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computer's
.

and people

March, 1978
Vol. 27, No.3
formerly Computers and Automation

NEW SPERRY UNIVAC CONFERENCE CENTER IN EUROPE

The Japanese Economic Challenge: Is There Equity?

- E. Flqyd Kvamme

Technology Transfer in Transition

- W. S. Anderson

The Police Information Network of New York State

- R. Nathanson

Spelling and Reading English Phonetically: Gradual Change
Accomplished by Computer, and the "Soundspel" System

- Edward Rondthaler

The Notebook on
COMMON SENSEI ELEMENTARY AND ADVANCED
is devoted to development, exposition, and illustration of what
may be the most important of all fields of knowledge:

WHAT IS GENERAllY TRUE AND IMPORTANT

JUDGEMENT
AND
MATURITY

PURPOSES:
to
to
to
to
to
to
to
to
to

help you avoid pitfalls
prevent mistakes before they happen
display new paths around old obstacles
point out new solutions to old problems
stimulate your resourcefulness
increase your accomplishments
improve your capacities
help you solve problems
give you more tools to think with

8REASONS TO BE INTERESTED IN THE FIELD OF
COMMON SENSE, WISDOM, AND GENERAL SCIENCE

SCIENCE
IN
GENERAL

AVOIDANCE
OF
LOGICAL
FALLACIES

TECHNIQUES
FOR
SOLVING
PROBLEMS

Topic:
THE SYSTEMATIC
PREVENTION OF MISTAKES

Topic:
SYSTEMATIC EXAMINATION
OF GENERAL CONCEPTS

Already Published
Preventing Mista kes from:
Failure to Understand
Forgetting
Unforeseen Hazards
Placidity
Camouflage and Deception
Laxity
Bias and Prejudice
Ignorance

Already Published
The Concept of:
Expert
Rationalizing

To Come
Preventing Mista kes from:
Interpretation
Distraction
Gullibility
Failure to Observe
Failure to Inspect

Feedback
Model
Black Box
Evolution
Niche
Understanding
Idea
Abstraction

To Come
COMPUTERS are important Strategy
But the computer field is over 25 years old. Here is a new
Teachabie lVIoment
field where you can get in on the ground floor to make
Indetermi nacy
your mark.
System
MATHEMATICS is important Operational Definition
But this field is more important than mathematics, because
common sense, wisdom, and general science have more
applications.
. . - - ...•.....•.. (may be copied on any piece of paper) ....................... ,
LOGIC is important To: Berkeley Enterprises, Inc.
But this field is more important than logic, because common,
815 Washington St.: Newtonville: MA 02160
sense plus wisdom plus science in general is much broader
. ( ) Yes, please enter my subscription to The Notebook on Common
than logic.
Sense, Elementary and Advanced at $12 a year (24 issues), plus
WISDOM is important extras. I understand that you always begin at the beginning
This field can be reasonably called "the engineering of
and so I shall not miss any issues.
wisdom".
)
Please
send me as free premiums for subscribing:
COMMON SENSE is important This field includes the systematic study and development of: 1. Right Answers - A Short Guide to Obtaining Them 4. Strategy in Chess
2. The Empty Column
5. The Barrels and the Elephant
common sense.
3. The Golden Trumpets of Yap Yap
6. The Argument of the Beard
SCI ENCE is important ( ) I enclose $
) Please bill my organization
This field includes what is common to all the sciences, what:
RETURNABLE IN 7 DAYS FOR FULL REFUND IF NOT SATISFACTORY
is generally true and important in the sciences.
HOW CAN YOU LOSE?
MISTAKES are costly and to be AVOIDED Name ____________________________ Title _______________
This field includes the systematic study of the prevention of:
mistakes.
MONEY is important The systematic prevention of mistakes in your organization
might save 10 to 20% of its expenses per year.

Organization, ____________________________--'--___________
Address (including zip) __________________________________
Signature _____________________

Purchase Order No. _____

"RIDE THE EAST WIND:

Parables of Yesterday and Today"

by Edmund C. Berkeley, Author and Anthologist
Published by Quadrangle/The New York Times
Book Co., 1974, 224 pp, $6.95

Missile Alarm from Grunelandt

The Fly, the Spider, and the Hornet
Once a Fly, a Spider, and a Hornet were trapped inside a window
screen in an attic. For several hours they walked up and down, left
and right, here and there, all over the screen. They could look through
the screen at the summer woods, feel the summer breezes, and smell
the summer smells; but they could not find any hole to pass through
the screen to the woods and fields so tantalizingly close, yet so far
away.
Finally they decided to hold a conference on the problem of getting through the screen. The Fly spoke first, and said, "My Colleagues, ....

The Fox of Mt. Etna and the Grapes

Once upon a time there were two very large and strong countries called Bazunia and Vossnia. There were many great, important, and powerful leaders of Bazunia who carefully cultivated an
enormous fear of Vossnia. Over and over again these important
and powerful leaders of Bazunia would say to their fellow countrymen, "You can't trust the Vossnians." And in Vossnia there
was a group of great, important, and powerful leaders who pointed
out what dangerous military activities the Bazunians were carrvioo
on, and how Vossnia had to be militarily strong to counteract
them. The Bazunian leaders persuaded their countrymen to vote
to give them enormous sums of money to construct something
called the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System, and one of its
stations was installed in a land called Grunelandt far to the north
of Bazunia.
Now of course ballistic missiles with nuclear explosives can fly
any kind of a path all around a spherical world, and they do not
have to fly over northern regions. But this kind of reasoning had
no influence on the leaders of Bazunia who wanted the money
for building BMEWS. Nor did it have influence on their countrymen, who were always busy" trying to make money - in fact
often too busy to think clearly .•..

52 parables (including fables, anecdotes, allegories)
23 never publ ished before
27 authors
18 full-page illustrations
330 quotations and maxims

Once there was a Fox who lived on the lower slopes of Mt. Etna,
the great volcano in Sicily. These slopes are extremely fertile; the
grapes that grow there may well be the most delicious in the world;
and of all the farmer!\ there, Farmer Mario was probably the best.
And th is Fox longed and longed for some of Farmer Mario's grapes.
But they grew very high on arbors, and all the arbors were inside a
vineyard with high walls, and the Fox had a problem. Of course, the
Fox of Mt. Etna had utterly no use for his famous ancestor, who
leaping for grapes that he could not reach, called them sour, and
went away.

7 Parts: The Condition of Man / On Flattery and
Persuasion / On Perseverance and Resourcefulness /
Behavior - Moral and Otherwise / The Problem
of Truth / On Common Sense / Problem Solving

The Fox decided that what he needed was Engineering Technology. So he went to a retired Engineer who lived on the slopes of
Mt. Etna, because he liked the balmy climate and the view of the
Mediterranean Sea and the excitement of watching his instruments
that measured the degree of sleeping or waking of Mt. Etna. The
Fox put his problem before the Engineer ....

JUDGE FOR YOURSELF AT NO COST

The Fire Squirrels
Scene: Two squirrels, a young one named Quo, and an older one
named era-era, are sitting by a small campfire in a field at the edge
of a wood. Behind them hung on a low branch of a tree are two
squirrel-size hammocks. Over each of the hammocks is a small canopy that can be lowered to keep out biting insects. It is a pleasant
summer evening,' the sun has just recently set, and the stars are coming out: - QuO: Cra-Cra, you know I don't believe the old myths any more.
Tell me again how it really happened.

Cra-Cra: Just this: we received our chance because they dropped
theirs. It is as simple as that.
01,J0: In other words, they were the first animals to use tools,
a nd we are the second?
era-era: Yes. There is a mode of surviving in the world ....

THE VALUE OF THIS BOOK TO YOU
CAN BE VERY GREAT

RETURNABLE IN 10 DAYS FOR FULL REFUND
IF NOT SATISFACTORY
You can read it all in 10 days - and keep it only if
you think it is worth keeping.

HOW CAN YOU LOSE?
- - I
I To:
I

(may be copied on any piece of paper) -

Please send me
copy (ies) of Ride the East Wind:
I enclose $7 .00 ~py (includes handling).

Berkeley Enterprises, Inc.
815 Washington St., S9, Newtonville, MA

Total enclosed _ _ _ __
My name and address are attached.

- - - - - 02160

(Prepayment is necessary)

Vol. 27, No.3
March, 1978
Editor and
Publisher
Assistant to
the Publisher
Assistant
Editors

Neil D. Macdonald
Kathy P. Flanagan
K. Kaufmann

Software
Editor

Stewart B. Nelson

Editorial
Board

Elias Awad
Malcolm H. Gotterer
Theodore C. Willoughby

Contributing
Editors

Grace C. Hertlein
Richard E. Sprague
Edward A. Tomeski

London
Co"espondent

Thomas Land

Advisory
Committee

Ed Burnett
James J. Cryan

The Computer Industry and Challenges
7 The Japanese Economic Challenge: Is There Equity?
by E. Floyd Kvamme, Vice President, National Semiconductor Corp., Santa Clara, Calif.
Japan maintains a protection over Japanese industries
and employees, and conducts international competition
in what is essentially a protectionist pattern. The outlook for U.S. semiconductors and computers is therefore
dim but should be brighter.
10 Technology Transfer in Transition
by W.S. Anderson, Chairman, NCR Corp., Dayton, Ohio
The gap between developed and developing countries
becomes narrower through the process of technology
transfer, including computers, but the problems of
equity that technology transfer brings, before transfer
patterns are cemented by precedence and tradition, require study and solution now.

[A]

Berkeley Enterprises, Inc.
815 Washington St.
Newtonville, MA 02160
(617) 332-5453

The Publisher
Berkeley Enterprises, Inc.
815 Washington St.
Newtonville, MA 02160
(617) 332-5453

"Computers and People," formerly
"Computers and Automation," is published
monthly, 12 issues per year, at 815 Washington St., Newtonville, MA 02160, by Berkeley Enterprises, I nco Printed in U.S.A.
Second Class Postage paid at Boston, MA,
and additional mailing points.
Subscription rates: United States, $11.50
for one year, $22.00 for two years. Canada:
add $1 a year; elsewhere, add $6 a year.
NOTE: The above rates do not include
our publication "The Computer Directory
and Buyers' Guide." If you elect to receive
"The Computer Directory and Buyers'
Guide," please add $12.00 per vear to your
subscription rate in U.S. and Canada, and
$15.00 elsewhere.
NOTE: No organization in Switzerland
or Morocco is authorized or permitted by
us to solicit subscriptions for or receive
payments for "Computers and People" or
"The Computer Directory and Buyers'
Guide." Such subscriptions and payments
should be sent directly to us.
Please address mail to: Berkeley Enterprises, Inc., 815 Washington St., Newtonville, MA 02160.
Postmaster: Please send all forms 3579
to Berkeley Enterprises, Inc., 815 Washington St., Newtonville, MA 02160.
© Copyright 1978, by Berkeley Enterprises, Inc.
Change of address: If your address changes, please send us both your new address
and your old address (as it appears on the
magazine address imprint), and allow three
weeks for the change to be made.

formerly Computers and Automation

Judith P. Callahan

Grace C. Hertlein

Advertising
Contact

and people

Ed mund C. Berkeley

Art Editor

Editorial
Offices

computers

1, 5, 24 Continued Growth for the Computer Industry
[N]
by Gerald G. Probst, President, Sperry Univac, Blue Bell, PA
In 1978 computer shipments are expected to increase by
16 percent; and bubble memory, fibre optics, and voice
input and output are directions for research and development.
26 Suit Alleges Illegal Tie-In Between Banking and Data Processing
by Richard C. Reed, Statistical Tabulating Corp., Chicago, I L
A Chicago bank is alleged to be violating a federal law, by
requiring that computerized services be tied-in with payroll services, causing plaintiff to lose customers and making
it impossible for them to gain nevv ones.

[N]

Computers and English Spelling
19 Spelling and Reading English Phonetically: Gradual Change
[A]
Accomplished by Computer, and the "Soundspel" System
by Edward Rondthaler, Photo-Lettering, Inc., New York, NY
If the English language were spelled phonetically, 20 million
iiiiterate peopie in the U.S. wouid find speiiing and reading
far easier. Phonetically spelled texts could be translated
by computer into regularly spelled texts.

Computer Applications
14 The Police Information Network of New York State
[A]
by R. Nathanson, Racal-Milgo, Inc., Miami, Fla.
A computer terminal in the front seat of a police car? It's
happening now in the state of New York, where a statewide
computer and communications network "is provided for police
and "law enforcement agencies. And it works.

COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for March, 1978

The magazine of the design, applications, and implications of
information processing systems - and the pursuit of truth in
input, output, and processing, for the benefit of people.

Front Cover Picture

The new Sperry Univac International
Executive Centre offers a pleasant
environment for the presentation of
seminars on computers and management. See page 24.

24 Dartmouth Students Can Look for Jobs Via an Interactive
Computer
by Robert P. Graham, Dartmouth College News Service,
Hanover, NH
An interactive computer at Dartmouth provides a centralized source of information for local job seekers; so it
becomes unnecessary for every student to make the rounds
of all the potential employers in the community.

[N]

26 Computerized Laboratory Information System Brings Eight Per
Percent Revenue Increase to Iowa Hospital
by Patricia A. Conway, Control Data Corp., Minneapolis, MN
Two computer systems (one IBM, the other Control Data)
have been combined, and the cost of billing patients has
been markedly reduced.

