European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 14, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes computer tuesday december 14,1993 a no bits a tiny Silicon Valley company that has devised software for use in All stages of Home shopping a from electronic Cata logs to ordering items via to Telephone or computer a announced an Alliance at amp to. Officers at Eshop inc. Say they will be Able to create a Standard program that can be used on any Type of electronic device. They liken their innovation to the dolby sound reduction system that works on any stereo to or computer. If they re right the firm represents the kind of place where experts say much of the innovation in advanced electronic networks and communications services will come from a Small Start up ventures rather than established companies. Quot we re real convinced we fit in at the right place on the food Chain Quot said Matt Kursh president and Confounder of Eshop which has 14 employees Quot if you go to a Large merchant and say we Are Able to get your stuff online they want to be on every single screen in America Quot he said. Quot that a what our technology will  other software companies Kursh noted generally write programs for one device As Microsoft corp. Does with personal computers. An Early endorsement of Eshop a technology comes from at amp to which will License the software for retailers who want to Start shopping services that use its network. Kursh said the company Aims to line up similar arrangements with other network providers such As online computer services. The company will their provide the software to retailers who want to Start Home shopping services under an arrangement in which Eshop collects a fee for every transaction. Prodigy and America online inc. Announced plans to deliver consumer on line services to personal computers through Cable networks in a project with Intel corp. And general instrument. The alliances Are designed to offer a Way to provide More incentive for upgrading the services from Cable companies without massive capital investment. They also respond to the growing demand for High Speed data connections for personal computers by enabling Cable television companies to deliver computer data and software to users in their Homes. Zenith electronics corp. Has already started Selling similar hardware to link pcs with Cable systems. Cox Cable and Prodigy recently announced a test to deliver Prodigy a services into households in san Diego. With the new digital technology being built into Cable networks the ability to Transfer information will be seeded up significantly. A High Resolution digital image for example could be transferred in a few seconds while current technology with a conventional Modem might take a Transfer time of at least 10 minutes. America online a experimental services will be delivered As part of Viacom International s trial in Castro Valley Calif and a co cast Cable Market trial both planned for Early �?T94, Fujitsu inc. And the japanese subsidiary of Apple computer inc. Announced a personal computer software Alliance that will enable the two companies machines to use the near same software titles. From wire reports Microsoft thinks Young. 1 company Aims to get piece of $8 billion educational Market by Sandra Sugawara and John Burgess the Washington Post Microsoft corp. Is setting its sights on a new Corner of the worlds $8 billion software Industry children a educational programs. The new Microsoft programs called creative writer and Fine artist were designed for children aged 8 to 14. In an aggressive push into the fastest growing segment of the Market Microsoft j is planning to give away 15,000 copies of the software to teachers. It also will use schools and Parent teacher organizations to help Market the programs which Are priced at $64.95 each and will sell the software Over a Cable television Home shopping Channel. The marketing muscle that Microsoft promises to flex has raised concerns among other educational software companies Many of which Are smaller and Lack the resources of Redmond wash.? based Microsoft the worlds largest software producer. But Ken Wasch executive director of the software publishers association suggested Microsoft May find the going Tough. Quot Success in one segment of the Industry does no to guarantee Success in another. Microsoft is coming into a Market that has successful and entrenched players a he said. The educational software Industry is still Small and represents a potential new growth area for Microsoft which is anticipating a slowdown in its traditional markets. The software publishers association reports sales of $73 million in the educational sector i the first six months of this year compared with $43 million for the first half of 1992. To attract children and parents who might not frequent computer software stores Microsoft is launching a massive Media Blitz including Cable television advertising and sales Over ivc network  Home shopping Channel. Microsoft also Hopes to take advantage of the enormous interest in computers and education among teachers and parents Many of whom Are not familiar with computers. It plans to offer free software to teachers along with ideas on How Microsoft a products can be used to support curricula. In addition Microsoft is offering free