Where skilled volunteer seniors teach seniors to use, enjoy computers
Sept. 1, 2004, Vol. 5; Issue #9; Mail: PMB 705, 15600 NE 8th, Suite B-1, Bellevue, WA 98008-3958
Voice Mail: 206-232-5892; Email: senior@seniornetps.org;
Classroom: Phantom Lake Elementary School, Bellevue
For detailed Information, Class Schedules: http://www.seniornetps.org/
By Phil Scheier, Editor
ANNUAL BROWN BAG GALA HAD EVERYTHING:
LUNCH, CLASSES ATTRACT RECORD TURNOUT
By Adella Granger
SeniorNet President
Reflecting the continuing growth and activities of our all-volunteer SeniorNet Computer Learning Center-- seniors teaching seniors how to operate computers-this year's annual Brown Bag gala lunch and workshops Aug. 19th, attracted a record attendance.
This followed a similar outstanding July 15th registration for Fall classes as more and more seniors are making the decision to learn computers, allowing them to easily reach out-and be reached-by friends and family members worldwide, among other activities.
Backdrop for the Brown Bag gala was the new Phantom Lake Elementary School, Bellevue, which hosts our large, modern classroom with its impressive array of 18 new Dell computers-one per student-- projectors, wall screen and other teaching aids.
The Brown Bag this year was an introduction to our new DELL Computer classroom.
Last spring, Jill McLeod, the Principal of the Phantom Lake Elementary School, was conducting a tour of the new school for the Texas DELL-based contingent. They were so impressed with our program they equipped our classroom with 18 new computers.
The attendance this year of some 130 computer enthusiasts, included many people new to SeniorNet. We also had many new students who had joined and signed up at the Bellevue Crossroads Registration in July. Needless to say, they were impressed with our widely- hailed training program, "Seniors teaching Seniors to use computers".
Our Grand Prize winners this year were Janet Nelson and Jack Kruger. They both won a one year Free Membership to SeniorNet and a free class of their choice. Sandy Arildson won a free class, and the gift basket drawings were won by Gladys Arneson and Betty Block.
We had prizes for all attendees this year, due to the exceptional work by our Brown Bag Committee. Special thanks go to Chairperson and coordinator, Gloria Hennings, and committee members Donna Holcombe, Shirley Foucht, Patty Herzog and Sandy Arilson.
The contributions by our many members and local computer companies, was very impressive.
Each year we have a Grab Bag Table that was started as part of this event many years ago by Marge Langley. The contribution entitles each person to a Brown Bag that contains special items that were donated by various friends and organizations. "The Marge Langley Phantom Lake School Lunch Fund" raised $215 this year. The funds will be given to the school for its lunch program that will assist in providing lunches for children who are unable to bring or purchase a lunch. When Marge arrived she received a standing ovation and was congratulated for her work in starting this great program.
There were five workshops this year, two held in the SeniorNet classroom, and three in the Library on the second floor of the school. The Instructors were Laura Wise "Now That You've Got Your Digital Camera", Hal Mozer "Digital Video Editing", Bob Balsley " A Short History Of The Internet", Patty Nelson "Demonstrating the Paint Program In Window", and John Wise "What Is This USB Stuff?" We are all looking forward to a very successful year in the new classroom, and the continuing computer programs that we are so very proud to present.
MARK YOUR CALENDAR!! Come on down and enjoy.
All events at the Crossroads Bellevue Mall, 156th Ave. NE, and Main St., Bellevue.
No-host Kaffee Klatch Tuesday, Sept. 7th at 11:30 am, Food Circus area.
Membership meeting, Tuesday, Sept. 21st, at 10 am, Community Room, then, Kaffee Klatch.
MAIL-IN REGISTRATIONS FOR CLASSES STILL ARRIVING;
SIGN ON VIA EASY WEB SITE FOR AVAILABLE VACANCIES
Registration for Fall SeniorNet classes continues with mail-in registration to fill the remaining classes, Registrar Louise Flora has reported. "Space is still available in Word Processing Classes, AOL and Beyond, Managing your Finances with Quicken, Greeting Cards and Travel Planning."
