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Z*NET Online Magazine Issue 542
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(c)1990, RII
Z*NET ATARI ONLINE MAGAZINE
October 19, 1990
Issue #542
Publisher/Editor : Ron Kovacs
Assistant Editor : John Nagy
Z*Net New Zealand: Jon Clarke Z*Net Canada: Terry Schreiber
Z*Net Germany: Mike Schuetz Z*Net England: Paul Glover
Contributor: Bob Dolson
Reprints Ctsy of: Puget Sound Atari News
ST-Journal Magazine
=======================================================================
Z*NET NEWSWIRE
==============
Atari News First
ELIE KENAN LEAVES RESIGNS ATARI US AND CANADA;
GREG PRATT NAMED MANAGER Story by John Nagy for Z*NET
It is official: Atari employees have confirmed that the widely praised
and respected new General Manager for Atari USA, CANADA, and FRANCE has
resigned from the position. Elie Kenan, who just weeks ago was
discussing future plans for ATARI with developers at the WAACE and
GLENDALE Atari Shows, has returned to France where he will continue to
work as France's General Manager. Mr. Kenan has declined to accept the
appointment for the USA and Canada.
Some developers and others have suggested that Kenan may have simply
gone to the already scheduled Atari show in France, and that as such,
there is no truth to the story of his departure from Atari USA and
Canada. Others have said that, until Atari makes a formal statement,
nothing should be said or discussed. This position may be partly due to
a hope that Elie's decision is not final and that the public should be
spared the anguish of the truth until it is proven to be unreconcilable.
For whatever good intent or self deception may be causing these
comments, it remains a verified fact: Elie has turned down the
appointment as General Manager of Atari USA and Canada.
Although the complete reasons for Kenan's departure, after so much
public exposure and acclaim, may never be completely known, it is said
by those close to the situation that the "official" comment from Atari
will be that Kenan found the USA to be too large, too culturally
different from the Socialist France he is used to.
However, it is known that after the WAACE show in early October, Kenan
went alone to examine sites in the Boston area. Kenan had preliminary
reports done earlier for a possible relocation of Atari USA to the
Boston area, and speculation is that he had found some sites that he
wished to seriously consider. Shortly after returning to Sunnyvale,
Kenan met with Jack Tramiel, his long time friend and the Chairman of
the Board for Atari, the man who hired Kenan to come to Sunnyvale from
France. The subject matter of that meeting is unknown, but Kenan then
returned to France after some hasty farewells to Atari employees. It is
suspected by some that Kenan's change of heart may have been prompted by
some refusal by Tramiel of the control and free hand he had been
promised in the re-shaping of Atari in the US.
On Friday, October 12, 1990, Greg Pratt was introduced to ranking
employees as the new General Manger for Atari USA. Pratt is a longtime
Atari officer from the Finance department who also ran the ill-fated
Federated Stores operation near the end of that affair. Pratt had, for
a time, been attempting to procure a leveraged buy out of the troubled
Federated Stores from Atari for himself and other investors.
While Pratt is thought by many at Atari to be a competent replacement
for Kenan, reaction has been widespread and uniform - shock and fear of
what this may mean for Atari is being expressed among employees and
developers who met with Kenan and had high hopes for his plans at Atari.
A depression has set in at Atari Corp. that will most certainly now
spread to every corner of the Atari community.
Z*Net has heard from several sources that Jack Tramiel is travelling to
France to try to talk Kenan into changing his mind. If he succeeds and
Kenan does come back to the USA, it may signify a momentous event: the
first time that the iron grip of the Tramiel family has been pried open
by an outsider. If Kenan can be persuaded to return to Atari USA, his
power will be more consolidated and unquestioned than before, and he may
be even more effective. Only time will tell. Z*Net will continue to
follow this story and will bring you special updates if the facts merit.
VP JIM FISHER QUITS ATARI
The Vice President of Atari (USA) for Advertising and Marketing, Jim
Fisher resigned from Atari last week. It appears that Fisher's decision
was made before it was known that Elie Kenan was leaving, and was not
influenced by that event. No details have been officially released, but
it is said that Fisher's resignation was entirely his own idea. Fisher
had recently taken a more active part in preparation and planning of
advertising for Atari, moving from a marketing-only orientation. A
successor has not been named.
