hello
BRIAN SITHOLE
My names are Mr BRIAN SITHOLE, the elder son of Mr.
SMITH SITHOLE of Zimbabwe. It might be a
surprise to you where I got your contact address
from,I got it from the South Africa Information
Network Online(SAINL)/South Africa Trade Center
(SATC).
During the current crises against the farmers of
Zimbabwe by the supporters of our President Robert
Mugabe to claim all the white owned farms in our
country, he ordered all the white farmers to surrender
their farms to his party members and their followers.
My father was one of the best farmers in the country
and knowing that he did not support the president?s
political ideology, the president?s supporters invaded
my father?s farm ,burnt down everything, shot him and
as a result of the wounds sustained, he became sick
and died after two days.And after his death, My mother
and I with my younger Brother decided to move out of
Zimbabwe for the safety of our lives to South-Africa.
BUT, before he died HE WROTE HIS WILL ,which reads
"(MY BELOVEED SON ,I WISH TO DRAW YOUR ATTENTION TO
THE SUM OF $15.7 MILLION U.S DOLLARS WHICH I DEPOSITED
IN A BOX WITH A SECURITY COMPANY IN JOHANNESBURG
(SOUTH-AFRICA). IN CASE OF MY ABSENCE ON EARTH CAUSED
BY DEATH ONLY".you should solicit for reliable foreign
partner to assist you to transfer this money out of
SOUTH-AFRICA for investment purpose.
I deposited the money in your Name "BRIAN SITHOLE"
and it can be claimed by you alone with the deposit
code, your mother has all the documents,Take good care
of your mother and brother." From the above, you will
understand that the lives and future of my family
depends on this money as much, I will be very grateful
if you can assist us.We are now living in South-Africa
as POLITICAL ASYLUM SEEKERS and the financial law of
SOUTH-AFRICA does not allow ASYLUM SEEKERS certain
financial rights to such
huge amount of money .
In view of this, I cannot invest this money in
South-Africa, hence I am asking you to assist us
transfer this money out of South-Africa for investment
pusposes. For your efforts, I am prepared to offer you
20% of the total fund, while 5% will be set aside for
local and international expenses and 75% will be kept
for my family and I.(ME).
Finally ,modalities on how the transfer will be done
will be conveyed to you once we establish trust and
confidence between ourselves.Looking forward to your
urgent reply .
For detailed information, you can contact me on my
Email address brian...@zwallet.com
NOTE: THE KEY WORD TO THIS TRANSACTION IS ABSOLUTE
CONFIDENTIALITY AND SECRECY. THIS TRANSACTION IS 100%
RISK FREE. YOUR URGENT RESPONSE WILL BE HIGHLY
APPRECIATED.
All the best,
BRIAN SITHOLE (FOR THE FAMILY)
______________________________________________________
Get Paid... With Your Free Email at
http://www.zwallet.com/index.html?user=brian_25tx2
no...@none.com
<brian...@ZWALLET.COM> wrote:
> DEAR SIR
> My names are Mr BRIAN SITHOLE, the elder son of Mr.
> SMITH SITHOLE of Zimbabwe. It might be a
> surprise to you where I got your contact address
> from,I got it from the South Africa Information
> Network Online(SAINL)/South Africa Trade Center
> (SATC).
Well Mr Brian Shithole, as a matter of fact, it doesn't surprise me where
you got our contact address. You are simply a spammer, plain and simple.
You'll do anything to annoy the general public on the Internet.
> During the current crises against the farmers of
> Zimbabwe by the supporters of our President Robert
> Mugabe to claim all the white owned farms in our
> country, he ordered all the white farmers to surrender
> their farms to his party members and their followers.
> My father was one of the best farmers in the country
> and knowing that he did not support the president?s
> political ideology, the president?s supporters invaded
> my father?s farm ,burnt down everything, shot him and
> as a result of the wounds sustained, he became sick
> and died after two days.
Evidentally, your father wasn't as bright as you thought he was.
> BUT, before he died HE WROTE HIS WILL ,which reads
> "(MY BELOVEED SON ,I WISH TO DRAW YOUR ATTENTION TO
> THE SUM OF $15.7 MILLION U.S DOLLARS WHICH I DEPOSITED
> IN A BOX WITH A SECURITY COMPANY IN JOHANNESBURG
> (SOUTH-AFRICA). IN CASE OF MY ABSENCE ON EARTH CAUSED
> BY DEATH ONLY".you should solicit for reliable foreign
> partner to assist you to transfer this money out of
> SOUTH-AFRICA for investment purpose.
Again, your father was not very bright.
> I deposited the money in your Name "BRIAN SITHOLE"
> and it can be claimed by you alone with the deposit
> code, your mother has all the documents,Take good care
> of your mother and brother." From the above, you will
> understand that the lives and future of my family
> depends on this money as much, I will be very grateful
> if you can assist us.We are now living in South-Africa
> as POLITICAL ASYLUM SEEKERS and the financial law of
> SOUTH-AFRICA does not allow ASYLUM SEEKERS certain
> financial rights to such
> huge amount of money .
I've weighed the options. I have decided not to help you out in any way,
shape, nor form. Kiss my ass.
> In view of this, I cannot invest this money in
> South-Africa, hence I am asking you to assist us
> transfer this money out of South-Africa for investment
> pusposes. For your efforts, I am prepared to offer you
> 20% of the total fund, while 5% will be set aside for
> local and international expenses and 75% will be kept
> for my family and I.(ME).
Again, kiss my ass.
> Finally ,modalities on how the transfer will be done
> will be conveyed to you once we establish trust and
> confidence between ourselves.Looking forward to your
> urgent reply .
Here's my urgent reply. I WILL GRANT YOU NO ASSISTANCE WHATSOEVER.
> For detailed information, you can contact me on my
> Email address brian...@zwallet.com
> NOTE: THE KEY WORD TO THIS TRANSACTION IS ABSOLUTE
> CONFIDENTIALITY AND SECRECY. THIS TRANSACTION IS 100%
> RISK FREE. YOUR URGENT RESPONSE WILL BE HIGHLY
> APPRECIATED.
> All the best,
> BRIAN SITHOLE (FOR THE FAMILY)
The proper authorities will be contacted. You will have NO confidentiality
and NO secrecy.
