HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: rtsumn01@ulkyvx.louisville.edu
Subject: Re: This newsgroup is pathetic
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1992 20:18:32 GMT
Organization: University of Louisville

In article <1992Dec12.215917.15751@ncsu.edu>, dsh@eceyv.ncsu.edu (Doug Holtsinger) writes:
> I think this newsgroup is filled with a bunch of pretentious 
> dorks.  "Evil"?  Don't be ridiculous.  None of you are "evil". 
> Your descriptions of supposedly "evil" acts are boring and stupid.
> You're just fascinated with the idea of being "evil", but I
> bet none of you could even get up the courage to pull the 
> wings off a fly.  Wimps.  

Face it. In a world of moral relativity, there is no "true evil,"
and no definition of evil everyone can agree on. From what I've
seen, alt.evil's purpose could be as easily served by cross-posting
to alt.flame, alt.folklore.college, alt.true-crime, 
alt.warlords.pathetic (if there were such a group), and rec.pets.

Hey! All that waste of bandwidth would be truly evil! Let's get
rid of alt.evil today in favor of it!
 
> And then there are the "evil" dorks who post short, inane
> messages like "I'M EVIL, HA HA".  Is that supposed to impress
> anyone?  <yawn>.  That's grade-school buffoonery.  You're
> all a bunch of helpless Bambis. 

Every alt.group has that. In fact, you're doing a variation of it
right now:  "You guys aren't evil (hence, I am more evil by
comparison)." Even I have a life better than that of telling
other newgroups how worthless they are. If you think you're evil,
tough shit, show us!

Now for some evil...
"Hardly a day passes in the life of a forensic pathologist working
at a mortuary in one of the Northern Indian states when he is not
called upon to perform a postmortem examination on the burnt body
of a young woman who has either been killed or driven to end her
own life in the flame of fire, by her husband and/or her in-laws."
               --from _Weird Ways To Die_, by Richard Doyle

--The Antichrist 
Newsgroups: alt.evil,talk.abortion
From: mcspinks@unix.amherst.edu (Guholdonk-doorstop)
Subject: Re: This newsgroup is pathetic
Followup-To: alt.evil,talk.abortion
Organization: Amherst College
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL7]
Distribution: na
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 22:32:57 GMT

I'm not going to post your whole message, mr. "get your fat black ass down 
here". However, you said "I'm about as evil captain kangaroo".
I would like to inform you that, at this very moment, Captain Kangaroo is
serving 20 years without parole at the New York State correctional institute
in Rochester, for raping and mutilating 5 children. Also, after his show went
off the air, he skinned Mr. Greenjeans alive and dipped him in alcohol. 
the guy is pure evil. be warned!
hmm this is cross posted to talk.abortion.
pro-death! abort'em all! no more babies untill 1996. control the population.
Snarfblat
From: triley@weber.ucsd.edu (Tristan Riley)
Newsgroups: alt.evil
Subject: Re: Capital Punishment.
Date: 20 Dec 1992 06:52:44 GMT
Organization: University of California, San Diego
NNTP-Posting-Host: weber.ucsd.edu

