Do you like your action hard-boiled? You won’t be disappointed with HUGGER MUGGER by Robert B. Parker, the latest Spenser novel, published by Putnam. Spenser is a private dick, bounced from the Suffolk County (Mass.) police 30 years ago because he lives by his own knightly code. In a change of pace from the usual New England locales, he is on the road to investigate race horse shootings at a stable in Georgia that includes the up and coming Hugger Mugger. The horses are owned by Walter Clive, father of three daughters--the oldest one is single and runs the operation and feels unappreciated [King Lear anyone?]; the two younger ones don’t do much at all except take up space with their ne’er-do-well husbands. The case is left unsolved but Spenser returns when Clive turns up dead. Whodunit? And why? Is the murder tied into the horse shootings or is it coincidence? What about the possibly bastard son by Clive’s former and final mistress and the three girls’ mother, the unReconstructed hippie ex-Mrs. Clive? There’s fortune at stake and plenty of motive for murder. Spenser pokes around, claiming that it looks bad for a former client to turn up dead, but we know it's another crusade for justice in a world where the rich get their way when good people do nothing.
I missed a Spenser regular, the redoubtable Hawk, who is in France during the events of this book, but the local sheriff provides a good bantering partner for Spenser. He spills enough for Spenser to pursue the facts, but not enough to have it come back to him.
I paid a little more at Posner’s Bookstore in Grand Central Station to get a signed copy. Support your small bookseller if you can and pick up a copy of HUGGER MUGGER.
back to Blackboard
Sunday, December 31, 2000
Thursday, April 27, 2000
Letter in the Science Times
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April 27, 2000
INCOMING
Translate This To the Editor: The article on computer-aided translation ("Untangling the Web's Languages," April 20) missed a critical point: the quality of the resulting translation is highly dependent on the quality of the original source. Letters to the Editor
Corporations that use machine translation invest heavily in terminology standardization and controlled language authoring of the source content. This is designed to simplify the content intended for translation, based on a principle of "one word, one meaning."
Without this, the resulting translations are unusable (for example, the English word "job" in a manufacturing industry context can mean "batch process," but within a human resources context can mean "occupation" and thus be translated differently).
We're all familiar with the terrible standards of English used in most of the Internet authoring that exists today. Small wonder that translations are not perfect.
ULTAN BROIN
San Francisco
To the Editor:
"Untangling the Web's Languages" showed examples of AltaVista's translations of the United States Constitution, but didn't point out how atrocious the renderings were.
In the German version, for example, AltaVista was unable to translate the words "tranquility," "blessings," "posterity," "ordain" and even "we," and simply reproduced them in English.
Surely even a cheap English-German pocket dictionary contains those words.
It translated "people" as "Leute" (which doesn't mean "people" in the political sense, but something more like "folks") and "Constitution" as "Beschaffenheit" (which means "condition," or "nature," like someone's physical constitution; the word for a basic legal document is "Verfassung").
BRUCE TINDALL
Dallas
To the Editor:
Translation software almost resembles the fantasy of putting the algebra book under the pillow the night before the big test.
Wouldn't it be nice if I didn't have to learn my conjugations!
More realistically, translation software will likely remain an efficiency tool for someone already skilled in a foreign language, not an alternative to acquiring language skills.
JACK MARTENS
Winnetka, Ill.
G.P.S. and Insurance
To the Editor:
I was gobsmacked by the story of Progressive Auto Insurance's attempt to incorporate global positioning system monitoring as a way of paying for insurance ("Paying for Car Insurance by the Mile," April 20). What struck me as more amazing was the relatively casual way the test subjects reacted to the invasion of privacy.
Anyone who thinks for one moment that an insurance company would go to such great lengths to save customers money must be deluding themselves. When has insurance ever gone down? It's like the banking industry's sly move to introduce A.T.M.'s as a convenience when their real purpose was to eliminate tellers and increase profit.
It will be the insurance companies that will soon govern this country's roads. They won't need the state to issue a ticket for speeding before they raise your insurance rates -- it will happen on the fly!
It never ceases to amaze me to what ends people will sell out their freedoms for a piddling discount.
GREGOR HALENDA
New York
To the Editor:
While Progressive's new car insurance system may raise questions of privacy, these issues must be balanced against the insurance industry's current discriminatory practices. Car insurance is one of the only services in this country that has its price determined primarily by the age and sex of the buyer.
Progressive's new "by-the-mile" policy is step in the right direction for freeing car insurance from its current biases.
