The Bangor Daily News from Bangor, Maine • 4

Business NflEM WEDNESDAY MAY ft 1MB $anQor Daily Xnus Frontiervision: Software virus a pain CYNTHIA RICHMOND has recently joined Nancy Marshall oakes files difficult to locate It was alarming first but By Anar Muni was meant to aid towns and cities 01 Ma NEWS SM ti JM MM thero5oa jaigatbte agrifiat Jj ties appear to have had an easier town got a copy of McAfee a combine with the software nuisance puter virus detector treat the Scott alcove tea manager of cable company FiaotaavsMa aha Milford said he got bahted Ms has offered to send computer ape-work and lee-W about the vims oahsts to any affected ctmnaaatt rra uve before be evvu loader! the the disk In old coaxial cable state- sane town omaaJs con- mat we nave caused said Ather tamed the virus by deietmg a ful of files said Town Dot "First of all it's a toprimMi tut Peter A then on ions Faulty program caused area towns minor problems said Orrington Town Manager Dexter Johnson "I'd call it a pain-in-the-butt virus" Johnson said he brought the disk home and eliminated the virus with a conventional software program vouth mar i manager of governmental i for Frontiervision Sec of-the-art fiber-optic cable Unlike the more potent highly publtcraed viruses that eat files and destroy hard drives the one found on the Frontiervision software was relatively benign Known alternately as the prank virus or the concept virus this strain attaches itself exclusively to Microsoft Word documents By changing documents to templates Richmond keting firm In her nea Atherton was unaware of the virus' origin but said that he first detected it on two used in his Rockland office Atherton applied a virus-cleaning program to an initial shipment of disks earmarked for the consortium Nonetheless the virus lived on "We may not have used fresh disks for everyone" he explained William Reed And Orono Toons Manager Gerald Kempen said that computers there were spared when the virus was caught by a conventional detection program "We do things right in Orono" he quipped So far Orrington is the only community to have reported a sig- it's really role at Nancy Marshall Com us because it shouldn't I The software sent to the group of Frontiervision customers known as the Bangor Consortium municatkm Richmond will be coordinating projects for gancy cheats including Sug-arloafUSA Maine Office of Tourism Maine Office of Business Development Northern Outdoors Maine Education Services and Western Mountains Alliance THOMAS WTLHELM has been appointed managing director of MossEurope the first expansion for Moss Inc of Belfast a manufac Creative compost company booms Firm uses fish and blueberry waste turer of frame and fabric exhibits for the trade-show industry Before joining Moss in 1995 Wilhelm was vice president of Camden National Bank in dflaHaaaaH ami 'M HA Ww Belfast He also Wilhelm has held assistant vice presidencies at Peoples Heritage Bank in Rockland and First Union Bank in Gainesville Fla Wilhelm is a graduate of the University of Florida DEBRA CURTIS of Belfast has been appointed sales manager of Moss Inc Curtis is a graduate of the University of Maine She joined Moss in 1994 as a sales assistant ami was promoieu to Qifnnnt Avaulira in NISSA REMSEN and ROBIN SMITH both of Camden have served basis When a private businessman opened a composting operation in Addison Preston said he decided it was time for the county to get out of the business The county put the composting operation out to bid and Coast of Maine was the lowest bidder Preston and Coast of Maine wrote a successful community development block grant to get the operation started Preston said Washington County receives a minimum of $10000 a year or $25 for every cubic yard of compost that Coast of Maine produces at the site up to 400 yards Beyond the initial 400 yards the county receives $5 a cubic yard he said Quijano said the recipe for Penobscot Blend was developed by Dr Will Brinton an international authority on composting soil and organic gardening from the Woods End Research Laboratories in Mount Vernon Brinton incorporated salmon and wild blueberry waste mussel culls and peat moss to produce the material "What we were looking for was a way to compost those wastes and package the material in such a way that it could be sold at a premium throughout the Northeast" Quijano said The first year Coast of Maine produced 250 tons of the material This year they expect to double that amount and double it again next year Quijano said In addition to Penobscot Blend Coast of Maine has developed Cobscook Blend a potting soil joined Moss Inc as sales assis tants A ceramics artist and jewelry designer Remsen is a former partner of Remsen Studios in Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates (right) gestures while speaking at a company-organized event Tuesday In Now York Gates was Joined by more than 50 representatives of the personal computer industry to emphasize the importance of an on-schedule release of Microsoft's Windows 98 operating system next month (AP Photo) Gates pushes for Windows 98 Microsoft event tries to sway probable delay of software release i Lirviivi fir i aim viaiLiiiie ni Ltai aim a instructor in local schools Remsen graduated from the University of Southern Maine Previously Smith was advertising production manager at Down East Enterprise in Camden I i 1 1 By Mary Anne Clancy Of the NEWS Staff MARION