Microsoft Corp has not had success with its Windows CE, simplified version of its Windows operating system, intended for use in personal organizers; according to one poll, personal digital assistants running CE account for just 15 percent of PDA's sold; 75 percent run Palm OS; reasons given for lack of interest in CE include: too expensive, too difficult to use, too bulky, poor quality; Microsoft points out that its CE system is popular for some other devices; photos (M)

Why Doesn't Windows CE Get Any Respect?; When It Comes to Personal Organizers, Microsoft's Minisystem Does Not Rule the Market

John Tierney column on Del Este Village at 13th Street and Avenue A, joint project of city and nonprofit New York City Housing Partnership, to sell homes to people whose household income is less than $70,500 per year; focuses on Kathryn Sanders, special-education teacher who was one of 2,000 people in lottery to buy 98 apartments; notes that she bought duplex apartment with three bedrooms for only $150,000 (M)

The Big City; Bumper Crop Of Bedrooms And Closets

Dr. Dad Gives Thanks for Impossible Families

New York Knicks have 6-7 record after losing, 100-95, to Los Angeles Clippers on Nov 23; photo (M)

Passion Is One More Casualty for the Knicks

Fearless Vision Brings an Artist Home

Article discusses this year's popular toys as Christmas season approaches; Pokemon figures and cards are expected to be top sellers; other popular toys noted (M)

Moving to the Top Of the Stocking; The Year's Hot Toy? Anything Pokemon

Second of two articles on controversy over work of American charity Operation Smile, which provided free surgery for poor Chinese to repair cleft palates and cleft lips; project's assembly-line approach left Beijing hospital with large new debts and its doctors with task of addressing complications, redoing faulty operations and calming some angry families; Dr William P Magee Jr, project founder, defends quality of care, phone interview; photos (M)

Whirlwind of Facial Surgery By Foreigners Upsets China

Police Comr Howard Safir defends Giuliani administration's effort to arrest homeless people sleeping on city streets; says police will use all legal means to keep people from sleeping on streets; some clergymen urge police not to disturb people who sleep on church property; New York Civil Liberties Union exec dir Norman Siegel urges district attorneys not to prosecute homeless people taken off streets; photo (M)

Safir Defends Effort to Clear City Streets At Night

Efforts of New York City garment district worker Vincent Jones to reclaim life of Raymond Lawrence, formerly homeless alcoholic who frequented area, described; Jones gradually learned that Lawrence had been jazz pianist, that one of his sisters commutes through area unaware he was nearby and that his mother lives in Virginia near where Jones himself was raised; has taken him home to mother; photos (M)

Act of Charity Reclaims a Life From the Streets

Article on Dallas Cowboys receiver Raghib Ismail in view of upcoming Thanksgiving Day game against Miami Dolphins; photo (M)

The Rocket Is Reclaiming His Birthright

Commerce Department raises its estimate of third-quarter economic growth to 5.5 percent annual rate from 4.8 percent; growth comes amid few signs of revived inflation; consumer spending rose at 4.6 percent annual rate in quarter, revised from 4.3 percent; Labor Department reports first-time claims for unemployment insurance fell 13,000 last week, to 274,000; graph of real economic growth (M)

ECONOMY PROVING IT'S MORE ROBUST THAN ANTICIPATED

Article discusses how Li Ka-Shing, billionaire developer and chairman of conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa, has profited from Vodafone's attempted takeover of Mannesmann because of his company's deal to sell Orange PLC to Mannesmann; photo (M)

Catbird Seat on Great European Phone Deal Is in Hong Kong

Local and federal investigators say Industrial Enterprise Ltd, contractor at Brooklyn building site where worker Eduardo Daniel was killed and others hurt in building collapse, has history of safety problems and violations; weigh criminal charges; note firm's owner, Chaim Ostreicher, has apparently left for Israel; Mayor Rudolph W Giuliani's aides hold city guidelines regulating contractors are inadequate (M)

After Collapse, Past Violations Cited at Projects

Japan has spent over $1 trillion, much of it on costly and wasteful public works, in effort to spur economy and satisfy political promises; key example is $10 billion Tokyo subway project, where costs have risen 50 percent from original estimate, work is two years behind schedule and line will not run in promised complete circle around city; economists agree lavish spending has kept economy from slipping into severe recession; photos (M)

