Computer Software

I'm sick of viruses. I'm even sicker of the weasels who program them. Starting at midnight tonight, the so-called Columbus Day virus (also known as the Datacrime virus) will allegedly spring to life to destroy all the hard disk data on thousands of IBM-compatible personal computers. Picture someone sneaking into your office and torching every item in your files--letters, reports, memos. Everything. Multiply that by thousands and you have computerdom's equivalent to Hurricane Hugo.

Re "Does my writing compute?," Editorial, May 6 Whether this letter is published in The Times depends entirely on the judgment of the editor, who has spent years developing the expertise to evaluate written expression. The same process takes place in the classroom when a teacher grades an essay. No computer software can ever take the place of the wherewithal they respectively bring to their work. Walt Gardner Los Angeles The writer is the author of Education Week's Reality Check blog.

Google Inc.'s plan to launch its own computer operating system is a direct assault at the heart of Microsoft Corp., and its bold move could fundamentally change the way personal computers are used. Under Google's new operating system, dubbed Chrome OS, people would play games, store photos and work on spreadsheets free of charge via the Internet, reducing the need for powerful software and massive hard drives on their personal computers.

A few years ago, my local school district invested in software designed to teach students better writing skills. The computer program - without the help of a teacher - would rate their work on a scale of 1 to 6 and give them feedback on the needed improvements, such as fixing grammatical errors or expanding sentence fragments into full sentences. The students could watch their scores rise as they made corrections, actively engaged in the process of learning new English usage skills, while their teachers were freed from the chore of reading every draft.

The Seattle Silicon Corp. has donated a site license for silicon computer software to the department of computer engineering and computer science at Cal State Long Beach. The license, worth an estimated $130,000, will make it possible for undergraduate and graduate-level students at Cal State Long Beach to design state-of-the-art integrated circuits. This first-ever gift from Seattle Silicon Corp.

The number of mergers and acquisitions involving companies in computer software and services rose to a record 130 in the first half of 1986, up 58% from a year earlier, according to Broadview Associates, an investment banking firm. The value of those transactions more than doubled to $1.9 billion from $846 million, Broadview said.

UC Irvine announced Monday that it has hired a nationally prominent computer software specialist, Leon J. Osterweil, effective Friday. "I feel the appointment of Dr. Osterweil places UCI at the forefront of research and development in large-scale computer software," said John King, chair of information and computer science at UCI. Osterweil is nationally known for his research and inventions in the computer software field.

Roy Nutt, 59, co-founder and director of Computer Sciences Corp., who was well-known for the development of programming languages for business and scientific uses of computers and his contributions to the advancement of software technology. Upon his graduation with a degree in mathematics from Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., he joined United Aircraft Corp. in 1953 to work in programming research and development.

Eastman Kodak plans to acquire Interactive Systems Corp., a Santa Monica-based manufacturer of computer software, for about $6 a common share, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. As a result of the acquisition agreement, Rochester, N.Y.-based Kodak, received proxies to vote 1.7 million, or 49.2%, of Interactive Systems' common shares.

Police have seized about $5.6 million worth of counterfeit computer software from a local business and nearby storage facility and arrested six people, authorities said Wednesday. Spurred by a tip from Microsoft, police on March 5 searched a building in the 5000 block of Commerce Drive, where they found 3,000 computer discs that apparently were manufactured at the site, said Sgt. Bob Delgado. Two days later police found another 14,000 discs at a Walnut storage facility.

Two tech giants in the PC field are battling to take over a relatively tiny company in the burgeoning arena of cloud computing. Hewlett-Packard Co., the largest PC company in the world, bid $1.6 billion, or $24 a share, Monday for 3Par Inc., a firm that makes products to increase the efficiency of data stored on remote, massive servers accessed through the Internet. Last week, Dell Inc., the second-biggest PC company, bid $1.13 billion, or $18 a share, for 3Par. HP's bid is probably not the last skirmish in the battle.

Responding to recent deaths among children who passed through Los Angeles County's child welfare system, Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas renewed his call Monday to improve the computer system designed to provide county agencies with information about a child's risk factors for abuse. The Times reported Sunday that an upgraded system for sharing information among agencies about suspicious injuries, domestic violence and other key risk factors was one of a number of unfinished reform efforts.

Amid rising unemployment, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday unveiled a training initiative funded by Microsoft Corp. that gives California residents free access to Microsoft's online computer courses and certification exams. Microsoft said it would distribute 166,500 vouchers that could be redeemed online for courses that range from basic computer training -- such as Web navigation -- to more formal professional certifications in Microsoft Office applications, including Outlook, Excel and Access.

For four days Gordon Thomas watched the horror of Haiti's earthquake unfold and wished that there was a way for him to help. But the 30-year-old San Diego man is a software engineer, not a medical doctor or a search-and-rescue expert who can drop everything and rush off to deliver emergency aid to the Caribbean island nation. So on Saturday he decided to use the equivalent of a digital pick and shovel to help Haitians with the long-term job of digging out their quake-crushed country.

A Santa Barbara software maker has filed a $2.2-billion lawsuit against the Chinese government and several Chinese technology firms, accusing them of conspiring to steal and disseminate the U.S. firm's Internet filtering technology. Cybersitter, also known as Solid Oak Software Inc., alleged in a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday in Los Angeles that Chinese software makers stole thousands of codes to develop a controversial Internet filtering program that was to be installed on all personal computers in China by July 2009.

Jefferson County Sheriff's Deputy Larry Michaels has tried everything to teach high school students about the dangers of drugs and alcohol, but nothing has held their attention quite like a new computer program that shows them what they will look like after they use methamphetamine. "I've never seen the look of shock on their faces like I have with this," Michaels said shortly after several Windsor High School students this month volunteered to have their faces digitally altered to show how they would look after six months, one year and three years of meth abuse.

Pirated copies of computer software were pulled off store shelves Tuesday as a copyright protection agreement took effect between the United States and Indonesia. The price of an edition of Lotus Development Corp. software shot up overnight from $1.50 for a bogus copy to $422 for the Cambridge, Mass., manufacturer's original version.

Bob Wallace, a computer software pioneer and an early Microsoft employee who struck out on his own in the early 1980s by launching the Seattle-based Quicksoft software company, has died. He was 53. Wallace, who believed that being a computer programmer was the best way to enhance the mind and in recent years sold books about hallucinogenic and psychedelic drugs on a Web site, died at his home Sept. 20 in San Rafael, Calif. The results of an autopsy are pending.

As if Stephanie Enyart wasn't stressed enough when she took the Law School Admissions Test, the man hired by the exam administrators to read the questions to the legally blind Berkeley woman turned up sick. He sneezed and coughed. The words came out in a nasal mumble. He interrupted his reading every few minutes to blow his nose, use the restroom or get tea to ease his congestion. Even though she was allotted double time to compensate for her disability, Enyart said her score also suffered because she was denied the use of her computer software programs that magnify text and convert it to speech heard through an ear bud. Enyart, however, did well enough to get into UCLA Law School and graduated this spring.

When Darcy Ahl's 16-year-old son tried to answer his cellphone while driving with her on the interstate she was rattled to the core. The car started swerving and Ahl frantically instructed her son to end the call. "I wondered to myself what would have happened if I hadn't told him to hang the phone up," the Darien, Conn., resident said. "I wondered what would have happened if I weren't there." Immediately after that scare, Ahl, an executive recruiter, went back to her office to figure out a way to keep teenage drivers from using their phones while driving.