alien N ATION ^age^Q^ThuKda^Febmar^j^QQ attlligh-tech disaster during antitrust trial ' m s nised by simple mistake, Microsoft says I 5J(ppt'«ARHINCTON (AP) — Mi- istitutiom ;°5S s f d Wednesday a simple , , takr caused a high-tech video GATES lonstration to go awry at its an- istltrial in a lemocrats rtroom fiasco. aucoii in ^ senior vice .>d article jid^nt, Janies yrd of Wes ;h i|, testified rgued forceti t^e demon- caucus di tion Monday ealcd tainted must ansaule unrelat- 3yrd wrote: ;oftware from nt is guilt, inline service misdemeam; removed from the company’s r he shot: compnter, causing a subtle i office. nge * n how the title of one pro- his burden n looked. f senators fc Jut ‘bin insisted that the to convict ra " 1 iesu lts were valid, it having to wing™ government efforts to for rente W Microsoft’s Windows 98 would, in e w f^ h ^ n c h a , used dra j T ‘ntic per- t he nan ce Problems and disabled ie functions. nenTs^to had believed that its tal demonstration would be an ctive rebuttal of the be aggressn govern- using rival software. But in one of the trial’s most sensational moments, Justice De partment lawyer David Boies stopped the video in midframe Tiiesday to reveal an inconsistency barely perceptible among the pix els: the border showing the brows er’s name was different in one part of the video than in another. Boies charged — and Allchin agreed — that the subtle change in the border, called the title bar, in dicated that Microsoft’s test actual ly used a version of Windows un affected by the government’s modifications. But Wednesday, Allchin said the change resulted in the removal of online software from Prodigy Com munications Corp., which affected only the disputed title bar by delet ing a system setting, called a reg istry key. “When Prodigy is uninstalled, it changes the key,” Allchin told the judge. “It actually deletes it.” Allchin said Microsoft flew the af fected computer and some of its en gineering team from its West Coast headquarters to Washington aboard a commercial jet late Tbesday. “David (Boies) got a big bang on a very trivial issue,” Microsoft lawyer Michael Lacovara said. Boies, who didn’t mention the video in court Wednesday, said previously that there was no evi dence the demonstration was de liberately altered. “Whether it was deliberate or a result of incompetence, the video evolutionary drug can treat — if patients can afford it point, \ etter let nn, ^ e it’s 1 Inims that its Internet e § y ’k 6 53 w|r s ° ftw ?re could be easily to otter ar. iovt d from Windows 98. ^•n j the mnpany video shows its ,vill do that ws ef running dramatically luit <1 ; ^0^ jttti tno government tri6d ould pass. ti sa l lle m ost Internet functions Democrat yipi toWS - Iowa, sufprhc issue is key because the t could bep:erii |n ^ nt . that Mi- nate to deejofi’ 5 ^ orces consumers ?en guilty oito W 1 ' Windows also to use its ict. wST’ dlsc ° ura ging-them from x Baucus, tf i5 "' ter objection motive here, idings of fac ard ... it will t cr another: subsequent c eleaie of t: iVA^ 1 lAP) — Dr. Scott Baumgartner has apes could >d f ° r his - elderl y Patients with I of p.blicu^t'^ ™ 1 ^evolutionary new drug can 56, si me the At ^ H c ^' e woA’tnl f° StS UP t0 $1 ’ 00 ° 3 m ° nth ,, ,1,^ .^,,^1 ' won t pay for it — or any prescription ‘Tt’p a ^bame to have to say, ‘Well, here’s this med- they ve all read about it, they know it might ■ ,, n , ) tb em ~. but you can’t do it,’” Baumgartner said. V i ' iod ie P atients 111 bis Spokane, Wash., practice are whether th e drug, Enbrel, for a few weeks at a time as ild be pe-mittejB^n afford it. Others simply stay with inferior the tape; dun fjgnts. intents, le>ji Mjjcare, the government health insurance pro- t if you tegoit-pfor 39 million elderly and disabled Americans, m, you b-ttet ne ver paid for prescriptions. ?•” jj-gkident Clinton as well as many Republicans jld bke to change that. But the costs could be ntjng f° r a program already facing a shaky finan- fuiure. > dru g s are am °ng the greatest medical ad- ce f in recent years, reducing heart attacks and can- • geath 8 and even slowing the progress of AIDS. As 1C sillt. the lack of prescription coverage is becoming | Her problem. • i 1 Tf elderly Americans are not getting the medicines nne tlfy need, it’s costing the nation a lot of dollars for in- C ased medical care,” said Dr. Raymond Woosley, • -I oiieads the pharmacology department at George- igl r n University Medical Center. Hjibrel is an extreme example. But the costs of old- GTON (A 5 ) Irugs also can add