Software

Kappa Publishing Co., the nation's largest producer of crossword-puzzle books and games, has sued one of its former executives, saying he plotted to steal secrets from the Ambler company and sell them to a competitor. In the lawsuit, which was filed Wednesday in Montgomery County Court, Kappa accuses Douglas Heller of using his knowledge of its puzzle-producing computer software to unfairly benefit a rival company. Kappa is seeking a court order protecting its exclusive right to the software, as well as damages in excess of $1 million.

Three University of Pennsylvania students have walked away from their Wharton and Engineering studies to launch a new college-software firm, Coursekit , based on a service they rolled out at Penn this year. Chief executive officer Joseph Cohen is (was!) a Wharton business school sophomore. Dan Getelman and Jim Grandpre had been studying engineering. "The time is right," Cohen told me. "I go to a good school. But I'm not really an academic type. I was half doing school and half doing the company.

Two information-technology employees of the Lower Merion School District have been placed on leave while an investigation continues into the use of remote surveillance software on student laptops. The two people authorized to activate the software - Michael Perbix, a network technician, and Carol Cafiero, information systems coordinator - were put on paid leave last week while lawyers and technicians examine how the remote system was used, The Inquirer learned yesterday. Lawyers for Cafiero and Perbix said their clients did nothing wrong.

In astronomy terms, a black hole is an irresistible gravitational field that draws in matter from across solar systems. Here in Pennsylvania, SAP AG may be the corporate equivalent - an economic force that pulls in dollars, jobs and growth. SAP is the giant business-software maker - "the Microsoft of Germany," as one computer scientist called it - that is locating its North and South American headquarters in Newtown Square. An explosion of 21st-century jobs is what development officials hope they've helped ignite in the suburbs of Philadelphia.

Bright students with mild reading, writing and motor-skills disabilities challenge Susan Gill of the Delaware County Intermediate Unit. Students who need an alternative to pencil and paper for writing assignments or a way to understand texts written above their reading level can be helped with electronic technology and classroom adaptations, she said. Bringing these kinds of solutions to students and teachers in Delaware County's 15 public school districts is the goal of her new project, the Assistive Technology Toolkit.

A contract that will wipe out a huge chunk of Chester County's year 2000 problem was unanimously approved by the county commissioners yesterday during a special session of the board. The $677,500 contract was awarded to PeopleSoft Inc., a California software designer that has developed programs especially for government. The county is buying programs that will efficiently handle a wide range of basic government operations from processing vouchers to inventory tracking. Many of these tasks are now done by hand with multiple paper copies.

With the notorious Y2K little more than two weeks away, the Philadelphia Gas Works finds itself in a millennial mess. Not only are there questions about how the date change will affect the company's computer software, but there's a growing furor over the city-owned utility's corporate participation, to the tune of $70,000, in the Millennium Philadelphia celebrations. PGW President Ben Hayllar says consumers have nothing to fear from a sudden stoppage of gas - the gas operations system has been thoroughly checked to make sure it won't crash on New Year's Day. But the business software is another matter.

Every year at the Consumer Electronics Show, software publishers announce the new computer games they hope will sell by the truckload for Christmas. At this year's show, held last month in Chicago, there was a noticeable lack of titles for the 12-year-old Apple II, replaced by row upon row of sequels and games for Nintendo lovers. Here are the new software products that caught my eye, listed by manufacturer: Absolute Entertainment: A Boy & His Blob is former Activision designer David Crane's first game for the Nintendo system.

Michael and Frank Sanchez are very patient men. They've had to be. The brothers have spent nearly three years talking to Polish bankers in an effort to sell them their company's software. Patience elsewhere in Eastern Europe has already paid off big for Sanchez Computer Associates Inc., founded by Michael Sanchez in 1980. Hungary's Magyar Hitel Bank is automating its Budapest headquarters and 93 branches with Sanchez banking and financial-management software. With about 600,000 customer accounts and 6,000 employees, it is Hungary's largest commercial bank.

Under the Big Bird- and Cookie Monster-bedecked water tower of Middletown Township, in a run-of-the-mill office park, lies Lower Bucks County's answer to Silicon Valley. Call it "Sesame Valley," say officials at Syncro Development Corp., a software-development and support company off Middletown Boulevard. "We pride ourselves on having a little niche on the East Coast," said company cofounder Harold Long, 61. Dale Van Aken, a 1973 Pennsbury High graduate, started the company with Long in 1989 and opened affiliate Syncro Technology Corp.