18—The Daily Collegian Monday, Oct. 7, 1985
Electronic service to provide news at a glance
By LINDA KRIEG
Collegian Staff Writer
Newspapers may be a thing of the
past if a new computer service from
Pittsburgh, which provides shopping,
sports and news information instant
ly, attracts consumers' attention.
Alan M. Horton, general manager
of Viewtron/Pittsburgh, said the new
consumer service from Scripps How
ard Publishing Co. will be available
to State College residents around
Thanksgiving.
Those who have personal comput
ers can purchase a modem that will
connect the computer to a telephone
line. By calling a number in Pitts
burgh, the subscriber is connected to
the main base in Miami, Fla., Horton
said. The subscriber then has access
to any information the data base has
available.
The Miami data base offers a vari
ety of services, including preschool
lessons, soap opera updates and mov
ie reviews, said Cheryl Patterson,
public relations assistant in Miami
for Viewdata Corp., the company
offering the nationwide Viewtron
computer service.
"It's a pretty wide range of infor
mation," she said. "(Videotex) has
enhanced the way you read the news.
It's more visually appealing, and it's
fun and exciting to use."
Get down to business faster.
If there's one thing business
students have always needed,
this is it: an affordable, busi
ness-oriented calculator.
The Texas Instruments
BA-35, the Student Business
Analyst. of many.
Its built-in business The calculator is just part
formulas let you perform of the package. You also get
complicated finance, a book that follows most
accounting and statistical business courses: the Business
functions the ones that Analyst Guidebook. Business
usually tequire a lot of time professors helped us write it,
and a stack of reference hooks, to help you get the most out
like present and future value of calculator and classroom.
In addition, the medium is more
timely than a newspaper because
stories are constantly coming over
the wire and the data base provides
them unedited, she said.
Although Videotex has been called
the "electronic newspaper," Horton
said the demise of the print newspa
per is far off.
"I'm not predicting the funeral of
the newspaper as we know it," Hor
ton said. "Over time we will find
plenty of people who want to do the
electronic thing without ruining the
subscription base of the print paper.
And some folks may not want the
electronic version."
However, many publishers are in
terested in developing this informa
tion service of the future.
The Baltimore Sun, The Boston
Globe, The Seattle Times and the
Capital Cities newspapers want to
provide this type of service, he said.
The Knight-Ridder chain is now con
sidering Philadelphia for its next
Viewtron base, Horton said.
Viewtron is a plus for busy people,
Horton said.
"It simplifies life rather than com
plicates it," he said. "It's like some
one using a tool that saves time doing
little things, so there's more time for
human contact."
The company also runs an "on-air
auction" program that allows sub-
' P '}.
;r;;:" r, :~;
+;+`;'":
~;:
;34~~~?°
+, yx„
With the BA-35.
:_,
~s~'; `itNt`'.
,:~,.
calculations, amortizations
and balloon payments.
The BA-35 means you
spend less time calculating,
and more time learning. One
keystroke takes the place
scribers to bid on merchandise via
their computers, she said. The price
of an item is marked down every 15
minutes and anyone wishing to buy
the item puts in a "bid" on his com
puter. The first offer to reach the data
base enables the bidder to buy the
item at that price.
The medium of this service Vi
deotex allows subscribers and the
data base to communicate with each
other, Horton said.
"You don't have to pre-program.
You send messages to the data base,
ask for something and it will come
back to you," Horton said.
Consumers have been able to use
Viewtron, the national Videotex serv
ice, since 1983, he said. Knight-Ridder
provides the national service, while
the Pittsburgh operation will be
Knight-Ridder's first joint venture
with another publisher, Scripps How
ard.
Scripps Howard decided to open the
service in Pittsburgh because it "is a
wonderful market for high technolo
gy. It has high-tech firms and
software houses and Carnegie Mellon
(University) is one of the most wired
campuses around," Horton said.
The difference between the nation
al service and the area service will be
that Viewtron/Pittsburgh will offer
localized information, he said. The
service will include shopping cata-
` •, •l‘ .
•' l' r.:
• • \ •
• t
A powerful combination.
Think business. With
the BA-35 Student Ap
Business Analyst.
TEXAS
INSTRUMENTS
Creating useful products
and services for you.
logs for Pittsburgh stores and local
calendars for events in the Pittsburgh
and Western Pennsylvania areas,
Northern West Virginia and Eastern
Ohio, Horton said.
"Viewtron/Pittsburgh is the first
and only one of its kind to localize
services," he added.
State College subscribers of
Viewtron/Pittsburgh will be able to
use their computers to shop through
catalogs from Pittsburgh stores in
about a year from now, Horton said.
Eventually, Viewtron/Pittsburgh
hopes to include instantaneous
stocks, bonds and commodities infor
mation.
"For a slight surcharge, you can
get up-to-the-minute stock quotes and
will be able to buy and sell," Horton
said.
The service will cost 22 cents per
minute during workday hours and 9
cents in the evening, Horton said.
Special services will cost extra, Hor
ton said, because as in the case of
stocks Viewtron/Pittsburgh must
buy the rights to carry the informa
tion.
In addition to the usual charge,
State College residents would have to
pay for the long distance call to
Pittsburgh, Horton said, adding that
Viewtron/Pittsburgh is negotiating
with phone companies to enlarge the
local calling area next spring.
DINO DE LAURENTIIS PRESENTS
STEPHEN KING'S SILVER BULLET• GARY BUSEY • EVERETT McGill • COREY HAIM
MUSIC BYJAY CHATTAWAY • BASED ON THE NOVELETTE "CYCLE OF THE WEREWOLF" BY
STEPHEN KING • SCREENPLAY BY STEPHEN KING • PRODUCED BY MARTHA SCHUMACHER
DIRECTED BY DANIEL ATTIAS
. .
• A PARAMOUNT PICTURE ON
Starts Friday, October 11 at a theater near you.
THE •
UKRAINIAN CLUB
WILL MEET TONIGHT
AT 7:00 PM IN
307 BOUCKE BUILDING
R 197
SIISTEPHEN KING'S
VER BULLET
HE MAKES EVIL AN EVENT.