Evidentally you are even dumber than your father. You desire
confidentiality and secrecy, yet you post your crap to a public forum.
You're just a chip off the old block, aren't you? Too bad they didn't
take you out along with your dimwitted father. The world would have been a
better place with you buried six feet under.
Best regards!
Neil
<no...@none.com> wrote in message
news:none-21020...@wnpgmb01bby-ac03-p11-24.mts.net...
> In article <1045829299.141...@web1.zwallet.com>, BRIAN
SITHOLE
> <brian...@ZWALLET.COM> wrote:
> > DEAR SIR
> > My names are Mr BRIAN SITHOLE, the elder son of Mr.
You haven't seen the Nigerian letter before? Sad thing is, it must
work, because it keeps coming.
http://pac-c.org/new_page_3.htm
INTERPOL WARNING: Nigerian crime syndicate's letter scheme fraud
takes on new dimension
Nigerian crime syndicates have added a new dimension to the
fraudulent letter scheme known as 'fraud 419’ which has netted an
estimated amount in excess of one billion US dollars from victims
since the worldwide scheme was first reported in 1989.
Reports received by Interpol indicate that the criminals are becoming
so brazen and confident that they are contacting earlier victims of
the fraud and are posing as Nigerian government officials
investigating the fraud in a so-called attempt to get the victims'
money back upon payment of an upfront fee.
.......
Postscript
As noted in the Interpol Warning, it is extremely difficult to
prosecute the promoters of the scheme and the chances of recovering
any funds invested are remote. However, this should not be taken to
mean that you should forego the reporting of any incidents to your
police. If nothing else, your report might serve to prevent others
from falling prey to the same scam.
no...@none.com
<wh...@nothere.com> wrote:
> You haven't seen the Nigerian letter before? Sad thing is, it must
> work, because it keeps coming.
*snip*
Yes, I've seen it before.
I was just frustrated with all the spam in this bit.listserv.coco group
which I access via USENET, and felt like replying in a negative manner to
the person who posted the scam spam.
It's not like he/she will ever read the reply.
Why is it that this bit.listserv.coco has ***SO MUCH*** spam in it?
I'm into certain types of old computers, and the newsgroups which I read
(comp.sys.apple2 and comp.sys.cbm for example) don't have anywheres
near the amount of spam in them as this coco newsgroup.
I completely gave up on actually subscribing to the bit.listserv.coco
mailing list, because then I'm forced to download hundreds upon hundreds
of spam emails every week, and it's because of this mailing list.
Neil
<no...@none.com> wrote in message
news:none-21020...@wnpgmb01bby-ac03-p18-225.mts.net...
...
>
> Yes, I've seen it before.
> I was just frustrated with all the spam in this bit.listserv.coco
group
> which I access via USENET, and felt like replying in a negative
manner to
> the person who posted the scam spam.
>
> It's not like he/she will ever read the reply.
>
>
> Why is it that this bit.listserv.coco has ***SO MUCH*** spam in
it?
>
> I'm into certain types of old computers, and the newsgroups which I
read
> (comp.sys.apple2 and comp.sys.cbm for example) don't have
anywheres
> near the amount of spam in them as this coco newsgroup.
>
> I completely gave up on actually subscribing to the
bit.listserv.coco
> mailing list, because then I'm forced to download hundreds upon
hundreds
> of spam emails every week, and it's because of this mailing list.
It's because it runs through Princeton (free) and they don't filter.
N
Gene Heskett
One a side note, there is a story on one of the european sites I
read last night, where an old (72) man who must have been bilked
out of his life savings, walked into the nigerian embassy in one of
the former eastern block countries and started blowing away the
staff, killing a high ranking person and wounding his secretary
before he was subdued.
In a sense, I hope that it will send a message to the nigerian
government that mafia connections or not, their ignoring the
problem is going to have international repercussions such as this
in a lot of places.
I'd also bet a bottle of bubbly this will not be the only instance.
A slight variation on the he who lives by the sword, will die by
it. In this case the weapons were money on one side, and bullets
on the other.
I've always held that a 38 will trump 4 aces at any poker table,
particularly if you have an ace in the hand you throw down face up
as you draw the 38.
Just this old mans two cents.
--
Cheers, Gene
AMD K6-III@500mhz 320M
Athlon1600XP@1400mhz 512M
99.23% setiathome rank, not too shabby for a WV hillbilly
Bill Cousert
"Gene Heskett" <gene_h...@iolinc.net> wrote in message
news:200302211905.04...@iolinc.net...
> I've always held that a 38 will trump 4 aces at any poker table,
> particularly if you have an ace in the hand you throw down face up
> as you draw the 38.
>
Bill Cousert
"Neil" <wh...@nothere.com> wrote in message
news:yqx5a.51101$9K5.2...@news0.telusplanet.net...
>
> It's because it runs through Princeton (free) and they don't filter.
>
> N
>
>
Why not switch to Yahoo groups? You could appoint a moderator to filter out
the junk.
Gene Heskett
ROTFLMAO! Chuckle. I haven't been in that particular situation,
mainly because I don't play cards, for money, with strangers.
Never have in 68 years. But it does seem like a pretty good rule
to me. I mean, most decks of cards only have 4 aces. If you have
one in your hand, and somebody else lays down 4 of them, somebody
is sure as heck suspect, and it ain't me if its not my deck of
cards.
And yes, I'm a permitted bill of rights defender, something W is
working his butt off to fix *his* way. Fortunately, I think the
next elections might let us fix that, hopefully before he can do
too much lasting damage.
Who with is the 64 million dollar question.
--
Cheers Bill, Gene
Neil
.....
>
> And yes, I'm a permitted bill of rights defender, something W is
> working his butt off to fix *his* way. Fortunately, I think the
> next elections might let us fix that, hopefully before he can do
> too much lasting damage.
>
> Who with is the 64 million dollar question.
Dean might be good. I always liked Tsongas, but apparently he never
could sell the lisp.
It's all about appearances, I think. Clint Eastwood could run as the
nominee for President for the Communist Party, and he'd get elected.
N
Roger Taylor
>"Neil" <wh...@nothere.com> wrote in message
>news:yqx5a.51101$9K5.2...@news0.telusplanet.net...
