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/1993/NB930115

Text File | 1993-01-15 | 91KB | 2,015 lines

(NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00001)

Insignia Ships Windows For Macintosh 01/15/93
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1993 JAN 15 (NB) -- Insignia
Solutions is shipping its newest PC emulator for the Macintosh --
SoftPC With Windows. The company has also reduced the price of
all its SoftPC 3.0 products, including this one, by about $100 each.

SoftPC With Windows, now $499 from $649, requires a big machine --
in fact a Quadra to run applications written for Microsoft Windows.
However, Stephen Caroonpas of sales for Insignia tells Newsbytes
that the product has successfully run on a Macintosh IIci which
was equipped with an accelerator from Daystar or the Radius
Rocket accelerator.

SoftPC With Windows comes with Windows 3.1 and DOS 5.0
preinstalled. Insignia has written special display and mouse
drivers that improve performance of Windows applications on the
Mac, the company contends. The mouse driver maps Microsoft
Mouse calls to the mouse driver in the Macintosh system
software, and the display driver maps Windows display calls
directly to the Macintosh Quickdraw driver.

SoftPC 3.0, previously priced at $499 is now $325; Universal
SoftPC 3.0 -- an entry-level product for use on any Macintosh --
is $165 compared to its previous price of $325. And SoftNode 2.0,
which provides Novell Netware access to SoftPC users, allowing
a Mac on a Netware network, is $149. Upgrades to all the above
products, from previous versions, range from $29 to $249.

At the recent Macworld show, the Insignia booth had standing
room only crowds attracted to the new SoftPC With Windows
product.

(Wendy Woods/19930114/Press Contact: Shannon Auten,
Insignia, 415-694-7600; fax [phone])


(NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00002)

Morphing On A Macintosh 01/15/93
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1993 JAN 15 (NB) -- First there
was the scene in Terminator II in which an android from the future
graphically transforms into a variety of shapes. Next the effect
started to show up in cat food and car commercials on TV. Now,
morphing, short for "metamorphosizing," previously the domain
of high-level graphic workstations, can be done on an Apple
Computer Macintosh.

"Morph," a single-purpose graphics program for the Macintosh,
enables a user to smoothly transform one still image into
another. The end-result is a Quicktime "movie," a PICS animation,
a single image, or a series of images. A program called Movie Player
is included with Morph.

Duane Maxwell, the creator of Morph, tells Newsbytes that he was
inspired to write Morph after seeing Terminator II last year. "I
wondered how they did this." Then, in a brainstorm, he got the
idea for the program and wrote the core routine over a single
weekend. "By Monday I had a working morph."

In terms of public response to the program, he says, "A lot of
workstation graphics firms are mad at us. They sold $3,000-$4,000
and $5,000 systems and we did it [morphing] on a Mac." $149 is the
suggested retail price but the product's street price is $99. The
popular program was selling at the rate of about one every 2
minutes at both the August and January Macworld Expos recently
according to Maxwell. Gryphon Software's marketing representative
Bevey Minarovich tells Newsbytes that thousands of units over the
company's forecast were sold in December alone, but she would not
give out specific numbers.

Morph's public reception was enhanced by a keynote speech given at
the August Macworld Expo by Apple evangelist Fabio Pettiatti,
who used it in his demonstration. The product is also filling
an unique niche. "The reason it's happening [the product's
success] is that we're the only Quicktime product within the
[price] range of every person," declared Maxwell.

Morph runs on all Macintoshes but runs best on LCs and higher.

Morph is finding a home with a diverse marketplace. For instance,
an educator is using it for his students as a kind of "time-lapse"
device to map skulls as they change from fetus to full-term infants.
A car manufacturer is using it to create new models, and a
sheriff's department has used it to age missing children,
according to Maxwell.

The next version of Morph will handle animation -- that
version due is out in the third quarter of 1993 and should
allow what he calls "dynamic morphing" or the ability to allow
users to transform one moving or animated image into another.

The product won Byte Magazine's "Award of Distinction" for 1992
and is a finalist in MacUser's Eddy awards for best special
effects.

(Wendy Woods/19930114/Press Contact: Bevey Minarovich, 1-619-536-8815;
fax [phone])


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00003)

Virtual Reality Service Bureaus 01/15/93
CARY, NORTH CAROLINA, U.S.A., 1993 JAN 15 (NB) -- There are
desktop publishing and desktop video service bureaus aplenty,
but get ready for the newest drop-in concept: virtual
reality service bureaus.

Cadonmac, the computer-aided design and virtual reality division
of UK-based ISD (Information Systems Design) Research, Ltd., has
launched Quickspace Service Bureaus, a business venture based
on Virtus Corporation's 3D imaging products Virtus Voyager and
Virtus WalkThrough. The bureau will create for clients
computer animations of architectural or remodelling concepts on
a walk-in basis. Clients need not learn how to use complex 3D
modelling or visualization software -- Quickspace technicians
can be hired to create that animation on the spot.

The first service bureau is located at Virtus Corporation's North
Carolina office but another is being established in New York State
and the concept will eventually be franchised out, according to
Jonathan Stoppi, founder and director of the Quickspace Bureaus.

Stoppi tells Newsbytes that he hopes to make "Get me a Quickspace,"
as ubiquitous as "Get me a Xerox copy" when referring to a virtual
reality mock-up. That may take a year or two, however, "once the
concept has sunk in. We're like the first copy centers."

He says the service bureau has already had two or three clients
and one has used a virtual reality architectural movie created at
the Quickspace Service Bureau to win a real estate contract.

In order to make a virtual reality tour of a building, renovation,
or other architectural project, Quickspace designers need the
same data used to create a scale model, including blueprints or
photos. From there, Walkthrough Pro is used to create the
scenario. The software uses object-oriented drawing and real-time
graphics for interactive prototyping designs. The next version,
Walkthrough Pro, due out later this year, will also offer
texture mapping, he said.

The cost to a client is 34 cents to 75 cents per square foot
and "we include standard furniture and fittings," in the final
animation. Quicktime is not required to run the "movies" when
they are complete, he said. Virtus Voyager does that, and it is
included with the "movie." On average, the movies fill only 600K
of disk space, and can fit onto a single floppy diskette.

Virtus Walkthrough retails for $495. Virtus Voyager,
software which allows a Walkthrough file to be displayed
but not changed, is $99.

(Wendy Woods/19930114/Press Contact: David Sink, Virtus,
919-467-9700; public number toll-free: 1-800-847-8871)


(NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00004)

Newest Sci-Fi Multimedia Game For Mac 2 Years In Making 01/15/93
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1993 JAN 15 (NB) -- Among
the products gathering the biggest crowds at the recent Macworld
Expo in San Francisco was a new game, 2 years in the making,
billed as the "world's first photorealistic adventure game"
called The Journeyman Project from Presto Studios in San Diego.

This time-travel game on CD-ROM, in which the player is a kind of
time traveller whose goal is to save history from sabotage, offers
realistic-looking graphics, an unique non-linear plot, and original
music, all created by a team of programmers who claim to have invested
15,000 man-hours in the project. Included are over 30 minutes of
Quicktime movies, more than 1,600 different environments,
explorable 3D worlds, and acting by Graham Jarvis, an actor who
appeared as an evil scientist in an episode of Star Trek: The
Next Generation.

Programmer Greg Uhler tells Newsbytes that the program fills 405MB
of a CD-ROM and total playing time runs 12 to 15 hours. There is
also more than one solution to each problem, and solutions are
either peaceful or violent. A player wins the most points
(they "grow" as a character and pick up "biochips") by finding the
peaceful solution.

The game, the top-selling title at the Educorp booth at the recent
Macworld Expo in San Francisco, was created totally on a Macintosh
by a team of 8 programmers including industrial designers. They
used such programs as Swivel 3D, Electric Image, Macromind Director,
and InfiniD to design the characters, robots, sets, props, ships,
and texture maps for the entire project.

Uhler compared the disc to Spaceship Warlock, a CD-ROM
adventure from Reactor Software, but said that it leaps ahead in
terms of technology and special effects with its photorealism,
use of shadows and light sources, sweeping musical soundtrack,
and its non-linear plot. While Warlock is a like a movie,
Journeyman is like a time travel adventure in that a player
can go in many directions, rather than just one prescribed by
the program.

The CD-ROM for the Macintosh sells for about $75 but its
suggested retail price is $100. The disc is available from
Educorp, a mail-order distributor.

(Wendy Woods/19930114/Press Contact: Greg Uhler, Presto Studios,
619-689-4895)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(NYC)(00005)

Electronic Frontier Foundation Reorganizes 01/15/93
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1993 JAN 15 (NB) -- The
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is making some major
changes -- its Cambridge, MA office will close in order to save
money, and several people including staff counsel Mike Godwin will
leave the organization.

In the revised organization, Jerry Berman, director of EFF's
Washington office and Interim EFF executive director, will
become permanent executive director. This move ends a search
process for someone to replace EFF founder Mitch Kapor, who
stepped down in December, 1992. The functions of the Cambridge
office will be transferred to EFF's Washington office.

Kapor is leaving as executive director to "devote more time and
energy to specific EFF projects, such as The Open Platform Initiative,
focusing less on administrative details and more on EFF's strategic
vision." The announcement says that Kapor is not withdrawing from
EFF, but "that his energies are better devoted to strategy and to
developing a compelling vision of future human communications."

John Perry Barlow, co-founder of EFF, will replace Mitch Kapor as
chairman of EFF's Executive Committee, which works closely with
the executive director to manage day to day operations. Kapor will
remain chairman of EFF's Board of Directors.