up: one common blood thinner ublic is wcmofjd to avoid blood clots in heart and stroke patients iment procissata $60 a month and a common heart drug $180. :al of the Sffiit- er ^ mer * cans ta k e five or six prescription drugs on President CiiP ra 8 e - , . ,, , II released Vfei£iP ton b as sai d be wants to add drug coverage to ’re mostly hr d i care — assuming he and lawmakers can find a iccordine to V t0 ensure fb e program can provide the benefits it York Times B - ady P romises - lit- I The president has suggested using some of the ex- Is time forRt'i ’' ted f edera ' budget surplus for Medicare. Even so, ^ . In ,' 1 /’ ■ e ' dicare is expected to run short of cash as the huge leir^egislitiV )y boom generation retires, entering the program in md unease wt e continungi:™" :———:—: will hurt the ^ In Collms 97,nv,tes P ot/ to - i the 2000elect. SMITH FIREARMS/ conservativeS/ICKSON CREEK GUN RANGE ed said thtwa) 409-589-1093 Republicans lii 1: latter woild f epublican (an# |< fie & Pistol Range Skeet Practice ELECTRIC SKEET MACHINE pci^ir;9R was wrong,” Boies said. Three computer experts — two young men in their early 20s and their former college professor — found the discrepancy for the gov ernment the weekend Microsoft made a copy available. The experts — Edward Felten of Princeton University and his for mer students — noticed the prob lem almost immediately, even though Microsoft’s computer talent and its high-priced lawyers missed it. The Justice Department invited Felten and his two young col leagues Wednesday to sit in the courtroom’s front row. Even with Microsoft’s explana tion, the debacle caused the com pany serious problems in how its legal fight is perceived. The Wall Street Journal wrote that the trial defense is “reeling from a series of courtroom setbacks.” And Rich Gray, a California an titrust lawyer analyzing the case daily for the San Jose Mercury News, wrote: “The last time the United States government inflicted this much punishment on a foe, the evening news was filled with aeri al photography of bombed-out ve hicles and burning Iraqi tanks on the highway leading out of Kuwait City.’ ’ Gray acknowledged he was tak ing “poetic license,” but said: “When you bring in a piece of ev idence into a federal courtroom, that evidence most definitely should be what you say it is.” waves around 2010. That has members of a commission advising the president and Congress on Medicare searching for op tions. “People would like to have a drug program if we can find a way to pay for it,” said Sen. John Breaux, D-La. The government estimates about two-thirds of se nior citizens have some drug coverage. Most get it through retiree health benefits offered by former em ployers, or through supplemental policies known as Medigap that they buy on their own. Others get coverage through the small number of Medicare HMOs, or through Medicaid public assis tance for the poor. But the percentage of large companies offering health benefits to their retirees has dropped by 20 per cent in the 1990s. A recent Consumer Reports study found Medigap prices have gone up as much as a third. Meanwhile, HMOs squeezed by Medicare’s cost cutting are curbing drug reimbursements offered as perks to attract the elderly, or limiting them to cheap er generic or older brand-name drugs. The result: The newest drugs, expensive because they’re developed at tremendous cost to companies trying to return profits to investors, are out of reach for many. Nevertheless, there is mounting evidence that Medicare will actually lose money in the long run if the elderly cannot get the best medicine. One recent study, for example, attributed a rash of broken hips to retirees taking older antidepressants, which are cheaper but can cause a drop in blood pres sure and thus dizziness, Woosley said. Newer but more expensive antidepressants don’t affect blood pressure as much. “A prescription drug costs an awful lot less than a hospitalization,” Woosley said. But the upfront expense of paying drug costs for the elderly is daunting. One government estimate found that adding even a modest benefit — having Medicare pay, for example, 75 percent of their drug bills — would cost at least $20 billion a year. • ■ WE’RE BACK! ■ • • ■ AND EVEN BETTER ■ • • ■i DCI BIOLOGICALS w ■ ■ • formerly Westgate Plasma Center • ■ ■ Same Great Location • • Same Great Service ■ ■ A Great New Look • V ■ • ■ COME CHECK US OUT! Donate Life-Saving Plasma and Earn $150 Per Month at: 4223 WELLBORN RD. 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