Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • 76

4 Section 6 Chicago Tribune, Sunday, April 1, 1984 compters Taking a closer look at CompuServe How ccid re In formed Wind Biriy air gating into woodlands i i A Wind-born ammonUi and 2 a i 0" partlclM partially Vvi'R VUl 'nautrallza tha aclda ju) a ivy 4 -JUL' vmm r-T-T-r-i VIV vi 1 LakM In shallow soil low In lima turn acid; daap aoll high In lima buffer trva acid atfvcta SOME MONTHS buck, I briefly looked at CompuServe and found all the dilierent services rather fun. 1 ve tx-en asked, though, how useful is Compuiierve? This review attempts to address that. There are many offerings in this database, and I'm certain people occupy themselves for hours with It. 1 can't help feeling, however, that this utility is a lot of empty calories. When I first scanned CompuServe's quite long index, I became eager to see the offerings: an online encyclopedia, movie reviews, Associated Press news, stock quotes, specialized options such as book and software reviews, houseplant information and a humor line.

Entries such as "Beef Prices," "Family Life," "Godiva Chocolate," "Ground Water," "Silver News" and "Norwegian American Cruises" made me feel there 6hould be something here for everyone. Now I've used it more. You can get a dab of almost anything you want in CompuServe, but it isn't very substantial. For instance, the encyclopedia gives me only three or four short paragraph summaries of anything I look up. The movie reviews are longer, but there are less than 30 reviews at a time.

Aren't databases known for their storage power? COMPUSERVE'S NEWS retrieval li not quick or convenient. Trying it out again, I gave the command "GO IND-52" to get access to Uie Associated Press, as the index sheet indicated. I then received a menu that gave me the choice of sports, financial, U.S., Washimton or world news. I chose U.S. news by typing "GO SPD." "REQUEST RECORDED, ONE MOMENT, PLEASE" came on the screen, and I waited awhile.

Then another menu appeared, asking if I wanted classified or news. I hit the (,2" button for news. Tlien it asked me again if I wanted Washington, national, world, sports or financial news. I hit Die "2 button to say, once more, national news. Another menu materialized, a menu of one-, two-end three-word headlines including "School Cei'ins," "Greylord" and "Dorm Fires." At last 1 was at the news, but these headlines didn't tell me much.

There was probably more information in the free weekly tossed on my lawn. i By contrast, Dialcom, another national database, has news wires that work more quickly and logically. You type "NEWS" for the news. At the menu, you make your choice of what kind of news. Type "3" for national news.

You can then enter a word or words you want to search Cncago Trtbuna Graphic: Sourcaa: Tachnotogy Raviaw and Qovainmanl oi Canada Fitanwaiai Inunute for, or hit the return key for all stories. You are presented with full headlines and the first sentence of the story. For instance, "Federal Officials Set 'Greylord' News Conference CHICAGO: A police sergeant scheduled to appear before a federal grand jury investigating courtroom corruption was found dead today" tells much more than the one-word "Greylord" from CompuServe. To read the story in full, you pause the headline scanning and request more story. On most days, Dial, com holds several hundred stories.

The top 20 or 30 stories are offered under "Urgent News." SURE, COMPUSERVE it only an hour, and Dial-corn is $16. But rates can be deceiving. CompuServe is $8 an hour at night using a 3Q0-baud modem, but $12.50 an hour using a faster, 1200 baud modem ant) $15 an hour during prime times. With CompuServe's endless dialling of menus and ONE MOMENT, PLEASE messages, your charges add up faster than a New York taxi meter. In CompuServe's defense, Its offerings of games and special-interest bulletin boards may appeal to many.

I cannot disagree. There's Football. Golf, Mare, Megawars and Mugwump. There are bulletin boards for educators, authors, TKS-80 users and ham radio enthusiasts. And more.

Some may find these entertaining or useful. Because time charges add up so quickly, though, I would rather buy the game disks and subscribe to a specialty magazine. If CompuServe put more substance into each offering, and if the menus and the amount of online waiting could be reduced, it miglit have something quite useful. But it isn't that now. I CompuServe Information Service, 6O00 Arlington Centre P.O.

Box 20212, Columbus, Ohio 4J--0. Unfcwul Pratt Syndic ata Washington jap worldwide forest damage linked to acid rain could load to timber losses in the billions of dollars, says a study released Saturday by a Washin'ton-baed research group. tiut acid rain is only one of several air; pollutants threatening trees, the Wtirld watch Institute said, and curbing a single pollution source such as sulfur emissions from power plants nwiy not be enough to protect forests in the long run. At least 9 million acres of forests in ICurope, in addition to broad areas of the Eastern United States and Canada, show damage linked to air pollution. Several pollutants, acting alone or together, appear to be stressing forests beyond their ability to cope, it said.

1 Deforestation has long been associated only with tropical forests in tho Third World, while temperate forests of industrial countries were assumed to be stable," the report noted. "This assumption no longer appears to hold." IN WEST GERMANY, reported foivst damage jumped to 34 percent from 8 percent in a year, with the famed Black Forest among the areas most severely struck. i The value of trees already lost In West Germany totals much more than $1 billion, according to the stijdy, and the wood market will be severely disrupted for decades. Forest injury also has appeared in tho Netherlands, France, Switzerland and East Germany, the study said. Foresters recently detected dninage in Sweden, the country wljose dying lakes first brought international attention to acid rain, which results when sulfur emissions mix with rain.

tn North America, spruce trees art dying on Appalachian mountain pekks, threatening recreational some of those regions. The United States, West Germany and the Netherlands stand out as having taken some serious action in recent years, the study said. New power plants in those countries are required to install emission-cleaning equipment, called "scrubbers." BUT. THE STUDY said, "aehlev- ing substantial pollution reductions will require that existing plants be controlled, and "only West Germany has begun to tackle this politically difficult and more expensive task by placing the country's 150 largest power plants under tight controls. "Although the U.S.

Congress has before it some dozen projwsals to curb emissions from existing sources, political divisions over the regional distribution of costs and benefits from such measures have so far, prevented their passage," it noted. Worldwatch describes itself as an independent, nonprofit research organization created to analyze global problems. It is financed by private foundations and United Nations forests enjoyed by millions of hikers. The study said recent reports also showed dramatic growth declines in, trees of several secies from Maine to Alabama. This could eventually limit timber production and raise prices for lumber and housing.

FOREST DAMAGE In Eastern Europe will grow worse with plans for stepped-up industrialization, WorldWatch reported. Sick and dying trees cover 1.2 million acres in Czechoslovakia, and portions of the region already resemble a wasteland. "Even more disturbing, efforts to restore devastated forests have failed, as seedlings die soon after planting," the study said. Though acid rain tends to be associated with the industrial world, it also has been detected in many developing countries, the study said. Large portions of southern India, Southeast Asia, Brazil and eastern China contain the type of soils most susceptible to acidity, and threatening levels of soil acidity reportedly nave been measured in TJ CZiACZD 21C2 commodore oGT CCMfUUa Prost'mmtbte compute with MK memory A vvtd i 3 FOR Vtt WITH COmmODOM 4 A VIC-M Lorarwer Memorex 10 MIN.

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