Newsbytes - Internationa…ews 1983 May to 1994 June/Newsbytes - International Computing Industry News 1994 Edition - May 1983 - June 1994 - Wayzata Technologies (5045) (1994).iso/pc/text/mac_text/1987/nb871117.231

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[***][11/17/87][***]
HEWLETT PACKARD'S NEW MAC-LIKE APPLICATIONS "ENVIRONMENT"
PALO ALTO, Ca. (NB) -- Hewlett Packard has launched software
which it hopes will become a standard for networks of PCs, and,
in a tip of the hat to Apple, HP's new applications environment
makes the most extensive use of icons to date in an HP software
product.   Two years in the making, HP's NewWave applications
environment will enable a network of 80286 and 80386-based
PCs to share files with HP 3000s, Vectras, and IBM mainframes.
The product has a graphic interface reminiscent of the Macintosh,
with pull-down windows and icons (such as a waste basket).
But the product also displays icons for other files, functions,
and applications on the network.  It is based in part on Microsoft
Windows 2.0.

"HP agrees that Apple's been going in the right direction ever
since it came out with the Macintosh,"an HP spokesman told
NEWSBYTES.  "But we've added to the design with a common
look for all applications and new "hot connects" between data
and applications.  "

With these "hot connects," NewWave will make it possible for
users to snatch "pieces" of data from disparate applications
and put them together in a single data file.

So far a half dozen software developers, including Microsoft,
have agreed to support NewWave with future versions of their
products.  HP will sell a developer's kit for $895 starting in
February, and an end-user version in the second half of 1988
for $195.

Asked with what products HP is competing, besides Microsoft
Windows 2.0, an HP spokesman said bluntly, "There aren't any
out there yet."

CONTACT:  Jim Christensen, HEWLETT PACKARD, 415/857-1501

[***][11/17/87][***]
HP CANCELS MACINTOSH SCANJET RELEASE
PALO ALTO, Ca. (NB) -- Hewlett Packard has taken its Macintosh
ScanJet product back to the drawing boards.  Announced in late
summer as the HP9190A, comprised of a $1495 ScanJet and a
$595 interface kit for the Macintosh, the product has "gone back
to the investigation phase," according to Liz Shoeman, spokesperson
for Hewlett Packard in Greeley, Colorado.  The interface kit and
software never hit the market.  Hewlett Packard says there
was a problem with the software interface to the Macintosh.
The product was supposed to create an image with 16 gray scale
levels and come with software for cutting, copying, pasting,
zooming, and otherwise manipulating the scanned image.  But
the spokeswoman says while the project is on hold, HP engineers
will "continue to work on it," despite an indefinite release date.

[***][11/17/87][***]
APPLE BAGS THE FROG
CUPERTINO, Ca. (NB) -- The television advertisement showed
16-year old Jenifer Graham, a real-life student and young animal
rights activist who'd created quite a stir by refusing to dissect a
frog in her biology class.  "I said I would be happy to do it on
an Apple computer." The ad shows a full-color simulation of a
frog dissection on an Apple computer screen.  Adds Graham,
"That way I can learn and the frog lives."

But the ad, albeit witty and inventive, didn't.  Apple has decided
to pull the ad, after it received only three public appearances,
following a flood of pro and con letters from  universities, teachers,
and consumers.  "The point was, we weren't trying to take a stand
on any issue.  We were merely trying to point out alternative
uses for the computer in the classroom," says Apple's Carleen
Levasseur, spokeswoman.

While the frog ad is bagged, five others have already taken its
place, aimed at the education and home office markets during
the  Christmas buying season.

[***][11/17/87][***]
HYPERCARD NEWS
SAN FRANCISCO (NB) -- Two West Coast firms have launched guides
to new HyperCard applications, which are coming thick and fast
these days.  Training Resources Unlimited of Federal Way,
Washington, will publish an electronic newsletter called HyperNews
on GEnie and CompuServe which will include reviews, news, and
features related to new stackware products.  And Walking
Shadow Press of Saratoga, California has a printed newsletter
called The Open Stack, with a similar content.

Also, there's still time to register for the Seminar on HyperCard
Programming in Santa Clara on November 21, sponsored by the
Software Entrepreneur's Forum.  Speakers include Apple
representatives and Danny Goodman, author of a HyperCard
handbook.  Call 415/854-7219.

CONTACTS:  TRU, 206/874-6760,   WALKING SHADOW PRESS,
                 408/354-7833

[***][11/17/87][***]
MICROPRO TO ENTER MAC ARENA WITH NEW WORD PROCESSOR
SAN RAFAEL, Ca. (NB) -- MicroPro International has purchased its
first Macintosh product, acquired from Challenger Software of
Homewood, Illinois.  The unnamed product, code-named "Smaug,"
reportedly integrates word processing and desktop publishing
features.  "It will break new ground," boasts Leon Williams,
president of MicroPro, "and it will set a new standard for
productivity by uniquely integrating word processing,
graphics and layout capabilities."  MicroPro projects a June '88
release date for the product and says it will pay Challenger
$3 million over the next three years for rights to publish it.

CONTACT:  Brenda Bennett, MICROPRO, 415/499-7676 X 4068

[***][11/17/87][***]
WORLDS OF RED INK FOR HIGH-TECH TOYMAKER
FREMONT, Ca. (NB) -- Known for its Teddy Ruxpin talking bear,
Lazer Tag games, and most recently Julie, a very sophisticated
talking doll, Worlds of Wonder is swimming in red ink to the
tune of $46.9 million, is being sued by two suppliers for alleged
failure to pay its bills, and is looking for a buyout offer.  In
an effort to stem the blood flow, Worlds of Wonder has cut
the price of four of its top-selling toys by 20%, has shed a quarter
of its 400 workers, and is quickly unloading excess inventory.
If there is any good news, it's that WOW╩has received an
extension on its line of credit from lenders, and claims that
early response by retailers to the new Julie doll -- priced
at a whopping $100 -- "has been positive."

[***][11/17/87][***]
FINANCIAL BRIEFS --

ACTIVISION, Mountain View, Ca., saw profits triple and revenues
increase 30% in the second quarter.  Earnings were $1.5 million.

APPLE COMPUTER, Cupertino, Ca., has declared a cash dividend of
8 cents per share for its most recent quarter.  The money will
be paid on December 15th.

PAPERBACK SOFTWARE, Berkeley, Ca., says revenues are up 16% in
its most recent quarter compared to a year ago, amounting to
$1.1 million dollars.

TANDON CORPORATION, Los Angeles, says earnings are up 71% to
$96.7 million.  Tandon says net sales were the highest for any
quarter in the firm's history and strong demand for its new
80286-based micros takes much of the credit.

[***][11/17/87][***]
IN BRIEF --

THE AMERICAN ELECTRONICS ASSOCIATION, Santa Clara, Ca.,  says
Canada shipped 77.8%, or $1.3 billion of its electronics  exports to the
U.S. in the first half of 1986.  Taiwan and Korea each sent 54% of
their electronics exports to the U.S.; Singapore shipped 50.7% and
Japan only 45.7%.

BUTTONWARE, Bellvue, Washington, has announced that PC-Calc+,
a complete rewrite of PC-Calc, will be shipped in December. It has
more than 70 new features, will retail for $69.95, and is available
to registered PC-Calc owners for $25.

CORRECTION:
We are told that our figure of $1 million for the IDG Communications
party at Comdex was "way off."  The real figure was closer to
$200,000-$300,000 for the night of eating, drinking, dancing, and The
Temptations.

HEWLETT PACKARD, Palo Alto, has signed a three year purchase
agreement with VHA╩Supply Company to provide the hospital
supply company with $54 million worth of HP medical-electronic
and computer products.

KURTA CORPORATION, Phoenix, Arizona, has reduced the price of
its IS/ONE digitizing tablet 28% from $895 to $645.

SOFTVIEW's President Sue Morgan, currently embroiled in a dispute
with CLARIS CORPORATION, Apple's software spin-off, was seen to
get the one-fingered salute from Claris' John Zeisler at Comdex.  He
had reportedly cornered her to ask when she would be filing her
lawsuit concerning her charge that Apple stole her firm's trade secrets.
She apparently couldn't say when.  Along with the salute, Zeisler
remarked, "This is for all the help you've given me."

TOSHIBA AMERICA, Irvine, Ca., says it will add a second assembly line
to its plant here to increase production of the T1100 and T1200
portable computers.  Production of the 80386-based T5100 is
scheduled to begin in January.

[***][11/17/87][***]
POST COMDEX HANGOVER -- TRENDS AND A HALLOWEEN-LIKE CHRISTMAS
ATLANTA (NB) -- Looking over what the rest of the media reported and
what we've heard since returning from Comdex in Las Vegas, here are
answers to the questions asked in the October 27 edition of NEWSBYTES
SOUTH/MIDWEST.

 *The Japanese are indeed still advancing, this time into
software. It's being bundled into complete systems like Canon's
Expression system for desktop publishing, and Sanyo's Icon 68020-
based minicomputer. Another example is QMS' color printer,
produced with help from Mitsubishi. The Japanese have gone beyond
building new plants for commodities -- they've gotten into buying
small American companies which once would have gone for venture
capital. In the week after Comdex, Marubeni signed a "strategic
alliance" with tiny SoftTouch Technology of Atlanta.

