Watson's Side of the Story
By David Shamah, The
"So you see, Watson, it's simply elementary; the
butler obviously did it, because the facts point right to him, and no one
else."
Once again, Holmes has done it – and once again, the
accolades, interview requests and money will come
flying in his direction, from everyone from the Times on up to the Queen. And I? I, lowly Watson, will, as usual, be relegated to
hailing cabs for the oaf!
I know this comes as a shock to many of you, but
Holmes and I are not as buddy-buddy as people seem to think. Sherlock used to
be a nice guy, but over the past few years, the fame and high living seem to
have gone to his head. I suppose you would have to expect him to be affected by
all this fame and fortune – but what about me, his loyal partner? Don’t I
deserve some goodies, too?
It wasn't always like this. I'm the one who started
this detective agency. I'm just as smart as Holmes, if not more so. But
somehow, he cracks all the cases and gets all the glory. The guy hasn’t had to
pay for a restaurant meal in twenty years – whenever he walks into a joint, the
staff swoons – it's enough that he deigned to enter the place! It just ain't fair!
Well, I have had just about enough of this. You see,
Holmes has a secret – a secret that I know, too. But he's got a better computer
with a faster processor, you see, so he can analyze
the facts faster than I can, and he gets to solve the case before I do – every
time! No more. I intend to blow the lid off this scam, and reveal the big
secret that old Sherlock has been using to get all those books and movies
written about him!
You see, police investigation is a matter of putting
two and two together- call it fact management. In order to figure out whodunit,
you have to look at the facts and try top understand them until they make sense
– until you can develop theory that works. Then you find evidence to back up
your theory, apprehend the offender, and sit back and wait for Good Morning
America to call you for an interview.
But in order to be able to manage information, you
first have to get a handle on it. You have to record every fact, and keep track
of every rumor or piece of information about a case. The more information, the
quicker/easier the solution – but if you miss key details, you may jeopardize
the entire investigation!
Facts are important, but the best investigators are
those who can think "outside the box" – individuals who can come up
with creative non-conventional ideas and theories that encompass as many
scenarios as possible, no matter how far-fetched. But "left-brainers," as these creative types are known, are often
the least organized fact managers around!
When I first started working with Holmes, he was
about as left-brained as they come. The guy used to scribble notes in atrocious
handwriting and jam the pieces of paper into his pocket, and try to sort them
out at the end of the day. He kept losing notes, phone numbers, names and
places, and sometimes I would take my own notes together with him on exactly
the same information, just to make sure I had a backup of the information he
was almost sure to lose! Several times, I came this close to firing Holmes. But
I didn't have the heart – he kept trying and working and plugging away, I
couldn't just throw him out the door.
Desperate for a solution, I sat down at my PC one day
and searched for a solution – some system or program that Holmes could use to
improve his memory, or at least his fact management skills – and I struck gold!
A free program called Infomagic (http://www.factsfacts.com/IMagic,
for all Windows) proved to be the 100% solution to Holmes' organization
problems – and the beginning of the end for me!
Busy, creative people know they need information –
but they despise the idea of organizing that information. There is nothing more
distasteful to a creative person than the idea of sitting down and sorting out
facts or information just for the sake of being organized. If they are forced
to, they will do it – but often, they will forget what file they put a
particular document or phone number into. They just don't look at the world as
a series of separate folders in a filing cabinet. For them, ideas merge and
emerge from one another, and their philosophy of life is reflected in their
attitude to organization.
Infomagic is the perfect information solution for
these kinds of people. Infomagic is an information
manager and storage solution, but instead of filing information traditionally –
in separate files and folders – Infomagic encourages
you to minimize the number of documents or folders you use. It's like a left-brainer's dream come true – jus throw the data into a
drawer (folder/file) and then let the program sort it out afterwards. You don’t
have to feel guilty about not being neat, because Infomagic
takes care of neatness for you!
You open up a document in the program, and write
whatever you want in it – say a set of names and phone numbers. At first, the Infomagic document will seem like a regular text document.
It's only after you've entered a good amount of information – like dozens of
names and phone numbers or tens of factoids about a case – that Infomagic earns its stripes.
Let's say you're investigating a case, and you want
to check on a suspect's marital status. Using traditional information
management systems, you'd open up that person's file and check for the
information. That assumes, of course, that you were organized enough to enter
the fact in the person's file in the first place. But when you're quickly
jotting down information and are rushing to the next interview, you might not
remember to record the data in the correct place. Why take a chance? Just open
up your all-in-one Infomagic file, and type in the
information. Infomagic's powerful search engine will
track down the fact when you do a search for it, whether with a full word or a
partial one.
Before I discovered Infomagic,
I was actually doing something similar using Notepad. I would just stick
unrelated information into an all–in-one Notepad document and do a text search
for what I needed afterwards. Infomagic is better in
that it will search over multiple documents; you can have as many files as you
want, and Infomagic will faithfully find all lines
with the term you searched for. It'd got some other nice features, too – like
file locking, instant modem dialing for phone numbers, and a flashback key
which will take you to the cursor's previous position. If you're not the type
to go out of his or her way to carefully record details you are going to need,
or often find yourself rifling through scribbled handwritten notes in order to
discover a valuable, lost name, phone number or meeting detail, you are going
to find Infomagic invaluable.
As has Holmes! By using the system I dug up for him,
he was able to crack the Devonshire Jewel Thief ring case back in '47 – and the
Devonshire Jewelers were so grateful they gave him a top of the line laptop as
a token of their thanks. So now, along with that silly pipe, Holmes schleps
around a laptop and duly records all data that comes his way into his Infomagic files. Well, now it's my turn. Just wait until I
get my fancy laptop net month –all the big cases are going to be mine. When I
apply my own left brain to cases and use Infomagic's data magic, I am going to
be the big shot around here – it's elementary!
Send questions/comments to ds@newzgeek.com