European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 17, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Thursday. March 17.1988 the stars and stripes paga3 visitors left look Over display terminals at the Hannover fair. Right i technician demonstrates one of he few computers in the world that can process chinese script. Debit 88 Paradise for computer buffs a photo byjoe Mapother staff writer Hannover West Germany More than 400,000 visitors arc expected at debit 88, one of the world s Premier computer exhibits which opened to the Public wednesday. The United states is the largest foreign exhibitor among about 2,700 companies and organizations in the we Klong exhibition. Everything from Home computers to business soft Ware and office equipment can be found among the More than 2 million Square feet or exhibition space at Hannover s exhibition grounds . Judging by the number of firms represented organizers expect a record year for the exhibition which combines computer and business technology on an International level. Not surprisingly systems integration is a major theme among exhibitors. Apple computer and Texas instruments for exam ple arc touting their Micro explorer system that is being marketed under both company Brand names. The versatile macintosh ii computer from Apple is combined with Texas instruments Lisp coprocessor Board with new software to take advantage of the highlights of both systems according to a joint com Pany statement. Among foreign participants the United states is represented by 161 exhibitors followed in size by Taiwan great Britain and France. The department of defense dependents schools system is represented for the first time said Werner Prigge a Berlin educator with the Dodds team. Located in the computer Camp Section in Hall 19, Dodds High school students from Berlin Mann Heim Stuttgart and Wei Brincken in West Germany operate a computer Center linked to Dodds facilities in Europe and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. A West German Agency in Bonn for the propagation of computer use in the schools is the main sponsor of the Dodds participation Prigge said. The High school students arc running a River Quality project and desktop printing operation. For the non technically inclined a Section is de voted to computer Art. Arts arc is a collection of com Puter Art ranging from holograms to modern Art Cou pled with solar and computer technology. The major . Display area is in Hall 6, where a free comprehensive guide is available. Of interest to computer buffs is the Toshiba Dis play which includes the company s Complete Range of powerful new Laptop computers weighing from a Little More than two pounds to More than 18 pounds. The German Federal railway is running trains directly to the exhibition grounds from a number of cities including Berlin Bromer Haven Nornberg Stuttgart Frankfurt and Mannheim. The exhibition is open daily through wednesday from 9 . Until 6 . Admission is 24 Marks per person unless the ticket is bought beforehand. Those tickets Are 5 Marks cheaper and can be obtained from local Chambers of Commerce or offices of the Deutsche Messe a. A Csc offices can be found on the grounds of major exhibition centers throughout West Germany. A Catalon in English is available for 28 German Marks but exhibition Halls Are marked by interest category. Persons looking for specific company Dis plays can ask at information stands which have a Central computerized Index. Virus making computer world ill at ease Seattle a like an electronic sneeze a rogue computer program know Nas a virus has spread to a major soft Ware company s commercial programs frightening infection that the experts once thought was impossible. On March 2, a message of peace appeared on As Many As 330,000 macintosh computer screens in North America and Europe apparently spread like an epidemic through the network of electronic bulletin boards free or Low Cost software. The message became the first known contamination of an off the shelf pro Gram when it cropped up in of Richand Aldus corp s latest software forcing the company to recall or rework about 5,000 copies of the program. It was a very benign incident but Aldus officials arc talking with our attorneys to understand what our Legal rights Are in this instance said Laury Bryant a spokeswoman for the Seattle based software company. Viruses Are Small secret programs Cre ated by programmers As jokes or acts of vandalism then secretly inserted into other programs. Viruses can spread from computer to computer by operators Shar ing contaminated software. At their most benign viruses will cause Only a message to pop up on a computer screen As apparently happened Here. At their worst As tape Worms or logic bombs they can de stroy information stored in computer memories. Richard Brandow of the Montreal based computer Magazine mama said in a Telephone interview tuesday that he wrote the virus but intended Only to show the dangers of software piracy or unauthorized copying. The full message said Brandow read Richard Brandow the publisher of Mac mag and its entire staff would like to take this Opportunity to convey their Universal message of peace to All macintosh users around the  beneath that was a graphic of the Globe. Bryant said fewer than 5.000 copies of freehand were contaminated by an infected disc that was copied for three Days by a disc duplicating machine and Only half the infected discs were distributed to retailers. Until now personal computer viruses were thought to reside Only in non commercial freeware or share Ware legally distributed on computerized bulletin boards or on software discs shared by computer users. Experts had thought viruses could be avoided if users did t freely distribute software but Only used off the shelf programs. The incident rocked the computer Industry because the nation s three largest software companies Micro soft corp., Ash Lon Tate and Lotus development corp. Are clients of Mac remind inc. Of Chicago the company that inadvertently gave the virus to Aldus. Ashton talc declined comment but officials at Microsoft Apple and Lotus said none of their software was infected. Micro mind president Marc Canter said in a Telephone interview tuesday that to the Best of his knowledge none of his other customers received the virus and that the program has erased itself. Bryant and Brandow said the virus died out after March 2, the anniversary of the introduction of Apple s macintosh be and macintosh 11 models. Canter said the peace message apparently was in software he obtained from Brandow during a visit to Montreal. The packet included a game program called or. Potato head a computerized version of the popular toy. Unaware of the infection Canter ran the game program once and the used the same computer to work on a disc to teach macintosh users How to use of Richand. That original disc became infected and then contaminated other fryc hand teaching discs when it was copied by Aldus he said. Canter upset with Brandow said he is considering Legal action. Brandow said he met Canter but denied giving him the software. Brandow said the idea for the Mes Sage program was written and tested for a year then left for two Days in december on a macintosh at Mac mag s offices a frequent gathering place for macintosh devotees. The publisher said he expected pirated programs from the machine would spread the peace message in the Montreal area and a few other areas of Canada and the United Stales. Instead he said he was shocked to find that by his estimate 350,000 peo ple in North America and Europe had the message pop up on their macintoshes on March 2,