SENIOR NET NEWSLETTER 10/08/2000
Life's A Trip. Each year autumn transforms the staid green landscape of summer to the fiery colors of fall. And millions of leaf gawkers who flock each year to witness the dramatic change make fall the second most popular tourist season behind summer. With the fascination and awe of the autumn spectacle aside, just what causes leaves to change color? While there are many factors that contribute to fall's glorious display, weather plays the biggest role.
The U.S. Forest Service says the amount of moisture and temperature affect the brilliance of autumn colors. A combination of warm, sunny days and cool but not freezing nights are ideal conditions for producing the most spectacular fall color displays.
Like hibernating wildlife, trees begin to shut down their systems for winter. Food nutrients move slowly out of the leaves and into the tree's branches, trunk and roots. To ensure survival the tree sheds its leaves to prepare for the deep freeze ahead.
The color and timing of peak colors can also vary from one location to another depending on the combination of light and shade the tree receives and chemicals present in the leaf.
When the temperature drops, leaves produce a chemical called anthocyanin that accounts for the striking reds and purples often found in the sugar and red maples, northern red oaks, sumacs, and tupelos. The colors yellow and orange are always present in leaves, but are often masked by the green of chlorophyll. As the chlorophyll disappears, yellow and orange pigments are uncovered. Yellow is normally found in the birch, white ash, linden, maple, beech, witch hazel, aspen, and hickory species. As leaves continue to lose color and moisture, they are soon picked up by the wind and litter the surrounding area below. Helping to hold in warmth and moisture through the winter, fallen leaves protect grasses and other plants until spring when the process starts over again.
THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE: Monday evening Intermediates (fourth session of six sessions) The next Monday evening class starts 11/6/00. The cost is $12.00 for the six sessions. Some topics to be addressed include: Basics of maneuvering about the Windows Operating System, copy/paste,drag/drop, editing, saving to various drives, right mouse button options, creating folders and files, uninstalling, deleting, advanced email and browser techniques involving bookmarks, address books, forwarding messages, attachments, and HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language). Dave Winkelman provides the leadership for this class. Beginner computer knowledge and beginner computer skills are necessary. A ton of info is packed into the six sessions. This course is designed for those who "think they know" and especially for those who "want to know" more.
Genealogy: This is a four session program costing $20.00 for all the sessions. Sessions are every Thursdays in October from 6:00-8:00. Dave Wallace is the instructor. Class size is limited so please pre register.
Please Call Dave Winkelman at KCnet, 893-8111, with suggestions for other computer interest courses.
TECHNICALLY SPEAKING: ALL FROM TIPWORLD These ought to keep ya busy for a while! UPDATING NETSCAPE REGISTRY A reader writes: "Once in a while, seemingly at random, Netscape 4.73 on exit starts Updating Netscape Registry with a progress window. It looks like Netscape is updating about 1MB of information, according to the progress bar. What is happening? What controls when this runs? (There is no remote activity during this process, only local.)" Netscape Communicator stores certain settings and statistics in its own section of your Windows Registry. (The Registry is where your system categorizes most of its settings and saves them in a specific hierarchy.) As this information changes, Netscape needs to save it and file it in the Registry. Depending on how much information needs saving, the process can take up to several seconds. I've seen this happen after installing a plug-in or when I've made significant changes to my Netscape preferences. What controls this is a question best answered by Netscape tech support, which you can reach by clicking Help, Product Information And Support.
ACCESSING URL FROM RUN COMMAND Need to get to a Web site quickly? If you don't have a shortcut or link handy, try this: Select Start, Run, and in the box next to Open, type the URL you want to visit. Click OK, and your browser window opens directly to that site (after connecting you to the Internet, if necessary).
RESTARTING WINDOWS WITHOUT REBOOTING If you make some changes to your computer that require you to restart Windows, you can do so more quickly if you don't restart your computer. To restart Windows without rebooting your computer, go to Start, Shut Down and select Restart. Hold down the Shift key while you click the OK button. Windows restarts, taking only half as much time as rebooting your entire computer.
CREATING A CASCADING MENU OF YOUR COMPUTER Works for Wiindows 98 Navigating to your desktop to find and open a specific file can be a bit of a pain, but there's a neat little trick that allows you to access any file on your computer from a single menu. To do this, you need only create a Desktop Toolbar on your Task bar and then resize it. First, right-click on your Taskbar and select Toolbars, Desktop. Then click and hold on the sizing bar on the left edge of your new Toolbar. Drag all the way to the right, so only the word "Desktop" appears. You can now click on the right arrow next to the word "Desktop" to launch a cascading menu. From there, you can navigate to My Computer and proceed to access any file on your computer directly from your Taskbar or any shortcut on your desktop. I really like this one.
