SENIORNET  COMPUTER  LEARNING  CENTER  NEWS

March 1, 2002; Vol. 3; Issue #3; 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: http://www.seniornetps.org/
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By Phil Scheier

ANNUAL MEETING MAR. 19th FEATURES BREAKFAST, PRIZES AND ELECTION: The annual gala Annual Meeting and election of officers Tuesday, Mar. 19th at 9:30 am, will begin with a continental breakfast provided by Principal Jill McLeod at 9:30 at the Bellevue School District Administrative Office, 12111 NE 1st St., Bellevue. The Business Meeting will begin at 10. There will be annual officers' reports, door prizes, food, drink, fun, laughter, and a repeat showing of the video 'It's Your City,' and an ebay presentation by Fran Middleton from SeniorNet San Francisco, according to Pres. Helen Hesketh.  "We have received bundles of thank you notes from the students of Phantom Lake Elementary School for "The Pledge Of Allegiance" booklets that were given to each student. The students' notes and pictures will be on display for you to look over," she said.

DRIVING DIRECTIONS: "You all come to our Annual Meeting," Helen urged. Driving directions:  From NE 8th, turn South on 120th  (by Larry's Market), and when road curves West, the entrance to complex is on the left.  Or, from 116th Ave.: Go East on SE 1st, go past Main St., road changes to 121st and complex is on the right.

OFFICERS NOMINATED: A committee headed by Joe Hesketh, with Anne Scheinholtz and John Wise, nominated the following slate:  Pres., Helen Hesketh; Vice Pres., Adella Granger; Treas. Bob Swenson; Member at Large, Delores Davis. An opening exists for Secretary. Outgoing officers are Vice Pres. Bill Bumpas, and Secy. Dave Lewis. Nominations will be invited from the floor.

PLANNING FOR THE BIG MOVE: As you all know, our SeniorNet Computer Learning Center home in the Phantom Lake Elementary School in Bellevue, will be moving, along with the rest of the school on April 8 to an interim home near the Crossroads Mall.  This will allow for the demolition of the present school, and replacing it with a modern, bigger structure on the same site, and includes the future SeniorNet home also.  So how do we (meaning, of course, our tremendous Facilities Coordinator, Ken Crandall, who keeps the computers operating) prepare and carry out this big moving day?  First, he will need volunteers, and you can send him your good intentions by messaging him at grayfox@foxinternet.net.  Adding to the difficulties, Ken writes, is that classes will be held through the afternoon of April 5th. School Principal Jill McCloud has arranged for SeniorNet's computers, file cabinets and other furniture items to be moved to the new location.

AND THE NEED IS FOR VOLUNTEERS ON APRIL 6TH: Prior to the move, of course, Ken reports:  "We will need to pack everything that is in our cabinets into boxes to be furnished by the school. We will have to prepare the computers for moving, including dismantling the LAN (Local Area Network) wiring the week prior to the move. The computers will be packed in complete units. The packing can best be accomplished on Saturday, April 6th. We will the need help of several volunteers to handle the packing. Smaller valuable items, such as the laptop and projectors, will be moved by our volunteer group, plus lamps, fans and similar items. And after the move, with all items slated to be moved by April 10th, further help will be needed to unpack and set up the computers. I plan to start this final phase on April 11th. We welcome anyone who can help with this moving project."

MONTHLY KAFFEE KLATCH A POPULAR SPOT:  More and more SeniorNet members, and others wanting to learn more about our all-volunteer computer learning center, are attending our informal, laid-back, monthly no-host Kaffee Klatch sessions at the Food Circus at the Crossroads Mall. Held on the first Tuesday of the month, the next gathering is set for Tuesday, Mar. 5th, starting at 11 am.  Just wander down to the bunch of assembled tables and join in. Lots of coffee and food places around. Some 30 computer enthusiasts gathered at the Feb. 5th KK to chat, mostly about computers, and anything else.