In article <BzJ3vt.I7L@nic.umass.edu> BPHEINTZ@UCSVAX.UCS.UMASS.EDU (BRADLEY P HEINTZ) writes:
>In <1h04ihINN4e@network.ucsd.edu> triley@weber.ucsd.edu writes:
>
>> In article <1992Dec16.052222.28832@nuscc.nus.sg> matmcinn@nuscc.nus.sg (Brett McInnes) writes:
>> >
>> >A country the size of the USA should be able to sustain 50,000 executions
>> >annually for an indefinite period. Probably 100,000 would be desirable
>> >initially to eliminate serious offenders in prisons, to deal with
>> >particularly unpleasant slums, etc. In the long run, it might be necessary
>> >to enforce catch limits as criminals become an endangered species.
>> 
>> more cowardly rich kid raving.  perhaps you were looking for
>> alt.fascism? you can be certain that if the shit ever went down,
>> your ass would go up against the wall in a hurry and all your little
>> fantasies of purging the "unclean" from the cities would roast like
>> hitler and eva in their bunker.  seig heil to you, jerk.
>
>I'm sorry, I didn't realize this was alt.radlib.revolutionary.wannabe.
>
>Let's educate Miz Riley on the subject of rights:
>
>Any "rights" people have exist only as agreements between individuals and
>other individuals (contracts) or individuals and institutions (laws) not
>to hinder each other's behavior.  When one side of the agreement is broken
>(e.g., you fail to pay your rent, you kill somebody), the other side may
>then, with moral impunity, default on its end of the agreement (the landlord
>may evict the tenant, the government may cease to protect the "rights" of
>a criminal).
>
>A summation of the Heintzian Doctrine of Rights:
>
>Criminals got none.
>
>Fry'em.
>
>- Brad
>
 >*=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=*
>Illuminatus Primus 1:  If all are one, all violence is masochism.
>Illuminatus Primus 2:  If all are one, all sex is masturbation.
>
>bpheintz@phobos.ucc.umass.edu
>Your mother's an astronaut.

how quaint...another psychotic rich kid with a simpleton's picture
of society.  y'know, hobbes, the social contract and the state of
nature were all debunked a long time ago--perhaps you ought to read
some more social theory before you set your apparently quite
thorough knowledge of fascist state theory up as "the way things
are".  With reactionaries like you to "educate" the rest of us, the
swastika oughtta be flyin' high any day now.  Thanks for you lecture
in infantile societal analysis, but no thanks.

t

Newsgroups: alt.evil
From: matmcinn@nuscc.nus.sg (Brett McInnes)
Subject: Re: EVIL = LIVE
Organization: National University of Singapore
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL4
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 01:28:37 GMT

original@field.ichaos.nullnet.fi (Jaakko Linnosaari) writes:
: 
: SATAN = NATAS (I dont know, what the heck that means, but it sound good.)
: 
National Association of Travel Agents of Singapore.                       
Newsgroups: alt.evil
From: patrick@is.rice.edu (Patrick L Humphrey)
Subject: Re: This newsgroup is pathetic
Summary: No kidding.
Organization: vi Fanatics Anonymous -- "vi is the heart of evil"
Distribution: na
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 23:58:19 GMT

In article <BzBnyx.J4t@unix.amherst.edu> mcspinks@unix.amherst.edu (Guholdonk-doorstop) writes:
>I'm not going to post your whole message, mr. "get your fat black ass down 
>here". However, you said "I'm about as evil captain kangaroo".
>I would like to inform you that, at this very moment, Captain Kangaroo is
>serving 20 years without parole at the New York State correctional institute
>in Rochester, for raping and mutilating 5 children. Also, after his show went
>off the air, he skinned Mr. Greenjeans alive and dipped him in alcohol. 
>the guy is pure evil. be warned!

That wasn't Bob Keeshan, dimwit.  That was Larry Harmon.  (I thought
everyone knew Bozo was basically evil, under that goofy veneer.)

>hmm this is cross posted to talk.abortion.
>pro-death! abort'em all! no more babies untill 1996. control the population.
>Snarfblat

Not any more, it's not -- and it's a shame no one had thought of that in,
say, 1975.  That would have cut the noise *way* down on Usenet by now.

--PLH, who was a third-year college student in 1975, and thus didn't have
time to be evil -- but did a pretty good job of being slightly perverted...



--
From: hennessy@acsu.buffalo.edu (DOG BASEBALL!!!)
Newsgroups: alt.evil
Subject: True evil
Date: 12 Dec 92 16:13:49 GMT
Organization: Ministry of Information, Lower Volta.


	Midterms at 8am on saturdays.  That's the definition of evil.  I will
be looking out for my prof's car, perhaps I can get my revenge.