ADDING A SCRAP TO THE DESKTOP You can keep the contents of the clipboard on your desktop for later reference by creating what is called a scrap. Though this name implies something cheap, frayed, and disposable, the scraps you create on your desktop could very well be among the most valuable bits of data on your computer. You can recognize a scrap by its icon: It looks like a document file except for a torn edge along the bottom. You can create a scrap in a couple of ways. If you have material copied to the clipboard, you can right-click on the desktop and select Paste to create a scrap containing the clipboard information. The other way to create a scrap is to select data and drag it to the desktop in any program that supports Microsoft's OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) standard.
CREATING A NEW TOOLBAR Works for Windows 98 If you have a folder that you access so frequently that it deserves its own Toolbar, you can give it one in Windows 98. Right-click on the Taskbar and select Toolbars, New Toolbar. Navigate to the folder you want as a Toolbar and select it. The contents of the folder are displayed as part of your Taskbar, and you can move your new Toolbar to other edges of the desktop and resize it the same way you can your Taskbar.
INTERESTING SITES: COMPARE CAMERAS WITHOUT LEAVING HOME By Robin Garr When I purchased my new digital camera, I relied on intuition and hard-knocks experience in sorting through the bewildering array of brand names and models. I might have saved a lot of time (although I think I might have ended up with the same decision) if I had known about the ZD Net Digital Camera Super Center before I shopped. This useful consumer site is at It offers links to tech sheets and reviews for just about every digital camera on the market, with a handy feature that allows you to compare your favorite against similar cameras from the same company and other makers. Its interactive buying guide, "Camera Finder," is a particularly useful tool. Click your way through a short series of questions, which can be summarized as "How much do you want to spend?" and "Do you want ease of use or bells and whistles?" and it leads you to a list of cameras that best fit your responses. Click the links to find full description sheets, specifications, and reviews for those that look interesting, and then click "Compare" for reviews of other cameras that the editors consider most competitive with your choice. Found the one that seems just right? Click another link for a list of online vendors that have your choice in stock, arranged in order of asking price. Or if you're a hands-on consumer, grab a printout and head for a local shop to try the cameras on for size. And if you're bold, take along the comparative prices and try your hand at haggling. www.zdnet.com/special/filters/sc/camera/
HYPERART.COM Far, Far Out!! Please bring back Norman Rockwell? Are the walls in your apartment looking a little bare? Perhaps a little photographic art might be in order, but proceed cautiously. This isn't simply art, this is hyperart and boy is it intense. Imagine Salvador Dali with an annoying hangover and you get the general idea. There's one of a blue beach in a pink sunset with horses frolicking in the surf and a green-spectacled woman in a jean jacket drifting out of view. There's another with diner patrons viewing Miss Liberty wading through amber waves of grain with vaguely powerful concentric circles emanating from her upraised hand. Oh well, you get the picture. It's art, you know, that's all. hyperart.com/
CART.COM Racy in the strictest sense. Welcome to the quietest place to enjoy auto racing this side of Indianapolis. Cart.com is the official site of Championship Auto Racing Teams, Inc., an Official Sanctions Body of "Indy" auto racing since 1978. It's a great place to find race coverage, results, and standings. Read through an extensive news section, or find out more about the teams and the drivers. The TV and Radio section lets you know where to watch or hear the next race, no matter where you're tuning in from. You can even learn more about racing by consulting the official rules, the online record book, and the glossary, which lets you look up words like Wickerbill and Timing Box. The Games section lets you assemble and track your own fantasy racing teams. Gentleman and ladies, start your Web browsers! www.cart.com
A GALAXY CLOSE Close By Galaxy claims to be the Internet's oldest searchable directory. It combines human editors and automated searching to create vertical Internet directories on specific topics. For example, the Health Network vertical contains more than a thousand subject headings and 7,000 individual listings. Sites are reviewed before they're added and are periodically verified to still be working and relevant. Galaxy states that it doesn't list sites with hate speech, sexual entertainment, or gratuitously violent images. http://www.einet.net Most directories on the net are collections of links to individual sites or even to particular pages within those sites. Not The Argus Clearinghouse. It is a collection of links to "guides," and each guide site is itself an organized collection of information about a topic, with many of its own links. In other words, Argus is a directory of directories. And it includes ratings of each guide, along with the name and affiliation of the person who created the guide. You may even submit your own guide for inclusion in the lists. www.clearinghouse.net
THE REAL BEER PAGE This site is definitely 100 percent pure, with no additives. Crack it open, and absorb everything you could ever want to know about beer, brewpubs, microbreweries, homebrewing, and the beer industry in general. Need to find a place to drink beer? Search the brewery and pub databases, or consult the beer festival and homebrew event calendars. If it's cutting-edge developments you're after, then read through the extensive beer news section. Play beer games. Learn clever beer toasts. Send your friends online beer postcards. There's even a new beer quote, such as "Give me a woman who loves beer and I will conquer the world," every Wednesday. If you ever get through all 150,000 pages, then there is a section full of links to other beer sites waiting for you. Bottoms up! www.realbeer.com