Economic Stimulus in Japan: Priming a Gold-Plated Pump

Recent Colorado Education Board resolution urging school personnel to use discipline and instruction to overcome problem classroom behavior, rather than urge parents to put children on Ritalin, Luvox or other drugs commonly prescribed for attention deficit and hyperactive disorders fuels national debate over growing use of such drugs; resolution cited violent crimes committed by children on such drugs; mental health experts note children are already having problems before they take drugs (M)

Colorado Fuels U.S. Debate Over Use of Behavioral Drugs

Joseph E Stiglitz saus that he will resign as World Bank's chief economist to return to his academic post at Stanford University; his three-year career at World Bank discussed; photo (M)

Outspoken Chief Economist Leaving World Bank

Ludwig Bemelmans, creator of the Madeline books, is focus of new books by one grandson, John Bemelmans Marciano, and Web site set by another grandson, James; Bemelmans daughter, Barbara, recalls growing up in Hotel Irving near Gramercy Park and eating most meals at Pete's Tavern; photos (M)

'The Smallest One Was Madeline'; A New Focus on the Creator of a Classic

Old idea, the network computer, is being revived to protect against crashes and make files accessible from almost anywhere; such virtual desktops allow users to have constant access to their files, their address books and their calendars; so far, virtual-desktop services are mostly available in bits and pieces; packages discussed; photos; drawing (M)

Storing Your Life in a Virtual Desktop; Web-Based Storage and Software Reinvents an Old Idea, the Network Computer

Ann Powers reviews Metallica, the heavy metal band, performing with Orchestra of St Luke's under direction of the composer Michael Kamen at Madison Square Garden; photo (M)

Metal Goes Classical, With Growls And Screams

Prudential Securities, brokerage unit of Prudential Insurance Co of America, is in final stages of negotiations to buy independent investment bank Volpe Brown Whelan & Co (M)

Insurer Unit Set to Acquire Investing Firm

Republican lawmakers in Nassau County repeal unpopular real estate transfer tax that they enacted over summer, even as they acknowledge that they have yet to figure out where they will find over $50 million that tax was expected to bring in; apparently make calculation that voters who turned them out of power on Election Day were more concerned about tax increase than fiscal woes of county (M)

L.I. Republicans Repeal Tax That Cost Election

Interview with Alistair Cooke, whose newest book, Memories of the Great and Good, is a collection of 23 profiles he did for his weekly BBC radio program, Letters From America; photo (M)

One-Man Bridge From U.S. to Britain

New York Rangers beat Tampa Bay Lightning, 6-3; Rangers Capt Brian Leetch breaks his right forearm and will miss at least one month; photo (M)

Thanks for Nothing: Leetch Breaks His Right Arm

 Questions Over Dialysis  Two studies of dialysis being published in a medical journal suggest that flaws in the treatment of kidney failure may be putting thousands of Americans in danger. PAGE A18

INSIDE

Harvey Araton Sports of The Times column on LeShon Johnson, New York Giants football player who has been given clean bill of health after receiving chemotherapy treatments for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma; photo (M)

Sports of The Times; With Thanks For Heart And Home

Valentín Campa Salazar was a Mexican railway union leader and presidential candidate. Along with Demetrio Vallejo, he was considered one of the leaders of the 1958 railway strikes. Campa was also the founder of the National Railroad Council, and the defunct underground newspaper The Railwayman.

Valentín Campa, Mexican union leader and politician (born 1904)

Valentín_Campa

Elián González Brotons is a Cuban engineer and politician. As a six-year-old child, he was at the center of a high-profile international custody dispute between family members and involving Cuba and the United States.

A five-year-old Cuban boy, Elián González, is rescued by fishermen while floating in an inner tube off the Florida coast.

November 25, 1999

Headlines from November 25, 1999

Why Doesn't Windows CE Get Any Respect?; When It Comes to Personal Organizers, Microsoft's Minisystem Does Not Rule the Market

The Big City; Bumper Crop Of Bedrooms And Closets

Dr. Dad Gives Thanks for Impossible Families

Passion Is One More Casualty for the Knicks

Fearless Vision Brings an Artist Home

Billboard 200

Breathe

Rainbow

Supernatural

The Battle Of Los Angeles

Millennium

Notable Deaths

Historical Events

Historical Context for November 25, 1999