Barlow told Newsbytes. "With the movement of the offices to Washington,
we were concerned with the natural gravitational pull of the Beltway
mentality. The board felt that my day-to-day involvement would counter
this tendency. The Bohemian credentials are pretty well established."

Barlow continued, "The board was faced with a constant pull within the
organization between those who wanted to focus on an advocacy position
and those who wanted to be a grass roots-driven group. While we want to
have close ties to the grass roots and learn from all groups using
cyberspace, we are not a representative organization driven by a
democratic process. We clearly would not be able to foster our view of
free expression if we were bound by a majority-rule type of organization."

Barlow also said, "We also encountered the type of problems that any
organization has with two policy-making offices. There is always a
tendency for dispute. We, therefore, decided to combine our functions into
the Washington office. We have misgivings about these decisions; we on the
board took what we felt was the best solution to keep the organization on
track towards its goals. We now have to work at carrying out these
objectives."

The Electronic Frontier Foundation was founded in July, 1990 to
assure freedom of expression in digital media, with a particular
emphasis on applying the principles embodied in the Constitution
and the Bill of Rights to computer-based communication.

Barlow says the board decided not to continue along the path toward
local chapters. EFF currently has a local chapter in Austin, Texas and
others have been in formation in Berkeley, California, and New York City.
The EFF statement said, "We have labored mightily and long over the
whole concept of chapters, but, in the end, the board has decided not to
form EFF chapters. Instead, EFF will encourage the development of
independent local organizations concerned with Electronic Frontier issues.
Such groups will be free to use the phrase "Electronic Frontier" in their
names (e.g., Omaha Electronic Frontier Outpost), with the understanding
that no obligation, formal or informal, is implied in either direction
between independent groups and EFF.

"While EFF and any local groups that proliferate will remain
organizationally independent and autonomous, we hope to work closely
with them in pursuit of shared goals. The EFF Board still plans to meet
with representatives of regional groups in Atlanta next week to discuss
ideas for future cooperation."

The EFF announcements have provoked a flood of criticism on on-line
services such as the WELL (Whole Earth "Lectronic Link) concerning
both the centralization in Washington and the severing of EFF staff
counsel Mike Godwin from the organization. Godwin has been, perhaps,
after Kapor, the most visible member of EFF, representing EFF at
conferences and user groups and providing a legal resource to members
of the on-line community.

EFF says of Godwin: "We recognize the enormous resource represented
by Mike Godwin. He probably knows more about the forming Law of
Cyberspace than anyone, but differences of style and agenda created an
impasse which left us little choice but to remove him from his current
position. EFF is committed to continuing the services he has provided. We
will discuss with him a new relationship which would make it possible for
him to continue providing them."

Godwin told Newsbytes, "I will still be working with EFF and will be
representing EFF at the trial in the Steve Jackson Games case which begins
next week. The EFF board had some difficult decisions to make and, while
I might have made some different decisions, everyone who believes in EFF
owes the board a chance to pursue its direction. The organization has all
the potential that it ever had and, if I did not believe that, I would
not be negotiating with it to continue an affiliation. I believe in EFF
and will continue to support its activities."

Also leaving EFF in the re-organization are Gerard VanDerLeun and Rita
Rouvalis. VanDerLeun and Rouvalis have been responsible for the
communications function of EFF's Cambridge office.

Cliff Figallo, director of EFF's Cambridge office, told Newsbytes,
"I will say that even though this is an outcome that I dreaded,
having moved across the country at great sacrifice to serve the
online constituency, I believe that the board (of which I am a
member) acted responsibly, intelligently and bravely in making these
decisions and taking these actions."

Figallo, former executive director of the WELL, told Newsbytes that
he will remain with EFF during the transition period but
is not yet certain of his long term plans. Figallo will attend the
upcoming Atlanta meeting with the local groups that have been working
with EFF.

The board of directors of EFF is composed of Kapor, Barlow, Berman,
Figallo, David Farber of the University of Pennsylvania, Stewart Brand of
the Whole Earth Review, John Gilmore of Cygnus Support and Esther
Dyson of EDventure Holdings.

(Barbara E. McMullen & John F. McMullen/Press Contact: Christopher
Davis, Electronic Frontier Foundation, [e-mail]/19930115)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(PAR)(00006)

Paris: Matra In Question After Merger With Publisher 01/15/93
PARIS, FRANCE, 1993 JAN 15 (NB) -- Matra Communications, one of
the world's largest companies specialized in defense electronics,
is preparing to lay off a large number of its employees.

The Paris-based Matra would not say what part of its workforce would
have to go in the next month, but the company is planning a 10
percent reduction of its expenses, sources close to Matra said.

The Matra Group, of which Matra Communications is a part, has been
called upon to play a major role in some of France's most complex
financial games. Analysts have expressed some perplexity about
how one of the world's largest defense electronics and
telecommunications groups will be managed in the future.

Last month the Matra Group was merged with France's largest
publisher, Hachette. Hachette had been burdened with a
heavy debt as a result of the group's partnership in the
disastrous launch of a private television station in France.
The merger, and an associated capital-raising operation,
on the French stock exchange, have solved the publisher's
debt problems.

The new group, called Matra Hachette, can boast total sales
of 53 billion french francs ($10 billion), but only indifferent
profit in many of its nine divisions. The new group joins Matra
Marconi Space, Matra Defense, Matra Communication, Matra Transport,
and Matra Automobile -- all electronics companies -- with two book
publishing divisions, one book distribution company, and a
radio station.

The company is now controlled and managed by the former
head of the Hachette publishing company, French financier
Jean-Luc Lagardere. Analysts have expressed concern about the
management of such unrelated activities. Lagardere has also
persuaded two French banks and one insurance company to raise
their stakes in the conglomerate, and there is also concern
about the role that these shareholders will have in the company's
management.

(Andrew Rosenbaum/19930115/Press Contact: Matra Communications,
50, Avenue de la Grande Armee, 75017 Paris, France, tel. 331-
45741066)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(PAR)(00007)

French Making Software Destined For Mars 01/15/93
PARIS, FRANCE, 1993 JAN 15 (NB) --Cap Gemini Sogeti announced
yesterday a project to create software for an automated vehicle
that will explore the planet Mars.

A Mars launch by the French space agency is planned for some time
within the next three years. The French government has launched
a research program to produce what it calls an "Automated Planetary
Vehicle." This will make a spacecraft that is small, light, but
sturdy and which is specially configured to withstand the ravages
of the atmosphere and terrain on Mars, a not especially
hospitable planet.

CGS has been commissioned to produce a software system that
will help make the vehicle "see." It will involve the development of
a model to provide the vehicle with about 30 feet of "vision"
using television cameras.

CGS will also create a cartographic system of reference for the
vehicle, and a means to enlarge the capabilities of the vehicle's
information gathering.

The vehicle will be put together and tested at the National
Center for Scientific Study (Centre National des Etudes
Scientifiques) at Toulouse, France this year. The amount to
be invested by the French government was not announced.

(Andrew Rosenbaum/19930115/Press Contact: Florence Mairal,
Cap Gemini Sogeti, 76, Avenue Kleber, 78784 Paris Cedex 16
France tel [phone])


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00008)

Banyan Plan For Free Upgrades 01/15/93
WESTBORO, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1993 JAN 15 (NB) -- Banyan is
replacing its current software subscription plan with a new
one called "Value Investment Protection" plan, or VIP for short.

Purchased in three to fourteen month increments, it entitles
the purchaser to receive Banyan releases at no cost; option
upgrades at no cost; maintenance releases at no cost; and a
proof of purchase certificate which can be used to receive the
most up-to-date product information from Banyan.

"This plan is an outgrowth of discussions we've had with our
customers and distribution channel partners," said James D'Arezzo,
Banyan vice president of marketing. "They wanted the peace of mind
that comes from knowing that everything is covered -- that the Banyan
technology in which they have invested will be kept current and
protected. The VIP plan also protects the customers' budget because
it is a simple, one-time purchase that yields benefits throughout
the year. We believe it is the best program of its type in the
industry."

Prices for 12 months of coverage under this new plan range from
$895 for Vines 5 (the 5-user package) to $3195 for Vines SMP (which
runs on multiprocessor machines).

(Naor Wallach/19930113/Press Contact: Joann Anderson, Copithorne &
Bellows for Banyan, 617-252-0606/Public Contact: Banyan, 508-898-
1000)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00009)

Chipcom's Newest Network Products 01/15/93
SOUTHBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1993 JAN 15 (NB) -- Chipcom has
announced two new products that will allow network administrators to
increase the port density of their concentrators. The products work
only with Chipcom Online concentrators.

The first product is a new version of Chipcom's 6-slot concentrator
which replaces the current 6-slot model, although the old model
will still be sold to customers who specifically request it.
The difference between the two models is that the new one has
the concentrator controller module built right into its backplane
whereas the old model required a separate controller card.

Chipcom says that having one more slot available to users is
the biggest reason for moving to this new model. Chipcom will
be making available an upgrade kit which can be installed in the old
model concentrators to bring in the controller module on the
backplane.

This change affects only the 6-slot model. Chipcom has not announced
any changes to its 17-slot model.

The other product Chipcom introduced is a new 10Base-T module for
its concentrators. This new module can handle up to 24 10Base-T
ports at once while taking up only one slot in the
concentrator. Previous Chipcom products supported a maximum of 12
ports on one module. Given the new module and new model of 6-slot
concentrator, customers can now have 144 nodes on a network serviced
by the 6-slot concentrator.

