<><><><><><><><>  T h e   V O G O N   N e w s   S e r v i c e  <><><><><><><><>

 Edition : 2980               Friday 17-Dec-1993            Circulation :  6455

        VNS Announcement ..................................   18 Lines
        VNS MAIN NEWS .....................................   56   "
        VNS COMPUTER NEWS .................................  249   "
        VNS TECHNOLOGY WATCH ..............................   20   "

  For information on how to subscribe to VNS, ordering backissues, contacting
  VNS staff members, etc, send a mail to EXPAT::EXPAT with a subject of HELP.

VNS Announcement:                                   [Colin Blake, VNS Publisher]
=================                                   [Nashua, NH, USA           ]

I'm sad to say that today is Tom Povey's last day at the VNS UK News
Desk. Tom has been providing us all with the MAIN NEWS section of VNS
since September 1990. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Tom for
the 3+ years of excellent service he's given us. He's done a truly
outstanding job.

Here's an extract from Tom's first VNS (edition 2153, 17th September 1990).
I like this one:

    Officials in Cirencester accepted a cheque for the "Poll Tax" written
    on a banana. They waited for the cheque to clear and then ate the
    banana.
    
Thanks Tom, we'll miss you.

Starting Monday you'll "see" Andy Payne back at the UK News Desk. Andy was
the UK News correspondent for a year before Tom Povey took over, so he's
no stranger to VNS. Welcome back, Andy!

VNS MAIN NEWS:                                     [Tom Povey, VNS UK News Desk]
==============                                     [Reading, England           ]

    Here is the News at 07:00 GMT on Friday 17-Dec-1993
    ---------------------------------------------------
    
    UK News
    -------
    FT-SE = 3311.2
    Exchange Rate for UK pound = US$ 1.4880 = Dm 2.5408 = FFr 8.6844
    
    The Lord Chief Justice is expected to give new guidelines today on the
    sentencing of those convicted of causing deaths while driving under the
    influence of drink. This follows criticism after some lenient sentances
    were imposed.
    
    The Head Teachers Association have expressed concern at the number of
    accusations of child abuse levelled at their members and which prove
    false. They are concerned that teachers may be suspended while their
    case is heard and be left with slur on their character even if the case
    is not proven.
    
    The Government is considering an application to admit a group of sick
    children from Bosnia to Britain for treatment. Their doctor has
    experssed concern that Britain is being slow in making a decision.
    Coommuters face further delays getting into work from west sussex this
    morning following the discovery of two more bombs on railway lines. The
    bombs were made safe yesterday morning.
    
    The maximum winnings from Premium Bonds is to be increased to UKL 1M
    from April next year.
    
    European News
    -------------
    
    The Irish Prime Minister is to brief the Irish parliament today on the
    declaration made on Wednesday concerning the basis for solving the
    issues around Northern Ireland. One possible issue may arise over the
    idea of setting up an interim forum for discussion of the political
    future. The opposition party in Ireland have not been consulted on this
    and may raise objections.
    
    World News
    ----------
    
    The King of the Zulus has asked his people to be prepared to lay down
    their lives in support of creating a Zulu homeland. This comes as the
    mainly Zulu Inkatha party appear to be being left out of the political
    negotiations into the future of South Africa.
    
    {News courtesy of the BBC}
    
    Local Weather
    -------------
    
    A wet start, clearing later from the south west. High 10C/50F.

VNS COMPUTER NEWS:                            [Tracy Talcott, VNS Computer Desk]
==================                            [Littleton, NH, USA              ]

    Thursday's Market                             Digital Fair Market Value
      Quote     Change     Dow Jones    Change     28-May-1993   $44.50
 IBM    Unavailable                                30-Nov-1993   $36.812
 HPkd                                              85% of lower  $31.50
 Msft                                               1-Dec-1993   $35.875
 DEC    35 3/8  -  1/8     3726.14      + 9.22

 Note - Still working the kinks out of the automated program to get the daily
        closing stock quotes. The quotes in yesterday's VNS were from a bit
        before the market closed and I didn't get good numbers for anything but
        Digital and the Dow Jones for Thursday's market. - TT
 
