booster, a
daughtercard for the Radius Rocket family of Macintosh accelerators
that is designed to increase data throughput to high-performance, SCSI
(Small Computer System Interface)-based peripherals.

Under terms of the agreement with Ray Dream, Radius will license the
company's DreamNet system software, initially for distribution to
third-party application developers, and later bundle the software with
Radius RocketShare to end users.

According to Radius, the new capabilities provided by the RocketShare
and DreamNet combination allow software applications to be easily
"parallelized" to run across multiple Radius Rockets and Macintosh II
or Quadra computers. The company claims that this will allow "true
distributed processing over a NuBus network and can offer significant
overall performance increases for Macintosh users."

The company also claims that compute-intensive applications that
support DreamNet will enjoy immediate scalable performance
improvements within this software environment. The first of these
applications will most likely include such areas as color publishing,
graphics, three-dimensional illustrations and rendering.

For application developers, the DreamNet system software provides a
high-level interface enabling software applications to parallelize, or
split compute-intensive tasks into smaller sub-tasks that can be run
on multiple Macintosh computers and Rockets across a network, claims
the company.

Barry James Folsom, Radius president and CEO, said: "The Rocket and
RocketShare combination delivers exceptionally fast performance and
high productivity to the large number of users who today are limited
by their computers. The DreamNet software will allow us to offer even
higher functionality and take this performance across a much broader
range of applications. With RocketShare and DreamNet, users have the
first true distributed processing capabilities, for a new high-end in
desktop computing."

Radius' new RocketShare is an extension to Apple's System 7 and allows
the simultaneous use of a Macintosh Quadra or Macintosh II family
processor and one or more Radius Rockets. The company claims that the
product provides a true multiprocessing, multitasking environment on
the Macintosh.

Mary Coleman, Radius vice president of marketing, said: "High-end
Macintosh users have hit a ceiling in performance - they're spending
too much time waiting for their systems to run compute-intensive
operations.

The introduction of our Rocket accelerators, the first '040
accelerators for the Macintosh, brought users the first step to
relieving this problem -- faster overall system performance. Now
RocketShare extends the advantages by allowing foreground/background
and distributed processing. Users can now run their most demanding
tasks without tying up their computers for large amounts of time."

RocketShare incorporates a subset of Macintosh software, licensed from
Apple in February 1992, that performs operating system functions.
Under RocketShare, each Radius Rocket appears as an additional CPU
(central processing unit) that is launched independently of the
Macintosh processor.

The software requires a Macintosh II or Quadra series computer with at
least four megabytes (MB) of RAM, System 7.0 or later operating system
or System 7.0.1 for Macintosh Quadras and Radius Rockets. RocketShare
is scheduled to ship in August and has a suggested retail price of
$499.

The new Radius SCSI-2 Booster accelerator utilizes a high-speed, 40
megahertz (MHz) SCSI-2 controller processor to achieve data transfer
rates of up to seven MB-per-second. Radius claims that that is more
than four times the throughput delivered by Macintosh II computers.
The SCSI-2 Booster carries a retail price of$299.

"Radius is taking a system-wide approach to giving its customers
unprecedented levels of performance and breakthrough technologies,"
said Mary Coleman. "The combination of a Rocket-equipped Macintosh, an
SCSI-2 Booster and RocketShare gives users workstation-level
performance at a low price."

The Radius SCSI-2 Booster is the first expansion product from Radius
to make use of the Rocket's Processor Direct Slot (PDS), leaving
valuable NuBus slots open for additional Rockets or other add-in
boards. The card provides Rocket with a dedicated SCSI port,
increasing data throughput to SCSI-based peripherals such as disk
drives, scanners, and printers.

The company claims that the SCSI-2 Booster eliminates the SCSI
interface bottleneck associated with Macintosh II and Quadra computers
and speeds peripheral-intensive operations.

(Ian Stokell/19920804/Press Contact: James Strohecker, Radius Inc.,
408-954-6828)


(NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00028)

US Computer Procurement Reform Bill Stalled 08/04/92
WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1992 AUG 4 (NB) -- By the beginning of
August H.R. 3161, the House Government Operations Committee's
"Procurement Reform Bill," which was intended to help reign in what
the Committee sees as excesses and mismanagement in federal computer
and telecommunications purchases, had been unceremoniously pulled from
consideration.

