European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 18, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes computers 2 tuesday october in 1994give it another try or. Lincoln Gettysburg address does no to compute on this program by Mike Harden Scripps Howard news service we have a computer room in our Home where once there was a bedroom for my two sons a now grown and gone i enter it with practice caution a a wariness i Learned from old Star wars movies recalling the Fate of space travellers who ventured too close to the death stars tractor beam. Never mind that my Job requires me to use both desktop and Lap top computers when 1 am at my Leisure my natural inclination is to avoid the things. Unfortunately two weeks ago my electric typewriter broke and i Nad no Choice but to be dragged a like a skittish mule being pulled through a carnival haunted House a through a series of new experiences that turned out to be Only As frightening As my primal baseless fear made them. At first i used the thing its name a has three digits i invariably misplace Only to Type and print. Then a few nights ago 1 discovered that it possesses a built in copy editor that does everything except Hiss a i had to edit hardens copy last week its someone else a amp a amp a. Amp perhaps a computer could have helped Lincoln with his Gettysburg address turn in the barrel though i happen to think that the ratio of writers to copy editors is just Fine without making the latter available on computer programs i decided to try a feature on my computer called it sounded like a syntax prison in the russian archipelago but i gave it a a test i fed it Abraham Lincoln a Gettysburg address.77 a a a 77 7-77. Apo Abraham Lincoln a the Brave men Hving and dead who struggled Here have consecrated it far above our poor Power to add or i was certain that Only a minute would pass before the whirring and humming stopped and the screen blinked one of those smarmy com Peters pack greetings a congratulations. No errors. Have a Nice Day and a real pleasant it did no to. 777 7 .7 / a / quickly swallowing Lincoln a 266-word masterpiece it belched its initial objection to a a the position that All men Are created equal a complaining a this is passive voice. Consider revising using Active beginning to Feci its muscle the machine boldly suggested that i ought to revise the opening of the sentence that states a we Are met on a great Battle Field of that Lincoln wrote a we have come to dedicate a portion of that Field As a final testing the computer highlighting a a portion of a sniffed a try to simplify be More specific if you a a a a a a 7 a a .7 a when Grammatik read on and saw a who Here gave their lives that that nation might live a it advised a delete doubled �?~that�?T.�?�. Lincoln ventured a it is altogether fitting and proper that we should do the. Computer implied that Lincoln was ignorant of the fact that a a altogether is an adverb meaning a completely a it suggested using simply Abe continued a but in a larger sense we cannot dedicate. Grammatik whined a try to use a but sparingly to begin a i was getting pretty depressed until the computer in obvious error recommended that in the sentence that follows Lincoln should have used a a has instead of a a have because a the singular subject a it takes a singular with the change the sentence reads a the Brave men living and dead who struggled Here has consecrated it far above Pur poor Power to add or detract a i done to think that is what Lincoln meant to say. A -. A it is for us the living rather to be dedicated a Lincoln wrote. Grammatik spotlighted a rather a then counselled a this word usually adds Little and should be 7 the program came up with More corrections including an objection to Lin coins use of a a we than can be cited in the space of this column but the most galling involved Lincoln a final sentence about resolving that the dead bad not died in vain and pledging Devotion toward the cause of a rebirth of Freedom. A Long sentences can be difficult to read and understand Quot the computer complained. A consider revising so that no More than one Complete thought is expressed in each essentially Grammatik looked at Lincoln a address and criticized a i have written it that incorrect Grammatik. You have written it that Way. Family split by Prince s tale of his Loveless marriage London apr the Royal lesson seems Clear enough an heir to the throne can have a Rotten childhood domineering dad and Loveless marriage. But he Isnit supposed to talk about it. Prince Charles father Prince Philip and others rebuked him monday for parading his private anguish in an authorized biography that has left Britain a troubled royals wounded. In particular Princess Diana was reportedly numbed by Charles a emission that he never loved her Philip signalled his disapproval in a rare Public comment. But Royal aides denied that the family was split calling it a a healthy betting shops report ing a Rush of new gamblers shortened their Odds on t he once unthinkable the British monarchy being abolished by the year 2000. Prime minister John major interrupted his working Day monday to assure the Public that the British monarchy was a very sound and very a live never discussed private matters and 1 done to think the Queen has either. Very few Mem tiers of the family have a Phiilip 73, said in a rare interview with London a daily Telegraph. Philip emerges from the biography As a bullying overbearing father who pushed Charles into proposing to the teen age lady Diana Spencer a Nursery school teacher and Early a daughter. They were married in 1981 when she was just 20 and he was 32. The couple who have two sons Prince William 12, and Prince Harry 10, formally separated in december 1992. Diana 33, drove from her Kensington Palace Home to her gym a a regular monday routine a ignoring photographers. London a daily Mirror newspaper quoted an unnamed Friend of the tin Cess As saying a she is devastated. He can hardly believe what her husband has done to the sunday times began serialization of the Prince of Wales on sunday. It is due to be published by lit Lebrown nov. 3. Charles 45, gave the author broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby Long interviews and Access to More than 10,000 of his private letters and diaries. Newspaper headlines monday declared a Crown in crisis and a War of a there must now be serious doubt about his fitness to Wear the Crown a commented the today newspaper. The biography about which Buckingham Palace says Charles has no regrets shows the marriage went wrong almost from the Start. The biography appeared to make a divorce More Likely. Charles so far has shied from this partly because the Monarch is temporal head of the Church of England which frowns on divorce. As it is Diana would become Queen if Charlest nother died. A i think people would find that a bit Diana Princess of Wales leaves a London health club monday. Unfitting a commented Oxford historian Vernon bog Nador. Diana had already let friends talk to author Andrew Morton for a 1992 Book that portrayed Charles As cold Remote and persistently unfaithful with an old flame Camilla Parker Bowles 47. In a Book published two weeks ago Diana a former Riding instructor Earmy maj. Janies Hewitt claimed he began a five year affair with the Princess in 1986. Bookmakers William Hill reduced Odds from 6�?1 to 5�?1 on the 1,000-year-old monarchy being gone by the end of the Century a Only two years ago we were offering Odds of1100 to 1,�?� said Hills spokesman Graham Sharpe. Moscow apr Queen Elizabeth ii arrived in Moscow on monday for the f first v Isit to re s s i a by a b i Tish m on a Rcpt but her trip threatened to be overshadowed by the latest controversy Oyer her eldest songs marital troubles. The visit by the Queen and her husband Prince Philip follows the appearance of excerpts from the new authorized biography of Prince Charles. The Book alleges that Philip pushed his son into a Loveless marriage. The Queen wearing a full length fur. Coat and a Pillbox hat was greeted at the Moscow Airport by first Deputy prime minister Oleg so Kovets. Russian p re s ident b Ori s Yeltsin a chief spokesman Vyacheslav Kostikova said the Queens visit recognized his country break with its totalitarian past a we realize that the British Queen would never have visited a communist country a Kostikova said. The couple will stay in the Kremlin As Yeltsin a guests and the Queen is due to deliver a speech today at a Black lie banquet there. Later in the week Yeltsin will accompany the Queen to St. Petersburg former Imperial capital of the czars for a banquet aboard the Britannia the Royal yacht. Both the Queen and Philip Are related to the Imperial Romanov family of Czar Nicholas ii executed by bolshevik revolutionaries in 1918