A NEW PUBLISHER ST/UPGRADE?
Atari users of the original and still popular PUBLISHER ST by Timeworks
have long eyed the new PUBLISH IT versions for the MAC and IBM, and
wished for the new features and speed offered to other platforms. The
current Atari version has not been upgraded from 2.01 for several years.
However, it appears that the original maker of PUBLISHER ST, GST
HOLDINGS in the UK, has in fact completed a new ST version, and that
Atari France may even sell it under their own label as "ATARI PAGE".
Will this title make it across the big water? We can certainly hope so!
ATARI PHILADELPHIA PLANT FORMALLY DEAD
In March, 1990, Atari announced that it would purchase an old Commodore
plant in Philadelphia, PA, to build liquid crystal display units. In an
article in the Philadelphia Inquirer dated September 30, 1990, it was
announced that the deal had fallen through and that another company has
arranged to buy the facility. It would have been a $5.2 million dollar
plant, with 200 jobs, but Atari dropped the deal before financing was
arranged. The article says that it was unknown why Atari backed out.
NEW TOS LEAKED TO PIRATES
A file being known as "TOS 2" has been circulating on private bulletin
boards for several weeks. Loaded as an AUTO file with TOS 1.4, this
program provides an early version of the new TT Desktop which will
operate on an ST. While the idea of using it is attractive, Atari
reminds users both that the file is a STOLEN, PIRATED file that belongs
to Atari, and that it is an early version that is known to be incomplete
and unstable. Use of "TOS 2" is both illegal and unsafe to your system
data. Please do what you can to eliminate "TOS 2" from distribution.
The completed new GEM and TOS will NOT be called TOS 2, by the way. It
is being called "TOS 030" in the USA and "TOS 3.01" by the press in
Germany, and will come in chip form for the TT only, although it is
expected to be compatible with the STe machine design. If Atari
produces a future STe based MEGA computer, it is expected to also
feature the new TOS/Desktop, and to share the TT case and hard drive
design. If ever built, a MEGA STe would also be card-compatible with
the VME bus of the TT, and might be running a 68000 at 16 Mhz.
ATARI TAIWAN INDICTED
Atari's Taiwan subsidiary has been indicted in Taiwan for allegedly
using pirated copies of common software programs, according to a recent
UPI report. A criminal indictment for copyright infringement was handed
down against Atari Taiwan Manufacturing Corp and two employees earlier
this month. The indictment followed a court-ordered search of the
company in April that turned up several suspected unauthorized copies of
Ashton Tate's dBase III Plus software and Lotus Development Corp.'s
Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet program. According to the UPI story, Atari said
the unauthorized programs were used by two employees without the
company's knowledge and against its policy. The company accused the BSA
of blowing the case, which involved less than a dozen pirate copies, far
out of proportion. "Being a computer company, we are very sensitive to
the software community," said August Liguori, vice president of finance.
"We fight this kind of (piracy) all the time. It would be foolish for
us to cheat our own peers over a few hundred dollars."
MICROSOFT SUPPORT FOR APPLE
Microsoft announced support for the Apple Macintosh IIsi, Apple
Macintosh LC and Apple Macintosh Classic, which were introduced Monday,
October 15th. Microsoft support includes integration of sound
capabilities into some of its applications, as well as the continued
offering of Microsoft Works, a product for new computer users.
APPLES LOWER COST MACINTOSH
Apple announced new low-cost Macintosh products this week. These new
products reduce the price by 50 percent. The computers were designed
to reach new customers in business, government, education and the home.
The newest systems are the Apple Macintosh Classic, Apple Macintosh LC,
and the Apple Macintosh IIsi. The Macintosh LC is a totally new modular
design.
HYUNDAI'S 16MHZ LAPTOP
Hyundai has announced a 16MHz 80386SX laptop, the Super-LT5, that
features a backlit LCD VGA screen, 0 wait states, 2MB RAM installed, and
a 40MB hard drive. It weighs in under 12 pounds (including battery),
and is priced at $3,995.
