European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 28, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Turning your pc into a fax machine by allans. Parkin unwed press International if you use a computer but have put Oil purchasing a fax machine you might give some consideration to a fax  i apiece of hardware installed in your computer that Lurns your pc into a fax machine. It allows you to Send and receive fax messages just As though you had a fax. The difference is a fax machine costs anywhere from three to four times As much As the least expensive fax card. With a tax card you do hot need a Modem or communications software. It operates through a Standard serial port. Most fax cards operate at 1800 baud which will let you Send and receive copy Al the rate of approximately four pages a minute there Are drawbacks though. The biggest is that with most lax cards the copy received can be printed out on a Printer but cannot be edited by a word processor unless you have conversion software. Also la copy is a graphics image and takes a lot longer to print than Standard text. It also uses up ribbons faster because the graphics Mode requires More passes of the print head to Complete each character than text printing. You Cari View the received image on you screen both it and the printed image appear just As the original. Including signatures and letter Heads or any graphics image. What will not print Well though is a photograph. You can see what the image was but riot with any degree of Quality. The image is pure Black and while. Almost All shades of Gray Are lost -. Along with a tax card should be a scanner. They go hand in hand so Well in fact they should almost be packaged together a scanner lets you put Complete pages of text or graphics images or photos into your computer with conversion software you can edit this copy and use it for whatever purpose suits you. This Means you can enter Long briefs depositions manuscripts or transcripts with having to retype any copy. A labor and Money saving device if there Ever was one. The uses Are almost endless. Anyone who. Handles a lot of copy should put a scanner and the associated software to convert the image for editing High on his or her list. Hardware aside there Are also some standards that could make the lives of everyone who uses a pc easier. Almost allot us use a word processor of one Kinder another. Some of the processors use a proprietary format,.some use Plain Asci or Standard text. Whatever format they use most word processors will not talk to each other unless the copy can be saved in pure Asci Why can t Solitare publishers get together and realize that the Only Way to really let the user Benefit is to for All word processors to have Only one format pure text. In other words Asci. Let the software publishers compete on ease of use command Structure and features but with Only one result that everything results in pure Asci. I would be willing to bet that everyone would win tha Good word processors would still Rise like Cream to the top the users would win because we could Swap tiles without any problem. Now that we have standardized word processors let s standardize spreadsheets. Why should we not be Able to use any spreadsheet software we wish without tear of incompatibility with Lotus or any other spreadsheet. Like developers of word processors spreadsheet publishers should compete to provide ease of use and features but they jshouhuselhesarrt6rmatspnoconversionis needed Between programs. Hooked on computer tech by Peter  new York times he phenomenon is familiar in the world of hackers a Young Man of exceptional intelligence feeling Hal he is alienated from the system and threatened by the real world finds solely in the computer Tab and develops an obsession Lor the technology. Shunning Steep and limiting social relationships to the sphere of hackers with whom he shares his obsession he pushes himself to his physical and mental limits in the quest Lor the ultimate Hack the Lusion of elegant thought and computer code such might be the profile of the person responsible for the recent Succes glue computer virus attack on a National military network. But some psychologists say that a variation on the phenomenon is also emerging in corporate culture. A crippling obsession with computer technology is not confined to hackers. It can affect businessmen As Well. Mala executives and managers the victims Are almost always men Lor reasons that Are not fully understood Ara often found working late into the night at the office or at Home silhouetted in their Solitude by. The eerie Green Light of the computer screen. For companies this could be a problem in the making. Few managers object to employees who work overtime on productive tasks and in fact obsessed computers workers can be some of the most valuable employees at a company these workers differ from hackers in their productivity unlike hackers who use computers for thrills and personal satisfaction tha obsessed workers use their machines As tools to perform a task or in some goal oriented Way. Indeed companies both big and Small often Benefit from a worker s obsession with the computer even at the expense of the individual s personal Ilia. But in