don't think much of a man who is not wiser today
than he was yesterday
-- Abraham Lincoln --
Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats.
-- Howard Aiken --
You'll never leave where you are,
until you decide where you’d rather be.
-- Robert Brockman --
Effective people are not problem-minded;
they're opportunity-minded.
They feed opportunities and starve problems.
-- Dr. Stephen Covey --
We are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
-- Aristotle --
You can't get different results by doing things the same way.
-- Richard A. Moran --
Telling ain’t teaching
and listening ain’t learning.
-- Bob Barkley --
The fact that an opinion has been widely held
is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd.
-- Bertrand Russell --
Shallow men believe in luck, believe in circumstances.
Strong men believe in cause and effect.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson --
What isn't tried . . . won't work.
-- Claude McDonald --
You can get everything you want in life,
if you just help enough other people get what they want.
-- Zig Ziglar --
Learning is not attained by chance.
It must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.
-- Abigail Adams --
The philosophy behind much advertising is based on the old observation that every man is really two men -- the man he is and the man he wants to be.
-- William Feather --
The starting point of all achievement is desire.
Keep this constantly in mind.
Weak desire brings weak results,
just as a small amount of fire
makes a small amount of heat.
-- Napoleon Hill --
Without a sense of urgency, desire loses its value.
-- Jim Rohn --
Kites rise highest against the wind,
not with it.
-- Winston Churchill --
The mind is not a vessel to be filled,
but a fire to be lighted.
-- Plutarch --
It takes great courage to faithfully follow
what we know is true.
-- Sara E Anderson --
I have always believed that writing advertisements is the second most profitable form of writing. The first, of course, is ransom notes.
-- Philip Dusenberry --
What helps people, helps business.
-- Leo Burnett --
Every day do something that will
inch you closer to a better tomorrow.
-- Doug Firebaugh --
Obstacles can't stop you. Problems can't stop you.
Most of all other people can't stop you.
Only you can stop you.
-- Jeffrey Gitomer --
Human beings have the remarkable ability
to turn nothing into something.
They can turn weeds into gardens
and pennies into fortunes.
-- Jim Rohn --
If you have great ideas and no confidence to share them,
you will not get credit for having them.
-- Patricia Fripp --
Always bear in mind
that your own resolution to succeed
is more important than any other one thing.
-- Abraham Lincoln --
Our plans miscarry if they have no aim.
When a man does not know what harbor he is making for,
no wind is the right wind.
-- Seneca --
All lasting wealth comes from
enriching others in some way.
-- Brian Tracy --
If someone is going down the wrong road,
he doesn't need motivation to speed him up,
he needs education to turn him around.
-- Jim Rohn --
You don't have to be great to get started,
but you have to get started to be great.
-- Les Brown --
The difference between failure and success
is doing a thing nearly right and doing a thing exactly right.
-- Edward Simmons --
You can accomplish virtually anything
if you want it badly enough
and if you are willing to work
long enough and hard enough.
-- Brian Tracy --
Goals are a preview of future events
and experiences in your life.
-- Mark Victor Hansen --
The difference between a successful person and others
is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge,
but rather a lack of will.
-- Vincent T. Lombardi --
Something must die in order to grow
- your old habits, your old self image,
your old thinking, your old life -
must be weeded out for the seeds of success to grow.
-- Doug Firebaugh --
People begin to become successful
the minute they decide to be.
-- Harvey Mackay --
A mind once expanded by a new idea,
Never returns to its original dimensions.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes --
It is not your customer's job to remember you.
It is your obligation and responsibility
to make sure they don't have the chance to forget you.
-- Patricia Fripp --
Give a man a fish and he eats for one day.
Teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime.
-- Anonymous --
You are your greatest asset. Put your time, effort and money into training, grooming, and encouraging your greatest asset.
-- Tom Hopkins --
You do what you have to do, to do what you want to do.
-- Patricia Fripp --
You'll never make it to the next level by holding on to the first.
-- Rod St.Hilaire --
Failing to plan means planning to fail.
What are your goals?
-- Brian Tracy --
The obscure we eventually see.
The completely obvious, it seems, takes much longer.
-- Edward R. Murrow --
Good things only happen when planned.
Bad things happen on their own.
-- Phillip Crosby --
There are those who SEE an opportunity
And then there are those who SEIZE an opportunity
-- Joanie Warren --
The heights by great men reached and kept
Were not attained by sudden flight
But they while their companions slept
Were toiling upwards in the night.
-- Longfellow --
Don't get discouraged;
It's usually the last key in the bunch that opens the lock.
-- Author Unknown --
I've learned one thing during my time on the soccer fields:
It's amazing how fast you can run
And the things you can do when you have a goal in mind.
It applies to the rest of my life, too.
-- Jeremy Monnin --
No person was ever honored for what he received.
Honor has been the reward for what he gave.
-- Author Unknown --
The only competition you will ever have
is the competition between your
disciplined and undisciplined mind.
-- James A. Ray --
Live as if your were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. - Gandhi
I cannot teach anybody anything; I can only make them think - Socrates
Personally, I am always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught. -
Winston Churchill
Knowing is not enough; we must apply.
Willing is not enough we must do. - Goethe
The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing." - John Powell
You cannot teach a man anything. You can only help him discover it within himself. - Galileo Galilei
Learning is not a spectator sport. - D. Blocher
The only kind of learning which significantly influences behavior is self-discovered or self-appropriated learning - truth that has been assimilated in experience. - Carl Rogers
I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn. - Albert Einstein
The teacher if he is indeed wise does not teach bid you to enter the house of wisdom but leads you to the threshold of your own mind. - Kahlil Gilbran, Lebanese symbolist poet and painter
The author himself is the best judge of his own performance; none has so deeply meditated on the subject; none is so sincerely interested in the event. - Edward Gibbon
ìMemoirs of my Lifeì (1796)
Retention is best when the learner is involved. - Edward Scannell, director, University Conference Bureau, Arizona
Examinations, sir, are pure humbug from beginning to end. If a man is a gentleman, he knows quite enough, and if he is not a gentleman, whatever he knows is bad for him. - Oscar Wilde, ìLord Fermor, in The Picture of Dorian Grayî (1891)
Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education. - Mark Twain.
It takes two to speak the truth,--one to speak, and another to hear. - Henry David Thoreau
The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands, but in seeing with new eyes. - Marcel Proust, French novelist
The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires - William Arthur Ward
The biggest enemy to learning is the talking teacher. - John Holt
Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten. - B. F. Skinner
Everybody who is incapable of learning has taken to teaching. - Oscar Wilde "The Decay of Lying"
Some, for renown, on scraps of learning dote,
And think they grow immortal as they quote.
-Edward Young
Wisdom lies neither in fixity nor in change, but in the dialectic between the two. - Octavio Paz
The road to wisdom?-Well, it's plain
and simple to express:
Err
and err
and err again
but less
and less
and less.
- Piet Hein, Danish inventor and poet.
To know yet to think that one does not know is best;
Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty.
- Lao-Tzu (6th century B.C.), Legendary Chinese philosopher.
Some are born with knowledge, some derive it from study, and some acquire it only after a painful realization of their ignorance. But the knowledge being possessed, it comes to the same thing. Some study with a natural ease, some from a desire for advantages, and some by strenuous effort. But the achievement being made, it comes to the same thing. - Kung Fu Tzu (Confucius)
When you know something, say what you know. When you don't know something, say that you don't know. That is knowledge." - Kung Fu Tzu (Confucius)
What I hear, I forget.
What I see, I remember.
What I do, I understand.
- Kung Fu Tzu (Confucius)
There can be no knowledge without emotion. We may be aware of a truth, yet until we have felt its force, it is not ours. To the cognition of the brain must be added the experience of the soul. - Arnold Bennett (1867-1931), British novelist. The Journals of Arnold Bennett (1932), entry for 18 March 1897.
If you want to know the taste of a pear, you must change the pear by eating it yourself. . .
If you want to know the theory and methods of revolution, you must take part in revolution. All genuine knowledge originates in direct experience. - Mao Zedong (1893-1976), founder of the People's Republic of China. Speech, July 1937, Yenan, China.
The things we know best are the things we haven't been taught. - Luc Vauvenargues, Marquis de (1715-47), French moralist. ReflÈxions et Maximes, no. 479 (1746).
Learning without thought is labor lost. Thought without learning is intellectual death. - Confucius (551-479 B.C.)
To know yet to think that one does not know is best;
Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty. - Lao-Tzu (6th century B.C.), Legendary Chinese philosopher. Tao-te-ching, bk. 2, ch. 71 (tr. by T. C. Lau, 1963).
The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery. - Mark Van Doren, poet
The most important part of teaching = to teach what it is to know. - Simone Weil (1909-43), French philosopher, mystic. London Notebook (written 1943, published 1950; repr. in First and Last Notebooks, pt. 4, ed. by Richard Rees, 1970).
It is by teaching that we teach ourselves, by relating that we observe, by affirming that we examine, by showing that we look, by writing that we think, by pumping that we draw water into the well. - Henri-FrÈdÈric Amiel (1821-81), Swiss philosopher, poet. Journal Intime (1882; tr. by Mrs. Humphry Ward, 1892), entry for 27 Oct. 1853.
I have never let my schooling interfere with my education - Mark Twain
If the past cannot teach the present and the father cannot teach the son, then history need not have bothered to go on, and the world has wasted a great deal of time. Russell Hoban (b. 1925), U.S. author. - Jachin-Boaz, in The Lion of Boaz-Jachin and Jachin-Boaz, ch. 1 (1973).
Nothing is more terrible than activity without insight. - Thomas Calyle, Scottish essayist and historian
Before you become too entranced with gorgeous gadgets and mesmerizing video displays, let me remind you that information is not knowledge, knowledge is not wisdom, and wisdom is not foresight. Each grows out of the other, and we need them all. - Arthur C. Clarke
Creative thinking may mean simply the realization that there's no particular virtue in doing things the way they have always been done. - Rudolph Flesch
I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me. - Dudley Field Malone
I think, therefore I am (Cogito, ergo sum.) - Descartes
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Life is the Coffee
A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. The conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and in life. Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the coffee. When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: "If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. "What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups and were eyeing each other's cups. Now consider this: Life is the coffee and the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life and do not change the quality of Life. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee God has provided. So, don't let the cups drive you ... enjoy the coffee instead."
Monday, October 29, 2007
Basic troubleshooting for Windows
These are the Basic Troubleshooting with windows
1) Logging in as Administrator
2) Windows XP Takes a Long Time to Start
3) Problem Setting OE As Default Email Client In XP
4) IIS (Internet Information Server) On XP Home ?
5) Get Your 16 Bit Programs Working In XP
6) Outlook Express Latest Issue
7) Invalid Password Using Recovery Console
8) Disable IE XP Live Update
9) How to Remove Content Advisor Password in Internet Explorer ?
10) Disabling Windows Messenger in Windows XP ( How do I stop pop-ups? )
11) StandBy Not Working After Signing Up With Broadband
12) XP Cryptographic Service Causings Problem
13) Enable Automatic Logon In XP (Q315231)
14) Disable .Net Passport In XP
15) Disk Cleanup Tool Stops Responding
16) Cryptographic Error Messages
17) Lock Windows XP
18) Repair Internet Explorer
19) Using Program Compatibility Wizard
20) How to Check if DVD Decoder Software is Installed
21) Windows XP Internet Connection Sharing
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1) Logging in as Administrator
If you want to log in as Administrator, but it is not show on the Welcome screen,
1. Hold the Ctrl-Alt key and press Del twice.
2. This will bring up the normal login and you can log on as Administrator
To unhide the Administrator account show it does show up:
1. Start Regedit
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE\ Microsoft \ Windows NT \ CurrentVersion \Winlogon \ SpecialAccounts \ UserList
3. Unhide the Administrator key by giving it a value of 1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2) Windows XP Takes a Long Time to Start
Check Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 823612
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3) Problem Setting OE As Default Email Client In XP
When I try to set Outlook Express in XP as my default mail client it simply resets to saying "this is not the default mail client" every time I go into the options menu.
Click Start, Run and enter MSIMN.EXE /REG Then if needed, go to Control Panel, Internet Options, Programs and click the Reset Web Settings Button. Still if its not working, Go to %systemroot%\inf folder, look for msoe50.inf. R-Click on it, and choose Install to reinstall Oe. It will Resolve.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4) IIS (Internet Information Server) On XP Home ?
Is it possible to install IIS on Windows XP home edition?
You can't. You need either to upgrade to XP Professional or to use a third-party program like Apache.
Details: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;304197
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5) Get Your 16 Bit Programs Working In XP
How do I (what do I do) get a 16-bit program to work on my windows xp software?
HOW TO: Use the Program Compatibility Wizard in Windows XP:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;301911
How to Troubleshoot Program Compatibility Issues in Windows XP:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;285909
Error Message When You Install or Start a MS-DOS or 16-Bit Windows Based Program:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;324767
Troubleshooting MS-DOS-Based Programs in Windows XP:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314106
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6) Outlook Express Latest Issue
Windows Prompts You for Your Password Multiple Times When You Use Outlook If Strong Private Key Protection Is Set to High
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7) Invalid Password Using Recovery Console
The Password Is Not Valid Error Message Appears When You Log On to XP Recovery Console:
Check this article ...
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308402
Better do a DR ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8) Disable IE XP Live Update
Open Internet Explorer | Go to tools | Internet Options | The
Advanced Tab | Uncheck the "Automatically check for Internet Explorer Updates" box. Click Ok.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9) How to Remove Content Advisor Password in Internet Explorer ?
The following steps will remove any password set in the Internet Explorer Content Advisor and allow you to reset the program to its original state.
1) Click on Start and choose Run.
2) Type in RegEdit and select OK.
3) Now click on the little plus sign to the left of H_KEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
4) Continue to drill down, always clicking on the plus sign at the left of the named key, through Software, Microsoft, Windows, Current Version and Policies.
5) Now click on the Ratings folder.
6) In the right pane of the RegEdit window, you'll see an icon called Key. Click on it and press Delete.
7) Next, choose Registry and then Exit to exit RegEdit. You've just deleted your original Content Advisor password.
8) Restart the computer and run Internet Explorer again.
9) Choose View and then Internet Options (or Options for version 3.x). For IE 5 or greater, Click on Tools, Internet Options.
10) Click on the Content tab and click on Disable. When asked for a password, don't enter anything; just click on OK. This will disable Content Advisor because there's no longer a password.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10) Disabling Windows Messenger in Windows XP ( How do I stop pop-ups? )
(1) Select "Start"
(2) Choose "Control Panel"
(3) Choose "Administrative Tools"
** note in Windows XP Home edition, Admistrative Tools is in Performance and Maintence
(4) Choose "Services"
(5) Right-click on "Messenger"
(6) Select "Stop"
To permanently disable Messenger:
(7) Right click "Messenger"
(8) Select "Properties"
(9) Change "Startup Type" to "Disabled" and click "OK"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11) StandBy Not Working After Signing Up With Broadband
Workaround 1:
See if, in the cmos setup, you can disable wake on lan.
