Secure your wireless network

from Kim Kommando's newsletter...

A few folks have wireless networks for their computers in the park. We talked about this with them at the computers club meeting yesterday. If you have or get one you need to make it secure from intrusion by outside users. Here is a link that will help you do that.

Kim's advice

Here is a fun idea for you relatives and residents...

rt

If you have a scanner this will really work cool. Scan your wedding picture when you were a young dude or dudette and email it to me a few days before your anniversary. Tell me the date you were married and we will put the picture on with an aniversary greeting. We will all enjoy seeing those pixs.

BIRTHDAYS.. birthdays.. we got'em

RT

We added some more birthdays to the calendar. If your month has already come and gone you have to look at the 2006 calendar to see if yours is there. If it is not and you would like it there email me and I will get it on for you. Most of them are on for the next 3 years.

Want to know a friend's birthdate? Just look at the calendar. I use these dates to make the birthday cards that you see on the web page. One thing that would be a nice tradition to start is if you see a person who you know is having a birthday on the web page... Take the opportunity to wish them well in the comments.

Email me at
teckron@hotmail.com

NEW ITEM ON THE ELECTRONIC BULLETIN BOARD..
CHECK IT OUT

About the Project - The Genographic Project

About the Project - The Genographic Project: "The National Geographic Society, IBM, geneticist Spencer Wells, and the Waitt Family Foundation have launched the Genographic Project, a five-year effort to understand the human journey—where we came from and how we got to where we live today. This unprecedented effort will map humanity's genetic journey through the ages."

TOOLS: West Nile Watch -- 308 (5729): 1721b -- Science

TOOLS: West Nile Watch -- 308 (5729): 1721b -- Science: "NetWatch
Because of wet weather this year, some western states are expecting a surge in infections from the West Nile virus. The mosquito-borne disease, which first struck the United States in 1999, sickened more than 2400 people across the nation last year, killing 88."

Virtual Fossil Museum Fossils Across Geological Time and Evolution

Virtual Fossil Museum Fossils Across Geological Time and Evolution: "The Virtual
Fossil Museum
Fossils Across Geological Time and Evolution"

BBC NEWS | Technology | 'Teleporting' over the internet

BBC NEWS | Technology | 'Teleporting' over the internet: "Teleporting' over the internet
Animator Nick Park with claymation model of Wallace, from Wallace And Gromit
Dr Mowry was inspired by Aardman Animation's Wallace And Gromit
Computer scientists in the US are developing a system which would allow people to 'teleport' a solid 3D recreation of themselves over the internet.

Professors Todd Mowry and Seth Goldstein of Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania think that, within a human generation, we might be able to replicate three-dimensional objects out of a mass of material made up of small synthetic 'atoms'."

Two aftershocks rattle California

Two aftershocks rattle California: "two aftershocks rattle California

Chuck Squatriglia, Chronicle Staff Writer

Friday, June 17, 2005

Two aftershocks followed a magnitude 6.6 earthquake that erupted deep below the sea off the Northern California coastline late Thursday night but was felt as far away as San Francisco, the fourth major temblor to rock the state since Sunday."

the new Airline Security...

sent in by Karen Juners and Dan Zini of Apple Valley, CA......

click here have your speakers turned up!

Internet Explorer

Jim Dodds via email:

Are you still using Internet Explorer to surf the friendly skies of the internet??

If you answered "Yes", there is a critical update you need to install !!

Are you still using Windoz to run your user friendly computer??

If you answered "Yes", there are critical updates you need to install !!

User friendly instructions;

Click "Start" at the bottom left of your monitor screen and navigate to:

Windows Update

Simply click and follow the instructions to secure, lol, your computer.

A note on the "Mytob Worm":

When a new virus, trojan or worm is born unto the world, it is given a name. The next "clone" or mutation of this given the name followed by an "A" the next a "B" and so on to "Z". When it goes beyond "Z" it starts over as "AA" then "AB" on so on. Well the Mytob worm reached a mutation level of "FA" today, long surpassing the Guiness Record of a mutation "EC". Think these kids will ever find a new toy to play with???

Total Virii, worms and trojans discovered since 1-1-2005 is 42,863, sleep well tonight and enable your Firewall.

From Blaine Kalar to Jim Rose to me

via email
This is really interesting!! Be sure to mark your calendar, and forward to your friends and family.



The Red Planet is about to be spectacular!

This month and next, Earth is catching up with Mars

in an encounter that will culminate in the closest
approach between the two planets in recorded history.