PATRICK BURNS
New York
Art and Image
To the Editor:
It is with great interest that I read "A Portrait of the Artist as Internet Marketer" (April 20). As a member of a visual art-oriented community, and an enthusiast user of the Web, I can only wish that sites with a high emphasis on image quality had been mentioned. As two examples. www.artistregister.com and www.artregisterpress.com, demonstrate, quality and content cohabit very happily.
JEAN M. ZIMMERMAN
New York
What Goes Around To the Editor:
Instant CD's from kiosks may be new ("Appearing Soon at a Store Near You: An A.T.M. for the Ears," April 20), but buying recordings on demand is not.
My 81-year-old mother, Henrietta, saw the Broadway musical "Call Me Mister" in the 1940's. She loved one particular tune and after the show happened to see a store in Times Square that made copies of records (on demand, as we say today, but I'm sure my mother asked politely). From my childhood I remember it as her only 78 record that didn't have a label.
Plus ça change. . . .
BRIAN BLACK
New York
Just Do It, Now
To the Editor:
I have a suggestion for those people who are busy composing e-mails to be sent to loved ones when they die ("Tales From the Crypt: Storing E-Mail to Be Sent After Your Death," April 13). Why don't you send those e-mails now -- or, even better, say it face to face?
It's very sad that we can't let our family and friends know that we love them and tell them what they mean to us now, while we're still here to enjoy each other and to build strong relationships.
J. A. VERDINO
New York
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Wednesday, February 2, 2000
Bill Bradley Rally 2/2/00
I attended the Bradley for President rally at Judson Memorial Church in Greenwich Village on 2/2/00. The rally was scheduled to start at 12:30 pm so I arrived at 11:45 am to get a good spot. I ended up about three standing rows back to the right of the podium and had an excellent view of the kickoff to the March 7 primary.
A young man from NYU Journalism school interviewed me. I explained why I prefer Bradley of the current crop of candidates from both parties. It was interesting to see the results of the preparation that goes into a staged event. This was the beginning of the New York campaign and the stage was crammed with dozens of local politicos and celebrities. Many seemed truly surprised to see the turnout of several hundred that spilled out into the street and around the block. I was notified by campaign@bradley.com and noticed in the last week that the event was not overly publicized, I think by choice. Even www.billbradley.com only noted the location in the 24 hours preceding the event. You want the news media there of course but you want to fill the hall with supporters, not just anybody. I noticed someone faint about five minutes into Bradley’s speech and I couldn’t help but wonder if this a classic political prank to distract everybody.
Don’t Mess with Bill was the campaign theme and among the other tunes played by a small jazz combo at the event. Emcee Ron Silver did a good job kicking off the program at about 12:45. Former Knick teammates Dave Debusschere and Earl “The Pearl” Monroe spoke. Dave emphasized the character of the man he has known for 35 years. Earl did too. Earl was walking with a cane and it isn’t known what “Pearl” is illing with. Bill’s wife Ernestine spoke lovingly of her guy and it was genuine. Like Kissinger used to say to Nixon when they were making a statement regarding our reasons for a geopolitical action, it had the added advantage of being true.
Patti Smith rocked the house with The People Have the Power. I thought of my friend Gary who was Patti's biggest follower in the late 70s.
Councilwoman Ronnie Eldridge [Mrs. Jimmy Breslin] spoke and many other Manhattan pols whose names I didn’t write down. Shopper saver and cable channel movie reviewer Ed “Judge” Koch made us raise our right hands and pledge to take 10 people to the polls on Primary Day to vote for Bill Bradley. Ed introduced Bradley. Slightly ironic as Koch was a Gore man in ‘88 [Gore finished third]. Actually a short rich banker had already introduced Bradley to the stage, so quickly that it took us all by surprise. Bradley took in the applause to confetti thrown by myself and other from long, cardboard tubes. Then Ed took the mike and introduced him again, introducing him to the microphone to start his speech.
Bradley touched on familiar themes of character, health care for kids, and the prospect of a government with a surplus on its hands. I was surprised when he demanded an apology by Gore boosters to Sen. Bob Kerrey for the shameful remarks directed at Kerrey in New Hampshire. The remarks are so ludicrous that I hardly believe them, but do smack of the level that Clinton/Gore historically have sunk to. I was also surprised because this is the kind of elbow a lot of us have been waiting for, for Bradley to throw at an opponent who has had his way so far with personal fouls.
Bradley touched on themes of inclusion, in contrast to the mostly young and white crowd.
