At 02:09 PM 1/17/99 -0400, you wrote:
>> The school system's inabaility to deal with anything other
>> than the mean (which they insist on defining) is one of the
>> primary reasons home schooling has really taken off the last
>> few years.
>
>It's worse than that. It's not even the mean anymore. It's the
>lowest student.
Um, no. The teachers at my girlfriend's school (and all the schools she
works with) spend many (unpaid) hours every year planning the classes so as
to accomodate the differing needs of all their students. Things like
slower 1st graders are combined with advanced kindergartners so that
they're best able to meet the needs of all the kids.
There are many reasons why kids these days are not being educated as well
as they should be. Perhaps some of the blame belongs to the "System" --
any bureaucracy can thwart the best efforts of the dedicated -- and there
are indeed some people who should not be teachers.
BUT, Much of the problem, if not most, however, should be placed squarely
on the shoulders of those at fault: The parents[1]. (Aka voters.) No one
likes to think they've screwed up their own kids and done a crappy job as a
parent, so they blame the teachers. The politicians don't want to insult
the voters, so they blame the teachers too, and add to the bureaucracy.
Meanwhile, you have underpaid teachers, buying their own supplies, working
12 hour days, trying to teach kids whose parents proclaim "I AM NOT A
TEACHER!" on the kid's homework, and tell their kids that if someone does
something they don't like, they should hit them.
I've done some teaching back when I was young and stupid. I got smart and
gave it up because a) it's way too much work to do it right, b) it pays
pretty crappy, and c) kids are a PITA. Give it a try, and then come back
and tell me it's the teacher's fault.
[1] If you read to your kids every day, spend your non-working time taking
them to museums, plays, camping, etc., work with them on what they're
interested in, even if it means giving up watching football, spending time
with your friends, and so on, then this doesn't apply to you.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- O-
Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
roger(a)sinasohn.com that none but madmen know."
Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
San Francisco, California http://www.sinasohn.com/
I have a line on quite a few GRiDPad 19xx computers. These are the
keyboardless slates sometimes called "post-it" computers, due to the ease
of just sticking them on a wall or anywhere convenient. I believe they
were also used on the shuttle at one point. They are DOS machines, 8088 I
believe.
These machines appear to be in pretty decent shape, with nice cases. The
ones I saw were 1910's, but there may be some 1900 or other, similar models
in the bunch. They are untested, and I don't know if they come with pens
or not.
I think I can get them for $15-20 each. Shipping in the US would probably
be around $3-5. Figure less than $25 total. (I will seriously try to get
them for less, and I won't be making anything on these.) If there is
interest, I'll pursue it further; if not, I'll grab a couple for myself and
let the rest go whereever they want.
Please reply off-list! (We don't need a zillion "I want one!" messages
spewing all over the 'net.)
--------------------------------------------------------------------- O-
Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
roger(a)sinasohn.com that none but madmen know."
Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
San Francisco, California http://www.sinasohn.com/
Come across something in the basement. Working on making it mine.
It's a 6" rack labeled "[Bell logo] DIMENSION". Has a serial port and lots
of trunk connectors. Is this a telco switch?
-------
>> A recent program on Stonehenge on the Discovery channel said the RAF
wanted to
>> level Stonehenge with explosives, but the person who owned the land they
were
>> on refused to let them. *boggle* Is it just me, or does all this
suggest
>> that in the 1930s and early 40s good maps were much harder to come by
than
>
> A lot of it was propaganda to the British public to convince them how
> important the war was....
>
> Of course there were maps. Ordnance Survey maps were originally produced
> for military use (hence the name), but nowadays are available just about
> anywhere in the UK (most bookshops keep at least the local ones). During
> the war they were probably impossible to obtain, but before the war,
trivial.
>
> And you can bet they had got them in Germany as well. After all, the
> British certainly had German maps.