The new 6-slot concentrator is available now for $1695 -- the
same price as the older model. A unit with backup power
supply capability is available for $2295. The upgrade kit is available
for $595. The new 24-port 10Base-T module will be available in
March and will retail for $2995.

(Naor Wallach/19930113/Press Contact: Christine LeCompte, Beaupre &
Co. for Chipcom, 603-436-6690/Public Contact: Chipcom, 508-460-8900)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00010)

CA's Database Connectivity Moves 01/15/93
ISLANDIA, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1993 JAN 15 (NB) -- Computer
Associates International announced several moves aimed at
furthering cooperation among its own and other vendors' database
software products. They include tools to help personal computer
users retrieve data from mainframe computers, wider availability
of an object-oriented data access tool, and support for Microsoft's
Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) specification.

CA made the announcements during the Information Management
Conference in San Diego, California.

Marc Sokol, CA's director of product strategy, said the company
is keeping a promise to users to open its database products to
standard interfaces with other software.

CA said it will offer CA-Visual Objects, its object-oriented
database development tool, to users of its CA-Datacom and CA-IDMS
database software. CA-Visual Objects grew out of the project
code-named Aspen that was under way at California-based Nantucket
when CA acquired it last year. A version for the PC database
Clipper -- also developed by Nantucket -- was announced in the fall.

"Code reuse is the only economy of scale available in software
engineering and CA-Visual Objects, with its full object
orientation, provides this capability, " said Russell M. Artzt,
executive vice-president of development at CA, in a prepared
statement.

CA-Visual Objects provides a fully object-oriented language, an
integrated development environment, and visual development tools.

The company said CA-RET, a database report writer that runs under
Microsoft Windows, will now work with its multi-platform CA-IDMS
and CA-Datacom database software. Announced in December to work
with Xbase-standard PC database packages, CA-RET lets users
create complex reports by pointing and clicking with a PC mouse.

CA said that by midyear, software written for Microsoft Windows
will be able to use ODBC application program interface (API)
calls to link with its CA-IDMS, CA-Datacom, and CA-DB database
management systems on various hardware platforms.

Also, CA software products, including CA-Visual Objects, the
CA-Realizer BASIC-language development tool, its CA-QbyX query
tool, and CA-RET, will have access to corporate data in CA and
third-party databases using ODBC calls.

CA added that its transparency technology, which allows access to
non-relational databases using standard Structured Query Language
(SQL) syntax, will also let ODBC-compliant software get at data
in non-relational sources such as VSAM and DL/I files.

An emerging standard for client-server database access,
promulgated by Microsoft and backed by a variety of other
vendors, ODBC is an implementation of the Call Level Interface
specification developed by the SQL Access Group, a group of more
than 40 vendors committed to database interoperability.
Applications written to the ODBC API can communicate with DBMSs
running on multiple platforms.

CA has also announced plans to support the rival Object Database
API (ODAPI) standard backed by Borland International and
others, but ODBC support will be delivered first due to greater
user demand, Sokol said.

The company is also offering dynamic link libraries (DLLs) for
Microsoft Windows that will give Windows applications access to
its CA-Ramis and CA-Easytrieve database development tools on
mainframe systems. Using CA-Ramis Server and CA-Easytrieve
Server, Sokol said, users will be able to acquire data from
multiple large-system databases, such as CA's IDMS and Datacom,
IBM's DB-2, and VSAM, QSAM, and IMS files, while working under
Windows. The DLLs will work with CA's dBFast database software
for Windows and with CA-RET to download data to the PC and
present it in Xbase format.

(Grant Buckler/19930114/Press Contact: Bob Gordon, Computer
Associates, 516-342-2391)


(NEWS)(IBM)(LAX)(00011)

Foxpro 2.5 For Windows Ships In Two Weeks 01/15/93
REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1993 JAN 15 (NB) -- Foxpro 2.5 for
Windows and Foxpro 2.5 for DOS are scheduled to be commercially
available in two weeks, according to Microsoft.

The long awaited versions of the Foxpro database application
software program is being released to Microsoft's manufacturing
for shipment. Both products are to be released at the same
time.

Foxpro 2.5 for Windows product is the first of the major
database application programming product to be released for
the Microsoft Windows operating environment. The other major
competitors in the database applications software market for
IBM compatible personal computers, Computer Associates with
Clipper and Borland with dBASE, have both promised versions of
their product for Windows, but Microsoft appears to be the
first to deliver.

Dave Fulton, former president of the company who developed
Foxpro, Fox Software, and is current head of Microsoft's database
applications development, demonstrated Foxpro 2.5 for Windows at
the computer industry trade show COMDEX in November.

A 32-bit application, Foxpro 2.5 for Windows is said to be up
to three times faster in multiuser and multiple operations than
its predecessor Foxpro 2.0. Microsoft is boasting that Foxpro
2.0 was rated faster than Paradox version 4.0 and dBASE IV
version 1.5 both from Borland, and Microrim's R:BASE version
4.0.

Foxpro 2.5 for Windows also supports dynamic data exchange
(DDE) and can use object linking and embedding (OLE) to store
complex objects in the database such as spreadsheet charts,
photos, and video.

Microsoft also said the new versions of Foxpro are fully
compatible with previous versions of Foxpro, and are also
compatible with dBASE III, dBASE III Plus, and extends dBASE
IV.

Pricing for Foxpro 2.5 for Windows or DOS is $495, and
additional licenses are $425 each. Upgrades from Foxpro 1.0 and
2.0 to either the Windows or the DOS product are $99 each
before March 31, 1993. Those who purchased Foxpro after June 1,
1992 can upgrade at no charge.

Microsoft purchased Fox Software last year and moved the
company's development team from Ohio to Redmond, Washington.

(Linda Rohrbough/19930114/Press Contact: Liz Sidnam, Microsoft,
tel [phone]; Cindy McKendry, Waggener Edstrom for
Microsoft, tel [phone], fax [phone]; Public Contact
800-426-9400)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(PAR)(00012)

Software From Europe's Sema To Run Atlanta's 1996 Olympics 01/15/92
PARIS, FRANCE, 1993 JAN 15 (NB) -- One of Europe's largest
software and services companies has just won a major contract
in Atlanta. The Franco-British joint venture Sema Group has won a
contract to provide operational and communications software
for the Atlanta Olympic games, to be held in 1996.

The Paris-based group, which is partially owned by the French
telecommunications monopoly France Telecom, will run
the computing center in Atlanta. The Sema Group had won that
contract for the Barcelona Olympics, held in the summer of 1992,
and it was worth FF 102 million ($19.5 million).

Discussions have been going on for several years between Europe's
largest software and services company, the Paris-based Cap Gemini
Sogeti, and the Sema Group about a possible share swap, or an
eventual takeover by CGS, which is the world's second-largest
software and services company after Electronic Data Systems. Industry
sources say that at some time soon, it is possible that CGS will
take over the Sema Group.

The Group has also just grabbed off a contract to help modernize
the port of the Ukrainian city of Odessa, providing an automated
maintenance system. The effort is financed by the Commission of the
European Community.

(Andrew Rosenbaum/19930114/Press Contact: Sema Group, 16 rue Barbes
92126 Montrouge, France, tel [phone])


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(HKG)(00013)

Avon Is 100th Synon User In Southeast Asia 01/15/93
MANILA, PHILIPPINES, 1993 JAN 15 (NB) -- Avon Cosmetics, the
Philippines branch of international cosmetics giant Avon Products,
has become the 100th user of the Synon CASE tool in the South Asian
region.

Avon claims to be one of the world's leading cosmetics companies with
a turnover of $3.59 billion and more than 30,000 employees worldwide.
The company pioneered direct sales through home visits from the "Avon
lady" as well as direct marketing by phone, mail and fax. It uses
Synon CASE methodology worldwide as the foundation for development of
global, mission-critical applications in administration and in sales
and distribution management.

The contract was marked by a champagne celebration held in Manila at
which John de Wit, US based vice president of Synon Asia Pacific, and
Gerry Favila, president of Synon's Philippine distributor Ayala
Systems Technology, presented Jose Mari Franco, president of Avon
Cosmetics, with a commemorative contract.

Speaking at the ceremony, Vic Tilaks, director of Avon's Asia/Pacific
MIS operations, said Synon will be critical in maintaining the
company's competitive advantage. "Avon's unique sales philosophy makes
it particularly successful in developing and post-communist countries
where the distribution infrastructure is less sophisticated," he said.

"Since these markets are characterized by rapid growth and change in
consumer behaviour, it is essential to have the tools to adapt
rapidly. Using Synon, we will dramatically speed our development of
high quality applications with the flexibility to meet our specific
business needs."

Avon's Synon-based global system was initially developed in Argentina
where exceptional growth, spiralling inflation and the need to
downsize from an IBM mainframe caused the company to evaluate CASE
tools for the AS/400 platform.

In the Philippines, in addition to modifying and maintaining the
global system, one of the most important Synon applications will be to
build and manage Avon's customer database. "Previously, customer
information was held only by individual sales representatives," said
Mr Tilaks.

"By creating a centralized database application we will significantly
improve marketing, new product development and systems for directing
and motivating our sales force." Other applications will involve more
sophisticated reporting procedures for manufacturing and distribution.

As Avon is an IBM shop, one of the important factors in choosing Synon
was its unique relationship with IBM. "Synon is IBM's only
International Alliance partner for AD/Cycle on the AS/400 and hence is
at the front line of Big Blue's strategic and product development
advances," said Mr Tilaks. "By selecting Synon, we knew we could rely
on a methodology that will conform long term with IBM's SAA strategy
and in addition offered a global support network."

