The Californian from Salinas, California • 15

I 4. Z- inside: Stocks68 Money rates68 Mutual flinds7B SATURDAY. November 7. 1998 City Desk Phone: 754-4280; Fax: 754-4293 E-mail: valleynews3aoi.com s'-- Arw; ri'T i 0 -Jl) CALENDAR WferosfDini say foraa They claim interference sabotages software NT operating system in November 1996 found that customers using Netscape software couldnt visit her Internet site. Any user surfing to our site with a Netscape browser was challenged to enter a user name and password and then was given an access denied message, Laura Buddine wrote in an e-mail to Barksdale used as evidence in the trial.

Wasch, president of the Software Publishers Association, which supports the case against Microsoft. But these kinds of allegations have been made publicly in probably half a dozen cases. The problem is especially significant because of Microsofts influence as maker of the dominant Window operating system. To be successful, software must coexist peacefully with other programs, even those made by archrivals. In court this week, Apple accused Microsoft of writing its ActiveMovic software part of Microsofts browser, which lets people view information on the Internet so that it seized control from Apple's QuickTime whenever a person tried to watch some types of video or animation.

A puzzled computer user was confronted with the message: You may be unable to play certain types of multimedia files. Do you want to fix this? Clicking the yes button effectively crippled QuickTime. Although a senior Apple executive offered no evidence that Microsoft intentionally wreaked havoc and he admitted its "not unusual that new software is sometimes incompatible with existing programs he stuck by his charge of sabotage. What other goal could there have been? asked Avadis Tevanian, Apples senior vice president of software engineering. Fresh Express renovates truck terminal Staff and wire reports NOV.

18 State of California Employment Development Department is invit- ing employers to an Employment Seminar. Topics will be state payroll reporting tax requirements, the difference between employee and independent contractor and more. WHERE: UCSC Extension, 10420 Bubb Road, Cupertino. WHEN: From 8:30 a.m. to noon.

CONTACT: For information and reservations, call (408) 277-9404. NOV. 19 Salinas Valley Business Womens Network presents Patricia Vonnegut on ways to improve your business image through proper etiquette, customer service, war-drobing and leadership for women at its November meeting. WHERE: The Windfall Restaurant, 228 Main Salinas. WHEN: Noon.

COST: $12. CONTACT: For reservations, call Kristi Thoeni at 757-4311. NOV. 21 University of California, Santa Cruz, Extension presents Effective Group Decisions, a new workshop that delves into common problems and the appropriate steps toward making quality group decisions. WHERE: UCSC Extensions Sunnyvalle facility, 1 180 Bordeaux Drive, Sunnyvale.

WHEN: From 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. CONTACT: For information, call UCSC Extension Business and Management Department (408) 342-0233 or visit the website at www.ucsc-extension.edu. The Californian publishes a calendar of local events every Saturday. Send your notices to the business editor, The Californian, P.O.

Box 81091, Salinas 93912 or fax items to 754-4293. Please include a phone number in case we have questions. Russia makes three big financial deals MOSCOW Russia's cash-starved government scored three successes Friday: an $800 million loan offer from Japan, an agreement on U.S. food aid and a deal with foreign creditors on treasury debt that Russia froze in August. While Russia still has a long way to go to cure its economic malaise, the deals were welcome news after nearly three months of financial uncertainty.

Russia succumbed to the global economic crisis in August, devaluing the ruble and defaulting on domestic treasury debts steps that sent wages and financial markets crashing and prompted President Boris Yeltsin to fire the government. DILBERTby Scott Adams JOIN US, 1 GILBERT. BE A BLOB. 3 HUfAOR IS Richard GreenThe Californian Mark Drever, president of Fresh Express, celebrates the grand opening of the companys renovated truck driver terminal and waiting area. Officials from the California Trucking Association were on hand Friday to honor Fresh Express with its Driver Hospitality Award.

denied it acted with mal- his is sort of another example of Microsofts competitors using overblown rhetoric and very few facts to attack the company, said spokesman Mark Murray. When you dig down into the facts, these allegations crumble. But Apples complaint is echoed by others. James Barksdale, the chief executive officer of Netscape Communications testified earlier for the government that Microsoft products sometimes showed error messages when used with Netscapes Internet software but not when used with Microsoft's own browser. In one case, a businesswoman who installed Microsofts business-level Work demands are one reason for the rise.

With a low October unemployment rate of 4.6 percent announced Thursday, workers are finding themselves stressed by intensified productivity demands. Layoffs also are forcing employers to do more with less. Employers are asking people to give 110 percent. The problem is people can't do that, said Paul Gibson, executive editor at CCH. The whole idea is to create a culture that supports work-life balance, not an overemphasis on face time.

