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/v187

Text File | 1991-09-23 | 44.3 KB | 970 lines

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ASHTON-TATE SUES CHIEF SCIENTIST, FIVE OTHERS
CULVER CITY, Ca. (NB) -- Ashton-Tate Inc. has slapped a lawsuit
on its former Chief Scientist and five others, claiming the
six stole proprietary technology from Ashton-Tate to use at
their own companies.  The suit filed in Los Angeles' State
Superior Court, says Wayne Rateliff, formerly chief scientist
and creator of Ashton-Tate's dBase family of products, not only
took secrets with him but threatened in 1985 to move his
project to a competing company if the firm did not pay him
millions of dollars in royalties and other benefits. Rateliff,
who is now a consulant to Migent and operates his own company
Rateliff Software Production of La Crescenta, Ca., could not
be reached for comments. Others named in the suit are now
Migent employees or employees of Rateliff.

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PACIFIC BELL TESTS SUPER-FAST DATA TRANSMISSION
SAN FRANCISCO, Ca. (NB) -- Pacific Bell is testing a fiber optic
transmission system capable of handling one billion bits of
information per second.  The test is taking place between two
central switching offices in San Diego.  If the test is
successful, Pacific Bell hopes to adapt the technology to
other parts of its system.  Now think about just how fast this
is -- 1,120,000,000 light pulses (1.12 GIGABIT BAUD) flashing
on and off, each SECOND across a fiber optic cable.  (And you
worry about noise at 1200 bits per second or 1200 baud!)

CONTACT:  Scott Smith, PACIFIC BELL, 415/542-0597

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5 1/4-INCH FLOPPIES ARE HISTORY
LOS ALTOS, Ca. (NB) -- According to Robert Katzive of Disk/Trend,
sales of 5 1/4" diskettes will finally fall below those of 3.5"
diskettes by 1989.  In 1986, sales of 3 1/2" disk drives rocketed
71% over 1985 figures, and by 1989 14.2 million of the smaller
drives will be sold, compared to 11 million 5 1/4" drives.
The report says more and more manufacturers are turning to the
smaller, compact drives; the 3 1/2" diskettes store more data
and are less vulnerable to damage.

CONTACT:  DISK/TREND 415/961-6209

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ANDREW FLUEGELMAN AWARD ESTABLISHED
SAN FRANCISCO, Ca. (NB) -- Andrew Fluegelman, the inventor of the
shareware concept, has been immortalized in a new award being
sponsored by PC World Communications.  Fluegelman, who disappeared
in 1985 and is presumed dead, wrote PC-TALK, and served as
founder of PC Magazine, PC World, and MacWorld.  The award in
his memory provides a $5,000 cash prize to anyone who has
made the most "significant contribution to the software
field" between 1983 and 1986, and is aimed an individual
programmers, not companies.  Entry forms are available from PC
World Communications.  NOTE: Entries cannot be submitted by the
software programmers themselves.

CONTACT: Shirley Gaines, PC WORLD COMMUNICATIONS, San Francisco,
         415/546-7722

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CAPTAIN CRUNCH ARRESTED AGAIN
ALAMEDA, Ca. (NB) -- John Draper, a.k.a. Captain Crunch, has been
arrested by Oakland Police for allegedly running a forged
ticket scam.  Authorities say the notorious hacker has been
manipulating the magnetic stripes on BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit
is the Bay Area's "subway") train tickets and selling
the product to others.  Joining him at Oakland Municipal Court
for arraignment Thursday (1/8) were William Squire, 20, and
Perry Forcier, 19, who were also charged with conspiracy to defraud
BART.  Pacific Bell has also been called into the case.  They
charge Draper and the two others with a crime to which Draper
is no stranger: making free long distance phone calls.  Draper
went to prison in the 70's after being convicted of the same charge.

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NEWS BITS --

ACTIVISION has settled a class action lawsuit brought against it
by a group of shareholders.  The settlement calls for Activision
to pay the stockholders $2.5 million in cash and $2.5 million
in securities.

COMPUTER CURRENTS has hired David Needle as Managing Editor.
The former INFOWORLD news editor plans to put more news into
the award-winning regional tabloid.  Welcome Dave!

ZIFF DAVIS PUBLISHING has just purchased MACUSER magazine.
No terms of the purchase were released, but Ziff promises to
keep the Macintosh magazine's editorial staff and two of its
founders.  MACUSER's circulation is said to be 100,000.  This
puts Ziff in stiff competition with CW Communications which
publishes MACWORLD, which has a printing of about 158,000
per month.

GENERAL TELEPHONE's GTEL subsidiary has purchased Chronicle
Videotex from Chronicle Publishing of S.F.  Chronicle
Videotex runs Teleguide, the largest public videotex system
in the country, seen in SF's 263 locations.  The selling
price was "under $10 million."

FORTUNE SYSTEMS' board of directors has authorized the repurchase
of up to one million shares of its common stock, reasoning
that the stock is undervalued at recent prices.  Fortune
makes multi-user Unix computer systems.

BELL & HOWELL COMPANY and ACCTEX INFORMATION SYSTEMS of
San Francisco have signed an agreement in which Acctex will
provide its electronic document management software for
Bell & Howell's "Image Search" optical disk document storage
and retrieval system.

KUDOS go to APPLE COMPUTER for another beautifully-done annual
report.  The photography is exceptional, the layout restrained
and elegant.