Workaround 2:
Open Device Manager, and find your Network Adapter. Open it's properties, and go to the "Power Management" tab. Make sure that "Allow this device to bring the computer out of standby" is not checked, and possibly check "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" (perhaps not necessary).If this box is already cleared, I'd assume there's a BIOS setting overriding it.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
12) XP Cryptographic Service Causings Problem
Go to Start/Run and type in CMD. At the command prompt, type the following commands, pressing ENTER after each line:
net stop cryptsvc
ren %systemroot%\system32\catroot2 oldcatroot2
net start cryptsvc
This will correct the error message.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
13) Enable Automatic Logon In XP (Q315231)
If you set a computer for automatic logon, anyone who can physically gain access to the computer can also gain access to everything that is on the computer, including any network or networks that the computer is connected to. In addition, if you enable automatic logon, the password is stored in the registry in plain text. The specific registry key that stores this value is remotely readable by the Authenticated Users group. As a result, using this setting is appropriate only if the computer is physically secured and if you ensure that untrusted users cannot remotely see the registry.
Use Registry Editor (Regedit.exe) to add your logon information:
1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit,and then click OK to start Registry Editor.
2. Locate the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
3. Using your account name and password, double-click the DefaultUserName entry, type your user name, and then click OK.
4. Double-click the DefaultPassword entry, type your password under the value data box, and then click OK.
If there is no DefaultPassword value, follow these steps to create the value:
1. On the Registry Editor menu, click Edit , click New, and then click String Value.
2. Type DefaultPassword as the value name, and then press ENTER.
3. Double-click the newly created key, and then type your password in the Value Data box.
If no DefaultPassword string is specified, Windows automatically changes the value of the AutoAdminLogon key from 1 (true) to 0 (false) to disable the AutoAdminLogon feature.
5. Double-click the AutoAdminLogon entry, type 1 in the Value Data box, and then click OK.
If there is no AutoAdminLogon entry, follow these steps to create the entry:
1. On the Registry Editor menu, click Edit , click New, and then click String Value.
2. Type AutoAdminLogon as the value name, and then press ENTER.
3. Double-click the newly created key, and then type 1 in the Value Data box.
6. Quit Registry Editor.
7. Click Start, click Restart, and then click OK.
8. After your computer restarts and Windows starts, you can log on automatically.
If you want to bypass the automatic logon to log on as a different user, hold down the SHIFT key after you log off or after Windows restarts. Note that this procedure applies only to the first logon. To enforce this setting for future logoffs, the administrator must set the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
Value:ForceAutoLogon
Type: REG_SZ
Data: 1
You can also use the following steps to enable automatic logon without editing the registry in Windows XP Home Edition and Windows XP Professional (not joined to a domain):
1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type control userpasswords2, and then click OK .
3. In the dialog box that appears, clear the Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer check box, and then click OK.
3.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14) Disable .Net Passport In XP
Two ways ...
1) Go to Control panel, User accounts, click on your user, choose Remove .net passport.
2) Start, Run , type in: Control userpasswords2, enter. Advanced tab, Manage passwords , delete the passport account.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
15) Disk Cleanup Tool Stops Responding
1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. Type regedit in the Open box, and then press ENTER.
3. Locate, and then click the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches
4. On the File menu, click Export, and then click Desktop, type VolumeCaches in the File name box, and then click Save.
Note This step creates a backup of the VolumeCaches registry key. If you experience any problems after you complete the steps that are listed in this procedure, you can use this backup to restore the VolumeCaches key to its original state. To restore the key, double-click the VolumeCaches.reg file on your desktop, and then click Yes.
5. Expand the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Volume Caches
6. Delete the Compress old files registry key.
7. Quit Registry Editor.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
16) Cryptographic Error Messages
To resolve this issue, set Cryptographic Services to Automatic for Startup type. If this does not resolve the issue, stop Cryptographic Services, and then rename the %Systemroot%\System32\Catroot2 folder. To do so, follow these steps:
1. Start the Administrative Tools utility in Control Panel.
2. Double-click Services.
3. Right-click Cryptographic Services, and then click Properties .
4. Click Automatic for Startup type, and then click Start.
5. Install Windows XP SP1 again. If the problem persists, go to Step 6.
6. Click Start, and then click Run.
7. In the Open box, type cmd, and then click OK.
8. At the command prompt, type the following commands, pressing ENTER after each line:
net stop cryptsvc
ren %systemroot%\system32\catroot2 oldcatroot2
net start cryptsvc
9. Type exit to close the command prompt, and then install Windows XP SP1 again.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
17) Lock Windows XP
In the past, locking your computer required you to press Ctrl+Alt+ Del (Windows NT/2000). In Windows XP this will bring up the Windows Task Manager.... but doesn't give you an option to lock your computer.
In Windows XP it's as easy as pressing Winkey + L..... But there is a catch... When you have Fast User Switching enabled, this will just bring up the Logon screen. To Disable Fast User Switching, open User Accounts from the Control Panel. Click Change the way users log on or off and un-check Use Fast User Switching.
If you don't have a keyboard with a Windows key, you can create a shortcut on your desktop using the string below in the target field:
For faster access you can place this shortcut on the Quick Launch bar. If you want to change the icon, right-click the shortcut, choose Properties and press the Change Icon... button. You'll find some icons in the shell32.dll file in the \Windows\system32 folder.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18) Repair Internet Explorer
If you want to repair Internet Explorer, you would normally go to Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel, choose the listing for Microsoft Internet Explorer and press Change/Remove. This would bring up a Window where you could select to repair Internet Explorer.
Internet Explorer is listed in the Add/Remove Windows Components part of Add/Remove Programs, but you can only remove access to Internet Explorer from the Start menu and Desktop.
The only way to repair Internet Explorer is to have sfc check the system files by running the command sfc /scannow from the Command Window (Start > Run).
If a repair doesn't do the trick, you can try a reinstall:
1. Start the Registry Editor
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Active Setup \ Installed Components \ {89820200-ECBD-11cf-8B85-00AA005B4383}
3. right-click the IsInstalled value, and then click Modify
4. Change the value data, from 1 to 0
5. Close the registry editor
6. Download and install Internet Explorer 6.
The above will let you reinstall the Internet Explorer 6 browser component. To reinstall Outlook Express 6, change the IsInstalled value from the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Active Setup \ Installed Components \ {44BBA840-CC51-11CF-AAFA-00AA00B6015C}
Note: You need to be logged on as an administrator to be able to change these registry keys.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
19) Using Program Compatibility Wizard
Windows XP includes a "Compatibility Mode" in which you can "fool" programs into thinking they are running in an older Windows version.
If you are having problems with a program that used to work in your previous version of Windows, you should try the Program Compatibility Wizard included in Windows XP to get your program to function properly.
You start the Program Compatibility Wizard as follows: click Start > All Programs > Accessories > Program Compatibility Wizard .
When you start the wizard, the first options you are presented with is how you want to locate the program that you would like to run in compatibility mode. You can choose from:
Choose from a list of programs
Use the program in the CD-ROM drive
Locate the program manually
Note: If you choose Use the program in the CD-ROM drive, your changes will not remain in effect after you close the program.
Once you have selected the program you want to choose in which "mode" you want to run it:
Windows 95
Windows NT 4.0
Windows 98 / Me
Windows 2000
Do not apply a compatibility mode
On the next screen, you can select some display settings such as:
256 colors
640 x 480 screen resolution
Disable visual themes
In most cases you will not need to use any of these settings. However if the program you are trying to run a certain game or an educational program, you may have to apply some (or all) of these settings.
The next option (Choose whether you want to simulate administrative privileges) also applies mostly to games & educational software.
When you receive the Did the program work correctly? message (at this time the program will (attempt) to start), select one of the following options, and then click Next:
Yes, set this program to always use these compatibility settings
No, try different compatibility settings
No, I am finished trying compatibility settings
If you click Yes, set this program to always use these compatibility settings or No, I am finished trying compatibility settings, pressing Next will bring you to a new screen with the following message:
Program Compatibility Data
Microsoft has created temporary files that contain information about the
settings you selected and whether the problems were fixed. Sending this
information to Microsoft will help us improve program compatibility.
Would you like to send this information to Microsoft?
Yes
No
The information will be treated anonymously and confidentially per our data
collection policy on the the Web.
See the temporary files that would be sent
You can click the link See the temporary files that would be sent which will bring up another window with links to the files generated. You can click those links, and read which info is being sent to Microsoft.
The last screen gives you the information that you have adjusted the compatibility settings, and gives you the advice that to adjust or remove, you should run the wizard again.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
20) How to Check if DVD Decoder Software is Installed
By default, Windows XP does not come with compatible DVD decoder software installed. To confirm if you have Windows XP-compatible DVD decoder software on your system:
1. Select Start > Run
2. Enter cmd in the Open box, and click OK
3. Type dvdupgrd /detect and press Enter
4. A Windows dialog box will open with identifying information about the installed software. If No decoders found is displayed, no decoder is installed
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
21) Windows XP Internet Connection Sharing
Microsoft first introduced Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) in Windows 98 Second Edition. With ICS you can share a single Internet Connection across your (home) network, making it easier to connect to the Internet from your Networked computers.
There are several 3rd party products available, which let you do the same thing. The advantage of a 3rd party product over the Microsoft offering is that they are generally more user-friendly, and can be customized to suit your needs. For the average home user, however, Microsoft's ICS should be a good alternative.
In Windows 98SE you needed to perform several steps (including a separate install of ICS) to get ICS up and running. In Windows XP, ICS is "built-in", all you have to do is activate it.
To use ICS to share your Internet connection, the host computer (the computer used to access the Internet) must have two network adapters: one network adapter configured to connect to the internal network, and one network adapter or modem configured to connect to the Internet.
To setup ICS, follow the steps below.
On the host computer (the computer used to access the Internet)
1. Make sure you are logged on as Administrator or Owner
2. Click Start > Control Panel
3. In Control Panel, click Network and Internet Connections and next, click Network Connections
4. Right-click the connection that you use to connect to the Internet, and click Properties
5. Select the Advanced tab
6. Under the heading Internet Connection Sharing, click the check box Allow other network users to connect through this computer's Internet connection
7. If you are sharing a dial-up Internet connection, you may choose to select the Establish a dial-up connection whenever a computer on my network attempts to access the Internet check box. In this case you do not have to dial a connection from the host computer when other computers on the network want to access the Internet.
8. When you click OK, the following message appears:
When Internet Connection Sharing is enabled, your LAN adapter will be set to use IP address 192.168.0.1. Your computer may lose connectivity with other computers on your network. If these other computers have static IP addresses, you should set them to obtain their IP addresses automatically. Are you sure you want to enable Internet Connection Sharing?
9. Click Yes
The connection to the Internet is shared to other computers on the local area network (LAN). The network adapter that is connected to the LAN is configured with static IP address of 192.168.0.1 and a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0
On the client computer (any computer that needs to connect to the host which has the Internet connection)
To connect to the Internet using the shared connection you must first check the LAN Adapter IP Configuration then configure the client computer:
1. Log on to the client computer as Administrator or Owner
2. Click Start > Control Panel
3.
Run Line Commands in windows ( No need of Mouse )
These are GUI applications that can be opened from the run line.
These applications are not located in the C:\windows\system32\ directory,
the keys for these applications are located in the registry under:
HKLM\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\app paths
Accessibility Options - access.cpl
Add New Hardware Wizard - hdwwiz.cpl
Add/Remove Programs - appwiz.cpl
Date and Time Properties - timedate.cpl
Display Properties - desk.cpl
FindFast - findfast.cpl
Folder Properties - * folders
Fonts Folder - * fonts
Internet Properties - inetcpl.cpl
Joystick Properties - joy.cpl
Keyboard Properties - main.cpl keyboard
Mouse Properties - main.cpl
Network Properties - ncpl.cpl
Password Properties - password.cpl
Phone and Modem options - telephon.cpl
Power Management - powercfg.cpl
Printers Folder - * printers
Regional settings - intl.cpl
Scanners and Cameras - sticpl.cpl
Sound Properties - mmsys.cpl sounds
Sounds and Audio Device Properties - mmsys.cpl
System Properties - sysdm.cpl
User settings - nusrmgr.cpl
TweakUI - tweakui.cpl
The following .EXE files reside in (c:\windows\system32\) or (c:\windows\) directory and are also Run Line Commands
BCKGZM.EXE - Backgammon
CHKRZM.EXE - Checkers
CONF.EXE - NetMeeting
DIALER.EXE - Phone Dialer
HELPCTR.EXE - Help and Support
HRTZZM.EXE - Internet Hearts
HYPERTRM.EXE - HyperTerminal
ICWCONN1.EXE - Internet Connection Wizard
IEXPLORE.EXE - Internet Explorer
INETWIZ.EXE - Setup Your Internet Connection
INSTALL.EXE - User's Folder
MIGWIZ.EXE - File and Settings Transfer Wizard
MOVIEMK.EXE - Windows Movie Maker
MPLAYER2.EXE - Windows Media Player Version 6.4.09.1120
MSCONFIG.EXE - System Configuration Utility
MSIMN.EXE - Outlook Express
MSINFO32.EXE - System Information
MSMSGS.EXE - Windows Messenger
MSN6.EXE - MSN Explorer
PBRUSH.EXE - Paint
PINBALL.EXE - Pinball
RVSEZM.EXE - Reversi
SHVLZM.EXE - Spades
TABLE30.EXE - User's Folder
WAB.EXE - Windows Address Book
WABMIG.EXE - Address Book Import Tool
WINNT32.EXE - User's Folder
WMPLAYER.EXE - Windows Media Player
WRITE.EXE - Wordpad
ACCWIZ.EXE - Accessibility Wizard
CALC.EXE - Calculator
CHARMAP.EXE - Character Map
CLEANMGR.EXE - Disk Space Cleanup Manager
CLICONFG.EXE - SQL Client Configuration Utility
CLIPBRD.EXE - Clipbook Viewer
CLSPACK.EXE - Class Package Export Tool
CMD.EXE - Command Line
CMSTP.EXE - Connection Manager Profile Installer
CONTROL.EXE - Control Panel
DCOMCNFG.EXE - Component Services
DDESHARE.EXE - DDE Share
DRWATSON.EXE - Doctor Watson v1.00b
DRWTSN32.EXE - Doctor Watson Settings
DVDPLAY.EXE - DVD Player
DXDIAG.EXE - DirectX Diagnostics
EUDCEDIT.EXE - Private Character Editor
EVENTVWR.EXE - Event Viewer
EXPLORER.EXE - Windows Explorer
FREECELL.EXE - Free Cell
FXSCLNT.EXE - Fax Console
FXSCOVER.EXE - Fax Cover Page Editor
FXSEND.EXE - MS Fax Send Note Utility
IEXPRESS.EXE - IExpress 2.0
LOGOFF.EXE - System Logoff
MAGNIFY.EXE - Microsoft Magnifier
MMC.EXE - Microsoft Management Console
MOBSYNC.EXE - Microsoft Synchronization Manager
MPLAY32.EXE - Windows Media Player version 5.1
MSHEARTS.EXE - Hearts
MSPAINT.EXE - Paint
MSTSC.EXE - Remote Desktop Connection
NARRATOR.EXE - Microsoft Narrator
NETSETUP.EXE - Network Setup Wizard
NOTEPAD.EXE - Notepad
NSLOOKUP.EXE - NSLookup Application
NTSD.EXE - Symbolic Debugger for Windows 2000
ODBCAD32.EXE - ODBC Data Source Administrator
OSK.EXE - On Screen Keyboard
OSUNINST.EXE - Windows Uninstall Utility
PACKAGER.EXE - Object Packager
PERFMON.EXE - Performance Monitor
PROGMAN.EXE - Program Manager
RASPHONE.EXE - Remote Access Phonebook
REGEDIT.EXE - Registry Editor
REGEDT32.EXE - Registry Editor
RESET.EXE - Resets Session
RSTRUI.EXE - System Restore
RTCSHARE.EXE - RTC Application Sharing
SFC.EXE - System File Checker
SHRPUBW.EXE - Create Shared Folder
SHUTDOWN.EXE - System Shutdown
SIGVERIF.EXE - File Signature Verification
SNDREC32.EXE - Sound Recorder
SNDVOL32.EXE - Sound Volume
SOL.EXE - Solitaire
SPIDER.EXE - Spider Solitaire
SYNCAPP.EXE - Create A Briefcase
SYSEDIT.EXE - System Configuration Editor
SYSKEY.EXE - SAM Lock Tool
TASKMGR.EXE - Task Manager
TELNET.EXE - MS Telnet Client
TSSHUTDN.EXE - System Shutdown
TOURSTART.EXE - Windows Tour Launcher
UTILMAN.EXE - System Utility Manager
USERINIT.EXE - My Documents
VERIFIER.EXE - Driver Verifier Manager
WIAACMGR.EXE - Scanner and Camera Wizard
WINCHAT.EXE - Windows for Workgroups Chat
WINHELP.EXE - Windows Help Engine
WINHLP32.EXE - Help
WINMINE.EXE - Minesweeper
WINVER.EXE - Windows Version Information
WRITE.EXE - WordPad
WSCRIPT.EXE - Windows Script Host Settings
WUPDMGR.EXE - Windows Update
The following are Control Panel applets that can be run from the run line.
