Acer

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Personal computers are a lot like cars -- buy the newest model today and in two years it will be nearly obsolete.That "built-in" obsolescence can be so frustrating to buyers that some just postpone a purchase rather than buying and repenting later when the newer models come out.But the buying decision may be a bit easier in the future because Intel Corp. and Acer America Corp. have come up with what some are calling an "insurance policy" for personal computer buyers.Later this year, Santa Clara, Calif.

Aaron Shepard bought his Acer Ferrari 4005 WLMi laptop for $2,250 about three years ago to take to Columbia University. Too bad the 21-year-old law student from Catonsville soon discovered the purchase was a "fatal error" on his part. Within six months, the top-of-the-line laptop simply stopped working, the recovery program was MIA, and "fatal error" messages kept popping up on the screen. Shepard had no choice but to ship it back to Acer's headquarters in California for repair. Little did he know that he was dealing with a soul-sucking electronic hydra that would defy all fixes and test his patience and wallet.

SAN DIEGO -- Acer Inc. has long tried to get a foothold in the United States, but giants like Dell Inc. and Hewlett Packard Co. have constantly tripped up the Taiwanese computer maker. Yesterday, Acer opened a back door into the market, buying Gateway Inc. to instantly become the No. 3 PC seller behind HP and Dell, both in the United States and internationally. Acer's $710 million purchase of Irvine, Calif.-based Gateway marks a final chapter for a pioneer in the U.S. personal computer business whose once iconic cow-spotted boxes and "Gateway Country Stores" harkened back to its all-American roots on an Iowa farm.

SAN DIEGO -- Acer Inc. has long tried to get a foothold in the United States, but giants like Dell Inc. and Hewlett Packard Co. have constantly tripped up the Taiwanese computer maker. Yesterday, Acer opened a back door into the market, buying Gateway Inc. to instantly become the No. 3 PC seller behind HP and Dell, both in the United States and internationally. Acer's $710 million purchase of Irvine, Calif.-based Gateway marks a final chapter for a pioneer in the U.S. personal computer business whose once iconic cow-spotted boxes and "Gateway Country Stores" harkened back to its all-American roots on an Iowa farm.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- A Fort Pierce, Fla., woman who is the first person ever to claim that she contracted AIDS from a dentist has won a $1 million settlement from the late dentist's insurance company.Kim Bergalis, 22, got the award yesterday from CNA Insurance Co., which wrote Dr. David Acer's $1 million dental malpractice insurance policy. The settlement came a day before the company's time had expired to contest Bergalis' claims that she contracted AIDS from Acer when he removed her wisdom teeth in December 1987.

FLORENCE, Italy -- It was one of the most dumbfounding mysteries of the AIDS epidemic -- the case of the dentist who infected his patients. And a major study was launched to solve it.This week, the disease detective who heads up that investigation delivered his findings.Standing before an audience of more than 500 people at the Seventh International Conference on AIDS, Harold Jaffe, one of the most respected epidemiologists at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, had to admit defeat. He simply could not explain how the dentist had infected five patients with acquired immune-deficiency syndrome.

Aaron Shepard bought his Acer Ferrari 4005 WLMi laptop for $2,250 about three years ago to take to Columbia University. Too bad the 21-year-old law student from Catonsville soon discovered the purchase was a "fatal error" on his part. Within six months, the top-of-the-line laptop simply stopped working, the recovery program was MIA, and "fatal error" messages kept popping up on the screen. Shepard had no choice but to ship it back to Acer's headquarters in California for repair. Little did he know that he was dealing with a soul-sucking electronic hydra that would defy all fixes and test his patience and wallet.

STUART, Fla. -- A Michigan woman has filed a claim against the estate of dentist David Acer, reserving her right to sue for negligence if tests prove the dentist infected her with the AIDS virus when she was his patient.The claim comes just days after CNA, holder of the dentist's $1 million malpractice insurance policy, rejected a settlement offer from Kimberly Bergalis, 22, the Florida woman whose claim that the dentist infected her with AIDS prompted hundreds of the dentist's former patients to have AIDS tests.

MIAMI -- It's a question that will not die: Did Stuart, Fla., dentist David Acer infect Kimberly Bergalis and five other patients with the AIDS virus before going to his grave?Four years after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta concluded that he did, a Miami Beach physician is assailing the scientific evidence the institute relied upon: DNA tests."The CDC evidence is not absolutely correct -- far from it," virologist Lionel Resnick said Friday. "Based on the findings, you can't conclude . . . Dr. Acer infected his patients."

FORT PIERCE, Fla. -- She has graced the cover of "People" magazine and been the featured speaker on such television programs as the "Today" show and "A Current Affair," but 22-year-old Kimberly Bergalis says what she'd really like to do in the next six months is take a hot-air balloon ride over the Swiss Alps or go sky-diving.Miss Bergalis, a Fort Pierce resident whose story was publicized across the country in September when health experts revealed she might have contracted acquired immune deficiency syndrome from her dentist, made a public appearance in her hometown last week.

