Autometric Inc

Boeing Co. agreed to buy closely held Autometric Inc. for an undisclosed amount to bolster its position in space and communications markets. Autometric, based in Springfield, Va., makes computer tools that help send complex information or visualize terrain in three-dimensional images. The company had sales of $80 million last year and employs 560 people. Boeing has been moving more aggressively into space markets, agreeing in January to buy Hughes Electronics Corp.'s satellite-making operations.

Boeing Co. agreed to buy closely held Autometric Inc. for an undisclosed amount to bolster its position in space and communications markets. Autometric, based in Springfield, Va., makes computer tools that help send complex information or visualize terrain in three-dimensional images. The company had sales of $80 million last year and employs 560 people. Boeing has been moving more aggressively into space markets, agreeing in January to buy Hughes Electronics Corp.'s satellite-making operations.

Photos of Area 51, the super-secret Air Force test site in Nevada that tantalizes UFO and conspiracy buffs, are being posted on the Internet. Aerial Images Inc. of Raleigh, N.C., plans to post five images in collaboration with Microsoft, Kodak, Digital Equipment Corp., Autometric Inc. and the Russian agency Sovinformsputnik. The partners launched a Russian satellite in 1998 to map Earth's surface and Area 51.

Popeye the sheep dog snores right through his master's most impassioned speech. Holding forth in his headquarters in a converted, tumbledown Santa Monica fish restaurant, Tom Van Sant is explaining to a young man from a high-tech company how his computer technology will someday help policymakers better manage the Earth's resources. Take the debate over chopping down virgin timber in the Northwest. It's a mistake, Van Sant argues, to reduce the discussion to owls versus jobs.