In addition to IBM compatibility, Tilaks explained that the
other key advantage offered by Synon is its design methodology. "Synon
is the only IBM endorsed CASE tool that automatically generates code
from data models of business processes," he said. "Our users and
developers can literally sit down together and design an application
on screen. As a result, our programs are faster to produce, more
accurate and, most importantly, based on a real understanding of the
business."

This approach, known as joint analysis design (JAD), is fundamental to
Tilaks' vision of the future. "It focuses users on the design process,
enforces structured thinking and gives an early sense of ownership
which is critical in ensuring that applications are used to their best
effect," he said.

"For Avon, it will dramatically reduce the development cycle, boost
developer productivity by up to three times, and increase job
satisfaction by removing tedious and routine programming. We see Synon
as a strategic choice that will have a significant impact on our
efficiency and profitability."

(Brett Cameron/19930113/Press Contact: Barbara Domingo, Ayala Systems
(Synon Distributor) : Tel:[phone];Philippine time is GMT + 8)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(DEL)(00014)

India's Digital Switching Order Hangs Fire 01/15/93
NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1993 JAN 15 (NB) -- Validation periods for the six
telecom giants, whose exchanges are undergoing specification tests
by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) of the Government
of India, are likely to be extended until March 31. The validation
was expected to be completed last month.

Though only three companies had been shortlisted, six of them
were allowed to undergo the validation tests. The three shortlisted
companies -- Ericcson, Fujitsu and Siemens -- have failed the
validation test.

This has created a problem for DoT, as it has already issued advance
letters of offer in the name of these companies. Telecom officials
say this has been done to speed up the placing of orders within the
financial year 1992-93. The inability of the three multinationals
to meet technical specifications is being used as a weapon by
other companies that failed to grab a share of the pie.

Earlier, DoT decided not to award the contract to GPT of UK, the
lowest bidder. Furthermore, the firm had scored over others in
race, in terms of the busy hour call attempts. Next in line were
reports about DoT asking other bidders to lower their prices, with
letters of intent being issued to Ericsson, Fujitsu and Siemens.
Although, orders from DoT are yet to flow, multinationals are busy
setting shops for local manufacture of these switches.

As if this mess was not enough, insiders feel that final cords would
be pulled from higher quarters. Meanwhile, while one waits for
this switching tussle to be switched off, allegations and rumours
about behind the scenes lobbying are doing rounds.

The contract is for 0.65 million lines of exchanges at a cost of
Rs 5,034 per line. That amounts to a whooping Rs 327.21 crore
(around $109.1 million). Of the 650,000 lines, 300,000 lines
will be purchased while the balance is leased.

(C.T. Mahabharat/19930111)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEL)(00015)

DEC And Tandem Duke It Out Over Bombay Stock Exchange 01/15/93
BOMBAY, NEW DELHI, 1993 JAN 15 (NB) -- The four-phase, Rs 73-crore
($2.5 million), computerization plan of the Bombay Stock Exchange
(BSE) has run into trouble with two bidders dropping their prices
almost to half after what was to have been the final round of
bidding.

The BSE had shortlisted four companies on the basis of their
technical bids. These were Tandem Computers, Digital Equipment
India Ltd, Tata Unisys and HCL-Hewlett Packard. Of these a
technical committee decided that Tata Unisys and HCL-HP's
offers did not suit the exchange's requirements. In the final
round of bidding Tandem and Digital placed bids for Rs 96 crore
($3.2 million) and Rs 56 crore ($1.9 million) respectively,
claim committee members.

Given the BSE's budget, the committee was taken aback at the
difference in bids and the nature of Tandem's offer. Insiders
claim that Tandem had been wooing the BSE for sometime and it
was unnatural for their bid to be so far off target. (Incidentally,
the budget is not only for hardware but for the software also.)

Though sealed tenders had been called for, committee members
supposedly informed Tandem that unless it brought its bid closer
to Digital it did not stand a change. Tandem then reduced its
offer twice, once to Rs. 61 crore ($2.03 million) and finally
to a matching Rs 56 crore ($1.9 million).

On being criticized for being unfair, by allowing one bidder to
revise its offer, the BSE then asked Digital to submit a fresh
bid. Grabbing the chance Digital made a "price-negotiable" offer
of Rs 32.5 crore ($ 1.08 million).

Newsbytes has learned that the BSE governing body will decide
the winner at its board meeting to be held soon. They also
hope to persuade Tandem to drop its price, as the technical
committee feels the Tandem machine is best suited for the BSE's
needs. However, insiders say all this will take time and further
delay the already delayed computerization project.

According to a vendor that did not make the final stages the
computerization of BSE is a prestigious project as the other
15 exchanges in the country may follow BSE's lead.

(C.T. Mahabharat/19930112)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SYD)(00016)

Australia: Borland Changes Prices, Distributors, Address 01/15/93
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1993 JAN 15 (NB) -- After spending the last
18 months or so in the old Ashton-Tate headquarters, Borland
Australia is to move back to the area of Sydney where most
computer companies live. This happens to be a stone's throw from
distributor Merisel, which has just been appointed as Borland's
fourth distributor in Australia.

In addition Borland has reduced pricing of Quattro Pro for Windows
from AUS$750 to just $195 (around US$130) and the new Paradox
for Windows is just $250 (around US$160) against a theoretical list
price of $1150. These low prices are part of a 90-day promotion,
part of a concerted battle against Microsoft.

The move back to the suburb of Lane Cove is to bring the
administration section into the same building as warehousing, as
well as give more space that marketing communications manager Ian
Robinson says will be needed as sales increase by a forecast 200
percent.

Company sales are expected to exceed US$20M in Australia this year.
Robinson said that Merisel gave access to many resellers who
weren't currently buying Borland product. "I hate going into
large computer chains and seeing no Borland stock on the shelves,"
he told Newsbytes. "We'll be backing our new campaign with extensive
advertising and a roadshow around the major cities."

(Paul Zucker/19930315)


(NEWS)(GOVT)(DEL)(00017)

India: Ready To Fire Its Own Patriot Missile 01/15/93
NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1993 JAN 15 (NB) -- India prepares for the next
test launch of its prestigious medium range ballistic missile,
Agni (meaning fire, in Sanscrit) in March. Sources in the Defence
Research & Development Organization (DRDO) say scientists are
working overtime to meet the objectives of higher payload and
longer reach, after minor setbacks in the mid-1992 second
test launch.

The second technology demonstrator Agni test flight, though stated
officially to have met its "mission-objectives," had failures
with sub-systems and was burned up after a smooth launch.

Sources say the third test flight will experiment with the same
1000-kilogram payload over a longer distance.

The new year is expected to be the year of Indian missiles
with test launches of two other major missile systems -- the
state-of-the-art anti-tank "Nag" missile and the multi-target
ground-to-air "Akash" missile.

Two other missiles, the 150 km range surface-to-surface missile,
Prithvi, and a short reaction surface-to-air missile Trishul
are expected to be mass produced, after successfully completing
trials.

(C.T. Mahabharat/19930115)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00018)

Bell Canada Unit To Serve Competitors 01/15/93
OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1993 JAN 15 (NB) -- Some employees of
Bell Canada are going to work for the competition -- without
leaving Bell. The company is setting up a new unit to provide
services to competitors such as long-distance resellers, cellular
telephone carriers, terminal equipment vendors, the cable
industry, message exchange companies, and other carriers.

Telecom competition has been growing in Canada over the past few
years, most notably with the opening of the long-distance
telephone market to competition last spring. Many companies that
provide services in competition with Bell and the other regional
phone companies must obtain services or facilities from the phone
companies to do so.

Bell's new Carrier Services Group (CSG) will have offices in
Toronto and Montreal and between 200 and 250 employees, company
spokesman John Morris said.

Bell promised the new group would operate at arm's length from
the rest of its sales force, maintaining confidentiality for the
companies it serves.

CSG's initial service portfolio will includes Wide-Area Telephone
Service (WATS), toll-free 800 lines, and local access facilities.
Its offerings will be available nationally through the Stentor
alliance of phone companies, of which Bell is the largest member.

(Grant Buckler/19930115/Press Contact: John Morris, Bell Canada,
613-781-2443)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00019)

Softimage, Discreet Logic In Software Deal 01/15/93
MONTREAL, QUEBEC, CANADA, 1993 JAN 15 (NB) -- Softimage has
acquired one software package from Discreet Logic and will
distribute another in Europe. Both companies are based in
Montreal.

Softimage has acquired Eddie Paint, a paint software package that
Discreet Logic developed as a companion to Eddie, a
two-dimensional digital editing and morphing package it acquired
in December from Animal Logic of Sydney, Australia.

Until early December, Discreet Logic was the Canadian distributor
for Eddie. The companies broke off their distribution agreement,
with Discreet Logic saying it intended to focus on software
developed internally, namely Flame, a digital editing and processing
tool, and the upcoming follow-on product Inferno.

A week later, Softimage acquired Eddie from Animal Logic. Company
spokesman Paul Lefebvre said it would fit well into his company's
strategy for two-dimensional image editing products.

Five-year-old Softimage produces three-dimensional animation and
visualization software for the broadcast, film, and advertising
industries.

Eddie provides interactive digital editing, morphing, and image
processing capability and emulates the majority of functions
found on a vision mixer or optical printer, according to
Softimage. It reduces the need to go on-line for video resolution
finish or to an optical printer for film finish.

Meanwhile, Softimage also acquired exclusive European
distribution rights to Discreet Logic's Flame software. The
software, which runs on Silicon Graphics VGX workstations, has a
list price of US$75,000. It is meant for professional film and
video production, a spokeswoman for Discreet Logic said.