 CompUSA - Chairman Nathan Morton quits. Stock drops 9% on news.
        {The Boston Globe, 15-Dec-93, p. 58}
   Nathan Morton, who directed CompUSA's growth into the nation's largest chain
 of computer superstores, quit as chairman and CEO. The news surprised
 investors and CompUSA shares tumbled 9%, closing down 2 1/8 at 20 3/8 on the
 New York Stock Exchange. The company did not explain Morton's departure and
 he did not return phone calls seeking comment. CompUSA's board named
 president James Halpin as CEO and outside director Giles Bateman as chairman.
 The Dallas-based company got its start in 1984 as a small software retailing
 outfit. It began forging itself into a chain in 1988 with the opening of a
 superstore in Atlanta. It now has 66 stores. Morton joined CompUSA in May
 1989, was named presidéht and CEO in January 1990 and became chairman in May.

 IBM - Seen topping Apple as PC seller
        {The Boston Globe, 13-Dec-93, p. 49}
   With three weeks remaining in 1993, IBM is set to reclaim the title of top
 seller of PCs in the US, according to a report to be released today.
 Preliminary year-end figures from research firm International Data Corp. also
 show a dramatic surge in sales this year by the biggest PC makers. The 10
 largest companies will account for 9.5 million of the 14.8 million PCs sold in
 the US this year - or about 64% of the market compared to 52% a year ago.
 "That is a big, big change," said Richard Zwetchkenbaum, chief of PC market
 research at IDC. "A brand name has become important for a number of reasons.
 Those vendors have more marketing muscle, more R&D capability, the ability to
 have multiple brands and an array of distribution channels."
 
 Software - Anticipates a criminal's next move
        {The Nashua Telegraph, 15-Dec-93, p. 6}
   Burglaries in South Tyneside, New Britain, have been slashed 22.5% in the
 first year Northumbria police have used the Crime Pattern Analysis System
 (CPAS). The program, developed by Newcastle University, predicts where crimes
 can be expected in the next 24 hours by analyzing data on offenses in the
 previous 28 days. Its screen displays 'Äúcrime hotspots" as bright green
 clouds on a map

