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Glitch at Verizon knocks thousands off Internet Several thousand Verizon customers in the Baltimore area were without Internet access for much of yesterday after a circuit board malfunctioned, a Verizon spokeswoman said. The glitch occurred during the late morning but was not caused by higher volume related to the presidential inauguration, according to spokeswoman Sandra Arnette. As of late afternoon, she said, technicians were still working to replace the board. Lorraine Mirabella CSX's 4th-quarter earnings fall 32% NEW YORK : Railroad operator CSX says its fourth-quarter earnings sank 32 percent from a year earlier, mostly as the result of a sizable writedown on the value of a resort the company owns.

HEWITT D. CRANE, 81 Early computer engineer Hewitt D. Crane, an early computer expert, died Tuesday of complications from Alzheimer's disease at his home in Portola Valley, Calif., said his wife, Suzanne Crane. Mr. Crane's career followed the arc of the early computing industry, starting in 1949 with a job at IBM's headquarters in New York City, where he was involved in the maintenance of an early IBM computer composed of 13,000 vacuum tubes and 25,000 relays. In 1952, he went to work at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., where he participated in a modification of the von Neumann computer, or JOHNNIAC, named for mathematician John von Neumann.

You don't speak Mandarin and you lose your wallet and your way in Shanghai, China. Pantomime and Pictionary aren't getting you anywhere. So, what do you do? International Business Machines Corp. says it can rescue you. Last year, the tech titan launched MASTOR, software that allows real-time, two-way communication between two people speaking different languages. All you do is speak into a personal digital assistant (PDA) or laptop in English and the gadgets talk or write back the sentences in another language.

Debbie Paladino, an IBM manager who had been a standout athlete while a Centennial High School student, died of pancreatic cancer Sunday at a West Palm Beach, Fla. hospital. The former Ellicott City resident was 44. Born in Cincinnati and raised in Chicago, she moved with her parents to Maryland in 1978. "Fate sent Debbie Paladino to Centennial High School because an athlete of her ilk comes along every 100 years," said a 1981 Evening Sun article that named her the paper's Female Prep Athlete of the Year.

The fallout from the banking industry's woes and a slowing American economy are certainly not hurting IBM yet. The giant technology company gave Wall Street a pleasant surprise yesterday by announcing quarterly earnings that were far higher - up 24 percent - than most analysts had forecast. The news sent International Business Machines Corp. up 5.4 percent, or $5.26, to $102.93 yesterday. The IBM announcement also lifted the broader market. The strong fourth-quarter performance by IBM, analysts say, is mainly a sign that some leading global corporations may be able to sidestep the impact of a sputtering U.S. economy because they depend on the American market far less today than in the past.

Eugene "Gene" Silhan, a retired customer service engineer and avid gardener, died of cancer Sunday at his Forest Hill home. He was 77. Mr. Silhan was born in Baltimore and raised in Rosedale. He was a 1947 graduate of Kenwood High School and served as a radar technician in the Air Force during the Korean War. Mr. Silhan was a customer service engineer for International Business Machines for 30 years before retiring in 1987. Mr. Silhan enjoyed vegetable and flower gardening. He was a multitalented man who could fix anything, family members said.

NEW YORK -- IBM Corp. sued Amazon.com Inc. yesterday, claiming that the Internet retailer's Web sites violate IBM's patents involving online commerce. International Business Machines said the patented technologies are fundamental to the way Amazon does business, including storing data, advertising and product recommendations. IBM is seeking royalties on billions of dollars in revenues. "IBM's property is being knowingly and unfairly exploited," said John E. Kelly III, senior vice president of IBM Technology and Intellectual Property.

A three-judge appellate panel ruled yesterday that IBM did not discriminate against its older workers when it switched retirement plans in 1999, a long-awaited decision that could help shelter hundreds of companies from possible age-discrimination suits. The decision reversed a 2003 federal court ruling that changes International Business Machines made to its pension plan discriminated against older workers by making it impossible for their benefits to grow in value as much as the benefits of younger workers.

WASHINGTON -- Not a moment too soon, Congress is turning up the heat on the cozy relationship that Internet giants Google, Yahoo Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Cisco Systems conduct with China's cyber-police. Top executives from the four firms testified last week before a House subcommittee. The most intriguing questions concerned morality. The spokesmen said that although their companies don't like China's censorship of the Web, censored information is better than none. Besides, they argued, companies have to comply with the laws of the countries in which they operate.