To keep absences from eroding earnings and hampering employee retention, some firms are taking action: When child-care falls through, BancOnes Chicago employees can use a back-up center offered through an outside provider. fl Johnson Johnson in New Brunswick, N.J., has six on-site childcare centers that also include nurses for youngsters who are mildly ill. Flexible scheduling is widespread. Its a way to recruit new people and a way to re-recruit our own people, Morrell said. It was designed to remind people of why they work here and why what they do is important.

And its that kind of effort that may be needed by more companies to retain the loyalty and high performance levels of employees operating from virtual workplaces. If not, the results could be bad news for employers and employees. Wallace said technology overload can prompt workers to generate a lot of transactions, with little productive work getting done. Furthermore, according to a recent study by Carnegie Mellon University, people who spend even a few hours a week on the Internet suffer higher levels of depression and loneliness. That should give a wake-up call to employers who let workers communicate mostly through cyberspace.

Finding ways to reward and recognize workers becomes more of a challenge when you dont see them a lot, Wallace said. But youve got to strive The Associated Press WASHINGTON Apple Computer's courtroom description of Microsoft as a software saboteur is the latest in a string of complaints by competitors that the company has tweaked its own programs deliberately to interfere with a rivals product. Microsoft insists it has never intentionally damaged rival software. Among the latest charges in the governments antitrust case against Microsoft: It willfully made its software to interfere with a multimedia program from Apple, called QuickTime. If this were the only circumstance, it might be dismissed as an inadvertent programming error, said Ken Nob Hill customers driving farther Company closes its Davis Road store By Marty Burleson The Californian Customers from a boarded-up Nob Hill Foods store in North Salinas are fighting cross-town traffic to patronize its more successful sister operation, the South Main Street, a manager said Friday.

It was awesome of them, Darrell Smith said. Weve definitely picked up business. The store at 1040 N. Davis Road closed Oct. 24, and its 60 or so employees were transferred elsewhere.

Nob Hill operates 26 stores from Napa to Greenfield, Smith said, so no layoffs were necessary. The 9-year-old north Salinas store succumbed to competition from relative newcomers Wal-Mart, Costco Wholesale and Lucky Sav-On, Smith said. It used to be one of the busiest stores in Salinas, he said. The 1320 S. Main St.

location has about 100 employees, including a couple from the north Salinas operation, Smith said. The company is interested in expanding the operation into the vacant space formerly occupied by a Rite Aid pharmacy, he said. Theyre looking pretty earnestly at doing that, Smith said. Nothings been signed yet, but they want to do it right after the first of the year. Shoppers soon will have another option as well.

Smith said. Raleys, which purchased Nob Hill in January, is opening a store at the corner of Natividad and Boronda roads, he said. Corporate officials were unavailable for comment Friday. Smith said some of his new customers lived in downtown Salinas about halfway between the two Nob Hill locations. Others, who live farther away, just like the store, he guessed.

Theres quite a few who really like our quality of products and the service we provide, he said. Customers like us and theyll drive to us. Barnes Noble buys wholesale operation The Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. Ingram Industries Inc. is selling its book wholesaler subsidiary to Barnes Noble Inc.

for $600 million in cash and stock. Barnes Noble, based in New York, operates 504 Barnes Noble bookstores and 507 B. Dalton bookstores. Too much In today's virtual workplace, we can be 1 0,000 miles from the home office but still communicate effectively and efficiently with company brass by using capabilities. We can fire off e-mails and voice mails to support staff, and with the click of a mouse, network with colleagues around the world.

Technology, for those reasons and more, is a terrific business tool. But for some companies, it is becoming a potential menace as workers become isolated, less productive and possibly even depressed by the heavy use of computers, faxes, e-mails and voice messaging. Marc J. Wallace, a founding partner of the Center for Workforce Effectiveness in Northbrook, 111., says that Workplace absenteeism hits 7-year high, costs millions She wrote that she suspected the glitch was a deliberate attempt to cause problems for Netscape. This summer, the chairman of Seattle-based RealNetworks complained at a Senate hearing that Microsoft deliberately designed its software to break his product.

Both programs let people watch video on the Internet. Ackerley Group to buy KION, sell KCBA By Marty Burleson The Californian The company that operates Salinas TV stations KION and KCBA intends to buy one and sell the other. The Ackerley Group, which provides programming and sales services for KION News Channel 46, this week announced plans to purchase the station from Harron Television of Monterey. It also intends to sell KCBA Fox 35 to Seal Rock Broadcasting while continuing to operate the station. The companies involved have yet to submit applications to the Federal Communications Commission, which must approve the transactions.