THOSE BUSY SENIORNET GRANPALS:  During the past month, our members
volunteered more than 107 hours to help Phantom Lake Elementary School students improve their reading and learning skills, according to Granpals Chair Patricia Herzog. There are some 25 members volunteering as Granpals to spend an hour or so a week with young students. Newest Granpal is Martha Simon, she reported. More help is needed and you can join our Granpals by emailing Pat Herzog at pattyherzog@msn.com.

DO YOU HAVE A WHAT????:  It's called a firewall, and many of you have already heard about this effort to protect your computer against unwelcome visitors, better known as hackers trying to steal information from you.  Ross Roberts, one of our new instructors, will be conducting a series of informal surveys of our readers to find out how many have installed a firewall program, along with other queries each month. This month's question:" Do you have a firewall installed on your computer, or are you thinking of doing so?" Send answers please to: roberts2100@attbi.com.  And some students this past month got a closer look at a firewall program when Facilities Coordinator and instructor Ken Crandall demonstrated to his class recently a free download firewall program, called ZoneAlarm

He described ZoneAlarm as a good, effective firewall, demonstrating via the class projector how it challenges incoming downloads by asking the user to either OK the download or reject it with a click of the cursor. An interesting and informative computer website, Ken said, with lots of information, is http://www.langa.com/current.htm#4. This site also currently includes information on the free download ZoneAlarm. So go check it out. And send Ross a brief message whether you are using or plan to use a firewall program.


HIS SECOND RETIREMENT TRY WORKED:  After a busy working lifetime as an engineer at Boeing, where he worked in every division except Commercial Aircraft until 1995, Dick Thompson, who joined SeniorNet late last year and is now an instructor, decided it was time to retire and pursue his hobbies full-time. That retirement didn't last too long, when he followed his hobby of computer programming and re-entered the work force again as a consultant. Then finally, at the end of 1999, he did retire, but kept up with his many hobbies, which includes wine tasting. Originally from West Virginia, he came to Seattle to work for Boeing in 1962 after receiving Engineering Degrees from Cornell University and the University of Michigan. 

When queried for Newsletter on his background, Dick reported: "My main interests continue to be computers, ballroom dancing, traveling with my wife Diana, woodworking and wine tasting. also study the markets with emphasis on Option trading and stock movements. My volunteer activities have included Eastside Literacy Council, the Bellevue VIBES program and now, SeniorNet."

PIONEER SENIORNET VOLUNTEER WINS NEW HONORS:  A number of years ago, when SeniorNet was in one of its early homes on 116th Ave in Bellevue, Then Secy Molly Brackett was right in the midst of the action working with then Pres. Gene Rauscher. Those were the early days of struggle to even acquire computers, all used of course since there was no money for new, state-of-the-art equipment such as we now have. Both could usually be found at the learning center, which comprised two rooms, virtually every day, answering phones, making sure equipment worked, and teaching schedules were maintained. Molly who is also an avid outdoor person, was recently honored by Volunteers for Outdoor Washington (VOW) as "Outstanding Volunteer." The group works to maintain trails and other recreation resources in the state.

SENIORNET PRESENTS BOOKS TO PHANTOM LAKE STUDENTS Many SeniorNet members attended the special assembly at Phantom Lake School, our host school, Monday morning, Jan. 29 (the day after the BIG snow) when each of 337 students in the school was presented with a copy of  "The Pledge of Allegiance" book. Principal Jill McLeod presided and the books, a gift from SeniorNet, were presented by Pres. Helen Hesketh.  A number of SeniorNet members commented on the outstanding student participation in the patriotic program, which ranged from kindergartners singing the Pledge of Allegiance to a student color guard.  A report on the presentation was given to this month's membership meeting by Publicity Chair Josephine Hugh.

