European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 20, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                New word processors Are tailored for specific uses by Jack Warner Cox news service it is rare nowadays that a company ventures into the ism and compatible Market with an entirely new word processor it seven less common to see one that has som really new and Good ideas. On today s menu Are two such word processors aimed at special markets one for scriptwriters and another for scholars. Addison Wesley has carefully and successfully tailored its new Workbench program to writers of scholarly papers where footnotes references and bibliographies Are significant elements of the work. Workbench is menu driven in the Best sense of the word menus Are available at All times but when you memorize the sequence of commands to achieve a particular effect you can blow right through them. Editing features Are a Little rudimentary but that can be overcome to a degree with its Macro or shortcut provisions. It abounds with uncommonly Slick features. Invoke quotation format for instance and copy is automatically indented both left and right. There Are few word processors that let you do that without adjusting margins. One of the More unusual portions of Workbench is the not taker component which is linked to the outline. Having created an outline for your paper you can then proceed to Jot Down notes that Are keyed to a specific portion of the outline. On command the program will organize All the notes according to the outline. The outline is certainly the most intuitive and easy to use i be seen. The reference tool allows the scholar to keep sources organized and annotated for instant summoning into footnotes or a bibliography. It contains guides to several major citation formats. Workbench imports text files from other programs through a merge function. It exports its files through printing to disk and getting a reasonably clean text file requires considerable fiddling. But the Only really weak part of Workbench is one you need never see something called brainstormed which contains various gimmicks such As Blind writing you can t see what you be typed until you save it and Call it up in the regular portion of the program that Are supposed to dislodge writer s Block. Who knows maybe it d help somebody. There is also a speller and a thesaurus footnotes Are nicely supported. The Only major function missing from Workbench is an Index maker and for $189, you can t expect that. Documentation is lavish and Complete. It is a great pleasure to come across occasional programs such As Workbench in which a great Deal of creative thought has been brought to reality by sympathetic programming. I must admit that it surprised me. Addison Wesley makes much of the fact that it was developed at new York s Bank Street College of education which several years ago whelped the famous Bank Street writer one of the most aggravating word processors i be Ever encountered. But Workbench is a Fine program Fine not just for scholars but for anyone who does t need All the Power of the $500 dreadnoughts. Given the list Price i expect you la be Able to find it for close to $100. Workbench is in direct Competition with pcs professional write a a write and Webster s new world All of which Are out in major upgrades. I doubt that you la find a Little scriptwriting program called the Ixion split scripter in any store you d have to order it from the publisher. I be seen but not examined some script programs on the Rush to historical cd by Hans Fantel new York times t was . Auden who pointed to a special meaning of  for Many of us he observed our most important new experiences Are discoveries about the hitherto unknown  this is certainly True for record collectors who Are now discovering great musical performances of yesteryear reissued on cd s. The release lists of nearly All major record companies in the United states bulge with performances taped Long ago which Are now reborn with digitally refurbished sound. The trend began with the classics but it is now also spreading to popular music As the legendary jazzmen of the past Are being digitally reincarnated. A cynical explanation of the current plethora of such historical cd is that they Are cheap at least for the record companies. The initial Cost of these older recordings has Long been amortized and beyond the comparatively slight expense of the digital reprocessing and pressing the proceeds of these reissues Are pure profit. As one record executive put it it s like having your cake and eating it  but such mercenary motives on the part of the record companies do not explain the Appeal of these disks to so Many listeners. There Are two reasons for this Appeal one musical the other technical. As for the musical considerations these disks have a special interest for younger listeners eager to gain new perspectives on familiar works by exploring earlier performance styles. Many of the classical artists represented on these disks embody the last vestiges of the romantic tradition and their sensibilities Are attuned to the historical period that gave Rise to the greater portion of the Standard concert repertory. In recordings of such artists As Bruno Walter Wilhelm Furtwangler and other members of that generation today s listeners Are discovering a hitherto unknown past unknown to them at least in Auden s sense. In these