 Supercomputers - Start-ups sputter toward the abyss
        {The Wall Street Journal, 1-Dec-93, p. Bl}
   Cray Computer's cash-on-hand could run out by next May. Closely held
 Thinking Machines pulled the plug on an initial public offering. And Kendall
 Square Research, once a highflier, is trying to explain why it reported sales
 for which it never received money. Just when some of the entrepreneurial
 supercomputer companies were supposed to start thriving, troubles are
 multiplying in this specialized, but technologically crucial, corner of the
 computer industry. "This market will implode," says Debra Goldfarb, who
 follows the industry for market researcher International Data Corp.,
 Framingham, Mass., "Several vendors could be out of the market almost
 immediately" without government aid, she adds. John Carlson, chairman of Cray
 Research Inc., says: "We're in the shakeout period. In the next couple of
 years, you'll see a lot fewer" companies. While applications for
 supercomputers are blossoming, many makers will end up bankrupt, acquired or
 closed. Supercomputers have never had more uses. They are finding oil under
 previously opaque salt domes in the Gulf of Mexico. They are mapping genomes.
 They are poring through news clippings for the National Security Agency. But
 a series of calamities have hammered the industry. The Cold War has ended,
 hurting defense and intelligence agencies' spending on supercomputers. The
 new administration is boosting spending on computer communications for the
 masses at the expense of high-performance computing for the elite.  And the
 plethora of companies has created customer confusion and vicious price
 competition. Almost all are losing money. On top of that 'Äî two big companies
 with vast resources - Cray Research and IBM - have decided to compete
 aggressively in the $2-billion-a-year market. The entrepreneurs and venture
 capitalists who started some innovative supercomputers makers counted on the
 market exploding before the giants entered. Several startups blossomed as
 scientists experimented with the systems and the Defense Department subsidized
 the firms' growth. But now federal spending earmarked to buy supercomputers
 is shrinking. Cray Research said its annual U.S. government sales dropped by
 about $100 million in the past four years, a big hit for a company with
 $797.6 million in revenue last year. Cray unveiled its first
 massively-parallel processing (MPP) computer, the T3D, in September. The
 pricey machine works only with a traditional Cray. Already, Cray has nine
 sales or orders. More surprising to the industry, IBM started shipping its
 first parallel supercomputer in September. Jack Dongarra, an Oak Ridge
 National Laboratory researcher who tests computer speeds, says IBM's
 PowerParallel system with 64 processors "matches performance levels of vendors
 that have been around for years." IBM said it has shipped 35 of its
 PowerParallel systems since September and expects 30 more orders by the end of
 the year - big numbers in an industry with under 500 units shipped in all of
 last year. Most are 16-processor systems that cost about $500,000, but it has
 a few orders for a 128-processor system, costing more than $3 million each.
 IBM can compete effectively for almost every supercomputer job. For example,
 Richard Fishman, president of the MPP pioneer, Thinking Machines of
 Cambridge, Mass., complains that IBM won a big contract for a new Defense
 Department computer on Maui, Hawaii. He says "it was wired" by IBM's
 Washington lobbyists and IBM "virtually bought the business" by slashing
 prices. A spate of well-publicized problems is worrying customers about
 many of the small vendors as well. Thinking Machines is losing money for the
 third straight year and hopes sales will equal last year's $90 million. It
 replaced its chief executive after investment bankers said the company wasn't
 in shape to make an initial public offering. Thinking Machines says it has
 raised enough money from its private investors to keep going, and expects
 profits and a public offering next year. Last month, privately help MasPar
 Computer Corp., Sunnyvale, Calif., fired 25% of its work force and brought in
 a new president to find a profitable niche strategy. Cray Computer of
 Colorado Springs, Colo., the company Seymour Cray spun out of Cray Research to
 build a new supercomputer, has yet to sell one. Since Kendall Square
 Research, Waltham, Mass., recently disclosed that it plans to restate
 previously reported results, shareholders are suing, the Securities and
 Exchange Commission is investigating and its stock has plunged. Convex
 Computer Corp., Richardson, Texas, reported a loss last quarter and expects
 continued losses until it starts making money on its first massively parallel
 computers, which will be shipped in volume starting next year.  Companies
 fighting for survival are slashing prices for any sale, providing profitless
 prosperity for the winners. And the market for the most powerful machines has
 dried up. William Lane, the newly named director of the National Science
 Foundation, says, "There is a trend away from big projects totally supported
 by tax money." Making smaller supercomputers isn't foolproof, either.
 Researchers keep figuring out ways to link up workstations in clusters to do
 supercomputer-type work. One potentially huge opportunity looms on the
 horizon - video servers that will store all the movies and television shows
 that will be sent to customers of phone and cable-TV companies who want video
 on demand. MPP supercomputers are uniquely suited to that task. The video
 server "could be our ship coming in," says Ronald Buck, VP of marketing at
 NCube, a Foster City, Calif., maker of MPP machines. "We're in the right spot
 at the right time."

 Mail-order PCs - Once very hot, are cooling off
        {The Wall Street Journal, 1-Dec-93, p. Bl}
   The mail-order computer business - once the hot growth are for computing' s
 up-and-comers - is starting to slow down. Stung by the success of computer
 superstores and a rush of first-time buyers who want to see what they buy,
 mail order's share of the total PC market is expected to inch up only slightly
 next year, setting the stage for a decline that could last through the end of
 the decade. "It's very clear," says computer retail consultant Andy Bose,
 "that the glory days of the mail-order business are over."

