European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 16, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars Ano stripes computers tuesday november 16,1903 blockbuster enter Tain ent corp., the big video rental company is stepping into the computerized entertainment business by test marketing cd rom gear in 50 Northern California stores. Cd rooms a standing for compact disc read Only memory a look like audio compact discs but hold a huge amount of digital information a enough for encyclopedias graphics Rich games or movies. Technology and entertainment businesses Are betting heavily on cd rom technologies because of their storage capabilities but personal computers equipped with cd rom drives Are still a Small percentage of the total sold. Blockbusters entry represents one of the first Nass marketing efforts for the technology and if successful could give it a big boost. Quot to get cd rooms in the mainstream Market with blockbuster is exciting. It will really help the Market Quot said Philip Bishop who edits and publishes the Bishop report on cd rom. A spokesman for blockbuster refused to reveal details of the plan until a news conference scheduled today. Quot we re not announcing anything until tuesday Quot Wall Knief said from the company a fort Lauderdale fla., Headquarters after several newspapers published articles on the move. But an executive of Comptons new Media inc., a leading cd rom i software Vendor confirmed that his company had signed on to the Deal which will include a Chance for customers to watch in store demonstrations. Him Cut prices up to 26 percent on its top of the Linc personal computers that run networks of desktop models. And Hewlett Packard co. Chopped the Price of several mid Range pcs up to \2 percent. The actions came As pc makers put the final touches on product lines in preparation for Codex the computer Industry a largest Trade show which takes place in Las vegas this week. Hewlett Packard also announced its first multimedia pc a ,650 machine that runs programs from compact discs and has a 170 megabyte hard drive. Most of the leading pc makers now sell multimedia pcs which debuted last year and became popular with customers at Home. Ism Cut the prices of machines called a servers which have fewer processing bottlenecks More storage capacity and greater data Protection than typical pcs. A server based on the pentium microprocessor the most advanced Chip from Intel corp., with 1,000 megabytes of storage was Cut from $13,935 to $11,335. One based on the 486 microprocessor with 540 megabytes of storage was Cut from $ 11,000 to $8,665. A less powerful Model with 100 megabytes of storage was Cut from $3,800 to $2,800. Hewlett Packard announced cuts to its Vectera Brand line which is chiefly aimed at businesses. A Japan a Long fragmented personal computer Market took a Large step toward standardization with an announcement by Fujitsu Ltd. That it will Start Selling ism compatible computers in Japan. Fujitsu Japan a largest computer Marker was one of two holdouts that had refused to Market ism compatible machines in Japan preferring instead to sell its own no compatible proprietary systems. From wire reports correspondents course electronic mail systems providing full Range of services by my Shannon the new York times Many things can be done with an online services computer connected to a Modem and a personal computer through Telephone lines. There Are countless programs to be downloaded that is copied from the services big computer there is banking from Home shopping checking movie reviews looking up information in an encyclopedia or sampling the news and weather reports making friends and exchanging electronic mail. In a typical electronic mad transaction you might write a letter on the Little computer before calling the big computer. Then you sign on the service costs $6 an hour. It takes say two minutes to Send the letter. That is 20 cents not counting the $12 monthly charge for the service which you probably use for some of the other services anyway. To Send a letter by Snail mail the postal service you must still compose it and also print it out unless you write it by hand or on a typewriter anachronisms ignored Here. Then you find an envelope address it attach a 29-Ccnt stamp and carry the letter around for two Days until you remember it when you Are near a Mailbox. Or if it is a business letter and you dictate it a Secretary types it and puts it in an out Basket from which an office Flunky takes it to the mail room where it is run through a postage machine and mixed in with a lot of other mail to be picked up later. There Are corporate professionals who know How to calculate the Cost of mailing that letter figuring in the salary of the Secretary and. Mail room employees and their heat or air conditioning lights disability insurance and much else. I bet the Cost is More than 20 or 29 cents. Except for extra Cost Access to Dow Jones news retrieval Sci mail offers Only mail services of practically any kind. You can Send and receive electronic mail through Sci mail itself of course As Well through Compuserve and the internet. You can also Send and receive faxes and a amps Susan hams Tel exes and even old fashioned postal messages. If aunt Annie in California does not happen to have an Sci account or a computer you can Send a letter to her through Sci mail which will laser print it and mail it from an office near her. It can even be delivered by courier aunt Annie might think that pretentious but some country Cousin would be impressed. Seriously Sci mail is aimed More at the business user who never takes advantage of company sponsored facilities for personal matters. A program called Sci mail express a successor to Lotus express transforms the handling of mail on a pc into another optional mouse menu and folder entered Way of working. Since there was no macintosh interface available during my recent trial a one is expected Early next year a i used the naked sender. It was pretty easy with help always available on