NOT ABOUT COMPUTERS, BUT: Two of our alert members, Jim and Pat Braun have passed along some advice which they said, came from the victim of a pickpocket, who sent it out to them and others. If you lose your purse or wallet with its usual load of credit cards and Ids, whether stolen or not, take firm action immediately. This victim, an attorney, reported in his case the thief or thieves applied for a VISA credit card, had a line of credit approved to buy a computer, received a PIN number etc. To limit the damage, the victim suggests when this happens to you: Cancel your credit card by having beforehand the free phone numbers to call, and your own credit card number, along with information where to call. File a police report.  But most important, immediately call the three national credit reporting organizations to have them place a fraud alert on your name and Social Security number. The three numbers to call are: Equifax:  1-800-525-6285; Experian (formerly TRW): 1-888-397-3742; Trans Union:  1-800-680-7289; Social Security Administration fraud line: 1-800-269-0271.

THAT WONDERFUL TIME WHEN-It's not that computers are like automobiles with annual auto shows and annual changeovers to induce people to buy new cars. It's the other more important changes when new models come out with big jumps in hard drive space, in higher-processing speed, with more memory for faster processing, newer programs and when the old friendly computers just can't cut it any more. This can be remedied either by getting a new computer or upgrading the insides, which many do. Take the case of our own very long-time member, Harry Sully. Sure, like most of us, he has gone through a number of computers, and always upwards.

This came to a head when his son-in-law one day solemnly informed Harry it was that time. So now Harry is getting a huge new hard drive, more memory and a CD-RW drive. The latter replacement drive will permit Harry to use the 750-megabytes RW disks for storage of files, pictures and whatever, and making copies of disks. Plus, going all the way, Harry bought a scanner which can copy photos to disks to build home photo libraries, or copy data into the computer. As this was going to online press, he was planning how to get one of our SeniorNet experts to help him install the upgrades.

COMPUTER TIPS: YOU WANT TO CREATE A DATABASE?? A well-done article on creating a database which can include any kind of information you desire, even a directory of your mailing list with lots of details, is available on this excellent web site, About, with Database Guide Mike Chapple. This writer, who learned database years ago from Bob Swenson in a SeniorNet class, checked out this download and it looks interesting for beginners and those curious to just see what a database is all about. Mike provides a powerful primer and takes you through the process of creating a simple database with Microsoft Access. Just click on the following URL:  http://databases.about.com/library/weekly/aa120300a.htm

GROUP HEALTH ONLINE FOR MEMBERS: Since on the law of averages, many SeniorNet members belong to the Group Health Cooperative, particularly those using the East Side facility in Redmond, the good news is you now can get prescription refills online, and have them mailed to you. You can also-via your computer-- set up appointments to see your doctor, plus access to other services. And very important, if you need immediate medical information, you can contact the Consulting Nurse.  To access the basic suite of online services, go to: http://www.ghc.org/ Click on in the upper left-hand corner, "New to MyGrouphealth?  Register now" Then follow registration instructions, including entering your GH number, and click "Submit."

COMPUTER TIPS: From About online newsletter, edited by Abram Piltch: "Don't Go Breaking My Start " Tired of visiting the same site every time you open your browser? Net for Beginners Guide Charlyn Keating Chisholm explains how to change your start page in all of the major browsers.
http://netforbeginners.about.com/library/weekly/aa011402a.htm

CAUTION NOTE: While all computer-operating tips come from usually reliable sources, readers are reminded they use them at your own risk. AGAIN, IN CASE you have friends who are online, and may be interested in taking classes to expand their skills, 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 personal news items sent to the editor at b26flyer@attbi.com. If you wish to receive this newsletter monthly, send your full name, phone and email address to the above email address. And if you wish to unsubscribe, just send a message to same email address.

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Pres.> Helen Hesketh; Vice Pres.>Bill Bumpas; Secy>David Lewis; Treas.>Bob Swenson; Registrar>Louise Flora; Immediate Past Pres.>Clif Wuesthoff; Curriculum Coordinator> John Wise; Facilities Coordinator> Ken Crandall; Member-at-Large>Delores Davis; Volunteers Coordinator> Delores Davis; Publicity Chair>Josephine Hugh; Public Relations, Online Newsletter Editor> Phil   Scheier
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