The deals would not alter the fact that two Salinas TV stations, which have different on-air personnel, are operated jointly. That arrangement was criticized when, in 1996, Harron turned the operation of KION then known as KCCN over to Seattle-based Ackerley. Ackerley Group officials responded that the two stations do not represent a single voice, as critics alleged, but have independent newsrooms. Terms of the planned transactions were not announced. The move to purchase KION is a natural step for the Ackerley Group, confirming our commitment to provide the best local news and community service, Denis Curley, the Ackerley Group co-president and chief financial officer, said in a written statement.

KION is the regions CBS affiliate. News viewership has increased from 8.9 percent of all market households in 1996 to 21.2 percent in July of this year, according to the statement. The two transactions will not affect the jobs of Ackerley Group employees at the two stations, according to the statement. The Ackerley Group owns or operates 10 TV stations in California, Colorado, New York and Washington. Its also involved in outdoor advertising and sports and entertainment.

Dow rises 59.99 points The Associated Press Stocks ended higher Friday, withstanding pressures to take profits from a rally thats lifted the Dow back toward 9,000 and a potential run at record highs. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 59.99, or 0.67 percent, to 8,975.46. to maintain those close bonds, through phone calls and getting them in the office a couple of days a week. Management must be very proactive in this area. They must find ways to reach out and provide personal development and meaningful opportunities to people.

He warned that if an employer begins to believe a good relationship with a worker is deteriorating into a series of mind-numbing e-mails and voice mails, then action should be taken immediately to reassess how work is being done. Remember that technology is just a tool. Its only one way of creating value. Remember behind it is brains, and behind those brains is a heart. You cant lose sight of that.

ANITA BRUZZESE is a free-lance writer specializing in workplace issues. You may write her at 1001 Cooper Point Road S.W., Suite 140-110, Olympia, Wash. 98502. If you'd like a reply, include a self-addressed, stamped envelope. She and RHONDA M.

ABRAMS, who writes about small business issues, take turns writing a column Gannett News Service Employers are losing millions of dollars as unscheduled absences reach their highest levels in seven years, a survey of 401 human-resource officials found. Dollars lost to absenteeism have jumped 32 percent since last year, with large firms losing nearly $4 million. But instead of illness, family issues now are the most often-cited reason for time off. Other non-sickness reasons cited: stress and personal demands. Employee absenteeism jumped 25 percent since last year, according to the survey of absences from June 1997, to May 1998, by CCH, a provider of human resources and employment-law information.

The annual average cost of absenteeism rose from $572 per employee to as high as $757 in 1998, the survey said. The cost was figured from the employees pay and did not include such indirect costs as paying other workers overtime or hiring temporary workers. Companies of all sizes reported technology can derail the workplace Employers are asking people to give 110 percent. The problem is people cant do that. The whole idea is to create a culture that supports work-life balance, not an overemphasis on face time.

Paul Gibson, executive editor at CCH mounting costs for unplanned time off, with mid-size firms especially hard hit. I've stayed home when I'm not really sick, said Matt Carson, a director at a publishing firm in Charlottesville, Va. "I only do that when I know I can. said Karen Morrell, managing director of human resources for the Americas region. She said that in order for the employees who operate from virtual offices to stay on track and not feel isolated, each project is connected directly to an individual career development plan.

In addition, each worker has a counselor usually a partner or a senior manager at the home office so that back at the ranch they have someone that they can talk to, she said. Were a high-tech, high-touch company. That means youve got to care for the people no matter here they are, no matter their level. Everyone contributes to the business, and youve got to respect everyones opinion. Deloitte further nurtures that attitude with a Managers Advisory Council that selects different managers from various areas of the company to participate in a sort of whats going on session annually.

This year, the 15 managers made a 10-minute video to show new recruits and other employees what makes the company unique. there is a very real threat of employees losing touch with managers and co-workers and business goals when technology is abused. Instead of using it as a business tool to improve efficiency, it seems the workplace is being swamped by useless information generated by the overuse of e-mails and voice mails, and by the growing inability of people to communicate face-to-face. And that makes it more important than ever that companies recognize the signs of technology abuse, and focus on keeping that one-on-one connection to the workforce. One company trying to do just that is Deloitte Consulting in Dallas.

With its employees often on the road, operating from locations around the world, the professional services firm has found that a third Friday program has helped keep employees connected and morale high. Every third Friday, no matter where a person is, they come back to their home office so that they know where their roots are. We want them to connect to their peers and partners,.