Representative John Conyers Jr., Democrat from Michigan, originally
put forward the bill in an attempt to bring some sanity to the wildly
out of control government computer purchasing system.

This is the same H.R. 3161 proposed by Rep. Conyers earlier this year,
but it was extensively rewritten by the Representative's staff in an
effort to defuse government agency complaints that the bill, as
written, was unwieldy and compliance would be a nightmare.

Speaking off the record, a House insider told Newsbytes today that he
fully expected to see the bill brought forward for a vote by the full
House soon.

The House is presently scheduled to adjourn on August 13 and reconvene
after the Labor Day holiday.

A Committee representative said today that no further changes to the
bill had been made since it was abruptly pulled from consideration
last week when strong last-minute opposition surfaced.

A report this week in Federal Computer Week disputes the claim that no
recent changes were made, saying in a front page article that "at
least one disputed provision was removed in the past week."

Despite the extensive changes made to the bill recently, MCI
Communications, the Department of Defense, and the House Armed
Services Committee have voiced strong opposition to H.R. 3161.

Under H.R. 3161 contractors operating federal research laboratories
such as the Department of Energy's Lawrence Livermore Labs, would be
required to follow the same procurement rules as the Brooks Act
procedures for purchasing automated data processing equipment, the
same rules that must be followed by government agencies buying
computers directly.

Although the Conyers bill is mostly aimed at civilian agency purchase
procedures, the DoD opposes it because the Pentagon says it would
hinder the operations of Defense laboratories operated by civilian
contractors such as the University of California.

MCI opposes the bill because it would make the use of FTS 2000, the
federal telephone system contract which went to MCI rivals US Sprint
and AT&T, mandatory, shutting MCI out of a major market.

With such formidable opposition, many Washington insiders don't give
the bill much chance of passing in its present form.

(John McCormick/19920804)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(WAS)(00029)

Quanta Press Slashes CD-ROM Prices 08/04/92
WASHINGTON, DC, U.S.A., 1992 AUG 4 (NB) -- Quanta Press, a major
consumer/small business-oriented CD-ROM database publisher, has
slashed prices by an average of 40 percent on many of its popular CD-
ROMs. Most titles which were in the $130 to $200 range are now $50 to
$100.

RBBS In a Box, a CD-ROM with the well-known BBS software and hundreds
of megabytes of shareware and freeware files, literally, a complete
starter BBS system, formerly priced at $179 is now only $100. Other
titles, such as the North American Fax Book, formerly $495, now $300,
show similar price reductions

Quanta has published sixty different CD-ROM titles and has maintained
regular updates on those databases which change rapidly.

An innovative series on USA Wars, which includes Vietnam, Korea, WWII,
and the Civil War discs, contain a vast amount of official
documentation relating to the conflicts providing an important
resource for scholars.

Quanta Press mostly publishes MS-DOS-compatible discs.

(John McCormick/19920804/Press or Public Contact: Mark Foster, Quanta
Press, 612-379-3956 or fax [phone])


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00030)

 ****Fujitsu Pays Other Companies To Hire Laid Off Workers 08/04/92
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1992 AUG 4 (NB) -- In a sudden
move, Fujitsu Microelectronics, manufacturers of dynamic random
access memory (DRAM) chips for microcomputers, shut down its
San Diego, California manufacturing facility last evening for
good. However, not only are its employees getting severance
pay, but Fujitsu is offering a re-employment plan under which
it will pay San Diego companies to hire the displaced
Fujitsu employees.

In an unusual move, Fujitsu made up for the sudden closing
announcement by doing more than simply offering employees 60
days severance pay. Fujitsu announced a Re-employment Plan
under which it is publicly offering San Diego employers up to
$2,000 for each Fujitsu employee they hire.

While yesterday a full workforce was in place at the plant,
only a skeleton crew remains today to shut down the facility.
The remainder of the 264 employees have been given the
opportunity to take advantage of the Re-employment Plan,
Fujitsu representatives said.

While the announcement of the plant closing was sudden, the
company says the decision to do so had been coming for some
time. Operating the San Diego facility, which it has run since
August of 1980, was no longer cost effective, according to
company representatives. Plans are to spread the manufacturing
of DRAM chips done at the plant around to its other
manufacturing facilities, the company added.

(Linda Rohrbough/19920804/Press Contact: Jacqueline Townsend,
McQuerter Group for Fujitsu, tel [phone], fax 619-450-
3140)