They are located in the c:\windows\system32 directory, and have the file
type extension ".CPL" and are also Run Line Commands
ACCESS.CPL - Accessibility Options
APPWIZ.CPL - Add or Remove Programs
DESK.CPL - Display Properties
HDWWIZ.CPL - Add Hardware Wizard
INETCPL.CPL - Internet Explorer Properties
INTL.CPL - Regional and Language Options
JOY.CPL - Game Controllers
MAIN.CPL - Mouse Properties
MMSYS.CPL - Sounds and Audio Device Properties
NCPA.CPL - Network Connections
Nusrmgr.cpl- User Accounts
ODBCCP32.CPL - ODBC Data Source Administrator
POWERCFG.CPL - Power Options Properties
SYSDM.CPL - System Properties
TELEPHON.CPL - Phone and Modem Options
TIMEDATE.CPL - Date and Time Properties
The following are Microsoft Management Console Snap-ins that can be opened
from the run line. These applications have the file type extension ".MSC" and are also Run Line Commands
CERTMGR.MSC - Certificates
CIADV.MSC - Indexing Service
COMPMGMT.MSC - Computer Management
DEVMGMT.MSC - Device Manager
DFRG.MSC - Disk Defragmenter
DISKMGMT.MSC - Disk Management
EVENTVWR.MSC - Event Viewer
FSMGMT.MSC - Shared Folders
LUSRMGR.MSC - Local Users and Groups
NTMSMGR.MSC - Removable Storage
NTMSOPRQ.MSC - Removable Storage Operator Requests
PERFMON.MSC - Performance Monitor
SERVICES.MSC - Services
WMIMGMT.MSC - Windows Management Infrastructure
These applications are not located in the C:\windows\system32\ directory,
the keys for these applications are located in the registry under:
HKLM\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\app paths
Accessibility Options - access.cpl
Add New Hardware Wizard - hdwwiz.cpl
Add/Remove Programs - appwiz.cpl
Date and Time Properties - timedate.cpl
Display Properties - desk.cpl
FindFast - findfast.cpl
Folder Properties - * folders
Fonts Folder - * fonts
Internet Properties - inetcpl.cpl
Joystick Properties - joy.cpl
Keyboard Properties - main.cpl keyboard
Mouse Properties - main.cpl
Network Properties - ncpl.cpl
Password Properties - password.cpl
Phone and Modem options - telephon.cpl
Power Management - powercfg.cpl
Printers Folder - * printers
Regional settings - intl.cpl
Scanners and Cameras - sticpl.cpl
Sound Properties - mmsys.cpl sounds
Sounds and Audio Device Properties - mmsys.cpl
System Properties - sysdm.cpl
User settings - nusrmgr.cpl
TweakUI - tweakui.cpl
The following .EXE files reside in (c:\windows\system32\) or (c:\windows\) directory and are also Run Line Commands
BCKGZM.EXE - Backgammon
CHKRZM.EXE - Checkers
CONF.EXE - NetMeeting
DIALER.EXE - Phone Dialer
HELPCTR.EXE - Help and Support
HRTZZM.EXE - Internet Hearts
HYPERTRM.EXE - HyperTerminal
ICWCONN1.EXE - Internet Connection Wizard
IEXPLORE.EXE - Internet Explorer
INETWIZ.EXE - Setup Your Internet Connection
INSTALL.EXE - User's Folder
MIGWIZ.EXE - File and Settings Transfer Wizard
MOVIEMK.EXE - Windows Movie Maker
MPLAYER2.EXE - Windows Media Player Version 6.4.09.1120
MSCONFIG.EXE - System Configuration Utility
MSIMN.EXE - Outlook Express
MSINFO32.EXE - System Information
MSMSGS.EXE - Windows Messenger
MSN6.EXE - MSN Explorer
PBRUSH.EXE - Paint
PINBALL.EXE - Pinball
RVSEZM.EXE - Reversi
SHVLZM.EXE - Spades
TABLE30.EXE - User's Folder
WAB.EXE - Windows Address Book
WABMIG.EXE - Address Book Import Tool
WINNT32.EXE - User's Folder
WMPLAYER.EXE - Windows Media Player
WRITE.EXE - Wordpad
ACCWIZ.EXE - Accessibility Wizard
CALC.EXE - Calculator
CHARMAP.EXE - Character Map
CLEANMGR.EXE - Disk Space Cleanup Manager
CLICONFG.EXE - SQL Client Configuration Utility
CLIPBRD.EXE - Clipbook Viewer
CLSPACK.EXE - Class Package Export Tool
CMD.EXE - Command Line
CMSTP.EXE - Connection Manager Profile Installer
CONTROL.EXE - Control Panel
DCOMCNFG.EXE - Component Services
DDESHARE.EXE - DDE Share
DRWATSON.EXE - Doctor Watson v1.00b
DRWTSN32.EXE - Doctor Watson Settings
DVDPLAY.EXE - DVD Player
DXDIAG.EXE - DirectX Diagnostics
EUDCEDIT.EXE - Private Character Editor
EVENTVWR.EXE - Event Viewer
EXPLORER.EXE - Windows Explorer
FREECELL.EXE - Free Cell
FXSCLNT.EXE - Fax Console
FXSCOVER.EXE - Fax Cover Page Editor
FXSEND.EXE - MS Fax Send Note Utility
IEXPRESS.EXE - IExpress 2.0
LOGOFF.EXE - System Logoff
MAGNIFY.EXE - Microsoft Magnifier
MMC.EXE - Microsoft Management Console
MOBSYNC.EXE - Microsoft Synchronization Manager
MPLAY32.EXE - Windows Media Player version 5.1
MSHEARTS.EXE - Hearts
MSPAINT.EXE - Paint
MSTSC.EXE - Remote Desktop Connection
NARRATOR.EXE - Microsoft Narrator
NETSETUP.EXE - Network Setup Wizard
NOTEPAD.EXE - Notepad
NSLOOKUP.EXE - NSLookup Application
NTSD.EXE - Symbolic Debugger for Windows 2000
ODBCAD32.EXE - ODBC Data Source Administrator
OSK.EXE - On Screen Keyboard
OSUNINST.EXE - Windows Uninstall Utility
PACKAGER.EXE - Object Packager
PERFMON.EXE - Performance Monitor
PROGMAN.EXE - Program Manager
RASPHONE.EXE - Remote Access Phonebook
REGEDIT.EXE - Registry Editor
REGEDT32.EXE - Registry Editor
RESET.EXE - Resets Session
RSTRUI.EXE - System Restore
RTCSHARE.EXE - RTC Application Sharing
SFC.EXE - System File Checker
SHRPUBW.EXE - Create Shared Folder
SHUTDOWN.EXE - System Shutdown
SIGVERIF.EXE - File Signature Verification
SNDREC32.EXE - Sound Recorder
SNDVOL32.EXE - Sound Volume
SOL.EXE - Solitaire
SPIDER.EXE - Spider Solitaire
SYNCAPP.EXE - Create A Briefcase
SYSEDIT.EXE - System Configuration Editor
SYSKEY.EXE - SAM Lock Tool
TASKMGR.EXE - Task Manager
TELNET.EXE - MS Telnet Client
TSSHUTDN.EXE - System Shutdown
TOURSTART.EXE - Windows Tour Launcher
UTILMAN.EXE - System Utility Manager
USERINIT.EXE - My Documents
VERIFIER.EXE - Driver Verifier Manager
WIAACMGR.EXE - Scanner and Camera Wizard
WINCHAT.EXE - Windows for Workgroups Chat
WINHELP.EXE - Windows Help Engine
WINHLP32.EXE - Help
WINMINE.EXE - Minesweeper
WINVER.EXE - Windows Version Information
WRITE.EXE - WordPad
WSCRIPT.EXE - Windows Script Host Settings
WUPDMGR.EXE - Windows Update
The following are Control Panel applets that can be run from the run line.
They are located in the c:\windows\system32 directory, and have the file
type extension ".CPL" and are also Run Line Commands
ACCESS.CPL - Accessibility Options
APPWIZ.CPL - Add or Remove Programs
DESK.CPL - Display Properties
HDWWIZ.CPL - Add Hardware Wizard
INETCPL.CPL - Internet Explorer Properties
INTL.CPL - Regional and Language Options
JOY.CPL - Game Controllers
MAIN.CPL - Mouse Properties
MMSYS.CPL - Sounds and Audio Device Properties
NCPA.CPL - Network Connections
Nusrmgr.cpl- User Accounts
ODBCCP32.CPL - ODBC Data Source Administrator
POWERCFG.CPL - Power Options Properties
SYSDM.CPL - System Properties
TELEPHON.CPL - Phone and Modem Options
TIMEDATE.CPL - Date and Time Properties
The following are Microsoft Management Console Snap-ins that can be opened
from the run line. These applications have the file type extension ".MSC" and are also Run Line Commands
CERTMGR.MSC - Certificates
CIADV.MSC - Indexing Service
COMPMGMT.MSC - Computer Management
DEVMGMT.MSC - Device Manager
DFRG.MSC - Disk Defragmenter
DISKMGMT.MSC - Disk Management
EVENTVWR.MSC - Event Viewer
FSMGMT.MSC - Shared Folders
LUSRMGR.MSC - Local Users and Groups
NTMSMGR.MSC - Removable Storage
NTMSOPRQ.MSC - Removable Storage Operator Requests
PERFMON.MSC - Performance Monitor
SERVICES.MSC - Services
WMIMGMT.MSC - Windows Management Infrastructure
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Last words spoken before being executed
Well, gentlemen, you are about to see a baked Appel.
Executed in electric chair in New York.
~~ George Appel, d. 1928
You are going to hurt me, please don't hurt me, just one more moment, I beg you!
Guillotined.
~~ Madame du Barry, mistress of Louis XV, d. 1793
I am going to be face to face with Jesus now. . . . I love you all very much. I will see you all when you get there. . . . I will wait for you.
Executed by injection, Texas.
~~ Karla Faye Tucker Brown, d. February 3, 1998
Take a step forward, lads. It will be easier that way.
Executed by firing squad.
~~ Erskine Childers, Irish patriot, d. November 24, 1922
Thank you for the change in my life you have given me, the love and closeness of my family and my beautiful daughter. Thank you for using me...
Executed by injection, Texas.
~~ John Cockrum, d. September 30, 1997
You sons of bitches. Give my love to Mother.
Executed in electric chair.
~~ Francis "Two Gun" Crowley, d. 1931
They butchered me back there, I was in a lot of pain. They cut me in the groin; they cut me in the leg. I was bleeding profusely. This is not an execution, it is murder.
Executed by injection, Florida
~~ Bennie Demps, d. June 8, 2000
( It took execution technicians 33 minutes to find suitable veins for the execution. The executioners had no unusual problems finding one vein, but because Florida protocol requires a second alternate intravenous drip, they continued to work to insert another needle, finally abandoning the effort after their prolonged failures.)
I'm going home, babe.
Executed by injection, Delaware.
~~ James Allen Red Dog, d. March 3, 1993
Remember, the death penalty is murder.
Executed by injection, Texas.
~~ Robert Drew, d. August 2, 1994
Hurrah for anarchy! This is the happiest moment of my life.
Last words on the gallows.
~~ George Engel
(He was one of four executed after the 1886 Haymarket bombing in Chicago)
I love you.
Spoken to the executioner.
Executed by injection, New York.
~~ Sean Flannagan, d. June 23, 1989
How about this for a headline for tomorrow's paper? French fries.
Executed in electric chair in Oklahoma.
~~ James French, d. 1966
I'd like to thank my family for loving me and taking care of me. And the rest of the world can kiss my ass.
Executed by injection, Texas.
~~ Johnny Frank Garrett, Sr., d. February 11, 1992
Let's do it!
Executed by firing squad, Utah.
~~ Gary Gilmore, d. January 17, 1977
I'd rather be fishing.
Executed in electric chair, Louisiana.
~~ Jimmy Glass, d. June 12, 1987
Good people are always so sure they're right.
Executed at San Quentin.
~~ Barbara Graham, d. June 3, 1955
I did not get my Spaghetti-O's, I got spaghetti. I want the press to know this.
Executed by injection, Oklahoma.
~~ Thomas J. Grasso, d. March 20, 1995
Lock and load. Let's do it.
Executed by injection, Texas.
~~ G. W. Green, d. November 12, 1991
You can be a king or a street sweeper, but everyone dances with the Grim Reaper.
Executed in California's gas chamber.
~~ Robert Alton Harris, d. April 21, 1992
It is the duty of every good officer to obey any orders given him by his commander-in-chief.
(Actual)
Shot by British as a spy.
~~ Nathan Hale, American hero, d. 1776
I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.
(Attributed)
~~ Nathan Hale
I am innocent, innocent, innocent. Make no mistake about this. I owe society nothing. I am an innocent man and something very wrong is taking place tonight.
Executed by injection, Texas.
~~ Lionel Herrera d. May 12, 1993
There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is God's messenger.
Executed by hanging, at Camp Justice in the Baghdad suburb of Khadimiya
~~ Saddam Hussein d. December 30, 2006
I don't hold any grudges. This is my doing. Sorry it happened.
