Business World

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Jul 8, 1998

More time on the road

NEW YORK (AP) -- More than one-third of the men and women who travel frequently on business are expected to spend more time on the road this year, a survey shows. In a random national survey of 500 people who have traveled on business at least twice within the past 12 months, 36 percent said they will spend more time on the road in 1998 than they did in 1995.

The average business traveler takes 11 trips a year and stays an average of four nights a trip, or 44 nights a year away from home, the survey showed. More than half (52 percent) said they stayed at upscale hotels most of the time, 15 percent said they stayed at luxury hotels, and 24 percent said they stayed at midscale or economy hotels. Their favorite cities to visit on business? San Francisco, followed by New York, Washington, Chicago and Boston.

Why is business travel up? Forty-eight percent of those surveyed said they do more out-of-town business, 31 percent said they have more job responsibilities, 31 percent had changed to a job that requires more travel, and 21 percent cited a need for more face-to- face meetings with clients.

The survey was conducted in May by International Communications Research, an independent research firm based in Media, Pa., for the Crowne Plaza Hotels Travel Index.

Floating hopes in real estate

AUSTIN (Cox) -- Actress Sandra Bullock may be best known for her roles as an Internet whiz and a damsel in distress, but in Austin, she's building a reputation as a real estate investor. Bullock, who already is building a house on Lake Austin, is apparently behind a partnership that bought the 48-year-old Stratford Arms office building at 500 W. Sixth St. downtown.

A deed filed in the Travis County Courthouse June 23 shows that the building was purchased in cash by a Louisiana limited partnership from Elba Restaurant Corp. Real estate brokers and others say that Bullock is one of the partners. The asking price for the building, which went on the market in December, was $1.65 million, according to Kemp Management, which marketed the property.

The 33-year-old actress of Speed and The Net fame has made a splash since making Austin her home last year. She filmed much of her recent movie, Hope Floats, in central Texas. Bullock is the latest in a series of owners of the four-story, 14,481-square-foot Stratford Arms. With its high ceilings, brick walls and fireplaces, the former apartment building is one of downtown's more unusual office properties.

New age of recording

ATLANTA (Cox) -- Philips suggests that you dig out those old records, pile up your compact discs and make yourself the customized sets of music that you've always wanted. Philips also suggests that a good way to do this is by purchasing the company's CDR870, the second in the company's line of CD recorders, which lets consumers make digital recordings from CDs, vinyl long-playing records and even live music.

The recording of CDs got its start, of course, as a way to compile huge piles of data that you either couldn't store in your computer, needed to transfer to another computer or just plumb wanted to protect from a computer crash. With the Philips machine and others like it, the whole notion of recording your own CDs seems to be making a leap into the world of consumer audio.

The recording of straight data continues, but the software has improved dramatically, making it much easier to record music -- from digital or analog LPs. In fact, CD recorder drives will probably soon be built-in features for personal computers. The external drives are now selling for as little as $300.

The technology now permits, not just customized copying, but the ability to cut unwanted noise on the original. The Philips machine, while twice as expensive as the external drive, is built for use as a music recorder that will be part of the user's stereo system. The suggested retail price for CDR870 is $649, but an alert observer of national mail-order houses might find it listed for under $600.

The Philips works with either the CD-R discs that can only be recorded once or the much more expensive CD-RW format, the rewriteable discs that can be re-recorded more than 1,000 times.

Heartsoft may have a hit

TULSA (JR) -- Heartsoft has begun development on three additional titles for its Thinkology educational software line. Released as a three CD-ROM series less than 90 days ago, Thinkology is composed of the three titles -- Clarity, Accuracy and Logic. The company plans to release a home version of Thinkology before the end of the year, and is discussing with potential partners strategic joint venture opportunities.

Scheduled for release in early 1999, the additional three Thinkology titles under development will allow the company to offer to its school customers an encompassing critical thinking skills solution with six CD-ROMs total for an approximate price of $2,000 per primary building. There are more than 100,000 public and private elementary school buildings within the United States alone.