(Grant Buckler/19930115/Press Contact: Paul Lefebvre, Softimage,
514-845-1636; Pat Hunter, Artemis Hunter PR for Discreet Logic,
613-247-0588)


(NEWS)(GOVT)(DEL)(00020)

India: Foreign Investment Barriers Removed 01/15/93
NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1993 JAN 15 (NB) -- In a major move, the
President of India issued an ordinance which dilutes and makes
extensive amendments to the Foreign Exchange Regulations Act
of 1973 (FERA), that all along controlled foreign investment in
the country.

Under the amendment, the FERA-regulated companies, foreign firms with
equity stake in India, some with stake exceeding 40 percent,
have been allowed to acquire any industrial or commercial
undertaking in India except in farming and plantations, and
residents are allowed to hold immovable property outside
India subject to Reserve Bank of India (RBI) conditions.

The government has also abolished the requirement for FERA
permission to set up joint ventures abroad or holding of
directorships in overseas concerns by resident nationals.

Appointment of foreign technical or managerial advisers or agents,
employment of foreign nationals, booking of tickets for travel
abroad and holding of foreign currency by resident nationals
have all been liberalized. Holding of foreign exchange by
individuals has been liberalized. Individuals can have a foreign
equivalent of Rs 15,000 ($500), much above the previous limit
of Rs 250 ($9). Foreign nationals will no longer need RBI or
finance ministry permission for taking up employment in India,
but the home ministry will continue to control the grant of visas.

Even with the earlier dose of liberalization in the foreign
investment rules, several major computer companies had already
set up either joint ventures or direct subsidiaries/affiliate
companies here. Prominent among them are: Digital Equipment
India Ltd. (DEC), HCL Hewlett-Packard Ltd., Tata Information
Systems Ltd. (IBM), and Modi Olivetti Ltd. Others include Bull,
Data General, Intergraph, Motorola, and Siemens.

Perhaps, the only major vendor awaiting to extend its
distribution to a full-scale manufacturing operation is Sun
Microsystems which is likely to choose its Indian partner soon.

(C.T. Mahabharat/19930112)


(NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00021)

Judge Warns White House May Erase Files Against Order 01/15/93
WASHINGTON, DC, U.S.A., 1993 JAN 15 (NB) -- The saga of the
electronic mail in the Bush White House continues as the New York
Times reports that US District Judge Charles Richey has
expressed fears that the Administration may go ahead and erase
important computer files in violation of his ruling last week
that the records must be left intact.

Historians and others had asked the courts to prevent the
destruction of White House e-mail and some people fear that its
loss would destroy important Iran-Contra and Clinton Passport-related
messages.

The White House press office has made no new comment today on the
Judge's reported charges that some files might be destroyed in
contravention of the court order, but the Department of Justice
did go back to the same court earlier this week seeking a stay on
the ban he just imposed. A stay would have allowed the White
House staff to continue deleting the files which the
Administration contends is vital to the smooth transition.

At other times the removal of the files has been likened to
routine housekeeping -- a contradiction of recent Justice
Department presentations made to the judge that the
requirement to preserve all the e-mail would cause "irreparable
harm" to the US government.

In turning down this request for a stay, Judge Richey said that
the Administration's arguments about the vital need to remove
these files were incomprehensible.

Basically what is happening here is that the White House staff
has been exchanging memos electronically for the past four years
in the likely belief that these communications would be erased
and not stored for the later perusal of grand juries, historians,
and the general public.

The Administration contends that there is no need to save all the
files because the "important" ones were also printed out.
Washington insiders view this as a dubious concept, especially
after all the shredding which went on in the White House basement
during the last administration.

As a compromise the White House suggests that newly created
backup files be kept instead of the originals, but once the
originals are gone there would be no way to determine whether the
backups were complete.

According to a UPI report, Judge Richey has said, "The court has
determined that paper copies of the federal records created or
stored on the defendants' computer systems are not the same as
the electronic records because the paper copies do not
necessarily disclose who said what to whom and when. The
electronic version of these materials contains this information."

Researchers, ordinary tax payers, and especially reporters
contend that all White House memos should be publicly available
because they concern public business, conducted on public
property, and paid for by public funds.

The Judge's ruling does not mandate immediate release of the
computer records, it only requires that they be preserved so
they may be released at a later date. President Bush's personal
papers are not involved in any of these rulings but records
dating back into the Reagan administration may be included.

Once the records are finally recognized as protected federal
records as ruled by Judge Richey last week, some will fall under
the FOIA or Freedom Of Information Act and others will be
available in five or ten years.

(John McCormick/19930115/Press Contact: Marlin Fitzwater, White
House Press Secretary, 202-456-2100)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(WAS)(00022)

ROUNDUP: Stories Carried By Other Media This Week 01/15/93
WASHINGTON, DC, U.S.A., 1993 JAN 15 (NB) -- Roundup is a brief
look at some computer stories carried in other publications
received here this past week.

PC Magazine dated January 24 carries PC Lab tests of 74 DX2/66
PCs.

Network World for the week of the 11th says that recent e-mail
tests conducted for the newspaper by Focus Software found that
only the most basic messages could be sent reliably, and problems
occurred, such as the loss of receipts, when e-mail passed between
dissimilar workstations.

Computer Reseller News dated January 11 says that computer
superstores do not offer the best PC prices when compared to
traditional resellers.

Computer Reseller News dated the 12th is a special Networld
issue.

This week's Informationweek says that IBM is suffering from FUD:
Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt.

Networking Management for January carries a white paper to
management on "The Re-Engineering Revolution."

Computerworld for the 11th looks at the White House e-mail
dispute.

Communicationsweek dated 11 January says that AT&T will reveal
its ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) strategy in announcements to
be made over the next several weeks.

Esther Dyson's Release 1.0 for December 30 looks at "unified
messaging" which includes fax, voicemail, and e-mail.

February's Byte looks at Wireless PCs and how to create CD-ROMs
on the desktop.

(John McCormick/19930115/)


(NEWS)(APPLE)(WAS)(00023)

MacTV Schedule For January 18-22 01/15/93
MARLOW, NEW HAMPSHIRE, U.S.A., 1993 JAN 15 (NB) -- MacTV, the
daily one-hour satellite computer product news program broadcast
every day on Galaxy 6, Channel 22 starting at 8 am Eastern
time, has supplied the following schedule for first part of
December. Some shows are also broadcast on the Mind Extension
University cable channel.

Previously broadcast programs are available at $9.95 plus $3
Shipping.

MacTV Schedule - January 18-22, 1992:

Monday, January 18: Photoshop 2.0.1, introducing color image
editing; Infini-D, a 3-D drawing power solution; Click/Art,
places click art images into documents; At Ease, helps ease fear
of computer use; Fontek, more about digitally displayed
typefaces; Mum's the Word Plus, how to plan your garden with
integrated software; Excel 4.0, another method of customizing
Excel.

Tuesday, January 19: Quicken 3.0, helpful shortcuts and tips;
N.Y.O.B., more details on a "to-do list;" VideoShop, in-depth
look at one specific section; Word 5.1, details on the print
merge function; Ready,Set,Go!, a brief overview of auto kerning
and ReadyScript; Claris Resolve 1.1, a look at automation and
presentation features; WealthBuilder 2.0, how to make your money
grow.

Wednesday, January 20: Quadra 950, the most powerful Macintosh;
RAM PowerCard, all the power you could possibly need; TelePort,
introduces the "Gold" Teleport fax modem; Removable Media, a
trusty, well-liked storage program; Performa 400, the Macintosh
that Apple mass-markets; Desktop Dialer, use any application to
dial your telephone; MASSfm 24/96, an extended fax/modem that is
portable.

Thursday, January 21: Excel 4.0, the Spreadsheets' introduction;
Claris Resolve, details on basics and charting functions; Lotus
1-2-3 1.1, finally available on the Macintosh; Excel 4.0, a look
at 7-Savvy; Claris Resolve, help on how to utilize sound in a
spreadsheet; Excel 4.0: Spreadsheet, cassette- or disk-available
self-guided tutorial.

Friday, January 22: Telecommunications, discussing
telecommunications' effect on our lives; FaxMania, produces fax
cover sheets that are highly effective; PowerPort, gives PBs a
high-speed, internal fax modem; Smartcom II Mac, uncomplicated
communications software; On-Line Services, which one should you
use?; PowerKey/Remote, lets you use your Macintosh at home or
elsewhere; LanRover/L, permits remote access of network(s).

(John McCormick/19930115/Press Contact: Wayne Mohr, Executive
Producer PCTV and MacTV, 603-863-9322)


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

 ****FCC Sets Stage For Global Radio Paging Service 01/15/93
WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1993 JAN 15 (NB) -- FCC Chairman
Alfred Sikes ended his term with several major decisions,
including one setting aside radio frequencies for new global
positioning satellite paging services.

In a valedictory address before legislators, Sikes stayed in
character, again calling for Congress to speed licensing of new
technologies and give his agency power to deregulate phone
services. He also, once again, pushed for the sale of frequency
licenses as a replacement for lotteries or "public interest"
tests, and charged that unless the FCC is allowed to reduce
regulation of AT&T, it will have to add regulation on MCI and
Sprint, in reaction to recent court decisions.

In its last meeting under Sikes, the commission set aside radio
frequencies for new global positioning satellite paging services
which could reach around the world. The licenses could be issued
later this year, and satellites serving those frequencies could
be launched into low earth orbit as early as next year. With
specialized beepers or pagers attuned to the frequencies, lost
planes and stolen cars could be tracked, and executives could be
reached even when overseas.