evening seminars for parents and teachers to discuss the Way children use com 849 stain i rec Peters and to demonstrate Microsoft products a kind of High technology a Tupperware party a according to a company spokeswoman. Microsoft said that in less than a month it has been contacted by nearly 1,000 Parent teacher groups that want to schedule seminars. Software will be available for Sale at the seminars and schools will get a free software package for every 10 sold. Children who use creative writer and Fine artist Are greeted by a cartoon character called Mczee and his pals Max and Maggie. The three characters guide children through the software. For example in creative writer which is currently available Mczee provides tips on writing text choosing typefaces laying out newsletters and printing banners. It lets students do such things As insert Art of a lion into a document say and spice it up with an audible Roar. Fine artist which will be available Early next year will enable children to create and print Art work. Old favorite Ventura still rolling by Joe Fasbinder United press International Ventura the Granddaddy of desktop publishers is a Little less Cranky to use these Days. Corel co. Bought the Ftp package from Xerox Early this year upgrading repackaging and renaming it Quot corel  but some credit must go to Xerox too because Xerox spent a lot of time and Money Over the years keeping Ventura current with other pc desktop publishing programs turning Over a pretty tight Complete package to Ottawa based corel. As evidence of How few changes were really made in the operating code corel Ventura is listing a version number of 4.2, compared to version 4.1 for the most recent and final Xerox release. The biggest changes for corel Ventura involve support for Adobe acrobat and addition of the Ventura database publisher in a package that now includes fonts photos and extensive clip Art for Ventura. Adobe acrobat is a program that lets users Send documents in a Standard format across platforms so that if your computer does not have Ventura installed you can still View a document created in Ventura in All its glory. The Ventura database publisher lets you publish Ftp or word processing documents from database information quickly and easily. However it s not something you la be Likely to use often. The $249 corel Ventura package also contains Ventura separator and Ventura scan. The two add on programs which Xerox had included in Ventura a previous version support color separations and Twain compatible digital optical scanners. Both Are things you re Only going to need if you Are quite serious about your Ftp. Ventura scan lets you Hook a scanner onto your computer and copy pictures directly into documents you be put together on your computer screen. The separator add on jets you create color separations that assure that if the Apple on your screen is Green the one on the document you print will be just As Green a assuming of course you get the Page professionally printed and not run through a color Bubble Jet Printer. There Are also 75 com sheets in the Box As we rooms containing More t for it Uteri Zed style As two cd Han 600 True h Foryt or computer As Well As 10,000 eps format clip Art images. R this can make life easy if you do not own a scanner. Ventura excels at jobs like newsletters that require a minimum of time to create and make minimal demands on whoever has to learn How to use the program. With the cd its simple for someone who does no to know a lot about computer technology merely to Call up a picture that he or she wants to use in a publication and plug it into the document they re working on. That a one of the things about Ventura that continues a its simple and intuitive. Even someone with minimal background in creating documents can make up simple pages without formal training a even without formal instruction a in just a few minutes. But the really Good thing about this new Ventura version involves time. The old Ventura had an agonizingly slow Boot Cycle sometimes taking As Long As three minutes to get onto your screen on a 386-based computer. But now that time has been Cut More than in half. Registered users of All previous versions of Ventura a going Back to those that ran on 286-based computers with 640 kilobytes of system memory a can upgrade for $99. Even at the full Price of $249, corel Ventura is probably the place to get the most bang for your Ftp Buck. Simply stated its Well Worth the Money. Of of Erpis by Harges filed for cd rom programs ban Jobe Calif. Apr Federal of and customs Sham allegedly imported about 900 counterfeit cd rom discs and 18,000 software manuals. The goods were valued at $200,000. San Jose Calif. A Federal officials announced the first software piracy Case involving counterfeit compact disc or cd rom programs. Authorities dismantled an operation that was importing bootlegged discs from Hong Kong and packaging them with a a personal computers Federal prosecutors Michael Yamaguchi and customs officials said. A Federal grand jury returned indictments against Clare Waioli Sham. 29 of Fremont Calif., and her company c-88 ticking 00a 0r a two c0unts of tray count in counterfeit goods and on v. A a. Of smuggling said u s attn a Ama Suchi said it was the first known Grey indictment involving piracy of cd rom software