[N]

101 MAXIMDIJES

[E)

Over 1DO amusing, easy, cryptographic puzzles .... with maxims,
quotations, sayings, etc., as the
answers .... with lists, tables, and a
guide for- solving speedily .... hours
of fun and entertainment for you
and your friends.

Design of Computer-Communication Systems
6 The Value of Timely Information - and Heavy Snowfall
by Edmund C. Berkeley, Editor
It is absurd to design information systems that cannot
handle unusual, heavy demands for access.

For your copy, send $1.80, plus
20 cents for postage and handling,
with your name and address to:

Computers, Games and Puzzles

Berkeley Enterprises, Inc.

27 Games and Puzzles for Nimble Minds - and Computers

[C)

by Neil Macdonald, Assistant Editor
MAXIMDIJ - Guessing a maxim expressed in digits.
NA YMANDIJ - A systematic pattern among randomness?
NUMBLES - Deciphering unknown digits from arithmetical
relations.

NOTICES

815 Washington St.
Newtonville, Mass. 02160

Key

1. The Computer Directory and Buyers' Guide for 1977 will be
entitled the 1977-78 Computer Directory and Buyers' Guide. We
hope and expect that it will be printed in March 1978. We regret
the delay, recently added to by heavy snowfalls in the Boston area.
2. Our subscription entry and renewal operations have been in disorder and disarray during the latter part of 1977. We hope and
expect that the conditions will be corrected and in proper order
by March 1978. If you are a subscriber, and you have failed to
receive any issues that you are entitled to, please let us know at
once what issues you are missing, and we will send them to you
as soon as possible.

E~d...C=.~~
Editor

COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for March, 1978

[A]
[C)

[E)
[EN]
[F)
[N]
[R]

Article
Monthly Column
Editorial
Editorial Note
Forum
Newsletter
Reference

NOTICE
*D ON YOUR ADDRESS IMPRINT
MEANS THAT YOUR SUBSCRIPTION INCLUDES THE COMPUTER
DIRECTORY.
*N MEANS THAT
YOUR PRESENT SUBSCRIPTION
DOES NOT I NCLUDE THE COMPUTER DIRECTORY.

Editorial

The

ValueoF

Timely InFormation
- And Heavy Snowfall

Until February 1978, I do not think that I ever
fully appreciated the value of timely information.
Information, knowledge, often has an exceedingly
great importance. Just as oracles were useful to
the ancients, so our current day oracles are useful
to us.
Two recent experiences have thrust upon me the
prodigious value of timely information. One was an
involuntary stay in and near Chicago's O'Hare Airport which lasted 53 hours on January 19 and 20.
Cause: a big snowfall in Boston. The other experience was an involuntary confinement without motor
car travel in the city of Newton which began on
Tuesday, February 7. At present wri ting (Saturday,
Feb. 11), it has endured five days. Cause: a much
bigger snowfall in the Boston area.
The tribal authorities of this society are making
appropriate tribal noises each day about lifting
"next day" the ban on travel which prevents almost
all workers from going to their place of business
in the morning and returning from it at night. But
the physical indications that I see are that the
Boston metropolitan area is a long, long way from the
kind of free travel that existed up until the middle
of Monday, February 6. At present writing, Otis St.,
where I live, which used to be wide enough for three
cars, is now only wide enough for one car. Also,
apparently all secondary streets in Newton are still
only wide enough for one car, with about four or five
feet high of solid, compacted snow banks on either
side.
Item: On Jan. 20 at about 6 a.m., a big planeload
of passengers due in Boston at 8 a.m. landed in Chicago because the Boston airport was closed. The
airline said "call this number to make further arrangements." After I reached emergency hotel accomodations, the number was busy, busy, busy, busy
more than 20 times and could not be reached. Frustration from lack of information (LOI).

called for permission for emergency travel. But the
number was busy, busy, busy, busy. More frustration
from LOI.
Item: Since the number was continually busy, I
drove, on Feb. 10, to the police station and stood
in line (half an hour's wait). I was refused permission to pick up some medicine at Newton-Wellesley
Hospital and return to my house a mile away. But
the Civil Defense and Red Cross would do it insteadl
So I drove my car back to my house illegally, subject
to a $500 fine and a year in jail. More frustration
from LOI.
Item: From my own observations, it is plain and
clear to me that all the single car lane passages
through the snow in the Boston area must become temporary one way streets, for there are ~either machines
nor money enough to restore them soon to two way
streets. However, there appears to be no recognition
by the tribal authorities that this could quickly
convert a very difficult situation into a much less
difficult one. More frustration, this time not from
LOI but from lack of common sense.
Information systems sometimes become heavily overloaded in crisis situations. A volume of input funnelled into an information system may become more
than ten times what it usually is. This kind of crisis input should be analyzed. A large part of a heavy
overload of input information could be handled by
common sense decisions made beforehand.
For example, instead of giving just a busy signal,
the system could describe to the person calling
how he can receive various kinds of messages, then
he could dial further numbers for furth~r information.
Only a relatively small amount of sensible planning to deal with heavy and unusual overloads would
reduce enormously the frustration coefficient of
customers.

Item: I returned from the hotel to O'Hare Airport.
I stood in line for an hour to find out when Boston
would probably open and on what planes I might go
there. I discovered that I had no standby ranking;
so I had lost four hours of ranking. I also found
that I had no precedence and that I could make no
reservation for flying out until late that night.
More frustration from LOI.
Item: I thought I was staying at "the" Holiday
Inn. I found out that there were over 20 Holiday
Inns in the O'Hare areal and that I did not know
which one was mine -- because the hotel key did not
have the name of the hotel on itl More frustration
from LOI -- so much for only 3 episodes of some dozen
in O'Hare Airport.
Item: In Boston on Feb. 9 I learned of a phone
number in the local police station that could be

COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for March, 1978

Edmund C. Berkeley
Editor

The Japanese Economic Challenge:

Is There Equity?
E. Floyd Kvamme, Vice Pres.

National Semiconductor Corp.
2900 Semiconductor Drive
Santa Clara, CA 95051

"This situation is intolerable to trade partners of Japan because it implies that a Japanese
worker has a larger right to employment than a worker in a competing American plant."

IMBALANCE IN U.S./JAPAN TRADE

Competition

I like competition. I like the semiconductor
business. We're a people business. We're a multinational business. Fundamental to business and competition is understanding the rules. My remarks in
this article will be based upon two premises: first,
that business within each country of the world should
be conducted in accordance with the laws of that
country and that trade between countries should respect those laws; secondly, that in the international
trade arena the developed countries of the world
should, according to expected norms, establish trade
policies which by and large result in balanced trade
with a balanced product mix.

24
22
~ 20

:3..J

g 16
~
~

iii

--------------~~
U.S. EXPORTS TO JAPAN

Imbalance

When one considers U.S.-Japanese trade for the
past decade, however, balanced trade has not existed.
Figure 1 shows the imbalance in U.S.-Japanese trade
during the years 1974 through 1977, with the 1977
total being estimated at an $8 billion deficit. It
further goes on to show the currently forecasted imbalance in 1978 at approaching $10 billion. These
data alone, however, do not show the entire picture
in trade between the two countries. If we look at
the imports from industrialized countries into three
specific countries, the U.S., West Germany and Japan,
we see that Japan imports only 20% of their total
imports from industrialized countries. The United
States, on the other hand, imports 53% of its imports
from industrialized countries and West Germany's
industrialized imports are 66% of their total. Thus,
the pri~ary imports of Japan, which are expected to
roll up a- positive trade balance of $17 billion this
year, are in fact raw material or agricultural products. When one examines Japanese imports from the
U.S., only two items among the top ten could be considered manufactured goods; U.S. imports from Japan,
however, are overwhelmingly manufactured goods.
There is, therefore, a trade imbalance not only in
raw dollars but also from the standpoint of raw
material versus finished manufactured goods. In the
course of this discussion, I will utilize a number of
quotations from various Japanese individuals to demonstrate their views on the matters being discussed
Based on a talk at the Semiconductor Equipment and Materials Institute,
Palo Alto, Calif., December 1977.

Figure 1

here, and then comment on them from my point of
view.
A Planned Economy

First, what is the root of the basic problem?
The Japanese will argue that their economy is "not
a planned economy." /1/ Comparing Japan with the
United States would certainly lead one to refute
this contention. The Japanese government has:
1) Protected the Japanese internal market
from penetration by U.S. firms;
2) Provided direct financial assistance to Japanese firms;
3) Organized research and development on a joint
industry and government basis;
4) Given liberal tax concesEions for export trade;
5) Concentrated its attention and resources on
specific programs such as the electronic
data processing markets and the semiconcuctor portion of that market (VLSI Pro.
gram); and
6) Has consistently and vigorously promoted the
domestic and international commercial
interests of Japan.

COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for March, 1978

To illustrate these actions of the Japanese
government I will use four specific examples. One
example would be the situation that surrounded the
inquiries by the International Trade Commission (ITC)
when examining the American television market. The
ITC received a response from the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) in Japan, which
contained as part of their response to ITC questioning the following two paragraphs:
Thus, MITI directed Japanese television manuincluding the present Japanese defendants, to enter into an agreement under article
5.3 of the export and import trading law with
respect to minimum prices and other matters concerning domestic transactions relating to e~ports
to the United States, and further directed the
exporters to establish a new regulation to be
observed by the members of the Export Association
with respect to filing of export prices and other
related matters pursuant to the association's
functions under Article 11, Subparagraph 2 of the
same law regarding the same exports.
facturer~,

Had the Japanese television manufacturers and
exporters failed to comply with MITI's direction
to establish such an agreement or regulation,
MITI would have invoked its powers provided for
in the export trade control order under the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Control law in
order to unilaterally control television sales
for export to the United States and carry out
its established trade policies.
The control of the Japanese export situation evidenced
in that response is much more dramatic than seen in
this country. Implications of the response include
price setting and market share determination for products sold in the United States.
Testimony of Zenith Corp.

Clearly, U.S. laws, and not MITI, should control
agreements of this type. The situation surrounding
this MITI involvement in trade relative to television
sets from the mid-60s on through 1977 is contained
in the testimony of Mr. John J. Nevin, President of
Zenith Corporation, before the International Trade
Commission. During those presentations, Mr. Nevin
made it clear that if that same agreement had been
signed by American manufacturers, there would have
been criminal anti-trust prosecution against them.
A second example would be the telecommunications
market within the United States and Jap~n. The
telecommunications market is an excellent example
of a case where Japan has arranged to protect its
internal market from penetration by U.S. firms.
Japanese telecommunications manufacturers have been
very active in the U.S. market for many years. Central office equipment for control of telephone systems utilizing Japanese equipment have been installed
by a number of the American telephone companies, including Southern New England Telephone, South Western
Bell, Michigan/Ohio Bell, and Central Telephone Company. In addition, the Japanese have installed
numerous PBX systems throughout the U.S. that utilize
Japanese manufactured equipment.
Japanese Protection

Telephone Administration (NTT). The Japanese have
effectively shielded their internal market from
access by American suppliers. This is a very key
point to semiconductor suppliers since the telephone
industry represents a major opportunity for the
application of advanced semiconductor technology.
Telecommunications requirements are, in fact, much
more at the cutting edge of our industry than are
the requirements for most defense projects.
A third example of Japanese protection of their
internal industry would include their handling of
patent matters. In Japan, an opposition procedure
exists within the patent office. Under this procedure, applicatioQs believed allowable by a patent
examiner are published, opposition and third parties
may then oppose the grant of a patent. It is common
practice for Japanese companies to oppose patent
applications filed by U.S. companies.
In the United States, however, the patent laws
are much more liberal. As a matter of fact, the
U.S. recently further liberalized their law by
entering into a new patent cooperation treaty with
Britain, West Germany, Switzerland and several
countries in Africa. The treaty provides for a
single international patent application to be filed:
ideas filed under this procedure would be protected
in the dozen or so countries that are participants
in the treaty. Japan is notable by its absence in
this type of agreement. This illustrates the openness of patent protection in the United States and
the much more difficult relative situation within
Japan.
Lifetime Employment

Lastly, the Japanese are very proud of their
practice of lifetime employment for all personnel
who are hired by Japanese companies. Indeed, this
is a very admirable trait of their business posture.
In a recent appearance before the National Press
Club of Japan, however, the Vice Minister for International Finance, in a lengthy statement regarding
the trade policies of Japan and his reasons for substantial control of the exchange rate of the yen,
explained that "With this much black ink, the exchange rate goes up and, from a foreigner's viewpoint, this should cause the emergence of some industries that can't make ends meet by exporting,
leading to such companies withdrawing from exports
and gradually creating a balance in a nation's
international payments. That is what the textbooks
teach."
"But with Japanese practices of lifetime employment, it's not that easy to fire workers and shut
down plants. Here, flexibility is limited." /2/
"Japan, Incorporated"

He goes on to explain that in the Japanese situation, production continues and export markets are
sought for the product. The natural extension to
these comments is that products are in fact dumped
on foreign markets to absorb the effects of this
lifetime employment policy. This situation is
clearly intolerable to trade partners of Japan because it implies that a Japanese worker has a larger
right to employmetit than a worker in a competing
American plant.