> >
> >
> > N
> >
> >
>
>the junk.
I'm a member of a Yahoo group/mailing list... works the same as this one I
guess, comes to my inbox, but when you reply it goes back to the group and
not the originator of the message like it does here, but when you post or
reply, you see your message come back in less than a minute, confirming it
was received, other than a confirmation msg from princeton. The other
difference is that there is GRAPHICS AD attached to almost every message I
get, which I do not really like. They're clean, but they take up my
precious bandwidth when a slew of messages come in.
If I'm not mistaken, you can't post to the Yahoo group unless you are
subscribed. Subscribing requires you to verify your e-mail address by
clicking on a link inside of an email they send you.
Gene Heskett
Thats because nobody in posession of the sense God gave him could
ever believe Clint was a communist. That would be stretching a
"reality show" way too far. Besides, Clints getting to be like me,
an old f--t, well past his prime for the rigors of that office in
todays world.
But I have considered running for the school board a time or 5
recently, its a one night a week job, no or very little pay. But
I'd like to rattle some cages on how its done from time to time
just to keep them honest. The current crop of incumbents, some of
whom have been there for 15 years that I know of, will not spend a
dime on maintainance, but when the building is so rundown the kids
haven't got a decent place to pee, they go and sell a new school
tax levy so they can build a new building. Thats bs, pure and
smelly, as is the school.
A little draino in the lines from time to time, and a few faucet
washers & a 5 dollar seat cutter kit would work wonders, as would a
can of varnish from time to time, but thats not in the budget, nor
is anybody smart enough to do it. One of our now middle school
buildings has had foot or more diameter holes kicked into every
door leading into the gym, and its been that way for 14 years that
I know of. Good sized doors, take 3-5 grand to replace them all I
suppose. A new building with even cheaper doors, half a mill+.
Put kids into an environment where its obvious nobody else cares,
and why in tunket should they?
I thought that was a good question anyway...
--
Cheers, Gene
Dennis Bathory-Kitsz
>But I have considered running for the school board a time or 5
>recently, its a one night a week job, no or very little pay.
Don't. With federal mandates, budgets turned down by the public, locked-in
contracts, required curriculum content, religious & political pressure
groups, and parents who are just plain nuts, you have no economic or
philosophical 'wiggle room' at all. You end up worrying about bus schedules
and school lunches and what's the latest show of atheism or unpatriotism or
evolution or whatever might be the lastest witch-hunt over textbooks. I was
on the school board here, and left after three years. The school boards are
only there to be the scapegoats for a combination of dullard federal laws,
foolish taxation, budgets that lag behind costs, irresponsible parents, and
required bidding that gets the most expensive suppliers, you'll feel used
and used up. (I also taught for six years, which was more gratifying and a
much more significant role than the school board ever could hope to be.)
Dennis
Gene Heskett
>At 12:20 AM 2/22/03 -0500, Gene Heskett wrote:
>>But I have considered running for the school board a time or 5
>>recently, its a one night a week job, no or very little pay.
>
>Don't. With federal mandates, budgets turned down by the public,
> locked-in contracts, required curriculum content, religious &
> political pressure groups, and parents who are just plain nuts,
> you have no economic or philosophical 'wiggle room' at all.
And we're still off-topic, oh well. Gotta have something to talk
about ;-)
Thats exactly why there should be 4 or 5 other like minded
candidates, somebody to knock some wiggle room back into the scene.
And maybe even see if I could bring back one old teaching method
that works, and works very well, phonics. Because I had it at a
very early age, first from my mother, and as soon as I started the
first grade too (no kindergarten then) with all those old McGuffy
Readers, I have to this day, several legs up on the average of the
next, and subsequent generations that didn't have that advantage.
The last time I was reading tested in the 8th grade, I scored 400+
wpm at 95% comprehension. I don't do that today, but I can still
read the average big novel in maybe two sittings. And I can
pronounce all the words, and deduce the meaning of a word I've
never seen before, all because I had phonics.
When a combination of health problems (allergies I've since
outgrown) and difficult school admins, I called it quits in the
middle of the 9th grade, and went on into a career in electronics
that has now stretched into the 54th year, the last 39 as a
broadcast engineer.
> You
> end up worrying about bus schedules and school lunches and what's
> the latest show of atheism or unpatriotism or evolution or
> whatever might be the lastest witch-hunt over textbooks. I was on
> the school board here, and left after three years. The school
> boards are only there to be the scapegoats for a combination of
> dullard federal laws, foolish taxation, budgets that lag behind
> costs, irresponsible parents, and required bidding that gets the
> most expensive suppliers, you'll feel used and used up. (I also
> taught for six years, which was more gratifying and a much more
> significant role than the school board ever could hope to be.)
My missus has recently retired after 34 years of teaching elementary
music. I think, from observing her, that the job satisfaction was
at least as important as the salary, and moreso in later years.
Dennis Bathory-Kitsz
>And we're still off-topic, oh well. Gotta have something to talk
>about ;-)
That's good. Better'n more spam gripes.
>Thats exactly why there should be 4 or 5 other like minded
>candidates, somebody to knock some wiggle room back into the scene.
>And maybe even see if I could bring back one old teaching method
>that works, and works very well, phonics. Because I had it at a
>very early age, first from my mother, and as soon as I started the
>first grade too (no kindergarten then) with all those old McGuffy
>Readers, I have to this day, several legs up on the average of the
>next, and subsequent generations that didn't have that advantage.
>The last time I was reading tested in the 8th grade, I scored 400+
>wpm at 95% comprehension. I don't do that today, but I can still
>read the average big novel in maybe two sittings. And I can
>pronounce all the words, and deduce the meaning of a word I've
>never seen before, all because I had phonics.
Having sat in various seats -- as volunteer first in computering and music,
as a board member later, and finally as a teacher -- I'd say your chances
are near zero. :)
But it depends on where you live and how much actual legal power your board
has to combine with its vision. In Vermont, the local boards are beholden
to the requirements set out by the state board. And everyone has the
federal mandates (including all the laws that affect any public agency),
the results of contract negotiations (which are done by supervisory unions
here, a collection of two to five school boards), and taxation methods
(just revised here to be handled at the state level because of serious
town-to-town funding inequities, which relieved the pressure on poor towns
while making "gold towns" angry).
