Database confidential. (rumor) (News Briefs)

There's talk of H&R Block spinning off CompuServe into a separate company. Buzz would be happy if H&R Block could merely get CompuServe to behave like the leading high-tech service it claims to be. Case in point: WinCIM 2.0.1, the newest CompuServe access software that was mailed to a zillion customers and prospects.

WinCIM's failing is that it doesn't behave when run in the background. That makes it very annoying to do what Buzz recommends to minimize online time: mark a bunch of message threads, files, or news stories then do a download. While Buzz is having WinCIM download stuff, he can't use his computer for anything else because everytime WinCIM tosses up a new message box--which it does constantly--WinCIM grabs control of Windows and becomes the foreground application again.

Come on H&R Block, spend less time figuring out how …