In Japan, however, only Japanese-made components
can be used in the equipment used by the Japanese

COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for March, 1978

Thus, considerable evidence exists that the
Japanese economy is very much in the control of the
Japanese government. Actually, the term "Japan,
Incorporated" is a very appropriate way of viewing
that economy.
Outlook for Computer and Semiconductor Industries

Moving now from the discussion of the basic problem, I would like to discuss the outlook for the
electronics industry in general and the computer and
semiconductor industries in particluar, relative to
the Japanese.
It is important for all of us to recognize (as
two members of the Japanese computer industry recently pointed out in the "IEEE Spectrum") that "the
Japanese government considers computers strategic
national products, and so has guided manufacturers
into avenues of research and development designed
to meet the needs of the Japanese economy in both
the domestic and export markets." /3/ In the same
issue of "IEEE Spectrum" persons involved with the
semiconductor industry pointed out that "a key element in the growth of Japanese semiconductor technology is the close cooperation among industry, the
academic world, and the government." /4/ It is
common enough to discuss the role of MITI in the
establishment of the VLSI program in Japan, but it
must not be forgotten that nu~erous sources of
government aid exist there. These are: (1) MITI;
(2) NTT, the previously mentioned telephone administration which is heavily responsible for the current
position of Japanese manufacturers in memory components; (3) the Ministry of Education, Research
and Culture; and (4) the Japanese Technologies Agency. Specifically, the VLSI program is a concerted
effort to establish the Japanese electronic data
processing industry at the forefront of computer
capability in the 1980s.
Objective: Worldwide Computer Dominance

From available reports, it is'clear that the objective is worldwide EDP dominance. Support in the
hundreds of millions of dollars, with most recent
figures at $350-400 million for the semiconductor
portion of the program, has been committed to a combine of the largest computer and semiconductor companies in Japan. NTT, with its internally protected
market, is part of the combine.
It is important for us to recognize that this
program is only now being launched; it has not yet
succeeded. American technology is fully capable
of reaching or surpassing the objectives laid down
for VLSI, but we fund research and development with
internally-generated profits. Our profi ts need to
be achieved from open competition in a free and
equitable international marketplace. If we support
a continuation of trade imbalance, government subsidy, and acknowledged "dumping" as national policy
in Japan, then we will be hard pressed to continue
the level of investment required to insure that
semiconductor technology so critical to a wide ran~e
of American industries (EDP, telecommunications,
automotive control, not to mention defense) is available.
Free Trade, Not Quotas, Not Barriers

What then, are some of the solutions to the overall problem of balanced trade between our countries?

We seek this objective. We in the semiconductor
industry, and at National Semiconductor specifically,
are not interested in trade quotas; we are not interested in added trade barriers; we are advocates
of free trade. We believe that trade barriers of
all types, whether tariff or nontariff barriers,
should be eliminated. We believe that balanced trade
should occur between developed countries of the
world. And, we believe that international trade
should be based on equitable treatment for all competitors in a given market.
More Exports or Less Imports

There are really only two alternatives that have
any merit: the United States could increase its
exports into Japan, or, secondly, it could limit its
imports from Japan. In March of this'past year, the
solution proposed by Prime Minister Fukuda was that
Japan would in fact take an active role in increasing the level of its imports. However, subsequent
to that time, MITI has stated that the Japanese
economy is not currently strong enough to absorb
more imports. Thus, the commitment which was made
by the Prime Minister has not been carried out.
Figure 1 certainly shows that the Japanese purchase.s of American goods has stagnated. A major trading company official argues that "Japanese people
are uncertain about the future; they are willing to
deposit their money, but not to spend it." /5/
Another trading company official argues that "the
best way to narrow Japan's favorable trade balance
with the United States is to have Japan step up its
direct investment here [in the U.S.J." /6/ This
would not necessarily be in the best interests of
the U.S. economy. Testimony before the ITC showed
that in the Matsushita acquisition of Motorola's
television assets in 1974, in spite of its pledge to
protect the jobs of the Motorola employees, 4,300 of
the 6,700 people employed by Motorola had been laid
off by the end of 1976.
Only Available Solution: Cut Back on Imports

Thus, it appears that the only available solution
is to cut back on the level of imports from Japanese
sources. U.S. industry must be the prime mover in
any such action in that ultimately they are the purchasers of a large amount of the imported product.
The accomplishment of a reduction in import purchases
can only come through intelligent self-restraint on
the part of executives throughout industry as they
weigh the arguments related to the inequities which
result from a distorted balance of trade over an
extended period of time. I would propose that "zero
based purchasing" be applied to requirements where
the vendor is Japanese. We are not proposing to
reduce our imports to zero; we are proposing that
they must be cut to half the level that they are at
today in order to provide for balanced trade in the
absence of increased U.S. exports to Japan.
Swift Action

Furthermore, the U.S. government, I believe, must
act swiftly in resolving this trade imbalance issue.
I think a number of steps are open to the government.
First, I believe that the establishment of a cabinetlevel trade position (called, perhaps, the Secretary
of Trade) is vital to the future interests of the
United States. The Japanese have been very successful in coordinating their trade policy through the
(Please turn to page 17)

COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for March, 1978

Technology Transfer

•

Transition

W.S. Anderson, Chairman
NCR Corporation
1700 S. Patterson Blvd.
Dayton, OH 45479

"Many Third World countries tend to look upon technology transfer as simply a new, more subtle
form of colonia/ism. "

Technology Transfer

Technology transfer is truly in a time of transition. It is a transition which has far-reaching
repercussions, not only in terms of national security
but for American business and especially for the
industries represented at this conference.
I bring to these discussions no quick and easy
answers to the difficult political and economic
questions which technology transfer poses. Indeed,
in this subject, we face problems of almost infinite
complexity. But they are problems we cannot afford
to ignore.
From West to East: From Developed to Developing

As you know, there are two major areas of technology transfer that are foremost in the news today.
These are technology transfer from the West to the
East, to use the geographic distinction, and technology transfer from developed nations to developing
nations.
I should like to concentrate on those two areas
rather than the third category of West to West technology transfer, because I believe they present the
most immediate and most critical challenges -- both
to government and to business. Let's look first at
a few of the economic reasons that have made technology transfer such an important issue.

u.s.

Trade Deficit

international trade grew more than 10 percent. Last
year's growth will be only about half that rate, and
a further reduction is anticipated for 1978.

u.s.

Exports

Not too many years ago, exports accounted for only
about 5 percent of this country's Gross National
Product. Foreign trade was not all that important
to the United States. Today, however, exports represent almost 10 percent of all this country's goods
and services, and they provide jobs for some 8 million Americans.
Despite that growth in exports, this country's
competitive position in the international marketplace
has seriously eroded. In 1958, for example, the
United States' share of the world's manufactured exports was 28 percent. Today that share has shrunk
to 20 percent. In fact, according to a recent study
by the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, manufacturing output in the Western nations as a whole
has been virtually flat since 1973. In contrast,
manufacturing output in developing countries has been
growing at 6 percent a year during the same period.

u.s.

Decline in Research and Development

Meanwhile, the percentage of U.S. Gross National
Product devoted to research and development has
steadily declined to the point where, in many industries, the technology of other Western nations equals,
or exceeds, our own technology.

The United States will report this year a staggering trade deficit of almost $30 billion, and the
outlook for next year is even bleaker. Meanwhile,
unemployment in the U.S. remains stubbornly high at
almost 7 percent. In view of these developments, I
think we all would agree that America needs to expand its foreign trade rather than restrict it. And
in tOday's technological world, expansion of foreign
trade inevitably means an increase in technology
transfer.

These are disturbing developments. They suggest
that we face not only the problem of achieving more
intelligent control of the transfer of our technology,
but also the problem of stimulating the further
growth of that technology.

Yet, the fact that the world trading system is in
trouble cannot be disputed. Last year the volume of

The Department of Defense has pointed out the
promotion of international trade and the protection
of national security are not always reconcilable objectives, and that the United States must safeguard

Based on a talk before the Conference on Technology Transfer in Transition, Washington, D.C., Dec. 1977.

I have touched on a few of the economic incentives
to develop a comprehensive national policy that fosters the export of products and technology. But what
about the risks of such a policy?

COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for March, 1978

its current technological edge in certain key areas
which have potential military applications.
"The Rope Which Will Hang Capitalism"

I strongly endorse this position, and I'm sure
all of you endorse it as well. We live in a divided
and dangerous world -- a world in which technology
has become the cornerstone of national security.
And contrary to Lenin's prediction, we do not advocate supplying the rope with which capitalism will
eventually be hanged.
Our dilemm q , therefore, is not disagreement with
the principle of controlling the transfer of critical
technology, but rather a lack of consensus as to
what should be controlled, and the absence of a consistent ~ational policy on how that control can best
be achieved.
What is technology transfer? Is it primarily a
transfer of the ability to develop and manufacture
an industrial or military product? Or is technology
transferred, in effect, when that product is sold
to another country?
Guidance for the Department of Defense,
from the Bucy Report
A~cording to the Bucy Report, which was prepared
for the guidance of the Department of Defense, products are simply the end result of technology. What
really counts is the transfer of the know-how to
design and manufacture those products. Based on
that conclusion, the Bucy Report urged that control
of technology transfer should therefore focus on
proprietary technologies rather than the export of
end products. Specifically cited were such areas
as co-development and co-manufacturing agreements,
the sale or licensing of manufacturing or technical
data, the training of personnel, and the sale of
turnkey manufacturing plants.

In fact, the Bucy Report points out that the
sale of U.S. products, in contrast with the sale of
technology per se, tends to produce long-term national benefits. The reason is that product sales generate profits, which in turn provide funds for increased research and development, thus helping to
preserve technological leadership.
Unfortunately, the question of technology transfer
from the West to the East is complicated by the fact
that no single nation has a monopoly on research
and development capabilities. If the United States
doesn't supply a given technology, some other country probably will.
Western Europe and Japanese Technology

We have all seen evidence of this, as Western
Europe and Japan have made strong and successful
invasions into world markets previously dominated
by the United States. And these aggressive international competitors have proved not only that they
can match U.S. technology, but that they can successfully market the products of that technology as well.
Since we cannot expect to bottle up a given technology for any extended period of time, should we
therefore exploit that technology to the limit even
though it may come back to haunt us? It is a difficult question and obviously one for which there is
no universal answer.

The Regulatory Maze

Currently the United States has the most stringent controls over the export of high-technology
products of any Western country. Yet, lack of standard criteria and a jungle of conflicting interpretations make it extremely difficult for U.S.
industry to assume a responsible position in the
transfer of technology to Eastern countries.
The regulatory maze is at times ludicrous. It
is not surprising, for example, that the Office of
Munitions Control requires a special permit for the
export of cryptographic devices. What is surprising
is that the regulations for such exports do not
differentiate nonmilitary cryptographic devices from
those that have military implications. As a result,
our industry cannot export automated bank teller
machines containing data encryptors without first
obtaining a munitions license. The fact that the
National Security Agency has determined that this
type of product is totally "benign," to use their
own term, makes no difference. The drawn-out licensing procedure must nevertheless be followed.
I cite this example not as a criticism but as an
indication that it is time to clearly define the
rules governing West-East technology transfer, to
apply those rules consistently, and to modify them
when and if circumstances change.
100 Critical Technologies

There are encouraging signs that the government
is beginning to move in that direction. Currently
under review by the Department of Defense are more
than 100 so-called critical technologies, to determine which of those technologies should be more
closely controlled. Meanwhile, the Department of
Commerce's Office of U.S. Export Control is studying, on a country-by-country basis, both the risks
and benefits of technology transfer. The Department
of State is currently preparing for the next round
of negotiation of the Coordinating Committee on EastWest Trade (CoCom), which, as you know, was established to control technology transfers by NATO countries and also Japan to potential adversaries. And
in Congress, the House Subcommittee on International
Policy and Trade is holding hearings on the present
export licensing process.
Based On these and other inputs, the National
Security Council is preparing recommendations for
the President which hopefully will clarify this country's posture on many aspects of technology transfer.
Order out of Disorder

These efforts by both the executive and legislative branches to bring some semblance of order out
of the present disorder merit the support and cooperation of private industry. But at the same time,
many of us are apprehensive. We have a nagging fear
that what will finally emerge from these somewhat
overlapping efforts will be over-regulation of technology transfer. If that happens, there is always
the possibility that in curing the disease, the
doctor will have killed the patient.
If, for example, the Departme~t of Defense interim
policy of requiring the licensing of critical technology transfer to any country prevails, the United
States' competitive position in key world markets
will be seriously jeopardized.

COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for March, 1978

Questions Without Existing Answers

In addition, such a course would raise other serious questions for which, to my knowledge, no answers
presently exist. As only one example, suppose an
overseas subsidiary of a U.S. company develops a socalled critic~l technology which it proposes to export. In such as case, would that technology be
subject to U.S. licensing requirements?
One must also question whether the subsidiaries
of U.S. multinationals can, over the long run, remain viable competitors with local companies if their
U.S. parent is not allowed to transfer its technology
to its subsidiary operations.
Certainly everyone concerned with the technology
transfer process -- and that includes government as
well as business -- needs a clearer idea of whether
critical technologies developed for commercial products have contributed, or could contribute, to the
military potential of a possible adversary. To date
we have seen little evidence that they have. In
fact, one could argue that no country can afford to
build its military capability around dependence on
foreign technology. If there is evidence to the
contrary; I am sure that industry would be zealous
in policing its own transfer processes.

becomes minimal, the nation will pay a high price
for that regulation. Many industries will substantially reduce both their overseas investments and
their investment in research and development, with
a resultant adverse impact on future technological
development. And in the long run, that could be
counterproductive to national security.
Finally, I wonder if our concept of national
security is broad enough. Should it not extend well
beyond military capability and the control of critical technology transfer? What about our national
policy as it pertains to investment and thus to the
long-term strength of our economy? I have already
mentioned the declining percentage of GNP currently
going into research and development efforts. Concurrently, this country's industrial plant continues
to age. The result is that we are lagging behind
our international competitors,in several key industries, in terms of efficiency and annual productivity
improvement.
The United States clearly needs to encourage
greater investment in research and development and
the replacement of obsolescent plant and equipment.
It needs to stimulate the investment of more venture
capital -- the kinds of investment which in the
1960s led to the development of much of the exotic
technology used in today's military systems.

