(FORTUNE Magazine) – STARTING UP IN A GARAGE

To "America's Secret Weapon: The Garage" (March 4), you might have added a garage that determined the size of the product: Rod Johnstone, a schoolteacher who had taken a course in boat design, decided to build a sailboat in his mother's garage in Stonington, Connecticut. The result was the J-24, a 24-foot sailboat, of which more than 5,000 have been built, making it one of the world's best-selling boats.

Credit Rod for the boat's competitive speed and immense popularity, but what determined its length and width? The size of his mother's garage! ARTHUR M. DELMHORST Delmhorst & Sheehan New York City

Your story overlooked one of the most successful garage startups in recent years--Cabletron Systems. In 1983, Bob Levine and Craig Benson began a part-time business in Levine's Ashland, Massachusetts, garage, providing custom-length cables to connect computer workstations. Thirteen years later Levine and Benson have made Cabletron into a leading global provider of computer networking hardware and software. And unlike most startup companies, they started Cabletron with their own cash--and a second mortgage on Benson's home. MICHAEL R. WELTS Director of Worldwide Marketing Cabletron Systems Rochester, New Hampshire

FINDING TIME FOR STANLEY BING

I readily identify with Stanley Bing's absurd yet accurate depictions of organizational life ("Help! I Need Somebody," While You Were Out..., March 4). Unfortunately, I was unable to finish the article because as I was perusing it I received 14 voice-mail messages, nine faxes, 16 memos, and five calls on my beeper, all demanding immediate action on my part. I took a drive to get some respite from this flurry and to try to finish Bing's article while at stoplights, only to be bombarded by 12 calls on my car phone.

Perhaps Mr. Bing could consider shortening his pieces to enable ardent fans like me--oops, I just got six E-mails while writing this...be back in a minute--to have a reasonable chance of finishing them. BILL KAHNWEILER Assistant Professor, Georgia State University Atlanta

Mr. Bing should be so fortunate. Try handling dozens of E-mail messages (internally generated as well as via the Internet) a day along with the telephones, voice mail, and telepathic bosses. I can't remember when I called to talk to someone "unrelated to anything serious." Maybe it was the time I conferred about my father's heart attack or the nanny's accident in our three-day-new car, or maybe it was my minisecond phone call to my husband to congratulate him on victory in an eight-year trial. Communications is a way of life (what life?). DIANE B. DIXON VP for Communications, Avery Dennison Pasadena

REGAINING A REPUTATION

I hope that the 11,000 executives, directors, and analysts who voted on "America's Most Admired Corporations" (March 4) pay close attention to Morrison Knudsen in the future and can differentiate between the considerable financial difficulties our new management inherited and the underlying strength of our core operations.

Make no mistake: Morrison Knudsen faces financial challenges, including the need to recapitalize and reduce a heavy debt load. But the notion that we have only a "few customers" left is dead wrong. One of the bright spots of a rather tough year has been the commitment displayed by longtime loyal Morrison Knudsen customers, and by many new customers, who selected us in a competitive market. We continue to count among our clients many of the world's leading companies and government units, and booked $1.4 billion of new business through the first three quarters of 1995. ROBERT A. TINSTMAN President and CEO, Morrison Knudsen Boise

APPLE POLISHING

Re "Paradise Lost: Apple's Quest for Life After Death" (February 19): I am only 13 years old, but somehow my family got its hands on the new Power Macintosh 8500. Since I'm the computer person in the family, I get to keep it in my room. I really have to compliment Apple on a great computer!

I hit the POWER key for the first time and the friendly "Welcome to Macintosh" comes up. Since then, everything has been as easy. I plugged in the camcorder and hooked it into the back of the Mac; next I opened Apple's Video Player (also preinstalled) and saw myself onscreen! The final test was to see if I could set up a network between the Power Mac and the old Mac. I expected compatibility problems, but as soon as I connected the cables, I was accessing the other computer's files from the Power Mac.

I later set up the anwering machine with the Apple modem, installed voice recognition, and connected the printer. I wonder if a 13-year-old kid could record video, network two computers, and set the computer up with Windows 95. This is my proof that Apple still makes the best operating system, the Macintosh OS. JONATHAN BERGER Wayne, Illinois

Almost everyone is using Intel-based machines. The PC platform has a hardware infrastructure that just doesn't stop. You can get PCs, parts, and service anywhere at a good price. That is not the case for Apple. In fact, though I am a longtime Mac advocate, I think Apple should drop its focus on computer hardware and focus on its Mac operating system, including porting it to the Intel platform. That would open up a much larger market for all Apple products and could provide some real competition for Microsoft. Then Apple innovation could help enhance and integrate the well-supported Intel platform--benefiting almost everyone who has a computer. ROBERT HANGEBRAUCK Cary, North Carolina

CHANNEL SURFING WITH AT&T

As a user for some 14 months, I can attest that DirecTv subscribers can channel-surf as easily as someone with a standard TV or cable system ("Why AT&T Is Taking a Flier on Satellite Television," News Trends, February 19). The grid system you mention is another option for navigation that acts more like a TV listing system and offers information on individual movies and shows. GARY CLAYTON Daly City, California