European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 09, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Age 12 b the stars and stripes computer tuesday february 9,1993 chips n bits Appl computer is expected to introduce five personal computers next month at Cost that May keep the Industry s Price War going. I think that the new machines Price Points will be very aggressive said Bruce Lupatkin a computer Industry analyst with Hambrecht and quist in san Francisco. Apple which has a Loyal audience. And markets its machines As being the Quality leaders is expected to break with its usual practice of pricing its computers at a Premium to comparable ism compatible models. The new machines Are expected to be offered at lower prices than the Competition. Lupatkin said the moves by Apple Are expected to be announced wednesday. The new Apple machines Are expected to include a color version of the macintosh classic a color notebook size computer a new version of its top of the line macintosh quadra and two mid Range personal computers in a new line dubbed Contris the macintosh color classic is expected to Cost Between $1,300 and $1,400, while a comparable rival costs about $ 1,500. The pow Crook 165c notebook computer is expected to Cost about $4,200. Women who build computer chips have More miscarriages than other female workers in the semiconductor Industry a University of California study says. The $3.8 million 800-Page investigation released recently reported that the miscarriage rate of pregnant workers with the hands on task of making computer chips was about 40 percent higher than others. In some High risk cases it was twice As High said or. Marc Schenker chief of environmental and occupational Medicine at us Davis. Miscarriages and other ill effects Stem from the use of chemical solvents and compounds used in the manufacturing process particularly glycol ethers which Schenker said Are consistently associated with the miscarriage  in Tokyo s glittering Aki Habara electronics District a contingent of . Computer makers has fired the first shots of what could become a trans Pacific computer Price War waged on japanese soil. Since introducing prices As much As 50 percent lower than those offered by local manufacturers the . Companies have turned Heads in an Industry that has been dominated by a few Large players. So far Katsumi Sizuka the head of japanese operations for a tin Texas based Dell computer corp., has kept out of the fray but he likes what he sees. People Are going to be talking a lot about these . Companies coming to compete against the japanese giants said Sizuka. We re going to get a lot of publicity. This is going to be Good for the entire ism compatible  Lizuka said he expects Dell to join ism Compaq Apple and others in establishing full operative units in Japan a Market he contends his company cannot afford to ignore. From wire reports tracking Down hackers computer agent goes undercover to Nab criminals by Ralph Blumenthal the new York times he patrols the Back alleys of cyberspace at the Edge of the electronic Frontier. Travelling on beams of electrons he is invisible formless the ultimate undercover agent. He s Phrako Traer of the i tech crime network. But Don t look for him in comic books or the video store. He s real. His beat takes in the thousands of computer bulletin boards where anyone with a computer a Modem and a phone can dial up and Exchange information or even Start a bulletin Board. Usually the subject is As innocuous As a computer game program a recipe or pet grooming. But increasingly the authorities say the bulletin boards have become under ground marketplaces for stolen Tele phone Access codes and credit card num Bers along with child pornography and other contraband. Now Law enforcement agencies have stepped up counterattacks including computer based stings. That s the passion of Phrako Traer pronounced frack or track ran organized crime investigator founder of a network of police computer buffs that spans 28 states and self proclaimed Scourge of hackers who break into computer networks Phr eakers who steal Telephone services and Pharack cars who arc a combination of both. In his newsletter called Fri find us bust us incarcerate ushe warned every move you make every breath you take Well be watching  brazenly he uploaded the taunt onto bulletin boards in june in an Effort As he wrote to sow anarchy chaos mistrust and fear in the Pracker  Boyish with closely cropped hair and a penchant for suspenders and rakish Dou ble breasted suits the 36-year-old investigator works in the organized crime racketeering and narcotics Bureau of a Large Law enforcement Agency in the East. Like other undercover agents whose Success and safety hinge on an ability to blend in with their targets even though they chafe at the anonymity of their work he was eager to draw attention to his operations provided his identity was withheld. Although infiltrating electronic Bulle tin boards and investigating computer crime is part of his Job he said the High tech crime network that he organized last year to educate other officers around the country is his own project for which he has