Executed in electric chair, Indiana.
~~ Steven Judy, d. March 9, 1981
Such is Life
Executed by hanging.
~~ Ned Kelly, Australian bushranger, d. 1880
I love you, mom.
Executed by injection, Texas.
~~ Clarence Lackey, d. May 20, 1997
I die innocent of all the crimes laid to my charge; I Pardon those who have occasioned my death; and I pray to God that the blood you are going to shed may never be visited on France.
Executed by guillotine
~~ Louis XVI of France, d. January 21, 1793
My dear Melinée, my beloved little orphan,
In a few hours I will no longer be of this world. We are going to be executed today at 3:00. This is happening to me like an accident in my life; I don?t believe it, but I nevertheless know that I will never see you again.
Executed by firing squad
~~ Missak Manouchian, d. February 21, 1944
(Leader of the Parisian section of a Communist Resistance movement, the Francs Tireurs et Partisans - Main - d'oeuvre immigrée (FTP-MOI). See his entire letter & those of others of this group also executed, at: The Last Letters.
Farewell, my children, forever. I go to your Father.
Executed by guillotine.
Monsieur, I beg your pardon.
Spoken to the executioner, after she stepped on his foot.
~~ Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, d. October 16, 1793
Today is a good day to die. I forgive all of you. I hope God does too.
Executed by injection, Virginia.
~~ Mario Benjamin Murphy, d. September 17, 1997
Shoot me in the chest!
To his executioners.
~~Benito Mussolini, Italian dictator, d.1945
Shoot straight you bastards and don't make a mess of it!
Executed by firing squad.
~~ Harry Harbord "Breaker" Morant, Australian poet & national hero, d. 1902
Hurry it up you Hoosier bastard! I could hang a dozen men while you're screwing around.
Executed by hanging Leavenworth, Kansas.
~~ Carl Panzram, d. September 5, 1930
So the heart be right, it is no matter which way the head lieth.
Executed by beheading.
~~ Sir Walter Raleigh, d. October 29, 1618
Well, the Lord is going to get another one.
Executed in electric chair, Georgia.
~~ John Eldon Smith, d. December 15, 1983
Capital punishment: them without the capital get the punishment.
Executed in electric chair, Florida.
~~ John Spenkelink, d. May 25, 1979
Adios.
Executed by injection in Maryland.
~~ John Thanos, d. May 16, 1994
Executed in electric chair in New York.
~~ George Appel, d. 1928
You are going to hurt me, please don't hurt me, just one more moment, I beg you!
Guillotined.
~~ Madame du Barry, mistress of Louis XV, d. 1793
I am going to be face to face with Jesus now. . . . I love you all very much. I will see you all when you get there. . . . I will wait for you.
Executed by injection, Texas.
~~ Karla Faye Tucker Brown, d. February 3, 1998
Take a step forward, lads. It will be easier that way.
Executed by firing squad.
~~ Erskine Childers, Irish patriot, d. November 24, 1922
Thank you for the change in my life you have given me, the love and closeness of my family and my beautiful daughter. Thank you for using me...
Executed by injection, Texas.
~~ John Cockrum, d. September 30, 1997
You sons of bitches. Give my love to Mother.
Executed in electric chair.
~~ Francis "Two Gun" Crowley, d. 1931
They butchered me back there, I was in a lot of pain. They cut me in the groin; they cut me in the leg. I was bleeding profusely. This is not an execution, it is murder.
Executed by injection, Florida
~~ Bennie Demps, d. June 8, 2000
( It took execution technicians 33 minutes to find suitable veins for the execution. The executioners had no unusual problems finding one vein, but because Florida protocol requires a second alternate intravenous drip, they continued to work to insert another needle, finally abandoning the effort after their prolonged failures.)
I'm going home, babe.
Executed by injection, Delaware.
~~ James Allen Red Dog, d. March 3, 1993
Remember, the death penalty is murder.
Executed by injection, Texas.
~~ Robert Drew, d. August 2, 1994
Hurrah for anarchy! This is the happiest moment of my life.
Last words on the gallows.
~~ George Engel
(He was one of four executed after the 1886 Haymarket bombing in Chicago)
I love you.
Spoken to the executioner.
Executed by injection, New York.
~~ Sean Flannagan, d. June 23, 1989
How about this for a headline for tomorrow's paper? French fries.
Executed in electric chair in Oklahoma.
~~ James French, d. 1966
I'd like to thank my family for loving me and taking care of me. And the rest of the world can kiss my ass.
Executed by injection, Texas.
~~ Johnny Frank Garrett, Sr., d. February 11, 1992
Let's do it!
Executed by firing squad, Utah.
~~ Gary Gilmore, d. January 17, 1977
I'd rather be fishing.
Executed in electric chair, Louisiana.
~~ Jimmy Glass, d. June 12, 1987
Good people are always so sure they're right.
Executed at San Quentin.
~~ Barbara Graham, d. June 3, 1955
I did not get my Spaghetti-O's, I got spaghetti. I want the press to know this.
Executed by injection, Oklahoma.
~~ Thomas J. Grasso, d. March 20, 1995
Lock and load. Let's do it.
Executed by injection, Texas.
~~ G. W. Green, d. November 12, 1991
You can be a king or a street sweeper, but everyone dances with the Grim Reaper.
Executed in California's gas chamber.
~~ Robert Alton Harris, d. April 21, 1992
It is the duty of every good officer to obey any orders given him by his commander-in-chief.
(Actual)
Shot by British as a spy.
~~ Nathan Hale, American hero, d. 1776
I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.
(Attributed)
~~ Nathan Hale
I am innocent, innocent, innocent. Make no mistake about this. I owe society nothing. I am an innocent man and something very wrong is taking place tonight.
Executed by injection, Texas.
~~ Lionel Herrera d. May 12, 1993
There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is God's messenger.
Executed by hanging, at Camp Justice in the Baghdad suburb of Khadimiya
~~ Saddam Hussein d. December 30, 2006
I don't hold any grudges. This is my doing. Sorry it happened.
Executed in electric chair, Indiana.
~~ Steven Judy, d. March 9, 1981
Such is Life
Executed by hanging.
~~ Ned Kelly, Australian bushranger, d. 1880
I love you, mom.
Executed by injection, Texas.
~~ Clarence Lackey, d. May 20, 1997
I die innocent of all the crimes laid to my charge; I Pardon those who have occasioned my death; and I pray to God that the blood you are going to shed may never be visited on France.
Executed by guillotine
~~ Louis XVI of France, d. January 21, 1793
My dear Melinée, my beloved little orphan,
In a few hours I will no longer be of this world. We are going to be executed today at 3:00. This is happening to me like an accident in my life; I don?t believe it, but I nevertheless know that I will never see you again.
Executed by firing squad
~~ Missak Manouchian, d. February 21, 1944
(Leader of the Parisian section of a Communist Resistance movement, the Francs Tireurs et Partisans - Main - d'oeuvre immigrée (FTP-MOI). See his entire letter & those of others of this group also executed, at: The Last Letters.
Farewell, my children, forever. I go to your Father.
Executed by guillotine.
Monsieur, I beg your pardon.
Spoken to the executioner, after she stepped on his foot.
~~ Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, d. October 16, 1793
Today is a good day to die. I forgive all of you. I hope God does too.
Executed by injection, Virginia.
~~ Mario Benjamin Murphy, d. September 17, 1997
Shoot me in the chest!
To his executioners.
~~Benito Mussolini, Italian dictator, d.1945
Shoot straight you bastards and don't make a mess of it!
Executed by firing squad.
~~ Harry Harbord "Breaker" Morant, Australian poet & national hero, d. 1902
Hurry it up you Hoosier bastard! I could hang a dozen men while you're screwing around.
Executed by hanging Leavenworth, Kansas.
~~ Carl Panzram, d. September 5, 1930
So the heart be right, it is no matter which way the head lieth.
Executed by beheading.
~~ Sir Walter Raleigh, d. October 29, 1618
Well, the Lord is going to get another one.
Executed in electric chair, Georgia.
~~ John Eldon Smith, d. December 15, 1983
Capital punishment: them without the capital get the punishment.
Executed in electric chair, Florida.
~~ John Spenkelink, d. May 25, 1979
Adios.
Executed by injection in Maryland.
~~ John Thanos, d. May 16, 1994
Suicide Notes Collected
Include Form Remove Scripts Accept Cookies Show Images Show Referer Rotate13 Base64 Strip Meta Strip Title Session Cookies Suicide Notes
These suicide notes were gathered at the coroners' offices by a suicidologist/psychiatrist who asked to be anonymous. He edited identifying details out of the compiled manuscript, and we changed the names. But the text of each letter plus the age and sex given are real. All these people did kill themselves. Were they ambivalent about it? About half the hundred or so letters we saw seemed to have some element of doubt.
(There's a strange story in computer folklore about a suicide note that appeared late one night on the Arpanet computer network. The other people on the network had regularly corresponded with the mean, but always under the name of his lab not his own name. When the message saying he was killing himself flashed on the screen they tried to call the police, but nobody could identify him, and he died.) -- Art Kleiner
Married Female, age 59
Dear David,
After six weeks of streptomycin shots and a total of eleven weeks of rest in bed we have conclusive proof that the ulcers in my bronchial tubes have not healed. The short period of the streptomycin inhalations could not have brought on the results if the ulceration had even partially healed. To try further would mean many more months of bed rest -- more shots and inhalations -- I can't remain at the hospital for the winter months and a prolonged stay at a rest home is out of the question. I did some figuring -- the weekly rate there -- the amount of streptomycin for shots and inhalations plus the doctor's weekly visits would total to over $200 a week -- I can't bleed my family for any such amount of money, and that means that as soon as the money I have in my checking account runs out I would have to return home -- back to the same conditions which caused me to go downhill so steadily. It's a vicious circle from which there seems no escape. I could of course use up the money from the sale of our furnishings and silver as well as some I put aside for the furnishing of our home -- but all it put together would be like a drop ion the bucket -- besides I am now convinced that my condition is too chronic and therefore a cure doubtful.
All of a sudden all will and determination to fight on has left me. I have long ago prepared myself for the time when I reached the end of the trail. I feel calm and at peace and grateful that I can go to sleep painlessly. I feel justified in terminating a life which no longer holds any hope of having the essentials which make it worth living -- I did desperately want to get well -- I still had much to live for -- hope for recovery -- hope of a reunion with the children -- work which I loved and which could have given me financial security and great satisfaction. But it was not to be -- I am defeated and exhausted physically and emotionally.
Please tell the children that I loved them always and that my love has never faltered. I grieve that I could not have had the joy of being close to our babies, but that is no one's fault. Thank God they are well -- with my passing all menace to their wellbeing will have disappeared.
I want you to know that I have a deep affection for you. I am deeply grateful for all your kindness. I wish I could have made a happier life for you. It was mostly my fault, please forgive me.
Please write to Fran and Tony and to Marilyn and Jim and tell them that my love and gratitude could not possibly be put into words. Their generosity, devotion, love and tact made it possible for me to accept their financial help over a long period of time. I wish with all my heart that they might have been better rewarded -- All of you, my dear ones, I ask to keep my memory alive in your hearts -- To live on in the hearts of our dear ones is all that I can conceive of immortality. Please think of me kindly. Remember that which was good and lovely in our relationship and forgive me for the many mistakes I have made. Now that it is all said I feel at peace.
I want Dr. B. to officiate at my funeral. I think Joe would like to have him with him at that time.
Dear David,
I am said that I must go just a few days before your birthday -- but it so happened to pan out. I see no good in incurring the expense and misery of the bronchoscopy. I wish I could spare you the ordeal you have ahead. Try not to grieve. I ask all of you, my dear ones, not to mourn my passing. Be glad I am at least free from the misery of the bronchoscopy. I wish I could spare you the ordeal you have ahead. Try not to grieve. I ask all of you, my dear ones, not to mourn my passing. Be glad I am at least free from the miseries and loneliness I have endured for so long and that at last I'll have peace and rest...
Single female, age 21
My dearest Andrew,
It seems as if I have been spending all my life apologizing to you for things that happened whether they were my fault or not.
I am enclosing your pin because I want you to think of what you took from me every time you see it.
I don't want you to think I would kill myself over you because you're not worth any emotion at all. It is what you cost me that hurts and nothing can replace it.
Single male, age 51
Sunday 4:45 PM. Here goes
To who it may concern
Though I am about to kick the bucket I am as happy as ever. I am tired of this life so am going over to see the other side.
Good luck to all.
Benjamin P.
Married male, age 48
Elaine, Darling,
My mind -- always warped and twisted -- has reached the point where I can wait no longer -- I don't dare wait longer -- until there is the final twist and it snaps and I spend the rest of my life in some state run snake pit.
I am going out -- and I hope it is out -- Nirvanha, I think the Bhudaists (how do you spell Bhudaists?) call it which is the word for "nothing." That's as I have told you for years, is what I want. Imagine God playing a dirty trick on me like another life!!!
I've lived 47 years -- there aren't 47 days I would live over again if I could avoid it.
Let us, for a moment be sensible. I do ont remember if the partnership agreement provides for a case like this -- but if it doesn't and I think it doesn't, I would much prefer -- I haven't time to make this a legal requirement -- but, I would much prefer that you, as executrix under my will, do not elect to participate in profits for 2 or 3 years or whatever it may be that is specified there. My partners have been generous with me while I worked with them. There is no reason why, under the circumstances of my withdrawal from the firm, they should pay anything more.
I could wish that I had, for my goodby kiss, a .38 police special with which I have made some good scores -- not records but at least made my mark. Instead, I have this black bitch -- bitch, if the word is not familiar to you -- but at least an honest one who will mean what she says.
The neighbors may think it's a motor backfire ,but to me she will whisper -- "Rest - Sleep."
Albert
P.S. I think there is enough insurance to see Valerie through school, but if there isn't -- I am sure you would out of the insurance payments, at least --
I hope further and I don't insist that you have the ordinary decency -- decency that is -- to do so -- Will you see Valerie through college -- she is the only one about whom I am concerned as this .38 whispers in my ear.
Married male, age 45
My darling,
May her guts rot in hell -- I loved her so much.
Henry
Divorced female, age 61
You cops will want to know why I did it, well, just let us say that I lived 61 years too many.
People have always put obstacles in my way. One of the great ones is leaving this world when you want to and have nothing to live for.
I am not insane. My mind was never more clear. It has been a long day. The motor got so hot it would not run so I just had to sit here and wait. The breaks were against me to the last.
The sun is leaving the hill now so hope nothing else happens.
Married male, age 74
What is a few short years to live in hell. That is all I get around here.
No more I will pay the bills.
No more I will drive the car.
No more I will wash, iron & mend any clothes.
No more I will have to eat the leftover articles that was cooked the day before.
This is no way to live.
Either is it any way to die.
Her grub I can not eat.
At night I can not sleep.
I married the wrong nag-nag-nag and I lost my life.
W.S.
to the undertaker
We have got plenty money to give me a decent burial. Don't let my wife kid you by saying she has not got any money.
Give this note to the cops.
Give me liberty or give me death.