If you plan to interfere with the curriculum itself, though, be prepared
for a stonewall, and rightly so. You may know very well the style and
substance of one teacher's approach because of your wife's successful
career -- and that's probably more than most board members could claim --
but that might be one of those 'little knowledge' traps, as well as a
guaranteed frustration (even with 'like-minded' board members).
Certainly I had my fights with the school board, who tried unsuccessfully
to fire me for three years over curriculum issues. It all started because
some nutcake didn't like the fact that I showed "Amadeus" as an
introduction to the classical music unit. (I'll leave it to you to figure
out why.) From then on the board, powerless to actually affect budgets or
content, looked for any excuse to fire me. I was their liability. I was
fortunately adept enough at power games to keep them at bay until my
original six-year program was completed, angering them over and over by
receiving a federal commendation, by having the district's only program
that passed the state standards (despite me throwing the evaluators out of
my classes), and by being one of only five recipients in all of New England
and New York of the Rural School Initiative achievement award. (That pissed
them off so much that they didn't even tell me I received it -- I had to
read the news release in the daily paper!)
I certainly don't doubt your enthusiasm or good will. Most school board
members, elected from the lay public, really do believe they are doing the
right thing -- and many serve as an effective buffer between the process of
teaching and the onerous regulations invented in the state and federal
bureaucracies.
The problem is that most board members have never sat in a classroom (in
the present day, that is, not from their childhood), most don't bother to
read educational research, and few are actually conversant with the state
and federal standards they're required to meet. The bulk of board meetings
(and this goes for large cities as well as rural areas like mine) are made
up with administrative trivia, budgetary nightmares, infrastructure
maintenance, parental (or pressure group) complaints, and fixes that the
board tries to apply to a curriculum they perceive as dysfunctional.
There is no quick fix, or even slow fix. One can certainly encourage the
training of competent teachers, but this goes back before they're hired.
Teaching is not a lucrative or even adequately paid profession (despite
some hard-won benefits over time), and the one-on-one aspect of being in
the classroom every day is not amenable to the second- and third-hand
information and experience and part-time thought the school boards afford
the process.
Messing with the curriculum and content is something school boards do, and
then leave it to teachers to clean up that mess. Instead, I felt (both as a
member of the board and later a teacher) that the most effective things a
board could do would be the fight the anti-bureaucratic fight for the
teachers, acquire donations of goods & materials that the budget won't
allow, round up and train a cadre of volunteers to do all the things that
the budget won't allow, and finally (and most important) get out from
behind the meeting table and knock on the door of every single parent in
the district to get them to give education a significant place in their
homelife. No educational program can make up for the dismissal of
education's value as a cultural circumstance in the present day.
Dennis
Michael J. Mahon
<snip>
>I certainly don't doubt your enthusiasm or good will. Most school board
>members, elected from the lay public, really do believe they are doing the
>right thing...
May we all be protected from people who "believe they are doing
the right thing".
-michael
Check out amazing quality 8-bit Apple sound on my
Home page: http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/
John E. Malmberg
> At 05:05 AM 2/22/03 -0500, Gene Heskett wrote:
>
>>Thats exactly why there should be 4 or 5 other like minded
>>candidates, somebody to knock some wiggle room back into the scene.
>>And maybe even see if I could bring back one old teaching method
>>that works, and works very well, phonics.
Gene, If you feel that you are up to it, go for it. The more
non-politicians in office the better.
But if you are going to do more than rubber stamp things, it will
require more than one night a week. You will have to do some fact finding.
<snip>
I have snipped most of Dennis's comments for brevity too. They sound
accurate from what I have seen in other school districts. Too many
parents just want their kids to get a diploma, and do not care if they
actually learn anything. And unfortunately many of these parents have a
lot of political clout.
My father was paid to take early retirement, so they could hire a
cheaper teacher to take his place. He was a High School teacher.
> If you plan to interfere with the curriculum itself, though, be prepared
> for a stonewall, and rightly so. You may know very well the style and
> substance of one teacher's approach because of your wife's successful
> career -- and that's probably more than most board members could claim --
> but that might be one of those 'little knowledge' traps, as well as a
> guaranteed frustration (even with 'like-minded' board members).
You may also after all attempts to disuade you, get a visit from the
School District's lawyers. They will explain to you that based on
judgments in districts that are under court supervision, they can not
implement the things that will fix the problems in the curriculum. If
they do, they risk being sued in a very expensive lawsuit, and because
of precedence law, they have no chance of winning.
The interesting thing is that may change things is that the "No Child
Left Behind" can not be successfully implemented by the school districts
that are under court ordered supervision, or are likely to come under
court ordered supervision.
It will be interesting if "No Child Left Behind" gets overturned or
ignored. It can not be implemented with out the remedial classes or
holding kids back, which are currently effectively prohibited by court
order in many errors. Those same orders prohibit taking displinary
action against any major action that does not result in a police report.
The big flaw with most of the school reforms is that they seem to blame
the teacher/principle/board when a student does not do well, and put no
responsibility on the student. This is a major flaw in the "No Child
Left Behind" plan.
The "Sweathogs" or their modern equivalent know that the school district
must pass at least 80% of them with at least a C regardless of how much
effort that they put in. If they do not, they are either in violation
of a court order, or under risk of becoming under court ordered
supervision. The papers will not print that. 60 Minutes will not
expose this either. 60 Minutes has exposed some of the things that
school districts have done to
Study carefully the success cases where things were turned around. You
will find a commmon factor. It will tell you what type of ally that you
will need to get things done.
> Messing with the curriculum and content is something school boards do, and
> then leave it to teachers to clean up that mess. Instead, I felt (both as a
> member of the board and later a teacher) that the most effective things a
> board could do would be the fight the anti-bureaucratic fight for the
> teachers, acquire donations of goods & materials that the budget won't
> allow, round up and train a cadre of volunteers to do all the things that
> the budget won't allow, and finally (and most important) get out from
> behind the meeting table and knock on the door of every single parent in
> the district to get them to give education a significant place in their
> homelife. No educational program can make up for the dismissal of
> education's value as a cultural circumstance in the present day.
