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/1990/nb901221

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(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00001)

NYNEX AND BELLSOUTH WIN NEW RATES 12/21/90
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1990 DEC 21 (NB) -- BellSouth and NYNEX
have both won new rates from state regulators. How they went
about it, and what they came out with, is a study in contrasts.

The route to the NYNEX New York Telephone unit's first outright
rate increase since 1985, worth $250 million, was highly
contentious. The increase will take effect January 1. A state
Public Service Commission official estimated bills would rise 5%,
but the state's Consumer Protection Board will challenge the
increase in court, claiming New Yorkers really deserve a cut in
rates. Meanwhile, New York Telephone said the increase was not
enough to suit it, and notes it will remain among the lowest-
earning phone companies in the U.S. Worse, the regulators
mandated higher depreciation charges, hoping to make New York
Telephone improve its network more rapidly. The company had
sought an $831.7 million rate increase, saying it was needed to
increase profits to 12.2% of equity.

New York Telephone has long had an adversarial relationship with
state regulators. But regulators' hands were strengthened by
allegations last spring that NYNEX's unregulated Materials
Enterprises Co. unit had overcharged the regulated New York
and New England phone companies, and that it held so-called
"pervert conventions" in Florida which included prostitutes.
The FCC dropped its case against NYNEX, with the company
admitting no wrongdoing but paying a hefty fine. The state
and some long-distance competitors, including Allnet, have
asked the FCC to re-open the case.

On its own, NYNEX later turned the supply unit into a regulated
entity and dropped opposition to linking "bypass" companies which
have run their own fiber cables around Manhattan and seek to take
business away from it to its network. Despite the changes, New
York State attorney general Robert Abrams charged the company has
reneged on its commitment to improve its network, a charge the
regulators acknowledged in this rate case, and New York
regulators are considering a move to force NYNEX to divest New
York Tel, its largest unit.

By contrast, BellSouth's Southern Bell unit stood quietly earlier
this year when regulators in Georgia blasted the firm for its
practices, in the midst of the re-election fight of two Public
Service Commission members. The PSC went so far during the
campaign as to hit the company with a $180 million rate cut.
Southern Bell challenged the action in court.

After the election, however, Southern Bell started getting what
it wanted, namely an "incentive regulation" plan which could let
it earn up to 16% on equity, if certain service targets are met.
The plan ends the court battle over the rate cut. A few weeks
earlier, Southern Bell also won the right to offer the
controversial "Caller ID" service, with no blocking allowed by
consumers unless they're calling selected crisis centers like
suicide hotlines. The one minor loss by Southern Bell to its
regulators, a plan to force toll-free calling within rural
counties, will actually do more harm to small, independent phone
firms, which through the Georgia Telephone Association will
challenge that plan in court.

Both Southern Bell and New York Telephone criticized state
regulators when the rate decisions were announced. But by keeping
most of its criticisms quiet, especially when the politicians
were posing for voters, Southern Bell, observers suggest,
won more of what it wanted.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19901221)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00002)

BELLSOUTH TO BUILD URUGUAY'S CELLULAR SYSTEM 12/21/90
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1990 DEC 21 (NB) -- A consortium led by
BellSouth finalized a contract for the development and operation
of a cellular telephone network in Uruguay. The consortium will
invest about $10 million and begin providing service by mid-1991
in Montevideo and by late 1991 in the resort center of
Maldonado/Punta del Este.

The system will serve over 1.5 million people. BellSouth also has
interests in some of the private cellular systems being built in
Mexico, and has a similar concession to build a cellular phone
network in Argentina.

Uruguay consortium's shareholders include BellSouth and Motorola,
SOCMA and BGH of Argentina, and private Uruguayan investors. BGH
is Argentina's principal manufacturer of mobile communications
equipment and SOCMA is a Buenos Aires-based automobile,
construction, and telecommunications services company. The
Uruguay cellular system will use Motorola equipment and work
under the AMPS analog standard used in the U.S. Frequencies used
will also be compatible with U.S. cellular phones, a BellSouth
spokesman told Newsbytes.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19901221/Press Contact: Tim Klein, BellSouth
International, 404-249-4877)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00003)

PACIFIC BELL TAKES FIRST ORDERS FOR FLOPPY BILLING DISK 12/21/90
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1990 DEC 21 (NB) -- Pacific
Bell is now selling a floppy disk bill that allows customers to
sort and analyze telephone charges using a personal computer.

Custom Billing Disk consists of two disks -- a billing diskette,
which gives raw data of billing detail and charges, and a billing
analysis software diskette. The program produces reports that
allow businesses to compare telecommunications expenses month
after month, illustrate expenses with both bar graphs and pie
charts, produce expense reports for departments and individuals,
and create client invoices. It can also search for unauthorized
calls, such as those out of the area, or to a specific prefix
such as 976.

A single 5 1/4-inch high density diskette will hold approximately
1,200 pages of billing information, or 1.2 megabytes. There is a
one-time charge of $100 for Custom Billing Disk, with a $15
charge per diskette each month.

Reports can be created that show call length, dollar amounts,
dates, time of day and numbers called by area code or by prefix.
These criteria can also be combined to further customize the
information available from the telephone bill. Long distance
charges are also detailed on Custom Billing Disk if Pacific Bell
provides billing for the customers' long distance carriers.
Pacific Bell Custom Billing Disk was developed with PereLine Data
Systems of San Jose, California.

The company also announced it will begin implementing a rate cut
approved by the California Public Utilities Commission starting
in January. The cut amounts to just 15 cents on the average $30
bill. It's based on an "incentive regulation" plan which lets the
company share savings with its customers.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19901221/Press Contact: Pacific Bell, Dianne
Wentworth, 415/542-4541; Lou Saviano, 415 542-4640)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(ATL)(00004)

BELLSOUTH RETIRES LAST MECHANICAL SWITCH 12/21/90
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1990 DEC 21 (NB) -- BellSouth became
the first of the seven regional Bell companies to achieve a totally
electronic network when it retired its last two electromechanical
central office switches, replacing them with new electronic
switching equipment. The company said the changeover to
electronic switches throughout its nine-state region cost $6.2
billion. BellSouth serves 17.4 million lines.

The move means all customers of Southern Bell and South Central
Bell can get such services as Call Forwarding and Call Waiting,
or reach their chosen long-distance service without dialing extra
digits. Further upgrades are needed before all lines can get
Call Tracing, Call Blocking, voice messaging, or the
controversial Caller ID service.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19901221/Press Contact: Scott Ticer,
BellSouth, 404-249-2824)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00005)

AMERITECH TO UNBUNDLE ITS SERVICES 12/21/90
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1990 DEC 21 (NB) -- Ameritech filed
unbundled prices with the Federal Communications Commission for
an array of features that information providers can use to build
advanced telephone services. These features, called basic serving
arrangements and basic service elements, are part of the
company's Open Network Architecture plan, filed in February
1988, requiring that it open its network to competition.

Each of Ameritech's five Bell companies will file similar tariffs
with its state utility commission during the next few months.
Services offered under the tariff range from simple things like
ANI, called Caller ID when it's sold to consumers, to complex
hunting arrangements, where a call is passed to the next
available operator at a busy telemarketing switchboard.

Terry Appenzeller, senior director of ONA Implementation at
Ameritech Services in Schaumburg, Illinois, told Newsbytes his
company is taking the opposite approach of the other six Bell
companies when it comes to tariffing ONA. "The other companies
aren't ready for a federal tariff -- they're working at it on a
state level. We're offering an interstate tariff for interstate
services, which will than be matched to intrastate tariffs."

