SUMMER FUN AT SENIORNET'S  BROWN BAG PICNIC

THURS. AUG. 19, WITH PRIZES, DEMOS, WORKSHOPS

 

By Adella Granger

SeniorNet President

Our great annual social highlight of the summer, the SeniorNet Annual Brown Bag Luncheon is all set for Thursday morning Aug. 19^th. starting 11am in the covered outdoor area  at the Phantom Lake Elementary School, Bellevue. This year's gala features exciting Computer Workshop Demonstrations in our adjacent spacious classroom. There will also be question-and-answer sessions, an overview of fall courses, a SeniorNet history display, door prizes and lots of fun, continuing to 3:30 pm, or until exhaustion. Whichever comes first.

 

We invite you to visit with our skilled Instructors and Class Room Assistants, and meet with other members and SeniorNet volunteers.  This will also be your opportunity to see our classroom with its 18 new DELL computers, and the giant wall-sized projection screen for easy learning.  We know you will really be impressed with how attractive and comfortable the changes that have been made to our great classroom. 

 

This sparkling event is a great opportunity for current students, especially visitors etc., to learn more about the services this all-volunteer, non-profit organization provide, and enjoy each other's company in a relaxed atmosphere outside the classroom. 

 

We encourage you to bring your friends who may be interested in SeniorNet classes.  Bring a brown bag lunch for you and your guests, and also bring your favorite non-refrigerated dessert to share with others.   The dessert table is always fabulous!  (soft drinks will be provided) 

 

FREE WORKSHOPS ON ALMOST EVERY COMPUTER SUBJECT WILL HIGHLIGHT THE BROWN BAG GALA

 

Curriculum Director John Wise announces the following free workshops will be presented by our skilled Instructors to highlight a few of the many computer skills available to those wishing to expand their expertise and advance to new programs.

 

DIGITAL VIDEO EDITING

Hal Mozer

 

A quick demonstration of editing your digital home movies. There will not be time enough to go though the entire process but samples will be demonstrated to give you a feel for what happens. Come see how you can become a home movie producer

 

 

NOW THAT YOU'VE GOT YOUR DIGITAL CAMERA

Laura Wise

 

What to do with all of those pictures that you are now taking. A discussion of how to organize your pictures and then share them with family and friends.

 

 

BASIC PC HARDWARE

Joe Pontecorvo

 

Do you wonder what the various parts and pieces of you home computer are? Come listen to a discussion of what the parts are and what they are doing for you.

 

 

A SHORT HISTORY OF THE INTERNET

Bob Balsley

 

Have you ever wondered how the Internet happened? Who had the wonderful ideas that let us communicate around the globe? Who owns the Internet? How does email-mail work? Bob has searched for the answers and will share them with you.

 

 

DEMONSTRATING THE PAINT PROGRAM IN WINDOWS

Patty Nelson

 

Most of us forget that there is an easy to use drawing program that comes with Windows. Patty will demonstrate how to use this very effective little program to enhance your preparation of various types of projects.

 

 

WHAT IS THIS USB STUFF?

John Wise

 

Or How We Are Connecting All Of Our New Hardware. This is a low-tech discussion of how to use the USB ports found on almost all of our computers. Some of the exotic uses of this connection will be shown along with a demonstration of the ubiquitous USB jump drives being used for transferring memory storage. A raffle for a USB type devise will be held at the end of the session.

 

The SeniorNet Officers, Instructors and Assistants invite you to attend this great event.  What a wonderful way to end summer and begin a Fall full of computer fun. 

 

 

MORE SENIORS FLOCK TO COMPUTERS;

RECORD REGISTRATION FOR CLASSES

 

Highlighting  the growing interest by seniors in not only learning computer basics, but in mastering a large variety of programs, SeniorNet's July 15^th registration at the Crossroads Bellevue Mall set a record by signing up more than 100 eager students to fill 80 percent of class slots  in the two-hour registration from 10 am-Noon.