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COMPUTER KILLERS OF MARIETTA
MARIETTA, GA (NB) -- If you REALLY hate that clunker computer of
yours, you can put it in the car, drive to the Bullet Stop in
Marietta, GA (off Cobb Drive at Powder Springs Rd.) and put it
out of your misery on the 2-year old shop's firing range. With
a machine gun.

Cathy Lavista of The Bullet Shop explains, "We had an Apple, a
little old Apple, and there was a Xerox copy machine.  Hewlett-
Packard also brought in one of their printers, one of the great
big ones, and set circuit boards on top of them. And they blow
apart nicely -- little pieces go everywhere. You wouldn't need a
very big gun.  You could knock it out with 50 rounds off an HK, a
German machine gun. Then if you really want to finish it off you
could put it out of its misery with a Thompson sub-machine gun.
That shoots .45 caliber shot, it's the old gangster gun, and it
really cleans it up.

Of the customers: "They shoot from pretty close. By the time they
get them in here they hate them. They usually take them out at 30
feet, you like to see what you're doing. When we sweep the range
we find little bytes and pieces of things." (She laughs at her
cleverness on that last line.) Actually, Ms. Lavista says,
computers aren't the only things The Bullet Stop will let you
shoot. "You can shoot it as long as you can get it through the
doors and it's already dead. We had to open a side door for the
printer."

CONTACT: The Bullet Stop, 723 Sandtown Road SW Marietta, GA 30060
         [phone]

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HOUSTON COPS' COMPUTER BECOMES BIG BROTHER      *EXCLUSIVE*
HOUSTON, TX (NB) -- Last Tuesday, the Houston Police Department
turned up its new $3.2 million computer system, a VAX 8600 system
under VMX from Public Managements Associates Inc., a San
Francisco systems house. A customized software program, written
to the HPD's specifications by the San Francisco office of
Planning Research Corp., McLean, VA, is now inside police
dispatchers' heads. When a call is going out, the new system
checks to see which cars are closest and (just as important)
how many calls each car in the area has taken that shift. Donald
Hollingsworth, manager of the HPD's information bureau, calls the
result "balancing the workload" -- the function was specified by
the Houston Police in its request for bids. (The system also
records when its decisions are overriden -- every cop's
performance is now measured electronically. Think about it.)

CONTACT: Donald Hollingsworth, HPD, [phone]

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HAYES PATENT TROUBLES                   *EXCLUSIVE*
NORCROSS, GA (NB) -- U.S. Robotics added Hayes Microcomputer
Products to its suit against Bizcomp, a modem company which won a
patent for escape sequences at the heart of today's micro modems
in 1978. Hayes' attorneys, Powell, Goldstein, Frazer & Murphy,
were as surprised about this as anyone. Powell partner Scott
Hobby explained that Hayes merely licensed Bizcomp's patent, then
obtained its own patent for an enhancement called guard-time, and
began trying to collect license fees on that. If you already own
a modem, there's really no problem -- you're too small to chase
after. U.S. Robotics is really complaining about having to pay
license fees to make what's become a generic product -- the 1200
baud Hayes-compatible modem through which you're probably reading
this.

A Hayes patent counsel, John Harris of Jones & Askew, adds that
patents have become much better defenses against "clone"
products since a new appeals court for federal patent cases
opened its doors a few years ago. Recent big decisions against
Kodak (for Polaroid instant photography) and Fujitsu (for IBM
mainframes) were upheld in the new system. (A short-odds bet: at
least one vital aspect of IBM's new 80386-based computer will
have patent protection.)

CONTACT: Scott Hobby, Powell, Goldstein, Frazer & Murphy
         [phone]

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REPORTS OF MCC DEMISE EXAGGERATED
AUSTIN, TX (NB) -- The annual exodus of companies from the
Austin-based research consortium called MCC has begun. This time
Lockheed, Unisys (Sperry had bought in), and Allied-Signal
announced they're leaving, which resulted in big headlines for,
among others, "The Wall Street Journal." But the MCC's William
Stotesbury insists it's no problem, just an annual rite of
replacement. While Mostek, BMC and Gould did follow through and
leave the group last year, Mostek sold its place to Westinghouse,
and BMC sold to Hewlett-Packard.  (Gould is still looking for a
buyer.)

The good news is what MCC has already delivered, things that
could make computer users lives better as the members bring them
to market. There's a new expert system builder called Proteus, a
new technique for building circuit boards faster, a C-code
compiler with 117,000 lines of code, design languages, a natural
language system, and some graphics tools. Trouble is, Stotesbury
says, once MCC releases results to its members it loses all
control; he read about a possible commercialization of Proteus in
"Datamation."

CONTACT: Bill Stotesbury, MCC, 3500 W. Balcones Center Dr.,
         Austin, TX 78759 [phone]

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TANDY CLAUS SAYS THANK YOU
FORT WORTH, TX (NB) -- Tandy officially reports both its PC jr-
like Model 1000 EX and PC-like 1000 SX computers sold out last
Christmas, and that "we'll be delivering 1000 SXs to November and
December buyers for over a month to come." To celebrate they
officially dropped prices on the 1000 Series $200 -- down to $600
for the EX and $1,000 for the SX. Tandy also announced that sales
for December were $568.1 million, up 23% over a year ago, while
sales for all of 1986 reached $1.195 billion, up 19% from 1985.

