RE: Jack Halpern

I was reading “Mastering Regular Expressions” and
there was Jack Halpern listed in the acknowledgments.
Sounds like Jack suggested to Jeffrey Friedl that he
write a book - and he did.

-----Original Message-----
From: John Foss [mailto:john_foss@asinet.com]
Sent: Friday, March 22, 2002 3:16 PM
To: ‘lutkus@unicyclist.com’; ‘rsu@unicycling.org’
Subject: RE: google.com article

> http://www.msnbc.com/news/724800.asp?0dm=C18MT
>
> It’s about the guys who founded google. The article does not
> make any mention to the unicycle in the photo.

I know the story!

At the Damento Juggling Festival in February, I ran into juggler,
unicyclist, devil-sticker extraordinaire Seth Golub from Palo Alto. I know
Seth because he was one of the riders at the very first MUni Weekend in
1996. He was also a contributor on the unicycling newsgroup years ago, and I
see him at the conventions.

Seth was wearing a Google T-shirt. I made some comment about how Google is
my search engine of choice, and he told me he works there. I said something
about another unicyclists at one of Silicon Valley’s prominent companies.
But Seth said he wasn’t the first. They already had a “company unicycle.”
Oh, who owns/rides that? I asked.

Somebody left it there. He was consulting at Google on Japanese language
stuff.

Can anybody guess?

I don’t think Seth was even sure, but I’m almost positive it had to be none
other than Jack Halpern. Who else is a unicyclist/Japanese language expert,
who leaves unicycles lying around after international visits? I know Jack
has done consulting with Adobe Corporation as well, again working with
Japanese PostScript fonts. I think he has a source of cheap (or free)
Miyatas, because he usually brings them over here and seemingly doesn’t take
them back! He usually sells or donates them after unicycle conventions. A
nice way to spread the word and the quality of the Miyata brand.

And you never know where they might end up, I guess!

Sorry, I forgot to mention this to Jack after the Damento fest; let’s see if
he has any comment.

Who’s Jack Halpern? He is the founder of the International Unicycling
Federation, and the one guy that used to be our point of communication into
and out of the unicycling world in Asia. He speaks 13 or so languages, and
makes Japanese dictionaries (www.kanji.org).

Stay on top,
John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone
jfoss@unicycling.com

“How many America West maintenance personnel does it take to change a
bathroom light bulb in a 737?” Based on what I saw on the way home from
Phoenix recently, three!


rec.sport.unicycling mailing list - www.unicycling.org/mailman/listinfo/rsu

Re: Jack Halpern

Iwema, Dirk (GEAE) wrote…
>I was reading “Mastering Regular Expressions” and
>there was Jack Halpern listed in the acknowledgments.
>Sounds like Jack suggested to Jeffrey Friedl that he
>write a book - and he did.

John Foss wrote:

>I don’t think Seth was even sure, but I’m almost positive it had to be none
>other than Jack Halpern. Who else is a unicyclist/Japanese language expert,
>who leaves unicycles lying around after international visits? I know Jack
>has done consulting with Adobe Corporation as well, again working with
>Japanese PostScript fonts.

I plead guilty :slight_smile: Yes, I gave Seregy, the president of Google, a Miyata
unicycle and some lessons. I am a consultant for Google (they use our
massive CJK databases – see http://www.cjk.org) and I visit them once
in a while.

>I think he has a source of cheap (or free)
>Miyatas, because he usually brings them over here and seemingly doesn’t take
>them back! He usually sells or donates them after unicycle conventions. A
>nice way to spread the word and the quality of the Miyata brand.

I think I rarely sell them. I usually give them away. And by the way, I only
get a small discount. I have done this in various places, as in China, Singapore,
the U.S. and other places…

Which reminds me that work pressure has prevented me from promoting
Unicon lately. But I am going to China in the end of April where I will
meet with the CUA and plan to work more on Singapore. The Japan Team
is coming along and for the first time the JUA is actually active – finally!
I have leads in Korea but had difficulty in following up.

>And you never know where they might end up, I guess!
>
>Sorry, I forgot to mention this to Jack after the Damento fest; let’s see if
>he has any comment.
>
>Who’s Jack Halpern? He is the founder of the International Unicycling
>Federation, and the one guy that used to be our point of communication into
>and out of the unicycling world in Asia. He speaks 13 or so languages, and
>makes Japanese dictionaries (www.kanji.org).

I don’t speak 13. More accurately, I speak 9 with various degrees of skill,
can read and understand another 3, and am studying, it seems eternally,
Arabic and Korean. If you are curious about this have a look at my language
chart at:

>
>> http://www.msnbc.com/news/724800.asp?0dm=C18MT
>>
>> It’s about the guys who founded google. The article does not
>> make any mention to the unicycle in the photo.
>
>I know the story!
>
>At the Damento Juggling Festival in February, I ran into juggler,
>unicyclist, devil-sticker extraordinaire Seth Golub from Palo Alto. I know
>Seth because he was one of the riders at the very first MUni Weekend in
>1996. He was also a contributor on the unicycling newsgroup years ago, and I
>see him at the conventions.
>
>Seth was wearing a Google T-shirt. I made some comment about how Google is
>my search engine of choice, and he told me he works there. I said something
>about another unicyclists at one of Silicon Valley’s prominent companies.
>But Seth said he wasn’t the first. They already had a “company unicycle.”
>Oh, who owns/rides that? I asked.
>
>Somebody left it there. He was consulting at Google on Japanese language
>stuff.
>
>Can anybody guess?
>
>
>Stay on top,
>John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone
>jfoss@unicycling.com
>www.unicycling.com
>
>
>“How many America West maintenance personnel does it take to change a
>bathroom light bulb in a 737?” Based on what I saw on the way home from
>Phoenix recently, three!
>___________________________________________________________________________
>rec.sport.unicycling mailing list - www.unicycling.org/mailman/listinfo/rsu
>___________________________________________________________________________
>rec.sport.unicycling mailing list - www.unicycling.org/mailman/listinfo/rsu
>

Regards, Jack Halpern
President, The CJK Dictionary Institute, Inc.
http://www.cjk.org Phone: +81-48-473-3508