Appenzeller adds that a lot of small businesses are getting into
the information business. "There are a lot of mom and pop
businesses in voice messaging," he said. "Electronic mail is
another big application, fax service bureaus a third. Some of the
more exotic information services are yet to come -- like
videotex."

Initially, he acknowledged, the prime beneficiaries of the
new tariffs will be large service providers like Prodigy and
telemarketing houses like Telesphere, which can provide some
elements of their "900" services, like operators and long
distance services, but not others, like sophisticated call-
handling.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19901221/Press Contact: Evelyn Dorman,
Ameritech Services 708-605-2285)


(CORRECTION)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00006)

CLARIFICATION: NOVUS 12/21/90
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1990 DEC 21 (NB) -- Novus has issued
a correction to a recent Newsbytes story concerning Minitel
service providers. First, the name of their online chat service
is ChatLink, not Chatline. Novus is available internationally at
$1.40 per hour, with local access provided by SprintNet for as
low as $30 per month or through Minitel and other telephone
company gateways. ChatLink is available from most services for 17
cents per minute while the Novus service, available through a
gateway from ChatLink, charges a basic connect rate costs $1.40.

Newsbytes regrets any mistakes, misconceptions, or
misunderstandings from its interview with Novus Chairman Wagner
Bucci, following-up on a press release from Marketing Manager
Jeff Conran.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19901221/Press Contact: Traci Lafreiniere,
Novus, One Nevada Plaza, New York, NY, 10023, 212-721-1246; fax:
212-721-1987)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(NYC)(00007)

NCR RECEIVES SUPPORT OF OHIO DELEGATION 12/21/90
WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1990 DEC 21 (NB) -- Members of the
Ohio Congressional delegation have sent joint letters to the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and to Attorney
General Richard Thornburgh expressing concern about AT&T's
proposed takeover of NCR.

The letter to Thornburgh points out both the failures over the
last 10 years of computer mergers and the fact that AT&T has
lost an estimated $2 billion.

The letter says "The national interest requires that American
competitiveness in an aggressive global marketplace not be
comprised. Because of the size of these two companies, and their
distinctive roles in the computer industry, this combination
would have a decisive effective effect on the future of the
American computer industry."

Fourteen Ohio Congresspersons signed the letter to Attorney
General Thornburgh.

The letter to Alfred Sikes, chairman of the FCC, was signed by
thirteen members of the delegation and also points out the
industry's and AT&T's failures over the last 10 years. The
writers suggest that "if the merger does not work, the costs
of repaying the $6 billion which AT&T is borrowing is
likely to be borne by long-distance telephone consumers."

Ohio representative Tony P. Hall (D), explaining the support
of NCR from his fellow congresspersons, said, "As an independent
corporation, NCR has a long tradition of supporting the Dayton
community and providing jobs throughout the state. We just don't
have faith in AT&T continuing that tradition."

(Barbara E. McMullen & John F. McMullen/1990121)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(NYC)(00008)

ASHTON-TATE ACCUSED OF RACKETEERING 12/21/90
HAVERFORD, PENNSYLVANIA, U.S.A., 1990 DEC 21 (NB) -- Newsbytes
has obtained a copy of the 25-page complaint filed in Los
Angeles, CA by Rudolph, Palitz, a Plymouth Meeting, PA accounting
firm, as a class action suit against Ashton-Tate Corp. The
plaintiff, which wants a jury trial, contends that Ashton-
Tate as a corporation and present and former officers Edward
Esber, Luther J. Nussbaum and William Lyons, among other things,
violated 18 U.S.C #1962, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt
Organizations Act ("RICO") by fraduently procuring US copyright
protection for its dBASE software line of products.

The plaintiff bases this attack on Ashton-Tate on the December
13th ruling by U.S. District Judge Terry Hatter, Jr. that
stripped of its copyright protection from Ashton-Tate for its
dBASE line of products. In that ruling, Hatter determined that
Ashton-Tate had failed in its copyright filing to acknowledge
that dBASE was actually a derivative of JPLDIS, a public domain
mainframe database system. Hatter said that Ashton-Tate's failure
was done "knowingly and with an intent to defraud."

The suit maintains that Ashton-Tate, because of its copyright,
was able to force users to license rather than buy the dBASE
software. The licensing agreement, according to the litigation,
caused users to spend more money through its restrictive
prohibitions about copying network and multi-unit systems.

The suit cites as causes of action Racketeer Influenced and
Corrupt Organization Act ("RICO") behavior by the firm and
its officers. Within this action, mail and wire fraud
over the last 10 years are among the allegations. Also
cited are allegations of fraud and deceit, negligent
misrepresentation, unlawful or fraudulent business practices, and
Consumers Legal Remedies Act (a request for injunctive relief).

As a punishment for these alleged actions, the plaintiff, through
its attorneys, Greenfield and Chimicles, asks the court to award
an order certifying that the action may be maintained as a class
action; compensatory damages in an amount to be proven at trial;
punitive damages. The plaintiff also seeks an order enjoining
Ashton-Tate, et al from advertising as a copyrighted product
and "an order requiring defendants to disgorge the excess
profits they have obtained to plaintiff and all members of the
class."

When first served with the suit, an Ashton-Tate spokesperson told
Newsbytes that the allegations made in the Rudolph, Palitz
lawsuit are "completely without merit." She added that Ashton-Tate
"will defend vigorously against them."

(Barbara E. McMullen & John F. McMullen/1990121)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00009)

UK: SAGE LAUNCHES INTO EUROPE 12/21/90
NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE, ENGLAND, 1990 DEC 21 (NB) -- The Sage
group's new Mainlan division, which handles the company's Mainlan
networking products in the UK, has appointed a European general
manager with the aim of expanding the company's presence in
Europe.

The new man at the European helm is Hubert Heller, whose primary
responsibility will be to embark on a sales and marketing drive
into Europe. His first task will be to expand Sage's sales
presence in its existing markets in France, Germany and Italy, as
well as set up new distribution outlets in other European
countries.

According to Heller, distribution negotiations are in the final
stages in several European countries, including Denmark, Finland,
Norway, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.

"There is a rapidly expanding multimillion pound market for low-
cost entry-level PC networks and I intend to establishing Mainlan
as the market leader in Europe," he said.

(Steve Gold/19901221/Press & Public Contact: The Sage Group -
Tel: [phone])


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00010)

RESEARCH MACHINES REPORTS RECORD YEAR 12/21/90
WEST DRAYTON, MIDDLESEX, ENGLAND, 1990 DEC 21 (NB) -- Research
Machines (RM), the largest UK-owned manufacturer of British-made
micros and systems has reported another year of record results.
Turnover for the year is up 18 percent from UKP 53.4 million to
UKP 62.9 million with profit before tax of UKP 3.25 million - up
41 percent from UKP 2.3 million the year previously.

According to market research by Context, RM's unit sales place
the company in the top six suppliers in the UK computer market.
The company attributes its sales success over the past year
to its strategy of releasing advanced versions of PC-
compatible machines.

Commenting on the results, Mike Fischer, chief executive of RM,
said he is pleased with the year's profits, its 15th successive
year of profitability since it began trading in 1975.

"For the future, and in spite of the economic slowdown, I draw
confidence from the increasing strength of the company's
management and operational capability, and from the growth
prospects in all our main markets," he said.