There are still a significant amount of parents that care about their
kids education. What they do not know because the media will not print
it is why a teacher was told that they had to stop a remedial class.
They make the school board or principle look like the bad guy, but do
not mention the Federal Judges who passed the ruling and on who's behalf
that they passed the ruling for.
There used to be SHAM remedial classes where students were segregated
based on racial profiling, and not by actual need. Because of this the
class that was discriminated againsts has successfully campaigned in
court to get all remedial classes removed. There have been a few
exceptions to this in the news reports.
In my experience there seem to be a number of good teachers, but there
are a number of clueless ones also, and at the time my dad retired, it
appeared that the clueless ones were in control of the teacher's union.
The clueless teachers may not know how to be good teachers, but they do
know how to protect their jobs by attacking any threat to it. And they
are really against anything that will expose that they are just cooking
the grade books. And they have a very strong political allies.
I think though that while a good teacher can accomplish a lot, their
needs to be some responsibilty put on the students.
-John
wb8...@qsl.network
Personal Opinion Only
Neil
"John E. Malmberg" <wb8...@QSL.NET> wrote in message
news:3E59805B...@qsl.net...
....
>
> In my experience there seem to be a number of good teachers, but
there
> are a number of clueless ones also, and at the time my dad retired,
it
> appeared that the clueless ones were in control of the teacher's
union.
>
> The clueless teachers may not know how to be good teachers, but
they do
> know how to protect their jobs by attacking any threat to it. And
they
> are really against anything that will expose that they are just
cooking
> the grade books. And they have a very strong political allies.
>
> I think though that while a good teacher can accomplish a lot,
their
> needs to be some responsibilty put on the students.
It's way past time to privatise all schools, and pay for results, not
mere attendance. The present system is based on an antique English
system, originally a private business (called public schools, but
what we would now call private schools), designed to educate the sons
of those who could not afford to pay for a private tutor. The
curriculum is equally antique, and utterly ineffective.
N
Neil
Getting back on track, is there any reasonable way to duplicate the
Speech Sound Pak? It's suprisingly complex, and I suspect many of the
chips are made of unobtainium.
Neil
Gene Heskett
>Dennis Bathory-Kitsz wrote:
>> At 05:05 AM 2/22/03 -0500, Gene Heskett wrote:
>>>Thats exactly why there should be 4 or 5 other like minded
>>>candidates, somebody to knock some wiggle room back into the
>>> scene. And maybe even see if I could bring back one old
>>> teaching method that works, and works very well, phonics.
>
>Gene, If you feel that you are up to it, go for it. The more
>non-politicians in office the better.
[snip much of the discussion]
>In my experience there seem to be a number of good teachers, but
> there are a number of clueless ones also, and at the time my dad
> retired, it appeared that the clueless ones were in control of
> the teacher's union.
>
>The clueless teachers may not know how to be good teachers, but
> they do know how to protect their jobs by attacking any threat to
> it. And they are really against anything that will expose that
> they are just cooking the grade books. And they have a very
> strong political allies.
>
>I think though that while a good teacher can accomplish a lot,
> their needs to be some responsibilty put on the students.
>
>-John
>wb8...@qsl.network
>Personal Opinion Only
Amen John. I may just look the other way cause all this is pretty
discourageing, but dammit, this country is going to hell in a
handbasket, and its the educational systems fault for 80% of it,
the other 20% is students (and parents) who don't have 50 cents to
call somebody who might care. One of the success stories I like to
read about is that one in a recent Readers Digest story about the
chess classes in one of the philly schools. Those student know
there is somebody who cares and it shows, a lot.
Thats slipping good teaching in under the radar, and making the kids
love it. Even problem students have come around. Whyinhell can't
something like that actually be supported by the school admins
instead of just ok'd as an extra activity as long as its a zero
cost to them item?
That predominantly black school is going to graduate a generation of
kids who got decent grades, yes, but much more importantly, they'll
have the attitude that makes them automaticly think instead of
blindly following the bell ewe to the slaughter. And that is what
this country needs a whole lot more of. I can't say it any
stronger without offending so I won't.
John E. Malmberg
>
> It's way past time to privatise all schools, and pay for results, not
> mere attendance. The present system is based on an antique English
> system, originally a private business (called public schools, but
> what we would now call private schools), designed to educate the sons
> of those who could not afford to pay for a private tutor. The
> curriculum is equally antique, and utterly ineffective.
Public or private there is still a fundemental conflict.
How to make the school accountable to the community and at the same time
made immune to political tampering.
Some private schools are so desparate for funding that they are
effectively selling grades, and looking the other way for infractions.
Standardized tests like in "No Child Left Behind" prevent the grade
inflation.
But you have to make the students accountable for learning. You can not
put all the emphasis on the teacher or the school.
Teachers are natually nervous about being judged on criteria that is not
under their control. Non-tenured teachers in some places are very badly
treated. If they offend the wrong community leader, they are out of a
job, and it does not matter how good they are. A private school would
not change this problem.
John E. Malmberg
I think that speach to voice chips should still be available, and it
would be nice to be able to emulate as part of the various emulators.
Michael J. Mahon
>Neil wrote:
>> Getting back on track, is there any reasonable way to duplicate the
>> Speech Sound Pak? It's suprisingly complex, and I suspect many of the
>> chips are made of unobtainium.
>
>I think that speach to voice chips should still be available, and it
>would be nice to be able to emulate as part of the various emulators.
The most widely used phoneme synthesis chips, popular in text-to-
speech systems, were designed by Votrax in the late 70s (SC-01)
and mid-80s (SSI 263). Both of these chips are now "classics" and
hard to find except in old equipment.
New ones are unlikely, since inexpensive DSPs have put software
synthesis in the limelight. The glottal pulse, formant filter style of
analog synthesis hardware has become a dinosaur. ;-(
GreenTree Ground Station
> > It's because it runs through Princeton (free) and they don't filter.
>
> Why not switch to Yahoo groups? You could appoint a moderator to filter out
> the junk.
Because yahoogroups is about as crooked as the broken
hind leg of a dog that's just been hit by a Mack Truck!
They are right up there with a compound fracture!
