SENIORNET  COMPUTER  LEARNING  CENTER  NEWS

May 1, 2001; Vol. 2; Issue #5; Mail Address: PMB 44,  12819 SE 38th St., Bellevue, WA 98006-1326

Voice Mail: 206-232-5892; Classroom: Phantom Lake Elementary School, Bellevue

For Detailed Information, Class Schedules:  www.seniornetps.org

By Phil Scheier

 

TIME FOR CAWFEE AND:  It’s that time again for our monthly social no-host Kaffee Klatch, Tuesday, May 1st, starting at 11 a.m., at the Crossroads Mall Food Circus to give everybody a chance to meet, chat, talk computer stuff or not, argue the state of the world…whatever.

 

ON THE SPEAKING CIRCUIT WITH JOE:  Join Joe Pontecorvo for an introduction to computers and the Internet Monday, May 14th, at 12:45 p.m., at the Kirkland Senior Center.  This is another of the many appearances by Joe at area senior centers and other senior groups to help them get started in computers.  He will present an instructional video specifically designed for seniors with little or no prior experience.  Plus, a big help to seniors planning to buy or upgrade a computer, Joe will explain how to effectively read a computer ad to make sure you get all the key facts before ordering.  Also, bring your own questions.  Those planning to attend must register two days prior to May 14th class.  Call 425-828-1223

 

TRAVELING PRESIDENT BACK HOME:  It was a great cross-country driving trip for SeniorNet Pres. Helen Hesketh and husband Joe, just returned from their journey to the East Coast where they attended the Great North American Recreation Vehicle Rally in Perry, GA, with over 6,000 recreational vehicles participating.  Much to their dismay, they awoke one morning, to find three inches of water outside their rig in the field where they were parked.  However, Helen reports, the rally was a great experience.  After that they picked up their grandson who is in the Army at Fort Gordon in Augusta, Georgia and spent the weekend with him.  They also visited several friends along the way.  One of the highlights of the trip was visiting a "Route 66 Museum" and seeing all the items, etc., from our past.  “We had totally forgotten about when we use to crank the auto to get it started”, Helen said.  “Memories are what keep us going sometimes.”  They traveled with virtually all the comforts of home in their 35' Itasca Suncruiser.  “The trip was over too fast as we traveled over 8,000 miles in six weeks,” Helen said.  "We would loved to have stayed longer but I had to get home to start my radiation treatments after the breast surgery in February."  Welcome home Helen and Joe.

 

THREE SPECIAL WORKSHOPS PRAISED:  Thanks to the dedication of three volunteer instructors, SeniorNet members attended the individual two-hour workshops on more efficient keyboard use, understanding the insides of the computer, and how to ‘burn’ (Just a fancy way to say ‘record’) the new CD-RW (Read-Write) disks.  The three free workshops quickly filled with reservations for limited seating, with a waiting list set up in case seats opened up with cancellations.  But alas, each of the workshops, despite the waiting list, had a few vacancies without instructors being notified by those unable to attend, thus denying others the chance to attend.  The first session by Marge Langley on March 27, focused on more efficient and faster use of the keyboard.  The second workshop took place in the morning, March 29, with Facilities Coordinator Ken Crandall demonstrating how to add or remove the innards of computers, and making it look easy.  The third session, that afternoon by Curriculum Coordinator John Wise, demonstrated the art of copying (aka ‘burning’) material to the new recording CD-RW disks on RW drives.  More and more users are either buying new computers with this advanced CD drive installed, or adding the very handy drive to existing computers.  And these recordable CDs can hold up to some 700 Megs of stuff.  Great for backups of existing files and data.

 

JUST IN CASE: The Phantom Lake Elementary School in a safety move, has furnished the SeniorNet classroom with two-rescue breather units for emergency resuscitation efforts if needed.  For emergency use in case of breathing problems, according to Facilities Coordinator Ken Crandall.  These units avoid direct mouth-to-mouth contact by creating a safety, non-direct contact barrier.  They are stored in the small cabinet next to our instructor's medical cards.

MORE TIPS:  (We assume no responsibility for these highly-recommended tips)

 

A SPRING REFRESHER:  If you want a quick refresher on how to search the Web, you might want to go online to http://www.seniornet.org and on the home page look for the following message and link, (Pace yourself through our FREE Searching the Internet course.)  Click on the link, which will take you to four lessons on how to search the web along with some practice drills.  The course is Free from SeniorNet but you will have to pay your ISP for the time on line unless you have unlimited usage.  Let us know if you find this information useful.  Thanks.

 

ANYWHERE YOU ARE, RETRIEVE MAIL: Let’s say you are traveling overseas, anyplace, you can access your email with a special program, according to Blake Howe, who says he uses it and it works.  He gets on the Internet and inserts the following URL, www.mailstart.com.  Then he says you just follow the directions, such as typing in your email address and the password you gave it.  Then wait about two minutes or so, Blake suggests, and presto, the mail should show up on the screen.  You can, of course, also send email.  Blake did this on recent trips to France, and nearby Oregon.  He said this program works the same as www.mail2web..com the newsletter tip in our April 1, 2001 newsletter.