 *Koreans and Taiwanese are right behind, but still
behind. Samsung and others were on the main show floor for
the first time -- the Taiwanese and Hong Kong Chinese were
selling complete 386-based PCs, not system boards.

 *Desktop publishing still has a ways to go technically on
the IBM PC before prices can start falling, and true typeset
quality of over 1,000 dpi is still just a promise, not a reality.

 *Lotus' Agenda is one neat idea we hadn't thought of. When
it emerges from the vapor we may buy it. Desktop artist and
animator are still a year away, on the IBM series of computers,
anyway. They'll fall under the heading of OS/2 applications.

 *No, there are no new promotion ideas under the sun. And
the yuppies' mid-life crises will have to wait for the recession.
That recession could be approaching -- one friend in online
processing reports October transactions fell behind projections
for the first time in years.

 *Our fear of recession is bringing one on. Everyone I
know who was thinking of buying 4 computers is now buying 1.
Without demand there are fewer sales. Without sales jobs are
lost. Look for big sales on PCs before Thanksgiving.

One more point. As Apple continues to gain market share,
Comdex' status as "the" computer event of the year could fade.
Suppliers of Apple add-ons made no announcements at Comdex,
preferring to wait for upcoming MacWorld and AppleFest shows.

[***][11/17/87][***]
COMPAQ WILL PUT OUT A PS/2 CLONE WHEN THE MARKET DEMANDS IT
HOUSTON (NB) -- Behind the coming "bus wars" between IBM and
Compaq concerning the Micro Channel are these facts. Although IBM
has shipped 1 million PS/2s, not all of them contained the Micro
Channel, while there are nearly 9 million PCs out there with the
old bus. Compaq director of sales Ross Cooley told NEWSBYTES last
week those numbers are behind his company's current stance
challenging IBM's right to set a new standard. But Compaq is
willing to be convinced. "When the market says there is an
overwhelming set of reasons why the Micro Channel or PS/2
compatibles are of more interest than the current industry
standard, that's when we'll be there."

Will IBM sue to protect the Micro Channel? You bet. Can Compaq
beat such a suit in court? Ask Texaco. (Houston-based Pennzoil
sued Texaco successfully in Texas state courts to overturn the
White Plains, NY-based company's acquisition of Getty Oil. If the
Supreme Court refuses to overturn the award, Texaco could be
ruined.)

CONTACT: Len Parsons, COMPAQ [phone]

[***][11/17/87][***]
TELETIMER TESTS MAINFRAME-BASED ENERGY CONTROLS FOR HOMES
BOCA ROTAN, FL (NB) -- Teletimer International Inc. and Sears are
test-marketing a system to improve home energy efficiency by
linking appliances to a mainframe computer via cable TV. The
computer turns the appliances on and off based on time of day and
data gleaned from a local weather service. (If it rains, for
instance, the system won't turn on the lawn sprinkler.) President
Robert Brown talked to NEWSBYTES and said his system is nothing
like ICS' TranstexT test of last year, which tried to use energy
management functions to pay for a "gray box" controlling TVs,
security systems, and telephones. ICS was partly owned by phone
and power companies, for one thing, while Teletimer is an
independent public company (NASDAQ Symbol TLTM). "The power
company doesn't do anything. The cable company doesn't do
anything. We maintain the equipment at the cable office, and
Sears acts as our agent to install and service equipment in the
home."

What's it cost? There's a $35 installation fee for the first 3
items (heater, air conditioner, water heater) linked to the
system, plus $10 for each additional item (swimming pool
circulator, lawn sprinkler, toaster, etc.). Service charges are
$8/month for the first item controlled, $2/month for each
additional item. Teletimer has deals with South Florida cable
companies to expand his market penetration -- a national roll-out
will require product approval from the FCC and Underwriters'
Laboratories.

CONTACT: Robert Brown, TELETIMER INTERNATIONAL, [phone]

[***][11/17/87][***]
CONTROL DATA ENDS DRIVE PARTERSHIP WITH HONEYWELL BULL
MINNEAPOLIS, MN (NB) -- Control Data said November 9 it has
agreed to buy the 30% of Magnetic Peripherals Inc. it doesn't
already own from Honeywell Bull and Bull S.A. The two former
partners agreed to keep buying drives from the former
partnership, which has plants in the Twin Cities area and
Oklahoma City, OK. Earlier this year Control Data bought out
another former MPI partner, Unisys Corp., on friendly terms.
(No one can say Control Data lacks drive.)

Honeywell Bull, at least, must have needed the money. The company
announced November 10 it's laying off 1,600 people over the next
year, mostly in Phoenix and Boston. H-B is under the joint
control of Honeywell, Bull S.A. and NEC.

[***][11/17/87][***]
MERGER WATCH -- EDELMAN BID EXTENDED, FOREIGNERS MOVE IN
TULSA, OK (NB) -- New York arbitrageur Asher Edelman extended
his $65 per share offer for Telex Corp., a terminal maker, until
November 20, then announced on November 11 he might junk the
whole thing because of uncertainty in the "junk bond" market.
(Managers of Southland Corp., owner of the "7-11" chain of
convenience stores, have had trouble closing their deal.) This
was taken by Wall Street as a victory for Telex, which had
proposed a recapitalization plan of its own worth about
$60/share. While Edelman claims he has commitments for the $876.7
million needed to follow through on his offer, Wall Street
remains skeptical of both Edelman's and Telex' moves -- Telex'
stock price drifted down during the week from $55 to $50 per
share.

While the demise of junk bonds may hit the domestic takeover
business, the cheap dollar is spurring more takeover action from
foreigners. On November 13 Econocom Finance N.V. of the
Netherlands raised its bid for Decision Industries, a Horsham, PA
computer leasing firm, to $7 per share, and the company's shares
closed at $7.25 that afternoon on the New York Stock Exchange.

[***][11/17/87][***]
FISCAL SYSTEMS IMPROVES CASH REGISTER SUPPORT
HUNTSVILLE, AL (NB) -- Version 7.3 of Fiscal Systems' accounting
system runs cash registers as fast as they run themselves without
computers behind them. Vice president Ron Cochran this has long
been a major objection against putting computers near where sales
are rung up. (Another objection -- some merchants don't want all
cash sales posted.) The new version of the program, which runs
under Xenix, Unix, and DOS, also prints deposit receipts, and it
has a feature under which someone who has to go back for "one
more item" can have their check-out suspended while the line
moves forward. (That's a feature I like.)

One more thing. Cochran says he has yet to see any fall-out from
the October 19 stock-market crash, and that merchants are still
buying systems. "They're a little more cautious but not pulling
back," he says.

[***][11/17/87][***]
NORTH CAROLINA SOLONS TUSSLE OVER COMPUTER ACCESS
RALEIGH, NC (NB) -- North Carolina's legislature is controlled by
Democrats. Its governor is a Republican, Jim Martin. Martin's
agencies use a complex computer network. The legislators want
access to that network. House Appropriations Chairman Bill Watkins
told a Raleigh newspaper, "We are supposed to be given in writing
when we ask for it, what they have spend, what they spend it on
and any deviations from the line-item budget. We figure the most
accurate source of information is to tap their source. Then they
won't have to prepare those papers."

Republicans, however, suspect that what the Democrats really want
is fishing rights in their data pool. They have raised privacy
issues to deny them access to the network. "We're not going to
say yes or not until we understand the reason for the request"
said the governor's chief of staff. The governor's press
spokesman, Tim Pittman, told NEWSBYTES negotiations should take a
few weeks. The most likely result -- a node in the legislature's
office and passwords with limited access to the state's database.

CONTACT: Tim Pittman, STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA [phone]

[***][11/17/87][***]
TEXAS INSTRUMENTS, SAMSUNG SIGN CROSS-LICENSING PACT
DALLAS (NB) -- Texas Instruments and Samsung Semiconductor have
signed a cross-licensing agreement which will let Samsung market
dynamic RAMs which the International Trade Commission had ruled
infringe on TI patents. TI said the deal is similar to one signed
earlier this year with 8 Japanese chip-makers.

Why these deals matter -- PC clones are selling like hot cakes.
BUSINESS WEEK estimated recently 2.6 million will be sold this
year, mostly to people who want to use their office software at
home. Tandy, which assembles its machines in Fort Worth, TX, is
taking a big share of this market, but cross-licensing agreements
like this one assure that price competition from overseas will
remain very stiff. (Forget about the falling dollar here -- the
Korean win is tied to the dollar.)

[***][11/17/87][***]
HOW THEY KILL COMPUTERS IN NEW JERSEY
Readers of this column may recall our item on The Bullet Stop,
the Marietta, GA store where you can, for a fee, bring in your
computer and put it out of your misery the right way -- with an
Uzi. (Or a Thompson sub-machine gun. Your choice.) Unfortunately
Michael Case of Gillette, NJ didn't read that column. He was
arrested a few months ago after blowing away his IBM PC and its
Princeton Graphics monitor with an Israeli Arms Desert Eagle .44
pistol. He was released on $2,500 bail.  Why was Michael Case
charged and Bullet Stop computer-shooters not?  The Bullet Stop
is a commercial establishment.  Case shot the computer in his
own home. (A weak "oh" is heard.)