Yes, the Germans had good maps of Britain. At Bletchley I say on display a
German map of the UK 132kV electrical grid, as it was in 1938...
> The other thing that worries me is that Stonehenge is not the best
> landmark in that area. Salisbury Cathedral's spire is probably a lot
> easier to see from a distance.
Unique. But not so distinctive. Stonehenge is obviously Stonehenge.
Salisbury Cathedral is random_large_church_with_tall_spire. Seriously, if
I emerged from cloud somewhere in the South of England, and saw Stonehenge,
I'd know exactly where I was. If I emerged and saw Salisbury, I could
probably work it out, but it would be a lot harder.
But the original report - that Stonehenge was flattened - looks like a
clear case of local telling tall story to American tourist...
Philip.
> There were comments that the Dead Sea scrools were on parchment rather
> than paper. True. There are Egyptian papyri that are older than the
> Dead Sea scrolls (some retaining quite a bit of color).
To be pedantic, also not paper. They dried the reeds and glued strips
together, rather than pulping them. No acid in the treatment for a
start...
Now, as for what the best paper is, not far from my parents' they still
make paper by hand at Wookey Hole Mill. Originally set up to recycle
cloth, they now import raw cotton from the US (recycled cloth contains too
much artificial fibre). But the treatment for the rags was to boil them up
in caustic soda (NaOH), not acid...
I think linen (flax) fibres make pretty good paper. Manila (?sp) fibres
make strong envelopes.
How about printing on Tyvek? That stuff's pretty indestructible.
> And yes, there's the chiselled stone media. If somebody can get me a
> good source for affordable media, I'll start work on a printer (I
> think the headstone folks have some items that could be built into a
> prototype).
I don't know whether you can get the stuff in the US, but in the UK slate
was used extensively as a roofing material until quite recently (you can
still get new slates, but most new buildings use modern composite materials
in roof tiles). Most building salvage places will sell you secondhand
roofing slates by the box. Not suitable for chiselling, though - better to
use some sort of grinding tip on a miniature hand drill.
Another suggestion. The Mormons claim their scripture was preserved on
metal plates (metal foil?) for well over 2000 years. You could ask for
specifications - alas, the originals have mysteriously vanished...
Philip.
Sorry I forgot the CPU runs at 8MHZ and it looks like any other laptop from
the outside.
Rob
-----Original Message-----
From: Joe <rigdonj(a)intellistar.net>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: 19 January 1999 12:21
Subject: Re: Sanyo 16LT
>At 09:30 PM 1/18/99 -0000, you wrote:
>>I have recently aquired the above notepad computer I wonder if anyone has
>any
>
>
> I used a Sanyo for years and used to keep up with their stuff but I've
>never heard of one. How old is it? Can you post a picture?
>
> Joe
>
>
>
The Sanyo 16LT is a black laptop with two floppies 640K memory it has no ram
no harddisk an LCD display a parallel, RGB and serial ports I believe it
has a 300Kbits modem, however I have no software or satisfactory OS
although I have one floppy with what I believe is part of dos 3.3 and 4
others which is part of an office suite package called SMART. What I
really need is some software which is designed to run with limited memory
>from floppies. Of course a manual would be ideal.
Thanks
Rob
-----Original Message-----
From: Joe <rigdonj(a)intellistar.net>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: 19 January 1999 12:21
Subject: Re: Sanyo 16LT
>At 09:30 PM 1/18/99 -0000, you wrote:
>>I have recently aquired the above notepad computer I wonder if anyone has
>any
>
>
> I used a Sanyo for years and used to keep up with their stuff but I've
>never heard of one. How old is it? Can you post a picture?
>
> Joe
>
>
>
Hi, I got this e-mail address off an Atari Portfolio web site. It didn't
really say much about Dinosaur SIG or what it is, but I thought I'd see if
this address was still valid and if you have any idea where to get memory
cards for an old Atari Portfolio.
Thanks,
Lonny
(619)651-0382