And dealing with the 'internal' Yahoo generated SPAM is
about as much 'fun' as being hit by a tractor/trailer!
And then having it back up over you several times!
Then have the driver get out and take a 'spit' on you.
JMHO!
Gene Heskett
If you'll take a long look at all the header, you'll see that the
tagger/filter Princeton is now using manages to tag the ones with
the forged addresses rather nicely.
I suspect that the huge majority of the messages that appear to
originate at yahoo, are indeed forgeries. Since I discovered that,
its also very trivial to setup a filter rule in kmail to drop that
stuff into the JunqueMail folder for forwarding to u...@ftc.gov, and
mark it as read while its at it so you don't get pinged to read it
till you scan that folder to see if you filter miss-fired before
you send it all off.
Even winderz users can probably setup a similar filter rule, but I
wouldn't have the foggiest how since this the only windows in this
house are X or glass.
That said, I have other reservations about yahoo. and we don't have
to look at their tagged on commercials here.
Robert Sherwood
Any "internal spam" that appears in a Yahoo Groups list is the result of a
misconfiguration by the owner. I am on several Yahoo Groups and receive
almost no spam through any of them - maybe 1 piece a month. In fact, I
never received more than 2 or 3 pieces of spam a month until the newsgroup
gateway was opened on this list. Easily 3/4 of the spam I now receive is
addressed directly to this list, not me - including all of the unreadable
Korean stuff and African scams.
As for those tagged ads - there is a setting to make the list pure text
which just puts a little text blurb at the bottom. That's no more
intrusive than some people's sig-lines.
Tagging email originating from Yahoo as spam is just plain ignorant (but
then, I've learned to associate Linux with intolerance and ignorance, so
what can I expect?). Yahoo accounts for a tiny fraction of the spam I've
seen on this list since the opening of the gateway.
At 05:41 AM 2/24/03 -0500, you wrote:
>On Mon February 24 2003 04:16, GreenTree Ground Station wrote:
ward
> It's way past time to privatise all schools, and pay for results, not
> mere attendance. The present system is based on an antique English
> system, originally a private business (called public schools, but
> what we would now call private schools), designed to educate the sons
> of those who could not afford to pay for a private tutor. The
> curriculum is equally antique, and utterly ineffective.
Actually, the public school system in the US is based on the Prussian model
from the 19th century, which was designed to train the lower classes to be
farmers, factory workers or soldiers. Got to teach them enough to follow
their "superiors", read manuals and such but not much more. The public
school system isn't failing, it's "broken as designed". I could include a
gagload of URLs, but since I'm an anarchist who plays a libertarian when
I'm in a good mood, nobody who wants government involved in schools will
believe anything I might have to say. Since I don't merely want schools
"privatized". (I pay $9,000/annum and more for the local schools, and I
have no kids, will have no kids, have never had kids and don't particularly
like kids, though some of my sisters' spawn have turned out OK [and others
have served hard time]).
--
Ward Griffiths wdg...@comcast.net
In the unlikely event of a catastrophe in deep space, you might try using
your seat as a flotation device, although frankly we feel you'll be lucky
if you survive for more than a nanosecond . . .
Jack McKinney, _Event Horizon_
Knud...@aol.com
wdg...@COMCAST.NET writes:
> Actually, the public school system in the US is based on the Prussian model
> from the 19th century, which was designed to train the lower classes to be
> farmers, factory workers or soldiers. Got to teach them enough to follow
> their "superiors", read manuals and such but not much more.
Hmmm ... I always did remark on how high schools seem oriented towards
blue-collar workers, with their rigid rules and schedules and bells ringing.
College, OTOH, is good training for white-collar workers, with its emphasis
on schedules looking a few months in advance. But still college is good
training to work for someone/something else. There is of course no training
for those who'd be entrepreneurs or innovators in business for themselves,
although dropping out of Harvard seemed to work for Bill Gates :-)
BTW, while the current White House has a lot of folks looking around for any
Democratic presidential candidate with nonzero pulse and respiration rates,
keep in mind that the Democratic Party is as beholden to the teachers' unions
(and of the social workers who get to pick up the pieces) as W. is to the big
oil companies. But would the cure of a 3rd party be worse than the disease?
Just watch Euro multi-party governments at "work."
> In the unlikely event of a catastrophe in deep space, you might try using
> your seat as a flotation device, although frankly we feel you'll be lucky
> if you survive for more than a nanosecond . . .
Doesn't work very well during re-entry from low Earth orbit either :-(
--Mike K.
James Hrubik
Way back mid-70's when I was completing my MAEd I was contemplating
using "The Educator as a True Professional" as my doctoral study. The
idea was to put forward the teacher as a true professional, i.e., one
who could choose his students and set his own prices, possibly setting
up shop the way medical groups do. But then I decided that for what I
was about to do -- go teach on an Indian Reserve -- that was an
unnecessary exercise and I never did finish the doctorate. As Mike
noted, the major resistance to such professionalism would come from the
blue-collar teachers' unions.
As for the political end of it, it's easy to criticize when you aren't
in the driver's seat. No matter who is President, there are plenty of
people who dislike what he is or does. From my perspective, the best
action is to pray for the guy, because he is responsible for far more
than we can ever realize.
--Jim
================================================
| Let mercy and compassion reach me, |
| For all my brethren sorely tried; |
| To love my foe, O Jesus teach me, |
| For Thou in love of such hast died. |
| Thy blood for sinners intercedes; |
| "Free Grace, Free Grace for all!" it pleads. |
|>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> ZH 220:6 <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<|
================================================
Knud...@aol.com
writes:
> New ones are unlikely, since inexpensive DSPs have put software
> synthesis in the limelight. The glottal pulse, formant filter style of
> analog synthesis hardware has become a dinosaur. ;-(
But isn't the glottal pulse and formants method still what's represented in
DSP software? That is, after all, simulation of the natural method.
I worked in this field during the transition from dedicated digital
synthesizers (never saw an analog speech synths, just music synths) to
general purpose programmable DSPs. The first such DSPs took up a whole rack
bay and 500 W of power. Then a micro-chip (with the usual supporting cast of
RAMs, etc. to fill out the board), then just a chip. And even floating
point, so no more worry about overflows!