He told two anecdotes. I would lay off Einstein jokes but the LBJ bit is a winner. Bradley noted that Dave Debusschere was a few inches taller and it would be politcally poor judgment to have his picture taken next to a taller man. This reminded him of the time he was in the White House in 1964, East Wing or West wing he couldn’t recall [someone from stage remarked “You'll be back there!!”], as a member of the U.S. basketball gold medal champions. People were lining up to shake hands and get their picture taken with LBJ. Wrestler and LBJ, CLICK, swimmer and LBJ, CLICK. Then the 6’6” Bradley shook hands with the 6’3” president. Bradley anticipated the photo but LBJ told him to keep moving.
The Einstein bit: Einstein is teaching a grad course for the second year in a row, same students. “Professor Einstein,” a student noted, “These questions are the same as last year’s!” “Well,” replied the enigmatic genius, “make sure you give different answers.” This was meant to be an allegory to Bradley being able to think up new answers to old problems that might contradict his own positions of years ago, because while problems may be similar, yesterday’s solution may not work. Pity the doctrinaire, the ideologue, locked in to giving the same rehearsed answers. While Bradley has his stock answers, you can sense that as he gives a reasoned response the other half of his brain is still debating the issue. He is a man of conscience.
As I watched Al Gore brag to his cheering audience after he won New Hampshire he said, I heard what you said you wanted, and I told the country what you told me to say. I'm paraphrasing but it's very close to what I saw on C-SPAN. I think that used to be called pandering, not leadership. I don't want a leader to comfortably confirm my beliefs. We'd still have slavery if the system didn't get shaken up now and then. I want to be challenged to excel. I want the cesspool of campaign finance, in a fouler state than the Paris sewers of the 19th century, to be cleaned up. Money is influence is access is power. That's why Bradley [and McCain] are the two most dangerous men out there today.
back to Blackboard
A young man from NYU Journalism school interviewed me. I explained why I prefer Bradley of the current crop of candidates from both parties. It was interesting to see the results of the preparation that goes into a staged event. This was the beginning of the New York campaign and the stage was crammed with dozens of local politicos and celebrities. Many seemed truly surprised to see the turnout of several hundred that spilled out into the street and around the block. I was notified by campaign@bradley.com and noticed in the last week that the event was not overly publicized, I think by choice. Even www.billbradley.com only noted the location in the 24 hours preceding the event. You want the news media there of course but you want to fill the hall with supporters, not just anybody. I noticed someone faint about five minutes into Bradley’s speech and I couldn’t help but wonder if this a classic political prank to distract everybody.
Don’t Mess with Bill was the campaign theme and among the other tunes played by a small jazz combo at the event. Emcee Ron Silver did a good job kicking off the program at about 12:45. Former Knick teammates Dave Debusschere and Earl “The Pearl” Monroe spoke. Dave emphasized the character of the man he has known for 35 years. Earl did too. Earl was walking with a cane and it isn’t known what “Pearl” is illing with. Bill’s wife Ernestine spoke lovingly of her guy and it was genuine. Like Kissinger used to say to Nixon when they were making a statement regarding our reasons for a geopolitical action, it had the added advantage of being true.
Patti Smith rocked the house with The People Have the Power. I thought of my friend Gary who was Patti's biggest follower in the late 70s.
Councilwoman Ronnie Eldridge [Mrs. Jimmy Breslin] spoke and many other Manhattan pols whose names I didn’t write down. Shopper saver and cable channel movie reviewer Ed “Judge” Koch made us raise our right hands and pledge to take 10 people to the polls on Primary Day to vote for Bill Bradley. Ed introduced Bradley. Slightly ironic as Koch was a Gore man in ‘88 [Gore finished third]. Actually a short rich banker had already introduced Bradley to the stage, so quickly that it took us all by surprise. Bradley took in the applause to confetti thrown by myself and other from long, cardboard tubes. Then Ed took the mike and introduced him again, introducing him to the microphone to start his speech.
Bradley touched on familiar themes of character, health care for kids, and the prospect of a government with a surplus on its hands. I was surprised when he demanded an apology by Gore boosters to Sen. Bob Kerrey for the shameful remarks directed at Kerrey in New Hampshire. The remarks are so ludicrous that I hardly believe them, but do smack of the level that Clinton/Gore historically have sunk to. I was also surprised because this is the kind of elbow a lot of us have been waiting for, for Bradley to throw at an opponent who has had his way so far with personal fouls.
Bradley touched on themes of inclusion, in contrast to the mostly young and white crowd.