(Steve Gold/19901221/Press Contact: Eric Stegall, marketing
communications manager, RM - Tel: [phone])


(NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00011)

NEW FOR IBM: Dragon Dictate For MCA Machines 12/21/90
NEWTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1990 DEC 21 (NB) -- Dragon
Systems has released a version of its Dragon Dictate
speech-recognition product that works with IBM's Micro Channel
Architecture (MCA). Dragon Dictate-MCA has the same capabilities
as the existing AT-bus version, said Patty McKenzie, marketing
manager, but its hardware component, a speech-recognition board,
fits an MCA slot.

The hardware-software combination, which sells for US$9,000, can
be set to recognize 30,000 words at a time, from a dictionary of
80,000. McKenzie told Newsbytes its principal applications are in
making computers accessible to handicapped people who cannot use
keyboards, in situations where people need to input data while
their hands are otherwise occupied, and as an alternative for
those who cannot or will not type.

Dragon Dictate can turn speech into text input to programs such
as WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3, provided the speaker pauses for a
minimum of about a quarter of a second between words. The company
said users can input text at 30 to 40 words per minute.

(Grant Buckler/19901213/Press Contact: Patty McKenzie, Dragon
Systems, 617-965-5200)


(NEWS)(APPLE)(MOW)(00012)

NEW FOR MACINTOSH: Russian Font Printing DA 12/21/90
CHAPEL HILL, NORTH CAROLINA, U.S.A, 1990 DEC 21 (NB) -- A new
product promises to remove problems many programs have with
Russian fonts and to increase the number of programs that
can handle Russian characters. The Text Oasis desk accessory
handles Russian text while Russian Central lets users share
text files regardless of the font used in them.

Russian Central is a collection of data files that correlate
Russian letters and symbols with the various Russian fonts.

Text Oasis uses Russian Central data to automate conversion
of Russian texts from one font to another. The utility allows
users to even take advantage of all available laser fonts
within a single document.

Currently the Macintosh-based Russian font market is fragmented
into 20 commercial fonts with no two of them using the same
computer code. There are also a number of "freeware" fonts.

Text Oasis adds some features to text processing in Russian
like upper and lower case, alphabetical sorting, phrase
and word counting.

Text Oasis costs $49.95 and can be used with any standard font.
Russian Central cost $49.95 and requires Text Oasis. Both products
are sold together for $89.95.

According to Dave Gleason, Apple's Russian operation system has a
character set which should become standard on the Soviet market and
drive others out of the market thanks to company support.

As a side note on the names of these products, Newsbytes Moscow
notes that the word "Central" for centuries was
used as the name of a kind of prison in Russia.

(Kirill Tchashchin/19901214/Press contact: David Moffat, glps
Products, phone [phone] or 800-869-9567)


(EDITORIAL)(GENERAL)(WAS)(00013)

SLOPPY REPORTING IN MAJOR MEDIA - Editorial by J.McCormick 12/21/90
WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1990 DEC 21 (NB) -- This week I am giving
an award for sloppy media coverage of computer technology to ABC
and the New York Times (NYT). At its best the non-computer print
media usually misses the real point of most computer stories, but
this week two major news outlets couldn't even seem to get their
basic facts straight.

The December 16 Sunday NYT carried a nostalgic story about
Digital Equipment that I have no argument with, but it was
accompanied by a chart that had at least two flaws. First, it
didn't say anything meaningful, and, second, it was incorrect.

The chart, not mentioned anywhere in the article, is apparently
intended to compare the cost per byte of past and present
computers and since the bottom two computers are a Macintosh and
a PDP computer the reader is apparently supposed to conclude that
the Digital Equipment computer is wildly overpriced.

Of course this "cost per byte" comparison makes little if any
sense, even if it is done properly; after all, how does a 33
megahertz (MHz) 80486 computer with 2 megabytes (MB) of memory
compare to an IBM PC with 10 MB of add-on memory?

You can access that much memory in the IBM PC using special
software, but does anyone think that the old PC will perform
desktop publishing or CAD as fast as the 486?

Of course not. It does make sense to compare prices of memory
chips for computers using the same processor and also to compare
the price per byte of different size hard disks, though only when
a reliability measure is also given, but comparing the amount of
memory in a Q-bus hard disk-equipped minicomputer and an entry-
level floppy disk Macintosh is ridiculous; worse, it is
meaningless. I doubt if anyone would seriously consider buying a
Mac Classic to replace his/her PDP-11/93 any more than people
would start taking VMS minicomputers home if the prices were
reversed.

Obviously the two computers aren't interchangeable in any way, so
the chart is basically meaningless, but computers are technical
items and perhaps, if we ignore the fact that this was a report
about a computer company in the business section of the NYT, we
can forgive this oversight.

What else can we say about this chart? Unfortunately, besides
comparing apples and oranges without explaining how little the
comparison meant, the chart isn't even correct as far as the
numbers go. Just as an example, the Macintosh Classic is listed
with a $1,000 current price, certainly close enough to the $995
list price of the 1 MB entry level model, but the maximum memory
is listed as 2 MB and this is the figure divided into the price
to get the price per byte, resulting in a price that is exactly
half the correct price per byte for the Macintosh Classic.

The same chart also shows that the new PDP-11/93 has a maximum
memory of only 1 MB and therefore its cost per byte is much
higher than the Macintosh Classic; again, setting aside the fact
that this comparison is virtually meaningless, it will come as
some surprise to Digital Equipment and its customers that the
maximum memory in a PDP-11/93 is only 1 MB, especially when the
least amount of memory in the base system is 2 MB.

Another item not factored into the far-too-simplistic cost per
byte number published in the Times piece is the 205 MB hard disk
included in the PDP-11/93's $14,175 base price. Of course, the
base Macintosh Classic is a floppy-only system.

The net result is that, of the only two modern computers compared
in the chart, the actual cost per byte for the Macintosh is twice
what is shown, while the true cost per byte for the PDP-11/93 is
half what is shown. In fact, if you use the correct numbers, then
what looks in the chart to be a wide discrepancy in the cost of
the computers is far less.

According to the NYT chart, the PDP's cost per byte is 20 times
that of the Mac Classic, while it is actually only 7 times
greater.

Pretty sloppy reporting, and just another example of the whiz-
bang numbers games often played by the portion of the media that
doesn't understand computers and really couldn't care less.

I am not specifically criticizing either the authors of this piece
or his editors because I don't know whom is at fault here, but
someone certainly is responsible for this. Who do they think
their readers are? Either the article is intended for people who
don't really understand the computer business, in which case it
is either very misleading or more likely just plain confusing, or
it is for computer experts who would immediately see the fallacy
of comparing computers on that basis.

The only thing this chart really tells us is that someone didn't
care enough to get some elementary facts right and that any other
computer-related story in the NYT must be viewed with
considerable skepticism.

We all make mistakes, but this goes beyond the sort of mistake
that we should accept from this prominent a source of
information.

I think it is long past time when the media giants start to
realize that computers are among the most important tools for
making money and changing our lives and respond to that
realization by assigning reporters to the stories who know what
they are doing.

Sure, once upon a time Time magazine named the personal computer
"Person of the Year," but the quality of computer reporting in
the non-specialized media has seen little improvement since then.
It reminds me very much of the time when business reporting
wasn't considered of sufficient interest for TV networks or most
newspapers to have a reporter with expertise in the field cover
those stories.

