Computer Software

Big-screen wizard Steven Spielberg is turning his attention from the movie screen to the computer screen. The Oscar-winning director has agreed to help Knowledge Adventure Inc. develop educational computer software for children. Spielberg said he was impressed with the company's founder and chairman, Bill Gross. "Our sons are about the same age, and we are both devoting our energies to creating great experiences for them," Spielberg said in a statement. "I'm anxious to participate in innovative, enriching educational software.

A Tredyffrin Township man has been cleared of charges that he used software to spy on his wife. While the couple were divorcing, Jay Anthony Ciccarone, 39, allegedly installed the program Web Watcher on her computer to read her e-mails. His attorney, Ellen Brotman, argued that prosecutors could not prove why Ciccarone used the software. At a pretrial proceeding last Friday, Chester County Judge James P. MacElree II dismissed charges of unlawful use of a computer, intercepting communications - both felonies - and unlawfully accessing stored communications, a misdemeanor.

With hundreds of employees, $155 million in revenues, and software that's used to engineer some of the world's most elaborate construction projects, Exton's Bentley Systems Inc. doesn't want to be known simply as a family company. But when a software firm has five brothers from Wilmington in its executive suite, three of whom are engineers and all of whom are under 43 years old, one can't help but take notice. President and chairman Greg Bentley jokes that perhaps he and his brothers started making software because they didn't inherit their father's ability to work with his hands.

The city Board of Ethics is delaying the start of a new lobbyist registration and disclosure program until early next year, the result of snags in developing computer software. Under the new deadlines, people who spend significant time or money trying to influence City Council actions or administrative policy will have to register sometime after Jan. 3 - technically, within 10 days after they spend 20 hours or $2,500 trying to lobby city officials. The first spending reports from lobbyists will be due in April, covering the first quarter of 2012.

There's a quiet revolution going on at the Haverford Township Free Library that started in the 1980s. First, books were moved closer together on the shelves to make room for videotapes. Then came audio books, followed closely by stacks of musical compact discs. In the last few weeks, another new item began competing with the printed word for attention - computer software. "This is the new frontier," said Haverford reference librarian Sue Vision, standing before a wall of computer software title boxes.

If you are looking for a real bargain, check out the computer software clearance bins. This time of the year, you might find software programs selling for as little as $5 that used to fetch $40 or more. Kmart, Wal-Mart, Target and other discount stores slash the prices on old computer software programs in the summer to make room for fall titles. But don't expect to find Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia, a $300 reference program, or Lotus 1-2-3, a $495 financial spreadsheet program.

A lawsuit pitting Montgomery County's commissioners against its independently elected auditor has been dropped. Controller Stewart Greenleaf Jr., a Republican elected in November, said he would not continue legal action started by his predecessor, Democrat Diane Morgan, last year. Morgan - who clashed frequently with the commissioners during her sole term in office - alleged they had failed to provide her office adequate funding to carry out its duties of reviewing the books for county departments, row offices, and district courts.

Morton C. Jacobs, 76, a Philadelphia patent lawyer who did groundbreaking work in patenting computer hardware and software, died Monday at Kennedy Memorial Hospitals-University Medical Center/Stratford. A Haddon Township resident for 40 years, he previously resided in Cherry Hill. He was born and raised in New York City. Mr. Jacobs was generally held to have been the first lawyer to obtain a patent for computer software. For years, he was a partner in the law firm of Millman & Jacobs in Philadelphia, and, in 1991, he became counsel to Volpe & Koenig.

The Montgomery County commissioners yesterday awarded a $1.5 million contract to a Florida company for computer software to run the county's new 911 dispatch center. The agreement with EAI Systems Inc. of Clearwater includes about $1,097,000 for the software itself and roughly $406,000 for a five-year software- maintenance agreement. County officials had originally budgeted about $1.3 million for the computer software. The balance of the installation of the 911 system will cost about $4.5 million, officials said, exclusive of annual operating costs.