Plus apparently a Pentium is so fast, it can be used for DSP even without
special registers and instructions like complex multiply-accumulate. --Mike
K.
James Dixon
> then, I've learned to associate Linux with intolerance and ignorance, so
> what can I expect?). Yahoo accounts for a tiny fraction of the spam I've
> seen on this list since the opening of the gateway.
Gene didn't say the Yahoo spam was coming from the list. In fact, he
indicated that the majority of messages claiming to be from Yahoo were
forgeries and not from Yahoo at all.
My problems with Yahoo are more fundamental than Spam. Namely the
fact that they try to claim ownership of everything you ever do on
Yahoo.
And, since I didn't start this, as for the comment about Linux:
Ignorance if far more the province of Windows users than Linux users,
but yes Linux users can be intolerant (especially of ignorance).
James Dixon
jdi...@pobox.com
Gene Heskett
>> Tagging email originating from Yahoo as spam is just plain
>> ignorant (but then, I've learned to associate Linux with
>> intolerance and ignorance, so what can I expect?). Yahoo
>> accounts for a tiny fraction of the spam I've seen on this list
>> since the opening of the gateway.
>
>Gene didn't say the Yahoo spam was coming from the list. In fact,
> he indicated that the majority of messages claiming to be from
> Yahoo were forgeries and not from Yahoo at all.
Thats correct. But they did come through the princeton server,
which except for virii, sends it all along after suitable tagging
in the headers.
In fact, if you take a look at the headers as I said, the lack of a
proper reverse lookup on a forged message will cause the princeton
server to add a header line to the message indicating the forgery.
I have, in the JunqueMail folder, a message from someone who posted
a coco related message to the list, and because his address is
munged, he got labeled. I haven't decided yet if I'll answer it or
just black hole it. I don't *think* this message will get tagged
as a forgery though. But somebody else will have to check that for
me, and please do, I'm curious. If it is, then me & my ISP will
have yet another little discussion...
>My problems with Yahoo are more fundamental than Spam. Namely the
>fact that they try to claim ownership of everything you ever do on
>Yahoo.
There *was* that, but I think the public outcry got that removed
from the TOS rather quickly. The echo's from all the gored ox's
could be clearly heard throughout the land on that one at the time
it became known.
>And, since I didn't start this, as for the comment about Linux:
>Ignorance if far more the province of Windows users than Linux
> users, but yes Linux users can be intolerant (especially of
> ignorance).
Nicely put Jim.
tim lindner
> > Getting back on track, is there any reasonable way to duplicate the
> > Speech Sound Pak? It's suprisingly complex, and I suspect many of the
> > chips are made of unobtainium.
>
> I think that speach to voice chips should still be available, and it
> would be nice to be able to emulate as part of the various emulators.
While the speech chip (SP0256-AL2) isn't made anymore, the real bugger
is the microcontroller that is used inside the S/SC. It was never
distributed outside the S/SC.
The microcontroller is labeled as 'PIC7040' on the schematic diagrams
(thank you Radio Shack). But, nobody knew what a PIC7040 was. Until
Frank Palazzolo found a web page
<http://www.robotprojects.com/voice/sp0256.htm> that said it was really
a TMS70x0. The TMS70x0 is a well known microcontroller family made by
Texas Instruments. We finally found a data sheet and confirmed that the
pins matched exactly.
I obtained the developers manual for the TMS70x0 series microcontroller
(From Frank) and started writing a MESS CPU core. But one problem
quickly became appearent.
The '4' in PIC/TMS7040 means there is 4K of ROM inside the
microcontroller. There are no pins on the PIC/TMS7040 that allow
hardware access to the internal ROM. Frank was interested in the ROM
inside the CTS256-AL2 (footnote 1) (another TMS70x0 variant). Since the
two chips are very simular, he decided to take on the challenge of
dumping these internal ROMs.
The plan was this: remove the PIC7040 from the S/SC and rig-up a
platform were he could load a trojan program into the microcontroller.
Then have the trojan program dump the internal ROM thru a 'Clock/Data'
type serial port. (The TMS70x0 has internal data ports that are the
functional equilevent to the PIAs inside a CoCo).
The TMS7040 has a special mode that allows you to hook up normal RAM and
ROM, it is called Microprocessor Mode. This mode is entered by setting a
specific pin to a specific state. The problem is this mode hides the
internal ROM. So, it was possible to run our trojan program, but our
trojan program would not be able to see the internal ROM.
So it got a little more complicated.
We theroized that the trojan program could copy itself to internal RAM.
Then signal the platform to switch it out of Microprocessor Mode. The
data book says that switching the mode during operation was unsupported.
We were unsure that switching would cause the desired behaivor.
The TMS70x0 has 128 bytes of internal RAM. These bytes are called the
'Register File'. They are named R0 thru R127. They act just like any
other register from any other microprocessor. Except they are also the
first 128 bytes in the memory map. Location 0 thru location 127. This
'Register File' is _always_ the same, no matter what mode the
microprocessor is in.
So here was the plan. Write a trojan program that would copy itself to
the top of the register file. Then jump to the program in RAM. Then
program would then wait for the hardware to switch out of Microprocessor
Mode. Then it would dump the internal ROM (bit by bit) using a two wire
serial port.
Well... it worked!
I have here sitting on my Mac a copy of the ROM that controls the S/SC.
I have about 10% of it commented. After looking it over, my first
thought was: "It's all code! I was expecting more of a table driven
algorithm". But I don't know anything about how the text to speech
process works. :)
Request for help:
Is anyone interested in completing the commenting of this ROM? If so
email me. But be forewarned: it is not a trivial task!.
Progress for full S/SC emulation in MESS.
The S/SC has three major parts:
My TMS70X0 core is complete but the timer system is not working
correctly.
The 3 voice sound chip used in the S/SC is already in MESS. This chip
has been used in many system and arcade games.
The SP0256 (the speech chip) has been emulated but has not made it into
MESS.
But, as some of you know, MESS needs my time in other areas. So none of
this is a piriority.
(footnote 1)
The CTS256-AL2 was a Text-To-Speech converter chip that took a serial
input of an text message and converted the text to the phoneme
address necessary for the SP0256-AL2 to speak the text.