The other winner was ABC's Business Week, a Sunday morning
business magazine anchored by Sander Vanocur. I want to say at
the outset that I respect much of Mr. Vanocur's work and this
isn't a personal attack, but someone at ABC made some pretty
obvious mistakes on a computer-related story, although, since it
wasn't dealing with prices and the business performance of a
major company, it wasn't important in the same way as the NYT
story.

Since this was a throwaway Christmas story or because it was an
interesting story about soldiers caught up in the Gulf crisis,
perhaps no one felt it was important to fact-check, but watching
the report I felt the same sense of disgust for careless mistakes
that I always feel when a science fiction TV show or movie lacks
consistency; someone who is being paid a professional wage is not
doing his/her homework.

The story was about mobile computerized PX stores where U.S.
military personnel in Saudi Arabia could order Christmas
presents. Fine - it was a nice story and it was good to see the
troops being taken care of.

Unfortunately, as the screen showed images of soldiers having
their orders punched into minicomputer-style keyboards and
reading data off IBM monitors, Sander Vanocur was saying that the
orders are taken down on laptop computers.

Perhaps a laptop computer was hidden somewhere under the table,
but it certainly looked to my somewhat experienced eye as if they
were using networked workstations or terminals to take the
orders. Did someone forget to tell Mr. Vanocur that a laptop is a
tiny self-contained computer and that the keyboards shown were
themselves about twice the size of a typical laptop?

Or perhaps the wrong shot was used and the PXs really are using
laptops in most of the mobile PXs, but if so no one involved in
reporting the story seemed to think it important enough to point
out that despite the fact that they were talking about one kind
of computer they were showing something else entirely.

Sure, it isn't an earth-shattering mistake to refer to a
networked workstation as a laptop computer, but if you are going
to report on stories involving computers you should know what one
looks like. If no one knew what the pictures showed why didn't
they just leave out the comment about laptops?

The worst part of this is that when I see such obvious mistakes I
always ask myself, "If they can't even get this right, how many
mistakes are they making in the other news reports, mistakes I am
not in a position to spot?"

This story shows the sort of media sloppiness that has no place
in reports concerning high-technology. After all, would sports
fans long accept a sportscaster who didn't know the most glaring
differences between Australian rules football, American football,
and rugby?

Mr. Vanocur is definitely NOT one of the infamous "pretty boy"
airheads sometimes hired to present the news on television; he is
a real reporter, and he of all people should know better.

I don't expect any reporter to know everything, but I do expect a
professional to realize that he may be making himself look silly
to millions of knowledgeable viewers simply because of an easy-
to-check fact. He didn't need to call the Pentagon to learn if
those images were of laptop computers; probably the young studio
gofer (as in go-fer this, go-fer that) who was probably working
on the set could have described a laptop computer. Certainly
someone there must have known what they look like. Or perhaps
this mistake resulted with the editor who may have chosen the
images incorrectly, to accompany the copy.

If this had happened outside the news segment on one of the
morning coffee-klatsch talk shows, then I wouldn't have given it
a second thought, but this was on ABC's weekly business program
and computers are a very important part of today's business.

I think that the main reason there are so many computer magazines
and newspapers is the terrible job that the regular press and
even the business press does of covering most computer stories.

If America expects to remain an economic and technological force
in the world, this will have to change, and it won't change until
as much emphasis is placed on accurately reporting computer and
high-technology stories as is currently placed on having baseball
and football reported by people who know something about the
games.

I just hope we don't have to wait until the next generation of
journalism students, the ones trained to take notes on laptop
computers, finally get anchor and senior editor positions.

(John McCormick/19901221)


(NEWS)(GOVT)(LAX)(00014)

CYRIX AND INTEL EXCHANGE LAWSUITS 12/21/90
RICHARDSON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1990 DEC 21 (NB) -- Cyrix Corporation
of Richardson, Texas, has filed a comprehensive anti-trust
suit against Intel citing numerous violations of anti-trust
laws the company claims have occurred during the past year.
Cyrix is claiming that beginning in January 1990 and continuing
to the present, Intel has engaged in a campaign of unlawful
exclusionary practices to protect its coprocessor monopoly
from Cyrix competition. Intel, one day later, has filed
a suit charging Cyrix with patent infringement.

Cyrix was founded in 1988 specifically to design, develop, and
market math coprocessors and has developed what the company says
is an "original, highly advanced way of performing complex
mathematical calculations." The company also claims that
independent industry analysts have confirmed that the Cyrix
math coprocessors are compatible with Intel math coprocessors
but significantly outperform them.

Cyrix has filed complaints in both state and Federal court.

Intel, meanwhile, has filed a suit in US District Court in
Dallas, Texas charging Cyrix with patent infringement on its
math coprocessors, including the 80387. Intel charges that in
becoming compatible with the 80387, the Cyrix chip now violates
Intel's patent.

"We've been talking to them for nine months now about patent
infringement and we weren't able to reach a settlement so we
filed the suit yesterday," Intel spokesman Jim Jarret, VP of
corporate communications, tells Newsbytes. "We assume their
antitrust action is retaliatory. Theirs was filed Wednesday
and ours was filed Thursday. They fired the first shot across
the bow."

The Intel suit seeks unspecified damages and an injunction to
prevent Cyrix from ╥continuing the infringement."

Jarrett says while intellectual property actions are being
taken other companies, this is the only patent infringement
suit Intel has going. Several other companies, namely
Weitek and IIT make math coprocessors compatible with Intel's
but Cyrix is the only company Intel has charged with patent
infringement.

Regarding the charges of anti-trust violations, Jarrett says,
"We are very conscious of what the laws are and train our people
not to violate them. We are confident that we will prevail in
the antitrust measure."

No court dates have been set.

(Janet Endrijonas & Wendy Woods/19901221/Press Contact:
Tom Brightman, Cyrix Corporation, 214-234-8387 ext. 205)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00015)

STRATFORD SAYS CUTS WON'T AFFECT SUZY SERVICE 12/21/90
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA, 1990 DEC 21 (NB) --
Stratford Software is reducing staff and expenses in
an effort to become profitable by early 1991. However, according
to Sharka Chobot, vice-president of marketing, there will be no
reductions in the company's Suzy online information service.

Chobot said that in fact a new version of the Suzy software will
be released early in 1991, at an increased price of C$59.95, up
from the present C$29.95. The price increase is one element of
Stratford's plan to turn a profit as soon as possible.

Stratford's president, Thompson McKie, who is one of the
company's two major shareholders, has pumped an extra C$500,000
into the company. McKie recently took over the president's job
from Alex Morton, who resigned as part of the company's
cost-cutting effort.

Stratford is also laying off staff in operations, administration,
and marketing, Chobot said, and will cut spending in areas such
as advertising and marketing. "What we're really doing is just
bringing down our expenses to match our revenues," she said,
adding the revenues have been growing since the Suzy service was
launched in May, 1990.

(Grant Buckler/19901220/Press Contact: Thompson McKie, Stratford
Software, 604-439-1311)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00016)

SAGE SEES CRITICAL MASS, SYNERGY IN INDEX MERGER 12/21/90
ROCKVILLE, MARYLAND, U.S.A., 1990 DEC 21 (NB) -- Sage Software's
planned merger with Index Technologies of Cambridge,
Massachusetts, will produce a company with the critical mass
needed to do well in the computer-aided software engineering
(CASE) marketplace, according to Melody Ranelli, Sage's
vice-president of finance and chief financial officer. The two
companies' product lines and distribution strengths are also
complementary, Ranelli told Newsbytes.

