data within the laboratory (K. Cino, pers. comm., 1998; K. Scarratt, pers. comm., 2000). Within any business, computers can improve accounting and inventory practices (Golding, 1991), for which commercial software is available (see, e.g., Greig, 1999). The increase in computer power also led to smaller and less-expensive sophisticated instruments; for instance, both Sarasota Instruments (Osprey, Florida) and Adamas Gemological Laboratory (Brookline, Massachusetts) produced PC-based spectrophotometers (Kammerling et al., 1995c; Haske, 1999). P. Read and M. Haske produced new versions of gem identification software (Read, 1996). Computers also have redefined the expected speed of communications. For example, although Gems & Gemology remains a quarterly journal, information on its web site (www.gia.edu/gandg) changes almost weekly. As another instance, on GIA's home page, a forged letter in Thailand was recently disavowed