Jim Dodds sent a lengthy piece about a new virus going around.....

ron thomas

Jim Dodds sent an email about a pretty nasty virus making the rounds at this time. After reading through what it affects and how it gets onto your computer it boils down to one thing... If you open any attachment in your email you put yourself at risk. This one like others gets into somebody's computer from someone that opens an email attachment or a link and then propagates itself by emailing everyone in your email address book.

The point is... Even if you know who an attachment is from, even if it is a good friend or relative they may have been infected and not know it yet and as soon as you open their attachment you are infected too.

You may not be always protected by your anti-virus program. Think about it... A new virus attacks the internet by a mass mailing. Time goes by and then the major virus checkers find out about it. During the time between introduction and the spotting of the virus we are all susceptible. Then more time is needed to write a protection against the virus and finally distribute it to the paying users of whatever service you use. During that whole time you may be open to attack.

The best way to prevent attack is to use your best judgment about opening files and attachments from an outside source. Personally, we don't open anything from chain letters or anything written by someone we don't know. Mostly, we want to see that a download has a security certificate before we will get it.

Now, most of these attacks occur on Internet Explorer web browser... You can further enhance your protection just by changing to Firefox as your web browser.

From Alice McCllelan...

From an email sent by Alice who received it form a long list of friends..


Alice forwarded an email she received today that says if you receive it and open the link on it ... It will attack your virus program in Norton Antivirus and completely wipe out your hard drive.... I think that is highly unlikely but we have a trusted source we can go to in Jim Dobbs as he is an affiliate of Symantec/Norton and would know if this is true... What do you know Jim?

The following bit was copied from Kim Komando's Web site for your information....

an excerpt kim komando's website

There are a number of Catholic churches in Las Vegas. During Sunday
masses, some worshipers contribute casino chips, rather than cash.
Since there are so many casinos, the churches send all the chips to
the diocese offices for sorting. Once sorted for the respective
casinos, a junior priest returns them to be cashed in. This priest
is known as "The Chip Monk".

I dunno ... could be...

Red X when sending and receiving email?

ron thomas


Some folks have not been able to receive pictures or send them and have been asking me what it could be?


Since I don't know what could be wrong I searched my favorite expert Kim Kommando's website and she has help for you. Turns out your outlook express maybe the culprit. In her article she discusses some causes and the fixs for them. Read the article at the below link...
click here

Political Blog offer

Want to get those political discussions going?

ron thomas

Well, the religious community does not seem to want their own site to discuss religious concepts and ideals. The below offer to build a site for their exclusive use has had no takers. The offer will stay open for as long as I am well.

So, onto the next concept... How about we build a website for those that would like to have ongoing political discussions? I would get it up and running and show the owners how it works. Which is very simple just ask Milt Sadusky. The people that are in charge of that site would make the rules about what is allowed. I would help with any technical assistance that is needed but would have no other responsibilities to that webpage. We would provide a link to the new site here on our LVH home page to the political discussion site and on the new page we would provide a link back to the LVH site.

In fact the political website could be set up much the same way as Jim and Marlyn McCrea have the Newsletter web page setup now. They feel they are computer challenged but that is not really true they grasp concepts very easily. The way the newsletter is published (most of the time) is for them to simply email it to a special address. They don't have to do anything beyond send an article to the newsletter via email... That's it. If there is a problem they email me and I take care of it.

So that is how simple having a website can be especially if you have technical support available. And so, if you want to start the LVH Political Discussion site... Using your own rules ... Here is your opportunity. Just post a comment in this article or email me.

Want to have a website for the Fisherman's Club? Same deal is open to you.
Does your club need help setting up a page? Have an idea for a webpage that would be of interest to the park? Same deal is open to you. Want your own personal web page? I will try to fit you in to. Comment below.

Change

Change....

ron thomas

Change is something we all resist. But at our age we should all recognize that life is change. The way that this coming breakfast is being run is changing some from previous breakfasts. We ask that you be there at 9am sharp. The fact that this breakfast is not at the same time as other breakfasts has been bothering some people and I have had both direct and indirect complaints about the timing of this event.