Sage and Index announced December 18 that they would combine into
a single, as-yet-unnamed company.

Ranelli said that in the CASE market, a company needs a "critical
mass" amounting to annual revenues of about US$100 million. Sage
expects revenues of about US$35 million this year, she said, and
Index will have between US$45 and US$50 million. Combining the
companies brings the new entity within sight of the desired size,
she said.

The move also gives the two companies a good range of both
"front-end" and "back-end" CASE tools, designed for different
aspects of the software development process.

Benefits on the marketing side include Index's presence in the
European market, where Sage has up to now relied on distributors,
she added.

Index recently announced that it expects a loss in the quarter
ended December 31. However, Jeffrey Bingenheimer, senior
vice-president of finance and operations at Index, said the loss
was not a reason for the merger decision.

The merger awaits shareholder approval and other formalities and
is likely to be completed in February or March, Bingenheimer
said.

(Grant Buckler/19901220/Press Contact: Melody Ranelli, Sage
Software, 301-230-3210; Jeffrey Bingenheimer, Index Technology,
617-494-8200 ext. 130)


(NEWS)(UNIX)(TOR)(00017)

COGNOS ADDS CASE TOOL, REPORTS FINANCIAL UPTURN 12/21/90
OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1990 DEC 21 (NB) -- Software developer
Cognos has expanded its product range with a new
computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tool for Digital VAX
minicomputers. The company also sells PowerHouse, a
fourth-generation development tool for a range of hardware
including personal computers and minis.

Cognos said its new PowerCASE product advances the integration of
design, code generation, documentation, and maintenance support
of business applications. It is the first CASE tool fully
integrated within a fourth-generation language environment,
Cognos said.

Michael Potter, president of Cognos, said it is important
for software companies to keep a product focus, adding
new products that are related to their core offerings rather than
developing a portfolio of unrelated products. The latter approach
presents the company with "the problems of managing multiple
small businesses," he said.

PowerCASE enables users to create applications more quickly and
easily than other CASE solutions by working completely within the
PowerHouse application development environment from design to
documentation, according to Cognos.

Cognos also reported net income of C$1.7 million on revenues of
C$36.4 million in its third quarter, ended November 30. This was
a marked improvement over the corresponding quarter last year,
when Cognos lost C$8.0 million on revenues of C$27.6 million.

Potter said the results show that in the software business, a
company's product cycles and management can override general
economic trends. Cognos began efforts last fall to reduce
expenses and improve its results, he said, and is now reaping the
benefits despite the generally bleak economic picture.

Cognos has its headquarters and development operations in Ottawa,
with sales, service, and marketing offices in Burlington,
Massachusetts.

(Grant Buckler/19901221/Press Contact: Jay Fiore, Cognos,
617-229-6600)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00018)

AT&T COMPUTER SYSTEMS, MICROAGE TEAM UP 12/21/90
MORRISTOWN, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1990 DEC 21 (NB) -- AT&T Computer
Systems and MicroAge Computer Centers have announced they will
develop joint marketing plans to sell networking and systems
integration services to national accounts. The deal is AT&T's
first with a nationwide chain such as MicroAge, company
spokeswoman Paige Tunstall told Newsbytes, though not necessarily
its last.

AT&T has a number of similar relationships in place with smaller
resellers, she said.

The arrangement is based on a 24-month joint sales and marketing
effort between AT&T's direct field sales organization, the
MicroAge Computer Center network, and the MicroAge National
Accounts Division.

"AT&T's proven ability to unite disparate customer hardware and
operating systems, installed either side by side or at different
locations, will make the company an important part of our
strategic focus in the development of national account business
and customer satisfaction," said J. Daniel Shaver, MicroAge's
vice-president of marketing, in a prepared statement.

MicroAge, with sales of $622 million last year, is one of the
largest chains of computer sales locations in the United States.
Tunstall said AT&T chose MicroAge because of its rapid growth and
the belief that it is well organized and focussed on systems
integration.

"A year ago, AT&T decided to pursue the dealer marketplace with
renewed energy in order to achieve a more targeted position. Our
agreement today with MicroAge grants us just such a position at
the high end of that marketplace," said Curtis J. Crawford, AT&T
Computer Systems vice-president of sales, service, and support,
in a statement.

(Grant Buckler/19901221/Press Contact: Paige Tunstall, AT&T
Computer Systems, 201-898-6734)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(HKG)(00019)

HONG KONG: CT2 NETWORK APPLICANTS NARROWED 12/21/90
CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1990 DEC 21 (NB) -- Hong Kong Postmaster
General Dominic Wong has announced that four companies are
among the potential operators of the territory's first CT2
portable telephone network. Hong Kong has long been portable
phone mad with one out of every three people in a street,
on a train or at a restaurant table flaunting a cellular phone.

The CT2 system, unlike the cell system, can be used for outgoing
calls only and the user has to remain within a small area while
making a call. The call is connected via the nearest of hundreds of
small transmitting and receiving units mounted on buildings or lamp
posts throughout the city. The advantage over the cellular system is
that the phones are cheaper, smaller and lighter.

The companies listed in Thursday's announcement are consortia
led by Hong Kong Telecom CSL, a subsidiary of Hong Kong Telecom,
operator of the conventional fixed telephone and one cellular
network, Hutchison Paging, the territory's largest paging
operator, Chevalier, and Personal Communications Ltd.

Three other groups, Singapore Telecom, Meta Communications,
and GPT failed to gain a place in the race. The four shortlisted
companies now have the go-ahead to make formal applications for
licences to operate CT2 systems.

Hutchison Paging is a member of the Hutchison Whampoa group,
to which also belong Hutchison Telephone, operator of Hong
Kong's second cellular network, and newly licenced satellite
television broadcaster, Hutchvision.

(Norman Wingrove/19901221/Press Contact: HK Govt Information
Services Dept, + 852 842 8777; HK time is GMT + 8)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(HKG)(00020)

HONGKONG: 11TH HOUR BACKTRACK BY GOVT ON SATELLITE TV 12/21/90
CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1990 DEC 21 (NB) -- In a last minute
U-turn, the Hong Kong Government has abandoned new conditions
it had intended to impose on satellite television company
Hutchvision before granting it a licence to uplink programs
to Asiasat.

To the dismay of virtually everyone in the telecommunications
industry, the Broadcasting Authority decided last weekend to make it
compulsory for Hutchvision to stick to the letter of its announced
plans, and to order the precensorship of any material intended for
broadcast to Hong Kong from Asiasat, which will cover virtually all
of Asia when it goes into service.

The new conditions, coupled with others already agreed by both
parties, were widely seen as making it impossible for Hutchvision to
go ahead with a service to Hong Kong. The move followed a long-
running saga of what many characterized as official ineptitude
in laying down operating conditions for a cable television
service, which ended in the company concerned, Hong Kong
Cable Communications, withdrawing from its franchise last month.

Hutchvision had already indicated it would probably have to abandon
the satellite service if the Broadcasting Authority's new conditions
- which were announced after a draft of the licence was sent to the
company for approval - were imposed.

On Tuesday, Hong Kong's Executive Council threw the amendments out,
clearing the way for Hutchvision to go ahead with its plans, but
not before one final incident drew even more criticism.

Gus Chui, head of the Government's Recreation and Culture
Department, which has been universally derided for mishandling
of the cable and satellite issues, remarked at a press conference
on Thursday that licencing a satellite television operation
was "No different from licencing a restaurant."