spent some $4,000 of his own Money of computer equipment and Tele phone Bills. ". Though his investigations have yet to yield arrests he said he is studying nine boards and building cases with officers in three other states. It takes time he said. You Don t just buy one thing and arrest them. They d know you were a cop. You buy things Over time and make several a  while the secret service and the Fri also Are conducting investigations he said local Law enforcement also has jurisdiction. Others corroborated his account. His information jibes furthermore with Well documented efforts by Law enforcement agencies nationwide to penetrate the per haps 10 percent of the nation s estimated 30,000 electronic bulletin boards where computer criminals traffic in stolen information child pornography Poison Reci Pes and bomb making instructions. I want to make More cops aware of High tech crime he said As he typed at a Home computer recently Reading his electronic mail from other officers and leaving messages on bulletin boards that offered stolen credit card numbers and Telephone calling codes. These were not pranks of teen age computer whizzes he said this is an an organized criminal a  the victims Are everybody he said. We All end up paying for  notebook units continue to shrink Many attempts have been made Over the years to create personal computers Small enough to carry easily yet powerful enough to meet the minimum needs of a travelling executive. Most have failed be cause of the Many compromises required. In order to save a few pounds in weight users have been forced to give up processing Power screen Quality key Board Comfort hard disk capacity and Case of data Transfer. And people have been asked to pay extra for miniaturization giving weight to the phrase less is More. In the last year however the Compro Mise Gap has narrowed. The newest note books which typically weigh five to eight pounds and Are roughly the size of a two Inch stack of typing paper boast j486 level processors remarkably Bright screens keyboards wide enough to allow touch typing hard disks of As much As 200 megabytes and an array of data communications ports. But these notebooks Are still too heavy Many people find to lug around All Day. So computer makers Are once again test ing the tolerance of the Mobile professional by offering a new generation the subnotebook that offers sub Stantial Power in smaller packages. Apple computer Zenith data Dell computer Gateway 2000, eos International and Lex Mark International Are among the contenders in the category of machines weighing two to four pounds. These subnotebook differ so widely inside shape and features that a definition is in order. "1 define the subnotebook category Inlow end and High end segments said j. Gerry Purdy chief analyst for Mobile computing at data quest a Market re search firm in san Jose Calif. The High end is clearly a full function portable capable of running win Dows 3.1, with a Baclit via screen and an internal hard disk. The primary Dif Ference is the Export of the floppy drive to reduce ,. Weight and size but the Width of the unit cannot be less than 10 inches.". The Low end he continued is marked by significantly different techno Logies and user requirements characterized by solid state storage with no inter Nal hard disk but still 10 inches wide tallow touch  the latter requirement sets the Low end subnotebook apart from another ass sas2,of port Bles Hann 1_ j ,. R. V the 4.2-Pound macintosh duo appears to have the Best Odds for Success part because a has a captive audience the macintosh crowd of desktop users has no truck with notebooks of any others Ripe the duo s larger sibling the Power Book notebook has been Apple s most successful computer Ever with More than 400,000 machines sold in the past year. On the other hand the smallest and lightest Power Book the Model 100, sold so poorly that it was discontinued " customers apparently just wanted More Power. Macintosh appears to have Learned that lesson. Both duo models the 210 and the 230, use the powerful Motorola 68030 microprocessor the 210 runs at 25 Megahertz the 230 at 33 Mhz and com with internal hard disk drives of 80 Mega bytes a 120-megabyte drive is an option on the 230. Neither has an internal Dis Kette drive but the optional external unit is Small enough that it s not burdensome to carry. The key to duo s Success is probably its optional Docking station which allows the Little notebook to act As the Core of a More powerful desktop computer. Using either Apple s duo Dock or mini Dock the duo can be connected with a big screen color Monitor a full size keyboard and various peripheral devices including big Ger hard drives network adapters cd rom drives and printers. With the Docking station the duos Range in Price from about $3,300 to $4,200, slightly More than the Cost of a Tully rigged desktop Mac. One drawback is that Apple does not have a Modem for the duo although one has been prom ised for the near future. One note of caution however a loom ing Price War among color notebook computers threatens the subnotebook. Unless the subnotebook get correspondingly cheaper the Competition May Squash them