First of all, I am not the breakfast sponsor nor leader nor planner. I did volunteer to help with it in the best way they could use me. My position as worker bee gives me zip authority for planning a breakfast.

Next I would like to give you that are gnashing your teeth and wringing your hands about the time change an offer to VOLUNTEER to do something besides gripe.


Edna Wilson wants to give this breakfast to the community and she even would do the whole thing herself if we would let her. She wants it at 9am sharp. She is doing the work and most of us will be doing the eating. Being there at 9am honors Edna for her service.


For those who would like to help with setting up tables and getting dishes, glasses, plates, tablecloths etc. We will be at the clubhouse on Friday the 25th at 3pm to do that chore.....

Glenn Paradis

Glenn Paradis writes about his new home...

ron thomas


In an email we learn a little about the Paradis family. Glenn and Shirley moved from our community a short time ago...

Ron, o.k. we're back in the land of snow and cold, wind and dust, and little rain but lots of sunshine. l jumped the gun
when asking about a download because we are living with our daughter and her husband and l'm using his computer
and its not nice to download things onto someone else's computer. we are waiting for a house to be finished in about
3 months and then l can get set up again and when I do I'd like to siphon some of your knowledge. we moved
back here to be close to family(big family), sure miss the good ole' newport area, nothing like it! we'll be keeping
tabs through the longview blog thanks to you.never give up, never give up! regards to you and Jackie, Glenn

Religious blog

Religious Blog

ron thomas

As you have seen Milt Sadusky has his own weblog (BLOG) now. He has gained experience and a following. He writes articles and has and runs his own website with the rules that he has imposed on it. He has commenting where people can speak about his articles. It took very little to set it up for him and he had a few questions that were handled by email.

Now I'm looking for a resident(s) that would like to try their hand at writing a blog for those folks who want an outlet for religious ideas, thoughts and questions and would like to set their own rules about how that website is run.

I will come to you or your group and set up your blog for you. Then I will move off to the background and keep up the technical part of your page until you no longer need help. Then I will fade away completely and just be available for advice should you need it. Like Milt's web site we will provide a link from the LVH home page to your new website and a link on your web page back to the LVH site.

I'm hoping that some of you will see this as an opportunity to do something positive for your religion and a fun hobby for yourself. You can make it a team experience with more than one person in charge with all having equal access to your webpage. So this offer extends to more than one resident or just only one.

If you have any feelings that you don't have the ability to do this please talk to Milt Sadusky and ask him how he felt before and after mastering it. I'm sure you will find it was pretty easy and he is having fun

Valentine's Ice Cream Fest

Last night 28 residents ate several half gallons of Dryers Ice Cream and others enjoyed low carb ice cream. Cake and cookies were all served to our sweeties. Best of all it was free! The event was put on by the Social Club who loves you.

To view a larger size picture just put your mouse arrow on the picture and click it.

Picasa 2

Begining Picasa 2...

ron thomas


There has not been a big response to the Picasa offering but I feel it is such a great offering that I have put up a link to the free download on the left side of the page under the downloads classification. Since Glenn is the only responder so far ... This is for him..


Glenn if you want to go ahead and download Picasa I will work with you via email on any questions. You will really find it to be a fantastic program. You can email me at teckron@hotmail.com ...

FireFox additions

Two new folks are trying out Firefox

ron thomas


Two more residents are trying out Firefox as their web browser. Ben and Donna Davi and Frank and Gloria Mazzeo. Ask them what they think after a few days.. You might want to give it a try. I remain available to help those who aren't sure to get it setup.

Picasa

Picasa....

ron thomas


I have been using a free downloaded program called Picasa for several months now. It used to be an expensive program but then GOOGLE bought them out and started offering the program for free for people who had Blogs like our website. I found it not very intuitive (another way to say easy) at the time. As time moved forward they offered it to the public en masse. Then, not to long ago, they introduced a new version and it has become very easy to use and will be a joy for seniors to use in my opinion.


