Icon

Who among the hundreds of people who packed City Hall recently to debate the ever-divisive Icon tower proposal left satisfied? Certainly not the developer, who hoped the $75 million high-rise he's pushed for two years would inch closer to approval. Certainly not Canton activists, who wished the City Council committee would vote down the condominium plan they've fought since Day One. But maybe the politicians, who, by not voting at all, seemed to sidestep a sticky issue with potential for repercussions in an election year.

A $75 million proposed waterfront tower that has riled Canton for nearly two years might become the first significant Baltimore project to die in recent memory. The Icon, which goes before the City Council's land use committee this evening, faces unambiguous opposition from key city leaders, including the council member representing the Southeast Baltimore district and Mayor Sheila Dixon. With no overt support on the council and a thumbs-down from the mayor who must ultimately sign the bill, officials say the project is likely to die in committee.

Huge glass tower diminishes Canton As a 20-year resident of an original Canton Square townhouse, I am certainly not opposed to progress. Indeed, my tiny house has increased in value tremendously with all of the rehabs and new construction in the area. But a 240-foot, sparkly glass tower does not belong here. Not only will it dwarf every other structure nearby, but with its modern design it will look hideous in historic Canton ("Panel OKs high-rise in Canton," Feb. 23). Modern glass, high-rise office buildings and condos are fine in downtown development areas set back from the waterfront.

I feel I need to have a backup medium for my 486 system. I don't know whether I should get an Iomega Zip drive or a second hard disk.Don't even think of taking on the hassle of adding another hard drive to that antique 486. A Zip drive will let you carry over your data to a proper modern machine when you upgrade, as you almost certainly will.How do you cancel AOL?Press Control + K and type the word cancel in the Keyword box and click OK. You'll get a window with a toll-free number to call and a snail mail address for canceling your service.

The New York Times said in an editorial yesterday:FOR selfish reasons, we wish that Michael Jordan had stayed on. His absence denies us the pleasure of watching one of the world's great athletes and surely the most accomplished basketball player ever. His presence might have redeemed this sadly truncated season and restored some of the affection we had for the game. It will not be easy to replace a global icon.But it is hard to fault his decision to retire or its timing. He is 35 years old. He does not, by his own admission, have the physical and mental edge that he has always required of himself.

Is there any major difference between the different free e-mail accounts like hotmail.com, mail.com, yahoo.com, etc.? Is one better than the other?The common ground of all these free e-mail offerings is that they work through Internet browsers (either Netscape or Microsoft Internet Explorer) and thus are much slower and more frustrating than dedicated e-mail through an Internet service provider such as America Online, Sprint, the Microsoft Network, etc.However, these free browser-based e-mail offerings enjoy one huge advantage in that you can use them to get your e-mail anytime you can find access to any Internet-connected computer.

While viruses attached to electronic mail messages have grabbed headlines in recent weeks, many computer users have a more prosaic problem with e-mail attachments: They don't know what to do with them.As a result, I frequently get requests for help like this one: "My son e-mailed me a picture of my grandchildren, but I can't see it. How do I get it on my screen?"Actually, managing e-mail attachments isn't hard, but it requires a bit more geeking around than most of us are used to.First things first.

I have a SupraMax 56K Voice PCI modem in my DEC 3000 computer. Is there any way to turn the sound down or off? I don't use the voice feature.Windows 98 allows users to turn modem sounds on or off by changing the settings on a control panel. Click on the My Computer icon at the top of your desktop display, then choose the Control Panel folder and look for the yellow telephone icon named Modem. Click on the Modem icon and then choose Properties on the menu that pops up.You will find a slider bar that lets you either turn down those modem sounds to a whisper or shut them off completely.

Throw your best stuff, Richard Ben Cramer, you with the Pulitzer Prize and the big book contract. Bring on the face-high fastball, or maybe the wicked curve that always buckles their knees.This isn't covering the Afghanistan war, you know. This this isn't chasing presidential candidate Bob Dole -- "the Bobster," you tagged him -- through the snows of New Hampshire. This time you have taken on Joe DiMaggio, and the great DiMaggio never loses. You said so yourself."It didn't matter what game he was in, he was the best player on the field, and he was going to beat you somehow," Cramer says.

If you were upset when you found out that NBC was trying to force Johnny Carson into retirement so it could replace him with the younger, less expensive Jay Leno, brace yourself and hold on tight to your channel changers. Another television icon -- this one bigger than Carson, Cronkite or any of the rest -- is getting the same shabby treatment: Lassie.Yes, Lassie, the ever-faithful and indefatigable collie who's been rescuing less-intelligent humans in TV land since 1954, is in big trouble.