-- 
   /I\          Fuck 'em if they can't take a joke.
  /(*)\         hennessy@acsu.buffalo.edu                 
 /IIIII\        "Leave EVERYTHING to ME!" - Powdered Toast Man       
/IIIIIII\       Happiness is a warm gun.
From: triley@weber.ucsd.edu (Tristan Riley)
Newsgroups: alt.evil
Subject: Re: Capital Punishment.
Date: 19 Dec 92 21:35:13 GMT
Organization: University of California, San Diego
NNTP-Posting-Host: weber.ucsd.edu

In article <1992Dec16.052222.28832@nuscc.nus.sg> matmcinn@nuscc.nus.sg (Brett McInnes) writes:
>
>A country the size of the USA should be able to sustain 50,000 executions
>annually for an indefinite period. Probably 100,000 would be desirable
>initially to eliminate serious offenders in prisons, to deal with
>particularly unpleasant slums, etc. In the long run, it might be necessary
>to enforce catch limits as criminals become an endangered species.

more cowardly rich kid raving.  perhaps you were looking for
alt.fascism? you can be certain that if the shit ever went down,
your ass would go up against the wall in a hurry and all your little
fantasies of purging the "unclean" from the cities would roast like
hitler and eva in their bunker.  seig heil to you, jerk.
Newsgroups: alt.co-ops
From: eng10112@nusunix1.nus.sg (LIM CHEE SENG)
Subject: test
Organization: National University of Singapore
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1992 03:43:49 GMT

Just testing
From: eng10112@nusunix1.nus.sg (LIM CHEE SENG)
Newsgroups: alt.co-ops
Subject: Re: Random Kindness
Date: 21 Dec 92 03:45:41 GMT
Organization: National University of Singapore
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]

B
From: bthomson@web.apc.org
Newsgroups: alt.co-ops
Subject: Re: Market Value Assessment
Date: 14 Dec 92 18:26:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #R:Bz8v6D.IzF@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca:817800484:web:624900009:000:408
Nf-From: web.UUCP!bthomson    Dec 14 10:26:00 1992


Donn't know what the impact will be on our Co-op yet of MVA but they've
assessed our office - one floor, very small - at several thousand dollars
more thana two bedroom which is considerably larger.

Please excuse the typos, the WEB msg editor isn't working properly.

I'd love to hear more about other Co-op's experiences with MVA appeals.

Is anyone from the Toronto Federation monitoring this conference?
Newsgroups: alt.co-ops
From: wkirk@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca (Bill Kirk DCS)
Subject: Market Value Assessment
Followup-To: Bob Rae's Affordable Housing
Summary: Municiple Taxation Appeals  
Keywords: Incease Land Tax Appeals
Organization: University of Waterloo
Distribution: ont
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 10:15:47 GMT

I am wondering if housing co-operatives in Ontario can afford or survive
the large Tax increases which are a direct result of Market Value Assessment.

How can we keep Housing Charges competitive with the landlords, who in the
Waterloo Region are renting at very low rates due to the high vacancy rate.

My Co-operative is facing a 19% tax increase this year due to Market Value
Assessment alone.  We appealed and lost by the way.  I have heard that
some housing co-operatives have won their appeals!!!  Lucky them.  

What can we do as a sector?  What is CHF and CHOA doing on our behalf?

I guess the answer is to move the Co-op to the great City of Toronto.  Bob
Rae believes Toronto deserves special treatment and has cancelled MVA for
the time being.  I guess what is good for Toronto is no longer good for
Ontario.

Just some rambling thoughts at 0515hrs on a Monday morning.
From: rabrams@igc.apc.org (Robert Abrams)
Newsgroups: alt.co-ops
Subject: Question about source
Date: 15 Dec 92 23:29:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #N:cdp:1337700029:000:113
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!rabrams    Dec 15 15:29:00 1992


Does anyone know where this list/newsgroup/conference originates
and who, if anyone, facilitates it?

Bob Abrams
Newsgroups: alt.co-ops
From: wkirk@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca (Bill Kirk DCS)
Subject: CoACTION
Followup-To: Employment Contracts
Summary: What is it and Why does it exist
Keywords: Co-ordinator Associations / Support Group?
Organization: University of Waterloo
Distribution: ont
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 10:30:46 GMT

I have heard mention of a Co-ordinator Association in Metro Toronto called
CoACTION.  I was wondering what it was.  Who can belong.  Why does it
exist? and peoples experiences with it.  Any information would be helpful.

