This issue from 8 December 1995 is the last one to have the four main sections of Main News, Computer News, Technology News and UK Sports News.
<><><><><><><><> T h e V O G O N N e w s S e r v i c e <><><><><><><><>
Edition : 3448 Friday 8-Dec-1995 Circulation : 4518
VNS MAIN NEWS ..................................... 153 Lines
VNS COMPUTER NEWS ................................. 170 "
VNS TECHNOLOGY WATCH .............................. 39 "
VNS UK SPORTS NEWS ................................ 29 "
For information on subscribing to VNS, backissues, contacting VNS staff
members, etc, access our Web service at http://expat.zko.dec.com/vns/ or
send a mail to EXPAT::EXPAT with a subject of HELP.
VNS MAIN NEWS: [Kevin Bowen-Nellthorp, VNS News Desk]
============== [Nijmegen, Netherlands ]
Beef prices plummet in BSE scare
AS CATTLE prices plummeted yesterday, John Major was criticised by the
beef industry for failing to defuse scares over a link between mad cow
disease and Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease in humans. Cattle prices crashed by
about #80 an animal yesterday, almost 12 per cent down on last week.
Farmers said that supermarkets were cancelling and reducing orders in
anticipation of falling demand.
Concern at homeless appeal by Princess
THE political dangers of the Princess of Wales's new career were
underlined yesterday when her speech on the needs of homeless young
people forced the Prime Minister on to the defensive in the Commons.
Germany and France turn up heat on Major over Europe
FRANCE and Germany last night agreed a joint accord to fight for closer
European integration in direct conflict with the wishes of John Major.
Inquiry at British "FBI"
AN INQUIRY into allegations of corruption within the National Criminal
Intelligence Service, which collects and analyses intelligence on
leading criminals, was announced yesterday.
Night flying ban on Olympic doves
THE doves traditionally released at the start of the Olympics are to be
given the night off when the forthcoming Games get under way in Atlanta.
Blunkett accuses Tories of opt-out smear on Blair
CONTROVERSY deepened last night over alleged Left-wing intimidation in
Tony Blair's constituency to prevent a school opting for
grant-maintained status.
Shop attack knifeman in assault with razor
A MENTAL patient who stabbed 15 Christmas shoppers when he went on the
rampage in a Birmingham department store 12 months ago, has tried to
kill one of the nurses treating him at a high-security hospital.
Surgeon tells jury of theatre quandary
A SURGEON who performed a hysterectomy on a woman he suspected was
pregnant told a court yesterday that he had believed she did not want
children.
Why the Budget has not improved Tory fortunes
THE SAYING "give a dog a bad name" could have been invented to describe
the present predicament of John Major's Conservative Party. Steep tax
rises since the last election have clearly convinced millions of voters
that the Tories are no longer to be trusted on taxation.
Backbench Tories call the Speaker to order
THE SPEAKER of the Commons, Betty Boothroyd, moved to defend her
position yesterday against a Tory backbench whispering campaign that she
is biased against the party.
Guppy is freed pending prison appeal hearing
DARIUS GUPPY, the architect of a #1.8 million insurance fraud, was freed
on bail yesterday pending an appeal against a second jail sentence.
Scientists find agents that slow down Aids
NATURAL molecules in the body that slow the progress of Human
Immunodeficiency Virus infection towards Aids have been identified by
scientists after a long search, it was announced today.
Wife tells of her relief when MP 'appeared to be a homosexual'
SILVANA ASHBY told a jury yesterday that she was pleased when her
husband appeared to admit that he was homosexual as it meant there was
nothing wrong with her.
TV report blamed for cot death panic over mattresses
THOUSANDS of parents were caused unnecessary alarm when ITV's Cook
Report made the erroneous claim that cot deaths were caused by toxic
gases from mattresses, the Government says today.
Gangland clue to men shot dead in Range Rover
THREE men were shot in the head as they sat in a car after apparently
being lured to a remote farm track in Essex.
'Failing' grant-maintained school receives clean bill of health
THE FIRST grant-maintained comprehensive to be identified as failing was
given a clean bill of health by inspectors yesterday after two years'
work to raise academic standards and reduce pupils' under-achievement.
Quick draw puts cowboy in hospital, then court
A WILD West fan who shot himself while practising for a quick draw
contest had his gun taken away yesterday after he admitted altering it
so it could fire live ammunition.
Accident victim's mother joins fight to ban bull bars
THE MOTHER of a teenage girl who was seriously injured when she was hit
by a vehicle fitted with bull bars joined Labour MPs and road safety
experts yesterday in calling for them to be banned
Contract frauds 'cost MoD #22m'
FRAUD cost the Ministry of Defence about #22 million last year as money
was skimmed off procurement contracts, a committee of MPs said
yesterday.