As digital music drifts further down the audio chain into cellphones, here comes a freaky little desktop amplifier called the Nuforce Icon that'll stop the MP3 generation in its tracks. The Icon, no bigger than Madonna's little black book (the paperback version), suggests what music in the home might become if we don't devolve into a nation of iPhone or iPod or iTouch speaker-dock addicts. At its best, this $249 device summons something far greater than dock-quality music. The lowly 12-watt Icon is not out of its league, away from the desktop, paired with $3,000 speakers in a full-blown sound system.

Suddenly, it's hard out there to be a Hon. Honfest, this weekend's kitschy celebration of beehive hairdos, cat's-eye glasses and pearls, may be the city's biggest neighborhood festival. But as Honfest grows, so does the backlash against it. Some Hampden dwellers, local fashionistas and even John Waters - who helped perpetuate the image of the Hon as a Baltimore icon - are fed up with the 50,000-strong festival that began as a simple beauty pageant. Waters frowns on all the Hon hype. He said he won't use the word or the image in any of his scripts these days, and he doesn't think the city should get behind it either.

What's so funny 'bout peace, love and understanding? That's the question that we should be asking in light of the 40th anniversary of the Summer of Love. Hippie values and culture have been taking a beating over the past few years. However, while the hippie movement had its flaws, there is much about it that should be honored, cherished and celebrated. Forty years ago, the hit song "San Francisco," written by John Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas and sung by one-hit wonder Scott McKenzie, sounded the clarion call of that era: "If you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair."

City opens new library The Enoch Pratty Free Library opened its first new building in 35 years, showing off the 27,000-square-foot, $16.2 million facility in the Highlandtown neighborhood. Court rules in surrogate case The state's highest court ruled that a baby conceived from an egg donated by one woman, and implanted in another, may have no mother at all under Maryland law. Council vote topples Icon A key City Council committee killed the $75 million Icon project, a 23-story tower that would have risen on Canton's waterfront.

Comic book program a disservice to pupils State schools Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick must be the cleverest bureaucrat of all time. Her plan to encourage the use of comic books as part of the reading program in Maryland's classrooms ("Grasmick urges expanded use of comics in reading," May 3) will have parents of means enrolling their children in private schools in droves, allowing her to cut thousands of dollars from the state's education budget. Never mind that the pilot study "did not look at whether comic books helped children learn to read" - "teachers and students were satisfied."

Who among the hundreds of people who packed City Hall recently to debate the ever-divisive Icon tower proposal left satisfied? Certainly not the developer, who hoped the $75 million high-rise he's pushed for two years would inch closer to approval. Certainly not Canton activists, who wished the City Council committee would vote down the condominium plan they've fought since Day One. But maybe the politicians, who, by not voting at all, seemed to sidestep a sticky issue with potential for repercussions in an election year.

After a three-hour hearing last night, the City Council's land-use committee decided to delay a vote on the Icon tower proposed for Canton so that Baltimore's transportation department can have time to figure out how to handle the area's burgeoning traffic. Jamie Kendrick, the transportation department's deputy director for administration, asked the committee to take no action on the project until his agency could "develop a full plan" for the Boston Street corridor. "There are at least a dozen significant developments coming to that area over the next four to six years, and to look at any project by itself doesn't make sense," Kendrick testified.

A $75 million proposed waterfront tower that has riled Canton for nearly two years might become the first significant Baltimore project to die in recent memory. The Icon, which goes before the City Council's land use committee this evening, faces unambiguous opposition from key city leaders, including the council member representing the Southeast Baltimore district and Mayor Sheila Dixon. With no overt support on the council and a thumbs-down from the mayor who must ultimately sign the bill, officials say the project is likely to die in committee.

I really enjoy listening over the Internet to radio station KKJZ in Long Beach, Calif. I stream it through the Windows Media Player, where it is one of a great number of items, including songs, play lists and videos. There must be an easier way to get to that one station than click on find URL, find favorites, browse favorites, then find the KKJZ file among all the files and click on it. - Wayne S. Shapiro, aol.com There is a way to put that radio station a single mouse-click away using a drag-and-drop technique favored by some folks who are utterly committed to accessing a single spot on the Internet and don't want to wade through bookmarks either in the Web browser or in the music player software.

Huge glass tower diminishes Canton As a 20-year resident of an original Canton Square townhouse, I am certainly not opposed to progress. Indeed, my tiny house has increased in value tremendously with all of the rehabs and new construction in the area. But a 240-foot, sparkly glass tower does not belong here. Not only will it dwarf every other structure nearby, but with its modern design it will look hideous in historic Canton ("Panel OKs high-rise in Canton," Feb. 23). Modern glass, high-rise office buildings and condos are fine in downtown development areas set back from the waterfront.