Also Thanks to all the great people who sent me information on contracts. 
It will be a great help!   To the persons in Ottawa and the Royal City
(Guelph) I have lost your e-mail addresses.  Could you please send them
again. thanks



Newsgroups: alt.co-ops
From: eng10386@nusunix1.nus.sg (LIEW ZHEN XUA)
Subject: what are co-ops
Organization: National University of Singapore
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 1992 16:29:43 GMT
From: eng10386@nusunix1.nus.sg (LIEW ZHEN XUA)
Newsgroups: alt.co-ops
Subject: what are co-ops
Date: 11 Dec 92 16:32:00 GMT
Organization: National University of Singapore
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]

what are co-ops?
From: bthomson@web.apc.org
Newsgroups: alt.co-ops
Subject: Re: CoACTION
Date: 14 Dec 92 18:30:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #R:Bz8vvD.JCC@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca:1129211940:web:624900010:000:221
Nf-From: web.UUCP!bthomson    Dec 14 10:30:00 1992


Contact the Co-op Housing Emmployees Association,
            2 Berkeley St. #207,
            Toronto, Ont. M5A 2W3
            tel. 416-594-1241 Fax 366-3878

They even have a BBS I think, but I don't have that number.
Newsgroups: alt.co-ops
From: "alan pickersgill" <alan.pickersgill@canrem.com>
Subject: re: what are co-ops
Reply-To: "alan pickersgill" <alan.pickersgill@canrem.com>
Organization: Canada Remote Systems
Distribution: alt
Date: 11 Dec 92 23:53:55 EST

 -=> On 12-11-92  21:51, Liew Zhen Xua wrote to All <=-

 LZX> what are co-ops?

 I live in a housing co-operative in Canada.
 In order to move in, one has to apply for membership.
 Ours is a 70 unit townhouse complex in Southern Ontario. It is owned
 collectively by the members. Every year we set a budget based on a
 realistic projection of expenses. The co-op's revenue comes from a
 Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation interest reduction grant, and
 a subsidy grant, and members' housing charges.
 The subsidy grant allows us to set a portion of the units for lower
 income members whose housing charge is reduced. We set our housing
 charges at a level where our total income will equal our total expenses.
 The co-op is administered by an elected board of directors.
 Most of the day to day work is done by committees.
 One of the conditions of becoming a member is an agreement to participate
 to some extent in the co-op, either on a committee, or in some other
 acceptable fashion.
 Happily, our co-op is working quite well.

 I have also had some experience with food co-ops in which members would
 volunteer some time to work in the co-op. Food would be bought in bulk
 quantities, and members could buy what they need.

 Another form of a co-op to which I belong is a Credit Union, which is
 sort of like a co-operative bank.

... Support Co-operative Housing
--- Blue Wave/QWK v2.10
--
Canada Remote Systems  - Toronto, Ontario
World's Largest PCBOARD System - 416-629-7000/629-7044
Newsgroups: alt.co-ops
From: kingdon@east-wind.org (Jim Kingdon)
Subject: Re: what are co-ops
Organization: East Wind Community, Tecumseh, Missouri, USA
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1992 15:15:38 GMT

    what are co-ops?

Well, they are businesses which are operated in a democratic fashion,
generally via the Rochdale principles:

1.  Open membership.  Membership is open to anyone who can make use of
the co-op, without discrimination based on race, sex, afiliation with
some other organization, etc.

2.  Democratic control on a one-member, one-vote basis.  In some
co-ops the membership does nothing but elect a board at an annual
meeting.  In other co-ops, the membership participates via referenda,
serving on committees, etc.

3.  Savings distributed to the members.  Any savings (profits) belong
to the members, and is generally distributed to them in proportion to
how much business they did with the co-op.

4.  Limited return on share equity.  If the co-op has shares (not all
do), they pay a limited rate of return (say 5% or 10%), rather than
in a capitalist corporation, in which the more profitable the company
is, the more the shares are worth.