 

Registrar Louise Flora hailed the results of the heavy turnout. "More than 100 very interested seniors lined up to register for the large listing of classes beginning in the Fall 2004 period. Never before has SeniorNet of Puget Sound filled 300 available class slots out of the 399 being offered in that short time period." She said. Classes for the Fall 2004 session  range from using the latest Windows XP operating system, to online travel planning, photo editing, financial record keeping among many others.

 

Flora praised the large turnout of volunteers aiding that busy morning. "Tables were set up, workers were in their assigned places by 10 am when registration started. By the end of the two hours, the many advisors, registrars, final check and cashiers had done a tremendous job."

 

And because of the many seeking to enroll, some found preferred classes already filled by those arriving earlier. "Unfortunately, many people did not get the classes they wanted, and were placed on the waiting lists." she said. "The Fall session is short by a couple of months, so those who did not get into the class of their choice, will perhaps have better luck in the Winter/Spring 2005 classes. In-person registration for those classes will be held Dec. 9^th. So mark your calendars now."

 

Flora reported the most popular courses included "Burning CDs, Scanning  and the always popular Photo Editing class. Most of the Basic Basics, Introduction to Windows XP and Using Windows XP classes are now full. There are still openings in the Travel Planning, AOL, Excel and Quicken classes. For those who did not get into a class, we encourage you to attend the free lab sessions. These are scheduled every second, fourth and fifth Tuesday of the month, from 9:30 am to Noon. No need to sign up. Just come! Instructors work one-on-one with students, with these free labs always heavily attended."

 

AND DID YOU KNOW??

THAT one of the early, very early SeniorNet pioneers here, H.L. Ernest of Issaquah, better known as Ernie, has completed the first draft of his extensive history of an early SeniorNet project, which taught seniors how to operate Macintosh computers. SeniorNet primarily focuses only on IBM-type, or PC computers, the predominant system in use.  For several years the local PC group also worked with those seniors who preferred the Macintosh computers. Prior to his retirement, he was in engineering management at Boeing. Recalls Ernie: "I had signed on to PC computer classes using Microsoft Operating System. The programs used Microsoft Works Application Software, in the Bellevue, WA, SeniorNet Site located on 116^th Ave., NE in the 1989 - 1990 time frame. Since I was a Macintosh user, I needed the help of the student next to me, Robert (Bob) Jensen, for aid in starting up and shutting down the computer. Bob also gave me some interesting news: that an additional site was being set up for Mac users at the Forest Ridge School in the Somerset area of Bellevue, in conjunction with the original SeniorNet.

"I subsequently transferred to the Forest Ridge Site with Janet Graeber, a faculty member there, who also was the site coordinator and instructor," Ernie noted. "She had recently moved to the Puget Sound area because her husband had joined the Boeing Commercial Airplane Co. Janet had been directly associated with the founder of the national SeniorNet organization, Mary Furlong, at the University of San Francisco. Furlong was working on her PhD and was Janet's mentor. It was Janet who approached SeniorNet here to coordinate the programs." Some years later, a school policy change included PC computers, with the lab absorbed into the general student education program.

 

That Ross and Sandra Roberts this past month hosted at their Issaquah home some of the 2,500 members of the National Model Railroad Association (NMRA) from all over the world who were meeting in Seattle. Ross, a SeniorNet instructor, is a retired Air Force Academy graduate, with many years of flying on various missions as the navigator on the giant globe-girdling C-130 plane. He is now also the operator of his own extensive dual-level model railroad system taking up an entire room of his home. Ross and Sandra welcomed 165 model enthusiasts, with Sandra providing refreshments as buses loaded with visitors rumbled up to their home. One night, when they expected 70 visitors, more than 90 arrived.  To make it really official, Ross donned his RR engineer's cap to demonstrate his extensive system.