[***][11/17/87][***]
PECAN CHIPS

TANDY, Ft. Worth, said its October sales were $330.869 million,
up 14% from a year ago. The company also signed deals with DCA
and The Santa Cruz Operation so Radio Shack stores can sell IRMA
products and SCO Xenix 386.

FOX RESEARCH, Dayton, OH, changed its name to 10Net
Communications, after its popular Local Area Network product.
DCA, which owns the company, changed the name of Microstuf Inc.
to Crosstalk Communications earlier this year, after that
subsidiary's popular software program. (Now, will DCA change its
name to IRMA Corp., after its most popular product?)

DATA ACCESS, Miami, FL, dropped the price of the word processing
option on their Dataflex database from $189 to $69, and released
version 2.3 of the program supporting floating point and binary
arithmetic, graphics capabilities, and claims of 25% faster
processing.

UNISYS, Detroit, released the Advanced Police Information
Management System, a computer-aided dispatch and records
management solution for police forces. It uses a common database
and geographically-based address files for quicker analysis of
crime trends.

NO CHANGE SOFTWARE, Atlanta, announced Xchange, which allows
unattended file transfer between IBM PCs and compatibles. (That
means you can move stuff over the phone at night, when rates are
low.)

DATA RACE, San Antonio, announced a new line of PC-Race modems
working under the MNP protocol. You can get new features on these
new modems with plug-in modules. Prices are $595 for 2400 baud
products, $795 for 9600 baud.

HAYES, Norcross, GA, announced its support for the Link Access
Procedure (LAP) protocol. LAP and MNP are battling for dominance
in the 2400 baud and above market. CompuServe and Western Union
have added LAP service with Hayes modems, while Tymnet, Telenet
and GEnie support MNP.

ERGOSYST ASSOCIATES, Lawrence, KS, will publish "VDT Health and
Safety: Issues and Solutions" in December. The book summarizes
risks of using TV-like terminals and what can be done about them.
(NEWSBYTES SOUTH-MIDWEST uses a glass shield which contains lead.
Lots of lead.)

MERRITT COMPUTER PRODUCTS, Dallas, is selling "SafeSkin" keyboard
protectors, plastic sheets which fit over your keyboard's keys
and protect it from coffee, cat hair, and other office hazards.
Cost: $25-30, depending on your keyboard. (We tried the Model 100
version at Comdex. It works, but reduces keyboard feel a bit.)

MSA, Atlanta, announced its factory-automation subsidiary signed
deals to put data collection and time and attendance functions
into its software. Bar code readers and touchtone phone links
will be offered by Intermec Corp., Lynwood, WA, and Computer
Communications Specialists, Norcross, GA.

[***][11/17/87][***]
WHEN COMPUTERS CRASH IN WISCONSIN, THEY REALLY CRASH
OSHKOSH, WI (NB) -- A 50-pound computer fell out of the cargo pod
of a Northwest Airlink jet November 9 as it approached Oshkosh.
The computer was dead on arrival in the back yard of Mr. Ronald
Miller, but no one else was hurt. The FAA was notified of the
crash and all the liner's craft were checked for trouble.
Northwest Airlink, which is based in Atlanta, replaced the
machine, owned by Ron Olstad. (Sure hope the hard disk was
parked.)
====
[***][11/17/87][***]
ONTARIO FLOPPY DISK FACTORY IS WORLD'S LARGEST
ARNPRIOR, Ont. (NB) -- Where on earth is Arnprior?  It's a small
town of 6,000, 60 km west of Ottawa, and as of early November
it's the home of the largest diskette factory in the world.  Kao-
Didak Ltd., a Japanese-controlled firm, has opened a new plant
here that is expected to turn out 150 million 3.5-inch diskettes
a year by 1990.  Initial production will be about 24 million
diskettes a year.  The plant will operate 24 hours a day, seven
days a week.

Didak Manufacturing Ltd. was founded in Arnprior in 1983.  An
older factory on the site produces 5.25-inch diskettes.  In 1986,
Kao, a Japanese manufacturing firm, bought Didak.  Diskettes from
the new plant will be sold around the world, including Japan.

CONTACT: KAO-DIDAK LTD., [phone]

[***][11/17/87][***]
HACKER CHARGED AFTER INTRUSION, UNAUTHORIZED PHONE USE
BURLINGTON, Ont. (NB) -- A teenager was arrested after
Westinghouse Canada Ltd. complained that someone had tapped into
its computer system and used company data lines to call other
computers, running up thousands of  dollars of long-distance
bills.  The name of the 17-year-old can't be released because of
Canada's Young Offenders Act.  After Westinghouse contacted
police in October, calls to the company's computer were traced to
a home in Burlington where the youth was using a Commodore 64
computer.  The suspects records refer to five other corporate
computer systems that may have been used illegally, but no
charges have been laid in connection with these.

[***][11/17/87][***]
NELMA DEBENTURE CALLED, BUT PRESIDENT SAYS EVERYTHING OKAY
MISSISSAUGA, Ont. (NB) -- Ron Wilson, president of Nelma
Information Inc., says his company has arranged to defer payment
of a debenture until December 21.  The debenture was called on
November 6, prompting Nelma to announce that it faced severe cash
problems and to ask the Ontario Securities Commission to suspend
over-the-counter trading in company stock.  But Wilson said Nov.
11 that the payment has been deferred and Nelma will have no
problem making the payment next month.  Nelma stock resumed
trading Nov. 11, he said.

Wilson also said that Nelma, which formerly manufactured wireless
communications equipment, has laid off all its employees, will in
future be a holding company and will not manufacture any products
of its own.  Nelma holds a stake in Browning Communications Inc.
which shares its premises and continues to manufacture wireless
communications hardware.

Nelma's own telephone line was out of service early in the week,
and NEWSBYTES CANADA reached Wilson through Browning
Commnications.

An executive with a Toronto firm that formerly supplied services
to Nelma said the company owes money to his firm and several
other suppliers.  In the nine months ended March 31, Nelma lost
C$436,000 on revenues of C$704,000.

CONTACT: NELMA INFORMATION INC., [phone]
         BROWNING COMMUNICATIONS INC., [phone]

[***][11/17/87][***]
BELL CANADA, GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS LAUNCH ISDN TESTS
OTTAWA (NB) -- Telecommuting, data and voice transmission over
the same telephone lines and advanced telephone features will all
be part of trials of the Integrated Services Digital Network
(ISDN) that began in three Canadian government departments at the
start of November.

Luc Fournier, project manager for ISDN trials at the Department
of Communications, said the first phase of trials will last a
year.  Staff at the department will be able to autodial telephone
numbers from databases on their personal computers, and the PCs
will also identify the originators of incoming calls if they are
participants in the trial.  Users will also be able to exchange
data between their PCs over telephone lines, making it possible
for some employees to work at home.

Bell Canada is conducting the trials with the Department of
Communications, the Department of Industry, Science and
Technology, the Department of National Defence and the Government
Telecommunications Agency, an arm of the DOC that is co-
ordinating the whole project from the government's end.

Fournier said the government has no firm figures on potential
cost savings, but he believes the potential is substantial,
especially in future phases when intercity communications would
be provided.

[***][11/17/87][***]
CMQ TO REMAIN SEPARATE ENTITY, HOPES TO GAIN FROM TELERATE BUYOUT
TORONTO (NB) -- CMQ Communications Inc., the Toronto financial
information vendor purchased by Telerate Systems Inc., will
continue to operate as a separate entity although the two
companies' businesses are similar.  Robert Bartolotta, spokesman
for CMQ, said CMQ is primarily a stock-quotation service while
Telerate's focus is on fixed-income investments, foreign exchange
and government securities as well as news services.  CMQ has been
a Canadian distributor for Telerate since 1979, and now hopes its
connection with Telerate will help it expand its own markets in
the U.S.

CONTACT: CMQ COMMUNICATIONS INC., 55 Yonge St., Suite 1102,
         Toronto, Ont., M5E 1J4, [phone]

[***][11/17/87][***]
SOFTWARE PACKAGE HELPS PICK THE WINNERS
QUEBEC (NB) -- Appropriately, the recent Comdex show in Las Vegas,
with its background of slot machines and roulette tables, would
have been a fitting place for Spencer-Jones Inc. to introduce its
new software package.  But the C$29.95 program is selling well
enough without a Comdex debut, according to company president
Dennis Jones.  His package, Lotomania, helps lottery enthusiasts
choose their numbers for an assortment of Canadian lotteries, and
a U.S. version is being developed.

Lotomania's main virtue appears to be that it helps people
overcome their biases toward certain numbers.  Jones says studies
by the operators of Canada's provincial lotteries have found
certain numbers are more popular than others.  Lotomania relies
partly on random-number generation and partly on a database of
past winning numbers to recommend numbers that are less commonly
chosen and that have come up less frequently than others.  Jones
points out that statistically, every number should come up about
the same number of times in a large enough number of draws.  If
you've taken a university statistics course, you know that
doesn't prove anything about the odds on a particular drawing.
His second point may stand up better: if you choose numbers that
are generally unpopular, then when you do win you're likely to
share the prize with fewer people.

Lotomania runs on IBM PCs and most compatibles.

