Here is the shortest Sherlock Holmes story by Arthur Conan Doyle, and also probably one of the shortest novels ever written—for it was printed as a book in its own binding, containing 34 pages. It was written in 1922 for the library of Queen Mary’s Doll House, a sumptuous doll house built for the wife […]

FRONT END, BACK END, HIGH LEVEL, LOW LEVEL Part II by James Lincoln Warren Yesterday I explained the computer programming concepts spelled out in the title, but to before moving on, allow me to recapitulate. The front end of a computer application is the part that interfaces with the user of the device the application […]

FRONT END, BACK END, HIGH LEVEL, LOW LEVEL Part I by James Lincoln Warren I know you’re disappointed to see me instead of Leigh, but his computer problems are still so severe he couldn’t be with us today. And if Leigh, who was a star at IBM, has computer problems, you know that they’re pretty […]

WHAT’S THAT BOY SAYIN’? by John M. Floyd It’s easy sometimes to tell whether someone is from the South. And no, it has nothing to do with pickup trucks or chitlins or RC Colas. I’m talking about speech. Some of the tipoffs are obvious. When a guy tells you he tikes a brike beside the […]

READING SAM CLEMENS by Steven Steinbock At the beginning of summer Sam, my youngest son, was very happy to put all his schoolwork aside. He also declared, after finishing Lawrence Block’s The Burglar Who Liked to Quote Kipling, that he was finished reading until school started up again in the fall. “What’s the matter? You […]

IT’S POISON, I TELL YA by Deborah Elliott-Upton An article in the Bartlesville, Oklahoma, newspaper said the police suspected their agency’s drug dog had been poisoned. An officer noticed the dog had been lethargic, so they took him to a Bartlesville veterinarian and a Tulsa animal clinic, both of whom diagnosed advanced kidney failure. The […]

NET LOSS by Rob Lopresti You may consider this a public service announcement. It has come to my attention that some of you are users of that dubious device known as the World Wide Web. It is my sad duty to inform you that some of the information found thereon is not reliable. (For example, […]