The program is used to make your photos beautiful and organized in the most easy fashion I have ever seen. It turn ok or crappy photos into a work of art or modifies your prized ones into pictures worthy of a professional. It offers hours of fun for the photo buff and help for the camera challenged.


This program was offered with a sister program called HELLO! Hello is a extremely quick way for you to send or share photos online with your friends and relatives... instantly. It also is a way for Bloggers such as myself to put pictures on the blog (another way of saying our website).

Both of these programs are offered for free... which is our favorite price. To use them effectively we will be using the school house site to work our way through the downloading and the basics.

Organizing is the key to successful management of your photos and we will do that in our class room. Many of the pictures you have saved will be scattered all over your hard drive. Including many that you have no idea why they are there. We will be getting rid of those and putting everything in albums with names we can understand and in a central place under MY Photos.


Picasa will then show us slide shows of our favorites with a couple of clicks of the mouse.


Naturally, this is a bit of work for me so, as I have done previously, I'm asking for a show of hands in the COMMENTS below of how many folks are interested and will commit to taking the lessons. Frankly, it is too time consuming a task if there is not much interest. ..

Add Remove pgms

ADDING/REMOVING PROGRAMS..

ron thomas


In the operating system Windows XP to remove or add progams to your computer follow this path:


On your display left click the START BUTTON.

In the pop-up menu left click CONTROL PANEL.

In the control panel menu left click ADD OR REMOVE PROGRAMS.

Wait a few seconds and all the programs in your computer will be listed for you.

Scroll through the list and find the program you want to remove and left click it.

Now scroll back to the top of the page and in the blue dialog box left click the button that says CHANGE/REMOVE.

That will do it... recomend that you do a defrag of the computer after removing a large program.

Blogger post warning

New Security for OUR web page..

Ron Thomas


There is currently no way for spam to enter our webpage unless someone emails the webpage with a story to post. If the special posting address is put into the address book of your computer and you do not have anti-virus protection on your computer you have a good chance of forwarding spam to our web page...

What this means is that if you post a story to the page using the special address feature you should put your name on it so we know who wrote the piece and so we can keep track of the computers using this feature. That will help us find the computer that needs help the next time we are attacked. Meanwhile, you can even further reduce the incident of attack by not putting the special posting address in your mail program's address book . I like Cleda's method... She has the address taped to the frame of her computer display.

If you don't have anti-virus protection you can email your article to me and I will post it for you. My computer is protected from incoming anti-virus and so you won't infect the web page.

We learned a bit about our Operating System for our computers in a below article....

Ron Thomas


Now here is a tidbit of information you need to understand.... You must not buy new programs for your computer that are not designed to run on your operating system. On the packaging of the program you are about to buy it tells you what operating systems it will work with. If it doesn't have your system ... don't buy and install it. Sure it may kind of work for awhile but it will very likely cause massive problems and crash your computer. Here is an example... You have Windows 98 as an operating system and you download Microsoft Word XP on to your computer... It will cause problems with your operating system.

The Virus that was attacking our web site...

Ron Thomas,


We traced the virus that was attacking the website to the clubhouse computer. Jim Dodds came down and removed it and took it home to find the problem.


Here is his email report of what he found and has done:
9 Virii
3 Worms
1 Trojan
382 Malware/Spyware

Reformatted to Win 98.2
7.5 Hours

Will
be back at clubhouse after a good defrag....lol (means laughing out loud)

Added Norton AV
BlackIce Firewall
Misc. Programs

Needless to say.... most of this junk came from downloading stuff without even thinking about it. Our thanks to Jim for the upgrade and the extra programs and effort. Hopefully those that use the computer will pay heed to the Norton Anti-virus prompts not to download suspected files.

Volunteer Fire Department...