He told two anecdotes. I would lay off Einstein jokes but the LBJ bit is a winner. Bradley noted that Dave Debusschere was a few inches taller and it would be politcally poor judgment to have his picture taken next to a taller man. This reminded him of the time he was in the White House in 1964, East Wing or West wing he couldn’t recall [someone from stage remarked “You'll be back there!!”], as a member of the U.S. basketball gold medal champions. People were lining up to shake hands and get their picture taken with LBJ. Wrestler and LBJ, CLICK, swimmer and LBJ, CLICK. Then the 6’6” Bradley shook hands with the 6’3” president. Bradley anticipated the photo but LBJ told him to keep moving.
The Einstein bit: Einstein is teaching a grad course for the second year in a row, same students. “Professor Einstein,” a student noted, “These questions are the same as last year’s!” “Well,” replied the enigmatic genius, “make sure you give different answers.” This was meant to be an allegory to Bradley being able to think up new answers to old problems that might contradict his own positions of years ago, because while problems may be similar, yesterday’s solution may not work. Pity the doctrinaire, the ideologue, locked in to giving the same rehearsed answers. While Bradley has his stock answers, you can sense that as he gives a reasoned response the other half of his brain is still debating the issue. He is a man of conscience.
Commentary
As I watched Al Gore brag to his cheering audience after he won New Hampshire he said, I heard what you said you wanted, and I told the country what you told me to say. I'm paraphrasing but it's very close to what I saw on C-SPAN. I think that used to be called pandering, not leadership. I don't want a leader to comfortably confirm my beliefs. We'd still have slavery if the system didn't get shaken up now and then. I want to be challenged to excel. I want the cesspool of campaign finance, in a fouler state than the Paris sewers of the 19th century, to be cleaned up. Money is influence is access is power. That's why Bradley [and McCain] are the two most dangerous men out there today.
back to Blackboard
Monday, December 27, 1999
The Rocket Ebook
Rocket Ebook rating *** 1/2
Franklin's Rocket Ebook is a handheld device that weighs 22 oz. and has a bigger screen than any of the Palm family or imitators but smaller than a notebook. The screen can be oriented to landscape or portrait. I bought one and have had a great time reading web pages on the go. I swore I would try to keep it from the kids but they took one look at it and had to try it. They love it!The screen is monochrome and backlit at a choice five brightness settings. You can turn off the backlight but I have found few settings where you see the screen well without some backlight. It comes with a docking cradle that doubles as a recharger and a connection to the COM 1 port in your pc. You can also recharge without the cradle. The ebook sits in the cradle and gets data from the pc via a 9-pin serial cable [25-pin ok if you get a 25-to-9 converter] . They claim it can go 20 hours on a 2 hour recharge, longer if you don't use the backlight. It comes with a plastic stylus for selecting screen choices or you can use your finger. A cloth cleaner is included for cleaning off dust and fingerprints.
I used Mosaic in the early 90s and almost never downloaded graphics. The Web is too way graphicky to me today. The ebook can handle graphics but I recommend you use it for text only, that is, web pages without the text. You can download straight text files too. The default font is the very attractive Verdana, a font especially designed for ease of viewing on a computer screen. You can load other fonts at cost of precious memory.
I've been experimenting with downloading other file formats into the ebook. The Rocket Librarian is the software on your pc that manages the HTML and text files that you want to export into the ebook. The Rocket Writer is built in to the Librarian and converts these files into the *.rb format that the ebook can read. With some effort I converted an Excel file containing my personal phone list and also converted an Outlook 98 Contacts list containing all my work contacts into a format suitable for the reader. Great backup if the company server goes down. It's not perfect formatting but there's a Search function that is useful for going through lists, such a phone list.
The price break of $199 is what sold me. It had been $299-399.
Warning: It only holds 4 megs so you might find yourself dumping a lot of stuff when you run out of memory. I already dumped Alice in Wonderland and the Random House Dictionary that came preloaded. They can be reinstalled from the Web or from the installation CD.
They claim it can hold 10 books of 400 page size. I found it has some problem receiving data when it gets low on memory, such as less that a meg. A second effort at sending a file when memory was low fixed that problem.
Here's one advantage of an ebook. I was reading Chapter 1 of the Carl Sagan biography published in late 1999. This was a freebie from www.nytimes.com. A man's last name appeared, Sagan's boyhood friend, and I couldn't place it; I assumed both first and last name must have already been mentioned and I must have forgotten it. I searched for the name and easily found its first mention. Many times I've spent several frustrating minutes finding this kind of item and I felt that the ebook would be a great boon for the too-fast or aging, memory-failed reader. We have a couple of 40-plus readers of the Blackboard who will savvy this more than our younger readers.