Export of Obsolete Technologies?

The Department of Defense has stated that insofar
as West-East transfer is concerned, the fact that a
given technology is obsolete by U.S. standards is
beside the pOint. What matters is whether it would
significantly advance the receiving country's military potential. But is the issue really that simple,
in view of the pace of today's technological advances?
Obviously, the determination of·what constitutes
critical technology is a crucial and still only partially answered question. The current listing, for
example, includes technologies pertaining to memory,
distributed data base systems, large-scale integrated
circuits and plasma displays. In view of the widespread capabilities in these areas of teChnology, it
is doubtful that their export by American companies
would provide a competitive edge to potential adversary countries.
The Department of Defense aCknowledges that it is
dealing with a moving target, and says it will continuously update the list of critical technologies
and/or end products whose export will require licensing in order to protect national security. This is
a commendable goal but one that is more easily stated
than achieved, especially in the absence of hard
evidence that a given technology is or is not being
utilized for military purposes. And of course that
kind of hard evidence is difficult to obtain due to
the fact that most military developments are shrouded
in secrecy.
What Helps and What Hinders National Security?

As new guidelines for West-East technology transfer are developed, One hopes the developers will remember that this country's current technological edge
in many industries is due in large measure to the
fact that ours is still a relatively free and open
economy. If additional controls restrict international sales to the point where return on investment

I have touched on only a few aspects of the problem of technology transfer from West to East. But
I think it is apparent that the issues raised by that
problem cannot be resolved by simplistic slogans, or
by the unilateral actions of government alone. Additional government-industry interchange is mandatory
if the best interests of the United States and its
people are to be served.
Technology Transfer from
Developed to Developing Nations

All nations agree on at least one point: Capital
and technology are the primary ingredients for economic growth and improved living standards. But,
unfortunately, both capital and technology are in
short supply in most of the world's developing countries. The capital needs of these countries are
universally recognized. Progress in meeting those
needs has been slow, but progress is being achieved.
Can we say the same about their acquisition of needed
technology?
I doubt it. Even as developing countries strive
to acquire more technology, the technically advanced
countries grow increasingly apprehensive of sharing
their industrial and scientific knowledge.
The Know-How "Monopoly" of Western Nations

The reasons for this approaching impasse are not
obscure. Many developing countries, for example,
believe that the current process of technology transfer tends to perpetuate the know-how "monopoly" of
Western industrial nations.
Poorer nations also fear they are paying too high
a price to acquire technology, thereby worsening
their already critical balance-of-payments problems.
And finally. they feel they are at the mercy of developed countries because their lack of technical expertise precludes negotiating fair and equitable agreements involving technology transfer.

COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for March, 1978

Thus, many Third World countries tend to look
upon technology transfer as simply a new, more subtle
form of colonialism.

how to create a massive highway system is of Ii ttle
use in a country with virtually no motor vehicles.
Interdependence

In a growing number of cases this is prompting
legislation which seeks to regulate technology transfer by brute force. Restrictions on licensing payments, the duration of agreements, and the supplier's
proprietary rights are typical of such legislation.
Frequently, governments cancel at will agreements
previously entered into in good faith by both parties. And at the international level, various "codes
of conduct" are being advanced as cure-aIls for the
developing countries' technological gap.
That's one side of the picture. But consider the
almost diametrically opposed viewpoints of technology
suppliers:
For the most part, these are privately owned companies which, rather than enjoying a monopoly, operate in fiercely competitive markets. They understandably worry about the boomerang effect of sharing
expertise they have acquired at heavy expense. This
same concern is shared by their governments, which
feel that accelerated technology transfer will seriously impact employment levels and tax revenues.
In addition, technology suppliers and their governments question whether hard-pressed developing
countries understand that reward for innovation is
the mainspring of any free-market economy, and that
any weakening of such rewards saps the economic
vitality of both the supplier company and country.
The controversial facets of technology transfer
are further complicated by widespread misunderstandings.
Many developing countries view technology transfer
as a business in itself. But is it? Multinational
corporations that develop and manufacture products
abroad, thereby transferring technology, do so to
compete in markets they cannot effectively cover
through exports. Technology transfer is thus subordinate and largely incidental to their basic business
objectives.
Also, business management does not own the technology for which developing nations are clamorLng.
It belongs to shareholders, who feel no compulsion
to scatter that technology around the world and who
expect a reasonable return on the investment they
have made on its development.
How Does New Technology Take Root?

An additional question posed by technology suppliers is whether the expertise being sought by many
developing countries can actually take root and produce the economic fruits that are envisioned. Does
a country in an early stage of industrial development have the trained people, and the necessary technical infrastructure, to produce the most powerful
computers, the fastest aircraft, the most efficient
atomic power plants! and the newest miracle drugs?
Assuming such latent capability exists. does it
make economic sense for them to do so? Where will
the markets to provide the essential economies of
scale come from?
And can the sought-after technology actually make
a meaningful contribution? The machinery and know-

Unfortunately, in many developing countries there
is only a fuzzy definition of national objectives
and widely differing opinions regarding the types
of technology most urgently required. A major objective of almost every country, for example, is
economic self-sufficiency. But what country is
self-sufficient? Even the United States, which is
generally regarded as the world's richest and most
technologically advanced country, is heavily dependent on other nations.
Perhaps the most difficult aspect of the problem
is that many fields of technology today are changing
at a fantastic pace. A generation ago the blueprints, tools, and know-how for the production of
a small business machine could be readily transferred to almost any country. That technology was
then usable for 10 to 15 years. This is no longer
true. Today, the technology of the business equipment industry is moving so rapidly that by the time
a small computer system could.be put into production
in some countries it would already be Obsolete.
New Levels of Understanding

Can the gap between the world's potential technology suppliers ever be narrowed, I believe it
must be, not only for obvious humanitarian reasons
but because the economic and political future of
much of the world hangs in the balance. If this is
to be accomplished, new levels of understanding will
be required on the part of both suppliers and potential users. As a first step, developed countries
must face up to the need for developing nations to
improve their living standards, through more productive employment and other benefits of industrialization.
Developed countries, which have so successfully
marketed their products and services worldwide, also
face a new kind of selling challenge. It is to ~on
vince the developing countries that there are valid
reasons for a supplier to maintain reasonable control
over the transfer of his technology and for receiving
fair compensation for its use. In addition, countries and companies with exportable know-how must
recognize that it cannot long be hoarded. A technological advance provides the innovator with only
a temporary competitive edge. Thus, if a developing country cannot get the technology it wants from
one source, it can eventually get it from another.
The "Forcing" of Technology Transfer

It is a paradox that most technologically advanced
countries, including the United States, lack overall
national policies on technology transfer to developing countries. Yet no reasonable government or company questions the necessity for developing nations
to achieve economic progress, or the vital role of
technology in that evolutionary process.
And what about the developing countries? Too
often they assume that their intense desire and obvious need for technology justify "forcing" its
transfer. But in almost every case such measures
are self-defeating. Mounting local government intervention in the transfer process only makes delivery

COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for March, 1978

(please turn to page 18)
13

The Police Information Network
of New York State
R. Natnanson
Racal-Milgo, Inc.
8600 N. W. 41st St.
Miami, FL 33166

"The significance of this inquiry system is that response time,
the length of time it takes the computer to process the user's
inquiry, is less than 5 seconds ... and usually only 1 or 2 seconds. "

Chronology

The need for rapid teletype communications and
retrieval of stored information became a necessity
for the New York State Police in 1964. At that
time, a study of the manually operated message
switching system indicated that operational delays
and mechanical inadequacies existed which could only
be remedied through the use of a computer-oriented
system. A request for such a computer system was
made to the New York State Division of the Budget.
After approval was granted, specifications for a
computer system were published in June, 1965.
In September of 1965 an award was made to the
UNIVAC Corporation and early the next year a UNIVAC
418-11 Computer System was installed. The use of
this system was a breakthrough in New York State's
data processing history, because it was the first
successful operational real-time system installed
in a New York State agency.
In February, 1968 an extensive survey was begun
by the Division of State Police in cooperation with
the Division of the Budget concerning the the functioning of the computer system. As a result of the
Budget Management Unit study, it became evident that
the success of the New York State Police Computerized Communications System had resulted in overloading it beyond its effective capabilities and required functions.
In the best interest of the State and of Law Enforcement in the State, specifications were released,
with Division of Budget approval, for a flexible
third generation computer in January, 1970. Computer manufacturers were asked to present proposals
for a system scheduled for installation by April.
1971. In May, 1970. the RCA Corporation was selected as the successful vendor and early the following year an RCA Spectra 70/60 third generation
computer system was installed in the New York State
Police Headquarters in Albany.
System Description

The New York Statewide Police Information Network (NYSPIN) provides the State of New York with
Based on a report, "New York Statewide Police Information Network,"
prepared by the New York State Pol ice, 1977.

a functional statewide law enforcement communications
network comprised of many sub-systems. This permits
the New York State Police to fulfill its obligations
under Section 217 of the Executive Law.
NYSPIN serves over 396 on-line terminals (with an
estimated addition of 200 more terminals by Fall of
1978) in addition to four existing county systems
having 187 terminals.
These include:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)

State and Municipal agencies throughout
the State.
Criminal Justice agencies
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
National Auto Theft Bureau (NATB)
Federal Bureau of Narcotics
Federal Bureau of Customs

In addition to the terminals mentioned above.
NYSPIN is computer-to-computer interfaced with the:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)

National Crime Information Center (NCIC)
in Washington, D.C.
National Law Enforcement Telecommunications
System (NLETS) in Phoenix, Arizona
Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) in Albany, N.Y.
Division of Criminal Justice Services
(DCJS) in Albany. N.Y.
New York City Police Department
Erie County Central Police Services

The NYSPIN Computer Center is equipped with the
following series 70/6 hardware:
2
2
5
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
1

X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X

COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for March, 1978

70/6 CPU
4 Selector Channels
262k Memory (Switchable)
8097-020 Console
70/234 Card Punch
70/237 Card Reader
70/242-30 Printer
70/243-31 Printer
70/310-23S/l Switch
70/310-27S/1 Switch
70/432-2 Dual 30KB Tape
8442-002 Dual 60KB Tape
70/473-208 Tape Controller

8
4
5
66
22

X
X
X
X
X

DASS 8440 (800 Mega Bytes)
5521 M/C Switch
70/668 CCM
70/720-21 Buffers
70/721 Buffers

header. The header is minimal in size and consists
of set character fields which distinguish addresses
and functions to be performed. The Message-Switching program examines the message header, validates
it, and determines the correct routing for the message.

NYSPI N Sub-Systems
Inquiry System: 2 Seconds

NYSPIN combines capability, versatility and flexibility, virtues which are not usually found in a
message-switching system of this complexity and size.
For example, it gives users guaranteed message delivery. Upon acceptance of a correctly coded message, the system shoulders complete responsibility
for the proper transmission of the message. Every
message is assigned a number that will allow retransmission in cases of garbled output or suspected
message loss.

The Inquiry System controls terminal inquiries
made by the NYSPIN user into the computer data
base. The significance of this system is that response time, the length of time it takes the computer to process the users inquiry, is less than
five seconds. In fact, users inquiries generally
are processed in 1 to 2 seconds!

From a functional viewpoint, the NYSPIN system
may be considered as consisting of two sub-systems;
the Message-Switching and the Inquiry systems. This
distinction is made because the Inquiry System normally handles only certain designated types of messages and has response times different from the
Message-Switching System.

For example, a police agency may inquire into
the computer concerning a suspected stolen vehicle.
Once received, the computer checks the vehicle in
question through its stolen car file or its license
plate file. These files presently contain over
200,000 wanted vehicles and lost or stolen registration plates. In less than five seconds the
computer checks this entire file and sends a reply
to the original inquirer.

The sub-systems provide NYSPIN users with the
capebility of directing intrastate messages, utilizing its data base, initiating broadcast messages
and communicating with other linked computer systems.
A station can send direct, point-to-point messages
to any other terminal in the system and can also
access the NYSPIN, NCIC, DCJS nad DMV systems. A
user may inquire of the system for a record and
within seconds receive a response. In addition,
updating the data base files is performed directly
from the terminal.

The backbone of the Inquiry System is the NYSPIN
Data Base. This is the computer's files. In addition to querying these files, users, through interfacing with other computer systems, are able to
access the files of other state and national agencies. Additionally, the inquiries are assigned
priorities according to the type of inquiry. This
insures that more serious inquiries are processed
first. For example, an inquiry concerning a wanted
person would be processed before an inquiry concerning suspected stolen securities.