Signing up online for still available courses is easy, Flora said. "Just complete a registration form, you can download the form from our easy-to-use web site at www.seniornetps.org, send in your check to the SeniorNet address and you will be set to learn. There are still opportunities to volunteer as an assistant to the instructors in all classes. This is a great way to learn yourself as well as help others in their road to learning. For information about volunteering, just send an email to senior@scrn.org."
WARNING ON NEW SCAM ISSUED TO ALL COMPUTER USERS;
BE WARY OF ONLINE "PHISHERS" STEALING PERSONAL INFO!
A warning has been issued to all computer users by Joe Pontecorvo against being fooled in giving out, online, personal financial and other data to what appears to be a well-known online company. Too often, he stresses, it may be criminal "phishers" who have hijacked the firm's logo to get your valuable bank account, credit card numbers, passwords etc.
The scam can empty your bank account, and load up your credit card. Here's how it works:
"In a phishing attack," Pontecorvo cautions, " a criminal pretends to work for a company you trust -- usually your Internet service provider or financial institution. The criminal gives the impression an immediate answer is required. He frantically contacts you via email or instant message to tell you that your account information is out of date or that there has been some fraudulent activity on your account. The criminal directs you to click on a hyperlink that takes you to what looks like a real corporate website where you are asked to verify your account information. Don't ever give out any personal info when you are approached online. This includes your Social Security number, bank account number, password, mom's maiden name etc. Bonafide businesses will use paper mail when they seek information from you as a client. And you can call the bank or whatever, to make sure the request comes from them.
" The website you are pointed at may look like a genuine PayPal's or eBay's or Citibank's (or any other company's for that matter), but it probably isn't," Pontecorvo says. "It's actually a fake website set up on a server the criminal has pirated. And when you 'verify' your account information, all you are doing is giving the criminal your username ... and password ...and social security number ... and mother's maiden name ... and sometimes even credit card number and expiration date."
Pontecorvo stresses the following crucial steps to protect yourself against these criminal schemes:
"1. If you have an account with a company, don't trust anything you read in account-related email allegedly from that company. If there really is a problem with your account, the real company will contact you via snail mail [a.k.a. postal mail hand delivered by your postal carrier.]
"2. Never click on a hyperlink in an email from a company with whom you have an account, regardless of how legitimate the email or hyperlink might appear. If you need to visit the company's website, close your email program, ignore everything you read in that email [including any web page addresses you may have seen], open your web browser, and manually key in the regular web page address for the company's *homepage*. Then login to your account with that company like you normally would. If there is a problem with your account, the company's website will tell you once you login.
"Practice these rules and you'll be well on your way to being safe. You might also want to look at these two websites which also include facts on the latest schemes," Pontecorvo urged.
http://www.antiphishing.org/ and http://www.antiphishing.org/phishing_archive.html
And another excellent web site on phishishing, below, was
sent in by Harry Shedd.
http://www.securityfocus.com/news/9235
Above all, never, never give out confidential information, Social Security numbers, credit card numbers etc when you are solicited online. It may be a phishing scam. So check and double-check. Protect your personal information and your personal identification. Lesson over.
AVOID NEEDLESS WORK? USE WORD'S AUTOTEXT
TO AUTOMATICALLY TYPE OUT REPETITIVE STUFF
Tired of wearily typing out those long repetitive phrases, boiler plate editorial matter, lengthy names, time and time again, when creating a Microsoft Word document? In most cases, you can, via easy-to-use AutoText, create a trigger tag of a few letters, which will, by hitting Enter, produce in a flash the entire words, names, phrases etc.
Your editor, who works so very hard to avoid hard work, especially at the keyboard, found this shortcut in his Word 2002 manual. Earlier Word versions should be checked. Let's learn how to easily type out, as an example, our group's full name, SeniorNet Computer Learning Center, by just typing, in this case, just four letters: Seni, and then hitting the space bar, or Enter. Bingo. The full name immediately flashes on the monitor. Saves wear and tear on our sensitive fingers. (How lazy can you get?) First, open your Microsoft Word program to a new page to check it out.
1. Type out the full name, SeniorNet Computer Learning Center. Highlight the full name you want to fully and automatically appear by just typing four letters. Seni, or any other letters you fancy.