I don't enjoy beta testing anymore but this thing is still in the beta stage. I tried to register it over the course of several days, from home and from a proxy server setup at work, but I was stymied by the NuvoMedia server. By registration I mean sending data to their server [successful] and getting their response that goes into the ebook and 'unlocks' it from unregistered to registered. To be registered means I could buy and download books from them and from other vendors such as Barnes and Noble and be eligible for free sample subscriptions.
I tried customer service and they recommended changing the speed on the COM 1 serial port, no luck. This last part is where it gets stuck. I even changed the setting of COM 1 to COM 3 but still no luck. I e-mailed a detailed list of settings I changed to try to fix the problem and they promised a 24 hour response, but after several days of no response I got one. It was anemic and seemed to come out of the manual, i.e., no help at all. I mentioned that they should let their marketing department know about this. About the only thing I feel I'm missing is the free subscriptions that were due to run out quickly. A Rocket Media vp is appearing at a local trade show and I may ambush him to get this done.
12/20/99 UPDATE: I REINSTALLED EVERYTHING BY THE BOOK AND STILL NO LUCK. I ASKED THEM TO SEND ME A BOX WITH POSTAGE SO I COULD SEND IT BACK AND HAVE THEM REGISTER IT. I DON'T THINK THEY WILL.
12/27/99 UPDATE: I TOOK THE EBOOK TO THEIR TECH GUY IN NYC, MICHAEL MOY, AND GOT IT REGISTERED. IT TURNS OUT I HAD THE SAME ID NUMBER AS ANOTHER OWNER AND THAT'S WHY MY REGISTRATION WAS REJECTED. I DROPPED THE EBOOK ON THE WAY TO CONNECTICUT TO VISIT MY SISTER-IN-LAW AND BROKE THE TOUCH SCREEN. THE WARRANTY DOESN'T COVER ACCIDENTS SO I MIGHT BUY A NEW ONE, MAYBE WHEN THE PRICE DROPS AGAIN. I MISS USING IT BUT IT REMINDED ME I MIGHT SPEND TOO MUCH TIME ON THIS STUFF ANYWAY.
Right now I would say that the Rocket ebook is in the gadget phase, as opposed to appliance. I am using it and enjoying it but it requires some facility in playing with software. A true appliance would have something other than an arcane registration procedure and a one or two click conversion of web pages into the device.
After seeing A CHRISTMAS CAROL with Patrick Stewart I downloaded the Dickens classic from Project Gutenberg, a repository of fiction and reference material in the public domain. I enjoyed it immensely on the ebook and hail Stewart for his fidelity to the source material.
If they can add the right mix of romance novels and thrillers to their title list, Rocket will have themselves a winner. There are competing devices out there but for simplicity, utility, and price this baby will be hard to beat. Just make the registration easier. I'm a hard core computer guy and they wore me out. They can't expect Joe Sixpack or Jane Spritzer to spend hours troubleshooting their problems.
back to the Blackboard
Tuesday, November 9, 1999
The Day I Asked Gore Vidal a Question
- I attended Breakfast at the 92nd Street Y in November 1999. Gore Vidal was appearing with his biographer Fred Kaplan. I had a bagel with cream cheese and a couple of cups of joe to wake me up. Gore was as witty as you could be considering the hour was 7:30 a.m. Over 100 people attended. I screwed up the courage to ask, "Richard Eder in the daily Times book review called you a minor writer. I think most people in this room would disagree. If you're not a major writer, then who is?" Gore said, "I read it too and don't understand it." He then talked about how the Times picks favorites, such as Jerzy Kozinski in the 1970s. All you saw and read about was Jerzy Kozinski, in the Magazine, in the Book Review, in the news sections.
Almost all of the hour was devoted to questions from the floor. Gore referred to "Cousin Albert," i.e. presidential candidate Vice President Al Gore but was unexpectedly benign. I think Gore is holding out hope for a political appointment. How about head of the NEA? I read that Al avoids him at family reunion picture taking time. But after Al Gore recently sucked up to Don Imus by appearing on video at a celebrity roast of Imus, in an Imus Bros. mail order cowboy hat and denim workshirt, I think Al Gore would embrace Cousin Gore if he thought it could get him elected President.
After the breakfast Gore was kind enough to sign my copy of his autobiography PALIMPSEST. The woman ahead of me was monopolizing him and as he tuned her out he slowly turned his head to his left, smiled, and reached toward my book and signed it. I didn't get a chance to say anything except thank you very much. It was a warm smile. I didn't expect him to exude warmth but it was there. It must be a good feeling to fill a room of admirers at 7:30 in the morning and have them hang on your every word. He returned the bon homie by signing books for at least a half hour and letting the fans approach him. A class act, Gore Vidal.
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