old_contents: import cPickle
  from os.path import dirname
  from os.path import join
  
  import numpy as np
  
  
  def load_letters():
      """Load the OCR letters dataset.
  
      This is a chain classification task.
      Each example consists of a word, segmented into letters.
      The first letter of each word is ommited from the data,
      as it was a capital letter (in contrast to all other letters).
      """
      module_path = dirname(__file__)
      data_file = open(join(module_path, 'letters.pickle'))
      data = cPickle.load(data_file)
      # we add an easy to use image representation:
      data['images'] = [np.hstack([l.reshape(16, 8) for l in word])
                        for word in data['data']]
      return data
  
  
  def load_scene():
      module_path = dirname(__file__)
      data_file = open(join(module_path, 'scene.pickle'))
      return cPickle.load(data_file)
  
  
  def load_snakes():
      module_path = dirname(__file__)
      data_file = open(join(module_path, 'snakes.pickle'))
      return cPickle.load(data_file)
  
new_contents: import cPickle
  from os.path import dirname
  from os.path import join
  
  import numpy as np
  
  
  def load_letters():
      """Load the OCR letters dataset.
  
      This is a chain classification task.
      Each example consists of a word, segmented into letters.
      The first letter of each word is ommited from the data,
      as it was a capital letter (in contrast to all other letters).
      """
      module_path = dirname(__file__)
      data_file = open(join(module_path, 'letters.pickle'),'rb')
      data = cPickle.load(data_file)
      # we add an easy to use image representation:
      data['images'] = [np.hstack([l.reshape(16, 8) for l in word])
                        for word in data['data']]
      return data
  
  
  def load_scene():
      module_path = dirname(__file__)
      data_file = open(join(module_path, 'scene.pickle'))
      return cPickle.load(data_file)
  
  
  def load_snakes():
      module_path = dirname(__file__)
      data_file = open(join(module_path, 'snakes.pickle'))
      return cPickle.load(data_file)
  
subject: FIX sample data load for Windows