older recordings they find a certain Freedom in matters of Tempo and phrasing a vibrant subjectivity that nowadays would be considered self indulgent but which often Sheds a revealing Light on the music. What makes these cd revitalization of old recordings so appealing from a technical Point of View is that the digitally reprocessed disks often come closer to the sonic truth than the original version. One trouble with older recordings in their original form was the High level of background noise either in the form of tape Hiss or the surface defects of up and 78 rpm records. Today s listeners accustomed to the silent background of digital disks would hardly tolerate such audible distractions no matter How Fine the performance. A great Deal of technical ingenuity was therefore focused on the task of noise elimination but until now these efforts were Only partly successful and too often the higher frequencies of the music were lost along with the noise. But now a California company called sonic solutions has come up with a process being used for the first time on Philips s new legendary classics series. This method splits the audible frequency spectrum into More than 2,000 separate segments and employs a computer to listen for telltale differences Between noise and music in each of these aural subdivisions. It then neatly strips the encrustation of noise from the underlying musical sound without slicing into the delicate overtones of the music. The Market for several Hundred dollars and up among the general purpose dreadnoughts a write and Nota Bene would serve pretty Well. Ixion however is intended for nothing but scriptwriting and it Sells for a Mere $100. It is by no Means a heavy duty word processor but How much of a word processor do you need for this kind of work an amazing number of television stations in major markets have newsrooms still struggling along with typewriters Ixion and a few Low priced ism clones a Good Printer and a Multi switch Box would transform script production for a pittance. Normal Mode in Ixion is two columns you switch Between them with f1 and f2. All the Basic functions of a word processor Are there search and replace Block copy move and delete As Well As undo boldface and underline Center and ample cursor movement aids. It will print teleprompter copy As Well As scripts and if you wish it will go to a one column full screen Mode. There Are some rather archaic elements double spacing copy for instance cannot be done retroactively except line by line. You must enter double space Mode to begin with if that s what you a t. But you can get used to that easily enough. Ixion is Gratifying by Quick and the entire manual is on line. The program is Small enough to run on a Mere 256k of memory and it would be quite feasible to use it on a floppy based system. The Ixion split scripter is produced by Ixion inc., 1335 n. Northlake Way Seattle Wash. 98103. To draw this Fine line Between music and noise so that none of the music is Cut off by mistake the computer runs through a staggering 53 million calculations for each second of music. Not even a computer can figure that fast and it takes about eight minutes to process a single second of music. The Job is too big to do in real time these frantic mathematics often involve the rather Tricky removal of Clicks and pops that momentarily obscure the music. Whenever a Click and pop Are excised the obscured music must be restored for that particular instant of time. By analysing the texture of the sound immediately preceding and immediately following the excised Click the computer can mathematically construct a Likely surmise of what must have happened musically speaking during the missing moment. It then synthesizes the lost sound and inserts it in just the right spot. Following its debut on Philips records sonic solutions has agreed to make this process available to other record companies a move Likely to give additional impetus to this kind of phonographic archaeology. So far at any rate the computer can Only remove sonic blemishes. It cannot Supply what in t there in the first place. If for example an older recording lacks the extended frequency Range to which we have since become accustomed the computer cannot compensate for this shortcoming. Some attempts have been made to allow electronic signal processors to accentuate the contrast Between loud and soft passages that is often unduly diminished in old recordings. However some record producers believe that this is an unwarranted technical intrusion on the artist s musical intent and will not employ what they consider questionable sonic enhancements. These factors set limits to the possible extent of sonic rejuvenation for older recordings. However if confined to the task of noise reduction the computer proves itself a veritable virtuoso and some of Philips s legendary classics convincingly belie their age. Pc users penetrating America s Telephone system by John Markoff with Andrew Pollack new York times sophisticated personal computer users Are becoming increasingly adept at penetrating the Telephone system in the United states raising questions about the Security and privacy of the phone system. Industry experts and Law enforcement officials say vulnerability of the phone system to such tampering has grown significantly in the past decade or so. The reason Telephone companies have largely replaced electro mechanical Call