On Tue, 22 May 2001, ip500 wrote: If you didn't catch the irony of my message, I find this "auction" to be so absurd that I am just laughing at it. No point in flaming it. It's a spontaneous-combustible. As long as the signal (on-topic good stuff) to noise (OT posts and ebay ads) stays barely respectable (i.e. 75% or better) then I won't bother complaining anymore. If it ever goes below that, I'll just unsubscribe. Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org

Marvin skrev: I'm very annoyed indeed by spome idiot posting an ever-growing message consisting of one "Now it's up at a hundra bucks" line and 300 line sof quoted material (below the addition, mind you!). Several times a day. -- En ligne avec Thor 2.6a.

Marvin skrev: It's called extensive snipping. Either that, or eBay, or Yahoo auctions, or just mail the interested parties. Just not me, and just not ill-formatted messages. -- En ligne avec Thor 2.6a. The most useful program will be continually improved until it is useless.

On Tue, 22 May 2001, Marvin wrote: Well, here's my take on it, at least with this particular instance in mind. Personally, if I saw something in a Goodwill that I wasn't familiar with, and I posted about it to the list, and everyone responded with "GRAB IT! R@RE!!!", then I would probably go grab it so that I could give it to someone on the list. If there were multiple people interested in it and it mattered, I'd do some sort of lottery (pick a number from 0 to 65535) and then give it to whomever came closest (they pay shipping). I certainly wouldn't decide to capitalize on this find and hold an auction (greed). There's just something inconsistent with good taste and community spirit about that. Is this Canon Cat still at Goodwill? What happens if the guy holding this "auction" goes back to get it and it's gone? Then everyone soiled their pants over nothing, especially he, since his dreams of being able to make enough money from this to afford that new microwave oven to cook his fish sticks in are dashed! On many occasions I have found things that I figured other people would want and have paid my own money to acquire and then send to them, many times without asking for reimbursement. I would hope for the same in return from other members of this community (and in fact it has just recently happened, thanks Rich B.!!!, and also many times in the past, thanks Jeff H.!!!) In fact, coincidentally, I once found a Canon Cat at a local ham fest. Knowing that a friend had been wanting one, and being that I already had one, I bought it for him and gave it to him (though I can't remember if I made him reimburse me or not :) Does he owe me $100 or whatever the current bid is on the one in question now? Well, if he feels guilty about it (and he knows who he is ;) then I'll let him buy me a sandwich or something the next time he sees me (or he can help schlep stuff around). At least it would take it off CC where it doesn't belong and onto eBay where it does :) Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org

On Wed, 23 May 2001, R. D. Davis wrote: Understood. But I was responding to Marvin's comment about giving folks who don't have a permanent SMTP connection to their brain a chance to get in on the action. In general, I always go with the first respondent. Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org

Gee, I feel like I've finally arrived. This evening, I received the infamous Nigerian megabucks scam email (see below) Hey, this is a pretty infamous scam -- maybe I can sell this "Rare, collectable confidence scheme email" on eBay! :-) -- Tony --------------------------- From: Dr. Waziri Dongoyaro [mailto:kaza5005@hotmail.com] Sent: Tuesday, May 22, 2001 10:28 PM To: Eros, Anthony Subject: Urgent Proposal REQUEST FOR ASSISTANCE - STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL I am Alhaji Waziri Dongoyaro, an Accountant in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and I head a seven man tenders board in charge of Contract Awards and Payment Approvals. I came to know of you in my search for a reliable and reputable person to handle a very confidential transaction which involves the transfer of a huge sum of money to a foreign account. There were series of contracts executed by a Consortium of Multinationals in the oil industry in favour of NNPC among which were: (1) The expansion of the pipeline network within Nigeria for crude oil and downstream products distribution and subsequent evacuation - US$5 Billion (2) Contract for the Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) of the various Refineries in the country. (3) The construction of storage tanks for Petroleum Products (Depots) - US$90 Million The original value of these contracts were deliberately over-invoiced in the sum of USD Thirty Six Million, Five Hundred and Sixty One Thousand ($36,561,000.00) which has now been approved and is now ready to be transferred being that the companies that actually executed these contracts have fully been paid and the projects officially commissioned. Consequently, my colleagues and I are willing to transfer the total amount to your account for subsequent disbursement, since we as civil servants are prohibited by the Code of Conduct Bureau (Civil Service Laws) from opening and/or operating foreign accounts in our names. Needless to say, the trust reposed on you at this juncture is enormous. In return, we have agreed to offer you 25% of the transferred sum, while 10% shall be set aside for incidental expenses (internal and external) between the parties in the course of the transaction. You will be mandated to remit the balance to other accounts in due course. You must however NOTE that this transaction is subject to the following terms and conditions: a) Our conviction of your transparent honesty and diligence b) That you would treat this transaction with utmost secrecy and confidentiality c) That the funds would be transferred to an interest bearing account where the incidence of taxation would not exert a heavy toll. Modalities have been worked out at the highest levels of the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Nigeria for the immediate transfer of funds within 14 working days subject to your satisfaction of the above stated terms. Our assurance is that your role is risk-free. To accord this transaction the legality it deserves and for mutual security of the fund, the whole approval procedures will be officially and legally processed with your name or the name of any company you may nominate as the bonafide beneficiary. Once more, I want you to understand that having put in over 19 years in the civil service of my country, I am averse to having my image and career dented. This matter should therefore be treated with utmost secrecy and urgency. Kindly expedite action as we are behind schedule to enable us include this transfer in the last batch within this quarter payment for the 2001 financial year. Contact me on Tel/Fax no. 234-1-7597613. e-mail: kaza5005(a)hotmail.com Reply is preferable by Fax number as the e-mail server is not reliable here. Yours sincerely, ALHAJI WAZIRI DONGOYARO 234-1-7597613.

Hello Just to let everyone know I have the computer on hold at the store until tomorrow(wed) and I WILL be picking it up tomorrow thank you Chris Chris Halarewich wrote: -- # Netscape POP3 State File # This is a generated file! Do not edit.

hi the computer is in my posetion now so don't worry sellam :) thank you chris Chris Halarewich wrote: -- # Netscape POP3 State File # This is a generated file! Do not edit.