CONTACT: SPENCER-JONES INC., [phone]

[***][11/17/87][***]
INSURANCE SOFTWARE PROVIDER LINKS WITH DEC
MONTREAL (NB) -- Real Time Ltd. has signed a Systems Co-operative
Marketing Program agreement with Digital Equipment of Canada Ltd.,
under which the two companies will work together to sell DEC hardware
running Real Time's software for the insurance and financial services
sector.  Maurice Coulter, vice-president of Real Time, said the
move represents a step in broadening his company's hardware base.

In its original service bureau business, Real Time used hardware
from Geac Computer Corp. of Markham, Ont., which recently emerged
from receivership after a bout of financial difficulties.
Coulter said Real Time did not actively promote use of its
software on Geac equipment during the hardware vendor's financial
crisis, although it still uses Geac hardware in its own data
centre.  He said renewed support for Geac is a possibility now
that the company is out of receivership.

[***][11/17/87][***]
CANADIAN COMPUTER SHOW TIME AGAIN
TORONTO (NB) -- It's not quite Comdex, but it's the major
gathering of the Canadian computer industry nonetheless.  About
150 exhibitors and several thousand visitors gather at the
Toronto International Centre of Commerce this week for the
Canadian Computer Show and Conference.  NEWSBYTES CANADA will be
there to report on new products and other developments.

[***][11/17/87][***]
BITS, EH?
-- ACCUGRAPH CORP., Toronto-based vendor of computer-aided design
software, lost C$5.3 million in the year ended Aug. 31, compared
with C$712,000 in the previous year.  Revenues were C$22.9
million, up from C$9.8 million.

-- ALL COMPUTERS INC., Toronto,  now supports the PC-MOS/386
operating system from The Software Link of Atlanta.  The Charge
Card, a memory expansion board produced by All Computers, now
works with the 386-based operating system.

-- THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO is negotiating for a C$8 million
grant from the Ontario provincial government to keep its
supercomputer centre in operation.  The centre has been having
trouble attracting corporate clients to help support it.

-- SUN MICROSYSTEMS OF CANADA INC., Markham, Ont., has appointed
Dave Black to the post of president.  Black has been general
manager since the Canadian subsidiary of Sun Microsystems Inc.
opened in 1985.

-- COGNOS INC. of Ottawa has appointed Terry Hall as general
manager of its Canadian sales operations.


[***][11/17/87][***]
NEC'S PARALLEL PROCESSING ARCHITECTURE
TOKYO (NB) -- The NIKKEI SANGYO Daily reports NEC has developed
a parallel processing architecture.  Supporting up to 100
microprocessor units at a time, the new architecture efficiently
divides the input data into several modules for simultaneous
calculation.  In this way, various arithmetic calculations can be
done at an extremely fast speed, says the report.  NEC will soon
build an actual computer system based on the architecture.  With
the system, very powerful and effective simulation programs for
stock analysis and commodity prices can be produced in the
future... to avoid the crash in the stock market, we hope.

CONTACT: NEC, 1-4-28 Mita, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108

[***][11/17/87][***]
KANJI DTP SOFTWARE FOR VAX
TOKYO (NB) -- Japan Digital Equipment Corp. has signed an
agreement with a Japanese software house, Dynaware (Osaka),
and has developed a Japanese desktop publishing program for the
VAX computer.  DeskUp-EX runs on Japan DEC's VAX station 2000
and the II/GPX.  The program supports scanners and videotex
terminals for graphic data input.  The price is $2,963 for the
VAX station 2000, and $4,444 for the II/GPX.

CONTACT: Japan Digital Equipment Corp., 35F Sunshine-60,
         3-1-1 Higashi-Ikebukuro, Toshima-ku, Tokyo 170

[***][11/17/87][***]
IBM JAPAN TO SELL NON-IBM PRODUCT
TOKYO (NB) -- IBM Japan has again made an unprecedented decision.
This time the company has announced it will sell a third party
software product called Cross-Software.  Cross-Software, developed
by Software Assist (Tokyo), has various application programs for
microprocessor units for cars and home electronics appliances.
It covers microprocessor units between 4-bit through the 32-bit range.

CONTACT: IBM Japan, 3-2-12 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106

[***][11/17/87][***]
TI JAPAN GETS READY FOR 4M & 16M CHIP PRODUCTION
TOKYO (NB) -- Texas Instruments Japan will build a production
line for its 16M dynamic RAM at its Miura plant (Ibaraki pref.)
in two years.  TI is currently developing a 16M DRAM at its
semiconductor laboratory in Dallas.  TI Japan will also expand
its IC clean room at the plant, and get ready for volume
production of a 4M DRAM.  With the extra facility, the company
will be able to double the production rate of its 4M DRAM, from
20,000 to 40,000 sets a month.

CONTACT: Texas Instruments Japan, Aoyama-Fuji Bldg. 4F, 3-6-12
         Kita-Aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107

[***][11/17/87][***]
CRAY-IBM SOFTWARE LINK
TOKYO (NB) -- Cray Japan will ship a telecommunication program to
interconnect its supercomputers with IBM's computers, through
application programs.  With SuperLink/MVS, both the Cray X-MP and
Cray-2 can be connected with IBM's MVS operating system-based
general purpose computers.  According to a report, Cray Japan has
also begun to develop similar programs for the computers of
Fujitsu, Hitachi, and NEC.

CONTACT: Cray Japan, 6-4 Ichiban-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo

[***][11/17/87][***]
AMERICAN CRAY-CLONE INVADES JAPAN
TOKYO (NB) -- The California-based supercomputer venture
Supertek will set up a subsidiary in Tokyo next May.  The
company plans to sell its latest model, the Supertek S-1, which
is compatible with Cray's supercomputers.  The clone computer
reportedly runs all of the programs for the Cray X-MP series.  It
performs 40 million-times of floating point arithmetic
calculations per second (40M FLOPS).  Supertek is also planning
to release a 320M-FLOPS model in two years, says a report.  The
big advantage of Supertek's clones are the prices, which are
almost one-tenth of Cray's counterpart.  Wow!

[***][11/17/87][***]
TRON-BASED STANDARD NETWORK INTERFACE
TOKYO (NB) -- Japan's telecommunication giant NTT has developed
a TRON-based potential standard network interface, in cooperation
with major Japanese electronics firms.  The C-TRON Interface
Protocol includes network protocols to connect a basic operating
system and an expanded operating system, and expanded operating
system and application programs.  Currently the TRON Association is
making both Japanese and English documents for the protocol, and
is planning to release it by the end of the year.  Then the
companies will make a prototype machine to test the protocol.
The participating companies are NEC, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Oki,
Toshiba, and Mitsubishi.

CONTACT: Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp., 1-1-6 Uchisaiwaicho,
         Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100

[***][11/17/87][***]
POCKET LANGUAGE TRANSLATION GADGET FOR FIVE LANGUAGES
TOKYO (NB) -- Sharp has developed a pocket-size instant language
translation machine, the PA-6100, for overseas tourists.  The
gadget has a small LCD, and is equipped with a multiple language
translation feature for five languages, including Japanese,
French, Chinese, Korean, and Spanish.  Although the vocabulary
for each language is limited (with only 650 words), it has 360
simple conversational sentences, which will be useful for
traveling abroad.  With the designated keys, it's fairy easy to
pop up speeches for appropriate situations, such as for shopping,
dining at a restaurant, making airline reservations, or exchanging
money at banks.  With 14,800 yen or $110, the gadget fits
inside a  shirt pocket.  Sorry, English isn't one of the languages
included!

CONTACT: Sharp, 22-22 Nagaike-cho, Abeno-ku, Osaka-shi, Osaka-fu
         545, Japan

[***][11/17/87][***]
PROTOTYPE PAPER BATTERY DEVELOPED
TOKYO (NB) -- Matsushita Electronics and Synthetic Rubber Corp.
have jointly developed a sheet-type electricity conductive
material.  The raw stock, representing a world breakthrough, is only
0.04-inch thick and is flexible.  With this material, a paper
battery can be produced.  It can be equipped with semiconductors,
IC cards, and personal computers.  Matsushita Electronics says it
will commercialize the material for IC cards in two years.

CONTACT: Matsushita Electronics, 1006 Ooaza-Kadoma, Kadoma-shi,
         Osaka-fu 571

[***][11/17/87][***]
STEP TO SECURITIES BUSINESS FIELD: FAMILY COMPUTER
TOKYO (NB) -- Three major Japanese securities firms, Shinnihon,
Wako, and Okasan, will launch the Family Computer-based Home Trade
Service for stocks next spring.  The three firms have already
started to set up online access methods for the Family Computers.
Meanwhile, another major securities firm, Nomura, will start the
actual service for the gadget around spring.  The company has
already finished testing the network with Nintendo, the developer
of Family Computer.  Family Computer is a low-cost high-quality
game machine which has sold to the tune of 10 million systems in Japan.

[***][11/17/87][***]
<<< SUSHI BYTES >>>

EXTEDED OS/2 DUE IN MID-1988 -- IBM Japan says it will release
extended OS/2 for the PS/55 series, the Japanese language version
of the PS/2, around the middle of next year.  The main features
are communication functions, called IMS and CICS, which allow
personal computers to control IBM's large-scale computers.

IBM'S PROGRAMMING TOOL -- IBM Japan has shipped  PL/I-based
programming software, IBM Knowledge Tool.  It has a basic
function of AI database, and can be used to develop software
for clerical and scientific & technical calculation under a
procedural programming language environment.