the Long run the obsession can Del acl from an employee s effectiveness on the Job. The worker May Burn out As a result of endless hours at the computer. Stress muscular and skeletal problems fatigue and eyestrain. Among Olshef health problems have bean associated with extended computer  and personal relationships suffer because the Man cannot pull himself away from the keyboard. The rationale is often just one More one More printout one More recalculation one More revision one task leads to the next the perception of time becomes distorted and when the user finally Breaks away his thoughts Are preoccupied with the next session at the keyboard. Is this computer addiction can computers become As destructively addictive to susceptible executives As alcohol drugs cigarettes sex or work itself i have no doubt at All that ii occurs said Jack Dunham a professor who specializes in psychology and  at the University of Texas who has been an observer of computer culture since 1960. Just took  Michael Dertouzos director of the Laboratory of computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of technology said that while there is definitely a phenomenon of computer addiction i have observed it in myself and in thousands of my students Over tha past 25 years he said whether it is harmful or not is open to debate. I pm a Hacker he said i have a Mac ii. I helped design the thing and i m at it constantly. My family complains but they get used to it. And it  lot of fun. Laptops take off by Peter Coy associated press Klaus a Obermeier used to compute Only in his office. Now that he has a Laptop computer he computes in the Back seat of the car. On the plane beside the Pool and even he admits in bed. Obermeler who works for a hello memorial Institute in Columbus Ohio is the kind of person who is making Laptop models into Ona of the hottest segments of the computer business. Unlit recently Laptop computers tended to be underpowered and overpriced with Small poorly Iii screens and batteries that ran out at inconvenient times. -.-. ". Those problems have not been conquered. Completely but enough Progress has been made to release a flood of pent up demand among business people students writers and others.  sales of Laptop computers will surpass $1 billion in the United states this year and Are growing at a Rale of 40 percent annually according to a Laquell inc., a Market researcher. This fall in some ways Marks the coming of age of Laptop computers. Early in october Toshiba corp s us. Arm introduced two portable computers. The t5200, which uses Intel corp s top of the line 80386 microprocessor is not a True Laptop computer because it cannot run on batteries. It is also heavier than most laptops at just under 19 pounds. The t1600, which is built on Intel s boc286 Chip can run on batteries and weighs in at 11.6 pounds Toshiba called it the top of its Battery powered pc line. The t6200 has a suggested retail Price of $9,499 to $10,999 and will be available later this year the t1600 is priced at $4,999 and will be available Early next year according to Toshiba America Loncin Irvine Calif. Nec Home electronics u . Inc. The . Arm of Page 14 the stars and stripes Japan s Nec corp., announced a new line of Laptop computers including the thinnest lightest one yet a 4.4 Pound Model Hal could lit into a 13-Inch by 9-Lrvch inter office envelope. The Ultra late has 90 percent of the Power of the original ism pc at and starts at $2,999. Nec s prospered 38s Laptop resembles the High powered machine introduced by Toshiba except it is cheaper it can run on batteries and it has an optional Docking station so it can be used As a conventional desktop computer in the office. It starts Al $7,699, compared to $9,499 for Toshiba s. Compaq computer corp was expected to Zlotlow in unveiling a new Model for the Laptop Market and. Analysis say International business machines corp. Will come out soon with a successor to its 2-Yaar-Bld pc convertible. At a sign of the Market s importance. Zenith electronics corp., which dominates the government Market Tor laptops has made the machines the Linchpin. Of its entire data systems business. The Laptop Market is one thai is coming into its own after Many years of really being a Niche Market said Margaret Rodenberg vice president of marketing Lor entre computer centers inc., a retail Chain Laptop computers have always gotten Good press perhaps because journalists were some of their earliest users. Tandy corp s radio Shack trs to Model 100 even earned an affectionate nickname on the Campaign Trail the trash 60." but people who needed More computing Power Ahmed away from them. John Vanden Brink a consultant in Des Plaines. Ill said he once destroyed an entire Date base when he tried to Transfer something Tutol his radio Shack and exceeded the memory limit. The newest models in contrast Are loaded with Power i i  the problem with speedy computers is they Are ravenous Lor electricity and Drain batteries quickly. Seizing an Opportunity. Chips and technologies inc. Of san Jose. Calif., recently introduced a set of chips Hal will double or triple the length of time that Many laptops r can run on batteries. Prices for laptops Are relatively High $2,000 to monday Novi