W.S.
Married male, age 45
Dear Claudia,
You win, I can't take it any longer, I know you have been waiting for this to happen. I hope it makes you very happy, this is not an easy thing to do, but I've got to the point where there is nothing to live for, a little bit of kindness from you would of made everything so different, but all that ever interested you was the dollar.
It is pretty hard for me to do anything when you are so greedy even with this house you couldn't even be fair with that, well it's all yours now and you won't have to see the Lawyer anymore.
I wish you would you give my personal things to Danny, you couldn't get much from selling them anyway, you still have my insurance, it isn't much but it will be enough to take care of my debts and still have a few bucks left.
You always told me that I was the one that made Sharon take her life, in fact you said I killed her, but you know down deep in your heart it was you that made her do what she did, and now you have two deaths to your credit, it should make you feel very proud.
Good By Kid
P.S. Disregard all the mean things I've said in this letter, I have said a lot of things to you I didn't really mean and I hope you get well and wish you the best of everything.
Cathy -- don't come in.
Call your mother, she will know what to do.
Love
Daddy
Cathy don't go in the bedroom.
Married female, age 50
When a "man" doesn't know where to take his wife -- then she isn't a wife any more --
I hope you will be "free" to take anyone any place and I'm sure you will not have any trouble as to places --
Please don't tell my mother the truth -- your whole tribe is partly responsible for this -- from your mother on down -- hope they are satisfied.
Married female, age 56
About the Evil god (yes)
About the Evil Seers killing people for their money (yes)
I am a profit at my death
I am a root of the stem of Jesse (yes)
We have made many discoveries. We have found out who the people with the mark of the beast are. And the devil was a human being now killed and cast into hell and the angel with the keys of the bottomless pit is in hell casting out all the good souls which these evil people have cast into hell for no reason. The good Seers who serve our God are 1/3 to 2/3 of the evil ones in this world. We are better than holding our owne but in Heaven God is almost over come and I kill myself so I may go and help him, because I have a funny little quirk in my brain which helps.
6 palmy each at a few years sport. Our god will send them into the world.
Single male, age 13
I know what I am doing. Annette found out. Ask Cara. I love you all.
Bill
Widowed female, age 52 (Her husband died three months before.)
Please tell Ron's folks I love them very much but my heart breaks when I see or hear from them. Also all our friends especially Irene and Charles and Ella I love them also. Forgive me for not seeing them.
Everyone seems so happy and I am so alone. Amy. I wanted to visit you but I am going around in a dream. Alice I wanted to help you paint but how could I with a broken heart. And my head aches so much any more my nerves are ready to break and what would happen if they did.
You will say I am crazy and I can't go on this way just half living.
I loved this house once but now it is so full of memories I can't stay here. I have tried to think of some way to go on but can't. Am so nervous all the time -- I loved Ron too much but is that a sin, with him gone I have nothing. Oh I have the girls and family but they don't fill the vacant spot left in my heart ...
Xmas is coming I can't go on I'm afraid I would break down. I've thought of this so many times. I love every one but I can't be one of you any more. Please think kindly of me and forgive me. I only hope this is fatal then I can rest and no more trouble to any one. Do with Lisa whats best I know she has been a lot of worry to mama and I'm sorry. I tried to keep the yard up that seemed to be the only comfort I had. I loved it but that wasn't anything. I've lost every thing so why go on. I worshipped Ron and when he went I lost my whole world and everything.
I'm so tired and lonely.
There goes a siren. Oh how can I stand being left. I need to go to a Dr. but I am afraid. I'm so cold.
Mother Love, Louise
Married male, age 40
Jimmy!
Remember what I told you and always respect, protect and obey your mother and always remember that I love you so much. I am going to leave you forever because I am too sick to go on. God bless you my Son and when your time comes to go to Heaven you will find your ole Pappy waiting for you.
Daddy
Single female, age 16
Dear Mother & Dad,
Please forgive me. I have tried to be good to you both. I love you both very much and wanted to get along with you both. I have tried.
I have wanted to go out with you and Dad but I was always afraid to ask for I always felt that the answer would be no.
And about Bud, I want to dismiss every idea about him. I don't like him any more than a companion, for a while I thought I did but no more, in fact, I am quite tired of him, as you know, I get tired of everyone after a while.
And mother, I wish that you hadn't called me a liar, and said I was just like Hap. as I'm not. It is just that I am afraid of you both at times, but I love you both very much.
So Long
Your loving daughter
that will always
love you
Mary
P.S. Please forgive me. I want you to, and don't think for one minute that I haven't appreciate everything you've done.
Single male, age 35 (He committed suicide after he killed his girlfriend.)
Mommie, my Darling,
To love you as I do and live without you is more than I can bear. I love you so completely, wholeheartedly without restraint. I worship you, that is my fault. With your indifference to me; is the difference. I've tried so hard to make our lives pleasant and lovable, but you didn't seem to care. You had great plans which didn't include me. You didn't respect me. That was the trouble. You treated me like a child. I couldn't reach you as a man and woman or man and wife as we've lived. I let you know my feelings toward you when I shouldn't have. How I loved you, what you meant to me. Without you life is unbearable.
This is the best way. This will solve all our problems. You can't hurt me further and anyone else. I was a "toll" while you needed me or thought you did. But now that I could use some help, you won't supply the need that was prominent when you need it. So, good bye my love. If it is possible to love in the hereafter, I will love you even after death. May God have mercy on both our souls. He alone knows my heartache and sorrow and love for you.
Daddy
Single female, age 31
My boss, Kenneth J., seduced me and made me pregnant. He refuses to help me. I had not had intercourse in two years. He says that I will have to suffer through it by myself.
Several people know about this -- my doctor, Dr. James R., and Pete M., who works at Willams. Pete and I never had a love affair, although Kenneth would like to drag Pete into it. Also, Dr. Arnold W. knows about it.
I have always been such a good girl.
Daddy dear --
As much as it hurts me, I cannot make it this Friday. I may be in very serious trouble. I have always been a very good person, but it looks like I really got in a mess, through no real fault of my own.
I must have been born to suffer.
Love - Elizabeth
P.S. Call me if you can. When will Sally be back? I may need her desperately.
Married man, age 52
Dear Joan,
For 23 years we lived happy together. Our married life was ideal, until two years ago when I witnessed Kristy die in the hospital something snapped in me. You remember when I returned from the hospital I broke down. That was the beginning of my illness. Since then my condition was getting progressively worse, I could neither work or think logically. You have been thru "Hell" with me since then. Only you and I know how much you have lived thru. I feel that I will not improve and can't keep on causing you and the children so much misery. I loved you and was proud of you. I loved the children dearly and could not see them suffer so much on account of me.
Dear Children:
Please forgive me.
Love, Frank
Divorced female, age 37
To No-one and Everyone:
Because of a growing conviction that a hereditary insanity is manifesting itself beyond my control, I am taking this way out -- before mere nuisance attacks and rages against others assume a more dangerous form.
Because I am an agnostic and believe funeral fanfare to be nonsense -- I ask that it be forgotten. Instead, knowing there to be a marked shortage of cadavers for the medical profession, for which I have endless respect, I hereby bequeath 1) my body to medics for dissection; also 2) To Mark B. all personal effects -- to be divided as whim decrees -- with Dr. Lois J., L.A. and to each -- a deep fondness and love. 3) To Joe A. the greatest devotion -- the kind that "passeth all understanding." 3a) And my life.
Anita R.
4) To my father, Vincent M., the sum of one dollar ($1)
Trina, a college student, 21 years old
Fall quarter I called Suicide Prevention. I'd called them before and the people were nice, but this time the woman acted a little indignant. "Why the hell do you want to do something like that?" she asked. We talked until she said she had other phone calls. But she made me promise I wouldn't try it without calling back first. I had a bottle of Coricidin from a wisdom tooth operation. I'd been thinking about it for a month off and on. Much later that night I took ten Coricidin and went to bed. I woke up in the morning feeling really rotten -- weepy, groggy. I could hardly move I thought I was going to die any minute. My roommate came home and got a friend to drive me to the school infirmary, where they gave me something that made me sick to my stomach. The doctor who gave it to me calmed me down. She said it happens to a lot of people, the pills wouldn't hurt me. I felt tingly, like I might pass out any minute.
I was immediately taken in a wheelchair to the psychiatrist's office. I talked to him about five minutes. He kept yelling ta me about why did I take the pills, why didn't I do this or that. I remember thinking, boy this man is a real jerk. I told him I didn't want to see him any more. He said, "That's fine," and put me in a locked room with bars on the windows. I couldn't make phone calls. I felt humiliated, which made me angry. I'm not crazy. I'm not weird. I don't want people to look at me like I'm nuts. I'm not some nutty kid who tried to knock herself off. I was most angry at being stuck in that room. I expected to be put in a straitjacket any minute. I complained until they moved me a pretty room and let me make phone calls.
I was there about two weeks. My psychiatrist kept harping at me about school -- was I going to stay in or drop out? I saw him ten minutes a day. The other patients and one orderly helped me a lot more than he did. I just wanted to find a place where I could be alone and think about things. I left feeling like not much had been accomplished, except letting me know that I didn't want to attempt it again. No -- I feel like I've become a lot more sensitive to people. I don't look at their problems as trivial any more. I almost like it when my friends come to me with problems. I feel like I can help now. I still haven't told the two people I was most angry at -- my father and my boyfriend -- why I was in the hospital.
Sandra, a clerk, 27 years old
A year ago March, while I was living in Michigan, I took an overdose of Elavil. I was seeing a psychiatrist and I was just getting off the medication. But the bottle was still in my apartment. I'd one out and had drinks, came home and that's when I did it -- about ten in the evening or so. I called my boyfriend Jonathan in California and my social worker. I told them I had taken the pills. The social worker told me to drive to the emergency room. I'd have been lucky to make it to the front door. Jonathan called a friend of mine, who came to the apartment and broke down the door. I was in a coma for five days. I guess I was lucky because the doctors told everybody I wasn't going to make it. Then they said I've have permanent brain damage. When it didn't happen they said it was the miracle of the floor. I was out of the hospital in about three weeks; a week of that was in the psychiatric ward, which was a real drag.
I had a lot of problems with my memory for a while. Even now I can't remember some things. Starting a week before the overdose I don't remember anything at all. All I know about it is what Jonathan says I told him over the phone. Everybody asks "Why did you do it?" and I don't know. It sounds real stupid.
Everybody in the hospital was real nice. I was afraid that they would get down on me but they didn't. It was a Catholic hospital, and I had my own room. Friends were there 24 hours a day. It made me realize how many friends I had. On the psychiatric ward they give you tests for brain damage. They ask you a lot of silly questions. They test your reflexes, your memory. They give you EKG tests. It took a while to get back my coordination. I couldn't write or do other things with my hands. Most of the time I stayed by myself. There were programs for the other patients but they didn't put me in any because they didn't know how long I would be staying.
I'd tried twice, but those times weren't serious. I was just trying to get some attention. The first time I was 14, and I slashed my wrists. It was basic adolescent scare tactics. As a result I ended up in an inpatient clinic for teenagers for about five months. Almost everybody there was there because they ran away or they were doing a lot of drugs. The second time was a couple of years ago. I did a Valium overdose. It wasn't very serious -- I just had to have my stomach pumped.
This time it shocked me to realize what could have happened to me. I realized how much I had hurt my friends and family, which I didn't think about before. I started wondering if people could trust me. It upset my life a lot -- it threw everything backwards. Jonathan flew in from California. HE said the scariest part was worrying about having to decide what to do if my body kept living but I had no brain response. When I first woke up I didn't think there would be anything wrong with me. And then it hit me that I couldn't move. I was embarrassed that people had to see me like that.
Once you're out of the hospital a lot of institutions won't hire you. You can't get health insurance. You have to lie on your job applications. People look at you like you're dangerous. It's real scary for some of my friends -- they think they're responsible. Trying to convince people that I was OK was the hardest thing. That they didn't have to watch over me, that I wasn't going to try it again.
Thomas, a hairdresser, 21 years old
I tried it five years ago. I was at a neighbor's house and fired a gun at my head. Nothing happened; it seemed empty. I fired it at a wall and put a bullet in it. So a minute later I found some Seconals in a medicine cabinet. I remember watching cartoons and taking the pills one by one. A neighbor lady found me and couldn't wake me up. I couldn't open my eyes or move, but I heard everything. I remember the lady shaking me and saying, "Oh, my God." I remember the ambulance people taking off my clothes and making me throw up. There wasn't any pain. I don't remember having my stomach pumped.
When I woke up it was five days later. A big black lady kept tickling me. "'Bout time you woke up," she said. "I've been tickling you for three days." I thought I was in heaven -- it looked like some place in heaven for the misfits. Turned out I was in the basement of a free clinic, a long room with rows of beds with all kinds of teenagers, pregnant girls, suicides, drug addicts. We walked around in gowns, smoking cigarettes and watching TV. The reason I tried was I was angry at my mother, but when she came in she just said, "Why'd you do this -- to try to get attention?"
Am I glad I was rescued? Oh yeah. I was so glad I didn't die. It made me realize how much I appreciate myself, because I had a glimpse of what I might have lost. I had some friends and I would've missed them. I didn't have to go home after that. They put me in a foster home. The State made me go to a psychiatrist. I never liked the man. I thought he had more problems than I did. I felt drugged and slow for a couple of years. Every now and then I'd take speed to feel normal. Downers still make me feel speedy. If I had a suicidal friend now I'd ask them, "Why don't you have any alternatives? Could it really be so awful?" That's what I say to myself now.
These suicide notes were gathered at the coroners' offices by a suicidologist/psychiatrist who asked to be anonymous. He edited identifying details out of the compiled manuscript, and we changed the names. But the text of each letter plus the age and sex given are real. All these people did kill themselves. Were they ambivalent about it? About half the hundred or so letters we saw seemed to have some element of doubt.
(There's a strange story in computer folklore about a suicide note that appeared late one night on the Arpanet computer network. The other people on the network had regularly corresponded with the mean, but always under the name of his lab not his own name. When the message saying he was killing himself flashed on the screen they tried to call the police, but nobody could identify him, and he died.) -- Art Kleiner
Married Female, age 59
Dear David,
After six weeks of streptomycin shots and a total of eleven weeks of rest in bed we have conclusive proof that the ulcers in my bronchial tubes have not healed. The short period of the streptomycin inhalations could not have brought on the results if the ulceration had even partially healed. To try further would mean many more months of bed rest -- more shots and inhalations -- I can't remain at the hospital for the winter months and a prolonged stay at a rest home is out of the question. I did some figuring -- the weekly rate there -- the amount of streptomycin for shots and inhalations plus the doctor's weekly visits would total to over $200 a week -- I can't bleed my family for any such amount of money, and that means that as soon as the money I have in my checking account runs out I would have to return home -- back to the same conditions which caused me to go downhill so steadily. It's a vicious circle from which there seems no escape. I could of course use up the money from the sale of our furnishings and silver as well as some I put aside for the furnishing of our home -- but all it put together would be like a drop ion the bucket -- besides I am now convinced that my condition is too chronic and therefore a cure doubtful.
