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June 1, 2001; Vol. 2;
Issue #6; 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
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NEW SCHOOL COMING—WITH NEW SENIORNET
QUARTERS: It’s official! Ms. Jill
McLeod, principal of the Phantom Lake School told the May SeniorNet
Membership Meeting the current structure will be torn down next year to be
replaced by a larger school with more classroom and community activities space.
And, she stressed, she wants SeniorNet to be an integral part of this school
expansion. She said the Bellevue School Board had approved the new building,
virtually doubling the size from the current 36,000 square feet, to some 76,000
square feet. Ms. McLeod said architectural firms are now being contacted, and
plans would see the current school closed down in April 2002, to temporary
quarters at the Bellwood School near K-Mart on Main St. It is planned the new
school would open by September 2003. The Bellwood School is now empty and is
being refurbished for Phantom Lake students next year, she said. Pres. Helen Hesketh thanked Ms. McLeod
for the school’s long support for SeniorNet activities, now to be continued at
the rebuilt school.
REGISTRATION THURSDAY MORNING, JULY 12 AT
CROSSROADS MALL: It’s that time again, with Registrar Louise Flora and Registration
Coordinator Roger Dalton busy wrapping up plans for the registration
running from 10 am to noon, at the
South End of the Mall. As always, Roger is calling for volunteers to assure a
smooth and fast-moving registration session.
FAREWELL TO TWO STALWART FRIENDS: Two long-time SeniorNet volunteers have their homes for sale and will leaving us soon. Carmena Affek is moving to Texas, and Bill Flick is to Oregon. They will be missed for all the assisting they have done in classes and for other the other sundry administrative duties and committees they have served on. But most of all they will be missed for the friendship they have given to all of us. Thank you, Carmena and Bill. We will miss you. You can bid farewell to these two members by emailing Carmena at CarmAffek@msn.com and Bill at bnflick@gte.net.
OUR GREAT SENIORNET GRANPALS PROGRAM: As we all know, SeniorNet’s noted Granpals’ program where members work with Phantom Lake Elementary School students in reading and other programs, was honored at recent ceremonies by the Seattle/King County Generations United, with our President Hesketh and Grandpals Chair Pat Herzog accepting in behalf of all of us the Hand-in-Hand Intergenerational award. Pat continues holding out the welcome sign for even more volunteers to spend an hour or so a week working hand-in-hand with young students who need this special help. This writer as one of the Granpals working in Ms. Cindy Briggs’ 3-4-grade class Tuesday mornings, can attest he is also learning a lot from the students with discussions on meanings and use of words to best convey the thoughts expressed. We recommend highly working with the youngsters as a real lift. You can email Pat Herzog at pattyherzog@msn.com.if you’re interested and want details. Helen in accepting the award praised the Grandpals volunteers, and also the founder of SeniorNet, Jiggs Clark who started the Puget Sound chapter some 15 years ago.
VISIT OUR WEBSITE AND GET INTO THE
KNOW: To really take full advantage
of your growing computer skills being learned at our SeniorNet Computer
Learning Center, get into the habit of regularly visiting your new SeniorNet
website operated by Co-Webmasters Jay
Schlechter and Hal Mozer. Jay
reminded the membership meeting last month of the new message board just
waiting for messages to be posted at the site. Got a problem? Send a message to
the message board with your return email address. Want to brag to the others
about a new tip? Do likewise. This is your message center, Jay says. To
register and log on, when you are asked for your user name in the space, type:
senior. When asked for your
password, type net. When you put the two words together, what do you have?
SeniorNet. Jay suggests this easy access: “You can get to the message board
through our web site by clicking on the link that now says message board or
directly at: http://www.custompost.com/boards/index.asp?bid=3847
You can register to use the board, but you can also just log on as a user: And
for key information about SeniorNet courses, schedules and other information,
you can access our website with: www.seniornetps.org
CHECK THOSE JUNO ADS ----CAREFULLY: A case in point: Juno Online Services used by many SeniorNet members as a usually reliable free email and web service, but which also advertises greater and faster services for a fee, was charged by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) with deceptive advertising. According to the press report, Juno agreed to change its advertising practices and reimburse some customers to settle the charges. The FTC had earlier charged that Juno made it too difficult for consumers to cancel free trial periods for its paid premium service. It also charged the company did not disclose that connecting to its service would incur long-distance phone charges. The FTC said some ads offered 150 hours of Juno Internet service, but did not disclose adequately that consumers had to use the hours within a month. Juno agreed to changes in its advertising practices to more clearly spell out costs and reimburse some of its former customers who paid long-distance phone charges, according to the FTC. A reminder to all: Carefully check all ads, whether for Internet access services, or for new computers, and make sure you read the fine print found at the bottom of the ad in tiny, difficult-to-read type. Helping seniors get a handle on what to look for in ads for computers is our own Joe Pontecorvo who gives talks before various senior groups. Most recently, he spoke at the Kirkland Senior Center
HOW TO SOUND LIKE A WORLD TRAVELER: Do
you find it annoying when you hear of a place name and can’t place it? Veteran
traveler Ray Hansen suggests trying Getty Thesaurus of Geographical Names at
the following URL Internet address:
www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabulary/tgn/index.html
Ray who uses it so he can sound like a weary world traveler, says it contains
millions of entries of modern and historic towns, mountains, rivers, lakes,
etc., updated frequently. Info provided includes latitude and longitude,
alternate names, the place's larger politically entity, and sometimes
historical notes. And, Ray muses, “Sites like these make you want to pack,
or at least start dreaming.”