SANYO'S 68020 WORKSTATION -- Sanyo Electronics, Osaka, will
start marketing its 68020 workstation in Japan.  The workstation was
developed by Micon Systems & Software (Utah, USA), and is
currently sold in the U.S.  The workstation has three 68020 MPUs
and supports Japanese UNIX, MS-DOS, and IBM's 3700S.  It runs at
5MIPS, and connects 128 terminal computers at maximum.

OLIVETTI-CANON'S LASER PRINTER ALLY -- Olivetti-Canon Industrial
Corp. (Italy), an office equipment venture of Olivetti and Canon,
has started to develop a next generation laser printer.  Olivetti-
Canon is already planning to export the product to Japan.

FUJITSU RESUMES SUPERCOMPUTER SUPPLY TO SIEMENS -- Settlement of the
software copyright dispute with IBM has brought more good
news to Fujitsu.  The company has recently received orders of
supercomputers from West Germany's Siemens at the rate of 40
systems per year starting next April.  Siemens stopped the
orders during the dispute with IBM.

JAPANESE VP BORN -- Chairman Toshiaki Irie of Motorola Japan has
been appointed as the executive vice president for the U.S. head-
quarter.  Mr. Irie is the first Japanese VP at Motorola's
headquarters.

NS JAPAN'S NEW PRESIDENT -- National Semiconductor Japan has
announced that William Watson has assumed the office as president.  NS
Japan will officially merge with Fairchild Japan on December 1.

PERSONAL COMPUTER OUTPUT REPORT -- According to the Japanese
Electronics Industry Support Organization (Tokyo), personal
computer output was increased by 3% in the first half of fiscal
1987.  The sales volume was $2.6 billion, which is a 16%
increase.  The sales volume for the displays went up by 1.5
times, while printer sales volume increased by 36%.

OPTICAL DISK STANDARD -- The Japanese Ministry of International
Trade and Industry reports an international standard of optical
disks for ISO (International Standardization Organization) is
expected to be set up before next June.  The Japan Industrial
standard will also be set up following the ISO standard.

"BULL" SETS UP SUBSIDIARY IN JAPAN -- One of the biggest French
computer companies, Bull, will set up a subsidiary called Bull Japan in
Tokyo next April.  The company is expected to focus on the sales
of various cards, including credit cards, cash cards, telephone
cards, and ID cards.  Currently, Bull has business ties with
NEC concerning computers.

TATEISHI'S MNP MODEM -- Tateishi Electronics, Kyoto, will ship
the intelligent modem MD2400, based on the MNP standard.  It
supports up to 2,400bps and Hayes' AT commands.  The price is
$443.  So far, that's the cheapest MNP modem in Japan.

JAPANESE INDONESIAN LANGUAGE TRANSLATION SYSTEM -- The Japanese
and the Indonesian governments have agreed to jointly develop a
Japanese-Indonesian language translation system.  The system will
have 50,000 words for the basic dictionary, and 25,000 words for the
information processing field.  The complete system is expected to
be developed within six years.

[***][11/17/87][***]
<<< FINANCIAL BITS >>>

SHARP INCREASES OVERSEAS PRODUCTION -- Sharp, Osaka, has
announced it expects to produce $1.7-billion worth of products
outside Japan during fiscal 1987.  That's a 23-percent increase
over the same period in the previous term.  Meanwhile, the
company's export volume will decrease by 11 percent this year.

RICOH ENJOYS 40% PROFIT INCREASE -- Ricoh, Tokyo, will gain a
$193 million profit, which is a 40% increase, in this fiscal
year.  The company's export volume of information processing
products is expected to increase by 35.5%.



[***][11/17/87][***]
NEXT INC. MAY SHUN MOTOROLA FOR NATIONAL - ***EXCLUSIVE***
MUNICH, WEST GERMANY (NB) -- NEWSBYTES EUROPE has learned that
Steven Jobs's new company, Next Inc. is considering use of the National
Semi's 32532 microprocessor chip as the "brains" of its coming workstation
instead of the Motorola 68030, as suggested by press reports.

Apparently Next Inc. has received samples of the 35532 chip, which are
said to be faster and more capable than the 68030 chip because
they include cache-on-chip (the means the get data into the CPU
almost instantly), dynamic address translation (which means they can
use virtual memory - that is a disk as main memory) and 30MHz
instruction execution.

As previously reported, Next Inc. is working on an advanced workstation
that will have exceptional graphics capabilities. Jobs, once chief of
Apple's Mac development, has stated that computer users need technology
that conveys computer instructions with simple symbols.  And this is
where graphics are important. The Mac, for example, uses icons (little
graphics pictures) to show where various things are so that files
can be copied, erased, etc.

Such simple operations also require speed.  And this speed is
accomplished with fast CPU chips, such as National Semiconductor's
32532. This is the latest and most powerful CPU available from
National and it is shipping now. When asked to comment on this
rumour, Bill Calahan of National Semiconductor said, "I can not
confirm one way or the other about this rumour. Basically I doubt
we would be able to make any comment on this point unless Next
Inc. actually allows us, which I do not see happening."

Is Jobs moving away from the world of Motorola?  This and other
questions will be answered in future installments of NEWSBYTES.

[***][11/17/87][***]
BULL RELEASES NEW LAPTOP SYSTEM
PARIS, FRANCE (NB)  -- Bull, the huge French computer maker,
has released a new laptop computer called L'attache (cliche).
The system looks very much like the Datavue Spark but is
dressed in white and uses the 80C88 chip at 4.77 MHZ (NEWSBYTES
EUROPE suggests we look for a new, improved and more expensive
system running at 8MHz in a few months).  The L'attache weighs
less than 5kg (11lbs). The system comes with 640K of RAM, and a 720K
3.5 inch floppy. Options include a 20MB hard disk drive.

CONTACT: Bull, Paris, France Tel:[phone] Tlx: 614050

[***][11/17/87][***]
IMAGE PROCESSING SYSTEM FROM FRANCE
LES ULIS, FRANCE (NB) -- A new image processing system has been
introduced by Digital Design, a French company based in Les Ulis,
near Paris. The system uses the VME bus which allows connections to a
SUN workstation as well as graphics modules, and offers image
acquisition and display processing. A library of over 200 image
processing routines are available, including dithering, rotation
and Fourier tranforms.

Since the system is based on the SUN workstation, it can be
networked with other workstations or computer systems through an
Ethernet connection which supports TCP/IP, such as DECnet or NFS.

CONTACT: Digital Design, 17 Avenue de Norvege, SA Orsay-
         Courtaboeuf, 91940 Les Ulis, France Tel:[phone]

[***][11/17/87][***]
CHEAP 386 CLONE AVAILABLE NOW IN GERMANY
GERMERING, WEST GERMANY (NB) -- Schuhco, a West German computer
distributor, is offering a low-priced series of 386-based machines
called the Ivy series. The systems, which look similar to the IBM AT,
offer 16 and 20MHz speeds and a price of DM 7200 (US$ 3800). This
includes 1.2MB floppy disk, 1MB of RAM, a 40MB hard disk, 8 slots,
1 serial port, 2 parallel ports, monochrome screen and adapter, as
well as Hercules color card compatibility. The price even beats PC's
Limited's 386 system in Germany, where the dollar is currently taking
a dive.

CONTACT: SCHUCO GMBH, Goethestrasse 17, 8034 Germering, West
         Germany, Tel: [phone]

[***][11/17/87][***]
WILL OLIVETTI RECOVER THIS YEAR?
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM (NB) -- What does Olivetti do to gain
customers back from archrival IBM? One method was demonstrated
recently.  Olivetti chartered a plane and flew customers to Milan
for a one day sales pitch.  But analysts suggest more than free
trips are needed to provide Olivetti with better leverage against
the weight of IBM.

Analysts say Olivetti's faltering performance in the European
market stems from its efforts to copy IBM. Here in Europe, IBM
is an even more powerful force than it is in the U.S., and Olivetti's
"do better" attitude is expected to cost the company a huge drop
in profits when financial figures are released shortly.

When IBM introduced the PS/2 series, Olivetti tried to make
machines compatible with the PS/2 series. Thus the M240 and
M380/C machines were born.  Olivetti will try to outdo IBM again
this week when it introduces new minicomputers, purchased from
Arizona's Edge Computer, that are designed to compete with IBM's
9370 and DEC machines.

[***][11/17/87][***]
EUROPEAN NETWORKS SHOW SMALL IMPROVEMENT IN PERFORMANCE
BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (NB) -- Eusidic, the European association of
information services, has issued its second list and comparative
report of performance for European communications networks.
3500 people responded to the association's survey in the first
year, 5700 this year.

Failures by country of destination range from Austria with no
reported failures to the Netherlands with a 54% failure rate.
Germany had a 25% failure, France 26%, the United Kingdom 30%
while the US had 28%. The average is 29% for the list
which comprises 15 countries.

Failures by origin average 31.6% and include Norway with 17%, the
lowest, to a high of 47% for Spain, the highest. France had 44%
while the UK had 28% failure.

Finally, the rate of failures to target countries from all the
European countries polled, ranged from a high of 31% in the UK to a
low of 26% in Switzerland. The US had a 28% failure rate for this
period.