The next time Mars may come this close is in

2287. Due to the way Jupiter's gravity tugs on Mars

and perturbs its orbit, astronomers can only be certain

that Mars has not come this close to Earth in the last

5,000 years, but it may be as long as 60,000 years

before it happens again.
The encounter will culminate on August 27th

when Mars comes to within 34,649,589 miles of Earth

and will be (next to the moon) the brightest object in the

night sky. It will attain a magnitude of -2.9 and will appear
25.11 arc seconds wide. At a modest 75-power magnification
Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye.

Mars will be easy to spot. At the beginning of August it will

rise in the east at 10pm. and reach its azimuth at about 3 a.m.
By the end of August when the two planets are closest,

Mars will rise at nightfall and reach its highest point in the sky at 12:30a.m.

That's pretty convenient to see something that no human being

has seen in recorded history.

So, mark your calendar at the beginning of August to see

Mars grow progressively brighter and brighter throughout the month.
Share this with your children and grandchildren.

NO ONE ALIVE TODAY WILL EVER SEE THIS AGAIN

Thoughts on Keeping up with Technology...

rt


Thinking about the number of old computers and operating systems in the park. I wonder what would have happened if we resisted the change to computer entertainment and said TV is good enough. I imagine our grandparents saying that TV was to expensive and not worth the effort and they would stick with radio. In this age of techno wonder have we become our grandparents? Are our children shaking their heads just as we scoffed at our grandparents?

You think you can't get it.. It's just beyond you.. Poop! Our generation is one of the best educated that America has ever had. More people received educations under the GI bill than ever before. This is what led to the technological revolution... it was us!! Those youngsters are just riding the crest of the wave we created. Look at the TV ... the Tonight show.. Ever see the average ordinary people Jay Lento interviews on the street and hear the simple questions he asks them? Well if you don't stay up that late you would be amazed at the answers from today's youth. Folks, not only do you have the savy to master computers but you have something else that is missing in great quantities from today's youngsters.... common sense.

I can't beleive that you won't tackle this like all of the challenges you have had in life. Come on... upgrade your computer and software and get in a class you can understand. There is so much more you can do to enhance your golden years by using a computer. And it is not hard. What is hard is breaking down the notion that it is hard. Algebra, geometry, trigonometry, calculus, physics, chemistry, biology, history, languages... That was all extremely hard compared to a computer... In fact the computer is more like Dick and Jane run than any of those other subjects. Working, raising a family ...now that's hard. I think if you will remember how hard it was to learn to drive and how happy you were when you got your driver's liscense... That is about the same as learning a computer. But you will remember you did not learn to drive by reading books alone. You had time driving with a teacher or other driver and then you were a learner and drove for a time until you mastered your automobile. Same with the computer. Only you have been going at it backwards ...Your trying to drive before you know anything about shifting gears and steering... You're pushing the accelerator without knowing how to put on the brakes.

Come on to the computer club meetings talk about what you would like to learn... Someone knows how... Find a teacher you can learn from and upgrade that computer...

Ron and Jacky Thomas

Now in Our 44th year

From June 18th, 1961....

Helen Williams
June 20th

Medicare Modernization Act - Prescription Drug Benefit / Medicare Advantage Programs

Medicare Modernization Act - Prescription Drug Benefit / Medicare Advantage Programs: "Prescription Drug Benefit / Medicare Advantage Programs

Please use the links at the right to browse the available materials.
A Call to Action from CMS Administrator Mark McClellan, MD, PhD

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is in the process of implementing the Medicare prescription drug coverage. All Medicare beneficiaries - no matter how they get their health care today or whether they have existing drug coverage - will be eligible for drug coverage under a Medicare prescription drug plan. These plans will cover both brand name and generic drugs. And, very importantly, there will be extra help for those in need, which is why I am writing this message to you today."

Medicare Changes Coming Soon

Donna Talarski via email....

Donna writes us:

Ron, what about posting information on this new coverage and how folks can get
information to sign up what the deadline is and the specifications. I wonder
how many people know this is in the works?

LINK

*NOTE: Donna the link to the form was broken but I think folks can find it reading through here. I'm 2 years away from Medicare but I will be reading up on this. Thanks, rt.

Tsunami alert exposes shore safety breaches

Tsunami alert exposes shore safety breaches: "More From The Oregonian | Subscribe To The Oregonian
Tsunami alert exposes shore safety breaches
The scare serves as a live test, and not all of Oregon's vulnerable coastal areas pass
Thursday, June 16, 2005
HARRY ESTEVE, JANIE HAR and LORI TOBIAS

SEASIDE -- Sirens blared and thousands of people along the Oregon coast fled homes, cars and hotel rooms for higher ground during Tuesday night's tsunami threat, indicating the state is more prepared than it once was to handle the real thing."