--
The ears are too length.
--------------------------------------------------------
tim lindner tlin...@ix.netcom.com
Neil
"tim lindner" <tlin...@IX.NETCOM.COM> wrote in message
news:1fqvmds.c1hz8i198a2kwM%tlin...@ix.netcom.com...
...
>
> While the speech chip (SP0256-AL2) isn't made anymore, the real
bugger
> is the microcontroller that is used inside the S/SC. It was never
> distributed outside the S/SC.
>
>
> Request for help:
>
> Is anyone interested in completing the commenting of this ROM? If
so
> email me. But be forewarned: it is not a trivial task!.
>
>
> --
> The ears are too length.
> --------------------------------------------------------
> tim lindner tlin...@ix.netcom.com
I hope you'll post what you have on RTSI, just in case. Perhaps
someone will volunteer to comment it.
My main reason for asking is that I have this demented idea to make a
kind of expansion interface for the Coco3, sort of like the one for
the old Model I. I imagine it will plug into the Coco via a buffered
RomPak/cable, and have a 6309, plenty of ram, support for floppies
and hard drives, and have a side socket for multipak, R/S floppies,
rompaks etc. The Coco3 will just provide keyboard, graphics, sound,
cassette etc., and the EI will run the main OS9 tasks.
I figure now it should also have an internal socket dedicated for
just the SSC pak, since you can pick those up for a few bucks each
these days.
BTW, when R/S cleared those speech chips I bought about 6 of each at
a buck a piece. Who knows if they still work though, since I've heard
of this CMOS rot they may have!
Neil
Michael J. Mahon
>In a message dated 2/24/03 11:15:26 AM Eastern Standard Time,
>wdg...@COMCAST.NET writes:
>
>> Actually, the public school system in the US is based on the Prussian model
>> from the 19th century, which was designed to train the lower classes to be
>> farmers, factory workers or soldiers. Got to teach them enough to follow
>> their "superiors", read manuals and such but not much more.
>
>Hmmm ... I always did remark on how high schools seem oriented towards
>blue-collar workers, with their rigid rules and schedules and bells ringing.
>College, OTOH, is good training for white-collar workers, with its emphasis
>on schedules looking a few months in advance. But still college is good
>training to work for someone/something else. There is of course no training
>for those who'd be entrepreneurs or innovators in business for themselves,
>although dropping out of Harvard seemed to work for Bill Gates :-)
Bingo.
College is a good "trial size" career of working in a semi-creative role
for someone else. If you can't stand it, you're an entrepreneur. ;-)
Some people find that they can stand it in college, but after a few
years of the real thing, they discover that they, too, are entrepreneurs.
Of course, there is more than one reason why someone might not
be able to "stand it", and many would-be entrepreneurs soon find
that they can't stand _that_, either. ;-)
Michael J. Mahon
>In a message dated 2/24/03 5:02:06 AM Eastern Standard Time, mjm...@AOL.COM
>writes:
>
>> New ones are unlikely, since inexpensive DSPs have put software
>> synthesis in the limelight. The glottal pulse, formant filter style of
>> analog synthesis hardware has become a dinosaur. ;-(
>
>But isn't the glottal pulse and formants method still what's represented in
>DSP software? That is, after all, simulation of the natural method.
Yes, the "natural" model is still in wide use, what has become extinct
is the analog oscillator/filter bank implementation. I should have been
clearer.
>I worked in this field during the transition from dedicated digital
>synthesizers (never saw an analog speech synths, just music synths) to
>general purpose programmable DSPs. The first such DSPs took up a whole rack
>bay and 500 W of power. Then a micro-chip (with the usual supporting cast of
>RAMs, etc. to fill out the board), then just a chip. And even floating
>point, so no more worry about overflows!
>
>Plus apparently a Pentium is so fast, it can be used for DSP even without
>special registers and instructions like complex multiply-accumulate.
Indeed it is. The only issue with using a PC for on-line DSP work is
the difficulty of getting the real-time response you might need. But
big FIFOs cure many ills...except latency. ;-)
Torsten Dittel
Time to fling my 2 Euro Cent in from Old Europe... ;-)
When I was still programming the CoCo in assembler in 1988 but already
had an ATARI ST computer, I noticed that its sound chip was quite
similar to the one I imagined to be inside the SSC. I got a copy of a
service manual but I never could get my hands on a Pak here in Germany
(meanwhile I have 2, thanks to ebay). I noticed that the ST could play
tunes in the background loading the sound chip's registers in the 50Hz
vertical blank interrupt service routine. I thought that should be
possible on the CoCo too using the SSC. I further thought about writing
a software emulation of the chip for the CoCo (which would of course
waste all the CPU time...). If I'll ever find the time (but this could
be in a year or 2), I'd program such a thing, but maybe one of you could
start with such a project right now.
What I already found out is that there's a common format around in the
net called ".YM6". You can find infos @
http://leonard.oxg.free.fr/ymformat.html#ymchip
There are zillions of sound files around, even some great C=64 tunes
(the only thing I liked about this computer...)
The .YM6 format contains 16 bytes 50 times a second (for the 14
registers). Quite a lot info so 2 things are done to reduce file size:
1st data is saved interleaved (since most registers won't change the
content each 20ms, there are lots of equal bytes in a long string now).
2nd the interleaved file is compressed using a "header 0" LZH
compression.
I thought it wouldn't be a good idea to
a) decompress LZH in real time (quite difficult because of the
interleaving I guess)
b) have the file completely stored in memory (interleaved or not)
on the CoCo.
So I'd prefer an own format for the CoCo which is doing some "more
intelligent" packing saving the file in kind of "16 track sequencer
data" (I would explain my idea more detailed if someone is interested.
Just this far: it is quite stupid to write, let's say, one second the
same 50 values in a register and have this information stored in a sound
file. One could save memory here). The conversion from YM6 to the CoCo
format could be done on the PC to make it faster, but of course a player
for the CoCo could try to at least convert the smaller YM6 files (in
memory ore on (hard) disk) before playing them.
It would be nice to have a DECB version too. Maybe one could add some
nice tunes to some of our favourite games...
Now I'd like to hear your opinion!
Regards,
Torsten