Bonus years of longer life are blighted by ill health
MEN and women are living much longer but their extra years are
increasingly spent in poor health, according to new Government figures.
Women find sex bias in company car parks
SEX discrimination still exists in the company car park with men getting
more powerful and prestigious cars than women in equal jobs, according
to a new study.
Fishermen cast in their lot to save dwindling stocks
FISHERMEN are to join Government scientists in an attempt to conserve
Britain's dwindling stocks of cod and plaice, which are at their lowest
levels since records began due to over-fishing.
TV sex alert signs 'may act as turn-on'
THE Broadcasting Standards Council, the watchdog for television, is to
look at the use of symbols to warn viewers about sex, bad language or
violence after a survey suggested their use.
Father tackles school over rugby for girls
A FORMER rugby player has been told that his daughters must play the
game or be removed from their school. Peter Gregory, who broke his leg
and hand and lost four teeth on the rugby field, does not want to force
Katie, 11, and Lucy, 13, to play.
Aintree bowler enters charity stakes
THE bowler hat which came to symbolise the disastrous 1993 Grand
National is to take on a new role, raising funds for charity.
Source: Electronic Telegraph - Friday December 8, 1995
Electronic Telegraph is a Registered Service Mark of The Telegraph plc
For more details on any of the above headlines stories, visit the
Electronic Telegraph on the Web at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
VNS COMPUTER NEWS: [Tracy Talcott, VNS Computer Desk]
================== [Nashua, NH, USA ]
Thursday's Market Fair Market Value
Quote Change Dow Jones Change 1-Jun-1995 $45.625
IBM 94 3/4 -1 30-Nov-1995 $59.062
HPkd 82 1/4 +1 1/4 85% of lower $39.00
Msft 90 1/2 - 1/8 1-Dec-1995 $58.187
DEC 62 1/2 -1 1/4 5159.39 -39.74
DEC PRa 26 3/8 - 1/4
Microsoft - Chairman Bill Gates will unveil company's Internet strategy today
{The Boston Globe, 7-Dec-95, p. 48}
As of last night, Microsoft was still said to be fine-tuning its strategy
for tackling this new medium, but analysts and industry watchers predicted an
ambitious series of moves aimed at providing tools for every aspect of the
Internet experience - from publishing programs, to security tools to digital
"platforms" for commerce and information gathering. Gates has authorized
Microsoft to spend up to $1 billion to put the company ahead of its Internet
rivals. In an apparent vote of confidence from investors, Microsoft stock
rose 4 5/8 yesterday to close at 90 5/8 in heavy Nasdaq trading.
House - Agrees to restrict on-line smut
{The Boston Globe, 7-Dec-95, p. 45}
House lawmakers agreed yesterday on a plan to make it illegal for a company
to knowingly transmit sexually explicit and other "indecent" material to
minors over computers. The plan is part of negotiations on a larger
telecommunications bill and settles differences among House members who were
deeply divided on how to best limit children's exposure to smut carried on
computer services, including the Internet. The plan not only toughens an
anti-smut provision contained in the House telecommunications bill, but brings
it in line with a provision in the Senate's telecommunications bill.
Supporters are scrambling to bring a final bill to each chamber for a vote by
Dec. 15. The House's antismut plan - a combination of dueling proposals from
Rep. Rick White (R-Wash.) and Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) - would prohibit content
providers on a computer service from "knowingly sending or directly sending"
sexually explicit material to anyone 18 years old or younger. Companies that
provide access to computer networks, like America Online and CompuServe, would
not be liable, White said. The Department of Justice would enforce the
provision, which also carries criminal penalties of up to two years in jail
and $100,000 in fines.
SoftKey - Closing in on Learning Co. deal
{The Boston Globe, 7-Dec-95, p. 45}
Software firms to work out merger; white knight looks to have lost the
bidding war. Bankers and attorneys representing the two companies met through
the night Tuesday and all day Wednesday in New York trying to hammer out a
merger, said R. Scott Murray, SoftKey's chief financial officer.
Hewlett-Packard - Favorable review of he $350 OmniGo pocket organizer
{The Boston Globe, 7-Dec-95, p. 48}
{Michael Putzel, a Boston Globe staff member}
"...
I've carried a variety of Casio and Sharp organizers in recent years and
have relied on them to help me stick to my schedule, maintain my address book
and store reminders., but I confess it takes someone with a measure of
patience and fascination with gadgetry to learn to use them.
Any of these devices, to be successful on a large scale, must be small
enough to fit unobtrusively in a jacket pocket or purse, share information
with a desktop or laptop computer and be easy enough for nontechnical people
to use without raising their blood pressure more than a point or two.