5.  Education.  The co-op educates its members and the general public
in co-op principles, about the products it sells, etc.

6.  Co-operation among Co-operatives.  In the United States this is
implemented by organizations promoting the co-op way of doing business
(National Co-op Business Association (NCBA), North American Students
of Co-operation (NASCO), etc.), the National Co-op Bank, etc.
From: dsdd@okcforum.osrhe.uoknor.edu (Roy Barrett)
Newsgroups: alt.hackers
Subject: Super NES EPROM Hack?
Date: 15 Dec 92 00:40:42 GMT
Organization: The Federal Bureau of Investigation

Does anyone here know where to get a SNES EPROM Hacker? Some kind of hack that
allows you to took up a SNES game to a terminal and use it as a normal means of
storage/rom? maybe bitediting the game? copying? Is there any sort of SNES Game
hack anywhere here on the Net?
 
Also, where's Phrack 41? it's overdue, no?
--
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Roy Barrett.                                           This news gateway seems
(also root@dsdd.core.fvnet.org soon!)                to have a serious problem
"It's only 6" long!" -- James L. Brookes         So any stupid comments me say
                                                        are computer generated.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: alt.hackers
From: frank@hsr.no (Frank A Stevenson)
Subject: Re: Experimenting
Organization: Rogaland University Centre
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 21:57:41 GMT

In article <1992Dec15.174036.26256@spider.co.uk>, colint@spider.co.uk (Colin Tinto) writes:
> 
> Sorry guys, just experimenting a bit.
> 
> 
> ObHack:   Writing a set of scripts to allow transfer of files from a Unix 
> 	  system, through an MS-DOS PC (yeuch) and onto my Amiga.
> 	  Getting around the nasty restrictions on MS-DOS filenames by
> 	  renaming the files on the DOS disks, and automatically creating
> 	  an Amiga-Dos script to rename them back again...
> 
> 	  Well OK, they always say No Hack Too Small :-)
> 
Better Still: transfere the file in an archive (lha will do) that way you don't
have to bother about the filnames.


-- 
><>
Newsgroups: alt.hackers
From: hallam@zeus02.desy.de (Phill Hallam-Baker)
Subject: Re: Neat uses for old hardware
Reply-To: Hallam@zeus02.desy.de
Organization: Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron, Experiment ZEUS bei HERA
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 05:52:10 GMT

In article <1992Dec6.224454@IASTATE.EDU>, spam@IASTATE.EDU (mike begley)
writes:

|>In article <1992Dec7.024705.7466@sol.ctr.columbia.edu>,
|>bldaniel@unccsun.uncc.edu writes:
|>> 
|>> 
|>> (a small hack, but fun)
|>>  
|>> Taking an old Atari 1040ST, wiring motion detectors to
|>> it's joystick ports, and writing the code to make
|>> it into a home alarm system.  With date/time logging to floppy.
|>> And, coming soon, modem status updates!
|>> (ok, ok.   But it was fun.  And it works!)
|>>  
|>cheater!  I'm doing the same thing......but I'm not using a 16 bit atari,
|>I'm using an 8-bit atari 800xl.
|>
|>nyah nyah nyah!  (sitting here, smug in the knowledge that I'm using *older*
|>hardware for a hack...)

I am using a ZX-80 with a home made RAM expansion performed by soldering extra
static RAM pigyback onto the circuit board. The motion detectors plug into the
keyboard.


--

Phill Hallam-Baker
From: linley@netcom.com (Bruce James Robrert Linley)
Newsgroups: alt.hackers
Subject: Re: Test message
Keywords: key, lock, pin, tumblers, shackle, smith
Date: 19 Dec 92 06:18:01 GMT
Followup-To: nobody@netcom.com
Organization: Computer Science & Engineering, UCLA

In a previous article mvp@netcom.com (Mike Van Pelt) spake...
>In article <1g2hclINN6k6@uwm.edu> ckalin@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Christopher Allen Kalin) writes:
>>This is a test, of course.
>>Required ObHack:  This message.
>
>Here's a hack -- install test-message-reflectors everywhere
>which reply to test messages with an automatic nastygram.
>(Maybe just a copy of the FAQ).  Say, any message below 
><x> lines which contains the word "test" in the subject...

