Computers Networks

Touting a new computer network as a vital tool to bring the Los Angeles Police Department into the information age, Mayor Richard Riordan and Chief Willie L. Williams visited a Northridge police station Monday to unveil the system. Standing in the Devonshire Division's roll call room beside a television screen displaying the new local network, Riordan noted that the computers will dramatically reduce the amount of time officers spend filling out forms.

For nearly a 24-hour period ending Wednesday night, the Defense Communications Agency severed the links between two nationwide computer networks that were disabled by a computer virus Nov. 3. There was no immediate explanation for the separation of the two networks, which are used by university, industry and military researchers for nonclassified communications.

A massive electronic network linking more than 60,000 computers remains vulnerable to potentially crippling attack by computer "viruses," the General Accounting Office reported Thursday. The GAO, an investigative arm of Congress, said the White House science adviser should oversee efforts to help protect the network, Internet, from sabotage.

If you have more than one PC in your office, consider installing a local area network. Until recently that would have been an expensive and daunting task, but today it's quite affordable and reasonably simple. There are all sorts of advantages. You can easily move or share files between computers. Printers, modems and high-speed Internet connections can be shared, cutting down on costs.

Alarmed by the growing presence of hate groups in cyberspace, the Simon Wiesenthal Center Tuesday sent a letter to the Prodigy on-line computer service protesting the "continued use of Prodigy by bigots to promote their agendas of hate." The Los Angeles-based center said it has tracked increasing activity over the last few months by more than 50 hate groups using on-line services and the popular Internet global computer network.

Micom Systems built its business by getting computers to talk. Now it wants to get them to understand each other better. The Simi Valley-based company, trying to become a leader in one of the data communications industry's growing areas, is stepping up development of components used both to link different brands of computers and computers scattered among remote locations into smooth electronic networks. The need for better data communications systems is clear.

From Long Island, an electronic bulletin board is open to computer users who want to share opinions about American foreign policy in Central America. Gay activists around the country can exchange information over several electronic networks in San Francisco. And a Texas-based white supremacist group that claims computer technology is "Aryan technology" uses a computer network to disseminate racist hate propaganda.

International Business Machines on Tuesday unveiled a grand plan for computer communications with what it called "the largest communications software announcement in its history." The new products should help IBM against competitors such as Digital Equipment by strengthening the giant company where it is weakest, in the growing area of computer networking, analysts said.

A computer whiz from UCLA last week was placed on probation for three years and ordered to perform 600 hours of community service for having illegally tapped into an international computer network linking research agencies and the Defense Department. Ronald Mark Austin, 21, of Santa Monica was convicted in June by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Gordon Ringer of 12 felony counts for having penetrated the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network with his home computer.

Detailed information on the day-to-day workings of the California Legislature is available on a nationwide computer network under a new law authored by Assemblywoman Debra Bowen (D-Marina del Rey). Computer users with access to Internet can view the data at no additional charge to their access costs.