The OmniGo is getting there.
While it's on the market in what I regard as an unfinished state, the
concept and execution show real promise, and improvements are sure to flow
from this first effort.
..."
Spacetec IMC - Stock up 28% on 1st trading day
{The Boston Globe, 7-Dec-95, p. 52}
Lowell-based Spacetec IMC Corp.'s stock rose 2 3/4 to 12 3/4 on Nasdaq
trading of 1.31 million shares. The shares traded as high as 13 3/4. The
computer graphics company's initial public offering was 2.25 million shares,
including 750,000 shares held by certain stockholders. Spacetec will have
7.02 million shares outstanding after the sale is completed, according to
Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
Fiscal News - Apple
Apple - 4th quarter profits fall 48% amid record sales
{The Boston Globe, 19-Oct-95, p. 41}
Apple. battered by fierce price competition, parts shortages and product
delays, yesterday said 4th quarter profits plunged despite record sales.
Apple said earnings for the 3 months ended Sept. 29 fell to $60 million from
$115 million a year ago. The drop was larger than expected and particularly
troubling in light of the 20% rise in sales in the quarter to $3 billion from
$2.49 billion. Apple president and CEO Michael Spindler, under fire to turn
the struggling company around, blamed the shortfall on pricing pressure for
Apple's new line of PowerPC-based products, shortages of components and
increased competition from Japan. "The quarter's earnings results are clearly
not indicative of the financial results Apple is striving for in the future,"
Spindler said in a statement. Most analysts had already lowered their
expectations for Apple after its executives warned 4th quarter earnings would
fall. Apple said the problems conspired to push down its gross margin - the
difference between what it pays for raw materials and sells it products for -
to 20.7% from 27.2% a year earlier. Chicago Corp. analyst Chris Garland said
the profit margin pressures are going to result in lower earnings estimates
for 1996. Apple's troubles come as demand for its Macintosh products is
reaching record levels. During the 4th quarter. Apple shipped more than 1.25
million units, but still ended the year with about $1 billion in unfilled
orders. A spokeswoman said the company expects supply constraints to persist
until early calendar 1996.
Digital - Cuts cost of supercomputing
{Livewire, Worldwide News, 7-Dec-95}
Digital has introduced new technology -- PCI Memory Channel interconnect --
that enables its highly scalable AlphaServer systems to deliver new levels of
affordability and price/performance for the technical computing market. Users
who would never have been able to afford supercomputer-class power can now do
so.
Digital delivers new levels of price/performance by leveraging commodity
hardware and software components. A standards-based PCI bus Memory Channel
interconnect is used to link multiple AlphaServer systems. This low-latency
(less than 5 microseconds), high-bandwidth (100 Mbytes/sec) interconnect
provides high-speed, memory-to-memory communications among up to eight
AlphaServer 8400 systems, which allows the multiple systems to operate
essentially as a single system with 57.6 GFLOPS of power.
The Memory Channel interconnect can also link lower-cost AlphaServer 2000
systems for extremely cost-effective high-performance solutions. Digital also
provides a suite of software tools that allows technical users to optimize
their applications for the new technology.
"Digital is making high-performance computing affordable for more
applications than ever before," said Dr. Michael Levine, scientific director,
Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center. "We're finding that Digital's approach to
connecting AlphaServers is elegantly simple, and both very powerful and very
cost effective. We can connect AlphaServers of different sizes, which is
important to us because it enables us to match our systems and applications
most efficiently. We're currently using the system for molecular dynamics,
visualization, finite element and simulated annealing code, and think this
technology prepares us for the future of high-performance computing."
"Digital's new scalable AlphaServer 8400 array offers a preview of the next
generation in enterprise supercomputing," said Gary Smaby, president, Smaby
Group, Inc. "By linking dozens of its blazingly fast Alpha microprocessors
through a robust memory interconnect architecture, Digital has constructed a
mainframe-class computing platform for high-end technical users tackling
applications that benefit from parallel processing. The system leverages the
cost benefits of commodity componentry to deliver a compelling
price/performance alternative to traditional supercomputers and MPPs."
Digital - New chip brings video authoring, conferencing to PCs
{Livewire, Worldwide News, 7-Dec-95}
Digital introduced a powerful, new video coder/decoder (codec) chip that
delivers high-quality, 30-frames-per-second (fps) video compression and
decompression for desktop PCs.
The PCI-based 21230 codec chip puts affordable video authoring and video
conferencing on a wide range of platforms based on Pentium, Alpha, and PowerPC
microprocessors.
"With the 21230 video chip, PC vendors can deliver affordable capability on
the desktop for creating and using video-enhanced presentations, interactive
training, video conferencing, on-line monitoring, and other forms of
multimedia communication," said Ed Caldwell, vice president, Digital
Semiconductor.