The green words are links to this story... Just left click on them.

Happy Birthday

Norma Williams
June 19th

Happy Birthday
Elaine Adkins
June 19th

SORRY NO COMPUTER CLUB MEETING THURSDAY :(

RT

Meeting moved ahead to Friday at 1:00pm. Due to Dr.'s appointment... Sorry, hope we will see you Friday.

Sometimes you hear the funniest things.....

rt... as told to by a friend...

One neighbor was talking to another about putting numbers on the globe on the front of his home. This neighbor felt that it wasn't his job to enhance his address for emergency responders but rather it was the emergency responder's responsibility to find his address as that is their job... ( A good percentage of our responders are volunteers... I wonder how they feel about that?)

Sometimes you hear the funniest things..

VOA News - Tsunami Warning Canceled After California Quake

VOA News - Tsunami Warning Canceled After California Quake: "Tsunami Warning Canceled After California Quake
By VOA News
15 June 2005


Authorities have canceled a tsunami warning for the west coast of North America, issued after a major earthquake shook the ocean floor off the U.S. state of California."

Tsunami Alert Finds Areas That Need Improvement...

rt

Our Neighborhood Watch alerting system took a hit with the tsunami alert. The Parks'(Neighborhood Watch Co-ordinator) were not home to start the chain of phone calls to the block captians. Jim McCrea is their back-up but he and Marylin are in Alaska. Buzzy Byerrum started the ball rolling here by taking it on herself to notify the block captians. We all owe her a big warm fuzzy hug for this quick action... Thanks a lot Buzzy.

The city of Newport does not have an air raid siren that they could activate... On the other hand Ed Simon says they do but it doesn't work but there was a future plan to maybe get it to work... Jim Rose says the fire department said the salt air is corrosive to the sirens and that's why we don't have them. Depot bay seems to have no trouble maintaining theirs. It was working yesterday along with the one in Tillamok ( I would rebuild and help keep one up for free. I used to maintain fog horns and alarms on the oil platform).

People had nowhere to go for really accurate information. Jim Dodds called us with a link from his website that hooks upto the government's Tsunami Warning site and we put it on here long after the announcement. Thanks to him we will be putting the link on the left side of this page on the top in red. You can go there for the most accurate and uptodate information.

We were only able to get a local fm radio station reporting on the alert but they didn't have the complete information. So know that you can get this information here by clicking the new tsunami alert link. Neighbors that don't have a computer could be notified by those that do. If they don't have a computer maybe we should start giving away the 3 spares in the clubhouse. This is just another reason people need a computer.

Why? Last night Jacky called her Neighborhood watch list and others to warn them... One person... Ruthanne Carson, was going to go to Depoe Bay to watch the Sunset completely unaware of the Tsunami warning. Another person was going downtown to eat.

Doris Pyle

June 18th

THE WEBSITE CALENDAR...

RT

Tonight we reworked the website calendar. There were complaints that it used up to much ink to have all the dark and light shades. That was caused by my unbridled desire to play with the art of it. But it is more practical to have a dull and boring black and white calendar and so it is.

The website won't have background colors but it will still try to depict activities in colored printing for ease of viewing. The printed calendar on your newsletter will be black(the absence of all color) and white (the presence of all color).

TSUNAMI ALERT....

TO READ GO TO THIS LINK..

Tsunami Alert click here

One thing I like about Longview Hills....

rt

In this place you can grow flowers or vegetables in your garden. You can view breath taking vistas just by looking out a window. Your neighbors are all over the community for you to cultivate into friends. These are all things that come to mind. But, for me the seeds for my garden are ideas. They come to me at a ferocious rate. They haunt my sleep and show up in quiet moments of contemplation. These are the seeds of my garden... not yet translated to reality through careful and loving nuturing.

Like any gardener I flip through these thoughts looking for just the right one. Many zing in and out of mind and are seemingly lost or gone only to reappear at a different time. Finally, through a since of urgency, one makes itself known and using the blueprint laid upon my consciousness I begin to grow the idea. Through practice and error, some might think of this as weeding and feeding, the idea comes forth into reality.

Just like in gardening, work and guidance brings forth the fruit of labor. The gardener usually has so much bounty for his effort that he shares with others for he can not consume it all before it decays. All the people then share in his labor and he enjoys that which he worked so hard for and is greatly satisfied in his heart for being able to share with others.