CONTACT: Ed Juge, TANDY, 1700 One Tandy Center, Ft. Worth, TX
         76102 [phone]

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MCI IN TROUBLE?                 *ANALYSIS*
ATLANTA, GA (NB) -- While Newsbytes hopes MCI chairman William
McGowan gets well soon, the company's problems may go much
deeper. Over the last year I've personally had a lot more trouble
with both my MCI phone and MCI Mail accounts than before.
The MCI phone trouble includes problems getting calls out,
bills which don't catch some calls for months, and generally
crummy call quality when I do get through. MCI Mail, on the
other hand, just has obscure bills which don't itemize my
letters, and charges me $10 a month for a menu.

In calling telecom experts this week, I asked about MCI. They
agreed: it's gotten bad. Some suggested that, since the Atlanta
area is growing fast, everyone's having trouble bringing in
enough lines to go around.  Others gave a verbal shrug of the
shoulders and changed the subject. So here's my big idea for
the week. (Deep breath.) IBM got a big hunk of MCI in selling
it SBS Skyline last year.  Their capital could help cure MCI's
problems. And then the REAL war would start between IBM and AT&T
-- just not on the battlefield we expected.

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PECAN CHIPS (New Year, new name)

TEXAS INSTRUMENTS, DALLAS, announced a new data recovery service
for its PCs and Unix-based Business System series. The service is
available either on-site or over the phone. You can even mail
your damaged disks to TI. Cost depends on how bad the problems
are. (Contact: 800-847-5757)

MSA, Atlanta, completed its buy of a 62.9% interest in Comserv
Corp. They bought Control Data's interest for 3.3 million shares
of stock, worth $7.29 million. MSA also converted CDC's preferred
stock into Comserv common, and took CDC's Comserv warrants in
common stock. Comserv had revenues of $27 million over the last
year, and is the leading independent supplier of Manufacturing
Resource Planning (MRP II) systems. (CONTACT: 404-239-2000)

DCA, Alpharetta, GA, announced a new system for running T-1
networks (trunk lines pushing data at over 1.5 million
bits/second) based on the Sun Microsystems workstation. It will
have an optional mouse-driven graphics interface. Cohesive
Network Corp., the DCA subsidiary which makes the new system,
previously used NCR Tower XPs exclusively. The cost of the new
Sun system: $15,000. (CONTACT: [phone])

STB SYSTEMS, Richardson, TX, sent us a release on their Hercules-
compatible monochrome-graphics "H Card," which offers 720 by 348
resolution on the IBM PC. The two cards are "functionally
identical," the company promises. (CONTACT: 214-234-8750)

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AND FINALLY...
EDS, Dallas, announced a new insurance administration system
called The Insurance Machine. It's supposed to do lots of
neat whiz-bang stuff. The news release doesn't explain
what this stuff is. Doesn't say whether the product is hardware,
software or service, either. And of course, no prices are
mentioned. For a topper, the press contact listed on the release
is on vacation this week.

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MORE PRICE CUTS FROM BIG BLUE
NEW YORK (NB) -- International Business Machines Corp. has cut
prices by as much as 15 percent for further models in its PC
line. The price cuts on the PC XT, XT 286 and AT come on the
heels of cuts of up to 42 percent announced two weeks ago for
other machines. Analysts suggest that Big Blue is attempting to
clear out its inventory in anticipation of introduction of
several new models later this year. The new prices are $3,395 for
the XT 286 with a 20-megabyte hard disk, down from $3,995; the AT
without a hard drive, also down to $3,395 from $3,395; and the XT
with a 20-megabyte drive, cut to $2,660 from $2,895.

At the same time, IBM said it close a small unit which supplied
laboratories with analytical tools made by other firms. The
IBM unit, IBM Instruments Inc., was operating at a loss on annual
sales of about $100 million, according to the WALL STREET
JOURNAL. IBM said it formed the instruments firm in 1980 as a
device to sell computers to analytical labs. But they found that
computers sold well without requiring the instruments line as an
added sales inducement.

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LOTUS VS. PERGAMON IN TRADEMARK DISPUTE
NEW YORK (NB) -- Pergamon Journals Inc. has sued Lotus
Development Corp. of Cambridge, Mass., in federal court, claiming
trademark infringement. Pergamon of Elmsford, N.Y., said Lotus's
new "Manuscript" word processor has stolen the name of Pergamon's
"Manuscript Manager," which has been marketed since July 1985.
The suit seeks an injunction against Lotus preventing marketing
of the software and unspecified damages. A Lotus spokesman said
he was "disappointed" at the suit. A Pergamon spokesman said the
company has been talking with Lotus about the trademark problem
since last November, to no avail.

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NORTON VS. CONNECTICUT SOFTWARE
Also on the litigation front, Connecticut Software of Rowayton,
Conn., has sued columnist and DOS guru Peter Norton, claiming
trademark violations. The suit says Norton's "Norton Commander"
infringes on the trademark for Connecticut's "DOS Commander"
software. The suit seeks an injunction prohibiting Norton from
using "Commander" in his ads. Last August, Norton sued
Connecticut Software, claiming trade libel and asking for
$500,000 in damages, leading to the Connecticut counter-suit.
Watch this space.

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COMMODORE TO MARKET PC CLONES IN THE U.S.
WEST CHESTER, Pa. (NB) -- Commodore International Ltd. last week
said it would enter the crowded U.S. IBM PC XT clone market with
two machines that it has been marketing in Europe. Commodore made
the announcement at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas,
where Atari Corp. also announced it would join the clone market.
The two Commodore products are the PC 10-1, with one floppy drive
and 512K of RAM, it will go for $999, while the PC 10-2 will offer
640K of memory and two drives for $1,199. Both machines will
offer an RS-232 serial port, a Centronics parallel port, and a
graphics interface, according to Commodore. Nigel Shepherd,
Commodore's North American general manager, said the company
expects to ship 60,000 to 100,000 units of the machine this year.
Commodore will aim the machines at the work-at-home market, and
will sell the computers through computer specialty stores and
electronics outlets. Shepherd said he has been holding talks with
Sears Roebuck & Co. on marketing the clones.