MOTOROLA UPDATE
Motorola announced this week the 68HC16 (HC16), the first 16-bit
microcontroller family that is compatible with an industry standard
8-bit product line. The cpu of the HC16 is based on a 16-bit
implementation of Motorola's popular 68HC11 (HC11) microcontroller,
making the HC16 source code compatible with the 8-bit HC11 family. The
HC16 is a modular design utilizing implementation of existing modules of
Motorola's 68300 family. The 68HC16Z1 will be available in sample
quantities in second quarter 1991. Production volumes are expected in
third quarter 1991 and will be priced at $25 in 1K quantities. An HC16
evaluation system is in development and will be available first quarter
1991. For more information contact Motorola, 408-982-0400.
CBS RECORDS TO CHANGE ITS NAME
CBS Records announced this week that it will change its name to Sony
Music Entertainment Inc., effective Jan. 1. The change is required
under the terms of the January 1988 acquisition agreement between CBS
Inc. and Sony Corp., which allowed Sony to use CBS as a stand-alone name
for a limited time, expiring in Jan. 1991. The name change will not
affect the company's record labels.
NINTENDO LOSES ANTI-RENTAL BATTLE
The House Judiciary Committee has dealt a blow to Nintendo's battle to
stop rental of its game cartridges by removing that provision from the
Software Protection Bill. The bill is expected to come up for vote by
the full house next week.
AUTODESK LOSES
Autodesk, distributor of Autocad has had its court decision overturned
after an appeal by the defendant. Dyason had originally been found
guilty of supplying a device which enabled pirate versions of the
software to be used. The device in question is a dongle - a hardware
identity key which sits on the parallel port of a PC and is regularly
interrogated by the software to ensure that the installation is legal.
Dyason had been convicted on the charge of supplying counterfeit
dongles, but it won its appeal.
APPLE POSTS INCOME
Apple reported revenues and operating profits for the fiscal year which
ended Sept. 28, 1990. Apple's net revenues were $5.558 billion, a 5
percent increase over the $5.284 billion recorded in fiscal 1989. Net
income for the full year was $474.9 million, a 5 percent increase from
the prior year. A year ago, Apple reported net income of $454.0
million, which included $48.0 million from the sale of Apple's common
stock holdings of Adobe Systems Incorporated.
MUGSHOT REVIEW
==============
by Bob Dolson
(aka LE SYSOP of Fnet node 168 - C.C.B.B.S.)
(Or how to have fun making faces at
people without really trying)
First of all a disclaimer. I am not a writer by any means so all awkward
discussions herein are strictly my own and no one else should be blamed
for them.
You might wonder why the sub-title up above. Well, I am not the
artistic type and have never been much good at drawing faces (or
anything else for that matter). That is, until I went to the WAACE
ATARIFEST down in Reston Virginia on the 6th of October of this year.
At the 'fest of course, there were many wonderful things to be seen.
But my main goal in attending the 'fest was to meet face to face the
likes of Chet Walters (a.k.a. THE WHIZ and author of MUGSHOT, among
other wonderful programs such as IMG CAT, etc etc). Well sure enough,
Chet was there and in fine form I might say. He was accompanied in his
booth by Dr. Bob (who has many fine ST programming credits to his name
also!), and their able bodied assistant Dave Rudie (who would later be
taking 'mug shots' of volunteers for later inclusion on a disk of data
files for MUGSHOT). Needless to say, I immediately volunteered for the
mugshot promo and in fact if I remember right, I was the second one to
do so. One of my friends and the guy who drove his van down with a load
of us in it was next in line for the 'mugshot videocam'.
But I digress, so on with the review. I plunked down my money (37.95 for
the version in a brown paper bag (ecology counts and it shaved $2 off of
the price)). Shades of Dave Small's original Magic Sac! Anyhow, I
eventually got home and had an opportunity to give MUGSHOT a run. I ran
the registration program and while I was in that frame of mind, filled
out the registration postcard and stuck it in the mail. There is very
good reason for doing this, since the current version of MUGSHOT is not
yet complete (though if they didn't mention that in the booklet you'd
never know it!) and neither are the docs quite complete. If you send in
your registration, you'll be rewarded in a short time with a completely
new version of MUGSHOT (which will also have drawing functions so that
(I assume) you can customize even further the 'mugs' that you create.