All of a sudden all will and determination to fight on has left me. I have long ago prepared myself for the time when I reached the end of the trail. I feel calm and at peace and grateful that I can go to sleep painlessly. I feel justified in terminating a life which no longer holds any hope of having the essentials which make it worth living -- I did desperately want to get well -- I still had much to live for -- hope for recovery -- hope of a reunion with the children -- work which I loved and which could have given me financial security and great satisfaction. But it was not to be -- I am defeated and exhausted physically and emotionally.
Please tell the children that I loved them always and that my love has never faltered. I grieve that I could not have had the joy of being close to our babies, but that is no one's fault. Thank God they are well -- with my passing all menace to their wellbeing will have disappeared.
I want you to know that I have a deep affection for you. I am deeply grateful for all your kindness. I wish I could have made a happier life for you. It was mostly my fault, please forgive me.
Please write to Fran and Tony and to Marilyn and Jim and tell them that my love and gratitude could not possibly be put into words. Their generosity, devotion, love and tact made it possible for me to accept their financial help over a long period of time. I wish with all my heart that they might have been better rewarded -- All of you, my dear ones, I ask to keep my memory alive in your hearts -- To live on in the hearts of our dear ones is all that I can conceive of immortality. Please think of me kindly. Remember that which was good and lovely in our relationship and forgive me for the many mistakes I have made. Now that it is all said I feel at peace.
I want Dr. B. to officiate at my funeral. I think Joe would like to have him with him at that time.
Dear David,
I am said that I must go just a few days before your birthday -- but it so happened to pan out. I see no good in incurring the expense and misery of the bronchoscopy. I wish I could spare you the ordeal you have ahead. Try not to grieve. I ask all of you, my dear ones, not to mourn my passing. Be glad I am at least free from the misery of the bronchoscopy. I wish I could spare you the ordeal you have ahead. Try not to grieve. I ask all of you, my dear ones, not to mourn my passing. Be glad I am at least free from the miseries and loneliness I have endured for so long and that at last I'll have peace and rest...
Single female, age 21
My dearest Andrew,
It seems as if I have been spending all my life apologizing to you for things that happened whether they were my fault or not.
I am enclosing your pin because I want you to think of what you took from me every time you see it.
I don't want you to think I would kill myself over you because you're not worth any emotion at all. It is what you cost me that hurts and nothing can replace it.
Single male, age 51
Sunday 4:45 PM. Here goes
To who it may concern
Though I am about to kick the bucket I am as happy as ever. I am tired of this life so am going over to see the other side.
Good luck to all.
Benjamin P.
Married male, age 48
Elaine, Darling,
My mind -- always warped and twisted -- has reached the point where I can wait no longer -- I don't dare wait longer -- until there is the final twist and it snaps and I spend the rest of my life in some state run snake pit.
I am going out -- and I hope it is out -- Nirvanha, I think the Bhudaists (how do you spell Bhudaists?) call it which is the word for "nothing." That's as I have told you for years, is what I want. Imagine God playing a dirty trick on me like another life!!!
I've lived 47 years -- there aren't 47 days I would live over again if I could avoid it.
Let us, for a moment be sensible. I do ont remember if the partnership agreement provides for a case like this -- but if it doesn't and I think it doesn't, I would much prefer -- I haven't time to make this a legal requirement -- but, I would much prefer that you, as executrix under my will, do not elect to participate in profits for 2 or 3 years or whatever it may be that is specified there. My partners have been generous with me while I worked with them. There is no reason why, under the circumstances of my withdrawal from the firm, they should pay anything more.
I could wish that I had, for my goodby kiss, a .38 police special with which I have made some good scores -- not records but at least made my mark. Instead, I have this black bitch -- bitch, if the word is not familiar to you -- but at least an honest one who will mean what she says.
The neighbors may think it's a motor backfire ,but to me she will whisper -- "Rest - Sleep."
Albert
P.S. I think there is enough insurance to see Valerie through school, but if there isn't -- I am sure you would out of the insurance payments, at least --
I hope further and I don't insist that you have the ordinary decency -- decency that is -- to do so -- Will you see Valerie through college -- she is the only one about whom I am concerned as this .38 whispers in my ear.
Married male, age 45
My darling,
May her guts rot in hell -- I loved her so much.
Henry
Divorced female, age 61
You cops will want to know why I did it, well, just let us say that I lived 61 years too many.
People have always put obstacles in my way. One of the great ones is leaving this world when you want to and have nothing to live for.
I am not insane. My mind was never more clear. It has been a long day. The motor got so hot it would not run so I just had to sit here and wait. The breaks were against me to the last.
The sun is leaving the hill now so hope nothing else happens.
Married male, age 74
What is a few short years to live in hell. That is all I get around here.
No more I will pay the bills.
No more I will drive the car.
No more I will wash, iron & mend any clothes.
No more I will have to eat the leftover articles that was cooked the day before.
This is no way to live.
Either is it any way to die.
Her grub I can not eat.
At night I can not sleep.
I married the wrong nag-nag-nag and I lost my life.
W.S.
to the undertaker
We have got plenty money to give me a decent burial. Don't let my wife kid you by saying she has not got any money.
Give this note to the cops.
Give me liberty or give me death.
W.S.
Married male, age 45
Dear Claudia,
You win, I can't take it any longer, I know you have been waiting for this to happen. I hope it makes you very happy, this is not an easy thing to do, but I've got to the point where there is nothing to live for, a little bit of kindness from you would of made everything so different, but all that ever interested you was the dollar.
It is pretty hard for me to do anything when you are so greedy even with this house you couldn't even be fair with that, well it's all yours now and you won't have to see the Lawyer anymore.
I wish you would you give my personal things to Danny, you couldn't get much from selling them anyway, you still have my insurance, it isn't much but it will be enough to take care of my debts and still have a few bucks left.
You always told me that I was the one that made Sharon take her life, in fact you said I killed her, but you know down deep in your heart it was you that made her do what she did, and now you have two deaths to your credit, it should make you feel very proud.
Good By Kid
P.S. Disregard all the mean things I've said in this letter, I have said a lot of things to you I didn't really mean and I hope you get well and wish you the best of everything.
Cathy -- don't come in.
Call your mother, she will know what to do.
Love
Daddy
Cathy don't go in the bedroom.
Married female, age 50
When a "man" doesn't know where to take his wife -- then she isn't a wife any more --
I hope you will be "free" to take anyone any place and I'm sure you will not have any trouble as to places --
Please don't tell my mother the truth -- your whole tribe is partly responsible for this -- from your mother on down -- hope they are satisfied.
Married female, age 56
About the Evil god (yes)
About the Evil Seers killing people for their money (yes)
I am a profit at my death
I am a root of the stem of Jesse (yes)
We have made many discoveries. We have found out who the people with the mark of the beast are. And the devil was a human being now killed and cast into hell and the angel with the keys of the bottomless pit is in hell casting out all the good souls which these evil people have cast into hell for no reason. The good Seers who serve our God are 1/3 to 2/3 of the evil ones in this world. We are better than holding our owne but in Heaven God is almost over come and I kill myself so I may go and help him, because I have a funny little quirk in my brain which helps.
6 palmy each at a few years sport. Our god will send them into the world.
Single male, age 13
I know what I am doing. Annette found out. Ask Cara. I love you all.
Bill
Widowed female, age 52 (Her husband died three months before.)
Please tell Ron's folks I love them very much but my heart breaks when I see or hear from them. Also all our friends especially Irene and Charles and Ella I love them also. Forgive me for not seeing them.
Everyone seems so happy and I am so alone. Amy. I wanted to visit you but I am going around in a dream. Alice I wanted to help you paint but how could I with a broken heart. And my head aches so much any more my nerves are ready to break and what would happen if they did.
You will say I am crazy and I can't go on this way just half living.
I loved this house once but now it is so full of memories I can't stay here. I have tried to think of some way to go on but can't. Am so nervous all the time -- I loved Ron too much but is that a sin, with him gone I have nothing. Oh I have the girls and family but they don't fill the vacant spot left in my heart ...
Xmas is coming I can't go on I'm afraid I would break down. I've thought of this so many times. I love every one but I can't be one of you any more. Please think kindly of me and forgive me. I only hope this is fatal then I can rest and no more trouble to any one. Do with Lisa whats best I know she has been a lot of worry to mama and I'm sorry. I tried to keep the yard up that seemed to be the only comfort I had. I loved it but that wasn't anything. I've lost every thing so why go on. I worshipped Ron and when he went I lost my whole world and everything.
I'm so tired and lonely.
There goes a siren. Oh how can I stand being left. I need to go to a Dr. but I am afraid. I'm so cold.
Mother Love, Louise
Married male, age 40
Jimmy!
Remember what I told you and always respect, protect and obey your mother and always remember that I love you so much. I am going to leave you forever because I am too sick to go on. God bless you my Son and when your time comes to go to Heaven you will find your ole Pappy waiting for you.
Daddy
Single female, age 16
Dear Mother & Dad,
Please forgive me. I have tried to be good to you both. I love you both very much and wanted to get along with you both. I have tried.
I have wanted to go out with you and Dad but I was always afraid to ask for I always felt that the answer would be no.
And about Bud, I want to dismiss every idea about him. I don't like him any more than a companion, for a while I thought I did but no more, in fact, I am quite tired of him, as you know, I get tired of everyone after a while.
And mother, I wish that you hadn't called me a liar, and said I was just like Hap. as I'm not. It is just that I am afraid of you both at times, but I love you both very much.
So Long
Your loving daughter
that will always
love you
Mary
P.S. Please forgive me. I want you to, and don't think for one minute that I haven't appreciate everything you've done.
Single male, age 35 (He committed suicide after he killed his girlfriend.)
Mommie, my Darling,
To love you as I do and live without you is more than I can bear. I love you so completely, wholeheartedly without restraint. I worship you, that is my fault. With your indifference to me; is the difference. I've tried so hard to make our lives pleasant and lovable, but you didn't seem to care. You had great plans which didn't include me. You didn't respect me. That was the trouble. You treated me like a child. I couldn't reach you as a man and woman or man and wife as we've lived. I let you know my feelings toward you when I shouldn't have. How I loved you, what you meant to me. Without you life is unbearable.
This is the best way. This will solve all our problems. You can't hurt me further and anyone else. I was a "toll" while you needed me or thought you did. But now that I could use some help, you won't supply the need that was prominent when you need it. So, good bye my love. If it is possible to love in the hereafter, I will love you even after death. May God have mercy on both our souls. He alone knows my heartache and sorrow and love for you.
Daddy
Single female, age 31
My boss, Kenneth J., seduced me and made me pregnant. He refuses to help me. I had not had intercourse in two years. He says that I will have to suffer through it by myself.
Several people know about this -- my doctor, Dr. James R., and Pete M., who works at Willams. Pete and I never had a love affair, although Kenneth would like to drag Pete into it. Also, Dr. Arnold W. knows about it.
I have always been such a good girl.
Daddy dear --
As much as it hurts me, I cannot make it this Friday. I may be in very serious trouble. I have always been a very good person, but it looks like I really got in a mess, through no real fault of my own.
I must have been born to suffer.
Love - Elizabeth
P.S. Call me if you can. When will Sally be back? I may need her desperately.
Married man, age 52
Dear Joan,
For 23 years we lived happy together. Our married life was ideal, until two years ago when I witnessed Kristy die in the hospital something snapped in me. You remember when I returned from the hospital I broke down. That was the beginning of my illness. Since then my condition was getting progressively worse, I could neither work or think logically. You have been thru "Hell" with me since then. Only you and I know how much you have lived thru. I feel that I will not improve and can't keep on causing you and the children so much misery. I loved you and was proud of you. I loved the children dearly and could not see them suffer so much on account of me.
Dear Children:
Please forgive me.
Love, Frank
Divorced female, age 37
To No-one and Everyone:
Because of a growing conviction that a hereditary insanity is manifesting itself beyond my control, I am taking this way out -- before mere nuisance attacks and rages against others assume a more dangerous form.
Because I am an agnostic and believe funeral fanfare to be nonsense -- I ask that it be forgotten. Instead, knowing there to be a marked shortage of cadavers for the medical profession, for which I have endless respect, I hereby bequeath 1) my body to medics for dissection; also 2) To Mark B. all personal effects -- to be divided as whim decrees -- with Dr. Lois J., L.A. and to each -- a deep fondness and love. 3) To Joe A. the greatest devotion -- the kind that "passeth all understanding." 3a) And my life.
Anita R.
4) To my father, Vincent M., the sum of one dollar ($1)
Trina, a college student, 21 years old
Fall quarter I called Suicide Prevention. I'd called them before and the people were nice, but this time the woman acted a little indignant. "Why the hell do you want to do something like that?" she asked. We talked until she said she had other phone calls. But she made me promise I wouldn't try it without calling back first. I had a bottle of Coricidin from a wisdom tooth operation. I'd been thinking about it for a month off and on. Much later that night I took ten Coricidin and went to bed. I woke up in the morning feeling really rotten -- weepy, groggy. I could hardly move I thought I was going to die any minute. My roommate came home and got a friend to drive me to the school infirmary, where they gave me something that made me sick to my stomach. The doctor who gave it to me calmed me down. She said it happens to a lot of people, the pills wouldn't hurt me. I felt tingly, like I might pass out any minute.
I was immediately taken in a wheelchair to the psychiatrist's office. I talked to him about five minutes. He kept yelling ta me about why did I take the pills, why didn't I do this or that. I remember thinking, boy this man is a real jerk. I told him I didn't want to see him any more. He said, "That's fine," and put me in a locked room with bars on the windows. I couldn't make phone calls. I felt humiliated, which made me angry. I'm not crazy. I'm not weird. I don't want people to look at me like I'm nuts. I'm not some nutty kid who tried to knock herself off. I was most angry at being stuck in that room. I expected to be put in a straitjacket any minute. I complained until they moved me a pretty room and let me make phone calls.
I was there about two weeks. My psychiatrist kept harping at me about school -- was I going to stay in or drop out? I saw him ten minutes a day. The other patients and one orderly helped me a lot more than he did. I just wanted to find a place where I could be alone and think about things. I left feeling like not much had been accomplished, except letting me know that I didn't want to attempt it again. No -- I feel like I've become a lot more sensitive to people. I don't look at their problems as trivial any more. I almost like it when my friends come to me with problems. I feel like I can help now. I still haven't told the two people I was most angry at -- my father and my boyfriend -- why I was in the hospital.
Sandra, a clerk, 27 years old
A year ago March, while I was living in Michigan, I took an overdose of Elavil. I was seeing a psychiatrist and I was just getting off the medication. But the bottle was still in my apartment. I'd one out and had drinks, came home and that's when I did it -- about ten in the evening or so. I called my boyfriend Jonathan in California and my social worker. I told them I had taken the pills. The social worker told me to drive to the emergency room. I'd have been lucky to make it to the front door. Jonathan called a friend of mine, who came to the apartment and broke down the door. I was in a coma for five days. I guess I was lucky because the doctors told everybody I wasn't going to make it. Then they said I've have permanent brain damage. When it didn't happen they said it was the miracle of the floor. I was out of the hospital in about three weeks; a week of that was in the psychiatric ward, which was a real drag.