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PLOT TO DIVERT COMPUTER GEAR TO BULGARIA UNCOVERED
WASHINGTON (NB) -- The Commerce Department last week said it has
uncovered a plot to smuggle hard disk drive manufacturing
equipment to Bulgaria. The agency suspended the export privileges
for Anthony Speno of Santa Cruz, Ca., and his firm Valley
Machine & Tool Co. of Santa Clara. Theodore Wu, export
enforcement chief at Commerce, said, "We have reason to believe
that some of those systems are already in Bulgaria. We just want
to be sure nothing else gets there." Wu said Bulgaria has become
a major "reception center" for diversion of high tech goods from
the U.S. to the Eastern Bloc. Speno told the WALL STREET JOURNAL
that he and his firm have done "absolutely nothing, in any way,
shape or form to violate Commerce regulations." Speno said his
company had shipped three machines used for sanding corrosion off
aluminum to Bulgaria for $60,000 each.

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ANOTHER DISMAL QUARTER FOR WANG LABS
LOWELL, Mass. (NB) -- Wang Laboratories Inc. said it will report
a loss for the second quarter, ended December 31, of at least $30
million. That's larger than the $30 million loss Wang reported
for the first quarter. The announcement surprised securities
analysts, who expected Wang to report only a small loss for the
second quarter. The announcement also is evidence that Wang's
problems may run deeper than just the general softness in the
computer and office automation market. The company has received
complaints about delivery and service and increased competition
from IBM, the analysts say. Wang President Frederick Wang said
the company would respond to its dismal second quarter showing by
an across-the-board salary cut of six percent, and layoffs that
would total 1,000.

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UNCLE SAM WANTS A NEW PHONE-DATA SYSTEM
WASHINGTON (NB) -- The General Services Administration last week
said it wants bids on a new, state-of-the-art federal-wide
telephone system that will also allow for data and visual
transmission. The new system, with an estimated cost of $4
billion, would service 1.3 million federal workers (about two-
thirds of the civilian workforce) and would be the 15th-largest
phone company in the world. Three consortia are expected to bid
on the FTS-2000 system. One group is headed by American Telephone
& Telegraph, another by MCI Communications Inc. and Martin
Marietta Corp., and a third by US Sprint Communications Co. GSA
Administrator Terrence Golden said he wants a system that will
transmit data at the equivalent of 70 pages per second in
background, permit visual teleconferencing, carry electronic
mail, and automatically make priority decisions during peak
traffic. The government hopes to complete installation of the
system by the end of 1990. Golden said. "We're really talking
about megadollars here."

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AFTER-HOURS COMPUTING GAINS POPULARITY
PITTSBURGH (NB) -- A survey by a Carnegie-Mellon University
professor suggests that after-hours work on the computer is
widespread, while full-time telecommuting remains fairly rare.
Professor Paul Good surveyed 48 Pittsburgh companies and found
that home computing nets companies extra time from its workers.
According to the WALL STREET JOURNAL, Digital Equipment Corp.
figures that thousands of its workers are using terminals at home
after work. But that practice hasn't caught on yet at Houston's
Compaq Computer Corp., the newspaper reports. "We tend to follow
the 8 to 5 workday," says a Compaq spokesman.

[***][1/13/87][***]
NEWSNIBBLES FROM AROUND THE REGION

   VIENNA, Va. (NB) -- United Airlines Services Corp. has
acquired Analytic Methods Inc. of Vienna, for an undisclosed
amount. AMI is a software design and engineering company which
does a lot of work for the federal intelligence community. UASC,
a subsidiary of UAL Corp., provides training to pilots and crews
of the Air Force's C5 cargo aircraft.

   MCLEAN, Va. (NB) -- The Source has upgraded its CHAT
conferencing software. The Source has waived the baud surcharges
for CHAT. The new CHAT includes a feature so messages can be
written without interference from incoming messages, an ability to
send a confidential message, and read and view modes so users can
contribute message, or simply sit back and read.

   BALTIMORE (NB) -- The Maryland Occupational Safety and Health
Advisory Board is holding a meeting at 10 a.m. on Tuesday,
January 20 to gather information in the employee safety and
health effects of video display terminals. The public meeting
will be in room 1400, 501 St. Paul Place, Baltimore. The board
advises the Maryland Commission of Labor and Industry. The
Maryland legislature asked for the inquiry.

   MCLEAN, Va. (NB) -- Questech Inc. has completed the
acquisition of American Defense Systems Inc. of Arlington, Va.
ADS specializes in combat computer software system for the Navy.
Questech will pay $1.8 million cash and a bonus based on future
earnings.

   NEW YORK (NB) -- NCR Corp. has introduced a new line of
hardware and software aimed mass merchandising, food store and
department store settings. The Dayton, Ohio, company also
introduced a group of interactive retail terminals. Prices for
the new processors range from $11,860 to $48,155, while terminal
prices range from $3,125 to $4,555.