NEWSBYTES EUROPE can attest to the unreliable nature of the local phone
networks.  In calling the local node in Brussels, for a total of
about 100 calls made in a month, one in two gets lost or is disconnected.

[***][11/17/87][***]
COMPUTER BRIEFS.....

SGS/THOMPSON and ALCATEL have signed a contract on commercial
and technical cooperation. Alcatel is number one in the
telecommunications marketplace (since its acquisition of ITT's
European operations) while Thomspon recently bought SGS, the
Italian chip manufacturing firm.


RE2I, a French firm, is going to develop network controllers in
conjunction with Western Digital. The company also signed an
agreement with Multitech for a modem card.

NORMEREL, a French company, has signed an agreement with Memorex to
distribute Memorex's new AT compatible system. The contract calls
for 15000 systems at a total cost of $15 million.

DEC decreases maintenance prices for its series of systems
including the VAX 8200, 8300, 8500 8550 and Decserver 200 from
31% to 17%.

VENTURA, Xerox's software, is now available in French from ACT
systems, the official distributors of Xerox software in France.
Version 1.1 also includes conversion programs for documents created
with Multimate, Word Perfect and other word processors.

FREELANCE from Lotus is now available in French. The program runs on
MS-DOS compatible systems, offers powerful graphics facilities, and
has a library of more than 400 symbols.

A C INTERPRETER is now available for the Atari ST and runs on
Digital Research's GEM environment. Fault correction, finding and
speed are some of the program's capabilities. The program called
"Interpreter-C" will be available in December and requires a Mega
ST.

The MACINTOSH now speaks Arabic, thanks to the efforts of DIWAN,
a British company with a product called Alnashir. Alnashir software,
based on Ready-Set-Go desktop publishing software from Letraset,
supports Arabic characters, as well as Urdu and Malay. Its cost
is about USD$600.

IBM GERMANY has a new Managing Director, Mr. Gert Muller, who, upon
coming into office, offered the position of marketing director for
the Hamburg office to Bernhard Dorn.

MAC IIs will be able to exchange information at very high speeds
in the near future, according to results just announced at the
Telecommunication Conference in Munich, West Germany. The VAR systems
will have a 2.56Mbit/s speed over the newly created carrier,
LanStar Appletalk, as demonstrated by Northern Telecom recently.
The cost per workstation is expected to be in the region of
US$300.

ERICSSON, the Swedish giant in telecommunications, announced a
profit rise of 23% to US$75 million while revenues advanced to
US$ 3.65 billion in the first nine months of 1987. Even though
the figures appear to present a healthy picture of the company, analysts
said it showed "a dismal performance."


[***][11/17/87][***]
E D I T O R I A L .... November 17 - November 28, 1987

        ACTION ALERT!!!   LETTERS AND PHONE CALLS NEEDED NOW!!!

           ASSEMBLY CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT No. 36 (MOORE),
                  AN INFORMATION AGE "BILL OF RIGHTS"

                          from Bob Jacobson

    On March 6, 1987, Assemblywoman Gwen Moore, chairwoman of the Assembly
Utilities and Commerce Committee, introduced Assembly Constitutional
Amendment No. 36 (ACA 36), an information age "Bill of Rights."  This bill
will extend to electronic communicators First Amendment-type rights, the
same rights currently enjoyed by those who speak or publish in California.
It will also protect personal data stored in computer databases from illegal
search and seizure, just as more traditional personal property is protected
today.  (The full text follows.)

    Despite its obvious "rightness," ACA 36's passage is not a foregone
conclusion:  it needs your help to become law.  How you can help is detailed
below.

    Why is ACA 36 necessary?  For two reasons.  First, although California
statutes contain a number of strong computer crime measures aimed at
deterring antisocial use of computer technology, they make no affirmative
statement encouraging *legitimate* use of computers.  Second, experts are
concerned that the federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act, passed by
Congress in 1986, may not protect intrastate computer communications from
the same threats that provoked Congress to pass the federal law.  In 1985,
law enforcement agents demanded from The Source access to its records of
electronic mail.  The Source refused to release these records, claiming
that to do so would "chill" future use of computer communications.  The
agents relented (capturing their suspect by conventional means), but the
chill factor was enough to convince Congress to enact the ECPA.  However,
federal protections may only exist for interstate computer communications.
Hence, ACA 36 was introduced in California.

    If ACA 36 is passed by a 2/3 majority in each house of the Legislature,
it will go on the November 1988 general election ballot for ratification by
the voters.  It will then amend the California Constitution.  ACA 36 is
currently supported by the California Library Association, the American
Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the California Trial Lawyers Association, and
the Southern California Sysops Association.  There is no opposition to this
bill, which was amended to remove technical concerns voiced by the
California District Attorneys Association and the Attorney General.

    ACA 36 was voted on for the first time in April 1987 by the Assembly
Utilities and Commerce Committee, where it passed on a bipartisan 11-0 vote.
However, in August 1987, the Assembly Elections, Reapportionment, and
Constitutional Amendments Committee defeated ACA 36 on a 4-3 vote, with the
three Republican members present all voting "no."  The Assembly Elections
Committee, on appeal by Assemblywoman Moore, rescheduled the bill for a
January 1988 rehearing.

    What can you do to help assure passage of ACA 36?  Most importantly,
you can write or call to the chairman, vice-chairman, and members of the
Assembly Elections Committee, expressing your support for ACA 36.  Keep your
letters to one well-reasoned page, and send copies to Assemblywoman Moore
at the address below.  Following is a list of the members of the Assembly
Elections Committee.  If you haven't time to write each member, then send
a letter to the chairman and vice-chairman.  If one of these members is your
representative to the Assembly, your letter will carry special weight.  The
address of the Assembly Elections Committee is State Capitol, Room 5119,
P.O. Box 942849, Sacramento, CA 94249-0001.

    PETER R. CHACON, Chairman (D-San Diego, 619-232-2405)
    RICHARD L. MOUNTJOY, Vice-Chairman, (R-Arcadia, 818-446-3134)

    WILLIAM P. BAKER (R-Walnut Creek, 415-932-2537)
    TOM BANE (D-Van Nuys, 818-986-8090)
    DENNIS L. BROWN (R-Long Beach, 213-493-5514)
    GARY A. CONDIT (D-Modesto, 209-576-6211)
    DAVE ELDER (D-Long Beach, 213-590-5009)
    JOHAN KLEHS (D-San Leandro, 415-464-0847)
    JOHN R. LEWIS (R-Orange, 714-998-0980)
    BURT MARGOLIN (D-W.LA., 213-655-9750)

    You can also reach the Committee consultant (staff director),
BARBARA MILMAN, at 916-445-7610.  The Republican consultant, JIM CALDWELL,
can be reached at 916-445-3260.  Your call can help inform these important
analysts about the importance, from your point of view, of ACA 36.

    ASSEMBLYWOMAN MOORE and her adviser, BOB JACOBSON, can be reached at
916-445-8800.  Or, you can send mail to her at:  State Capitol, Room 2117,
P.O. Box 942849, Sacramento, CA 94249-0001.

    Take a moment now and write that brief note or make that phone call.
Electronic communications are too important to be taken lightly, but without
ACA 36, they remain at risk.  This bill is in every Californian's interest.

    Remember, the rights you gain are the rights you earn!
============================================================
ASSEMBLY CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT                     NO. 36
============================================================

            Introduced by Assembly Member Moore

          (Principal Coauthor:  Senator Doolittle)

                 Introduced:  March 6, 1987

============================================================

    Assembly Constitutional Amendment No. 36--A resolution
to propose to the people of the State of California an
amendment to the Constitution of the State, by amending
subdivision (a) of Section 2 and Section 13 of Article I
thereof, relating to electronic communications, information
systems, and computer data bases.

                LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

    ACA 36, as introduced, Moore.  Electronic communications,
information systems, and computer data bases.

    The California Constitution guarantees the freedom to
speak, write, and publish on all subjects and prohibits
abridgement of the liberty of speech or press.

    This measure would guarantee the right to electronically
communicate on all subjects and would provide that a law may
not restrain or abridge liberty of electronic communications.

    The California Constitution also guarantees the right of
the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and
effects against unreasonable seizures and searches.  A
warrant may not issue unless it particularly describes the
place to be searched.

    This measure would specify that personal information
stored in electronic information systems and computer data
bases is included in the search and seizure guarantees.

    Vote:  2/3.  Appropriation:  no.  Fiscal committee:  no.
State-mandated local program:  no.

============================================================
                          [Text]

    RESOLVED by the Assembly, the Senate concurring, That
the Legislature of the State of California at its 1987-88
Regular Session commencing on the first day of December 1986,
two-thirds of the members elected to each of the two houses
of the Legislature voting therefor, hereby proposes to the
people of the State of California that the Constitution of
the State be amended as follows:

    First--That subdivision (a) of Section 2 of Article I
thereof is amended to read:

    SEC.2.  (a) Every person may freely speak, write [and],
publish, or electronically communicate his or her
sentiments on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse
of this right.  A law may not restrain or abridge liberty
of speech [or], press, or electronic communication.