(Norman Wingrove/19901221/Press Contact: HK Govt Information
Services Dept, + 852 842 8777; HK time is GMT + 8)


(NEWS)(IBM)(HKG)(00021)

3COM, IBM PUBLISH JOINT NETWORK MANAGEMENT SPECS 12/21/90
ADMIRALTY, HONG KONG, 1990 DEC 21 (NB) -- IBM and 3Com have
released jointly developed network management specifications
for industry-wide review. They say the specifications will
bolster industry efforts to provide interoperability among
different computing systems.

The IBM-3Com draft Heterogeneous LAN Management (HLM)
specifications provide the underlying structure for developing
management products that function with a variety of network
operating systems.

They also support several interfaces for communication between the
operating system and network adaptors, regardless of the cabling
media used to connect devices on the network.

"Interoperability is a key requirement in today's business computing
environments, where equipment from different manufacturers must work
together and be managed efficiently," said William Messer, 3Com's
general manager, Asian operations.

Publication of the HLM specifications follows preliminary evaluation
by technical teams from four leading software companies: Banyan,
Microsoft, Novell and Santa Cruz Operation. Earlier this month,
the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
Project 802 committee for local area network standards voted
to adopt the HLM approach.

IBM and 3Com say they will participate actively in the development
of the IEEE 802.1B standard for network management, ensuring that
products designed to meet these specifications work together on
the same network.

The standard will enable software developers to write applications
that use a minimum of memory for maintaining both Token Ring (IEEE
802.5) and Ethernet (IEEE 802.3).

The draft specifications are available at no charge from either 3Com
or IBM.

(Norman Wingrove/19901221/Press Contact: Marshall Gabin, 3Com,
+ 852 529 0356; HK time is GMT + 8)


(NEWS)(IBM)(HKG)(00022)

IBM ADDS WEIGHT TO CHINA SOFTWARE ENTERPRISE 12/21/90
SHENZEN, GUANGDONG, CHINA, 1990 DEC 21 (NB) -- IBM China-Hong Kong
has joined a new consortium to provide software and programming
services to its customers from a centre in the Guangdong Province
Special Economic Zone (SEZ) of Shenzen, bordering Hong Kong. The
other partners in the joint venture are the Shenzen University
Software Development Corporation and Hong Kong's Bank of East Asia.

An important consideration in the establishment of the International
Software Development Corporation was China's recent establishment of
laws guarding copyright, though a senior executive with one of IBM's
leading rivals told Newsbytes, "At this stage it looks good, but in
China, passing a copyright law is one thing. It's anybody's guess
how it will be enforced, if it is enforced at all."

The centre is intended to provide software translation as well as
application for users of IBM products worldwide.

IBM China-Hong Kong managing director, Bob Savage, said the
centre is expected to employ about 500 people by the end of
1994. It will start operation with around 100 technical and
management personnel. The attractions of Shenzen as a location
for the centre were its closeness to Hong Kong and its large
pool of cheap skilled labour.

(Norman Wingrove/19901220/Press Contact: May Chow, IBM,
+ 852 825 6907; HK time is GMT + 8)


(NEWS)(IBM)(ATL)(00023)

PRODIGY SETTLES OUT-OF-COURT IN TEXAS
AUSTIN, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1990 DEC 21 (NB) -- Prodigy will offer
refunds to about 3,000 Texans who bought the videotex service
from a direct-mail program which was sent after the IBM-Sears
joint venture announced it will start surcharging electronic mail
messages in January.

The settlement ends an investigation by the Texas attorney general,
Jim Mattox, who will also collect $12,500 in investigative costs
from the firm. A Prodigy spokesman says the allegations "had
no merit" but were settled "to avoid the massive time it would
take to prove our case in court."

Mattox got involved with Prodigy after the mail surcharge was
announced, and the Cooperative Defense Committee of Prodigy
subscribers was formed to protest it. Starting in January,
Prodigy will charge 25 cents for each message over 30 each month,
and raise its monthly fee from $9.95 to $12.95. Prodigy dealt
with the CDC by throwing its leaders offline and creating new
"guidelines" for electronic mail which, in effect, prohibit mass
mailings and complaint letters to advertisers, which the CDC used
in organizing its protests.

Ron Dusek, a spokesperson for Texas Attorney General James
Mattox, told Newsbytes that Prodigy, in September, sent a
direct mail solicitation to 700,000 Texans explaining the
on-line service and quoting a flat monthly fee as the total
charge for the service. At the same time, it publicly announced
the imposition of a 25 cent charge for each e-mail message
sent in a month above a free 30 messages.

"We received both press inquiries and a number of customer
complaints about the differences in the public announcement
and the solicitation. Whenever anything which may impact
our citizens unfairly is brought to our attention, we have the
authority to move on it -- we don't have to wait for a certain
number of complaints or degree of injury -- and we did,"
explained Dusek.

Prodigy, he said, was cooperative and agreed to change its
advertising practices in the future and to make refunds to any
subscribers that signed up during the period of the misleading
solicitation.

Under the terms of the agreement, Prodigy Texas subscribers
who signed up in the period September 6, 1990 to December 7,
1990 were told that they may cancel their service and have
all fees refunded. Prodigy also agreed to reimburse the state
of Texas $12,500 for investigative costs.

(Dana Blankenhorn, Barbara E. McMullen & John F. McMullen/1990121)


(NEWS)(UNIX)(WAS)(00024)

NEW FOR UNIX: Desktop CD-ROM Production System 12/21/90
REDLANDS, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1990 DEC 21 (NB) -- Redlands,
California-based Young Minds, Inc., has announced CD-Maker, a
desktop-size writable CD-ROM system for Unix workstations.
Suitable for small production runs or tests, the new system,
based on Sony's organic dye Writable CD-ROM System, allows users
to create actual ISO 9660 (the CD-ROM standard) discs which can
be read on any CD-ROM player.

The $38,500 system, currently available at an introductory price
of $35,500, uses media that cost about $40 per disc in single
quantities from Sony, but even at that price, the capacity of a
CD-ROM disc being about 500 MB, the cost per megabyte drops so
low that this is a practical system for distributing large files
or databases to a relatively small number of offices.

When used as a prototyping system for major CD-ROM publishing
projects, once sample discs have been produced and tested the
formatted data can be sent to one of the large CD-ROM replication
facilities for mass duplication where metal mastering will only
cost from $1,000 to $2,000 and mass replication can bring costs
of single CD-ROM discs down to only a few dollars.

Thomas Stapleton of Young Minds told Newsbytes that the Unix
system would ship by January 2. According to Mr. Stapleton, the
biggest advantage of their software/hardware combination is the
tremendous ease of use, with ISO 9660 formatting of data
requiring only one command and creation of a disc needing only
one additional command.

He also pointed out that Young Minds' Makedisc software was the
only commercially available ISO 9660 Unix software. Makedisc is
available separately or with the Sony hardware.

Mr. Stapleton told Newsbytes that discs are created real-time;
that is, a full CD audio disc can contain about 72 minutes' worth
of sound and if you want to fill a CD-ROM disc with data it will
take about 72 minutes to create each disc. For smaller amounts of
data the creation time is greatly reduced so recording 100
megabytes of data would only take about 15 minutes.

The hardware portion of the system is built by Sony and each of
the two components is little larger than some CD-ROM players such
as the Amdek LaserDrives. Up to 32 CDW-W1 recording units can be
daisy-chained to a single CDW-E1 encoding unit, making it
possible to record 32 discs simultaneously.