 

MORE TIPS FROM NEAT NET TRICKS’ copyrighted newsletter

 

HEY KIDS! IT’S HARRY POTTER TIME!  The Harry Potter books have fascinated both adults and children and the Harry Potter Web site at http://www.harrypotter.com depicts the magical, mystical, and eerie feelings of the books.  With your children or grandchildren, visit King’s Cross Station to see, hear and feel the Hogwart's Express, guaranteed to thrill any adult who still retains the luxury of a child's imagination.  Sign up for Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, read the Daily Prophet and view the trailers and countdown for the much-anticipated movie "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone."  And keep in mind:  Back copies of Neat Net Tricks, send a blank email to archive-neatnettricks@silver.lyris.net.

 

STARTUP APPLICATIONS.  Neat Net Tricks has mentioned before that Win 98 users plagued with low resources might uncheck some of those resource hogs that start when you boot up.  It's simple to do: click Start|Run and enter "msconfig" (without the quotes) in the box, then click on the StartUp tab and uncheck whatever you'd like, EXCEPT Explorer and Systray.  It would be nice to know what all that other stuff is before you decide to remove it from the startup.  Not a problem.  There's a comprehensive list of these programs and what they do at http://www2.whidbey.net/djdenham/Printerdesktop.htm.

 

BE AN ACTIVE SENIORNET MEMBER:  In a move to promote more active participation by members, the Board of the SeniorNet Computer Learning Center of Puget Sound has approved the following guidelines for the membership list:

Criteria for joining SeniorNet of Puget Sound membership:

  1. Attend at least six of the yearly Membership meetings, OR
  2. Be active as an Instructor, or Assistant in at least one class/session, OR
  3. Be active in facilities maintenance and support, OR
  4. Be active in an administrative roll (such as SeniorNet Officers, Granpals Coordinator, Volunteer Coordinator, Public Relations, Newsletter or Web publishers, and other similar tasks as determined by the Board, OR
  5. Have been an active member and are deemed by the board to merit continued membership AND
  6. Must be approved by the Washington State Patrol through the VIBES program.

 

The board shall review the membership list, at least once a year, to determine additions and deletions to the list.

 

MORE ON WONDERS OF FACE-TO-FACE TALKING:  Since most SeniorNetters have their own PC computers, which, generally, use a Microsoft Windows program, probably Win95, or the upgrade to Win98, there is an exciting program called NetMeeting.  This comes free as part of Windows 95-98.  As the name implies/suggests, this allows users with the small web cams (a small monitor-mounted camera costing around $40-$50) to go online and hold a real-time live conference speaking and seeing each other at the same time.  And even better, this writer makes weekly talk-and-see calls to family members on the East Coast, without any additional cost.  This weekly conferencing has been expanded to a WW11 Air Force buddy, with similar equipment, in Wisconsin.  Users must first get a Microsoft free Hotmail ‘passport,’ also without cost  This ties in with the Microsoft Messenger.  The other party, or parties, must also sign on to the Microsoft Hotmail and Messenger.  And those with the free Hotmail ‘passports,” can always know when the other party is online, or coming online.  And others know when you are online, and can send an invitation asking if you wish to just chat (via the keyboard) in real-time, or even see and talk with each other, via NetMeeting.  A nice feature is that if you don’t want to be bothered at that time, you can click on that type of a pre-written message, although the language is more diplomatic, such as “away from computer.”  To actually see and talk with each other, you click on the NetMeeting icon on your desktop, which opens up a dialogue box, with space for the video, where you click on a small notebook icon to the right of the photo box.  This brings up another box, listing the online/offline status of others whose Microsoft Hotmail addresses you have entered in this list.  If your target is online, just click on his/her name, which sends a pop-up invitation, which the other person can accept, or not.  The Windows manuals have the necessary details.

 

AGAIN, IN CASE you have friends who are online, and may be interested in taking more classes to expand their skills, you can forward this newsletter to them by clicking Forward when this message is displayed. Then enter their address in the To box, and click Send.  Help spread the word.  Send a message to b26flyer@home.com if you wish to unsubscribe to this newsletter.

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Pres.> Helen Hesketh;  Past Pres.> Clif Wuesthoff;  Vice Pres.>Bill Bumpas;  Secy>Dave Lewis;  Treas.>Bob Swenson;

Registrar<Louise Flora;  Curriculum. Coordinator> John Wise; Facilities Coordinator> Ken Crandall;

Member-at-Large>Delores Davis;   Volunteers Coordinator> Delores Davis;

Online Newsletter Editor> Phil Scheier;  Publicity>Jo Hugh

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