For years, fall has been almost a gardening afterthought. We pour our creative energies into spring and summer but come fall, we troop up to New England for autumn's spicy colors. Which is kind of silly, since it could be argued that fall is the best season we've got here in Maryland. The trees here do a kaleidoscope number -- ever so slowly -- which gives us weeks to enjoy the view as we hurtle down the highways. And there are some wonderful shrubs, shrubby trees and woody perennials both native and non-native, to add gorgeous color to our gardens.

Everybody knows that Microsoft rarely innovates. You know the knock. While companies such as Apple Computer roll out bold and original hardware and software products, Microsoft relies on tweaks to its world-dominant Windows software. Of course, there's something to be said for this approach. Rather than launch some radical product, why not add a heap of features to a product that already has a loyal user base tens of millions deep? That's the philosophy that guided Microsoft in the development of its upcoming Tablet PC technology.

MIAMI -- It's a question that will not die: Did Stuart, Fla., dentist David Acer infect Kimberly Bergalis and five other patients with the AIDS virus before going to his grave?Four years after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta concluded that he did, a Miami Beach physician is assailing the scientific evidence the institute relied upon: DNA tests."The CDC evidence is not absolutely correct -- far from it," virologist Lionel Resnick said Friday. "Based on the findings, you can't conclude . . . Dr. Acer infected his patients."

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Personal computers are a lot like cars -- buy the newest model today and in two years it will be nearly obsolete.That "built-in" obsolescence can be so frustrating to buyers that some just postpone a purchase rather than buying and repenting later when the newer models come out.But the buying decision may be a bit easier in the future because Intel Corp. and Acer America Corp. have come up with what some are calling an "insurance policy" for personal computer buyers.Later this year, Santa Clara, Calif.

KIMBERLY BERGALIS died of AIDS at the age of 23. She was not a drug abuser who shared tainted intravenous needles, nor did she ever engage in unsafe sex. All she did was visit her dentist.Little could she have known that by the time she left his office, she would be infected with the AIDS virus that has now taken her life. Her dentist, Dr. David Acer of Stuart, Fla., knew that he had been carrying the AIDS virus for several years.Regrettably, most health-care organizations have joined forces to resist a reasonable proposal that is aimed at minimizing even further the admittedly rare likelihood of similar tragedies in the future.

STUART, Fla. -- It has been nearly 15 months since Dr. David J. Acer died of AIDS and perhaps doomed Kimberly Bergalis, one of his patients, to live -- and die -- as a poignant symbol of that disease.For all the medical investigations, intensive studies and heated debates about AIDS and AIDS testing that the case has generated, much remains unknown about how Bergalis and four other patients of Acer (pronounced ACK-er) came to be infected. Scientific certainty in the case has proved as elusive as a consensus over the value and need for widespread AIDS testing of health professionals.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Infection-control techniques used by a Florida dentist did not measure up to national Centers for Disease Control standards and may have led to AIDS infections in three of his patients, according to the final draft of a CDC report to be published tomorrow.Genetic tests "strongly suggest" that Dr. David Acer somehow infected three of his patients, including Kimberly Bergalis, 22, who is suing her insurance provider for sending her to Dr. Acer, Ms. Bergalis' lawyers said.

STUART, Fla. -- It has been nearly 15 months since Dr. David J. Acer died of AIDS and perhaps doomed Kimberly Bergalis, one of his patients, to live -- and die -- as a poignant symbol of that disease.For all the medical investigations, intensive studies and heated debates about AIDS and AIDS testing that the case has generated, much remains unknown about how Bergalis and four other patients of Acer (pronounced ACK-er) came to be infected. Scientific certainty in the case has proved as elusive as a consensus over the value and need for widespread AIDS testing of health professionals.

WASHINGTON -- Kimberly Bergalis, who is dying from AIDS contracted from her dentist, is coming to Capitol Hill after all.Later this month, Ms. Bergalis, 23, will plead before the Houshealth subcommittee for mandatory AIDS testing of health care workers.The Fort Pierce, Fla., woman originally had been set to testiftoday, but her appearance was postponed until Sept. 26 in what the subcommittee described as a scheduling conflict. The family Monday called the delay an effort to muzzle her.She doesn't know what her future holds, and this is possibly the last time she can openly speak out or at least appear out on what is important to her," George Bergalis, her father, said yesterday.

Washington. - It's hard to argue that patients don't have the right to know if their doctor has AIDS. The interesting question is why they have such a passionate wish to know. Of all the risks you face in your life, the chance of catching AIDS from your doctor is farcically small.Yet the country is riveted by it. The Senate recently voted 82-19 to send any doctor to jail for 10 years who operates on a patient without revealing if he is HIV-positive.Americans' irrationality when it comes to assessing risks -- especially very small risks of very bad outcomes -- is one of my favorite subjects.