 Fiscal News - Dell Computer, Cabletron
 Dell Computer - Posts profit in fiscal third quarter
        {The Wall Street Journal, 1-Dec-93, p. B8}
   Dell showing signs of a turnaround, returned to profitability in the fiscal
 3rd quarter, although earnings were still 58% lower than a year earlier. Dell
 stock rose 12% on the news, up $3 at $27.125 in Nasdaq trading. Dell reported
 net income of $12 million for the quarter ended Oct. 31. Sales rose 33% to
 $757.3 million, thanks to a surge in Government orders in September. 
 Although earnings still were far below the year-earlier $28.6 million, they
 exceeded Wall Street's expectations that Dell would only break even in the 3rd
 quarter. And they appeared to calm investors rattled by a dismal 2nd quarter
 that resulted in Dell's first quarterly loss ever. Dell officials were
 cautious in their forecasts, saying Dell doesn't expect year-to-year profit
 gains in the 4th quarter, and that it won't hit its goal of $3 billion in
 sales for the full fiscal year. "We still have a lot of things that aren't
 fixed," said Chairman Michael Dell. "I think we still have a lot to @o.*

 Cabletron - 3rd quarter net income up 41%
        {The Boston Globe, 15-Dec-93, p. 66}
   Cabletron posted its 19th consecutive record quarterly results, with net
 income up 41% amid continued buoyant demand for its products. Net in the 3rd
 quarter ended Nov. 20 rose to $31.2 million from $22.1 million in the
 year-ago quarter. The 'ß1.10-per-share figure exceeded the mean estimate of
 $1.05 from 14 analysts recently surveyed by Zacks Investment Research.
 Cabletron's shares recently traded down 1 at 112 1/2 on volume of 87,400,
 compared with three-month average daily volume of 204,100. Third quarter
 sales rose 42% to $156.5 million from $110.4 million. The fast-growing
 company makes devices for computer networks. Ed Cortes, manager of investor
 relations, said the company will begin shipping within 90 days a product that
 will permit more users to be added to networks without a commensurate increase
 in the time required to get information. "This will have an impact on our
 future quarters," he said. In fiscal 1993, the company earned $82.5 million
 on sales of $418.2 million. For the nine months, Cabletron posted net income
 of $85.7 million, up 45% from $59 million in the year-ago period. Sales rose
 46% to $429.9 million from $295.2 million.
 
 Digital - Carl Gustin joins PC Business Unit
        {Livewire, Worldwide News, 15-Dec-93}
   Carl E. Gustin, Jr. has joined Digital as vice president, product and
 market strategy of the Personal Computer Business Unit, effective Jan. 3.
   Carl will be responsible for the development of the framework for the
 continued expansion of Digital's Personal Computer business, its penetration
 of the PC marketplace, and its consistent communications image, on a
 worldwide basis. Reporting to Enrico Pesatori, vice president and general
 manager, Personal Computer Business Unit, Carl will develop the longer-term
 strategic direction, based on customer needs, market issues, technology
 trends, and the integration of its PCs with Digital's other products and
 services.
   "Digital's goal is to be a top PC vendor by 1995, and we have put in place a
 world-class organization to meet that short-term goal. Carl's experience in
 the PC industry, his insights, and his broad understanding of PC customer
 needs will help our focus on the future as well," Enrico said.
   "Joining Digital's PC Business Unit offers me broad opportunities and
 challenges that, frankly, are too good to pass up," Carl said.  "Digital not
 only designs and builds great computing and communications products, but also
 is in the mainstream of solving real customer problems. With its renewed
 commitment to marketing and customer needs, and its exceptional engineering,
 Digital has all the tools to be a leader as the industry moves to integration
 of new media and communications technologies, and the client/server computing
 model."
   Carl spent the last five and one-half years in field sales/marketing and
 senior management positions at Apple Computer, Inc. He was executive aide to
 John Sculley while he was chairman and CEO. Most recently, Carl was vice
 president, worldwide communications and marketing support. Prior to joining
 Apple, he spent 14 years in general management at leading marketing and
 advertising companies.
 