TOWNSHIP If fish waste and leaves from wild blueberries don't strike you as upscale ingredients take a look at a bag of Penobscot Blend from this Washington County composting facility The packaging for the premium soil enhancer bears a watercolor of Penobscot Bay by Maine artist Eric Hopkins A fiercely loyal customer base for the product is making money for both Coast of Maine Enterprises Inc of Portland and Washington County according to Coast of Maine President Carlos Quijano "We're staggered by the response" Quijano said "This material is consistently high quality it reuses and recycles waste from important Maine industries and the fact that it is from Maine resonates with people" On May 14 Quijano will join the Washington County Commissioners and Calvin Preston the supervisor of Washington County's unorganized territories for an open house at the company's expanded operation on county-owned land next to the Marion Township transfer station In the last two years Coast of Maine has paved much of the composting area constructed a shed to store sawdust and put up a bagging building Quijano said Coast of Maine will begin bagging on-site sometime this spring and expects to create six to eight new jobs Preston convinced the Washington County commissioners to develop the 5-acre composting operation for fish wastes from Washington County aquaculture farms in 1993 Most of Washington County's old landfills had closed the previous year and many companies were turning to unlicensed dump sites because the landfills were no longer available Preston said For the next 32 years the county maintained the site mixing fish waste and sawdust to produce a compost that was sold to county residents for a nominal fee on a first-come first- wnere sue uirecieu au uesign aim i production for Down East and six I i i sister magazines ane grauuateu from Tufts University SANJAY LAMBA MD has joined the staff at Northern Maine Medical Center as an internist working out of the Madawaska Outpatient Center at 105 St Thomas St A native of India Lamba received his medical degree from the University against the world's largest maker of personal computer software About a dozen states are expected to decide by mid-May whether to take action separate from the Justice Department which has charged Microsoft with using its dominance as a maker of operating software to illegally shut out rivals Microsoft wants to continue integrating new features into its software such as the Internet browser it plans to weave into Windows 98 Microsoft foes including software makers Oracle and Netscape contend the company is vastly overstating the economic impact of any delay Consumers aren't clamoring for the software update they say and only a handful of high-tech companies such as makers of game joysticks likely will suffer "This is really amazing They're likening a delay in Windows 98 to something like a meteor hitting the earth and wiping out the dinosaurs" said Oracle chairman Larry Ellison a staunch Microsoft foe who happened to also be in Manhattan heads of Compaq the largest personal computer maker and CompUSA the biggest chain of computer stores But the event in some ways gave Microsoft's critics more ammunition to argue that the company's dominance in the technology industry has grown too great Sen Orrin Hatch R-Utah who is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and held hearings earlier this year into Microsoft's business practices accused the Redmond Wash company of twisting executives' arms "I cannot help but wonder how many of these executives are on that stage because they truly want to be" Hatch said on the Senate floor Tuesday "It strikes me as curious that it was only after calls from Microsoft that many of these individuals saw fit to sign letters and make public appearances" The event widened the fault lines in the debate over what action if any should be taken The Associated Press NEW YORK Move over General Motors Bill Gates says what's good for Microsoft is good for America In a pro-Microsoft event laced with patriotic superlatives the software maker's chairman argued Tuesday that any attempt to block the mid-May release of its new Windows 98 software would hurt "the most vibrant industry in the economy" "It would be like telling GM they cannot come out with any new cars this fall" Gates told reporters amid speeches from fellow high-tech leaders and a demonstration of Windows 98's features "No industry is doing more to move America forward" The splashy event orchestrated by Microsoft was part of a last-ditch effort to sway antitrust officials from taking action that would delay the software's mid-May release More than 50 representatives of the computer industry showed up including the College of Medical Sciences Delhi University India He completed a three-year residency in internal medicine at Grant Hospital of Chicago affili that uses peat and bark as well as blueberry and salmon waste The Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association had certified Cobscook Blend for growing organic products he said Cobscook Blend potting soil sells in both 60 pound bags and the five pound sacks available at LL Bean and shops in downtown Manhattan he said Coast of Maine is also using mussel shells to develop an organic bulb fertilizer that will repel rather than attract rodents and a variation of Penobscot Blend that can be used as a seed starter Quijano said ated