[***][1/13/87][***]
CORRECTION: WE GOOFED ON TRINTEX
Last weeks's NEWSBYTES-EAST reported on IBM dropping the Imnet
venture with Merrill Lynch. In that piece, we said that IBM had
also pulled out of the Trintex videotex venture with Sears,
Roebuck & Co. and CBS. Wrong. As Dave Hargett, Manager, Systems &
Distribution for Sears Business Systems points out in a letter to
the editor, it was CBS who pulled out of Trintex late last year.
Good catch, Dave.

[***][1/13/87][***]
ATARI LAUNCH REACTIONS - AMSTRAD TIGHTLIPPED
LONDON, UK (NB) -- Initial reaction to the launch of the Atari PC in
Las Vegas last week has been one of amazement here in the UK.
Nobody even suspected that the "totally new machine" referred to by
Atari UK's MD Bob Gleadow in last week's NEWSBYTES UK would be a
totally *old* cpu!

Amstrad, whose PC compatible, the PC1512 was also launched at CES
last weekend, was understood to have been tight-lipped at the
Amstrad Computer Show in London (held in parallel with CES).
Amstrad's Alan Sugar was in Las Vegas for the show and, as NEWSBYTES
UK went to press, no-one from the company was prepared to comment on
the Atari PC - period.

CONTACT: AMSTRAD CONSUMER ELECTRONICS, PO Box 462, Brentwood,
         Essex, CM14 4EE.
         Tel: Brentwood [phone].

[***][1/13/87][***]
ATARI UK CUT ST PRICES
LONDON, UK (NB) -- News of the Mega ST range and price cuts
announced in Las Vegas last week were swiftly met with similar,
although not as sweeping, price-cuts on the ST range on this side of
the pond.

The entry-level 520 STM (keyboard/cpu case) goes down to 260 pounds
($390), down from 344 pounds.  Slightly further upmarket, the
520STFM, with integral disc drive (see NEWSBYTES UK 23rd Dec
edition) falls to 400 pounds ($600).  That's the good news - the bad
is that the mouse now costs extra on the entry level STM, although
no price level has yet been fixed by Atari UK.

The 1040, meanwhile, falls to 700 pounds ($1,050), down from 920
pounds, for the monochrome system, whilst the colour system will
sell at 900 pounds ($1,350), a saving of 250 pounds ($375) on its
previous price.  Don't go scurrying to your Atari UK dealer when
s/he opens however, the new prices won't take effect until February
2nd, although several Atari dealers were quoting the new prices to
customers as we went to press.

In keeping with its new image, Atari UK is understood to be phasing
out the "power without the price" slogan.  In its place comes
"technology so advanced it's affordable."  Not quite as snappy
n'est-ce-pas?

[***][1/13/87][***]
AMIGA SIDECAR AVAILABLE IN UK
SLOUGH, BERKSHIRE (NB) -- Over a year after Sidecar was first noted
on the computer news networks, the Amiga add-on has finally appeared
on UK dealer's shelves.  Pricing in at 700 pounds ($1,050), however,
means that the product is almost *twice* the price of the Atari PC
(or are we just being cynical?)

CONTACT: COMMODORE UK, Babbage House, 53/69 King Street,
         Maidenhead, SL6 1DH
         Tel: [phone].

[***][1/13/87][***]
CHEAP PLUS FOURS FOR THE PC
LONDON, UK (NB) -- The UK PC scene, unlike the US, seems to have
woken up to the budget clone market with a start, thanks to
Amstrad's budget PC release in late '86.

Software houses, on the other hand, still seem to be selling many of
their integrated packages at comparatively high prices.  Nice then,
to announce a new package - PC Four - from one of Britain's top
software houses, Psion.

Responsible for other goodies such as the Xchange suite of software
and the handheld Organiser computer, Psion's latest offering
incorporates a word processor, spreadsheet, database and graphic
designer in its 69 pound ($100) price tag.  Unlike several of its
genre it isn't software locked to the Amstrad PC and works on most
PC compatibles.

What's missing?  Communications, but for 69 pounds, who's
complaining?

CONTACT: Psion Limited, Psion House, Harcourt Street,
         London W1H 1DT.
         Tel: [phone]
         Telex 296489 PSION C G

[***][1/13/87][***]
YELLOW PAGES ONLINE
READING, BERKSHIRE (NB) -- The UK Yellow Pages, long a British
telephone institution, have gone electronic.  Starting January 12th,
users with suitable viewdata terminals can access the Electronic
Yellow Pages for the price of a phone call.  Initially the service
covers London and the Home Counties, but expansion to cope with
business listings for the whole of the UK is planned.

CPU search power costs $$$, however, so the service may only be
searched by name or subject fields at present - well, the service is
free...

CONTACT: BRITISH TELECOM YELLOW PAGES, Queens Walk,
         Reading, Berkshire RG1 7PT.
         Tel: [phone].

[***][1/13/87][***]
BYTE'S COSY IN THE UK
GUILDFORD, SURREY (NB) -- The COSY conferencing system seen on BIX,
Byte magazine's computer conferencing system, is coming to the UK.
COMPULINK, the UK's largest multi-user BBS, is switching from the
FIDO system over to COSY "real soon now."  The existing system,
based on two linked PC AT compatibles, will be replaced by an NCR
Tower Unix computer, capable of running the COSY environment.

Pioneered by the University of Guelph, the BIX/COSY software is more
complex than the FIDO BBS software which Compulink currently runs
on.  Despite this, COSY will, according to Compulink's Frank
Thornley, allow more access ports to log onto, as well as linking
into PSS, BT's public data network.

