The Business Master (3rd Edition)/The Business Master (3rd Edition).iso/files/commadio/freespch/phonemem.lzh/PHONEMEM.DOC

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╔══╤══╦═╦══╤══╦═╦═╦═════░▒▓█    PHONE  MEMORY   █▓▒░═════╦═╦═╦══╤══╦═╦══╤══╗
║ ╔╧╗ ╚╤╝ ╔╧╗ ╚╤╝ ║        ▀█▓▒░░▒▒▓▓██▓▓▒▒░░▒▓█▀        ║ ╚╤╝ ╔╧╗ ╚╤╝ ╔╧╗ ║
║ ╚╤╝ ╔╧╗ ╚╤╝ ╔╧╗ ║                                      ║ ╔╧╗ ╚╤╝ ╔╧╗ ╚╤╝ ║
║ ╔╧╗ ╚╤╝ ╔╧╗ ╚╤╝ ║  P I N N A C L E    S O F T W A R E  ║ ╚╤╝ ╔╧╗ ╚╤╝ ╔╧╗ ║
║ ╚╤╝ ╔╧╗ ╚╤╝ ╔╧╗ ║  P.O. Box 386,  Town of Mount Royal  ║ ╔╧╗ ╚╤╝ ╔╧╗ ╚╤╝ ║
║ ╔╧╗ ╚╤╝ ╔╧╗ ╚╤╝ ║  Montreal, Quebec,  Canada  H3P 3C6  ║ ╚╤╝ ╔╧╗ ╚╤╝ ╔╧╗ ║
║ ╚╤╝ ╔╧╗ ╚╤╝ ╔╧╗ ║                                      ║ ╔╧╗ ╚╤╝ ╔╧╗ ╚╤╝ ║
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             VERSION 2 -- Includes some extra notes at the end!

Do you  forget  phone numbers?   Lock combinations?   Banking machine codes?
There's  NO  reason to  forget numeric data  when you can use a simple tech-
nique to aid your memory.

Let me give you an example.  Ten years ago, while I was riding my motorcycle
around  the country,  somebody  gave me his  phone  number.  "Drop by  for a
beer," he said.  And even today,  I remember his  phone number.  I'd just as
soon forget it, but I remember it, anyway.

Now YOU can learn to remember numbers.   Spend  ONE  hour of your time.  You
will NOT regret it.  You'll use this technique for years to come...

We'd like to take  credit  for this technique,  but we have to admit that we
didn't invent it.  It's a variant of "Herigone's Number Alphabet".   Who was
Herigone?   We don't know,  but we'd sure like to  find out  more about this
fellow.

Herigone inspired this technique,  but we're proposing an alternative.  This
technique might be called "Campbell's Number Alphabet".


THE TECHNIQUE
═════════════

Take a number.  Any number.  Now replace each digit according to the follow-
ing scheme...

   REPLACE WITH
#  ONE OF THESE   NONSENSE PHRASES TO AID MEMORY
-  ------------   ------------------------------
0     N    Q      Nothing, Quite empty
1     L    V      LoVe only one
2     T    Z      Two looks like Z
3     W    G      Gee, We three
4     R    X      a boX has fouR sides
5     C    F      Five Chives
6     D    B      d and b look like 6
7     S    J      Seven Jesters
8     H    K      H and K look like broken 8's
9     M    P      My P looks like a 9 backwards


THE RATIONALE
═════════════

You've probably noticed that there are no vowels in the list of replacement-
letters.  And that's the trick!  You can assemble a bunch of consonants then
insert vowels to make a mnemonic phrase.

The following examples are ENTIRELY random.   Don't try calling any of these
numbers, because I just made them up to show you how this system works.


SAMPLE CONVERSION
═════════════════

Let's say you want to  remember  the  phone number for your insurance agent.
(NOTE:  I'm  not working these out ahead of time;  whatever number I pick at
random is the one I'll have to work with...)

PHONE NUMBER ....... 234-5678
RAW EQUIVALENT ..... T/Z G/W X/R - F/C D/B S/J H/K

With a bit of thought, we can insert a few vowels and come up with...