You'll also receive a new and more detailed version of the
documentation.
And now to the meat of the matter! This program is AWESOME! It has
more flexibility than your average Siamese cat! If you have ever used
any other 'facemaker' type of programs for the ST (FUNFACE IS ONE and
MACAMUG for the Mac is a popular item for the Spectre crowd) you will
see that a comparison will greatly favor MUGSHOT. You can actually grab
any feature with the mouse and move it to wherever you want in addition
to being able to move it with arrows like normal. You can stretch any
feature, squash it, and in either horizontal, vertical, or both at once!
If you mess up really bad, you can have the program put all the parts
back into their default positions. You can load other MGS files (these
are the files that have the parts for the faces) and I believe MGS files
could be created for anything you wanted to build, not just faces. It
seems as if the icons representing the parts are loaded with the MGS
file, but I could be wrong. You can save your creations in .MUG format
(native data file which is usually very small (around 500 bytes), PI?
(where ? is either a 2 or 3 depending on whether you're running MUGSHOT
in medium or high rez mode). You can also save in .IMG format and I
believe the format is compressed IMG.
One of the niftiest features of the program is the ability to have it go
into 'animation' mode, where it just goes about creating an endless
array of faces on it's own! You can stop it where ever you like and
another neat feature is the ability to 'lock' MUGSHOT so you can let
your pre-schoolers play with it and they can't do anything but
manipulate the parts, they can't load or save or anything potentially
hazardous to your drives! This feature would also be nice for demos in
stores and such.
Oh, you can also 'flip' and 'flop' any part either horizontally or
vertically. You can also split any part into two parts. The version
that I bought came with two MGS files, one is for the more or less
standard 'criminal' type of faces, and the other one (called
TUNES01.MGS) is a set of parts to make up hilarious caricatures of your
friends, enemies, etc.
The program will run on as little as 512k of memory (if you don't have
enough memory to load an MGS file into memory, the program will give you
a visual indication of that and you must leave the disk with the MGS
file that didn't fit in the drive so it can spool the part that you
might need in from disk). MUGSHOT will also work on big screen monitors
and it isn't copy protected so you can run it from anywhere. There are
keyboard equivalents for just about everything and the function keys can
be used to choose which part you want to work on.
All in all, this is a VERY well thought out program and my
congratulations go out to Chet, and all who helped him in the creation
of this unique program! May he sell a million or two copies of it!!
CHICAGO ATARIFEST V2.0
======================
Lake County Atari Computer Enthusiasts are proud to present "Chicago
AtariFest" to be held November 11th (Sunday) 1990 at the American Legion
Gurnee Post located at W. Grand and Il. Rt. 21 (just 1 mile east of I-94
and the "Great America" theme park). The show will open to the public
at 10:00 AM and will run until 4:00 PM. General admission will be $2.00
in advance, $3.00 at the door. Children under 6 will be admitted free
with a paying adult.
All paid admissions will have a chance at one of several valuable door
prizes to be awarded at various times during the day. For more
information on advance ticket sales and general show information, please
contact LCACE at P.O. Box 8788, Waukegan, IL 60079-8788. A special show
message base is available on the Python BBS, (708) 680-5105 300/1200/
2400 24hrs.
------ Exhibitors/Developers --------
CodeHead Software DataQue Products
P.O. Box 74090 P.O. Box 134
Los Angeles, CA 90004 Ontario, OH 44862
John Eidsvoog Chuck Steinman
Brumleve Software M-S Designs
P.O. Box 4195 611 W. Illinois
Urbana, IL 61801-8820 Urbana, IL
D.A. Brumleve Carl Stanford
Reeve Software Atari Interface Magazine
29 Old Farm Lane 3487 Braeburn Cir.
Warrenville, IL 60555 Ann Arbor, MI
Alan Reeve Bill and Pattie Rayl
Atari Portable Ent. Magazine ICD, Inc.
2104 Kostner 1220 Rock Street
Chicago, IL 60639 Rockford, IL
Clinton Smith Tom Harker
Compuserve Information Service WizWorks!