CONTACT: COMPULINK, 67 Woodbridge Road, Guildford,
         Surrey GU1 4RD.
         Tel: [phone].

[***][1/13/87][***]
YOU'VE GOTTA HAVE STYLE (IN YOUR SOFTWARE)
STANLEY, CO. DURHAM (NB) -- Spelling dictionaries/theosauri such as
Borland's Turbo Lightning have been with us for some time now, but
they don't help you to *write* your pearls of wisdom.

Enter one North-Eastern UK software firm - Softalk - with PC Style,
a 30 pounds ($45) program that has a way with words.  Softalk claims
their program helps you write well.  From NEWSBYTES UK's initial
soundings with the program, it looks good.  Text processed through
the program throws up a series of analogue roller bars indicating
punch, use of long words, personal touch and general readability.

That's the good news - as a writer I find the program useful.  As a
journalist I find the program disturbing since, in its truest form,
such programs create a writer out of everybody.  Do you need any
more recommendation?

CONTACT: SOFTALK LTD, 10 Chaytor Terrace North,
         Stanley, Co. Durham, DH9 6AY.
         Tel: [phone].

[***][1/13/87][***]
PISA'S TOWER LEANING A LITTLE TOO FAR
PISA, ITALY (NB) -- Computers employed to keep a silicon eye on the
leaning Tower of Pisa report an uh-oh in the readings of late.
Professor Giuseppe Toniolo, who heads the group which maintains
Pisa's famous medieval tower, says in his annual report that the
tower leaned an extra twentieth of an inch during 1986.

Now .05 of an inch isn't too much to you or me, but when you're the
tower's age and height, it's bad news.  Italian heritage groups have
suggested easing the strain on the structure by removing part of the
tower crown, but Toniolo says the differential forces involved might
topple the 180 foot tower completely.

Professor Toniolo is currently reprogramming his computers to
simulate the future of the 800 year old tower, based on current
data, although some Italian authorities think .05 inch might *just*
be a computer error!

[***][1/13/87][***]
QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"Steal 500 pounds from your employer and, if caught, you face being
sacked and arrested.  Succeed in stealing 5 million pounds using a
computer and your prospects look distinctly brighter."

-- Writer Tony Collins in last week's COMPUTER NEWS special on
   computer fraud.


[***][1/13/87][***]
FUJITSU LINKS WITH AT&T
TOKYO (NB) -- Japan's major daily THE ASAHI reported (1/1)
Fujitsu and AT&T have agreed to cooperate in the fields of
software, hardware, and international financial value-added
networks.  Fujitsu will market AT&T's UNIX-based minicomputers
3B Series in Japan and will supply new versions of the 3B
Series to AT&T on an OEM basis.  Meanwhile, AT&T and Amdahl,
which is 49 percent owned by Fujitsu, will jointly develop new
versions of the UNIX operating system.  Fujitsu and AT&T's joint
effort in providing international financial VAN is expected to
compete directly agaist the IBM-NTT alliance in Japan.  Meanwhile,
many analysts think a lingering software copyright case with
IBM has prompted Fujitsu to tie up with AT&T.

CONTACT: Fujitsu, 1-6-1 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100

[***][1/13/87][***]
ANOTHER TIE-UP: HITACHI AND UNISYS
TOKYO (NB) -- Industry sources say Hitachi and Unisys will
shortly sign a broad business agreement which covers the
development, production, and marketing of products.  To start,
Hitachi will provide Unisys with large scale integrated
circuits for new CPUs, optical disks, and magnetic tapes on an
OEM basis. Meanwhile, Mitsubishi, Fujitsu, and Oki-Univac have
also been seeking close ties with Unisys.  Those firms have
supplied personal computers and peripheral equipment to Sperry
or Burroughs.

CONTACT: Hitachi, 1-5-1 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100

[***][1/13/87][***]
SEGA BUYS OUT U.S. ARCADE-GAME FIRM
TOKYO (NB) -- Japan's major game machine maker, Sega Enterprises,
has taken over Timeout Family Amusement Centers (Virginia,
U.S.A.).  Timeout Family Amusement Centers has about 70 arcades
in the U.S.  Sega has been selling a Famicon-like home video
game machine and lots of arcade game machines in the American
market.  Within three years, Sega plans to double the number
of the Timeout Amusement Center's arcades to 150.  Sega
expects to make annual sales of $50 million in the U.S.

CONTACT: Sega U.S.A., 2149 Paragon Dr., San Jose, CA 95131
         (408-435-0201)

[***][1/13/87][***]
NEC TO PUSH ITS 32-BIT MPUs
TOKYO (NB) -- NEC will start selling a full 32-bit original MPU
"V70" in this April.  V70 is designed to perform  32-bit
operation both internally and externally.  Meanwhile, NEC has
already begun to develop "V80" which is a high-performance
32-bit MPU of the next generation.  The speed of V80 is said to
be 10 MIPS.  Regarding the lower version of 32-bit MPU "V60,"
NEC has currently been producing 1,000 units per month.  Starting
this spring, the monthly production of V60 is scheduled to be
increased to over 10,000 units, says a report.

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

[***][1/13/87][***]
TOP 10 U.S. ELECTRONICS FIRMS IN JAPAN
TOKYO (NB) -- Despite no increase in sales last year, IBM
Japan was ranked No.1 in sales among the U.S. hightech
subsidiaries in Japan.  According to "Electronic Business"
magazine, IBM Japan had sales of $4.573 billion and a net income
of $365 million in fiscal 1986, outpacing Fuji Xerox by an almost
4-1 margin.  The third to tenth firms follow in order:  Univac
Japan, Texas Instruments Japan, Commodore Japan, Yokogawa-
Hewlett-Packard, NCR Japan, Yamatake-Honeywell, Sumitomo 3M, and
Burroughs.