MNEMONIC ........... ToWeR oF BaSHes

This demonstrates  3  principles.   First of all, you can see how vowels are
inserted to make a phrase.  Secondly, since this is a phone number, you know
that it will only have seven digits.  (You don't need a memory aid to remem-
ber if  somebody is in your  local calling area.)   So,  you will ignore any
digits beyond the seventh.

The most important principle,  though,  is that of the memory aid.  When you
concoct this  mnemonic,  you'll think,  "He works in a skyscraper with a lot
of claim adjusters.  It's a veritable tower of bashes, crashes and smashes!"

Human memory works best  when it has a concept to hang on to.  So, if you're
trying to remember your  insurance agent's  number,  you'll remember  "Tower
of bashes" far more easily than you'll remember 234-5678.  (Well, maybe that
particular number is easy, but you get the idea...)

If you take time to memorize the number alphabet, you'll remember the number
of this fictitious insurance agent for many years...


MORE EXAMPLES
═════════════

Let's say you want to remember the number of your doctor.

PHONE NUMBER ....... 565-8763
RAW EQUIVALENT ..... F/C D/B F/C - H/K S/J D/B G/W
MNEMONIC ........... FeeD CHeeSe DoGs

Doctors always advise good nutrition habits,  so the image of forcing a doc-
tor to eat  "cheese dogs" seems absurd.   That's fine!   It's always easy to
remember an image -- and an ABSURD image really sticks in your mind.   When-
ever possible, choose an IMAGE, then visual the person IN that image.

Can't remember the number of the local computer store?

PHONE NUMBER ....... 293-2166
RAW EQUIVALENT ..... T/Z M/P G/W - T/Z L/V D/B D/B
MNEMONIC ........... ZaP!  We ToLD you:  Do Backups!

Anybody who's ever complained to a computer store about a  flakey  hard-disk
won't forget this one!

Let's work on the number of the library.

PHONE NUMBER ....... 465-1824
RAW EQUIVALENT ..... X/R D/B F/C - L/V H/K T/Z X/R
MNEMONIC ........... ReaD FoLK TRivia

Where else  would you be able to  read about  Folk Trivia  except in a place
that stores lots of books on all subjects?

It may occur to you, at this point, that these  memory aids  aren't particu-
larly memorable.  I mean, "Feed cheese dogs"?  Really!  But if you have your
doubts,  simply  try the system out!   In  fact,  I *DARE* you to forget the
phrase "Feed cheese dogs"!

One  more  example before we go ... let's remember the  number  of the local
photocopy center.

PHONE NUMBER ....... 783-9360
RAW EQUIVALENT ..... S/J H/K G/W - M/P G/W D/B N/Q
MNEMONIC ........... SHoW a PaGe BuNdle

When I ask for photocopying,  I don't want  excuses for delays.  I want them
to show me a bundle of pages.

Most of the  mnemonic phrases sound  pretty awkward,  but then,  they're not
supposed to be great literature.   But that doesn't make them any less memo-
rable.  For example, that phone number I learned ten years ago:  my mnemonic
was "Camp keep near".   I remembered it because  I remembered not wanting to
leave my tent unguarded with this fellow around.  (Now you know why I'd just
as soon FORGET his number!)


THE "PHONEMEM" PROGRAM
══════════════════════

The accompanying program (PHONEMEM.EXE) will help you figure out a mnemonic.
It spots groupings of two letters that you might otherwise have missed.  You
also have  PHONEMEM.PAS,  which is the Turbo-Pascal source code for the pro-
gram.  PHONEMEM was compiled for an IBM PC.


HOW THE TECHNIQUE WAS DESIGNED
══════════════════════════════

Needless to say, the basic idea came from  Herigone.   However,  I wanted to
make it easier to form mnemonics.  I'm not sure, but I think maybe  Herigone
was French.  As a result,  maybe HIS letter-alphabet was well-suited to that
language.

Since there are only  twenty consonants to divide amongst ten digits,  I had
to be careful  not to  "short-change"  any digit  by giving it an  unpopular
letter.  For example,  if I'd assigned Q and J to 0,  the whole system would
be unworkable.   That's why it's so hard  to form words using the letters on
your telephone.  Apart from the fact that 1 and 0 don't HAVE letters, you're
also sunk if your number has a 9 (WXY) or a 5 (JKL).  Not much choice.