2. Now, click on the Menu Bar (Top of page), click Insert, and as the sub-menu drops down, click AutoText, and then click on New.
3. A dialogue box, named Create AutoText, will appear, with the selected phrase highlighted, in this case, SeniorNet Computer Learning Center.
4. Type in right over the highlighted name, as I did, the four trigger letters, seni (reminder: write them down immediately on paper to remember), and click OK. Of course you may use
any letters you wish to activate the name.
5. Now we check to see if it works. With Word still open, type in your selected trigger letters, in this case, seni, and hit Enter. The full name, SeniorNet Computer Learning Center should appear automatically. If it doesn't, repeat the entire procedure slowly and carefully. And of course you can AutoText many, many other frequently typed words, names or expressions. Oh yes, as you type out the AutoText trigger letters, a small balloon will appear, telling you to hit the Enter key. Do it!
WIN XP USERS: GET YOUR FREE SECURITY UPDATE:
Important reminder! As we go to press, Microsoft is scheduled to release the long-awaited free Windows XP Service Pack 2, designed for better Win XP security. For download information, click on the below URL, or copy and paste into your Internet Explorer"
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/default.aspx
INTERNET EXPLORER COMPUTING TIPS:
From the always interesting About site, a quick link to lots of handy Microsoft Internet Explorer how-to articles to help you learn more about using the many features in the program:
MEMBER ASKS TECH HELP: Our Granpal Director Nancy Harsh, nbharsh@msn.com, is looking for someone who is able to scan a document that can then be edited. She writes: "I am compiling a disc of slides I took in Europe in 1956 and my father, bless his heart, typed out my letters I sent home and forwarded them to relatives. Unfortunately his typewriter was not the best and many words came out wrong when I scanned them. I do not want to change the text, just clarify the text so each letter isn't signed off with, 'Love, Hancy.' " Nancy (not Hancy) can be reached at her email above.
OUR LEADER BACK AT THE HELM: Following her recent eye surgery, Pres. Adella Granger was quickly back up to executive speed and able to preside in her jaunty fashion at our Aug. 17th monthly Membership Meeting at the Crossroads Bellevue Mall. And also presiding a few days later at our annual Aug. 19th Brown Bag social that drew a record attendance at the Phantom Lake Elementary School, with the various lab classes jammed. After a healing period, she said, she faces some follow-up work. Currently she is wearing sun glasses but denies she has to shoo away those pesky autograph seekers.
AND-- DID YOU KNOW???
THAT when Bob Swenson, our former long-time treasurer, retired as a bank analyst in 1989 with the State Division of Banking, he knew he wanted to continue his active life style, and began looking around. It didn't take too long. He read a short article in The Seattle Times business section. It reported that a Seattle investment counselor, Jiggs Clark, was organizing an all-volunteer, non-profit computer training class in Bellevue for active seniors. The group was being formed under the guidance of a newly-formed national SeniorNet group in San Francisco.
A noted ophthalmologist with offices in Bellevue, Dr. David J. McIntyre, offered the new group the free use of some vacant office space in his building for a few computers and some rudimentary programs.
Swenson, himself one of those very, very early SeniorNet volunteers, recalls, "And the great experiment was launched. We were the fifth chapter of SeniorNet nationwide, which targeted senior citizens who also were assumed to have the greatest need for proper eye care. Several stalwarts volunteered as instructors to bridge the cavern of absolute computer literacy There we were, huddled around a few older model computers, three per machine, waiting our turn to touch the keyboard. Among our early instructors were Bill Urich, a retired FAA traffic controller, and Dr. E. A. Brown, a space scientist from Boeing. Both were patient but the machines often were not. As our clientele and reputation grew so did the desperate need for instructors and I was drafted to teach/lecture a Data Base course.
"After a few years of traumatic growth and eventual reorganization, SeniorNet Puget Sound Chapter evolved and relocated to the Phantom Lake Elementary School in Bellevue, largely due to the persistent efforts of a few faithful believers including the extraordinary efforts of then Pres. Lyle Hernandez." Swenson was named treasurer when the group's first treasurer, the beloved Tanya Wilbanks, passed away. He credits Wilbanks with mastering the Quickbooks software program, making possible SeniorNet's first formal annual audit, with Swenson chairing the audit committee.
