Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.tech,americast.usa-today.tech From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: tech Fri, Oct 30 1992 Date: Fri, 30 Oct 92 09:37:04 EST Message-ID: 10-30 0000 DECISIONLINE: Technology USA TODAY Update Oct. 30-Nov. 1, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network DIGITAL CASSETTES DUE OUT: The long-promised Digital Compact Cassette rolls out in selected cities next week, including New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston and Los Angeles. By late November, the CD-quality tape recording format will be available across the USA. Then, in early December, Sony introduces the portable MiniDisc ($550-$750), which records digitally on a 2 1:2-inch compact disc. (For more, see special Digital package below.) HUGHES IS FINED $3.5 MILLION: Hughes Aircraft Co. Thursday was fined $3.5 million for falsifying tests of electronic circuitry used in weapons systems. The fine, handed down in Los Angeles federal district court, follows a jury's verdict in June that Hughes conspired to defraud the government by faking the test results. A Hughes manager was acquitted on similar charges. DIGITAL TO LAY OFF 670: Digital Equipment Corp. said Thursday is closing two manufacturing plants, in Springfield, Mass. and Burlington, Vt., as part of its effort to battle losses and slumping sales. About 670 people will be laid off. COLUMBIA TO LAND SUNDAY: Columbia's 10-day scientific mission is to end Sunday with a landing at Cape Canaveral. CNN plans to carry the touchdown live at 9:05 a.m. ET. Columbia's astronauts are conducting several experiments aimed at preparing NASA for operations aboard the agency's planned space station Freedom. DISCOVERY SLATED FOR LAUNCH: Shuttle Discovery is tentatively scheduled for launch Dec. 2 on a seven-day Defense Department mission. The blast-off will come about 18 days later than originally planned because of a problem with one of the spaceship's Orbital Maneuvering System pods. Discovery is to carry a classified Defense Department satellite into orbit. Scientific and medical experiments also are planned. MOBILE COMPUTING SECTION SLATED: PC World and Newsweek are combining forces to give their readerships an in-depth look at one of the fastest growing segments of the PC industry, mobile computing. "Mobile Computing," which is independently written by PC World editors, will appear in PC World's December 1992 issue. It will also be reprinted as a special pullout section in the Nov. 23 issue of Newsweek Business. RESEARCH CONTRACT IS SIGNED: The U.S. Advanced Battery Consortium Thursday signed contracts for more than $53 million worth of electric vehicle battery research. It awarded deals totaling $41.2 million to W.R. Grace and Co. and Saft America Inc., firms involved in advanced battery research. Sandia and Argonne National Laboratories and the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory got deals that total $12.2 million. ENERGY DEPT. WANTS TO KEEP LABS: The Department of Energy Thursday released a comprehensive statement for continued operation, including near term proposed projects, at the DOE-funded Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratory:Livermore, both in Alameda County, Calif. The proposal is to continue operation of the involved laboratories, instead of eliminating new projects or shutting down. BELL ATLANTIC MAKES ALLIANCES: Bell Atlantic is teaming up with Gandalf Systems Corp. and Sun Microsystems Inc. to offer distance learning and telecommuting applications for colleges and universities using Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN). ISDN is an all-digital network that integrates voice, data and image services on a single telephone line. BELL ATLANTIC SEEKS SCHOOLS: Bell Atlantic is seeking colleges and universities interested in participating in Integrated Services Digital Network trials of telecommunications and distance learning applications during the 1993 spring semester. For information, call Warren Pyles, Bell Atlantic higher education market manager, at 703-974-3209 or Pat D'Innocenzo, ISDN Applications Manager, at 301-236-1885. PATENT SYSTEM NEEDS REFORM: Pressure is building to reform the U.S. patent system. Critics charge that the system is bogged down in litigation and confusion over patent rights. A Commerce Department commission has suggested changing the system so that patents would go to the first to file, not the first to invent. Under U.S. law, a patent is granted to the person who can prove he had the idea first no matter when he filed. BILL COULD TRIPLE COMMITMENT: President Bush's approval of a bill extending the Small Business Innovation and Research program could triple the federal government's commitment to small high-tech companies, SBA acting regional administrator Donald C. Smith said Thursday. The program helps small businesses develop products and services that satisfy specific research and development needs of the federal government. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON DIGITAL: HOME RECORDING ACT IS SIGNED: President Bush paved the way for the sale of Digital Compact Cassettes and Sony's portable MiniDisc formats Wednesday by signing the Audio Home Recording Act. It settles the war between record and electronics industries by providing royalty payments to musicians and others whose copyrighted works may be taped at home. CASSETTES CAN BE RECORDED ON: DCC decks (coming first from Tandy, Philips and Technics for $700-$1,000) look like a cross between a CD player and cassette deck. The key difference: DCC records digitally, for sound quality comparable to CDs, on cassettes the size and shape of today's audio cassettes, only sturdier. DECKS PLAY CURRENT CASSETTES: Prerecorded DCCs - 500 titles are promised by month's end, at CD prices - look enough like current cassettes to confuse. But beware: DCCs won't play on current decks. The new DCC decks will play (but not record on) today's cassettes, so current music collections aren't obsolete. This lets DCC position itself as an upgraded cassette deck. (End of package.) Technology Editor: Ed Kelleher. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM