Computers

A seal of approval for computers that interconnect easily with other makes--the COS Mark--was announced Tuesday by an influential group of computer makers and users. Big computer buyers led by General Motors Corp. and the federal government demanded such a program because of dissatisfaction with the existing cacophony in communications between computers.

The stubbornly high unemployment rate has left policymakers wondering whether there's something more at work than just an unusually steep recession. Have the country, its businesses and its markets changed in some fundamental way, leaving millions of Americans with skills that are no longer needed? Economists are sharply divided on that point, but two from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology make a compelling argument that the technology revolution is vaporizing careers faster than many Americans can embark on new ones.

Drug distributor McKesson Corp. said that two computers containing confidential patient data were stolen from the company July 18. The computers contained data on thousands of participants in a program that McKesson administers to help supply drugs to low-income patients, spokesman James Larkin said. He declined to say which health-care firm had hired McKesson to run the program or whether the data were encrypted.

The Japanese government is throwing its weight behind the development of computers made in the image of the human mind. The Ministry of International Trade and Industry wants to conduct a $165,000 feasibility study into "brainy" neural computers that could lead to a 10-year, multibillion-dollar project starting in the early 1990s.

Holiday shopper Thanety Bunseam was reluctant to buy anything big this year, but a few days ago the 57-year-old factory worker could be seen resting on the curb outside a Best Buy store with his quarry: a 52-inch LCD TV and a new Sony PS3 game console. "I got it free with the TV," he said, pointing to the PS3. "They have the game with the TV, so now I buy." FOR THE RECORD: Retail sales: An article in Thursday's Business section about sales during the week of Nov. 22 through Nov. 28 said the amount spent by shoppers on consumer electronic items was $1.2 billion.

Schools that had been racing to garner donations of computers in hopes of doubling their gain through a private foundation's gift-matching program have been given another four months to seek equipment. In April, the La Jolla-based Detwiler foundation created a Computers for Schools Matching Challenge for California schools. It pledged that for every computer a business donated to a school, the foundation would donate another. The foundation receives computers from major corporations.

Balky computers on the International Space Station were fully revived Saturday, but crew members admitted the problem had worried them and served as a reminder that spaceflight is dangerous. Station commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and flight engineer Oleg Kotov rewired the bank of computers to bypass a power outlet that NASA and Russian space officials believe may have caused the computers to crash Monday.

Michael Schrage's call to remove all computers from schools ("High-Tech Programs Are No Substitute for Quality Education," May 6) is like calling for the removal of all pencils and desks. Should we remove textbooks as well? Computers, running curriculum software, provide an instructional approach to learning. Think of them as interactive textbooks. Recognize that computers have shown the potential to play as vital a role in the classroom as they now play in day-to-day business applications.

House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) said Thursday that he believes every American should enjoy the right to life, liberty--and laptop computers. During an appearance before the House Ways and Means Committee--a freewheeling exchange in which he did not so much testify as think aloud for an hour--Gingrich suggested that the poor ought to be given a tax credit to allow them to buy computers so that they will not be left behind in the information revolution.

The United States has relaxed its curbs on the export of lower-level computers and computerized equipment to China, the Soviet Union and Eastern European nations, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. It said the most significant changes affected China. The department said under the new regulations, computers with a far faster computing ability than now permitted could be exported to China with quicker licensing reviews.