No need to re-invent the wheel. Just post a message (several if he really
deserves a roasting) to the test newsgroups in his name with world
distribution. Newsservers everywhere will do the rest. Butta-bing-butta-bang!

-- 
Bruce James Robert Linley | "Well, I tried shoving a weiner in the warp drive,
Comp Sci & Engr, UCLA     |  but it didn't do a bit o' good."
<linley@netcom.com>       | - Star Dreck, c/o Dr. Demento
<linley@seas.ucla.edu>    |
From: hebrais@mirkwood.CAM.ORG (Philippe Hebrais)
Newsgroups: alt.hackers
Subject: CRC polynomials
Date: 12 Dec 92 15:56:07 GMT
Organization: La secte des adorateurs du Grand Silicium Cosmique
X-Newsreader: MeNews 2.8.0

Salut a tous.

I have two net.questions.  First, the question of byte ordering.
I know what big endian and small endian mean.  However, I am not
sure which is which.  The 68k family of processors stores
the most significant byte of a word in the low address.  Is
this an example of small endian architecture?

The second question is about CRC polynomials.  I need to know
what are the common CRC polynomials in use.  I specially need
some degree 32 polynomials.  Here are the ones I know of:

name       degree   polynomial
CRC-12       12     0x0180F
CRC-16       16     0x18005
CRC-CCITT    16     0x11021

Please reply by email, I will summarize the answers to the second
question.

ObHack (soon to be posted to alt.sources):

                SSSSS   HH   HH    AAA    DDDD     EEEEEEE
               SS   SS  HH   HH   AA AA   DD DD    EE
              SSS      HH   HH  AA   AA  DD  DD   EE
               SSS     HH   HH  AA   AA  DD   DD  EE
               SSS    HHHHHHH  AAAAAAA  DD   DD  EEEE
                SSS   HH   HH  AA   AA  DD   DD  EE
                SSS  HH   HH  AA   AA  DD  DD   EE
            SS   SS  HH   HH  AA   AA  DD DD    EE
            SSSSS   HH   HH  AA   AA  DDDD     EEEEEEE

`shade' is a file splitting and merging utility.  It takes a large
file and splits it into uniformly sized blocks.  It can also output
extra blocks (called shadows).  These shadows can be used to recover
missing sections if they get corrupted or it they are lost.  With a
single shadow, `shade' can recover ANY single missing block.  As many
shadows are needed as there are blocks missing.  If too few blocks
and shadows are available, nothing can be recovered.

For example, foo.bar (259042 bytes) is split into 5 sections
of 45000 bytes, 1 section of 34042 bytes and 2 shadows of
45000 bytes.  Each of these 8 parts is sent through email.
Even if any two of these eight parts gets lost, the original
foo.bar can be reconstructed.

`shade' is a simple application of the chinese remainder theorem
for polynomials with coeficients modulo two.  For more information
see the comments at the beginning of project.c.



SAMPLE USAGE

Split bar (111042 bytes) into 20000 byte chunks and output 2
shadows. All these parts will be uuencoded and output to
foo.uu.001, foo.uu.002, etc.

    % shade -u -k 2 -l 20000 -o foo bar
    [001] [002] [003] [004] [005] [006] [aaa] [aab] Done.

Merge these parts back together:

    % rm foo.uu.003 foo.uu.005
    % cat foo.uu.* | shade -m -u
    Merging bar (111042 bytes)
    Got section 4 (20000 bytes)
    Got section 1 (20000 bytes)
    Got section 2 (20000 bytes)
    Got section 6 (11042 bytes)
    Got shadow 1 (20000 bytes)
    Got shadow 2 (20000 bytes)

    Missing: [003] [005]

    Recovering 2 sections:
    [001] [002] [aaa] [004] [aab] [006]

--
      Philippe Hebrais   hebrais@mirkwood.cam.org
   Voix: (514)731-9146   uunet!philmtl!altitude!mirkwood!hebrais
Newsgroups: alt.hackers