So, I ran a letter-frequency test on 400,000 characters of text,  and deter-
mined that the most popular consonants, in order, are:

T  N  S  R  H  L  D  C  M  W  G  P  F  B  V  K  X  J  Q  Z

I assigned the first set of ten to the digits  0 to 9,  while trying to make
them reasonably easy to remember (e.g. N for Nothing for 0).   The remaining
letters were used to  "punish"  the digits.   That is,  whoever got the MOST
popular letter, also got the LEAST popular.  Thus, 2 got T and Z.

I continued this way.  Whoever got the  2nd-most popular  got the  2nd-least
popular.  So, 0 got N and Q.  7 got S and J -- and so on.  The result should
be that every digit is equally convenient.

If you ran  exhaustive  tests,  you'd probably find out that this  isn't so,
because the frequency of  letters in words  can't be  "plotted on a straight
line".  But it does seem to work out okay.


HOW THE PHONEMEM PROGRAM WAS DESIGNED
═════════════════════════════════════

How do you figure out the  common  two-letter  consonant  combinations  that
occur in English?  Simple:  you write a program to figure it out for you!

My program scanned 75,000 characters of text data and came up with 65 common
combinations.  These are:

BB CC DD FF LL MM NN PP RR SS TT ZZ BL BR CH CK CL CR CT DR FR FL FT GR GH
GL GR KN LD LK LF MP NC ND NG NK NS NT PH PL PR RB RD RG RK RL RM RN RS RT
SC SH SK SL SM SN SP SQ ST SW TH TR TW WH WR

There are a few in there that I'd have missed, if I'd simply try to guess at
it.  Computers come in handy some times.

Now, some enterprising soul might want to "smarten up" the PHONEMEM program.
If you designed it to scan for possible applications of typical three-letter
(including vowel)  combinations,  it just might come up with real words.  If
you come up with  a solution,  write to me about it.


CONCLUSION Version 1.0
══════════════════════

Feel free to give this package to anybody.  If you wish,  you MAY release an
altered copy ONLY if the alteration is restricted to the following scenario:

(A)  The new version works on a computer other than the IBM PC.
(B)  You include all the original text, plus some lines for your own glory.


CONCLUSION Version 2.0
══════════════════════

A magician in Mexico  wrote to me to tell me that  Herigones  was,  in fact,
Spanish.  So now I know.  Now YOU know.

He also mentioned that such  memory  methods  are employed by magicians when
they perform some  "mentalism" tricks.   He recommended  PHONEMEM  to fellow
magicians in the magic-oriented newsletter that he puts out each month.


BLURB
═════

You can get more useful and interesting programs from Pinnacle Software...

We've written all kinds of programs.  Here's a quick summary of what we call
our "Grab-bag" programs:

HLRB     - Handy Little Reference Books -- make your own
LOVEFIRE - Interactive story adventure for women only (or curious men)
LW       - Powerful, easy-to-learn label maker; ideal for beginners
MEGADIII - A game that only a BASIC programmer can truly appreciate
PINNARTX - Amazing extended-ASCII art -- you have to see it to believe it
PRESERVE - A backup command that you won't mind running 10 times a day
SECURE   - Bogus security system to scare away thieves
SPACEINV - Arcade game for any display -- even monochrome
SV       - Set video modes on your display card
WEED     - Clean up text files -- ideal for BBS logs

We're also well known for our BBS (bulletin board system) software:

SAPPHIRE - The Zero-Maintenance BBS; very easy to set up and run
PYROTO   - The ORIGINAL "Magical Mountain" BBS (runs also as a door)
VORTEX   - BBS or Door:  the sci-fi quest for ... the Megawarp!
VARITALE - BBS door:  multi-path, multi-author stories; very unusual

If you'd like us to mail you our free catalog,  call Tim at [phone].

If you'd like us to  mail you  the whole Grab-bag of software,  you can get
your hands on it for  ONLY $25!  Call us with your  Visa or Mastercard,  or
send a certified cheque or money order to:

                      P I N N A C L E   S O F T W A R E
                      P.O. Box 386, Town of Mount Royal
                      Montreal, Quebec, Canada  H3P 3C6