with Rush Lamba Presbyterian St Luke's Medical Center in Chicago Since 1995 he completed a fellowship in nephrology the study of the kidney and associated diseases at Loyola University Medical Center in Chicago Lamba is board certified in internal medicine and is a member of the American Medical Association the American College of Physicians and the American Society of Nephrology He is licensed to practice medicine in Illinois and Maine HEATHER WALKER PhD has joined the staff of Aroostook Mental Health Center in Fort Kent as a therapist consultant providing outpatient and psychological testing services Walker received her undergraduate degree at Dalhousie NY group buys Bangor's Channel 7 El Nino's heavy rains hurt restaurants9 Caesar market Centro at the Mill a Tuscany-style Italian spot in Greenwich Conn has been getting by for the past week by using other types of lettuce such as red leaf or baby greens For those Centro guests who insist on romaine there's a $2 surcharge California supplies nearly 80 percent of the nation's romaine The heavy rains delayed planting university in Halifax Nova Scotia and her master's degree in psychology from the University of Calgary in Alberta She also pursued postgraduate studies or killed seedlings And many of the crops that did survive were attacked by fungus because of the By Michael McDonald Of the NEWS Staff BANGOR The area's perennial underdog television station has come under new ownership in a deal between an upstart New York City investment group that has acquired the company that has owned WVII-TV since 1982 The Channel 7 ABC-TV affiliate has traditionally finished last in viewership in the Bangor area and has been rumored as a likely candidate for sale in the past The deal between Rockfleet Broadcasting Inc of New York and the Chicago 111 Seaway Communications Inc is estimated by a number of inside sources at about $15 million Under the terms of the deaj released by new management at WVII-TV Rockfleet and Seaway will merge and Rockfleet will take over the Chicago group's ABC stations in Bangor and RhinelanderWausau Wise "It's not going to be a revolution over here It's an evolution" said WVH's new station manager Dan Havens describing the changes in store for the Bangor station Havens a former software salesman from Denver Colo who has previous experience in broadcast sales replaces Bernard Chase at WVII Chase is an 18-year veteran of the station who took over the reins as general manager in 1993 Chase saw the station through some difficult periods and heavy personnel turnover on the news desk Seaway Communications was known for closely managing the station and keeping the news department on a tighter budget than the area's competing stations While not willing to comment on his departure Chase said the station had been improving in the past couple of years particularly on the financial side showing healthier profits after some slim years in the early 1990s The new management's only pressing concern Havens said is replacing news director and anchor Dale Dixon who is leaving after three years for a television anchor and reporting job in Boise Idaho Last year WVII-TV had a 12 percent share of the local market while competitors at the NBC-TV affiliate WLBZ Channel 2 and the CBS-TV affiliate WABI-TV Channel 5 had overall shares in the low 20s "The station has always been an underdog" commented Melvin Stone who helped found WVII in 1965 "They haven't had the same budget as other stations but technically they rate fine" Rockfleet Broadcasting Inc is an investment group set up last year to assemble a portfolio of broadcasting stations The principals in the group are Joseph Fuchs and Robert Farrow both of New York The Seaway acquisition is the group's first standing water The Associated Press BOYNTON BEACH Fla -From coast to coast El Nino is making it easy for restaurant diners to decide whether it will be the house salad or the Caesar Heavy rains last February wiped out the romaine lettuce crop on many farms in California forcing some eateries including all 4500 Wendy's restaurants nationwide to drop Caesar salads from the menu Other restaurants are managing to find romaine but they're passing on the higher cost to customers Ana Pava had hoped for a Caesar salad but settled for one made with iceberg lettuce at a Wendy's in West Palm Beach She regretted it "I'm not a vegetable eater but Caesar is a salad that gives people a sauce so I can eat it" she said As for the iceberg salad on her tray she said "I got it but I'm not going to eat it I'll give it to my husband'' Like many other restaurants While other types of lettuce also were affected romaine was the hardest hit The result: Wholesale prices of romaine shot from about $10 a case to $50 according to the US Department of Agriculture Walker at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City In 1995 she received her PhD in psychology with a concentration in child development Before joining AMHC she entered a postdoctoral degree program for respecialization in counseling psychology which she completed in 1997 At AMHC Walker's responsibilities will be to provide counseling and therapy to children families adults couples and groups Ken McConnell manager of culinary development for the Ruby Tuesday restaurant chain at its headquarters in Birmingham Ala said a restaurant manager from New Jersey found a case of romaine for $72 He normally pays $12.