Among those angling for a license are start-ups like Starsys
Global Positioning of Lanham, Maryland. But their new services
will compete with existing GPS systems using stationary
satellites, like Qualcomm's OmniTracs system, as well as
existing satellite paging services like SkyTel. This is in
keeping with the Sikes FCC pattern, opening up frequencies to
give new industries a chance rather than waiting for a business
case to be proven.

The FCC also adopted new rules on to stop speculation on
microwave-based video services. Companies will no longer be able
to file multiple applications or transfer them before
transmission facilities are built. Con artists have long used FCC
licensing procedures as an excuse to take money from gullible
people looking for easy money. They hold "seminars" claiming that
a minimum investment will bring easy riches on new licenses. The
FCC is trying to stop that. But the FCC is also mandating that
cable programmers offer their wares through the new technology,
which could give it a chance in the market.

Sikes vigorously opposed cable re-regulation, which passed
Congress anyway, and his commission complicated the implementation
of the law by setting in motion a process designed to determine
whether cable operators must carry home shopping services. Under the
cable re-regulation bill, the FCC must set up a package of
"basic" services for which rates can be regulated, based on a "public
interest" test designed to make sure that stations like C-Span,
which are cable-only, are not regulated to higher-priced tiers.
Under the same law, it started the process of creating rules to
simplify the equipment needs of cable operators.

Also, the FCC established an Emergency Medical Radio band,
with many channels around the 220 MHz band, so that ambulances
can be isolated from channels used by beach patrols, school bus
drivers and veterinarians. And new regulations were offered for
so-called Specialized Mobile Radio, or SMR systems. These
frequencies, mostly around the 900 MHz area, were originally
licensed about a decade ago for local services, but companies
like Federal Express quickly created national networks with them,
and now other companies like Fleet Call are trying to compete
in cellular telephony using networks of SMR licenses.

Observers say the hallmark of the Sikes era was a desire to turn FCC
frequency licenses from licenses to print money for private
interests into licenses to hunt for markets and print money for
the government. The Sikes FCC has also sought to deregulate
telephone and cable rates by sending those industries into each
others' markets, and pushed hard for new technologies.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19930115/Press Contact: FCC Press, Pat Chew,
202-632-5050


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

TI Supports MPEG for HDTV 01/15/93
DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1993 JAN 15 (NB) -- Texas Instruments
announced support for a high definition television standard put
forward by NBC, the French Thomson and Dutch Philips groups, and
the David Sarnoff Laboratories. Called Advanced Digital-HDTV, or
AD-HDTV, the system is based on the Motion Picture Experts Group
of the International Standards Organization's compression
algorithm used to compress digital video on computers.

TI spokesman Ted Jernigan told Newsbytes. "It's the one standard
of those proposed that is based on a recognized digital
transmission system. MPEG will be used in a lot of other areas
beyond television," he said. "If you base all the standards on
MPEG, there would be a tremendous advantage to the consumer
electronics industry. There would be leverage from a circuitry
and programming-delivery point of view."

The Federal Communications Commission is deciding among a number
of compression systems, including systems from General
Instruments and AT&T, which would allow HDTV transmissions to use
the same frequency bands now used by regular TV. A decision is
expected later this year. But, the US sponsors of HDTV
standards are claiming they'll share license fees whichever
proposal is adopted, they are also looking to make money with the
compression algorithms involved. General Instruments, for
instance, has already sold use of its VideoCypher compression
system to TeleCommunications Inc., the nation's largest cable
television operator, which will use it to increase channel-
carrying capacity on its systems 10-fold, to as many as 750
channels.

TI's position is that "Compression is the enabling technology to
bring telecommunications and television and computing together,"
said Jernigan. In other words, if a single video compression
algorithm is used in computers, on television, and in telephone
networks, it will speed new multimedia products to market,
because chipmakers like TI will be able to quickly churn out
digital signal processors that have many uses. For consumers,
acceptance of AD-HDTV would let TI produce low-cost signal
decoders, meaning people might snap up and use HDTV sets
quickly.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19930115/Press Contact: Texas Instruments, Ted
Jernigan, 214/997-5467)


(NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00026)

 ****Apple Earns $161.3M 01/15/93
CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1993 JAN 15 (NB) -- After
extensive personnel cutbacks and distribution restructuring over
the past 18 months, Apple Computer continues to reap the
benefits with record revenues for its first fiscal quarter, which
ended December 25, 1992. Net income for the first quarter was
$161.3 million.

David Carnevale, analyst with InfoCorp, told Newsbytes that
the earnings totals represent Apple's transition from "a
high-margin per-unit basis, to a lower-margin per-unit basis
company."

He said that, even though Apple's stock was "down a couple of
points" this morning, "That's a very difficult transition for any
company to make. They've done it without a tremendous impact
on earnings. There was a lot of concern in prior months that
they would not be able to do it. They are not through that
process, but they are certainly progressing along that line."

According to Apple, net revenues for the first quarter of fiscal
1993 were $2 billion, a 7.4 percent increase from the $1.863
billion reported in the first quarter of the prior year. The net
income, compares with the prior year's first quarter net income
of $166.0 million.

Earnings in the first quarter of fiscal 1993 were $1.33 per share
as compared to $1.36 per share earned in the first quarter of
fiscal 1992. Gross margin was 40.5 percent of net sales in the
first quarter of fiscal 1993 compared to 43.7 percent of net
sales in the prior year period.

Carnevale told Newsbytes that, "Their unit volumes of course
were up much more significantly than their dollar revenues.
Again that reflects part of that transition to a lower-average
selling price on average for the company."

Interestingly, the company reports that, in the first quarters of
both fiscal 1993 and fiscal 1992, international net sales were
45 percent of total net sales.

John Sculley, Apple chairman and chief executive officer, said:
"Demand for our systems led to Apple's first $2 billion revenue
quarter. Total Macintosh unit growth was up over 31 percent in
the first quarter of fiscal 1993 compared to the same quarter
in fiscal 1992. In the first quarter we introduced two new
PowerBook computers, the Macintosh Duo line, and strengthened
our mid-range with CD-ROM based systems."

He was optimistic about Apple's future, saying: "Fiscal 1993
will showcase new products in each of our multiple businesses --
personal computing, enterprise computing, and personal
interactive electronics -- as we enter the most aggressive new
technology cycle in our history."

The PowerBook notebooks had a lot to do with Apple's success.
"We continue to see strong demand for our notebook products,
selling more PowerBooks in the first quarter of this fiscal year
than in any prior quarter," said Sculley.

The trend toward multimedia appears to be helping Apple. "There
was good demand during the quarter for....our new mid-range
products targeted at multimedia users," said Sculley. "Over 35
percent of the Macintosh IIvi and IIvx, and Performa 600
computers shipped during the quarter were systems that included
CD-ROM drives."

The recent hardware price wars and new products took its toll
on Apple's earnings though. According to Sculley, "As anticipated,
the gross margin percentage declined in the first quarter due to
new product introductions and pricing actions taken on older
products in response to industry conditions."

Newsbytes reported on extensive layoffs at Apple in the middle
of 1991. Up to 1,500 employees lost their jobs at the time.

(Ian Stokell/19930115/Press Contact: Mary Ann Cusenza,
Investor Relations, 408-974-4178; Christopher Escher, Public
Relations, 408-974-2202, Apple Computer Inc.)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00027)

3Com's Promotions As Innovative As Products 01/15/93
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1993 JAN 15 (NB) -- At NetWorld
Boston, 3Com introduced new promotional methods that were
just as innovative as the new routers unveiled.

In the exhibition booth where the 3Com's new Boundary Routing
products were being shown, visitors took the "3Com 3Challenge,"
trying their hands at installing these and other 3Com networking
devices.

But 3Com was not content to let the promotions end there.
During the show, the company held an "Industry Town Meeting" in
conjunction with PC Week and a "Linking LANs to WANs to the World"
celebration together with Network World.

In the 3Challenge contest, an attendee got a chance in a drawing
for a Mediterranean or Caribbean cruise just for showing up at the
3Com booth. 3Com issued additional chances each time a visitor
successfully installed either of the new Boundary Routing products,
the EtherLink III Adapter or the LinkBuilder FMS Hub, in under three
minutes.

"The point was to show that our (routers, adapters and hubs) are a
lot easier to install than you might think. Almost anyone can do
so in three minutes' time," said a 3Com employee who was overseeing
the challenge.

Boundary Routing is a new software innovation from 3Com designed to
expand the reach of customers' networks while reducing the
complexity and cost of router administration.

The equipment displayed in the 3Com booth included the first three
products to implement the new approach. The new NETBuilder Remote
Control router is a compact external unit. The new LinkBuilder ECS
Remote Control module is a card that fits into a remote 3Com hub.

The remote external unit or card is used in conjunction with a
NetBuilder II full-function router installed at a central site, a
spokesperson told Newsbytes. Instead of sending packets of
information to multiple LANs and WANs, NETBuilder and LinkBuilder
sent the packets to NetBuilder II, and NetBuilder II transmits them
from there. To work with the remote router, NetBuilder must be
equipped with Boundary Routing software.

The third new product in the Boundary Routing line, NETBuilder
Remote Access, is a full-function central router especially
designed for small to mid-sized locations, the spokesperson said.
NetBuilder Remote Access is more compact than NETBuilder II, and
contains fewer LAN and WAN ports, but performs all its own routing.

Speaking with Newsbytes on the show floor, Joe Ferguson, product
line manager for network management, noted that the simple
installation procedure enjoyed by the 3Challenge participants
results from a new modular, plug-and-play architecture that
replaces more complex cabling of the past.