    Second--That Section 13 of Article I thereof is amended
to read:

    SEC.13.  The right of the people to be secure in their
persons, houses, papers, and effects, including personal
information stored in electronic information systems and
computer data bases, against unreasonable seizures and
searches may not be violated; and a warrant may not issue
except on probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation,
particularly describing the place to be searched and the
persons and things to be seized.
 ====
[***][11/17/87][***]
REAGAN CITES MICROSOFT - HITS BRAZIL WITH TRADE SANCTIONS
WASHINGTON (NB) -- President Reagan has imposed $105 million in
tariffs on Brazilian exports and embargoed imports of Brazilian
computer products in retaliation for Brazilian protection of its
market from U.S. computer hardware and software. In a written
statement, Reagan cited the decision by Brazil to keep
Microsoft's MS-DOS operating system out of the country as a
specific case of Brazilian protectionism. The Microsoft decision,
Reagan said, "establishes a precedent which effectively bans U.S.
companies from the Brazilian software market. It is also likely
to increase piracy of foreign software since demand for the
prohibited product will continue."

Washington was ready to impose sanctions earlier, but backed away
for fear of spoiling a visit by Brazilian President Jose Sarney
to the U.S. Sarney has defended Brazil's protectionism on
computers as necessary to aid the infant computer industry in
Brazil. But as a result of Brazilian policy, computer makers in
the country are routinely ripping off American hardware and
software copyrights. U.S. journalists have seen evidence, for
example, of exact copies of Apple's Macintosh computer, as well
as operating system for IBM PCs and clones that is obviously a
direct lift from Microsoft. Under pressure from Washington,
Brazilian lawmakers have been moving toward passage of
legislation that would grant copyright protection to American
software.

[***][11/17/87][***]
BELL ATLANTIC TO APPEAL COMPUTER YELLOW PAGES RULING
PHILADELPHIA (NB) -- Bell Atlantic will appeal a federal
court ruling that forbids regional telephone operating companies
from publishing electronic Yellow Pages. The company may also
challenge the parts of the ruling by District Court Judge Harold
Greene that prevents the Baby Bells from engaging in
manufacturing and in offering long distance service. Thomas
Bolger, Bell Atlantic chairman, says his company "will argue that
our First Amendment rights are being violated" by Greene's ban on
offering online telephone directory services. The six other
regional telephone companies have also served notice that they
intend to appeal Greene's September ruling.

[***][11/17/87][***]
NEW PROGRAM GENERATOR FOR DBASE DEVELOPERS
RINGWOOD, N.J. (NB) -- Osprey Business Services is marketing a
new program generator for dBase developers working with Clipper
or Foxbase. The $695 Sycero is more powerful than other dBase
program generators, according to Osprey Assistant Vice President
Bob Jefferies, allowing all work to be done from within the
program generator. "It has none of the handicaps of other dBase
program generators," Jefferies said. The program also allows
developers to incorporate external command libraries into its
definitions.

CONTACT: Peter Bale, Osprey Business Services, 97 Outer Vista
         Dr., Ringwood N.J., 07456, 201-831-9609.

[***][11/17/87][***]
EXPECT SOLID BUT UNSPECTACULAR INDUSTRY GROWTH, SAYS IBM
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (NB) -- The information industry can look
forward to six-to-eight percent annual growth over the next five
years, says Allen Krowe, senior vice president at International
Business Machines Corp. That's well under the 14 percent annual
growth rate of the 1980-1984 period, but better than no-growth
period of the past two years. Speaking at the Seybold Executive
Forum, Krowe said the information industry will continue to be
the "fastest growing industry of all."

[***][11/17/87][***]
JAPAN PUSHING COMPANIES ON U.S. IMPORTS
WASHINGTON (NB) -- Japan's Ministry of International Trade and
Industry is pushing hard on domestic companies to get them to buy
more U.S.-made chips, according to Reagan administration sources.
They say MITI officials have met with Kyocera Corp. and other
large chip consumers to encourage them to buy American. The move
follows Washington's decision to lift another $84 million in
punitive tariffs because Japan has stopped dumping chips in third
countries. But Washington kept some trade sanction in place
against Japan because U.S. semiconductor makers complained they
are still being shut out of the lucrative Japanese domestic
market.

[***][11/17/87][***]
THE TINIEST LAPTOP
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (NB) -- "It's not a computer, it's a
telecommunications terminal," insists Jan Roosenburg, president
of Text Lite Communications. The company's PX-2000 is 10 inches
long, four inches wide, and inch and a half thick, and weighs in
at just over a pound and a half. It features an eight-line by 80
column screen, a "chicklet" keyboard, built-in word processing, TTY
telecommunications emulation, a 1200-baud acoustic modem that
fits any telephone receiver, and 24K memory modules that a user
can carry around by the handful. Currently, the machine also has
a built-in spreadsheet, but Roosenburg plans to can that in favor
of built-in DEC VT100 emulation. "I don't think people want [the
spreadsheet]," Roosenburg told NEWSBYTES. The $995 device, which
Roosenburg says is aimed at insurance companies, sales forces,
and service operations that need electronic mail capability, will
be on sale in January.

CONTACT: Text Lite Communications, 118 North Saint Asaph St.,
     Alexandria VA, 22314.

[***][11/17/87][***]
COMMODORE CONTINUES STRONG FINANCIAL COMEBACK
WEST CHESTER, Pa. (NB) -- Commodore International Ltd. has
reported first quarter profits of $6.3 million (20 cents per
share) versus $3.7 million (12 cents per share) for the first
quarter of last year. Revenues for the quarter were $173.9
million, compared to $176 million last year. The results mark the
sixth straight quarter in the black for the computer maker.
Irving Gould, Commodore chairman and chief executive officer,
said the financial results "reflect better margins stemming from
a shift in product mix toward the Amiga product line." Gould also
claimed that sales for Commodore's PC clones are also strong.

[***][11/17/87][***]
TONER SELLING LIKE HOTCAKES
PLYMOUTH MEETING, Pa. (NB) -- Market research firm IMS America
Ltd. reports that toner cartridges for laser printers are
dominating the dollar sales of supplies sold by computer stores.
Of the top ten supply products, says the firm, toner cartridges
from HP rank first, third, and seventh, while Apple toner
cartridges rank second. The figures are further evidence of the
impressive penetration of laser technology into the printer
market.

CONTACT: IMS America Ltd., Computer Markets Division, 800-523-
     5333.

[***][11/17/87][***]
STATE SALES TAXES LIKELY FOR MAIL-ORDER, ONLINE SHOPPERS
WASHINGTON (NB) -- Congress is likely to pass a law requiring
payments of state sales taxes for online and mail-order
purchases, according to congressional staff. The states are
pushing hard for bills in both the House (H.R. 1891) and Senate
(S. 1099) that would overturn a 20-year-old Supreme Court ruling
that said states could not collect sales taxes from outside
companies. The states argue that the rise of mail-order, online,
and television shopping has created a billion-dollar loophole in
their state sales tax laws. Retailers counter that they don't
receive services from the states and shouldn't have to pay taxes
to them. The House bill has passed a Ways and Means subcommittee,
while the Senate Finance Committee has held hearings on the
Senate bill.

"I'd be very surprised if this bill fails," said a House staffer.
"It's a way Washington can help the states without spending any
federal budget dollars to do it." If enacted into law, the result
would be a five to eight percent increase in mail-order and
online prices.

[***][11/17/87][***]
MORE FROM WALL STREET: THE COMPUTER DIDN'T DO IT THIS TIME
NEW YORK (NB) -- After a brief hiatus, program trading returned
to Wall Street and prices dropped sharply on Monday, November 9,
falling 59 points on the Big Board. But market analysts said the
computer didn't cause it, unlike the fingers of blame that were
pointed at computers after Black-and-Blue Monday the prior month,
when the market fell over 500 points. This time, say the stock
market mavens, the culprit was a weak dollar.

[***][11/17/87][***]
UNISYS INTO INFORMATION NETWORKS
BLUE BELL, Pa. (NB) -- With the acquisition of Timeplex Inc. of
Woodcliff Lake, N.J., Unisys Corp. plans a major plunge into
voice, data, and video networks. Timeplex is an important
telecommunications network supplier. The Unisys deal is valued at
about $300 million. Unisys said Timeplex will become the core of
a new business, Unisys Networks. W. Michael Blumenthal, Unisys
chairman and chief executive officer, said the move into
telecommunications is "a key element in our overall growth
strategy for the 1990s."

[***][11/17/87][***]
DEC AND KODAK JOIN MARKETING PACT FOR OFFICE DATA STORAGE
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (NB) -- Eastman Kodak Co. has signed up with
Digital Equipment Co.'s cooperative marketing program. The two
firms will jointly develop and market Kodak's KIMS system for
capturing, storing, viewing, and manipulating digitized data at
high-resolution workstations. The KIMS system will use VAX
minicomputers for document indexing and control, along with
proprietary Kodak hardware and software.

[***][11/17/87][***]
NEWS NIBBLES FROM AROUND THE REGION --

BROTHER INTERNATIONAL of Piscataway, N.J., is testing in Japan a
software vending machine which looks like the child of a marriage
of a Coke machine and a computer.

FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION is using a PC bulletin board and
database to track telemarketing scams. State attorneys general
can enter complaints from their states into the FTC computer and
access information from other states that is in the database.

AT&T CO. of New York will spend $6 billion by 1991 to double the
size of its digital long-distance lines, which are particularly
important for computer telecommunications. The company will
expand digital service from 300 cities to 400.