Ron Thomas

A park source told me that he had thaked the fire department volunteers for their actions here on the hill . You know, they are the ones that come from everywhere when an emergency like a heart attack befalls someone in the park. That happens often for old folks such as us...

This source was talking to the volunteer fireman who retired and is a Dr. The fireman's response was, "If they really loved us they could send cookies".....

During the last few months...

Ron Thomas


We have heard criticism about how only about 30 people come to Social Club meetings or participate and help in activities. That seems to be more or less true from our observations. So, if there are only that many interested why don't those that are interested in having social events and playing just form a second club?


The Social Club would exist for the park and the other club would exist to have it's own activities. Two clubs if you will. One that has all those that never volunteer and the other that does. One that has meetings and the other for those that want to be left alone. What about the treasury? Well that belongs to the Social Club period. The other club would raise its own treasury.


So you are thinking that creates two groups of people or two classes of citizens in the park? Not so. What it does is put the do nothing folks all together where they want to be, doing nothing unless someone volunteers to do something for them for nothing. The rest of the folks would be free to have parties and celebrate until the cows come home without having to work for those that want to do nothing. It's a win win solution.


The do nothing folks could crab about how their treasury was handled. The fun havers would work twice as hard if they knew they were going to have more fun. The do nothings could stay off to themselves or with their outside interests while the social bunch rollicked and played.


Seems like the ideal solution to me

Searching for Resources

Ron Thomas


We are looking for someone who in a pre-retirement life was a sign maker or has a child that was a sign maker. Why?


Well, free is always better than paying or a discount for what we need is good..... Yep! We're looking for a freebie.... For What?


We need two large signs to post at both entrances to the park that are weather proof (that means tough) .
They will both read something along the lines of, "This Park Under Electronic Surveillance" in very large letters. If we can't find any takers I guess we might make them with plastic letters like we did for the post light globes.

Kmart shopping...

Ron Thomas


Today I went shoe shopping at Kmart. First in Albany and then in Corvallis. Jacky and I both needed shoes. She stayed home and I went.


I remember Kmart the store that had everything from long ago before it fell on hard times and now has become part of Sears. The first thing you notice is the near empty parking lots. That is followed by the depopulated store experience you feel when shopping.


Neither store had the shoes that I was supposed to get... Being a man however I bought some anyhow. Naturally I knew they would not be the right ones but returning from the hunt empty handed is just not in our nature.

One of the new additions to both store is human flys. They come upto you from nowhere and buzz around you offering you the chance of a lifetime to enter their big giveaway contest. They hover around giving this long spiel and then thrust a form for you fill out in your face. In desparation I said ok and filled out the form to the point where it asked for my phone number and skipped that and the email address the fly wanted. The fly then said I had to put down my phone number... Why say I? So they can call and confirm that you are entered in the contest says the fly... I said no... The fly started buzzing and humming about they could not accept the entry as she thrust the flypaper into my hand... As the flypaper stuck to my hand I wandered down the aisle muttering... damn fly.

Now at the next Kmart... a good hunter never gives up... I went in the store and purposely headed for the shoe department determined to bag the right pair of shoes when what did I spy? Another fly bothering someone else... Hurriedly I searched the shelves for my quarry hoping to get away before the fly searched me out... gotem and I'm outta here... buzz buzz hmmmmm the fly found me . I told him (this time) that he could save his time I'm not giving my phone number.... Well you all know flies... they never give up... buzz buzz hmmmm as I walked down the aisle to the check stand... then thanks be to all camels... the fly spotted another victim and he was away in a flash. It was then I noticed another Kmart annomaly...

There are 12 checkout stands but only two are open and in order to herd customers into the checkout chute where they can be prodded by the electronic atm machine Kmart has erected long narrow tunnels of jamn packed shelving spaced together just close enough to allow a basket through. Moo, I say. This just gets me odd stares from my fellow cows who are trapped between shelves and cannot leave even if a strange man is mooing behind them.

At check out I mention that the shoes I have are half off... and the cowboy in charge says oh yeah I almost forgot.... Moo I say...