Mr. Stapleton also said that the media is available in quantity
for about $23 per disc and that Kodak is about to start
production of compatible discs.

For further information contact: Young Minds, 308 W. State
Street, Suite 2B, Redlands, CA 92373, or phone [phone].

(John McCormick/19901221/Press Contact: Thomas Stapleton, Young
Minds, 714-335-1350)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(WAS)(00025)

ROUNDUP: Stories Carried By Other Media This Week 12/21/90
WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1990 DEC 21 (NB) -- Roundup is a brief
look at some computer stories carried in other publications
received here this past week.

The December 17 issue of Federal Computer Week carries a small
story about Sony introducing a $14,000, 18-pound RISC or reduced
instruction set computing laptop workstation with a 406 megabyte
hard disk and 17 MIPS or million instructions per second
performance.

The December 15 edition of Science News followed up on last
week's National Research Council panel report which underlined
today's computer systems' extreme vulnerability to security
breaches.

This week's Communications Week carried a story on MCI's
establishment of guidelines for companies wanting "900" service.

The same publication has a story about AT&T and US Sprint
Communications agreeing to renegotiate some of their federal
contracts under the FTS 2000 tariff which some in the government
have charged were actually resulting in higher costs to agencies
than they would have paid by just using regular commercial
services.

Tuesday's Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that prominent PC
retailers are changing marketing strategy, preparing to serve
either the high end with specialized stores catering to users
with very advanced systems or the low end via mass merchandising.

Also in Tuesday's WSJ is a report that all of Maynard, Mass.-
based Digital Equipment's VAX 9000 computers will be retrofitted
with new multichip circuits to prevent recurrence of a technical
problem which caused some units to crash regularly during certain
applications.

The Wednesday WSJ carried the report that Bill Gates, head of
Microsoft, is seeking to acquire electronic rights to numerous
works of art for his Interactive Home Systems database.

Thursday's Journal reported that the Japanese chip market is
being penetrated by U.S. manufacturers through a managed-trade
pact which mandates that at least 20% of Japan's chip purchases
by mid-1991 must come from foreign firms.

(John McCormick and Beth Goldie/19901221)


(EXCLUSIVE)(GENERAL)(MOW)(00026)

MOSCOW: 386 COMPUTER PRICE SURVEY 12/21/90
MOSCOW, U.S.S.R., 1990 DEC 21 (NB) -- Standard 386-based micros
without guarantees or service contracts cost the equivalent of
$US3500 in rubles in Moscow, according to a Newsbytes survey.

A 20 MHz EISA computer with 80387 math coprocessor, 120 (MB)
hard drive, 4 MB of random access memory, VGA adapter and monitor,
3.5- and 5-inch floppies, mouse and system software, ranged
in price from 74 and 77 thousand roubles in cash ($3360
to $3500 by the market rate) or 102,000 to 110,000 roubles
if paid by bank transfer.

Polled companies included Mastak, MMM, Tandem and five
dealers. All of them offer no or almost no support and
service for these machines. Brands with service and support
are available almost exclusively for the hard currency.

(Kirill Tchashchin/19901218)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(MOW)(00027)

MOSCOW: CGE TO CHANGE NAME 12/21/90
MOSCOW, U.S.S.R., 1990 DEC 21 (NB) -- French CGE or Companie
Generale de Electricite will change its name to Alcatel-Alsthom
effective January 1st, 1991.

The holding company will change name to "better show people
its core businesses," according to Kauko Peltonen, Moscow
Alcatel office director. Currently CGE holds 61.5% shares
of Alcatel Corporation.

(Kirill Tchashchin/19901218/Press contact: Kauko Peltonen,
Alcatel Moscow, phone [phone])


(NEWS)(IBM)(SFO)(00028)

NEW FOR IBM: Ventura Publishers OS/2 PM Edition 12/21/90
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1990 DEC 21 (NB) -- Ventura
Software has begun shipment of Ventura Publisher, OS/2
Presentation Manager Edition, a new $895 version of the its
desktop publishing software running under IBM Corp's OS/2 version
1.3 Presentation Manager operating environment.

Ventura Publisher is also available in Windows 3.0, Macintosh and
DOS/GEM environments. All three have the same "look and feel"
according to Ventura, and all three can exchange documents.

Larry Gerhard, president and chief executive officer of Ventura
Software, says the lower memory requirements of OS/2 version
1.3 have "enabled us to take full advantage of the functionality
inherent in the OS/2 operating system without sacrificing
performance." It allows concurrent processing within a
session so that more tasks can be accomplished in the same
amount of time. The ability to run multiple simultaneous
sessions of Ventura Publisher allows users to continue working
while a document is printing. Virtual memory removes all
practical limits on the size and complexity of documents which
can be created.

Upgrades from all other versions except the Windows version
can upgrade for $195.

(Wendy Woods/19901221/Press Contact: Carol Clement Foster,
Ventura, 619/673-0172)


(REVIEW)(APPLE)(SFO)(00029)

Review of: Children's Writing & Publishing Center, 12/21/90

Runs on: Apple IIGS

From: The Learning Company, 6493 Kaiser Dr., Fremont, CA 94555
[phone], [phone]

Price: $59.95, school edition $89.95 (includes curriculum)

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

Reviewed for Newsbytes by: Naor Wallach, 12/21/90

Summary: A combination word processor and page layout program
oriented upper elementary school children. With its ease of
use and clever arrangements of graphics and fonts, this program
seems like it should be a winner.


=======

REVIEW

=======

"The Children's Writing and Publishing Center" is a word processing
and page layout program for kids to use and enjoy. The program is
aimed at children aged 9 years and older who might like to use
the computer for various writing tasks just like adults do.

The program is a stripped down page layout and word processing
program with some nice features. There are two basic types
of documents that you can work with and they are the "report"
and the "newsletter." A report can be up to 4 pages long and
can have an optional header section on each page. A newsletter
is only one page in length but has two columns running side
by side. Again, you can have the optional header area if you
so choose. The newsletter's type is smaller than the report's
and therefore allows for more text to be printed on one page.

Once you have decided on the layout, it is time to enter text. In
this regard you have a very simple word processor that allows
for text entry via the keyboard. You may choose from among eight
different fonts, but you must select the font that you want in
advance. You cannot alter the text's appearance once its been
entered. The only way to make alterations is by deleting the
text, choosing the appearance that you want, and retyping the
text. In addition to the eight fonts, you may have different
lettering styles such as underlining.

In both the main body area of your document or the header, you
may insert various graphics into the document. This program is
smart enough to have the text automatically shift around the
graphic to accommodate it. Obviously this allows for quite a
bit of artistic freedom for your child.

The program comes with 140 different graphics and is
compatible with the graphics diskettes that are published by
other companies for use with the "Print Shop" program, so
finding the exact suitable graphic for that 4th grade science
report should not be too difficult. There are also some
predesigned headers that you can use that cover such
necessities as Sports, Science, News, and Holidays.

Working with the program is very simple both as a function of its
relatively limited capabilities and because of its target
audience. It is very easy to understand what needs to be done
and when. There are absolutely no surprises and it seems that
the program is bug-free. The authors took great pains to ensure
that no unusual action would cause difficulties. And it seems
that every false action was anticipated and accounted for.