P.O. Box 20212 P.O. Box 45
Columbus, OH 43220-0212 Girard, OH 44420
Ron Luks Dr. Bob
------- Vendors/Dealers ----------
Mars Merchandising Computer Cellar
15 W. 615 Diversey 220 1/2 W. Main Street
Elmhurst, IL 60126 St Charles, IL 60174
Paper Express H and H Computer Supplies
P.O. Box 1036 824 Grafield Ave.
Moline, IL 61265-1036 Aurora, IL 60506
Kolputer Systems CSA Limited
18 Burgess Dr. P.O. Box 567530
Glendale Hgts, IL Harwood Heights, IL 60656
Apple Annie ReCharge It
1005 S. Hamlin 866 Tower Rd.
Park Ridge, IL 60068 Mundelien, IL 60060
-------- User Groups ---------
L.C.A.C.E. S.C.A.T.
Lake County Atari Computer Enthusiasts Suburban Chicago ATarians
P.O. Box 8788 8702 Osceola
Waukegan, IL 60079-8788 Niles, IL 60648
MilAtari M.A.S.T.
Milwaukee Atari Users Group Milwaukee Atari ST Group
P.O. Box 14038 P.O. Box 25679
West Allis, WI 53214 Milwaukee, WI 53225
G.C.A.C.E. R.A.C.C.
Greater Chicago Atari Comp. Enthu Rockford Atari Cptr Club
P.O. Box 6706 4658 Black Oak Tr.
Chicago, IL 60614-6706 Rockford, IL 61103
L.A.U.G. T.U.G.
Local Atari Users Group The Users Group
1N361 Ridgeland Av. P.O. Box 66583
W. Chicago, Il 60185 AMF O'Hare. IL 60666
PRINTER BASICS - PART ONE
=========================
by John Picken
Everything You Wanted To Know About Using Your Printer!
(Reprinted from the Puget Sound Atari News, October 1990)
Many computer owners claim the "raison d'etre" for their system is
productivity software - data base, word processor, etc. At least, that's
how they justify the time and money spent to a disbelieving spouse;
after all, Rule 1 of personal computing is: "Never admit to owning a
joystick".
Assuming the owner is actually going to use the system for more than
PacMan, the most important component becomes the printer. Application
software is nearly worthless without a means of presenting permanent
results. Unfortunately, the printer is often the most under utilized
component in a system because it is the least understood.
Using a printer is not terribly complex though it sometimes seems so
because of the instruction manual. Usually, all the information you
need to learn to control any printer can be found in its manual, albeit
with some errors. You often get better results by regarding the manual
as a collection of hints to provide a basis for experimentation. Why
this is so is anyone's guess, but you can add this to the collected
wisdom of Murphy: "Quality of documentation varies inversely with
printer sophistication."
Printers come in all shapes, sizes, and prices. They may be broadly
categorized by the way they mark the paper. Laser machines produce
superb results at a superb price. It is my understanding that they
print using techniques similar to Xerography but I haven't really looked
into them because of lack of opportunity (read "lack of dollars") to
play with one.
"Letter Quality" printers produce characters by the single impact of a
complete form, whether it be on a wheel, drum, ball or typewriter key.
This category runs from top of the line "Daisy Wheel" machines down to
the old Atari 1027. Prices range from high to low and, correspondingly,
speeds from fast to dead slow. All however, have two common
characteristics: First, if character size and style is changeable, it
can only be accomplished by replacing the printing element. Second,
they are mechanically complex and usually noisy.
"Dot Matrix", the most commonly used printers, produce images by
patterns of dots similar to the way an image is drawn on a television.
Dots may be formed by ink jets or thermal paper but most commonly, are
produced by "pins" striking a ribbon over the paper. "Nine-Pin" dot
matrix machines are the subject of this discussion.
While it is possible to find older models with fewer, the standard is
nine pins, though only eight are normally used at any one time. The
pins, also called "wires", are arranged in a vertical column. Images
are produced by moving this column across the page while "firing" or
"striking" the pins in various combinations. The difference from a
television is that the printer does up to nine rows of pins at a time.
Why use only eight of nine, and why these numbers in the first place?