 

That another Air Force veteran, Bob Balsley who is in charge of distributing online our monthly online newsletter, in his younger days was the pilot/aircraft commander of an Air Force C124 Globe-Master.  This is the very large four- engine transport which he flew worldwide from 1962 to 1966 as a reserve officer. He was stationed in Dover Delaware from 1961 - 1964, and then stationed  at McChord in Tacoma from 1965 - 1966. Balsley also teaches Windows XP. Recalls Bob: "I flew regular runs from the American East Coast to various areas in Europe until the start of the Viet Nam war.  We then started flying  from Dover to Calif. empty, loading up there with supplies, and then flying  to Hawaii, Wake Island and the Philippines. Lots of water underneath. From Clark AB in the Philippines, we flew regularly to Saigon and back. A very grim time, with cargo for the troops going in, and bodies coming out. They moved our squadron to McChord in 1965 to reduce the distance that we flew empty. I was a reserve officer, and flew until June of 1966."   This was followed by a 30-year career as a systems engineer with IBM, with special expertise in databases.

 

KEYBOARD TIPS TO SPEED YOUR WORK:

(Note: To format text, you must first highlight/select text)

• Control + Esc: Displays the Start menu.
• Control + Z: Undoes last command.
• Control + B: Bolds highlighted text.
• Control + U: Underlines highlighted text.
• Control + I: Italicizes highlighted text.
• Control + A: Selects all items in current window.
• Control + Tab: Moves through Property tabs.
• Control + F: Opens the Find window. Type in what you are searching for.
• Control + F4: Closes current window in multiple document interface (MDI)                           programs such as MS Word and Excel.

 

UPGRADING TO WINDOWS XP? SOME TIPS! 

 

Don't discard your old hardware when you upgrade to Windows XP, cautions our Hal Mozer.

"Often your old hardware, especially printers and scanners, will not work properly or may not work at all when you upgrade to Windows XP. Even when you buy a new computer with Windows XP and try to use your existing devices.

 

"Don't despair," Mozer cautions. "There may be -but not always--a solution. The first thing is to try the Internet, and go to the device vendor's web site. For example, http://www.hp.com/ or http://www.epson.com/ or http://www.canon.com/  Look, in an area usually called Support and see if there is a new driver you can download to use your device with Windows XP. You will need to know the type and model number of your device, for example, Epson Perfection 1200U or HP Deskjet 990Cse. Download the new driver and be sure to save it in a properly-named folder you can find again. Follow instructions for installing the new software. You may find your old hardware is still fully usable. Even if your device appears to be working OK with Windows XP, it is still a good idea to look for and install the latest drivers for all of your hardware devices."

 

INTERESTED IN STOCKS? USE THE INTERNET

 

How's my stock doing?

How can I research buy possibilities?

How do stock analysts rate this company?

How can I learn how to study and pick promising stocks?

Investors, and those wanting to learn more about stock market research, can find most of the answers online through many highly-regarded free websites.

 

As an example, you can get the latest numbers on an existing stock, you can check out the news, commentaries, and financial resources available at this site, which is touted by Smart Computing as the "leading guide to investing on the Web." The site features a free weekly newsletter, charts and quotes, and an answer center that covers topics such as international investing, retirement, and spending and saving.  Perhaps its most noteworthy feature is the extensive listing of other website reviews, including live links, with an emphasis on sites that are free. You can check it out at:

http://www.investorguide.com/

 

COMING NEXT MONTH:

Joe Pontecorvo warns on this 'Phishers' stuff

Phil Scheier and his 'Autotext' adventure

What really happened at the 'Brown Bag?'

 

CAUTION NOTE: While all computer-operating tips come from usually reliable sources, readers are reminded you 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 senior@seniornetps.org. To receive this free newsletter monthly, or to update your email address, email your full name, phone and email address to the above email address.

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President: Adella Granger; Vice President: Delores Davis; Treasurer: Joe Hesketh; Secretary: Martha Simon;  Registrar: Louise Flora; Immediate Past President: Helen Hesketh; Curriculum Coordinator: John Wise;  Facilities Coordinator: Ken Crandall;  Member-at-Large: Gordon Young ; Granpals Coordinator: Nancy Harsh; Catalogue Editors: Clair & Jo Hugh; Circulation Director: Bob Balsley; Online Newsletter Editor: Phil Scheier
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