EASY TO KNOW YOUR SOFTWARE VERSION:
When operating your various software programs, such as Windows, word processing
etc., it’s helpful to know the exact version loaded into your computer. Joe Pontecorvo points out there is a
hard way to get the information, and an easy way. ”The hard way is to look in the manual, Joe cautions. “The
easy way is to open the program and click on help on the far right of the menu
bar. A menu will appear and usually the last item is ‘About
_______’. The underscore signifies the name of the program. Click
on that item and you will have a screen showing the version of your software. It’s
that simple,” Joe insists. “For Windows 95, 98, 98SE and ME right click on
"My Computer" at the top of your desktop, click on
"Properties" from the drop down menu. (usually the last item). A
screen will appear showing what version you have by name and number. You will
want this information for any courses that you intend to sign up for on July 12
at registration.”
KAFFEE KLATCH TUESDAY, JUNE 5: How those months just gallop by. Time to start the SeniorNet month off with our monthly no-host Kaffee Klatch the first Tuesday, at the Crossroads Mall Food Circus, at 11 am. So grab a table and drag it over to the other tables and, “Can we talk?”
A TRAVEL HIGHLIGHT: The overflow May membership meeting saw photos and a vivid description by returned travelers Joe and Helen Hesketh of the largest Cross in the world at Groom, Texas. It was on Palm Sunday during their recent cross-country trip that they came across the inspiring site. The structure is 190 feet high (about 19 stories), and 110 feet wide at the arms. They announced others can see the Cross and pictures of its construction by clicking to www.skybusiness.com/thecrossministries. They urged cyberspace explorers to navigate through all the links.
CHECKING VOLUNTEER HOURS: Volunteer
Coordinator Delores Davis keeping busy at our membership meetings not only
reporting on volunteer activities and needs, but keeping required track hours
logged during the past month. Registrar
Louise Flora has reported that classes are 87 per cent full, with just
three classes open at that point, indicating the increasing interest in
computing by seniors. Treasurer Bob
Swenson, himself a retired banker, reporting the SeniorNet treasury in
solid condition. And because funds are available, Facilities Coordinator Ken Crandall won approval for the purchase
of five new printers, part of the ongoing program to constantly update our
modern classroom.
NOT ABOUT COMPUTING—BUT VITAL INFO FOR TRAVELERS: When this writer sent out a travel alert and special information to a few folks last month, which had been received from a traveling friend who had been victimized when his wallet was stolen, the response was amazing. Horror stories galore, and thanks for receiving the info in case it happened again. Here basically is the advice by this friend, learned the hard way in case your credit card(s) are stolen: (1) Cancel your credit card immediately, but the key is having the toll free numbers and your card numbers handy. Keep those where you can find them easily.(2) File a police report immediately in the jurisdiction where it was stolen. This proves to credit providers you were diligent, and is a first step toward a possible investigation. (3) But even more important, call the three national credit reporting organizations immediately to place a fraud alert on your name and also on your Social Security number. This alert means any company that checks your credit knows your information was stolen and they have to contact you by phone to authorize new credit. Here are the toll-free credit card emergency numbers to call:
Equifax, 1-800-525-6285
Experian (formerly TRW), 1-800-301-7195
Trans Union, 1-800-680-7289
Social Security Administration also has a fraud line: 1-800-269-0271
.
AND ANOTHER GOOD TIP IF WALLET MISSING:
Or even if you have lost your wallet, purse, whatever, which holds the precious
credit cards. Gerry Morrow adds
another good suggestion, based on an actual experience: Ger writes: “Helen's wallet was stolen from her purse in the underground station
at the Tower of London station some years ago. We went directly to our
hotel and called the Bobbies. They were cordial, though not awfully
helpful. We called the States and had our daughter cancel
everything. The bank called back
and suggested we withdraw to our daily limit cash from the ATM, and continue
until the bank would no longer recognize our remaining card. This was to
keep some one else from withdrawing from our account.”
MICROSOFT TO CUT SOME SUPPORT: The
current issue of PC Magazine, June
12, 2001, reports Microsoft will discontinue support for the following
Operating Systems, according to Hal
Mozer:
By December 31, 2001:
Windows 95
Windows 1.x through 3.x
Windows for Workgroups
DOS versions up to 6.22 (Ray: RIP, DOS)
By June 30, 2003:
Windows NT 4.0 Workstation
Windows 98
TIPS ON SELECTING/HIGHLIGHTING TEXT:
Before you can do tricks with text in a document, such as boldface it,
italicize it, enlarge, reduce, delete etc., you first have to select (aka highlight) the text. A few
tips from Joe Pontecorvo: “When you
want to select text in a document place the cursor at the beginning of the text
you want to select and hold the left mouse
button as you move the mouse through the text. If your mouse hand is not so
steady, place the cursor at the beginning of the text, hold down the Shift key and press the down or up arrow key for one line at a time or press the left or right
arrow keys for one character at a time.
“Hold down the Shift and Ctrl keys together and use the down or
up arrow key for one paragraph at a time or press the left or right arrow keys
for one word at a time. This works for all new programs and most old
programs. And most importantly, to learn more, sign up for a word processing class at SeniorNet.”
NOTE: All computer-operating tips have come from usually reliable sources, but users use them at their own risk.
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. We
welcome your news items sent to the editor at b26flyer@home.com. And
if you wish to unsubscribe, just send a message to the above email address.
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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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