[***][1/13/87][***]
THE AMERICANS ARE DUMPING SEMICONDUCTORS?
TOKYO (NB) -- In the course of the investigation of the
alleged semiconductor dumping by the Japanese firms, MITI (the
Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industries) has
found an unexpected twist involving U.S. firms.  According to a
published report, MITI has found that several U.S. manufacturers
including Texas Instruments have been selling semiconductors
below cost in Third World nations such as Singapore and Taiwan.
Currently, many of the American semiconductor manufacturers have
been exporting the semi-finished products to the Asian nations.
Then, they complete and sell them very cheap there for their U.S.
customers.  If this is true, the U.S. manufacturers have been
accusing Japanese counterparts while they've been dumping the
products.  Japanese manufacturers are quite furious at the news.

MITI will continue its investigation and and will present its
findings at the Japan-U.S. Semiconductor Follow-up
Meeting in Tokyo at the end of the month, says a report.

[***][1/13/87][***]
NEW LAPTOP COMPUTER
TOKYO (NB) -- Interfield Systems (Tokyo) will start marketing
its laptop computer "Limelight 2020" on Jan. 13.  It has a 5MHz
80C86 CPU, a 768KB memory, a 3.5" disk drive, and a 640x400-dot
LCD.  English and Japanese word processing programs, database,
and a graphics program are bundled with this machine.  An internal
modem and a card for answering phones are available as options.
The hardware has been supplied by Ricoh on an OEM basis.  The
retail price is US$2,594.

CONTACT: Interfield Systems, Sinjuku, Tokyo  (03-344-2281)

[***][1/13/87][***]
<<< SUSHI BYTES >>>

ALSOP'S PC LETTER IN JAPAN -- JI Consulting (Tokyo), a consulting
firm in the computer industry, has linked with PC Letter
Associates (CA) to start marketing "PC LETTER" in Japan in this
February.  The annual subscription fee is US$513 or 82,000 yen.

NEW LAPTOP COMPUTER -- Hitachi will release a 16-bit laptop
computer "B16-HX" in March.  This new laptop will be compatible
with the company's desktop micro "B16," a report says.

FAMICON NETWORK -- Japan's major securities firm, NOMURA
securities, will start Home Trade, a stock service, through
Nintendo's Famicon (Family Computer) network this fall.  9.44
million sets of this 6502-based game machine were sold in Japan
as of November 1986.

TELESTAR'S REAL-TIME NEWS SERVICE -- Japan's major personal
computer network "TeleStar" (03-379-9017) has started providing
a real-time news service, in cooperation with Jiji News Service
Corp. (Tokyo).  Having directly connected with Jiji's office,
TeleStar's host computer provides Jiji's hot news wire, which
covers a variety of domestic and international news.

NTT'S 16M DRAM -- According to a published report, NTT (Japan's
Telgraph & Telephone Corp.) has developed a 16 megabit DRAM.  This
DRAM will be officially announced at ISSCC (International
Society for Solid Circuit Conference) which will be held in
New York at the end of February.

LANGUAGE TRANSLATION SYSTEM -- Carnegie Melon University (U.S.A.)
plans to develop a multiple language translation computer system.
IBM and Hewlett Packard have already decided to participate in
this project.  And several Japanese firms will also join with
them, says a report.


[***][1/13/87][***]
CARDS EXPAND MEMORY TO SIX MEGABYTES
TORONTO (NB) -- All Computers Inc. is making international sales
with its All Card, an expansion card that adds up to six
megabytes of additional memory to IBM PCs and compatibles.  The
cards use a memory management technique, different from that used
in the Lotus-Intel-Microsoft specification, to allow DOS to
address more than its usual limit of 640K of memory.

The first All cards were sold in 1984, but they have been
upgraded since then.  All Computers has recently signed a major
distributor in the Canadian market, Frantek Software Distributors
Inc. of Ottawa, and British Telecom has placed an initial order
for more than 300 All cards.

The founder and president of All Computers, Mers Kutt, has an
interesting history in the Canadian computer industry.  His first
venture was a company called Micro Computer Machines (MCM), which
produced a desktop microcomputer in 1973 -- two years before the
Altair appeared on the cover of "Popular Electronics" in 1975.  But
this and other ventures haven't led to financial success or to
much recognition for his innovations.  All Computers is beginning
to look as if it might be different.

CONTACT: ALL COMPUTERS INC., 102 Bloor St. W., Toronto, Ont.
          [phone]

[***][1/13/87][***]
COURT TO HEAR ABOUT BIGGEST-EVER SOFTWARE PIRACY HAUL
TORONTO (NB) -- Five men will appear in provincial court here
this week to face charges of fraudulently copying and selling
commercial software from hundreds of manufacturers.  The charges
were laid following what is believed to be the biggest series of
raids ever on software copying operations in Canada, in which the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police seized some C$3 million worth of
bootleg software and manuals from three basement operations.  The
RCMP says the programs, for IBM, Apple and Commodore hardware,
were being sold across Canada and the United States as well as in
Bermuda.

Those charged are Brent Murray Radbourne, Paul Regan, Steve
Phillips, Gerald Lau and Yan Lau, all of Toronto.  Although three
separate locations were raided, all of them are believed to have
been connected.