The "Industry Town Meeting" and "Linking LANs" celebration engaged
attendees in other ways. The town meeting used a format similar to
that of the recent US Presidential debates between Bill Clinton and
George Bush, with the participants seated on stools.

Taking part in the debate were Eric Benhamou, president and CEO of
3Com, Janice Roberts, vice president of marketing, and John Hart,
vice president and CTO. Sam Whitman, editor-in-chief of PC Week,
served as moderator.

"This format was something new for us, and a number of those who
attended told me how much they liked it," said Christine Jones, a
company representative who coordinated the event.

The "Linking LANS to WANs to the World" celebration included food
from around the world. The event was held in Quincy Market at
Boston's historic Faneuil Hall.

(Jacqueline Emigh/19930115; Press contact: Donna Rourke, 3Com, tel
408-764-5960)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00028)

Sales Up 40% At Artisoft 01/15/93
TUCSON, ARIZONA, U.S.A., 1993 JAN 15 (NB) -- Artisoft announced
that it earned $3.4 million on net sales of $23.8 million
for the fiscal year 93 second quarter, which ended December 31,
1992.

Earnings for the period, which amounted to $0.19 per share, were
flat compared to the same period last year, but sales increased over
the previous year by 40 percent.

Artisoft markets LANtastic, a local area network operating system
software package that allows up to 300 users of IBM-compatible
personal computers to share data, programs and hardware peripherals
such as hard drives and printers.

The company said that for the first half of fiscal 93 net sales were
$46 million and net earnings were $6.9 million, or 38 cents per
share, compared to sales of $31.5 million and net earnings of $5.4
million for the same six month period last year. That put sales up
almost 46 percent, net earnings up 28 percent, and earnings per
share $0.04 higher than last year.

Artisoft Chairman C. John Schoof II said international sales
rebounded during the second quarter. The company announced a
special dealer program for distributors in the United Kingdom, but
it was unclear as to how much that contributed to the quarter's
results. International sales were reported up nearly 28 percent, but
that was mostly offset by slowing of domestic business during the
period.

Schoof said competition is increasing in the peer-to-peer local area
network market, including reduced pricing for network hardware and
software components. "We expect this competitive trend to continue,"
he said.

Artisoft recently introduced its LANtastic Noderunner 2000 series of
adapters based on its ALICE Ethernet chip. The ALICE chip measures
less than one square inch, and was designed to simplify network
interface board design, eliminating a number of third-party
components on the Artisoft adapters.

Schoof said the company decided to increase its inventory reserves,
and that, coupled with cost increases of raw materials, cut gross
margins from 60.8 percent in the first quarter to 57.2 percent in
the second quarter. Operating expenses were up 37.8 percent, to $9
million during the reporting period, mostly due to the increased
marketing and sales efforts in the international market.

The company will be hard pressed next quarter to repeat its third
quarter performance of last year, when sales were up 96 percent and
earnings jumped 40 percent. That was the quarter when the company
introduced LANtastic 4.1.

(Jim Mallory/19930115/Press contact: Bob Knox, Artisoft,
602-690-3772)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00029)

Microsoft's Record 2Q -- Revenues Up 38% 01/15/93
REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1993 JAN 15 (NB) -- Microsoft
Corporation reported new sales records for its second fiscal quarter
yesterday, and said the best news is still ahead.

The sometimes controversial software company reported earnings of
$236 million, or 78 cents per share, for the quarter ending December
31. That's a $61 million earnings increase, or $0.18 per share over
the previous year.

The company said second quarter revenues totaled $938 million, up 38
percent over the $682 million for the year-ago period. The earnings
were almost exactly what financial analysts had predicted.

In what could be easily the understatement of the year, Microsoft
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Frank Gaudette
said, "Record shipments of the Windows operating system contributed to
these results." Microsoft has said that it is selling about one
million copies of Windows every month. Gaudette said sales of
applications for the Apple Macintosh also hit record levels.

The only cloud on Microsoft's horizon at the moment is the Federal
Trade Commission investigation into allegations, mostly by Microsoft
competitors, that the company engages in unfair trade practices.
There have been reports that the FTC staff investigators have asked
the commission to consider seeking a preliminary injunction against
Microsoft.

Microsoft officials said that a surge in demand for Intel
Corporation's microprocessors, the computing heart of personal
computers, will also benefit the software company. However, company
officials don't expect that impact until the fourth quarter.

Microsoft says sales of applications such as word processing and
spreadsheets set record sales, rising 54 percent. Sales of Windows
applications were reported up 70 percent. The company told analysts
that sales of its Access database management system which
was introduced in November have exceeded company projections, and
they can't keep up with demand. Microsoft introduced Access at a
price of $99 per copy until the end of January, when the suggested
retail price will go up to $495.

(Jim Mallory/19930115/Press contact: Frank Gaudette, Microsoft,
206-882-8080; Reader contact: 800-426-9400)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00030)

Black Slavery Computer Game Pulled From Market 01/15/93
BROOKLYN CENTER, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1993 JAN 15 (NB) -- A software
company says it will stop marketing a computer game about slavery,
after receiving angry complaints from parents in Indiana and
elsewhere.

Called Freedom!, the game has players assuming the roles of
enslaved blacks in the 1830s South, attempting to reach freedom in
the North after gathering as much food and money as possible. When a
slave is caught, the computer displays the message: "You have been
recaptured, whipped and returned to your master." Some of the dialog
that appears on the screen uses what has often been stereotypically
associated in movies with Southern blacks, such as "I sees
a runnin' look in yo' eyes, chile."

Parents at at least one Indiana elementary school met with school
administrators earlier this week to demand that the game be
discontinued, according to Associated Press. AP quoted one parent as
saying, "Its a disgrace. The dialog sounds like someone with a
speech impediment."

Dean Kephart, a spokesperson for the game's publisher MECC, said the
company was surprised by the reaction. "We honestly had every good
intention."

(Jim Mallory/19930115/Press contact: Dean Kephart, MECC,
612-569-1500)


(NEWS)(IBM)(DEN)(00031)

Windows Summit Expects Sellout Crowd 01/15/93
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1993 JAN 15 (NB) -- Organizers of the
first Windows Summit say they expect a sell-out crowd of 500 for the
invitation-only event that will preview the latest in Windows
hardware and software.

Windows Summit is set for March 7-10 at La Costa Resort and Spa in
Carlsbad, California, and will offer invitees the opportunity to
preview more than 25 new or unreleased Windows products, say show
organizers.

Unlike most trade shows where pre-scripted product demonstrations
are presented in a large room, Windows Summit will have product
developers on hand in "office-like settings" to discuss the products
with the company executives.

"The point of the demonstrations is to give both customers and
manufacturers a forum to discuss the future of individual Windows
products," according to Windows Summit host and editor of Windows
Watcher Newsletter, Jesse Berst. "To accomplish this, we have made
sure that attendees can sit across the desk from high-level vendor
executives."

Some of the high level executives who will be in attendance include
Borland President Phillipe Kahn, author and futurist William
Davidow, Dan Eilers of Claris, Dan Lunt of Wordperfect, Gordon
Eubanks from Symantec, Jack Leach of Polaris, Powersoft's Michael
Kertzman, and Dwayne Walker from Microsoft. Kahn is scheduled to
present the keynote address, talking about "Windows and the Third
Wave of Computing."

Summit host Jesse Berst told Newsbytes that more than 20 software
publishers will be showing products, including Autodesk, Borland,
Central Point Software, Claris, Computer Associates, Corel, Epson
America, Logitech, Polaris, Powersoft, Symantec and Wordperfect.

Just anybody won't be showing up, even if they did get an
invitation, with the fee to attend set at $1,295. That does not
include transportation or a hotel room. Computer press editors
will get a preview of the conference the day before the formal
opening. Media desiring to attend the event can call Windows
Summit 93's toll-free number for more information.

The conference is sponsored by CMP Publications, as well as several
computer companies.

(Jim Mallory/19930115/Press contact: Jesse Berst, Windows Summit 93,
206-881-7354; for registration or information: 800-598-7868)


(REVIEW)(IBM)(LAX)(00032)

Review of: Mental Math Games, for the PC 01/15/93

Runs on: IBM PC, PS/2, and compatibles, with VGA or MCGA color
monitor, and 640 kilobytes of memory

From: Waterford Institute, 1480 East 9400 South, Sandy, Utah,
84092

Price: $59.95

PUMA Rating: = 4 (1 lowest, 4 highest)

Reviewed for Newsbytes by: Linda Rohrbough 01/15/93

Summary: This is the best program I've ever seen for getting
kids to memorize those basic math facts.

========

REVIEW

========

My daughter Jessica cried every school morning for six months
in the fourth grade. "Seven times eight, eight times seven,
seven times six, seven times eight, seven plus eight," over and
over again my husband drilled her at the table, in the hall,
out the door to school.

We'd tried everything. Card games, flash cards, rewards, but
Jessica wanted to learn her math facts about as badly as she
wanted to be pecked to death by a chicken. Her fourth grade
teacher finally said Jessica could go no further in math
without knowing her arithmetic facts. After the third
conference with her teacher, we gave up on the fun approaches
and became "Mom and Dad, the Relentless."

And she learned them.

Now, four years later, here is the Waterford Institute with
Mental Math Games, an educational package for the IBM or
compatible personal computer (PC). It didn't sound like much,
but I've got a third grader who is just being introduced to the
times tables, and I know what's coming.