The NYSPIN System

Data Base File Sets

From the central computer in Albany, messages
are received, switched, and files accessed and updated. Messages destined for out-of-state are
switched to the NLETS computer center in Arizona.
Inqui ries are made to the files of DCJS, DMV and
NCIC as well as NYSPIN. In addition to a complete
system monitor at the central computer center, control points throughout the state monitor a given
area to combat communications problems.

The following types of information are stored as
file sets within the NYSPIN data base. A user may
access any of these file sets through the Inquiry
System:
1.

Message Switching System

The computerized Message-Switching System provides for continuous monitoring of the terminals
in the system. This provides a means for determining if a terminal may send or receive a message.
3.

The system is used by any of the over 280 subscribing agencies to transmit and receive normal
point-to-point messages. Terminal users have the
additional capability of transmitting to a large
number of terminals simultaneously through the use
of group codes. When a message is transmitted by
a terminal, this system receives the message,
examines it, and stores it until the proper function
associated with the message can be performed. This
entire process is accomplished in a matter of microsecond s.
When generating a message, terminal operators
follow certain format requirements. Specifically,
the text of a message is preceded by the NYSPIN

4.
5.

Vehicle File:
a. Unrecovered stolen vehicles, vin-plates,
aircraft, snowmobiles and dune buggies.
b. Unrecovered stolen major automobile
components.
License File:
a. Unrecovered stolen or missing license
plates.
b. License plate numbers of vehicles wanted
in conjunction with felonies or licensed
through the use of fraudulent papers.
Gun File:
a. Lost or stolen serially-numbered weapons.
b. Weapons recovered for which no lost or
stolen report is on file.
Article File:
a. Indi vidual serially-numbered stolen
property items.
Securities File:
a. Stolen, embezzled, counterfeited or
missing serially-numbered identifiable
securities. Also included are warehouse receipts y travelers checks and
money orders.
Boat File:
a. Unrecovered stolen boats providing the
vessel is registered or documented and
there is a permanent identifying serial
number affixed.

COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for March, 1978

Interfacing Data B~se

The NYSPIN user not only has access to the NYSPIN
Data Base, but as previously noted, he also has access to other computer data bases through interfacing
with other computer systems.
Each computer system has distinct interplay requirements, buffer capacities, hardware interface
constraints, inquiry processing time frames and format considerations. For example, a police agency
checking a stolen firearm would automatically have
its teletype inquiry routed to the NCIC data base
in Washington. This, in effect, makes the NYSPIN
system national in scope. The following systems
are interfaced with NYSPIN:
National Crime Information Center (NClC): This
is an inquiry/response system containing national
files on stolen firearms and property, stolen
vehicles,wanted persons, missing persons and crimina 1 hi story.
Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV): This inquiry/
response system consists of extensive files on
all vehicle registrations and driver licenses for
the state of New York.
Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS):
This is an inquiry/response system containing files
on criminal history.
National Law Enforcement Telecommunications System (NLETS): This is a message switching and inquiry/
response system allowing DMV checks and message dissemination on a national basis.
Mobile Digital Application

NYSPIN became the first state law enforcement
agency in the nation to provide a digital communications link between a mobile terminal and a base station data file. The mobile terminal in use, mounted
in the front seat of a troop car, consists of a typewriter-like keyboard with a visual display screen,
similar to a TV screen, and a printout unit.

data in a common effort to improve the effectiveness
of law enforcement in New York State. It has been
established that readily available information, used
as an extension of the law enforcement officer's
individual resources, is a highly effective aid in
combating mobile criminal elements. It is toward
this end that theNYSPIN System is dedicated.
Additionally, criminal justice agencies have the
capability through NYSPIN to retrieve the information necessary for their effective and efficient
operation.
From the New York "Daily News," Feb. 5, 1977:
COP COMPUTER NETWORK HELPS
PUNCH OUT BAD GUYS
by Ted Belknap

Albany -- The woman stopped the luxury car on
the shoulder of the Thruway in response to the siren.
She had been speeding. A state trooper, following
procedure, called in the number on the woman's driver's license and registration.
At the trooper's home barracks at Schuyler, a
fellow lawman typed the numbers into a computer tetminal. In seconds, the memory banks of the computer answer that the woman is wanted by a sheriff's
department in New Jersey for drug-implement possesion and armed robbery. In addition, the car she
was driving had been reported stolen.
One of 225,000 Transmissions

The trooper's inquiry was one of 225,000 transmissions handled daily by the New York Statewide
Police Information Network (NYSPIN), a large and
sophisticated computer system housed in Building
22 of the State Office Campus here.
The response of the computer system was a "hit,"
an answer led to an arrest. The system's hit ratio
is about 5%.
340 Terminals in State

These versatile, easy to use mobile terminals
with rapid, error free message transmission, provide
the patrolling officer the capabilities to send or
receive messages, and to access the files of NYSPIN,
DCJS, DMV, NLETS and NCIC. With the information of
these files at their fingertips, officers are able
to act rapidly and with greater safety. Transmissions can be made car to car or to any terminal on
the NYSPIN system. As each message is sent from the
mobile terminal, the unit's status is recorded. In
case of an emergency, a large red button on the keyboard can be depressed which will automatically
transmit an emergency request for assistance. With
this mobile terminal, a Trooper need not use his
radio to check on the status of a stolen vehicle or
suspected felon. He need only only type the vehicle
plate number or the persons name. The message enters
the appropriaterdata base and a "hit" would both
illuminate on the screen and be printed out. This
entire procedure is accomplished in less than ten
seconds.
In conclusion, the NYSPIN system has transcended
the physical boundaries of law enforcement jurisdictions and allows agencies to communicate and share

There are 340 terminals of the computer system
at state police barracks and local police stations
throughout the state. Some of the terminals have
been installed in troop cars. Local police pay a
rental fee for use of the terminals.
The terminals feed into NYSPIN equipment housed
under tight security on the ground floor of Building 22. About 50 state police employees work in
the climate-controlled rooms full of blinking machines and television screens.
Connected with other Storage Banks

NYSPIN not only files information gathered by the
police in this state, but is connected with the storage banks in Washington, D.C. and Arizona to obtain
national crime information. It also connects with
the computers of the Department of Motor Vehicles
crosstown in Albany, and with departments in all
other states and Puerto Rico.
Apart from motor vehicle and driver records, NYSPIN
can file and retrieve information on wanted and miss-

COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for March, 1978

Kvamme - Con'tinued from page 9

ing persons, fraudulent documents, pistol permits
and registration numbers of boats and appliances.
Director Denies Danger from "Big Brother"

Is NYSPIN really Big Brother?
No, says Fred Frank, director of data processing.
"The system doesn't dea 1 wi th arrest records, and
once a case is cleared, such as a stolen car, the
information is expunged," Frank said. "I see no area
in which someone's civil rights could be infringed."
Two information factors are needed to identify a
person, but those two factors can be any combination of the information on a driver's license. If
only a name is fed to the system, the system will
respond with every identical name it has on record
with accompanying information, grouped, for example,
by age or color of hair or geographic zone. A name
might be the only one filed, or, in the case of John
D. Smith, there will be enough to fill up the screen
with addresses for quite some time o
Incomplete License Numbers

Incomplete license-plate numbers are sometimes
reported during hit-and-run cases. They can be submitted to the system and groupings will be fed back.
If all but the last digit of the plate number are
known, the grouping, for example, could include all
red cars with those digits.
Here are some recent NYSPIN "hits":
Two troopers from the Leeds barracks in Greene
County checked a disabled car occupied by six people.
A computer check showed that two of the persons were
wanted for armed robbery in Florida.
Rangers at Norrie State Park arrested a man armed
with a loaded shotgun. He was taken to the state
police barracks at Rhinebeck, where an inquiry was
made. NYSPIN replied that the man was wanted in New
Jersey for rape, two accounts of armed robbery and
larceny.

MITI organization. I am not proposing that a cabinet-level position would be as successful in this
country or in fact have the same powers as MITI does.
But it would at least place in a single government
agency the responsibilities that are now spread
throughout three or four cabinet positions. The Secretary of Trade would be held responsible for ensuring
that the United States proceed vigorously in the
direction of balanced trade with each of its trading
partners, particulary balanced trade with developed
nations.
Anti-Trust Provisions

Secondarily, I believe that reviews of the antitrust provisions of U.S. law, the investment-tax
incentives for critical industries, and the entire
question of support of basic technology would require
modification by legislative action. We have not
encouraged historically government involvement in
the semiconductor industry. I am not proposing that
government involvement is the only solution to our
problem. However, unless we have government involvement or support which is at least partially competitive with the support that Japanese companies receive
from their government, we will have a very great deal
of difficulty maintaining the position that we have
established in the past two decades in the semiconductor industry and beyond that in the computer and
data processing industries. It is estimated that
the balance of trade for technology items from the
U.S. is favorable at this point in time. That very
favorable balance of trade will be eroded much as the
balance of trade for consumer goods was eroded, unless we carefully and forcefully impress upon our
own industry and government the inequity of the
competitive stance being faced by the computer and
semiconductor industries, and thus the semiconductor
equipment manufacturing industry of the United
States.
The job faced by government in negotiating this
matter will not be easy. We should not continue
expecting that our position in negotiating a balanced
situation will be easy.
Different Rules for Different Teams

A state police patrol out of Chazy in the Adirondacks stopped a driver at 3 a.m. for various traffic
violations. According to a computer check, the man
was wanted in New York City for murder.
Speed is a Protection

Police report the system not only helps them in
making arrest, but protects them with its speed. By
calling in a plate number, a police officer can obtain information in seconds about the car's owner
before leaving his prowl car. Criminals are more
nervous, and more dangerous, in a lengthy road
check.

To quote again the Japanese Vice Minister of
International Finance from his appearance before
the National Press Club, "Japan is not likely to
adjust its economy to fit the American/European
pattern." The context of these remarks indicates
that they expect to continue to be active in the
international trade arena but that they are not planning on changing their procedures.
We cannot survive in a world where the rules are
different, favorable for Japan and unfavorable for
the U.S., fpr the opposing teams in the same game.
References

A secondary benefit is that the innocent motorist
is not unduly tied up.
The top users of the system are the state police
and the New York City Police Department, although
other agencies are slowly catching up.
D

/1/ "Washington Post," November 18, 1977.
/2/ Los Angeles "Times" report of the Tokyo National
Press Club Meeting, NOvember 5, 1977.
/3/ Ishii and Yamada, "IEEE Spectrum," September,
1977, p.40.
/4/ Sugano, Okoshi, Watanabe, "IEEE Spectrum," September, 1977, p.51.
/5/ Uemura, "Business Week," October 24, 1977, p.48.
/6/ Ikeda, "New York Times," November 11, 1977.
D

COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for March, 1978

Anderson -

Continued from page 13

of the technology more difficult and thus more expensi ve.- And local regulations that cause suppliers
to lose control over their own technology, or seek
to force its transfer at bargain-basement prices,
only serve to diminish or shut off entirely the flow
of know-how.
Technology transfer can be compared with a marriage. The partners in any marriage agree to live
together for better or worse. The marriage cannot
long survive if either partner rushes off to the
divorce court the first time there is disagreement.
Nor can the marriage thrive if one partner is
constantly and arbitrarily changing the rules. Yet
this is happening with increasing frequency in many
developing countries. The technology supplier is
simply informed that if a change in rules is not
followed, he will be expropriated or otherwide penalized.
Any Government Can Write the' Rules
It Chooses, and Change Them Anytime

Despite the vaunted power of multinational companies, such disputes are a conflict between unequals,
Any government, no matter how small the country, can
write any rules it chooses and the most influential
company is helpless to prevent the change. And under
those circumstances the "marriage" quickly becomes
a fiction.
It should therefore surprise no one that technology suppliers tend to look before they leap. Expertise is their most valuable asset. It they are
going to share that expertise, they understandably
seek out only those marriages in which there is
balance in the give-and-take relationship, and a
good chance for a lasting relationship.
Needed: Discussion and More Discussion

An essential step to narrow the current technological gap among nations is to establish more
direct, more continuous dialogue between the developed and the developing countries. Little will be
accomplished by white papers or codes of conduct
which reflect only the views of one government or
group of governments. Any business relationship -and technology transfer is essentially a business
relationship -- must be mutually beneficial and
mutually nurtured.
Unless such relationships are permitted to develop, those countries with the bulk of the world's
technology will have little or no incentive to transfer their technology, and thereby help to correct the
present imbalance among nations. And those countries
with too little technology will be thwarted from
gaining the economic development they seek and require.
The Most Important Issue: A More Satisfactory
Technological Balance

Former Secretary of State Kissinger said recently
that "No issue is more important to the future vision
of international order than the ways in which the
world will manage the output and distribution of
goods and services." To carry that thought an additional step: No issue is more important to managing
the world's output and distribution of goods and
services than achieving a more satisfactory tech-

nological balance among nations. It is an elusive
goal but one we need to strive for.
0

that The Northern Trust is in violation of the Bank
Holding Company Act due to an illegal tie-in requirement between cashier checks and payroll data processing. Northern has its customer payroll data processing done by Automatic Data Processing-Midwest, Inc.,
a subsidiary of Automatic Data Processing, Inc., of
Clifton, New Jersey.
STAT:TAB contends that the tie-in requirement has
caused it to lose clients and prohibits its ability
to gain new customers for its payroll services. Late
last year, The Northern Trusf entered into an agreement with ADP for ADP to take over the processing of
Northern's payroll customers and jointly market these
data processing services in the Chicago area. Northern, it is alleged, receives a percentage of the
revenue generated by this agreement. Further, the
suit claims that The Northern Trust has refused to
sell cashier's checks to customers for payroll purposes unless their payroll is processed by ADP.
In October of 1976, STAT:TAB filed an antitrust
action against ADP in the United States District
Court in Chicago. The suit for $25 million in damages and subject to trebling is still pending. In
that suit, ADP is charged whth attempting to obtain
a monopoly in Chicago and eight other metropolitan
areas, by various acts, including the purchasing of
payroll data processing business from banks, including The Northern Trust.
0

PUTTING COMMON SENSE INTO COMPUTERS -

Three 1977 articles by Lawrence Clark, Mathematician

"What is Common Sense?"