"Under the watchful eye of Immediate Past Pres. Helen Hesketh," Swenson notes, "during the past six years, we have assembled a talented and diverse group of instructors, offer a broad and responsive variety of computer courses and issue a semi-annual professional catalog of computer classes. With the acquisition of new Dell computers, and the beautiful classroom facilities provided for us by Phantom Lake School Principal Jill McLeod, our new SeniorNet Computer Learning Center is ready for the new Millennium." Swenson is a WW11 Air Force veteran with service in the troop carrier groups in the advance into Germany. He also later served as a navigator on those famed C-47s flying jerry cans of desperately-needed gasoline to the fast-moving Gen. Patton who had advanced far ahead of his ground supply system.
THAT one of our very busy members and Granpal volunteer got his first flying license way back before he even got his driver's learning permit? We're talking about Chuck Flora, the other half of the very active SeniorNet team of Registrar Louise and Chuck. A long-time Granpal here, Chuck also is involved with the prestigious Museum of Flight (MOF) here where he was a docent following his retirement from Boeing in 1987.
As an MOF Docent guiding visitors and describing the planes, Flora extended his interest in aviation. As a youngster in Upstate New York he watched as his father taught flying to other eager would-be pilots, and he too became a student. At age 18 he won his wings. He didn't have a driver’s license until several years later. "So it was natural," he recalls, "that I pursue my education as an Aeronautical Engineer at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, New York." After earning his Bachelor and Master's Degree in 1951, Flora joined Boeing's B52 program here. He continued flying and currently is a tow pilot, glider pilot and instructor for both the Boeing Soaring and Evergreen Soaring Clubs. He is a part owner of a Cessna Cardinal based at Boeing Field.
After 35 years with Boeing, Flora retired and joined the small group of Docents at the Museum of Flight. After several years, he decided to move on to other activities. However, earlier this year, he again was drawn to the Museum and began its four months of required training. He is again volunteering to work in the newly-opened Personal Courage Wing - a collection of World War I and World War 11 fighter planes. And he is happy to talk to anybody, anytime about anything that will fly. As a Granpal at Phantom Lake, and with his scientific background, Flora works with 5th graders in-naturally-- Science and Math. Chuck and Louise Flora have three grown children and seven grandchildren.
THAT one of the busiest SeniorNet volunteers around is Jo Ann Tuttle with her many talks at schools and groups to warn students, and older audiences, against the dangers of smoking by citing her own grim experiences which required drastic surgery. The throat surgery left her without her normal ability to speak. For the past years, she can only speak by pressing a special microphone against her throat. In addition to these activities, Joan is also a volunteer at Group Health Central in Seattle, where she worked for some 20 years as a nurse and member of specialized care teams, including the Intensive Care Unit. Her GH volunteer work includes taking patients in wheelchairs to various areas, give directions to people visiting GHC. She speaks using an "electrolarynx,' which is a battery operated device that vibrates and allows her to form the words. Jo Ann just recently returned from the Annual International Convention of Laryngectomees in Anaheim, CA, where she stayed with family.
THAT Anna Littlewood, a SeniorNet member and volunteer was among three Bellevue residents honored by the Bellevue Botanical Garden Society for their contributions to education programs and enhancement projects. They each received the Trillium Award for outstanding volunteer service. Anna was at the sign-in desk, with Vice Pres. Delores Davis, at the Aug. 19th Brown Bag gala at the Phantom Lake Elementary School in Bellevue, which hosts our modern classroom.
COMING NEXT MONTH:
John Wise and the NASDAQ stock market projects he once headed
Hal Mozer describes his famed SeniorNet website operation.
Bob Balsley on the technique of sending out our online newsletter
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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 brief
personal news items sent to the editor at b26flyer@comcast.net. If you wish to receive this
free monthly newsletter, update your email address or unsubscribe, rush your
full name, phone and email address to pugetsnet6@qwest.net.
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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: Bob Balsley; Online
Newsletter Editor: Phil Scheier
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