Well, eight is the closest thing you will find to a "magic number" in
the world of computing because a "byte", which is normally the smallest
usable amount of data, is always made up of eight bits. The printer is
able to interpret the bits separately, so the bits of a single byte can
be used to control firing of eight pins.
The ninth pin is there for things like underlining or descenders on
lower case letters. The printer normally only uses eight pins but it
may switch between the top or bottom eight. Try underlining on most
printers and you'll notice that the underline runs into lower case
descenders. There are nine-pin graphics modes but they are rarely used
as a complete second data byte is required for the addition of only one
more pin. Essentially, you can ignore the existence of the ninth pin
unless you want to get into more advanced subjects like download
characters.
"27-Pin", also called "24-Pin", printers are nearly identical, but have
three such pin columns mounted closely side by side with a slight
vertical offset between each. This arrangement produces much higher
quality characters than is possible with nine pins. Once you get beyond
simple text printing, these become more complex as you obviously need at
least one byte to control eight of the pins in each of the three columns
and the equivalent of the nine-pin mode would require a total of six
data bytes.
The key to understanding how dot matrix printers work, and therefore,
what is and is not possible, lies in the name. They cannot produce any
image other than a "Dot" - everything they print is formed from dots.
The "Matrix" part of the name describes something which, physically,
does not exist. It is a human concept represented by a collection of
bytes in the printer's memory. The printer's "Firmware" (program in
ROM) interprets these as a pattern of pins to fire to form a particular
character. Mechanically, that's it: the printer can produce only dots.
Firmware and software control pin firing, paper feed, and carriage
motion to arrange these on the paper.
While printer response to any particular byte is governed by firmware,
this response can be modified. Sometimes this can be done by switches
but many features are not controllable except by software. In other
words, the computer must command the printer remotely.
Like any other kind of remote control, communication is required. A
small part of this consists of actual electronic signals. Most,
however, is exercised by the computer talking to the printer in a
language it understands: patterns or sequences of data bytes. This is
where the user enters the picture via a word processor or other program.
Getting what you want out of your system requires you to give both the
printer and the word processor the proper commands. The word processor
contains a block of data holding the information it needs to control
your particular printer. This is changeable, normally by load from
disk. There are numerous names used to describe these: "Printer
Driver", "Printer Description", and "Configuration" files being some of
the more common. No matter what they're called, they are functionally
bilingual dictionaries which the word processor uses to translate
something like "underline from here to there" into language the printer
understands.
If your system is not producing up to its capabilities, the source of
the problem may very well be this file. Most word processors come with
a utility program to allow you to change or customize the printer
driver. The catch is you've got to read and understand the
documentation, both for the word processor and the printer, and you have
to know what is and is not possible. Understanding of a few terms and
measurements aids in this task.
BUFFER
------
"Buffer" is commonly used but not always understood. A buffer is just a
reserved area of memory for temporary storage of bytes. When dealing
with printers, there are at least two buffers involved, one in the
computer and one in the printer. Eight-bitters have a buffer in the
interface as well which serves the same purposes as printer buffers.
Buffers allow transmission of multiple byte blocks of data. This
decreases time lost on "Handshaking" signals and calculation of
checksums. Also, since the printer can't print anywhere near as fast as
the computer can send, it accepts and stores as many bytes as it can so
that the computer is free to move on to other business sooner.
Obviously the bigger the printer buffer, the sooner the transmission is
completed.
The second purpose of the printer (and interface) buffer is to allow it
to examine and modify the data before it is printed. It has to sort out
printable data from commands, make any required conversions such as
ATASCII to ASCII or addition of auto line feeds, and possibly, calculate
right justification, etc. Once this is done, it determines how, and at
what point in the printout, to apply the commands.
Most printers actually have two buffers - everything that comes in goes
to the "Receive Buffer". Printable stuff is then moved and held in the
"Print Buffer". The importance of this distinction is that some
commands affect only the print buffer - you have to read and decipher
the book.