My only complaint with this program is I don't know why they
didn't do it four years ago. My nine year old, Maggie, spends
two hours a day, of her own volition, doing math problems. The
problems are rote memorization type stuff, but she does them so
she can keep the mouse out of the traps and direct him to
cheese, or move a cute little animated raccoon named Rodney
through an adventure, or win the giant stuffed dinosaur in an
arcade.

Honestly, this is absolutely the best program I've ever seen.
I've seen others. They were cute or clever, but not as
systematic about knowing what buttons to push in my child to
motivate her to do literally ten to twenty problems quickly,
without thinking and without her realizing she's done so many.
I would guess she's done the problems literally thousands of
times.

And the program keeps challenging her, so when she's completed
a game, the next time a new problem or two is introduced. Not
enough to make her fail, but enough to get her used to the
answer.

One of the best things about the program is the sense of humor
it offers. I played it and got the mouse in a trap, and he
surprised me by hollering like something from
a Laurel and Harvey comedy movie. Each level has new surprises
and new games.

I thought my nine-year-old would tire of the program, but she
hasn't. Occasionally, when she comes in to play after not
playing for a day or two, she gets upset when she sees the
level of difficulty she obtained the last time. "These are
hard, I can't do them," she'll say. But in five minutes she is
doing them, and moving further ahead.

The program uses excellent graphics and a sound card, if you
have one. I have a Sound Blaster Pro card that I also use in
for sound in Microsoft Windows, and it worked quite well with
it. I have not been able to get it to run in a DOS Window under
Microsoft Windows, but for what I get from it I'm willing to
exit Windows to use it. It also requires 6 megabytes of hard
disk space, but that's to be expected once you see the
graphics. You can also run it from floppy disks, but you lose
some of the games, like the mouse.

Another maker of math programs for kids, Davidson and
Associates, has sued the Waterford Institute for showing on the
box how many more math problems kids do per hour with Mental
Math Games than with Davidson's New Math Blaster product. The
Waterford Institute has taken the graph off the packaging to
avoid litigation with Davidson, but says independent tests
show their package offers a significant difference in the number
of problems kids do.

Just to make sure my kids weren't an exception, I sent my
copy to my sister in Colorado who has an eight-year-old boy
and she reported the same results I'm having
with my nine-year-old daughter.

Broderbund, the company that developed the Carmen Sandiego
series of geography games, has started distributing Mental Math
Games so you'll find it at major software distributors such as
Egghead.

As a parent, this is one of the most exciting products I've
seen in a long time. I understand the Waterford Institute is
coming out with similar products, one for fractions and
decimals and another at the preschool reading level. I can't
wait!

===========

PUMA RATINGS

===========

PERFORMANCE: 4. The software performed flawlessly, the graphics
are delightful and engaging, and it takes advantage of a sound
card if you have one.

USEFULNESS: 4. At the rate my daughter is going, she'll have her
math facts down in no time. I'll say it's useful!

MANUAL: 4. The manual is well done, but I didn't need it at all and
neither did my daughter, nor the other kids who tried the program.

AVAILABILITY: 4. The major software stores carry the product
because Broderbund is distributing it. I understand, while the
retail price is $59.95, it is being offered for as low as $39.95.

(Linda Rohrbough/19930115/Press Contact: Anna Treacy, Waterford
Institute, tel [phone], fax [phone])


(REVIEW)(IBM)(TOR)(00033)

Review of: Maximizer for Windows 01/15/93

Runs on: PC with 286 or higher processor, DOS 3.1 or higher,
Microsoft Windows 3.1 or higher, two megabytes memory,
and at least 2.5 megabytes available disk space.

From: Richmond Technologies & Software Inc.
Suite 420, 6400 Roberts St., Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
V5G 4C9; Telephone [phone], Facsimile 604-299-6743

Price: $249

PUMA Rating: 3.5 (on a scale of 1=lowest to 4=highest)

Reviewed by: Grant Buckler

SUMMARY: The first Windows release of one of the leading
contact-management packages for PCs, Maximizer for Windows is a
powerful and generally polished contact manager, though making
full use of its capabilities takes some learning time.

======

REVIEW

======

Maximizer for Windows is not short of features. By most criteria
on which one would assess contact management software, it stacks
up very well.

Consider the information that can be stored about each contact.
In the first place, Maximizer understands that there are both
organizations and individuals. If you have several contact names
within one organization, you create an entry for the organization
and then, without having to re-enter information such as the
company name and address, make individual entries for the people.

For individual contacts, meanwhile, you create an individual
entry, so you don't have to go through the charade of creating an
organization called "John Smith" in order to put John Smith, the
individual, into your database.

Each entry gives ample room for the information you'll need to
store. There are two address lines before you get to the city.
The space labelled "ZIP" will accommodate a Canadian or British
postal code, or an American Zip+4 code. There's a line for
country. There's also room for four different phone numbers (each
up to 21 characters plus a five-character extension).

If you have a contact whose address or phone number is different
than the parent organization's, that's no problem. You can add
alternate addresses too.

The basic contact information also includes a comments field and
room to enter the dates of last contact and next contact
(Maximizer is mainly tailored for sales and marketing people, so
the notion of planning to contact people at certain times, such
as for follow-ups to sales calls, runs through the program).

If this is not enough information for you to store on each
contact, you can turn to Maximizer's Categories function. This
lets you define your own categories for classifying contacts.
There are different types of categories, including a date type
(your contact's birthday, for instance), and a table type that
allows multiple items per category.

Maximizer lets you search for contacts on any field or category,
and includes Boolean search functions, so that, for instance, you
can search for all the clients named Brown whose birthday falls
on January 4, or all the clients in California who are in the
textiles business (assuming you've defined a Business category
and one of its items is Textiles).

The category function can do a lot. We wished, though, that
categories were a little more like other fields (eg. name).
Categories don't appear in the dialog box used to add new clients
or contacts. Instead you have to select your contact, then click
on the categories icon to assign categories. It took a while for
this reviewer -- admittedly more used to database packages than
to contact management software -- to figure out how this worked,
and it adds an extra step to entering information.

Maximizer comes equipped with a fairly strong built-in word
processor, which is nicely integrated with its contact management
function. If you select client and choose to create a letter to
that client, for instance, the editor automatically puts the
client's name and address and a salutation (stored in the client
list) in the proper places.

There are some minor irritations with the editor. One is that the
spelling checker only checks the document from the current cursor
position to the end. Maximizer is not the only program guilty of
this bit of bad design, which makes it much too easy to think
you've checked your document when in fact you've only checked
part of it. All spelling checkers should check the entire
document unless expressly told not to; this principle is on a
level with all cars having seat belts.

Another annoyance is that the search-and-replace function has a
dialog box that pops up to ask for confirmation of each
replacement -- bang in the middle of the text window, where most
of the time it obscures the word it's asking you about. You can
move it out of the way to look at the word in context, but then
when you choose yes or no and it goes on to the next word, back
comes the dialog box where it was before.

These are niggling points; Maximizer is first and foremost a
contact manager and not a word processor. But they are
refinements we would like to see in a future release.

Another key feature is the hotlist. This is how Maximizer keeps
track of things that need doing -- phone calls, appointments and
the like. Again it's fairly powerful, though it will not meet
everyone's needs.

Maximizer maintains a calendar where you can record appointments,
complete with alarms to remind you if desired. The user can
control how far in advance alarms go off -- you can have a
ten-minute warning of your appointments, for instance.

Once you've made a phone call, Maximizer can be set up to prompt
you to record the result. This information can be logged in a
journal that gives you a record of what you've done; it can also
be used to create new to-do items, automatically reminding you to
call Joe again Monday if he's out for the week, for instance.

Since Maximizer can also auto-dial and time telephone calls, it
has the makings of a good tool for keeping track of phone calls
for those who need to bill such things to clients. It will store
a record of each call, too, but unfortunately the content of this
note is limited and cannot include billing information.

An obvious question about any new contact management package is
how well it can import data from an older program. Sadly,
Maximizer is a bit limited here. It can handle only ASCII files,
delimited by commas or tabs. The native file formats of popular
database programs aren't supported, and getting information from
some other software into a format Maximizer can handle is
sometimes tricky.

On the other hand, Maximizer's importing procedure does have
enough flexibility that you can restructure your data to some
extent as you import it. By letting you make more than one pass
through an import file, selecting different fields on each pass
and storing the imported information in a different way, the
software makes it possible to take a contact list that has one
entry per individual, even where that means repeating company
information, and convert it into the structure in which Maximizer
lets you store company information once and data on individuals
within that company separately.

Maximizer makes good use of the Windows interface, following the
accepted rules for menu structure and making many common
operations available through an icon bar across the top of the
screen.

The current release does not support networks, but Richmond has
said it plans a release that does by the end of March. That
release will have a group-scheduling feature for arranging
meetings.

===========

PUMA RATING

===========

Performance: 3. As with all Windows applications, sluggish on
anything less than a 486, but good by Windows standards.

Usefulness: 4. For people whose work depends mostly on "working"
contacts, Maximizer could be a godsend. It can also do a good job
of simply maintaining an address and phone list, though if that's
all you want there are alternatives that are cheaper and easier
to learn.

Manuals: 3.5. The slim Quick Start booklet has all you need to
set Maximizer up and get started, including two tutorials to show
you the basic functions. A more comprehensive User's Guide
tackles the details. On-line help is context sensitive and seems
to contain just about everything found in the manuals.

Availability: 3.5. The software is widely distributed in North
America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Hong Kong. Technical
support by telephone is available between 7:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.
Pacific time -- which means not until 10:30 a.m. Eastern time --
and the support line is not toll-free.

(Grant Buckler/19930114/Press Contact: Richmond Technologies &
Software, 604-299-2121, fax [phone])