 Digital - U.S. Payroll update: Important 1993 W-2 information
        {Livewire, U.S. News, 15-Dec-93}
        (The following message is from U.S. Payroll.)
   Employees' 1993 Form W-2 wage and tax statements will be mailed to their
 home addresses during the first week of January 1994.
   For reference, the home mailing address of record is printed each week on
 your pay statement. If this home mailing address is not correct, contact the
 People Support Network (PSN) at DIN 592-7500 or 1-800-544-9944 to speak with a
 Human Resource Assistant to have it updated as soon as possible. This will
 ensure that your 1993 W-2 is received on time.
 
   To request a reissue of a 1993 W-2
   You should receive your 1993 W-2 by Jan. 31, 1994. If you do not receive
 it, you may request a reissue via PAYEEphone,. U.S. Payroll's telephone
 information system. PAYEEphone is being expanded to. include W-2 assistance.
 To reach W-2 assistance via PAYEEphone, call DIN 223-5555 (outside,
 508-493-5555), and then dial 4 plus the number (#) sign.
   You will need a PAYEEphone security code to request a reissue of your 1993
 W-2. Call PAYEEphone, enter your badge number, then dial 10 plus the number
 (#) sign to request this security code.
   This is the only way you can request a reissue of your 1993 Form W-2 4f it
 is not received or is lost.
 
   For general inquiries about your 1993 W-2
   The IRS has simplified the format of the W-2 for 1993 and provided
 easy-to-understand descriptions of each box. Digital has changed its W-2 to
 conform to the new standard IRS format. This will help you to better
 understand what is included in each box, as the boxes are numbered and
 contain a detailed explanation. Digital will continue to provide additional
 information on Copy C of the W-2 to help answer any other questions you may
 have.
   If you still have a question, use the contacts shown below.
     Relocation Compensation Questions:  DTN 223-4257 or (508) 493-4257
     Fleet Compensation Questions:       DIN 223-9929 or (508) 493-9929
     Stock Compensation Questions:       DIN 223-6000 or (508) 493-6000
 
   Wage Information Questions:*
   For the most efficient service, send inquiries via VAXmail to
 CANON: :PAY_QUESTION or via ALL-IN-1 to PAY_QUESTION @PKO. Include your badge
 number and clearly describe your inquiry (refer to the box number on the W-2).
 Those who do not have access to electronic mail can call DIN 223-5456 or
 (508) 493-5456.
   *Digital will provide assistance only on issues related to salary and
 supplementary payments. For advice about your own tax situation, consult your
personal tax adviser. Digital does not give personal tax advice.

VNS TECHNOLOGY WATCH:                           [Mike Taylor, VNS Correspondent]
=====================                           [Littleton, NH, USA            ]

                               FAX Recognition

    Deciphering a facsimile can sometimes leave you cross-eyed. If you are
    tired of the double vision that often accompanies such tasks, Calera
    Recognition Systems Inc. claims its WordScan 2.0 can help. The optical
    character recognition (OCR) software is based on its Adaptive Recognition
    Technology (ACT), an intelligent recognition process that adapts itself
    to the unique characteristics of each page.

    By expanding on the company's neural-net approach, ART enables the
    software to draw clues from the context of a document as well as from
    the recognition conclusions it has learned from the labs. The ART was
    specifically designed to address the recognition challenges posed by
    degraded documents, such as FAXs and multiple-generation photocopies.
    In addition, WordScan uses the drag and drop integration capabilities
    of OLE 2.0. It enables integrated FAX conversion and e-mail routing
    capabilities with up to 10 degrees of skew. WordScan is available for
    $295. WordScan Plus 2.0 which offers several processing options and can
    be used on an ad hoc basis, costs $695. For information call 408.720.8300
    {CIO November 15, 1993}
    
    
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
  For information on how to subscribe to VNS, ordering backissues, contacting
  VNS staff members, etc, send a mail to EXPAT::EXPAT with a subject of HELP.

    Permission to copy material from this VNS is granted (per DIGITAL PP&P)
    provided that the message header for the issue and credit lines for the
    VNS correspondent and original source are retained in the copy.

<><><><><><><><>   VNS Edition : 2980      Friday 17-Dec-1993   <><><><><><><><>