LELA COMPUTER SUITORS of Albany, N.Y., a computer retailer and
training firm founded in 1980 by two women college students, has
filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company's biggest
debt is $186,000 owed to the Small Business Administration for a
loan.

IVERSON TECHNOLOGY of McLean, Va., saw third quarter revenues and
profits more than double. The company earned $1.2 million (31
cents per share) on $13.7 million in sales for the third quarter,
compared to $563,000 in earnings (16 cents per share) on sales of
$6.2 million for the third quarter last year. The company
specializes in Tempest technology to protect against electronic
surveillance.

COMNET CORP. of Washington said its second-quarter profits were
$453,000 (16 cents per share) on $11.2 million in revenues,
compared to $251,000 in profits (a dime a share) on $10.2 million
in revenues for last year's second quarter. Comnet is a
diversified software, services, and communications company.

MORINO ASSOCIATES of McLean, Va., a computer software firm,
reported $1.6 million in earnings (15 cents per share) on sales
of $9.2 million for the first quarter, compared to $1.1 million
in earnings (12 cents per share) on sales of $6.9 million for the
first quarter of last year.

[***][11/17/87][***]
TANDY UK DIRECTOR RESIGNS - JOINS CLONE IMPORTER
Cricklewood, North London (NB) -- In a surprise move, Ted
Russell, managing director of Tandy UK Limited, has resigned.
"The move was amicable," Russell told NEWSBYTES UK from Applied
Micro Technology, his new firm.  "AMT made me a better offer,
that's all."

Russell's comments are echoed by Tandy UK, where Richard Rosser,
Tandy UK's marketing manager confirmed his departure.  "Ted will
be missed at Tandy," said Rosser.  "Life still goes on, however,"
he added, "Tandy UK is a large organization, so we can easily
fill the gap."

Whilst still in the computer industry, Russell's new post could
not be more different that at Tandy's.  From a large multi-
national computing firm with its own R&D and production
facilities, Russell moves over to the 40-strong clone importer,
based in North London.  "Sure, it's a challenge," said Russell.
"AMT hired me to use my knowledge of the UK computer markets.
It'll be interesting to see if I can make AMT as big as Tandy
is!"

CONTACT: Ted Russell, Managing Director, APPLIED MICRO TECHNOLOGY,
         249/251 Cricklewood Broadway, London NW2 6NQ.
         Tel: [phone]

[***][11/17/87][***]
TANDY - NEW MACHINES UNVEILED
Bloxwich, West Midlands (NB) -- Reinforcing its new pricing
policy, Tandy UK unveiled its new 1987/88 product range last
week, along with a new marketing image for the revitalized
computer company.

"For too long, people have associated Tandy with being a sleeping
giant in the computer industry." Richard Rosser, Tandy UK's
marketing manager, told NEWSBYTES UK.  "All that is set to
change, with a completely new product range," he added.

Heading the Tandy pack is the model 4000, an 80386-based PC which
starts at #1,995 for a 640K, 1.2Mb drive equipped entry-level
machine.  Close behind comes the 1000TX, a 80286-based PC at
#895, along with the 1000SX at #795 and the 1000HX at #595.  As
announced in the US last month, the LT1400 laptop puts in an
appearance in the UK.  At #995 for a 640K, twin 3.5 inch drive-
equipped laptop, it puts the Toshiba T1100 in the shade.

On the non-computer front, Tandy is moving into the high end of
the printer market with the LP1000, a 6 pages a minute laser
printer, and the DMP2120, a 280cps heavy-duty dot matrix printer.
The LP1000 will retail for #1,795, whilst the DMP2120 will sell
for #995.  The complete range of new products will go on sale at
Tandy UK dealers from the end of this month, according to Rosser.

"The new equipment is only part of the new Tandy," explained
Rosser.  "Currently we have 170 stores in the UK.  We plan to
double that number in the next few years.  Tandy is here, and we
plan to sell computers to everyone," he added.

CONTACT: Amanda Taylor, PR Officer, TANDY UK - Tel: [phone].

[***][11/17/87][***]
BUDGET WORDSTAR-COMPATIBILITY ARRIVES
Peterborough, UK (NB) -- Protext is a relatively new word
processing package for the PC and a variety of other small
micros.  Like most word processors, it's had to fight an uphill
battle to gain users from the Wordstar fold.  Now Arnor Software,
the company behind the #59-95 package, has succumbed, and added
Wordstar keystroke compatibility to Protext Release 3.1.

At the same time, two enhancement disks have been added to the
Protext library - a German dictionary, and a utility disk.  Both
disks cost #19-95, with the utility disk including a sort
program, invoice generator and set of multiple-example mail merge
templates.

If the Wordstar compatibility issue sounds familiar, you're
right.  NEWSBYTES UK broached this subject with Geoff Kipps-
Bolton of Arnor at last month's Amstrad Computer Show.  It's nice
to see someone listening to user's comments for once.

And just in case you're sceptical about Protext's capabilities,
Arnor is offering a working demo of the package for #5-00 -
refundable against the purchase of the full-price package.

CONTACT: Geoff Kipps-Bolton, Sales and Marketing Manager,
         ARNOR SOFTWARE, Protext House, Wainman Road,
         Peterborough PE2 OBU.           Tel: [phone].

[***][11/17/87][***]
FREEWAY HITS THE UK
London, UK (NB) -- Plunging into an already-crowded PC
communications software market, Kortex has released Freeway and
Freeway Advanced in the UK.

Pricing in at #99 for the basic version, and #195 for the
Advanced edition, Freeway is billed as one of the easiest PC
communications packages on the market.  After running the package
for a month now, NEWSBYTES UK agrees, although sees the Advanced
version as being the more popular.

Facilities on Freeway Advanced include a variety of terminal
emulations, along with several file transfer protocols including
XModem, YModem and Kermit.  An automated log-on script facility
comes as standard on both versions.

That's the good news.  Now the bad.  The US version of Freeway,
which looks to be the same as the UK version, sells for just $29-
95, about 20% of the UK edition.  The Advanced UK version
however, has several additional features not seen on the US
edition, including split baud rates and viewdata emulation.  This
still doesn't justify the price differential (#295 compared to
$89-95 in the US).

NEWSBYTES UK tried to contact Kortex for a comment on these price
differentials, but Kortex UK's offices seemed to be out to lunch
all this week.  How odd.

CONTACT: KORTEX UK, 91 Grays Inn Rd., London WC1X 8TX.
         Tel: [phone].

[***][11/17/87][***]
Z88 COMMUNICATIONS PACKAGE ARRIVES
Basildon, Essex (UK) -- Now that the Z88 laptop has been wowing
them at Comdex, Cambridge Computing will have to work double-time
to get a communications package out for the machine.

Too late.  Eidersoft, a small UK company, has beaten them to it
with ZComm, a complete communications kit for the Z88, which
retails for just #99-95.

For the money you get a comprehensive software package that does
the usual terminal emulations (glass teletype, VT52, VT100 and
viewdata), along with ASCII and XModem file transfer protocols.
A dialling directory and automated log-on facilities are also
available within the package.

Also included is a 1200/75 baud CCITT acoustic modem, and a PC
disk package that, when used with the Eprom-based ZComm software,
allows the transfer of Ms-Dos files between the Z88 and an IBM PC
compatible.  Sounds good.  NEWSBYTES has yet to see the package
in real life, but if it's as good as its technical documentation,
then it's worth it for the software alone - you get the acoustic
modem for free.

CONTACT: EIDERSOFT SOFTWARE, Unit 4, Landon North Trade Centre,
         Basildon, Essex. SS15 6DJ.            Tel: [phone].


[***][11/17/87][***]
+ BRITBYTES - Bytes of news from around the UK... +
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Hands up all those with a Commodore Plus 4 gathering dust in the
cupboard.  The MPS803 printer that came bundled with the machine
gets a new lease of life this week with the launch of Printkit IV
from AVON PRINTER TECHNOLOGY (0272-667167).  The #30 kit upgrade
gives the printer an alternative italic set, double-strike and
underline facilities, as well as a true descender character set.
Installation is claimed to be a snap, and allows the printer to
work with a Commodore C64.

MEMOREX has released the 2115 laser printer in the UK.  The
#5,500 printer can print at 15 pages per minute to 300 DPI
resolution, and has been designed to work with a PC-XT or close
compatible.

IDEA ASSOCIATES (01-390-5945) has announced Idea-Max, an Extended
Memory System (EMS) board for the IBM PS/2 Model 30 series.  The
#400 board includes 512K of Ram chips as standard, and can be
populated with up to 8Mb of EMS Ram.  The board is also
compatible with standard PC-XT machines.

MICROPRO UK has announced Boost, its answer to Borland's
Sidekick.  The #39-95 package includes a note pad, timed diary
items, and an address/phone book facility, as well as the usual
calculator functions.  Unusually, it has the facility to read and
write to the PC screen, as well as the usual disk file functions.

MERCURY COMMUNICATIONS has started work on PTAT-1, the first
privately-commissioned transatlantic undersea cable.  When
completed in the summer of next year, the twin fibre-optic cable
will service Mercury and several smaller US telephone company's
data, voice and video needs, and at a lower price than its
competitors.
====