LEE ROBERTS
===========
by Marian Carter
Profile of a High-Tech Cop
(Excerpted Article)
This feature is a reprint from the OCTOBER/NOVEMBER ST-JOURNAL MAGAZINE,
presented here by permission. THIS ARTICLE MAY NOT BE REPRINTED IN ANY
OTHER PUBLICATION OR NEWSLETTER WITHOUT EXPRESS PERMISSION FROM ST-
JOURNAL, 113 West College Street, Covina, CA 91723, 818-332-0372.
Lee Roberts is a modem day crime-buster - a gum shoe with high-tech
habits and old fashioned principles. In appearance, he could be a
manufacturers' representative, or a bank supervisor, or a manager of a
credit agency--or any one of a number of other things--but he's not.
He's a cop, and he specializes in a number of things--one of which is
computer crime.
The amiability and the eager-to-please niceness of the man could fool
you. Then, as you're shaking hands with the guy you look into those
eyes and know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that you're looking into the
eyes of a cop. And suddenly you're very, very glad that you're an
honest and fairly upright citizen. You're glad that the two of you are
on the same side of the fence-and that you're not going over it with
this man behind you.
Lee Roberts, head of Roberts' Protection Agency, in Santa Ana,
California, wasn't always a cop. He did a number of things before he
got to be a detective with a badge and a gun, and then the head of his
own agency--some of them not so pleasant--things like making cat food
and helping assemble cars--nasty, boring drudge work.
As Lee tells it, "here was this guy telling me that the greatest
experience he'd ever had in his whole life was getting to work on John
Wayne's station wagon--that's when I knew that I had to have something
more out of life." And that's when Lee Roberts, a dirt-poor North
Carolina boy, as he calls himself, decided to become a cop. He finished
his high school education, got his diploma, and petitioned the Newport
Beach Police Department in California for admission. They sent him to
the Los Angeles Police Department Academy.
Lee not only graduated from the Academy, but on the way to becoming a
detective, also picked up the expertise that was to make him a
specialist in a number of fields. One of these specialties was the fine
art of surveillance. By the time he'd put in a few years with the
Newport Beach ED., he could drive down the street, eyeball the citizens,
and pick out all the characters that were 99% up-to-no-good. Instinct,
knowing what to look for, and a sharp eye, along with the rest of skills
that he had learned, had made him a highly competent and effective cop.
Strangely enough, it was these skills, plus the education he'd picked up
on the side, that were to help make Roberts, among other things, one of
the country's few experts on computer chip crime. But had it not been
for a ferociously nasty encounter with an oversized felon bent on
destruction in 1980 that left him with a back injury and a 50%
diability, Lee probably wouldn't have known much or cared less about the
differences between a computer chip and a potato chip.
As it turned out, he didn't have very long to wonder about where he was
going. The door that had closed on his job as a police detective had
also opened into another aspect of criminal investigation. People were
still coming to Roberts for help, and in 1982, he opened his own agency,
Roberts Protection and Investigations.
Then, suddenly, what had been a trickle of theft and violence in the
chip manufacturing field began to grow into a full fledged torrent of
criminal activity. All at once, police departments like the Newport
Beach P.D. and Irvine P.D. were beginning to find that they hadn't the
manpower or time to devote to the kind of chip-theft activity that was
taking place. Employees were stashing chips in their pockets and
walking out with them; burglars were hauling chips out by the barrelsful
in the dead of night. In the meantime, someone, somewhere else, was
holding up a 7-11 down the street or mugging a little old lady in the
mall. It was too much. A department with only 10 or so men on the
street has to establish priorities.
It was about that time that the police departments began a process in
which they would take a company's report, and then, because they were
well acquainted with Roberts' work, refer the victim to Lee. Almost
before he knew it, the retired detective and his agency had begun
specializing in another area of criminality -- chip theft, and chip-
related burglaries and armed robberies.
"These chips, they're like gold," Lee is saying, "These guys are wearing
masks and driving up in vans. They're tying up guards and using bolt
cutters to cut their way into a place... they're loading chips into
Boxes ... plastic trash cans... hauling them away." He goes on to
relate another tale about robbers stealing a load of chips big enough to
fill a truck and then conning an unwitting bystander into loading the
truck for them.
"Or you take employees ... a hundred of them can steal just 5 chips a
day. At, say, $20 per chip, that's 500 chips at $10,000 per day. Maybe
they don't realize it, but they could put a company out of business that
way."