I had a lot of problems with my memory for a while. Even now I can't remember some things. Starting a week before the overdose I don't remember anything at all. All I know about it is what Jonathan says I told him over the phone. Everybody asks "Why did you do it?" and I don't know. It sounds real stupid.
Everybody in the hospital was real nice. I was afraid that they would get down on me but they didn't. It was a Catholic hospital, and I had my own room. Friends were there 24 hours a day. It made me realize how many friends I had. On the psychiatric ward they give you tests for brain damage. They ask you a lot of silly questions. They test your reflexes, your memory. They give you EKG tests. It took a while to get back my coordination. I couldn't write or do other things with my hands. Most of the time I stayed by myself. There were programs for the other patients but they didn't put me in any because they didn't know how long I would be staying.
I'd tried twice, but those times weren't serious. I was just trying to get some attention. The first time I was 14, and I slashed my wrists. It was basic adolescent scare tactics. As a result I ended up in an inpatient clinic for teenagers for about five months. Almost everybody there was there because they ran away or they were doing a lot of drugs. The second time was a couple of years ago. I did a Valium overdose. It wasn't very serious -- I just had to have my stomach pumped.
This time it shocked me to realize what could have happened to me. I realized how much I had hurt my friends and family, which I didn't think about before. I started wondering if people could trust me. It upset my life a lot -- it threw everything backwards. Jonathan flew in from California. HE said the scariest part was worrying about having to decide what to do if my body kept living but I had no brain response. When I first woke up I didn't think there would be anything wrong with me. And then it hit me that I couldn't move. I was embarrassed that people had to see me like that.
Once you're out of the hospital a lot of institutions won't hire you. You can't get health insurance. You have to lie on your job applications. People look at you like you're dangerous. It's real scary for some of my friends -- they think they're responsible. Trying to convince people that I was OK was the hardest thing. That they didn't have to watch over me, that I wasn't going to try it again.
Thomas, a hairdresser, 21 years old
I tried it five years ago. I was at a neighbor's house and fired a gun at my head. Nothing happened; it seemed empty. I fired it at a wall and put a bullet in it. So a minute later I found some Seconals in a medicine cabinet. I remember watching cartoons and taking the pills one by one. A neighbor lady found me and couldn't wake me up. I couldn't open my eyes or move, but I heard everything. I remember the lady shaking me and saying, "Oh, my God." I remember the ambulance people taking off my clothes and making me throw up. There wasn't any pain. I don't remember having my stomach pumped.
When I woke up it was five days later. A big black lady kept tickling me. "'Bout time you woke up," she said. "I've been tickling you for three days." I thought I was in heaven -- it looked like some place in heaven for the misfits. Turned out I was in the basement of a free clinic, a long room with rows of beds with all kinds of teenagers, pregnant girls, suicides, drug addicts. We walked around in gowns, smoking cigarettes and watching TV. The reason I tried was I was angry at my mother, but when she came in she just said, "Why'd you do this -- to try to get attention?"
Am I glad I was rescued? Oh yeah. I was so glad I didn't die. It made me realize how much I appreciate myself, because I had a glimpse of what I might have lost. I had some friends and I would've missed them. I didn't have to go home after that. They put me in a foster home. The State made me go to a psychiatrist. I never liked the man. I thought he had more problems than I did. I felt drugged and slow for a couple of years. Every now and then I'd take speed to feel normal. Downers still make me feel speedy. If I had a suicidal friend now I'd ask them, "Why don't you have any alternatives? Could it really be so awful?" That's what I say to myself now.
The Story of Louis Braille
There was a time, not long ago, when most people thought that blind people could never learn to read. People thought that the only way to read was to look at words with your eyes.
A young French boy named Louis Braille thought otherwise. Blind from the age of three, young Louis desperately wanted to read. He realized the vast world of thought and ideas that was locked out to him because of his disability. And he was determined to find the key to this door for himself, and for all other blind persons.
This story begins in the early part of the nineteenth century. Louis Braille was born in 1809, in a small village near Paris. His father made harnesses and other leather goods to sell to the other villagers. Louis' father often used sharp tools to cut and punch holes in the leather.
One of the tools he used to makes holes was a sharp awl. An awl is a tool that looks like a short pointed stick, with a round, wooden handle. While playing with one of his father's awls, Louis' hand slipped and he accidentally poked one of his eyes. At first the injury didn't seem serious, but then the wound became infected. A few days later young Louis lost sight in both his eyes. The first few days after becoming blind were very hard.
But as the days went by Louis learned to adapt and learned to lead an otherwise normal life. He went to school with all his friends and did well at his studies. He was both intelligent and creative. He wasn't going to let his disability slow him down one bit.
As he grew older, he realized that the small school he attended did not have the money and resources he needed. He heard of a school in Paris that was especially for blind students. Louis didn't have to think twice about going. He packed his bags and went off to find himself a solid education.
When he arrived at the special school for the blind, he asked his teacher if the school had books for blind persons to read. Louis found that the school did have books for the blind to read.
These books had large letters that were raised up off the page. Since the letters were so big, the books themselves were large and bulky. More importantly, the books were expensive to buy. The school had exactly fourteen of them.
Louis set about reading all fourteen books in the school library. He could feel each letter, but it took him a long time to read a sentence. It took a few seconds to reach each word and by the time he reached the end of a sentence, he almost forgot what the beginning of the sentence was about. Louis knew there must be a better way.
There must be a way for a blind person to quickly feel the words on a page. There must be a way for a blind person to read as quickly and as easily as a sighted person.
That day he set himself the goal of thinking up a system for blind people to read. He would try to think of some alphabet code to make his 'finger reading' as quick and easy as sighted reading.
Now Louis was a tremendously creative person. He learned to play the cello and organ at a young age. He was so talented an organist that he played at churches all over Paris.
Music was really his first love. It also happened to be a steady source of income. Louis had great confidence in his own creative abilities.
He knew that he was as intelligent and creative as any other person his own age. And his musical talent showed how much he could accomplish when given a chance.
One day chance walked in the door. Somebody at the school heard about an alphabet code that was being used by the French army. This code was used to deliver messages at night from officers to soldiers. The messages could not be written on paper because the soldier would have to strike a match to read it.
The light from the match would give the enemy a target at which to shoot. The alphabet code was made up of small dots and dashes. These symbols were raised up off the paper so that soldiers could read them by running their fingers over them. Once the soldiers understood the code, everything worked fine.
Louis got hold of some of this code and tried it out. It was much better than reading the gigantic books with gigantic raised letters.
But the army code was still slow and cumbersome. The dashes took up a lot of space on a page. Each page could only hold one or two sentences. Louis knew that he could improve this alphabet in some way.
On his next vacation home, he would spend all his time working on finding a way to make this improvement. When he arrived home for school vacation, he was greeted warmly by his parents.
His mother and father always encouraged him on his music and other school projects. Louis sat down to think about how he could improve the system of dots and dashes. He liked the idea of the raised dots, but could do without the raised dashes.
As he sat there in his father's leather shop, he picked up one of his father's blunt awls. The idea came to him in a flash. The very tool which had caused him to go blind could be used to make a raised dot alphabet that would enable him to read.
The next few days he spent working on an alphabet made up entirely of six dots. The position of the different dots would represent the different letters of the alphabet.
Louis used the blunt awl to punch out a sentence. He read it quickly from left to right. Everything made sense. It worked...
A young French boy named Louis Braille thought otherwise. Blind from the age of three, young Louis desperately wanted to read. He realized the vast world of thought and ideas that was locked out to him because of his disability. And he was determined to find the key to this door for himself, and for all other blind persons.
This story begins in the early part of the nineteenth century. Louis Braille was born in 1809, in a small village near Paris. His father made harnesses and other leather goods to sell to the other villagers. Louis' father often used sharp tools to cut and punch holes in the leather.
One of the tools he used to makes holes was a sharp awl. An awl is a tool that looks like a short pointed stick, with a round, wooden handle. While playing with one of his father's awls, Louis' hand slipped and he accidentally poked one of his eyes. At first the injury didn't seem serious, but then the wound became infected. A few days later young Louis lost sight in both his eyes. The first few days after becoming blind were very hard.
But as the days went by Louis learned to adapt and learned to lead an otherwise normal life. He went to school with all his friends and did well at his studies. He was both intelligent and creative. He wasn't going to let his disability slow him down one bit.
As he grew older, he realized that the small school he attended did not have the money and resources he needed. He heard of a school in Paris that was especially for blind students. Louis didn't have to think twice about going. He packed his bags and went off to find himself a solid education.
When he arrived at the special school for the blind, he asked his teacher if the school had books for blind persons to read. Louis found that the school did have books for the blind to read.
These books had large letters that were raised up off the page. Since the letters were so big, the books themselves were large and bulky. More importantly, the books were expensive to buy. The school had exactly fourteen of them.
Louis set about reading all fourteen books in the school library. He could feel each letter, but it took him a long time to read a sentence. It took a few seconds to reach each word and by the time he reached the end of a sentence, he almost forgot what the beginning of the sentence was about. Louis knew there must be a better way.
There must be a way for a blind person to quickly feel the words on a page. There must be a way for a blind person to read as quickly and as easily as a sighted person.
That day he set himself the goal of thinking up a system for blind people to read. He would try to think of some alphabet code to make his 'finger reading' as quick and easy as sighted reading.
Now Louis was a tremendously creative person. He learned to play the cello and organ at a young age. He was so talented an organist that he played at churches all over Paris.
Music was really his first love. It also happened to be a steady source of income. Louis had great confidence in his own creative abilities.
He knew that he was as intelligent and creative as any other person his own age. And his musical talent showed how much he could accomplish when given a chance.
One day chance walked in the door. Somebody at the school heard about an alphabet code that was being used by the French army. This code was used to deliver messages at night from officers to soldiers. The messages could not be written on paper because the soldier would have to strike a match to read it.
The light from the match would give the enemy a target at which to shoot. The alphabet code was made up of small dots and dashes. These symbols were raised up off the paper so that soldiers could read them by running their fingers over them. Once the soldiers understood the code, everything worked fine.
Louis got hold of some of this code and tried it out. It was much better than reading the gigantic books with gigantic raised letters.
But the army code was still slow and cumbersome. The dashes took up a lot of space on a page. Each page could only hold one or two sentences. Louis knew that he could improve this alphabet in some way.
On his next vacation home, he would spend all his time working on finding a way to make this improvement. When he arrived home for school vacation, he was greeted warmly by his parents.
His mother and father always encouraged him on his music and other school projects. Louis sat down to think about how he could improve the system of dots and dashes. He liked the idea of the raised dots, but could do without the raised dashes.
As he sat there in his father's leather shop, he picked up one of his father's blunt awls. The idea came to him in a flash. The very tool which had caused him to go blind could be used to make a raised dot alphabet that would enable him to read.
The next few days he spent working on an alphabet made up entirely of six dots. The position of the different dots would represent the different letters of the alphabet.
Louis used the blunt awl to punch out a sentence. He read it quickly from left to right. Everything made sense. It worked...
History of guitar
The guitar's roots are in Spain. Realistically, it cannot be traced back further than the 15th Century. It is thought to have been invented by the people of Malaga. This early instrument was a "four course" guitar, from which the ukulele is derived. The first guitars were very small, and were originally strung with four pair of strings. Each pair was call a course.
During the Renaissance, the guitar never had the respect the lute enjoyed. It was not considered a serious instrument. The first publication for guitar is thought to have been Alonso Mudarra's "Tres Libros de Musica en Cifras para Vihuela." Eventually, the guitar began to attract players, more publications and music began to appear.
During the During the Baroque period, A fifth course was added. Even more music became available. It's repertoire and the complexity of the music increased.
The fifth course was tuned in one of three ways.
A low "A" as it is now.
A low "A" plus an octave for the second part of the course
Both strings an "A" an octave higher than the modern guitar.
If a modern player really wants to have a complete, accurate repertoire of the Baroque Guitar, it would be necessary to either re-string for different pieces, or have at least three instruments for the different tunings.
At the end of the Baroque period two significant changes were made. The double strings were replaced by single strings, and instead of five pari, there were six single strings.
During the Classical period there were many publications, composers and performers. Fernando Sor, Mauro Guilliani, Matteo Carcassi, Fernando Carulli and many others wrote music, published methods and performed concerts. The guitar was very popular and guitar concerts were common.
Sor played the guitar as a solo instrument at the London Philharmonic Concert in 1817. In memoirs, George Hogarth stated: "He astonished the audience by his unrivaled execution." Paganinni was also active, playing and writing for the guitar as well as the violin. Stradivarius made guitars as well as violins.
At the end of the 19th century, the guitar had fallen out of favor, but was resurrected by Francisco Tarrega. His best piece in my opinion is the now very famous "Receurdos De La Alhambra." He did few public performances and chose to perform for friends at his home. He did compose, and he wrote a method for teaching guitar. He also transcribed many pieces of music for the guitar. Segovia was one of many guitarists that were influenced by him. Tarrega began the tradition of playing with the fingernails.
Up until this point the instrument itself was small and narrow. Antonio de Torres (1817 - 1892) worked with the design and construction of the guitar. He increased the size and experimented with anything that would improve the sound, and was especially interested in volume. He was the first maker to use "fan" bracing underneath the top. He once built a Guitar with a spruce top and paper mache back and sides to prove his theory that it was the top that produced most of the volume. He was the father of the modern guitar.
Some well known composers who played the guitar are Carl Maria Von Weber, Rossini and his wife, Verdi, and for many years Franz Schubert did his composing on his guitar which hung over his bed. He didn't have a piano at the time. Berlioz also composed the guitar.
Segovia performed, transcribed, taught and discovered a tremendous amount of music. He also encouraged many composers to write for the guitar. He was the first person to perform in a concert hall... Before Segovia, people believed this could not be done.
Although Segovia did all these things, the real debt that we owe to him is that of making the guitar truly a world instrument. By traveling and performing throughout the world, he brought respect and recognition to the instrument.
Nylon strings were a big improvement over gut strings. They replaced gut in 1946.
Today there are many concerts of guitar music. There are many societies and magazines devoted to the guitar.
Here follows a brief Timeline
1265 Juan Gil of Zamora mentions the early guitar in "Ars Musica.
1283-1350 Guitarra Latina & Guitar Moresca are mentioned multiple times in the poems of the Archpriest of Hita
1306 A "gitarer" was played at the Feast of Westminster in England
1404 "Der mynnen regein" by Eberhard Von Cersne makes reference to a "quinterne."
1487 Johannes Tinctoris described the guitarra as being invented by the Catalans. This refers to the four course guitar. Each course represents one pair of double strings.
1546 "Tres Libros de Musica en Cifras para Vihuela" by Alonso Mudarra is the first publication to include music for guitar.
1551-1555 Nine books of tablature were published by Adrian Le Roy. These include the first pieces for 5 course guitar. The addition of the fifth course was attributed to Vicente Espinel
1600-1650 Many publications of tablature for the guitar. It's popularity begins to rival the lute.
1674 Publication of "Guitarre Royal" by F. Corbetta increased the guitar's popularity. It was dedicated to Louis XIV.
1770-1800 A sixth string was added to the guitar and the courses were replaced by single strings.