the screen. Frankly it was easier to manipulate at least at the Start than Prodigy the service for the masses. And Prodigy has a Mac interface. There Are More ways of organizing mail through Sci than can be gone into Here. The folders mentioned Are one category an electronic address Book is another. Of course Sci mail is very expensive right not really. The annual fee for a Quot Mailbox Quot is $35. Electronic mail is 50 cents for the first 500 characters and an additional 10 cents for up to 500 additional characters the Price keeps going up but not As fast for longer messages. Paper mail starts at $2 with delivery in the United states $5 join foreign countries. Faxes sent to United states destinations Start at 50 cents and Tel exes vary according to time and destination. There Are Many variations however including a lower Cost preferred pricing option for individuals. Call 800 444-6245 for information. A business person or a computer enthusiast with a few dollars to spare will want to sign on to one of the commercial services. But there Are thousands of electronic bulletin boards in the country that Cost Little or nothing. Finding out about them and getting at them can be frustrating. Quot using computer bulletin boards Quot mis press $29.95by John v. Hedtke is a Good place to Start Hedtke deals not Only with Amateur bulletin boards but also with Compuserve Genie and America online and for the 1 truly dedicated offers ideas for setting up a bulletin Board. A disk included with the Book contains the program Modem test drive. Getting Back to aunt Annie suppose she inherits a computer and Modem but her financial resources Rule out Sci mail or Genie. So you and she each buy a disk containing personal a Mailbox version 1.5, a $49.95program that allows you to Exchange messages Over Telephone lines without paying subscription charges. In fact with an extended As opposed to expanded family or a Small list of clients you must frequently communicate with. You might buy a twin pack for $79.95 or a six pack for $199.95. There Are plenty of other useful features the program is available at retail shops or from Amer com 4707 Southwest Campbell court Portland Ore. 97201 Telephone 503 452-8196. Sci ism play the numbers game by Joe Fasbinder United press International the people at Microsoft skipped an upgrade increment number with is Dos 6.2. They did it on purpose in order to avoid a conflict. Usually a conflict in computer terminology Means a memory conflict. In this Case the memory in question is in the computer wetware the mind of the com Puter user. What happened was this Microsoft introduced is Dos 6.0 a while Back. Ism which has been feuding with Microsoft of Redmond wash., introduced pc Dos 6.1, making it look like it had a newer version than Microsoft. There Are differences of course in the software. Subtle differences for sure but differences nonetheless. The most significant of them is that pc Dos 6.1 does no to have disk compression. Microsoft a disk compression has been the subject of a lot of speculation Over possible bugs that could Lead to the loss of data on compressed disk drives. Compression is very desirable stuff is Fec rally in these Days where Ike we a a though As Microsoft found  be fair is Dos 6.0�?Ts compression is Good stuff and most of the problems reported with it have results that can to be reproduced. But now the compression has been significantly improved. Quot is Dos 6.2 includes the software equivalent of passenger Side air bags and anti lock brakes to make disk compres the same name on the target disk. Improvements were also made in the Way is Dos 6.2 goes into memory and in the Speed at which the disk de fragmentation function operates. Best yet the upgrade is free for some users anyway. If you re a registered owner of is Dos version 6.0, you can use your Modem and dial into a bus run by Microsoft at 206 936-6735, or go through Compuserve to get a copy of the Quot step up software that upgrades you from version 6.0 to version 6.2. Or you can buy a a step up upgrade from a software House for about $9.y5. If you re upgrading from an earlier version of is Dos or from somebody else a disk operating system the Standard is Dos 6.2 upgrade is available for a suggested retail Price of $77.95. Or for that. Same Price you can get a copy of the is. A to Jpn computers. The awkward Dos 6.2 a upgrade for dummies special method of decompressing files was one of edition a that includes a special edition of the big complaints about is Dos 6.0. The Book Quot Dos for dummies Quot by Dan Sion As Safe and easy As possible a said Brad Silverberg vice president of personal systems at Microsoft. Of course Microsoft skipped sending out version 6.1 to avoid confusion with the ism product sans compression which has been on the Market for several months. In addition to improved compression the new version of Dos from Microsoft has a Utility that makes it easy to Unco press files or even volumes of information on pc Type computers. The awkward is Dos 6.2 also includes an improved Utility to diagnose and fix disk errors on either compressed or uncompressed disks and a new memory test that looks for. Programs memory chips which Are unreliable. Or perfect can take up 23 Mega \ big improvement involves a lit bytes of Bard disk space. In essence it squashes some types of data so that it takes up As Little As one Quarter of. The space it took before compression. Compression is far from flawless a big improvement involves a Little noticed function of the move command which first came along with is Dos 5.0. Now when you move a file from one Loca Gookin. Of course prices will be significantly lower at Many software discount outlets. The horror stories about the Way is i 0�s 6.0 compressed files and them mangled them Are for the most part Apo cry you a already bought is Dos version 6.0, the peace of mind that comes with the restructured compression lion to another you re prompted As to Utility is a whether you want to overwrite a file with Bucks that it takes to up Rade