That is what I like about this place.

NEW ITEMS FOR SALE ON THE ELECTRONIC BULLETIN BOARD.... LINK ON THE LEFT

Computer Club Meeting Thursday 1:00pm

rt

The last computer club meeting folks seemed to be saying they wanted some sort of class that would show them how to use their computers. This is a bit of a hard nut to crack. Why?

Well from a teaching standpoint it is all about operating systems and internet speed. What?

An operating system usually refers to Windows 95, 98, 2000, ME, NT, and XP. One of these systems is probably on your computer. It is what your computer uses to perform operations. Here is the rub...

Windows was hugely improved each time one of these systems was sold on the market. The amount of processing a computer could do also moved forward and that meant the computers had to become able to handle larger volumes of material.

In this community we have computers that are using all of the above operating systems and folks want to know how to operate their computers they say. Yet the difference between a computer with Windows 95 and one with Windows XP is like having a grade school Dick and Jane primer as compared to having the complete Library of Congress at your disposal. All the other evolutions of Windows fall somewhere in between this example.

A computer and its operating system are very much like your car. If all you want is to get from point A to point B you can have a smoke burning rod knocking jalopy. But if you want reliability and innovation you need to trade in your old clunker and get an uptodate model. Many problems in the park are caused by simply using outmoded computers.. jalopies. Money spent on trying to upgrade them is wasted money. New computers, even bare bones models, are vastly superior to ones running on Windows 95 and 98. Today Dell Computer is offering a complete desktop computer for $299. We have never seen such low prices.

Here is my 2 cents for what you need to do. Get rid of any computer that does not have Windows XP on it now. Already Microsoft is developing a system that will replace XP called Longhorn and your old jalopy will be even more outdated. Old computers lack the capacity to run new programs. Buy one that has at least a 40gigabyte hard drive. Think of the hard drive as a storage unit. Today's programs need lots of room (storage). Plan on replacing your old computer every 4 years or so. Even if you buy the most deluxe model now.. 4 years from now it won't even compare to a new bare bones computer...

Here then is the gist of this entire article. Computer skills really should be gained on new systems. Not out of date antiquated systems. Therefore if you are to teach what you knew on computers in a classroom it would be best if everyone were using the same system. The current modern system is XP. That renders the computers in the clubhouse useless as they are to old and lack the systems to teach uptodate skills.

With that in mind we would be willing to have classes but on Windows XP computers only. Classes probably would be in the evening if I teach but others such as Bill Holt and Sid Adkins may offer something else. Sid may have access to the Ocean Spray computer lab which has a number of computers. He has taught the Senior Center classes there.

My classes will be for those who want to meet where at least one XP machine is available for each person. I don't think a person learns by lecture as much as doing. This means if folks want to bring their XP laptops or desktops to the clubhouse and set up we can have classes. Otherwise, I will be available for a limited amount of personal instruction in the evenings. We can discuss this right here on line.. Use the comments.

56... 56... 56... 56.. !!

56/167=34%

34% of you (56 HOMES) do not have.....

66% of you (111 HOMES) do have ....

$5 for the Social Club volunteers to do it for you. Or you can buy the numbers yourself at WalMart and do it yourself. Cheap insurance against an emergency for your family. A loving thing to do for your neighbors as it will help find their home at night even if they don't do it too. Our neighborhood will soon be a model for other communities to emulate. WE have a number of homes with the red light system and our addressing system will be an example of progressive community safety.

Many of the 54 may be folks who don't read the web page nor the bulletin board or even the Newsletter. Some are short term residents using their homes as vacation homes. Some may be shut in and not get out. Others may be new to the neighborhood and haven't even heard about the program. If you know of a neighbor missing an address on their post light maybe you might tell them about our program to get everyone's home addressed. I know it is asking a lot for folks to do that and that it might be uncomfortable to do it but I also know there are among you those that care a lot and will do it... So I am asking for your help..

Since we started this latest drive 27 new addresses have been put on. Volunteers did about 12 and 15 others were done by folks themselves. Very impressive... We can do more... It's a simple thing to do and it really has a big impact on our emergency responses.

U.S. 101 to close for repair Wednesday

U.S. 101 to close for repair Wednesday: "U.S. 101 to close for repair Wednesday
Sunday, June 12, 2005

The Oregon Department of Transportation will close a section of U.S. 101 three miles north of Manzanita from noon to 9 p.m. Wednesday to repair damage that occurred when a 5-foot rock fell onto the highway."

Happy Birthday Devon Shimek




June the 15th