[***][1/13/87][***]
PROVINCE TO LINK CORONERS
TORONTO (NB) -- Coroners in Ontario will soon have access to a
network of computers storing information on deaths in the
province.  To be installed in the eight regional coroners'
offices around province, the computers will allow coroners to
spot trends that could indicate a dangerous situation.  If
several heroin deaths took place in a certain area, for instance,
coroners might suspect a contaminated batch of the drug.  The
system will also allow the coroners to provide statistics on such
things as drinking-and-driving fatalities.

[***][1/13/87][***]
MEMOTEC DATA LISTED ON TORONTO EXCHANGE
MONTREAL (NB) -- Memotec Data Inc. has announced that its stock
is now listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.  The company's stock
was already traded on the Montreal Stock Exchange.  Memotec,
founded in 1977, manufactures data communications and networking
products.  A Toronto-based subsidiary, Real-Time Datapro,
provides computer services to the insurance industry.  A U.S.
subsidiary, Infinet Inc., manufactures and sells monitoring and
control products for data communications networks.

Memotec's revenues for the first nine months of 1986 were C$31.6
million, up 229 percent from C$9.6 million in the same period a
year earlier.

CONTACT: MEMOTEC DATA INC., 600 McCaffrey St., Montreal, Que.
         H4T 1N1

[***][1/13/87][***]
CANADA SEEN FUNNELLING HIGH TECHNOLOGY TO SOVIET BLOC
TORONTO (NB) -- The Royal Canadian Mounted Police are concerned
about shipments of U.S.-made high technology products through
Canada to the Soviet Union and other countries subject to export
restrictions, THE FINANCIAL POST reported last week.

The newspaper quoted Cpl. Paul Geick of the RCMP's Toronto
customs and excise section, who said there has been a dramatic
increase in police investigations of high-tech exports in the
past couple of years.  The police believe Canada is being used as
a middleman in smuggling restricted high-tech products to
embargoed countries largely because exports from the U.S. to
Canada are virtually exempt from controls but can be exported
from here more easily than from the U.S.

The exports that are causing the concern include weapons and
military equipment, but also computer equipment.  Investigations
in the past five years have included at least one of a Canadian
company accused of smuggling Digital Equipment Corp.
minicomputers to East Germany.

[***][1/13/87][***]
BITS, EH?
-- Access ATM Network Inc., of Toronto, has put its Magicbanc
network of automated teller machines on the block.  The company
hopes to sell a controlling interest in the small network to a
bank or trust company.  Access ATM went public in July at C$8.25
a share and its stock is now trading at under C$1.00.

-- Bidding closed Friday for Teleglobe Canada, the government-
owned satellite operator.  But there is concern that bids may be
lower than the government wants because of the earlier
announcement that the Canadian telephone companies won't be
allowed to buy in.  Potential buyers are reportedly concerned
that if the phone companies don't have a stake in Teleglobe, they
won't necessarily route their traffic through it -- which could
greatly reduce the company's present profits.

[***][1/13/87][***]
APPLE COFOUNDER UNVEILS HIS CORE
LAS VEGAS (NB) -- Steve Wozniak finally showed off the 2 years-
in-the-making handheld controller for home electronics at
CES.  The device operates anything that is activated by
infrared beams - televisions, stereos, CD players, VCRs,
security systems, household appliances.  "CORE will replace
all the remote controllers on the market because it has
features that others don't.  It is truly programmable. You
teach it to do what you want."  While the idea seems
worthwhile, critics say it may be too complicated to
capture the interest of most Americans.  Even Wozniak himself
has admitted the $200 device is more for "techies" than
the rest of us.  Wozniak expects to ship a few hundred
over the next few months to prospective retailers.  He
admits the one he used in the demonstration was one of only
two working prototypes in existence.
[***][1/13/87][***]
CONSUMER ELECTRONICS SHOW SPECIAL REPORTS
January 10, 1987

MORE STUFF TO READ...
Worth a mention, if not the subscription price, is COMPUTER
SHOPTALK (The Retailer's Voice), a 20-page newsletter showing the
latest computers, computer wigits, editorials and weekly complaint-
list (also known as Letters To The Editor).

The newsletter is free to dealers or $49.00/year if you can't
convince them you are a dealer.

And the way to keep up on developments in the CD-ROM arena is from
a magazine called "CD-ROM Review." The slick, four-color magazine is
available "in limited quantities" for $3.95/copy. If nothing else,
those attending the Winter Consumer Electronics Show can always count
on a shopping cart full of good magazines.

CONTACT: CD-ROM Review, CW Communications/Peterborough, Elm Street
         Peterborough, NH 03458

         COMPUTER SHOPTALK, P O Box 104, Millburn, NJ 07041

                --Jon Badeaux, Special Correspondent to NEWSBYTES
CONSUMER ELECTRONICS SHOW SPECIAL REPORTS
January 10, 1987

3-D A HIT
As mentioned in NEWSBYTES-WEST last week, LC Technologies displayed the
latest in "stereoscopic" 3-D glasses. The effect was dazzling, especially
given the natural desire to tilt your head and see if the images move with
body.  They do.  Unfortunately there was a tremendous flickler problem,
which I'm told was caused by the flourescent lighting in the convention
hall.

CAD applications for this new technology are particularly exciting.
The STEREOTEK glasses work on the Atari 520 and 1020, using an
interface.  The cost of the interface and glasses is $149.95, excluding
software.

                --Jon Badeaux, Special Correspondent to NEWSBYTES