routing equipment with computer controlled switches. As a result people with the expertise can illegally connect their personal computers to the phone network. With the proper commands these intruders can do such things As eavesdrop add Calls to someone s Bill alter or destroy data have All Calls to a particular number automatically forwarded to another number or keep someone s line permanently Busy. All this was disclosed in an internal memorandum written by a manager of electronic Security operations at the san Francisco based Pacific Bell Telephone co. And in interviews with company officials. Peter Neumann a computer Security consultant at sri International inc. In Menlo Park calif., said Telephone companies Are Only beginning to awaken to the Security problems created by the increasing computerization of the Telephone network. As far As our vulnerability we All have our Heads in the Sand. We have to redefine our notions of what we entrust to computers and to communication  some personal computer enthusiasts often called hackers View the task of breaking into the Telephone system As a test of their skills and Only infrequently inflict damage Industry officials and consultants say. But others act with criminal intent. In his memo the Pacific Bell Security manager also warned that an electronic intruder could essentially disable an entire Central switching office for routing Calls disrupting Telephone service to entire neighbourhoods. Furthermore he said organized crime groups or terrorists might use such technology to their own advantage. The integrity of customer Bills could also be compromised he said. Customers might rightfully or wrongfully dispute expensive Calls claiming the Calls were placed on their Bills by computer hackers. Earlier this month a teen age computer enthusiast who requested anonymity provided the new York times with the Pacific Bell memo which was written a year ago. He said it had been obtained by a fellow Hacker who illicitly eavesdropped on a facsimile transmission Between Pacific Bell offices in san Francisco. The memo which Pacific Bell verified As authentic concluded that the number of individuals capable of entering Pacific Bell operating systems is growing and that computer hackers Are becoming More sophisticated in their  in one of two cases cited in the memo a group of teen age computer hobbyists was Able to do such things As Monitor each other s lines for fun and seize another person s dial tone and make Calls appear on their Bill the memo said. One of the hackers used his knowledge to disconnect and tie up the Telephone services of people he did not like. In addition he would add several custom calling features to their lines to create larger Bills the memo said. In the second Case police searched the Southern California Home of a Man thought to be breaking into the computers of a Santa Cruz calif., software company. They discovered the Man could also gain Access to All of Pacific Bell s Southern California switching computers. Files were found containing codes and employee passwords for connecting with or logging on to the Pacific Bell switching systems and related computers. The Man also had commands for controlling the equipment. In another Case involving tampering with Telephone company switching equipment local police and the Fri in the san Francisco area Are investigating Kevin Poulsen a former Programmer at Sun Micro systems said Joseph Burton an assistant . Attorney in san Jose and John Glang a Deputy District attorney for san Mateo county. Authorities searched Poulsen s apartment in Menlo Park in february As Well As the residence of a suspected accomplice in san Francisco the officials said. Poulsen was said to be in Southern California and was unavailable for comment. Burton said he could not discuss a current investigation. Glang would say Only that the Case had been taken Over by the Federal government because there Are some potential National Security  but a Security expert familiar with the Case who requested anonymity said that Poulsen pretty clearly demonstrated you can get in and Romp around inside a Bell operating  what it pointed out he said was the serious  Security consultants said other phone companies Are equally vulnerable to such breaches. They noted that most phone service in the nation is provided by. And no getaway car to worry about of l that s where the Money is Willie Sutton companies that were part of the Bell system until it was broken up in 1984 and still use similar equipment and procedures. Michigan Bell officials said they had caught an intruder who tampered with the company s switching equipment last year. A spokesman declined to give details of the incident but said no arrest was made we have been Able to tighten our Security arrangements said Phil Jones a company spokesman. There were lessons to be Learned  Jack Hancock vice president for information systems at Pacific Bell said his company had also taken Steps to make it tougher to penetrate its systems. He said however that the company had to strike a balance Between Security and Cost considerations so the phone system would still be widely affordable and easy to maintain. We could secure the Telephone system totally but the Cost would be enormous he said. A Public service will probably always have certain insecurities in  39.07 01.07 14 the stars and stripes saturday August 20,1988 the stars and stripes Page 15