1800-1850 Guitar enjoyed a large popularity both in performances and publishing. Fernando Sor, Mauro Guiliani, Matteo Carcassi and Dioniso Aguado all performed, taught, wrote and had published their compositions.
1850-1892 Guitar maker Antonio de Torres develops the larger more resonant instrument we know today.
1916 Segovia performs at Ateneo, the most important concert hall in Madrid. Before this it was thought that the guitar did not have the volume for this type of venue.
1946 Nylon replaces gut as a string material
During the Renaissance, the guitar never had the respect the lute enjoyed. It was not considered a serious instrument. The first publication for guitar is thought to have been Alonso Mudarra's "Tres Libros de Musica en Cifras para Vihuela." Eventually, the guitar began to attract players, more publications and music began to appear.
During the During the Baroque period, A fifth course was added. Even more music became available. It's repertoire and the complexity of the music increased.
The fifth course was tuned in one of three ways.
A low "A" as it is now.
A low "A" plus an octave for the second part of the course
Both strings an "A" an octave higher than the modern guitar.
If a modern player really wants to have a complete, accurate repertoire of the Baroque Guitar, it would be necessary to either re-string for different pieces, or have at least three instruments for the different tunings.
At the end of the Baroque period two significant changes were made. The double strings were replaced by single strings, and instead of five pari, there were six single strings.
During the Classical period there were many publications, composers and performers. Fernando Sor, Mauro Guilliani, Matteo Carcassi, Fernando Carulli and many others wrote music, published methods and performed concerts. The guitar was very popular and guitar concerts were common.
Sor played the guitar as a solo instrument at the London Philharmonic Concert in 1817. In memoirs, George Hogarth stated: "He astonished the audience by his unrivaled execution." Paganinni was also active, playing and writing for the guitar as well as the violin. Stradivarius made guitars as well as violins.
At the end of the 19th century, the guitar had fallen out of favor, but was resurrected by Francisco Tarrega. His best piece in my opinion is the now very famous "Receurdos De La Alhambra." He did few public performances and chose to perform for friends at his home. He did compose, and he wrote a method for teaching guitar. He also transcribed many pieces of music for the guitar. Segovia was one of many guitarists that were influenced by him. Tarrega began the tradition of playing with the fingernails.
Up until this point the instrument itself was small and narrow. Antonio de Torres (1817 - 1892) worked with the design and construction of the guitar. He increased the size and experimented with anything that would improve the sound, and was especially interested in volume. He was the first maker to use "fan" bracing underneath the top. He once built a Guitar with a spruce top and paper mache back and sides to prove his theory that it was the top that produced most of the volume. He was the father of the modern guitar.
Some well known composers who played the guitar are Carl Maria Von Weber, Rossini and his wife, Verdi, and for many years Franz Schubert did his composing on his guitar which hung over his bed. He didn't have a piano at the time. Berlioz also composed the guitar.
Segovia performed, transcribed, taught and discovered a tremendous amount of music. He also encouraged many composers to write for the guitar. He was the first person to perform in a concert hall... Before Segovia, people believed this could not be done.
Although Segovia did all these things, the real debt that we owe to him is that of making the guitar truly a world instrument. By traveling and performing throughout the world, he brought respect and recognition to the instrument.
Nylon strings were a big improvement over gut strings. They replaced gut in 1946.
Today there are many concerts of guitar music. There are many societies and magazines devoted to the guitar.
Here follows a brief Timeline
1265 Juan Gil of Zamora mentions the early guitar in "Ars Musica.
1283-1350 Guitarra Latina & Guitar Moresca are mentioned multiple times in the poems of the Archpriest of Hita
1306 A "gitarer" was played at the Feast of Westminster in England
1404 "Der mynnen regein" by Eberhard Von Cersne makes reference to a "quinterne."
1487 Johannes Tinctoris described the guitarra as being invented by the Catalans. This refers to the four course guitar. Each course represents one pair of double strings.
1546 "Tres Libros de Musica en Cifras para Vihuela" by Alonso Mudarra is the first publication to include music for guitar.
1551-1555 Nine books of tablature were published by Adrian Le Roy. These include the first pieces for 5 course guitar. The addition of the fifth course was attributed to Vicente Espinel
1600-1650 Many publications of tablature for the guitar. It's popularity begins to rival the lute.
1674 Publication of "Guitarre Royal" by F. Corbetta increased the guitar's popularity. It was dedicated to Louis XIV.
1770-1800 A sixth string was added to the guitar and the courses were replaced by single strings.
1800-1850 Guitar enjoyed a large popularity both in performances and publishing. Fernando Sor, Mauro Guiliani, Matteo Carcassi and Dioniso Aguado all performed, taught, wrote and had published their compositions.
1850-1892 Guitar maker Antonio de Torres develops the larger more resonant instrument we know today.
1916 Segovia performs at Ateneo, the most important concert hall in Madrid. Before this it was thought that the guitar did not have the volume for this type of venue.
1946 Nylon replaces gut as a string material
Bass Guitar Pickups and Controls
Now that we’ve established the difference between active and passive pickups, let’s look at different types of pickups that can fall into either the active or passive category.
Pickups consist of a magnet around which a copper wire is coiled. When the vibrations of a bass string disturb the magnetic field of the magnet, small voltage fluctuations in the copper coil are produced. These fluctuations are then transmitted to the bass amp, amplified and translated into sound.
There are two prominent pickup designs based on the number of coils used in a pickup’s construction – single-coil and double-coil.
Single-Coil Pickups
Single-coil pickups have one coil wrapped around the pickup’s magnet. Single-coil pickups are often bright and clear sounding. A drawback is they can pickup external noise and give off a humming sound. Radio waves, computer monitors, and florescent lighting can all cause this humming/buzzing. If two single-coil pickups are used (as on a Fender Jazz bass) and the pickup volumes are set equally, the noise will get cancelled out. If you just use one of the pickups, you may pickup some noise.
Double-Coil - Humbuckers
Just as two single-coil pickups can be put together to cancel hum, a double-coil pickup can be created to cancel the hum within one pickup. These pickups are often called humbuckers or humbucking pickups for their hum-reducing qualities.
Humbuckers tend to roll off some of the tonal highs when they cancel the hum and they usually have more output than single-coils.
Split-Coil Pickups
Split-coil pickups are basically double coil pickups split apart. This is what you see on Fender Precision basses. Instead of one double-coil underneath all 4 strings, the pickups are split in two — each under one pair of strings.
Piezo Pickups
Piezo pickups are less common on electric basses, but you may run into them. A piezo pickup senses the actual vibration of the string through contact with the string at the bridge contact point. These are often found in acoustic bass guitars. Since piezos don’t rely on magnets it is possible to use non-metal strings such as nylon strings. Piezos, without the right kind of pre-amp, can sound brittle and thin.
Optical Pickups
The newest kind of pickup available is the optical pickup. Optical pickups use light to sense the vibrations of the strings instead of magnets. These are still very uncommon, but may catch on.
Other Pickup Terminology:
Soapbar pickups refers to the shape of the pickup housing. They look like bars of black soap. Often found on 5- and 6-string bass guitars.
An MM-style pickup refers to pickups created by and used on MusicMan basses.
Bass Pickup Placement
Where the pickup is located along the length of the string plays an important role in the tonal characteristics of the pickup. As you get closer to the bridge, a string’s sound is thinner and brighter. As you near the neck, the tone is fuller and warmer. The tone put out by each pickup depends a lot on where the pickup is located beneath the bass strings.
Number of Pickups
Some basses, like the Fender Precision bass, have only one pickup. Many bass guitars have two pickups. With two pickups, the pickup nearest the neck is called the neck pickup and the one nearest the bridge is called the bridge pickup.
The neck pickup gives off fatter, warmer tones while the bridge pickup has a brighter, thinner sound.
You can emphasize or de-emphasize either pickup to get a wide range of tones.
Bass Pickup Summary
If you are buying your first bass, I would suggest getting a P-J pickup configuration. This means one humbucking P-bass (Precision bass) style pickup near the neck and one J-bass (Jazz bass) style pickup near the bridge. This way you get a wide variety of tones and you can get an idea of the sonic qualities of each type of pickup. If you don’t want a P-J setup, at least be sure to get something with two pickups. You want the tonal variety that will give you.
The controls on a bass are much like that of a stereo system. There are knobs for volume and tone – bass, treble and sometimes mid.
Volume Knobs
Bass guitars either have a master volume for all pickups, or two separate volume knobs – one for each pickup. With a master volume knob there is a separate knob that blends or balances the two pickups. A master volume is a little easier to control and set.
A few basses may have a pickup selector switch. A 3-way pickup selector switch has 3 settings: both pickups on, the bridge pickup on, or the neck pickup on.
Having one volume knob, two volume knobs, or a switch basically give you all the same options.
Tone Knobs
All basses have at least one tone knob. This allows you to adjust the amount of bass or treble frequencies output by the bass.
Passive basses often have just one tone knob that cuts the treble frequencies.
Active bass guitars have more tone knobs. An active bass will have at least a treble knob and a bass knob. These will allow you to both cut and boost the treble and bass frequencies.
Some basses will have a mid-range knob. This allows you to cut or boost those frequencies that fall between the bass and treble knobs’ frequencies. Some basses feature a sweepable mid-range. This allows you to choose from a spectrum of mid-range frequencies you wish to cut or boost. Otherwise the frequency is set for you as it is on the bass and treble knobs.
You may come across terms like 3-band EQ. Each frequency is a band. Three-band means bass, mid, and treble. A 2-band EQ would mean just bass and treble.
Having more knobs is convenient, but don’t forget you can do a lot with the EQ settings on the bass amp. And, the amp’s electronics generally sound better. With the knobs it’s nice to be able to adjust your tone right on your bass. Or, if you record your bass directly rather than through a bass amp, you can shape your tone a bit more.
You shouldn’t be too concerned with the strings that come with a bass you are buying. Strings are fairly cheap and are easily replaced. (Please refer to the guide to changing your bass strings.) The strings you use will have a great impact on your bass. You should experiment with a number of different types of bass strings. For more info, check out the bass strings faq.
Pickups consist of a magnet around which a copper wire is coiled. When the vibrations of a bass string disturb the magnetic field of the magnet, small voltage fluctuations in the copper coil are produced. These fluctuations are then transmitted to the bass amp, amplified and translated into sound.
There are two prominent pickup designs based on the number of coils used in a pickup’s construction – single-coil and double-coil.
Single-Coil Pickups
Single-coil pickups have one coil wrapped around the pickup’s magnet. Single-coil pickups are often bright and clear sounding. A drawback is they can pickup external noise and give off a humming sound. Radio waves, computer monitors, and florescent lighting can all cause this humming/buzzing. If two single-coil pickups are used (as on a Fender Jazz bass) and the pickup volumes are set equally, the noise will get cancelled out. If you just use one of the pickups, you may pickup some noise.
Double-Coil - Humbuckers
Just as two single-coil pickups can be put together to cancel hum, a double-coil pickup can be created to cancel the hum within one pickup. These pickups are often called humbuckers or humbucking pickups for their hum-reducing qualities.
Humbuckers tend to roll off some of the tonal highs when they cancel the hum and they usually have more output than single-coils.
Split-Coil Pickups
Split-coil pickups are basically double coil pickups split apart. This is what you see on Fender Precision basses. Instead of one double-coil underneath all 4 strings, the pickups are split in two — each under one pair of strings.
Piezo Pickups
Piezo pickups are less common on electric basses, but you may run into them. A piezo pickup senses the actual vibration of the string through contact with the string at the bridge contact point. These are often found in acoustic bass guitars. Since piezos don’t rely on magnets it is possible to use non-metal strings such as nylon strings. Piezos, without the right kind of pre-amp, can sound brittle and thin.
Optical Pickups
The newest kind of pickup available is the optical pickup. Optical pickups use light to sense the vibrations of the strings instead of magnets. These are still very uncommon, but may catch on.
Other Pickup Terminology:
Soapbar pickups refers to the shape of the pickup housing. They look like bars of black soap. Often found on 5- and 6-string bass guitars.
An MM-style pickup refers to pickups created by and used on MusicMan basses.
Bass Pickup Placement
Where the pickup is located along the length of the string plays an important role in the tonal characteristics of the pickup. As you get closer to the bridge, a string’s sound is thinner and brighter. As you near the neck, the tone is fuller and warmer. The tone put out by each pickup depends a lot on where the pickup is located beneath the bass strings.
Number of Pickups
Some basses, like the Fender Precision bass, have only one pickup. Many bass guitars have two pickups. With two pickups, the pickup nearest the neck is called the neck pickup and the one nearest the bridge is called the bridge pickup.
The neck pickup gives off fatter, warmer tones while the bridge pickup has a brighter, thinner sound.
You can emphasize or de-emphasize either pickup to get a wide range of tones.
Bass Pickup Summary
If you are buying your first bass, I would suggest getting a P-J pickup configuration. This means one humbucking P-bass (Precision bass) style pickup near the neck and one J-bass (Jazz bass) style pickup near the bridge. This way you get a wide variety of tones and you can get an idea of the sonic qualities of each type of pickup. If you don’t want a P-J setup, at least be sure to get something with two pickups. You want the tonal variety that will give you.
The controls on a bass are much like that of a stereo system. There are knobs for volume and tone – bass, treble and sometimes mid.
Volume Knobs
Bass guitars either have a master volume for all pickups, or two separate volume knobs – one for each pickup. With a master volume knob there is a separate knob that blends or balances the two pickups. A master volume is a little easier to control and set.
A few basses may have a pickup selector switch. A 3-way pickup selector switch has 3 settings: both pickups on, the bridge pickup on, or the neck pickup on.
Having one volume knob, two volume knobs, or a switch basically give you all the same options.
Tone Knobs
All basses have at least one tone knob. This allows you to adjust the amount of bass or treble frequencies output by the bass.
Passive basses often have just one tone knob that cuts the treble frequencies.
Active bass guitars have more tone knobs. An active bass will have at least a treble knob and a bass knob. These will allow you to both cut and boost the treble and bass frequencies.
Some basses will have a mid-range knob. This allows you to cut or boost those frequencies that fall between the bass and treble knobs’ frequencies. Some basses feature a sweepable mid-range. This allows you to choose from a spectrum of mid-range frequencies you wish to cut or boost. Otherwise the frequency is set for you as it is on the bass and treble knobs.
You may come across terms like 3-band EQ. Each frequency is a band. Three-band means bass, mid, and treble. A 2-band EQ would mean just bass and treble.
Having more knobs is convenient, but don’t forget you can do a lot with the EQ settings on the bass amp. And, the amp’s electronics generally sound better. With the knobs it’s nice to be able to adjust your tone right on your bass. Or, if you record your bass directly rather than through a bass amp, you can shape your tone a bit more.
You shouldn’t be too concerned with the strings that come with a bass you are buying. Strings are fairly cheap and are easily replaced. (Please refer to the guide to changing your bass strings.) The strings you use will have a great impact on your bass. You should experiment with a number of different types of bass strings. For more info, check out the bass strings faq.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)