May, 1977, p.19

Computers can be taught to calculate, reason,
listen, and speak -- but can they be taught to
behave with common sense? To write a program
that uses much common sense, it is useful to
specify what common sense is.
"Designing a Computer Program so as to Have
Common Sense"
June 1977, P .17
A computer can be programmed to take into
account the entire range of common sense factors
and conditions in a context. Then feedback from
trials can bring the computer program closer and
closer to perfection.
"Designing a Computer Program to Have Common
Sense -- Part 2"
July 1977, p.18 .•.
An illustrative computer program improved by
common sense accomplishes a task common to small
businesses: monthly reporting on a group of sales
salesmen.
- - - (may be copied on any piece of paper) - - Berkeley Enterprises, Inc., 815 Washington St.,
Newtonville, Mass. 02160
Please send me the three 1977 articles on
"Common Sense" by L.M. Cl ark. I enclose
$6.00 which includes postage and handling

1
1

My name and address are attached.
-

Continued from page 26

Newsletter -

COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for March, 1978

__ I

Spelling and Reading English" Phonetically:
Gradual Change Accomplished by Computer,
and the

~~Soundspel"

System

Edward Rondthaler
Chairman of the Board
Photo-Lettering, Inc.
216 East 45 Street
New York, NY 10017
"Thanks to recent typographical and computer developments we can simplify our reading
matter first - in successive stages over a number of years."

A Society that Depends on Widespread Literacy

In America, those of us who can read and write
English have built a society that depends on widespread literacy. We offer broad educational opportunities to all -- to all, that is, who can read
and write. Those who cannot are left out. We've
provided no role for illiterates, and have done
nothing to make reading and writing simple.
What Is Basically Wrong?

What's basically wrong is this: English words
are made up of 43 different sounds, but we have
only 26 letters. If we had used certain letters
in regular pairs to represent the additional 17
sounds, reading and writing would be easy. But we
haphazardly spell our sounds in several hundred
different ways. A great deal of the spelling
scheme is very irregular. Remembering the different
spellings and struggling to learn which one goes with
which sound in which word makes spelling much more
difficult than it needs to be.
20 Million Functional Illiterates

In spite of this, most American adults can read
and write -- but 20 million cannot. Their frustrations show up in greater-than-average inclination
to throw sand into society's gears. They're not
the docile illiterates of yesterday. Unable to
master our prerequisite to education, deprived of
a significant role in society, many first become
dropouts, then juvenile delinquents and ultimately
full-fledged criminals. The alternative fate
awaiting them is often continued unemployment and
poverty.

are enough to make one wish that every sentence imposed could include a provision that would grant release when the prisoner had learned to read and
wri teo "
The Fetters of the Past

How can we escape from these stupid fetters from
a bygone age?
We can go straight to the root of the problem;
we can develop a painless way to make our spelling
reliably phonetic, as it is in other Western languages. With 20% of our schoolchildren -- the
rising generation -- facing life with serious reading and writing deficiencies, it's time for a frontal attack on what is, without doubt, a major barrier to edu~ation for all: erratic English spelling.
The Opportunity from the Computer

Simplifying our spelling has been a scholarly
pastime for centuries -- a sort of parlor game not
taken too seriously (except by a few men like George
Bernard Shaw and Bertie McCormick). The reason is
the absurdity of our traditional spelling is less
absurd than hoping that hundreds of millions who
read and write English will go back to school and
learn to spell allover again.
But, thanks to recent typographical and computer
developments, we can simplify our reading matter
first -- before we change our spelling habits.
Impossible? Consider this:

Furthermore many literate American adults cannot
find out the right spelling of words like "irresistable, irresistible," "instalment, installment,"
"harassing, harrassing" wi thout wasting time and
effort looking them up in a dictionary. Yet the
meaning and pronunciation are perfectly clear; and
in a better world than today's world both spellings
would be fully acceptable.

Typesetting methods are currently undergoing their
greatest change in 500 years. This revolution is
shaking the printing industry from top to bottom.
Typesetting is turning itself inside out as it changes from a three-dimensional mechanical process to
a two-dimensional photocomputerized process. Most
of the printing you read today is a product of this
revolution. No layman looking at the printed page
can notice a difference, but what goes on behind
the scenes is another matter.

Commenting on a report that more than half of
U.S. prison inmates lack functional literacy, Chief
Justice Warren E. Berger called the number staggering and added: "The figures on li teracy alone are

Today's new typesetter taps out the letters for
words on a computer-compatible keyboard linked by
magnetic or punched tape to a computerized phototypesetting machine. As the Gomputer receives the

COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for March, 1978

44,000 Most Used Words in
a Transliteration Table

words from this tape, it combines them with coded
signals that control the typesetting mechanism.
Automatic Change from Traditional
Spelling to Simplified Spelling ...

Now, if the computer had a little more capacity
it could easily be programmed to accept traditionally spelled words from the tape, simplify the spelling and combine the newly spelled words with the
typesetting signals. Thus a keyboard operator would
continue to spell traditionally, but the final product would be simplified -- automatically.
There's nothing novel about this concept except
its application: For years computers have unscrambled coded messages of far greater complexity. What
is new is that the typesetting revolution makes it
possible for computers to take over the hitherto impossible job of simplifying the spelling of English,
and to do so as a routine -- automatically, accurately, uncomplainingly.
So, without any adult being urged to change his
writing habits, without any reschooling of authors,
editors, copywriters, reporters or typesetters, we
have arrived at the point where printed English can
be simplified with just a direction to computer program.
... In Stages Over Many Years

We could, of course, make this change in one big
leap. But computerized typesetting lends itself
equally as well to a far more comfortable gradual
shift of perhaps 50 small steps. Step 1 would probably be to spell with an "e" all words that have the
clear "short-e" vowel sound: any, hed, frend, sed,
redy, heven, brekfast, and so on.
Throughout this article this first step is being
demonstrated -- and you can judge for yourself how
painless it is. If you are a literate person, you
would never need to change your own spelling unless
you wished to. Of course, you might choose to conform to some of the simplifications that show up in
print, but you would not have to. Computers will
do the hard work -- they will spearhead the change
You will follow along if and only if you want to.
Step 2?

Step 2 might use "f" to replace "ph," or "k" for
"ch" in words like kemistry and skool.
There would be 50 or more steps taken gradually
over as long a time as required. Unlike adopting
the metric system, spelling reform could be slowed
down or speeded up at any time over many years -and still leave us with a better spelling system
than ever befQre. This is actually what has happened
wi th past better spellings like "thru" and "ni te".
The Fiftyeth Step

If we jump ahead to the fiftyeth step, az printed
heer, it mae seem a bit aukward and perhaps a litl
dificult to reed, but it must be remembered that
this step wil not cum until yeerz after th furst step
haz bin tacken, and bi that tiem our reeding habits
wil hav had ampl oportuenity to ajust to a lojical
patern ov speling -- simplified sound-speling.

The means for carrying out experiments with this
26-letter system called "Soundspel" are at hand. A
computer at New Jersey's Ocean County College in
Tom's River is now programmed with 44,000 of the
most-used English words paired in traditional and
simplified spellings for automatic transliteration.
The Need for Reform

Serious attention to reform is growing as more
and more people realize its social implications at
home, and its importance to the spread of English
abroad as an international "second language." Thus
an urgent need arises for those willing to accept
even a small measure of reform to speak up for it,
to talk about it, to build public awareness in
the same way that environmentalists hammered home
the air and water-pollution story. Perhaps only
when voters demand it will Congress require manufacturers to build typesetting machines that produce various steps in rational spelling -- just as
auto makers are required to build pollution-free
exhausts.
Many Phonetic Languages Already

Perhaps we cannot make reading and writing quite
as simple as finger painting, but we can come closer
now; much closer. We can do it by spelling English
rationally, regularly, phonetically -- like Italian,
Spanish, Dutch, German, Finnish, Russian, Hungarian,
Turkish, Swedish and other languages where spelling
is so logical and easy to learn that it's not taught
after the first few months of first grade. We owe
it to future generations to bring the visual part
of reading and.writing as easy and simple as possible; to turn the rudder of our wayward orthography a few degrees so that spelling can be inched
back on course until, along with other western languages, our written forms are in synchronism with
our spoken words.
Before hastily saying no to spelling reform we
should examine the new tool that can make the
change palatable to adults and a boon to children.
This tool is waiting in the wings -- waiting to
be discovered by the right people.
Computerized transliteration lends itself equally well to an instant change, or to a gradual "stepby-step" shift. There exists today among. spelling
reformers general agreement that, as a first step,
the clear short vowel sound "e" should be written
"e" in such words as "frendly, meny, hed, sed,
heven," and so on. That is where reform can begin.
Experience with this first step will determine
which of several choices should be next. Perhaps
an obvious change like "k" for "ch" in words like
"kemistry, and skool"; or "ee" for the long vowel
in "cleen, leed, seet," etc. Other obvious improvements would carry us through a dozen or more
early steps. Then the choice of improvements may
get a bit difficult, and call for a balancing of
alternatives.
Meny Right Ways of Spelling

What about personal or business letters and
handwritten notes that never get into print? When

COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for March, 1978

CHART 1
Sample of the Way English Would Appear for Several Stages of Soundspel

Have you ever considered the meny benefits of a simplified phonetic spelling that
sounds just like it's written? A spelling that children, adults and foreign students
can learn quickly, without laborious memorizing. Most countries have such a spelling"
We could have it too. The first writers rigidly matched letters to sounds, but those
who came after them polluted the system, botched up its simplicity and, for no good
reason at all, left us with several hundred different ways to spell our 43 simple sounds!
Let's go back to phonetic spelling and give our children a real hedstart. Let's give
them tools to read and write enything they can hear or say. And now, at last, it can
be done without adult re-schooling because computer magic will do the tough part for
us-automatically. Interested? Read on ...
The spelling in the paragraph above is very slightly simplified.
It represents the first step in a series of step-by-step simplifications.
The paragraph below is semi-simplified. It represents about
the mid-point or 20th step in a series of simplifications.

Hav you ever considered the meny benefits ov a simplified fonetic speling that
sounds just like it's riten? A speling that children, adults and forin students
can learn quickly, without laborius memorizing. Most cuntryz hav such a speling.
We could hav it too. The first rieters rijidly matched leters to sounds, but those
hoo' came after them polooted the sistem, botched up its simplisity and, for no good
reeson at all, left us with several hundred diferent ways to spel our 43 simpl sounds!
Let's go back to fonetic speling and giv our children a reel hedstart. Let's giv
them tools to reed and riet enything they can heer or-say. And now, at last, it can
be dun without adult re-skooling because computer majic wil do the tuf part for
us-automaticaly. Interested? Reed on ...
The paragraph below is fully simplified, completely phonetic.