Susan Yost, Digital Semiconductor's multimedia marketing manager, called
image compression/decompression "essential" to reduce the heavy data storage
and bandwidth demands of video applications.
"Video authoring and video conferencing need a video codec that not only
compresses data efficiently, but delivers high-quality video that accurately
represents the original material. And they need it in real time," she said.
"The 21230 chip is the first video codec to meet this challenge at an
affordable price," Yost continued. "The 21230 video chip implements
state-of-the-art compression and filtering techniques that provide efficient
data compression, exceptional image quality, and realtime performance. In
addition, as a PCI-based, single-chip implementation, it is designed and
priced for the PC market."
According to Peter Hess, manager of OEM development for FAST Electronic US,
Inc., a manufacturer of multimedia products, "The 21230 chip is capable of
encoding video and audio data from tapes and laser disks into MPEG-1 format in
real time for storage and playback on digital compact disks." Designed as a
coprocessor, the 21230 chip takes advantage of host CPU computing resources
while concentrating on codec core processes to achieve maximal functionality
in a cost-effective package.
The superior image quality of the 21230 video chip reflects the product's
sophisticated filtering, motion estimation, and scene characterization
capabilities, which enable optimal video compression and decompression for
excellent image sharpness.
VNS TECHNOLOGY WATCH: [W. Stuart Crippen, VNS Correspondent]
===================== [Hudson, MA, USA ]
Device goes for the glow
------------------------
From Science News, November 25, 1995, Vol. 148, No. 22, Pg 359
Author - R. Lipkin
Silicon, already the staple material of computers and electronics, would
become even more useful if it could be made to glow. But its
crystalline wafers, though friendly to electrons, turn a cold shoulder
to photons, emitting light only weakly.
Zheng H. Lu, a materials scientist at the National Research Council of
Canada in Ottawa, and his colleagues, however, have found a way to coax
the stubborn crystals into luminescence. In the Nov. 16 NATURE, they
describe a method of stacking alternating layers of silicon and silicon
dioxide to create a structure that can convert electron energy into
light.
The scientists layered extremely fine sheets of the two materials - like
sheets of filo dough - to create a "silicon superlattice." The light
emission, they explain, arises from "quantum confinement" of electrons
in the material's layers.
Quantum confinement occurs when electrons become penned into
nanometer-sized spaces. Thus confined, they behave more like trapped
waves than particles. Transitions between trapped wave states can then
lead to emission of photons.
Given the increasing importance of optoelectronics for computing,
telecommunications, compact disks, and holography, such silicon-based
light generators could prove "an attractive option" says David A.B.
Miller, who is a materials scientist at AT&T Bell Laboratories in
Holmdel, N.J.
These new results show "strong evidence" that quantum confinement
occurring in such superlattices may "allow us to turn silicon into a
shining example of an optoelectronic material," Miller says in NATURE.
"This work will surely stimulate more activity in this field and may yet
give silicon an even brighter future."
VNS UK SPORTS NEWS: [Tom Povey ]
=================== [Reading, England]
Cricket
-------
In case you haven't heard, England won the final day of the second test in
South Africa to draw the match.
The team played poorly for the first four days and a crowd of 14,300 turned
up to watch South Africa win on the Monday. However, Mike Atherton, the
England captain, had other ideas. In an innings acclaimed in the English
media as one of the best ever, he batted for 10hrs 45mins, faced 492 balls
and made 185 not out.
His partner in a stand of 119 was Jack Russell who faced 235 balls and
scored from only 14 of them to make 29 not out. They came together 45 mins
before lunch and withstood the South African attack until 5.23 pm when the
South Afican captain led his team off, admitting "defeat" with 7 minutes of
the scheduled time remaining.
The pitch played a large part in the outcome of the game. England put SA
into bat and then regretted it as they scored 332 with Kirsten making 110.
England then replied with just 200, Robin Smith being the only player to get
over 50 with 52. South Africa then made 346 for 9 declared and left England
to bat from just after noon on Sunday. Stewart made 39 and Smith 44 before
Russell joined Atherton to see out the game.
The series has now seen two draws, the first being due to the weather. The
next test begins in Durban on 14th Dec.
{Source: London Times 5 Dec 1995}
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
For information on subscribing to VNS, backissues, contacting VNS staff
members, etc, access our Web service at http://expat.zko.dec.com/vns/ or
send a mail to EXPAT::EXPAT with a subject of HELP.
Permission to copy material from this VNS is granted (per DIGITAL PP&P)
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<><><><><><><><> VNS Edition : 3448 Friday 8-Dec-1995 <><><><><><><><>
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