I do have one minor quibble. It seems that in their
eagerness to ensure completely correct operation, the
authors went a bit too far. Let us say that you are working
on a report. Most of the text will not appear on your screen
and you will need to scroll around using the arrow keys. When
you exceed the absolute top of text or the absolute bottom of
the text you are presented with an error message that says
that the cursor cannot be moved there and you are asked to
hit return to eliminate the message. This does not seem too bad.
However, as you start working on a report, and if you frequently
move to the top or the bottom of the text, you will undoubtedly
find yourself zooming away at the scrolling function and being
constantly faced with that error message. After a while it gets
a bit annoying. My recommendation would have been to have
the cursor just stop at the top or bottom so that one isn't
faced with that message over and over again.

There are various parameters that can be programmed
so that the program knows your particular hardware setup and
your likes and dislikes. One of these setups is the level of
error messages that are displayed. You can disable the error
message once you are an experienced user and know what to
expect. Unfortunately, I am not yet an expert and would not want
to disable all the messages just to get rid of this one. It simply
isn't bothersome enough. Yet.

The program comes on one diskette with an additional "storage"
diskette provided by the publisher. In addition, there are a
120-page User's Guide; a product registration card; a Ready
Reference Card; and a brochure outlining the complete line of
The Learning Company's educational programs. Even though
initially intimidating by its size, the manual is written for
9 year olds and can be read through very quickly by an adult
learning the program so they can help their child. There is a
tutorial section which goes through the major parts of the
program and should be done by everyone as a quick introduction
to the program's capabilities.

Overall, I like the program. It is certainly well done and seems
to cover the needs of a 9 year old quite well. Although not a
complete word processor by any means, I simply can't imagine
too many writing activities that this program does not cover
adequately for that age child.

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

PUMA RATINGS

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

PERFORMANCE: 4 The program is speedy in performing its functions.
Even the printing with graphics takes only a reasonable amount
of time.

USEFULNESS: 4 For a 9 year old who absolutely "must" use the
computer for his/her homework, this is a much better program
than dad's or mom's word processor.

MANUAL: 4 Excellent. Well written, and no typos.

AVAILABILITY: 4 Available from the company directly plus many
mail order or retail software stores. There is
an 800 number for technical support. Unless you are a complete
novice at computers and word processors, you won't need it.

(Naor Wallach/19901219)


(REVIEW)(APPLE)(SFO)(00030)

Review of: Bannermania, for the Apple IIGS, 12/21/90

Runs on: Apple II series of computers

From: Broderbund Software Inc., 17 Paul Drive, San Rafael, CA 94903
[phone]

PUMA rating: 3.8

Reviewed for NEWSBYTES by: Naor Wallach, 12/21/90

Summary: This is a program that can print Banners for any kind
of use and for every kind of occasion. If you need to make
banners, this is a good program to use.

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REVIEW

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"Bannermania" is a companion program to Broderbund's "The Print
Shop" program. I do not mean that in the sense that it is
required that you own "The Print Shop" but rather in the sense
that this continues in that program's fine traditions.

As its name implies, this program is used to create Banners.
Broderbund used the exact same format of the program as the
"Print Shop" which lets any of us who have used the "Print Shop"
become "Bannermania" experts in no time. The user interface is
the same between the two programs and is so easy and relatively
foolproof that anyone can sit down and without reading the manual,
start creating banners for their needs.

You are first faced with a main menu (after going through some
introductory screens that is). Using this menu allows you to
create new banners; use one of the forty ready-made banners
that come supplied on the disk; use a banner that you had
previously saved; edit any banners; transmogrify banners
(I'll explain this later to those who do not regularly read
"Calvin and Hobbes"); install the program on a hard disk;
and make printer selections.

Selections are made in this menu by using the arrow keys to
move the selected item up or down and pressing the "return" key
to tell the program that that is what you want to do. Hitting
the "ESCape" key at any time works you backwards through the
menu chain back to the main menu.

Let us go through an example of creating a banner that reads "Happy
Holidays!" First we'll select the Create New Banner menu item.
(There is such a banner already pre-made, but that wouldn't
be half as much fun as creating our own. Now would it?) After
a quick second we are presented with the Layout menu. Here we
are given ten different choices of how we want to have our
banner laid out. Mainly, the differences are between the
sizes of the two lines.

In the bottom two thirds of the screen, we see an example of
the selected layout given to us so that we can get some idea of
what is happening. For our banner I would like the word "Happy"
to be in small letters above a much larger "Holidays!" so I
selected the "Small over Large 1" item. Hit the "Return" key
and we are given the Message Menu. This is where we type
in the words that will appear on our banner.

There are also a variety of special symbols that are available
here. I chose to add a star and a star of David to flank the
word "Happy."

Now it is time to select our font from among the 19 provided.
(Again, if you do not know what the font names mean, wait
a little bit and the program will show you a sample in the
bottom portion of the screen.) I chose "Whimsical" for the
top line and "Frontier" for the top. The next menu is entitled
"Effect." Here you have 20 choices ranging from having
the letter appear inside balloons, to having the letters
appear as if they are printed vertically. I made the top line
"Wacky" (which angles the letters in all kinds of crazy
directions) and the bottom a more sedate "Shadow" effect.

Now, it is time to select the color set. You can have the
letters white, gray, black, horizontally striped, slashed,
or vertically striped. I left ours white. Finally, comes the
"Shape" menu which allows you to decide from among 23 different
shapes. For fun and excitement I picked the "Kinky Ribbon"
shape. This you'll have to see to believe!

When all this is done, you are presented with the Print/Save Menu
which allows you to do those things. It also allows you to change
various parameters and again, you can "Transmogrify." I think
it is time to explain what Transmogrify is all about.
Transmogrify is a terrifying operation. Once transmogrified
there is very little resemblance of the final product
to the original. It also is not constant but rather, changes
any and all parameters in a completely random manner. This
can lead to some really bizarre looking banners, or it can
lead you on a thinking path that you would never have even
considered otherwise. Thankfully, you can always recover from
this operation with a simple keystroke and the program is
merciful enough not to change your text message at all. If you
find that the first operation was nice but not quite wild
enough, then you can continue doing this as many time as you
wish and be presented with a different combination every time.

My only gripe about the program is one that probably can not
be helped and that is the extremely slow speed in which it
prints out the banner. In our case, the "Happy Holidays!"
message took over 12 minutes to print out on an Imagewriter II.
During this time, you are essentially locked out of the
computer and can go and get a cup of coffee, finish it, get
a donut, eat that, and start feeling remorseful about your
weight gain before the program finishes printing.

There is a bright point to this and that is that Broderbund
was kind enough to give the "Printing" and Thinking" screens a
mesmerizing psychedelic color display so that those of us who
have had too many donuts can stare at the screen in wonder
instead.

I found no bugs in this program or typos and the like in the manual. For this Broderbund is
to be commended. This is another high-quality program from a high-
quality outfit.

The program comes on one double-sided disk with a 34-page
manual and a brochure advertising many different printing
supplies that you may wish to purchase to get the best use of
this program.

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PUMA RATINGS

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PERFORMANCE: 3.5 The program operates fast enough but the printing
process takes forever.

USEFULNESS: 4 If you are in need of some banners, this program is a life-
saver.

MANUAL: 4 No typos or mistakes. Printed on high-quality glossy paper.
Obviously a lot of care went into this one.

AVAILABILITY: 3.75 Available from mail order and software stores.
There is a technical support number listed in the manual.
However, it is a toll call. I found the Broderbund people
responsive and knowledgeable in the past. With this program
I had no need of their help.

(Naor Wallach/19901213/Press Contact: Karen Omholt)