Hav u ever considerd th meny benefits ov a simplified fonetic speling that
soundz just liek it's riten? A speling that children, adults and forin stoodents
can lurn qikly, without laborius memoriezing. Moest cuntryz hav such a speling.
We cuud hav it too. Th furst rieterz rijidly macht leterz to soundz, but thoez
hoo caem after them polooted th sistem, bocht up its simplisity and, for no guud
reezon at aul, left us with several hundred diferent waez to spel our 43 simpl soundz!
Let's go bak to fonetic speling and giv our children a reel hedstart. Let's giv
them toolz to reed and riet enything thae can heer or sae. And now, at last, it can
be dun without adult re-skooling becauz compueter majic wil do th tuf part for
us-automaticaly. How? Reed on...
COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for March, 1978

CHART 2
The Proposed IISoundspel" Key Used in the Transliteration of 44,000 English Words

at
Jgo

Qit

aa
dot

auto

cheer

systJmatic

ia
io
iu

Mgm

f
fit

•

k,c

lu~e

hQt
atdm

cat

2.pen

pet

quit

til'

p.n~

!J!is

.it
1
easily

~ot

kit

hat

•
Ie

•

01
oil

~alye

ng
bla.Jket

arrow

OU,OW
out
how

sh
shut

sets

sing

order
(office)
mem6randum
8

editOri~.
champ!Qn
auditoriJ;!:m

net

ooze

red

ice

men

let

sorrow
hurry

u
~

thin

W
Ylet

•

saw

eer

baker

meet

edit

atl,aw

fair

hard
2
maroon

-church
-

arr

f§.ther

ElSe

•

wh
whet

ur
~gent

!!Pit
acc~millate

e~am

e~pert

yet
victorY

zones

UU
p~t

zh
~ure

4 To keep certain words looking fa.mhiar, final
9 In unstressed syllables 'ue' becomes a very
1 Short vowels (a e i 0) in unstressed syllables
are often given a neutral pronunciation close e may be dropp8d from a sOl,lIldspel word end- short diphthong pronounced lhyu (like the
second 'u' in accumulate).
to the sound "uh" (ago, system, easily, atom). ing in ee (we¢) , ie (alibi¢), oe (go¢).
5 The pronunciation of 'ur' and 'er' is identical.
10 Both 'th' and 'x' have voiced and unvoiced
Phonetists call this diluted sound "schwa".
'ur' is always used in stressed syllables (ur- pronunciations: Voiced th (as in thiS); un2 When 'ar' and 'or' are followed by a stressed
vowel (maroon, memorandum) the a and 0 are . gent), 'er' in unstressed (baker). In casual voiced th (as in thin). The voiced x (a "gz"
pronounced as an unstressed "uh", and the 'r' speech, final and semi-final 'ar' and 'or' are sound as in exam) is always followed by a
often pronounced like 'er' (collar, dobtoral).
vowel; the unvoiced x (a "ks" sound as in box,
begins a new syllable. See note 1 .
6 "n' is pronounced "ng' when followed by k, q, . expert) is never followed by a vowel.
3 The vowel-sound "V2-ee" (half-ee) is heard in
11 At the beginning of a syllable Y is always a
the fIrst e of 'between'. It is never stressed, has or x (blanket, banquet,jinx).
consonant (yet, beyond). At the end· of a sylla7 When '0' is followed by ff, ss, ng, th (office,
about half the duration of ee, and some of the
tonal qualities of short i. At or near the begin- cross, long, cloth) it is always stressed and ble it is always an unstressed vowel (holy, vicning of a word it is written "e' (event, debate, usually pronounced like the '0' in 'or' (or like tory, pityful). See note 3.
Soundspel has two self-evident abbreviations:
reality); further on in the word it is written the "aw' in'saw').
8 When a e 0 u are followed by 'rr' the vowels
u=you, th= the; three traditional spellings:
'y' (pityful, sillyness, victory); and it is written
to= to, do= do, -ful= -ful; and, in keeping with
"i' in the unstressed vowel combinations ia io iu are stressed and keep their normal shortother languages, a lowercase pronoun: i = 1.
vowel pronunciation.
( editorial, champion, auditorium).

COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for March, 1978

computers lead the way, the rest of us can follow
at our own pace -- if we want to. Many of us will
pick up the new spelling from the printed page.
Others will continue to write traditionally. No
matter. We need no drive for converts. No one
should ever be urged to update his spelling. Those
who from childhood have spelled traditionally will
always be able to read both ways and to write traditionally -- until our quaint orthography dies a
natural death. That is how it has been in Holland,
Germany, Norway, Denmark, Russia, France, Turkey,
Korea, and other countries where improvements in
spelling have taken place.
Readers Cannot Be Forced But Can Change Slowly

So much for spelling and writing. How about reading? Readers cannot be computerized.
Here we come face-to-face with long established
habits, and we may meet big resistance. We won't
know how much until we try. To minimize reading
resistance we should do everything possible to make
reformed reading easy. The changeover should be so
gradual, so inconspicuous, so natural, so logical
and sensible, so comfortable for the reader, and
introduced so subtly that he is hardly aware of being
enticed away from his childhood spelling (see Chart
1). This is precisely where computers rise to the
occasion. They can slowly but surely feed new spellings into the mainstream of printed matter, feeding
them in so gently that we should have little reason
to be upset. We would be given every chance to adjust comfortably. It would even be po~sible to monitor public acceptance through a series of polls,
enabling us to introduce each ~ew step from coast to
coast or world-wide with shrewd timing.
Perhaps Rapid Acceptance

There is, of course, a good chance that acceptance
could come much faster than we anticipate. Graphic
change is now quite commonplace: You can test this
for yourself by comparing typical posters, magazines,
and advertising today with a similar sampling from
a decade or two ago. You'll be impressed at how
quickly we've adjusted to new visual presentations
without even knowing it. Or look back at the late
'20s when printers introduced a rash of typefaces
with newly designed g's and a's based on a single
circle. The new shapes of these two lowercase letters changes about 40 percent of our "word-pictures"
as traditionally printed and read by successive generations. Yet the change brought no public protest
at all. It is worth noting that typesetters of the
'20s willingly accepted the newly shaped letters
because, so far as they were concerned, the shift
was purely mechanical. The same acceptance can come
with computerized transliteration. These examples
of graphic change are, of course, less formidable
than those of spelling reform. Nevertheless, the
public may take spelling reform in stride.
What then, will trre first transliterating computer
be able to do, and when will it be doing it?
The 44,000 Most-Used Words

An experimental typographic transliterating computer is now programmed with the 44,000 most-used
words in written, contemporary English. This collection of words comes largely from a study completed
in 1961 by Dr. W.N. Francis of Brown University's

Department of Linguistics. It covers a millionword sampling of running text selected from a wide
variety of subjects: news, editorials, the arts,
hobbies, skills, religion, science, biography, memoirs, general fiction, science fiction, humor, romance, mysteries, mathematics, humanities, natural·
sciences, annual reports, government documents,
etc. Proper names and unusual technical terms have,
for the present, been deleted from this list, but
for each deletion a word has been added from the
Merriam-Webster list of 35,000 most-used words or
from the McGraw-Hill list of 20,000. The total
list is substantially a composite of all three
lists. These 44,000 words have been transliterated
into Soundspel (see Chart 2), placed ori magnetic
tape (with traditional and simplified spellings in
parallel) and programmed so that traditionally
spelled input tape will generate a matching output
tape in simplified spelling. The output tape is
compatible with photo-typesetting machines. Complete
typeset pages may now be produced without individual
transliterating or manual rekeyboarding.
The Structure of Soundspel: Where It Comes From

The Soundspel phonetic system used for the transliterating program is a merger of Ripman-Archer
"New Spelling," Godfrey Dewey's "World English Spelling," and certain modifications suggested by the
Typographic Council for Spelling Reform. The pronunciation standard is the broadcasting industry's
"NBC Handbook of Pronunciation," the "Random House
Dictionary of the English Language," or "Webster's
New International Dictionary," whichever sanctions
the least deviation from traditional spelling.
The Push to Make the Change Happen

When our social agencies begin to see how transliterating computers can be used to spearhead spelling change -- so "we the people" can just fall in
behind -- they may speak up for reform. Their voice
is big. It is big enough to get the job done.
Their giant push could start the ball rolling.
Another big push might come from those engaged
in areas where English has become a "second language": foreign trade and commerce, international
communication, and negotiations between nations. A
simpler spelling of English has much to offer here.
And finally we have the parents of our school
children. 25 percent of whom are two to six years
behind grade level in reading and writing; the mothers and fathers of 700,000 dropouts each year, and
the friends of 20,000,000 functionally illiterate
U.S. adults.
While we're enlisting concerned parents, social
agencies, international businessmen, the U.N.,
diplomats and others, we should not overlook the
importance of persuading the printing industry to
seek spelling improvement. Printers -- particularly
graphic designers, type directors, and typographers
-- have spent many years studying the legibility,
and artistry, the graphics and mechanics of the
printed page. They, better than anyone else, know
what makes a page easy to read, what interferes with
reading, and what gives a page warmth. Profound
advantages for many millions of people await the
gradual improvement of phonetic representation Qf
English. It makes sense to use computer power for
this purpose.
0

COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for March, 1978

Com'puting and Data Processing Newsletter

DARTMOUTH STUDENTS CAN LOOK FOR JOBS
VIA AN INTERACTIVE COMPUTER
Robert P. Graham
Dartmouth College News Services
303 McNutt Hall
Dartmouth College
Hanover, NH 03755

"Man should set the goal s and tell the computer
how to work towards them" wrote Dartmouth College
President John Kemeny in 1972.
In that philosophy, the Career and Employment
Services at Dartmouth College has utilized a computer to develop a new and different approach to
the usual classified advertisement for jobs.
As of the fall of 1977, Dartmouth students have
computer assistance in their job-hunting efforts.
A new computer program, DART-JOB'~~'~', is now offering students new, more efficient means of finding
local employment.
The program lists odd jobs, part-time jobs, and
full-time leave-term jobs both at Dartmouth and in
the surrounding community. The program presents the
student with an accessible, up-to-date body of information.
In order to use DART-JOB***, a student merely
calls up the program on one of the college!s 300
computer terminals. Then, in a "conversational"
exchange with Dartmouth's interactive computing
system, he asks for the particular type of job he
wants. The computer then prints out all available
jobs of that type, describing each individual job,
its requirements, the period of employment, the
hours per week, the pay, and presents the address
and telephone number of the contact person.
Conversely, the program offers an employer the
opportunity to reach a large percentage of the student body. Any college or local employer can list a
a job opening with the service at no cost. To have
a job listed with DART-JOB***, an employer either
fills out an advertisement form and sends it to
Career and Employment Services in College Hall, or
he telephones and asks to have the job listed. Listings are updated daily.

print various categories of odd jobs available. The
student then selects a category (office work, physical labor, baby-sitter, etc.) and the computer
prints all available jobs-in that category. The
user can then continue in this manner until he finds
a job that he is interested in.
In addition, a student is not restricted by office
hours. Employment information is available for the
20 hours a day during which the computer operates.
Figures indicate that in the first month of operation more than 50 percent of DART-JOB*** use was
after regular office hours.
The program was researched and designed by Ginny
Darrah of Nor~ich, Vt., with the assistance of Eve
Pratt of Longmeadow, Mass., and Carl Worrell of Montreal, Que., both members of the Class of 1979 at
Dartmouth. They initially advertised the program
within the college community, emphasizing that DARTJOB*** could be used for department or office requirements or for personal use, such as the need
for a baby-sitter or for help around the house. In
January, Career and Employment Services will begin
advertising within the Upper Valley business community to make local businesses aware of the potential of DART-JOB***.
The concept behind DART-JOB*** may have important implications in the use of the computer in a
college community with computer resources similar
to Dartmouth's Time-Sharing System. It is proving
an efficient. easier way to make a centralized body
of information available throughout the college.
CONTINUED GROWTH FOR THE COMPUTER INDUSTRY
FORECAST FOR 1978
Gerald G. Probst, Pres.
Sperry Univac Division
Sperry Rand Corporation
P.O. Box 500
Bluebell, PA 10422

During 1978 the general purpose computer market
is expected to follow the growth patterns of recent
years. Our forecast is that gross shipments by all
manufacturers world-wide will grow in the range of
16 percent in 1978 over the prior year increasing
from a value of $13 billion in 1977 to more than
$15 billion in 1978.

Before DART-JOB':'~'~', students had difficul ty obtaining all information on all available jobs. In
the past, jobs were listed in books, and students
could browse through books of listings that were
cumbersome and difficult for the office to organize
and keep updated. Information on many jobs was available to students only by making the rounds of all
potential employers in the community.

This growth will come from expansion of existing
computer installations, new applications, greater
user development of computer-communications systems,
increasing usage of data base management systems
and expansion of both teleprocessing and distributed data processing networks.

Now a student can quickly get a full list of only
the type of job of interest. For example, if he or
she is interested in odd jobs, the computer will

1977 has been another successful year for Sperry
Univac, with computer revenues currently approaching 50 percent of the total revenue of Sperry Rand
Corporation. Based on results for the first half

COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for March, 1978

of the current fiscal year, Sperry Univac is expected
to establish new records in terms of revenue, bookings and shipments for the full year.
Although the western European nations did not recover as fast from the last recession as had been
anticipated in 1977, the United States was a particularly strong market throughout the year for Sperry
Univac. The Middle East continued to be a rapidly
developing new market with a number of significant
orders received from Iran. In South America, Brazil
continued to be a strong market.
A major event of the year for Sperry Univac was
our entry into the minicomputer market -- the fastest
growing segment of the computer industry with a current growth rate in shipments averaging over 30 percent for the industry as a whole.
Our acquisition of Varian Data Machines, now known
as Sperry_Univac Mini::-C()mputer Operations (MeO), has
significantly expanded our capabilities for developing, manufacturing and marketing minicomputers both
in the United States and in international markets
abroad.
We are targeting a higher growth rate for MCO over
the next five years than the average for the minicomputer industry from greater penetration of both
existing markets and new marketing areas. We will
continue to pursue the traditional minicomputer markets and, in addition, will place strong emphasis on
using MCO products in distributed processing networks
in conjunction with our larger systems.
Another important milestone was our entrance in
January this year into the small business system
market with the introductiori of the BC/7 small business computer and its planned further extension into
a complete family covering the needs of the small
business marketplace. Within a short period of time
we created an entirely new nation-wide sales and
support organization dedicated to this market and
product. The results to date have fully justified
our commitment to this market, and led to the release
of the BC/7 to the Canadian market in September of
1977.
In addition to the BC/7, we made several important additions to both our 1100 series and Series 90
computer families during the year. In the 1100 Series, we announced an entry level 1100/83 and 1100/84.
The Series 90 line was expanded with an entry level
90/25 system and two new systems at the high end of
this family -- the 90/80-2 and the 90/80-3.
All of these new products maintain the price/performance advantages that Sperry Univac has traditionally enjoyed over the competition.
The incoming rate of new orders for all of our
products has been in line with or above our forecasts.
In particular, our largest system, the 1100/80, has
been exceptionally well received. World-wide demand
has boosted the order rate for the 1100/80 more than
200 percent above the plan for the year. We are confident that the impetus generated by this system will
continue strongly in 1978.
One of the primary industry thrusts for Sperry
Univac continues to be manufacturing -- users have
been exceptionally receptive to the SPERRY UNIVAC
UNIS software package for manufacturing control. We

are constantly providing new enhancements to UNIS
in order to give our customers even greater capabilities for their applications. Among major companies
ordering large-scale systems utilizing UNIS in 1977
were Raybestos-Manhattan, Inc., the Fafnir Bearing
Division of Textron, Inc., and the Eureka Company.
State and local governments also continue to be
a major market. Sizeable orders were received, for
example, from the New York State Department of Social Services, the Texas Department of Human Resources, the Treasury of the State of Queensland, Australia, and the cities of Seattle in the United
States and Kyoto in Japan.
Airlines, traditionally a strong market area,
were also in the forefront of bookings with substantial orders being placed by Scandinavian Airlines,
Trans-Australia Airlines, United Airlines, and Wardair of Canada.
The world-wide financial community has become a
growing success area for Sperry Univac. During the
year significant orders were obtained from Trustee
Savings Bank in the United Kingdom, the National
Bank of Iran (Bank Melli), Banco Popular Espanol in
Spain, Yasuda Trust and Banking Company in Japan,
and California Federal Savings and Loan in the United States.
We have continued our considerable investments
in research and development during the year in such
areas as bubble memory development, fibre optics,
and voice input and output. In addition, our extensive software development program has resulted
in numerous enhancements to existing operating systems and programs as well as the creation of new
application packages and work in such important
areas as the privacy and security of information.
This year about 8 1/2 percent of our total revenues
was invested in research and development to give
us one of the highest R&D-to-sales ratios in the
industry.
In terms of new facilities, we will be consolidating all of our existing ISS disc memory system
plants in the San Francisco Bay area into a new
400,000 square foot facility in Santa Clara. In
Winnipeg, Canada, we opened a new Defense Systems
Division Facility which will produce electronic devices to be used by the Canadian Defense Forces.
Overseas, a new complex of two multi-storied
buildings has been completed in London, consolidating
the various headquarters of our operatIons based in
the United Kingdom including the International Division and the U.K. subsidiary company. We also opened at year's end a new Sperry Univac Executive Centre near Nice, France for holding international
seminars for senior executives in business, industry
and government. The Centre, succeeding a previous
facility in Rome, Italy, was built to cope with the
growth needs resulting from the increasingpopularity among administrators and businessmen for the
information exchanges we offer.
Despite the prediction of some economists of an
economic downturn in 1978, we are looking forward
to another good year. Past experience has not shown
any close parallel between the growth of the computer market and the strength of general business conditions. On the contrary, in recessionary periods
business and industry strive more than ever to be-

COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for March, 1978

come more efficient in their operations and look to
computers to playa leading role in reducing costs
and extending the opportunities for potential growth.

laboratory revenue from practically the same test
volume that existed with the manual system, which
required billing data to be hand-carried to the
business office. The hospital runs about 1.5 million tests annually.
\

On February 3, 1978, a new international conference center was opened by Sperry Univac near Nice on
the French Riviera.

Mercy Hospital management spent about three years
studying computerized laboratory information systems
before choosing PATHLAB, a system manufactured by
the Medlab Company, a division of Control Data Corporation.

Known as the Sperry Univac International Executive
Centre, the multi-million dollar facility is designed
for seminars presenting the latest techniques of
management science to leaders of business, industry
and government. It supersedes a previous Sperry
Univac Centre near Rome, Italy, and accommodates 50
guests.
The purpose of the Centre is to provide a forum
where senior executives from a variety of management
disciplines can exchange ideas with executives from
other countries. The location is removed from dayto-day business pressures, on a 2.8 acre site at
St. Paul de Vence, in the mountains about 10 miles
north of Nice.
Conference facilities, equipped with the latest
audio-visual and translation equipment, are designed
to encourage a free-and-easy dialogue between speakers and guests.
The new facility is expected to accommodate over
4500 guest days per year -- triple the capacity of
the previous center in Rome, which opened in 1968.
There, more than 6500 guests attended seminars covering such topics as "Real-Time Banking Today and Tomorrow," "Developments in the Field of Medicine," and
"The Mechanics of Decision." Speakers have included
ex-Democratic Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota;
Lord Harlech, a former British Ambassador to the
United States; and Vance Packard, sociologist and
author.
A center similar to the French facility is operated in Iiu, Japan by ~ippon Univac Kaisha Ltd., the
Sperry joint venture computer marketing organization
in Japan.
COMPUTERIZED LABORATORY INFORMATION SYSTEM
BRINGS EIGHT PERCENT REVENUE INCREASE TO
IOWA HOSPITAL

Patricia A. Conway
Control Data Corp.

Box 0
Minneapolis, MN 55440

A computerized laboratory information system has
produced an eight percent revenue increase for Mercy
Hospital in Des Moines, Iowa. The increase came from
more accurate reporting of patient test data. This
occurred after the laboratory computer was linked to
the one in the business office for automati c transfer of information for billing purposes as well as
management reports.
Originally, the hospital looked at the link as
merely a desirable level of automation, but unless
the laboratory computer could communicate on-line with
the business computer, the investment would not be a
significant improvement to the overall procedure.
But after less than a year' of operation, a comparative study showed an eight percent increase in

Lashing together two different types of computers
the IBM business system and the scientificallyoriented Control Data SYSTEM 17, which is the heart
of the PATHLAB system -- was not a usual procedure.
Nor had such integration been attempted previously
in any similar environment. Highly sophisticated
software programs as well as some intricately designed hardware were developed from the ground up.
A cable connection, in lieu of more expensive tele~
phone lines, was installed between the CDC SYSTEM
17 and the IBM business computer. The two systems
are about 1,000 feet apart and on different floors
of the hospital. As a result, all patient test data
necessary for billing and management reports flows
automatically between the SYSTEM 17 and the IBM
computer without, human intervention.
The PATHLAB computer also operates on-line to
Mercy's existing laboratory test equipment. Simple
interface equipment made it possible for the various
test devices to relay findings directly to the computer.
In addition, the laboratory computer handles test
preparation data such as reading doctors' test orders from mark-sensitive cards and formatting them
into wo.rkli sts. Nursing personnel use these to
schedule patients to test areas. , This same information is printed on perforated adhesive labels
which technicians attach to bottles as they collect
specimens from patients. The computer even arranges patients' room numbers according to a convenient
"route" through the hospital to expedite collecting
specimens.
As patients progress through a series of tests,
the results are automatically processed into their
records and stored on the computer. These records
are printed-out daily and delivered to the medical
floors. Nurses no longer need to record test results, since the computer printout is sized to fit
the patient charts.
Installation of the PATHLAB system is part of
Mercy's building-block approach to a completely
computerized, integrated hospital information system. The hospital has 500 beds, admits more than
18,000 patients annually and handles another 33,000
as outpatients.
SUIT ALLEGING ILLEGAL TIE-IN BETWEEN
BANKING AND DATA PROCESSING

Richard C. Reed
Statistical Tabulating Corp.
2 North Riverside Plaza
Chicago, IL 60606

The Northern Trust Bank in Chicago has been sued
for $50,000 in Federal District Court by~Statistical
Tabulating Corporation (STAT:TAB). The suit alleges
(please turn to page 18)

COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for March, 1978

GAMES AND PUZZLES for Nimble Min·ds ... and Computers
Neil Macdonald
Assistant Editor
It is fun to use one's mind, and it is fun to use the
artificial mind of a computer. We publish here a variety
of puzzles and problems, related in one way or another to
computer game playing and computer puzzle solving, or

to the programming of a computer to understand and
use free and unconstrained natural language.
We hope these puzzles will entertain and challenge
the readers of Computers and People.

NAYMANDIJ

NUMBLES

In this kind of puzzle an array of random or pseudorandom digits ("produced by Nature") has been subjected to a
"definite systematic operation" ("chosen by Nature") and
the problem ("which Man is faced with") is to figure out
what was Nature's operation.
A "definite systematic operation" meets the following
requirements:. the operation must be performed on all-the
digits of a definite class which can be designated; the result
displays some kind ,of evident, systematic, rational order and
completely removes some kind of randomness; the operation
must be expressible in not more than four English words.
(But Man can use more words to express it and still win.)

A "numble" is an arithmetical problem in which: digits
have been replaced by capital letters; and there are two
messages, one which can be read right away and a second
one in the digit cipher. The problem is to solve for the
digits. Each capital letter in the arithmetical problem
stands for just one digit 0 to 9. A digit may be represented by more than one letter. The second message,
which is expressed in numerical digits, is to be translated
(using the same key) into letters so that it may be read;
but the spelling uses puns, or deliberate (but evident) misspellings, or is otherwise irregular, to discourage cryptanalytic methods of deciphering.

NUMBLE 783

NA YMANDIJ 783
1 248 040 5 457 268 6 1 3 7 3
3 1 101 162 2 2 4 658 3 7 624
8 8 2 2 3 6 247 8 2 4 208 5 792
8 6 8 0 1 2 0 1 2 5 3 2 0 308 8 7 3
53271 2 509 5 0 2 0 3 4 0 9 8 9
3 7 9 8 0 2 0 580 3 2 7 4 7 405
2 6 8 8 7 6 2 1 3 4 2 8 652 527 1
8 5 5 2 8 342 2 2 341 530 3 5 2
87135 638 7 620 3
4 8 450
0
2 1 044 7 1 6 7 5 8 245 7 6 8

7
3
3
3
4
6
0
8
8
5

G OLD
N OW

R R L 0
N DGW
D N
L
R S L N I 0
30984 00044 45

MAXI MD IJ
In this kind of puzzle, a maxim (common saying, proverb,
some good advice, etc.) using 14 or fewer different letters
is enciphered (using a simple substitution cipher) into the
10 decimal digits or equivalent signs for them. To compress
any extra letters into the 10 digits, the encipherer may use
puns, minor misspellings, equivalents like CS or KS for X
or vice versa, etc. But the spaces between words are kept.

We invite our readers to send us solutions. Usually
the (or "a") solution is published in the next issue.

SOLUTIONS
MAXIMDIJ 782: The future is bought by the present.
NA YMANDIJ 782: Make twelve 99's.
NUMBLE 782: A lie has short legs.

MAXIMDIJ 783

~v.z,

*U1re~

-R- .....
-A-Q''-AI*:I

VlJ,
7rt~

Our thanks to S. Shulman of Edison, N.J. for sending
us the following solutions: Maximdij 781, Naymandij
781, Numble 781.

COMPUTERS and PEOPLE for March, 1978

COMPUTER GRAPHICS AND ART
COMPUTER GRAPHICS and ART is a new international
quarterly of interdisciplinary graphics for graphics people and
computer artists. This new periodical is aimed at students,
teachers, people from undergraduate and graduate institutions,
researchers, and individuals working professionally in graphics.
Its topical coverage is broad, embracing a variety of fields.
It is useful, informative, entertaining, and current.
Send your manuscripts, papers, art, and ideas to:
Here Are Some Samples:
learning Through Graphics
by Dr. AI Bork, University of California, Irvine, California
A ten·year forecast for computers, education, and graphics
by a leading authority.

Editor, COMPUTER GRAPHICS and ART
Berkeley Enterprises, Inc. - Chico Branch
555 Vallombrosa - No. 35
Chico, California 95926

Art of the Technical World
by Dr. Herbert Franke, Munich, Germany
Computer art as the bridge between the two realms of
art and leisure.
Expanding the Graphics Compatability System to Three Dimensions
by Richard F. Puk, Purdue University, Lafayette, Indiana
Design considerations for a user·oriented 3·D graphics system.
A Personal Philosophy of Ideas, New Hardware, and the Results
by Duane Palyka, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah
The frame·buffer from Evans and Sutherland allows the
artist to treat the computer as a paint and brush medium.
How to Build Fuzzy Visual Symbols
by Alex Makarovitsch, Honeywell Bull, Paris, France
A new approach to computer art and graphics by a
computer scientist.
The State of the Art of Computer Art
by Grace C. Hertlein, Editor
Comparisons of early computer art and today's newer art.
What is art? What is art in computer art?
Inexpensive Graphics from a Storage Cathode Ray Tube
by Charles J. Fritchie and Robert H. Morriss, Tulane University,
New Orleans, Louisiana
Illustrations and photographic techniques used to achieve
graphics from a storage tube CRT.
An Investigation of Criteria for Evaluating Computer Art
by Thomas E. Linehan, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio
The new aesthetic of computer art requires a departure from
the previous, formalist-traditionalist doctrines for evaluating art.

List of Coverage for Up-Coming Issues
Applied Arts and Graphics
Architectural Graphics
Cartography Systems
Computer-Aided Design
Computer Assisted and Managed Instruction
Utilizing Computer Graphics
Computer Graphics in Physics, Chemistry,
Mathematics, etc.
Computer Programs for New Applications
Display Systems and Graphics
Fine Art and Media Explorations
Graphics in Business
Hardware Systems and Graphics
Interactive Graphics Languages and Systems
Languages for Computer Graphics and
Graphics Primitives
Software Systems and Graphic Requirements
Statistical Packages and General Graphing
Syllabi for Computer Graphic Courses

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