Machines

Eleven-year-old Brad Hill was walking on a ministep machine while tossing a ball from one hand to the other. It took a lot of concentration, but somehow he was able to talk, too. "I figured I'd give it a try, and I came here, and I liked it, and it was fun, so I decided to join," he said. The "here" he was talking about was FitWize 4 Kids, a just-for-kids health club that opened April 1 in Columbia. "The main thing that I like about this is the machines - they're made for kids," Brad said.

Stephen Dixon, the most prolific author in Baltimore, divides his 40 years of writing into three periods: The Olivetti Period. The Royal Period. The Hermes Period.He's not discussing literary matters, such as the changing styles of his fiction, known to some as experimental realism.He's talking more important things -- the gears of creation in different manual typewriters he has insisted on using to the exclusion of computers and electric and electronic typewriters.In this day of the commanding computer, he has company in other authors, letter-writers, retired people and notables, including Ralph Nader, who are wedded to manuals and shudder at electrically powered instruments that are a mite too comfortable.

HERE'S A dirty little secret about personal computers.You don't need a 3-gigabyte disk drive to write a novel. You don't need a 200MHz Pentium processor with MMX technology to balance your checkbook. You don't need a 3-D graphics accelerator to track your stocks and bonds. You don't need a 12X CD-ROM to do your taxes. And you don't need a $300 speaker system with satellite subwoofer to listen to the lady from AOL say, "You've got mail."You do need all these things -- which add up to a couple of grand -- if you want your computer to play games.

At the North Carroll Senior Center yesterday, players halted an intense game of bingo to take lessons on the high-tech voting machines they will encounter for the first time during the March 2 primary. Jo Liggett, 74, the first in a group of about 75 to test the Diebold AccuVote-TS touch-screen machine, approached the sample voting booth with trepidation. She can simultaneously oversee a dozen bingo cards but said anything that smacks of a computer intimidates her. Minutes after filing her mock ballot, she pronounced the process "clear and decisive."

Despite fears that the state's new touch-screen voting machines would fail under the weight of an extraordinary presidential election turnout, the equipment seemed to perform well overall and earned praise from voters. "It was very, very easy," said Christine Evans, leaving Annapolis Elementary School's polling place with her husband, John. "We're computer illiterate, and we still thought it was easy." Still, not everything was rosy. Some voters complained about missing races on their ballots and the hypersensitivity of the screens, which caused them to accidentally vote for the wrong candidate.

All the bluish carpet tacks sold nationally by Woolworth and WalMart stores pass through the hands and grocery scales of 11 women at a venerable East Baltimore plant.They hand-pack tacks at the Holland Manufacturing Co., better known around Little Italy as the "Tack Factory," at Bank Street and Central Avenue.Just a handful of blocks away from stylish Inner Harbor apartments, one of the few surviving downtown manufacturing plants turns out tons of brads, tacks and nails in little bright blue and yellow pasteboard boxes.

When 2 a.m. came Friday, the sound of coins hitting metal — electronically replicated, of course, since the slot machines pay out with a printed ticket — continued at Maryland Live casino. About 1,000 people stayed where they were, plugging money into the video terminals and ordering drinks. Terry Cohen of Randallstown was there to celebrate the new schedule that will keep the casino open 24 hours a day. "There's nothing to do around here at night," she said. "The town shuts down.

Sixteen video machines were seized during a police raid on 12 bars in northern and eastern Anne Arundel County on Monday, part of what law enforcement officials said is an aggressive campaign to wipe out illegal gambling.Just having the machines is against the law in Maryland, but that doesn't stop in-state distributors from putting the machines in county taverns, said Sgt. Michael D. Wilson of the Police Department's vice unit."We will do a sweep like this, and most of the vendors will keep clear," Sergeant Wilson said.

Other factors led to Japanese internmentWith respect to the Dec. 16 letter from Tom Chalkley, "No excuse to intern Japanese Americans," I agree that the internment of Japanese Americans was uncalled for. However, important contributing factors are obscured when emphasizing bare racism and calling legitimate fears ''war hysteria."

I'm confused about the article in "Slots deal to cost $50 million" (June 10). I don't understand why the state is purchasing the slot machines for the casinos but allowing the casinos to pick the select the mix of machines. If I had a license for one of the casinos and the state was picking up the tab for the machines, I just might select the most expensive terminals out there. What the heck, not my money. If, as stated in the article, the average cost of machines is typically between $19,000 and $21,000, why are we paying $116,000 per machine for Shuffle Masters and $24,000 at the low end for KGM machines, which is obviously more than the average cost?