Lee goes on to talk about what temptation can do to a person and the
weaknesses of the flesh and moral fibre. Maybe he understands. To a
person making $4 or $5 an hour, maybe the prospect of walking out with
$100 worth of chips in his pocket is more than flesh can resist.
But you glance at those serious blue eyes with the hint of steel behind
them and a look that says, "I know you," and you also have the feeling
that to Roberts, both the chip thief and the buyer of those chips are
just another facet of crime's many faces; a criminal is a criminal, and
Lee's going to catch him if he can. "People are basically dishonest,"
he says. And then he adds, "In 20 years I've never seen anybody turn
down stolen goods......
Does Roberts have any answers when it comes to stopping computer crime?
Maybe. At least he has a couple of suggestions which might help if they
were followed -- one of which would be to get rid of the profit motive.
Whether it's hot stereos or hot chips, go after the guy who's buying the
stolen goods. And he's had plenty of experience doing just that. He'll
tell you that, as a cop, he's lain in wait and watched while auto
choppers hacked up a brand new Porsche just so that he could follow them
and see where they peddled the parts. Once, he and a fellow officer
took a new $800 TV purchased from J.C. Penney's, still in its box,
stuck it under the noses of 5 different pawn shop owners, and gave them
each the story that they'd boosted the set and needed the money for
drugs. They'd let it go for $100. (Not one of the owners was willing
to turn the "bargain" down.) All of this, of course, was to find out
who was buying. That's where the head of the serpent lies ... on the
buyer. Cut off a head and you've removed a source.
Lee would do the same thing with chips. If he had his way, he'd make it
tough on the person who buys DRAMs and PVGAs in other than standard and
customarily acceptable ways. In other words, if you've just bought
yourself a shoebox full of chips, at a price that's half the market
value, from some guy peddling door-to-door, and you've handed him cash
with no receipt offered or requested, then you should be adjudged guilty
of knowingly receiving stolen property--because deep in your heart you
knew those chips were hot. Therefore, if not prosecutable as a criminal
offense, you should still be held liable for civil damages. And Lee
would track you down in a manner fairly similar to the way he'd track
down a receiver of stolen Porsche parts, or an arsonist trying to build
an insurance claim on a house he's torched.
Lee's other answer? Beef up security. He'd have chip companies install
turnstiles where employees would have to go through the stiles past
guards, x-ray machines, and cameras in order to exit their employer's
premises. He'd have guards in bullet-proof booths, and "lock down"
areas installed in those parts of a plant where chips are being
produced. Basically, he'd have employers start reacting to hightech
crime by erecting a high-tech manner of defense. And he'd also have
them become, legally, very aggressive against both thieves and buyers of
stolen goods.
And what does he see as the future of chip-thefts and related crime?
Growing and continuing to be tremendously profitable for the criminal
element. At this point he can only reiterate the statement that the
whole process of manufacturing, marketing, and brokering chips has
created an immensely powerful opportunity for the amassing of illegally
gotten wealth - and that situation is going to get worse before it gets
any better. "I've got the best job security in the world," he says with
a grin.
You look around the place with its state-of-the-art equipment - plaques,
awards, and memorabilia on the walls and desks; you leaf through an
inscribed copy of Wambaugh's latest novel, The Golden Orange, with a
personal inscription to Roberts on the flyleaf. You consider the fact
that Roberts has over 70 employees working for him and garners revenues
of over a million per year. You reflect on the additional information
that he has the technical and the legal capacity to pull off just about
any kind of a sting operation he chooses (he has the police privilege of
being able, as an undercover officer, to buy or sell anything from drugs
to chips, and he's not above employing a helicopter to follow a
malefactor). You consider all of this, and you have to agree with this
retired detective. Until and unless the citizenry suddenly develops a
severe case of morality, then, yes, Roberts is right, he's got the best
job security in the world. Not too shabby for a dirt-poor kid from
North Carolina.
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Z*NET Atari Online Magazine is a weekly publication covering the Atari
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Z*NET Atari Online Magazine
Copyright (c)1990, Rovac Industries, Inc..
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