A Tredyffrin Township man has been cleared of charges that he used software to spy on his wife. While the couple were divorcing, Jay Anthony Ciccarone, 39, allegedly installed the program Web Watcher on her computer to read her e-mails. His attorney, Ellen Brotman, argued that prosecutors could not prove why Ciccarone used the software. At a pretrial proceeding last Friday, Chester County Judge James P. MacElree II dismissed charges of unlawful use of a computer, intercepting communications - both felonies - and unlawfully accessing stored communications, a misdemeanor.

At 2025 Washington Ave., on a wide South Philly street lined with stone and pipe dealers, crews have spent the last two months laying concrete footings, installing heating, cooling, and ventilating equipment, soundproofing, wiring, winching, piping, and preparing to install computer-controlled plasma cutters, lathes, grinders, robotic painters, 3D printers, and other cutting-edge machines, for an inventors' dream workshop. Its owners hope it will revive Philadelphia manufacturing for digital times.

A lawsuit pitting Montgomery County's commissioners against its independently elected auditor has been dropped. Controller Stewart Greenleaf Jr., a Republican elected in November, said he would not continue legal action started by his predecessor, Democrat Diane Morgan, last year. Morgan - who clashed frequently with the commissioners during her sole term in office - alleged they had failed to provide her office adequate funding to carry out its duties of reviewing the books for county departments, row offices, and district courts.

The city Board of Ethics is delaying the start of a new lobbyist registration and disclosure program until early next year, the result of snags in developing computer software. Under the new deadlines, people who spend significant time or money trying to influence City Council actions or administrative policy will have to register sometime after Jan. 3 - technically, within 10 days after they spend 20 hours or $2,500 trying to lobby city officials. The first spending reports from lobbyists will be due in April, covering the first quarter of 2012.

For years, Philadelphia's troubled effort to transform its water-billing system symbolized little but bureaucratic bumbling and communication failures. But after a massive overhaul, the initiative code-named Project Ocean may be morphing into a tale of success, one that is soon to be retold nationally. "This is a story that had a bad beginning and a good ending," city chief information officer Terry M. Phillis said yesterday. Begun in 2002, Project Ocean was an attempt to replace 30-year-old computer software the city used to bill 600,000 customers of the Philadelphia Water Department.

Lockheed Martin Corp.'s Advanced Technology Laboratories in Cherry Hill received a $1.3 million contract yesterday to develop computer software that helps military commanders anticipate crises that could turn violent. The contract is for the first phase of a new system called "predicting stability through analyzing germane events," or PRESAGE. It was awarded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The Cherry Hill unit will spend the next 15 months integrating proven social-science models and evaluating data from military, economic, diplomatic and other sources.

The plan was promising: train Russia's nuclear scientists to make computer software - helping world peace and, maybe, making money at the same time. U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon, with old friend John J. Gallagher by his side, presided at a 2001 event announcing what was billed as a major step in stopping the spread of nuclear weapons. "Hoping Software Will Help Keep the Peace" was the headline in the magazine Science. The federal government has spent $1.4 million on the project, which has fallen short of expectations - training far fewer Russian scientists than expected and failing to develop marketable software.

Lewis Ballew has diabetes and is waiting for a heart transplant. He tried keeping track of his complicated 10-year medical history on computer spreadsheets and lists, but he never had all his health information in one place. Neither did his doctors - cardiology test results, glucose levels and prescriptions could be spread across several floors of the hospital - until now. Ballew now uses Thomas Jefferson University Hospital's computer software to put all his health data on his home computer.

An eye-in-the-sky view of Washington spreads across an 18-foot-wide video screen in Exton to show the hypothetical movements of fire trucks, medevac helicopters, and far-off communication satellites that might respond to a disaster or act of terrorism. The complex display last week in the theaterlike boardroom of Analytical Graphics Inc. was a demonstration of the latest version of the company's computer software, which has also been used to map spaceflights, and even to track Santa's sleigh.