SEUSSVILLE He was born Theodor Geisel, but you probably know him as Dr.Seuss, Pulitzer Prize-winning children's book author. No matter how old you are, you're bound to enjoy this fascinating and entertaining site. The Games section features a dozen interactive treats, from Horton's Who Hunt to The Cat's Concentration Game. You can also print all sorts of fun stuff, including The Seuss Word Search puzzle and The Cat in the Hat/The Grinch Doorknob Hanger. If you're a fan, test your knowledge of Seussdom at the monthly trivia contest. Or peruse a list of every Dr. Seuss book ever published, starting with the 1957 classic, The Cat in the Hat. www.randomhouse.com/seussville/
FAVORSUNLIMITED.COM Interesting concept! Perhaps you're having a hard time and could use a little assistance. Whether you need a favor or you're willing to lend a helping hand, Favors Unlimited offers a ready-made cybercommunity to bring people together. The concept is simple--people post needed favors on the site, and others can grant those favors. There are many people out there who need housing, financial assistance, senior help, employment, or even a good laugh. Some people need reliable transportation, others need advice or some pro bono graphic design assistance. Does it work? Check out the favors accomplished page and find out. favorsunlimited.com/
The fun ones are back. www.zdnet.com/special/filters/sc/camera/ www.justsaywow.com/practice.htm www.justsaywow.com/friendsarelikeflowers.htm www.justsaywow.com/colors.htm
TRAVELING SLOW Ever wonder why slugs travel so slowly? Here's a theory for you: They're taking time out to smell the roses. What am I talking about? Slugs have four noses--which must make travel quite difficult considering how many odors there must be at ground level. Just think about how long your dog can stop and smell something--and he only has one nose.
ROLLER COASTERS Roller coasters originated in Russia in the early 16th century. At the time, some clever folks built ice slides where a patron would climb to the top of a 70 foot tower and zip down a wood ramp of about 600 feet. Then they would head over to a second tower and repeat the process, ending up at the ground level starting point. It is said that Catherine the Great was the originator of the idea of using sleds with wheels--freeing the joys of coasting for all seasons. The roller coaster phenomenon then traveled to France where coasters were called les montagnes Russes or Russian mountains (which they are still called today).
COLD CRISP DAYS As we move toward cold weather, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at those cold crisp days. Why do really cold days feature sunlight that is brighter and clearer than on warmer days? Because, the colder the air, the less humidity it can hold. This is because at low temperatures, water molecules in the air are much more likely to land on a surface and stick than they are to break off and enter into the air. With less water in the air, there are fewer particles to scatter the sunlight.
FAST FACTS: The Duke of Windsor, who gave up the throne of England to marry the woman he loved, was quite a playboy when he was young. On one trip to the U.S. in the 1920s, during Prohibition, he even got caught in a speakeasy during a raid. Fortunately for him the nightclub's hostess kept him out of the papers. She pushed him into the kitchen, hid him under a chef's hat, and gave him some eggs to fry. Had he not abdicated as Edward VIII, the symbols of his reign would have been crown, scepter, and skillet. THE LITTLE, BROWN BOOK OF ANECDOTES
WHEN DID THE TANGO ORIGINATE? The modern ballroom tango appeared about 1880 in Argentina. It combined the old tango of Spain - a light-spirited variety of flamenco - with the milonga, a fast, hot Argentine dance. At first considered low-class, the new tango was all the rage in fashionable circles by 1915.
IS ANYONE CREDITED WITH WRITING "CHOPSTICKS"? Arthur de Lulli is named as the writer of the 1877 piano exercise. The name is actually a pseudonym for a sixteen-year-old girl named Euphemia Allen.
WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF LOOKING A GIFT HORSE IN THE MOUTH? The phrase, as old as the fourth century A.D., once had a literal meaning. Up to a certain number of years, a horse's age can be determined by examining its teeth. To perform such an examination on a horse you've been given is looking a gift horse in the mouth.
WHEN WAS THE NATIVITY SCENE FIRST REPRESENTED IN ART? The scene of the newborn Christ, the Virgin Mary, and often shepherds of the Magi was first represented in the fourth century, carved on early Christian Roman sarcophagi.
QUOTES: "You give little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give." --Kahlil Gibran
"What I see in Nature is a grand design that we can understand only imperfectly, one with which a responsible person must look at with humility. This is a genuine religious feeling and has nothing to do with mysticism." --Albert Einstein
"A person should hear a little music, read a little poetry and see a fine picture every day in order that worldly cares do not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul." --Goethe
"The bridges you cross before you come to them are over rivers that aren't there." --Gene Brown
"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." --Eleanor Roosevelt
"I would sort out all the arguments and see which belonged to fear and which to creativeness. Other things being equal, I would make the decision which had the largest number of creative reasons on its side." --Katharine Butler Hathaway
"My problem lies in reconciling my gross habits with my net income." --Errol Flynn
"Money often costs too much." --Ralph Waldo Emerson
THIS WEEK'S CUTIES: Unwritten rules from that highly over worked, but highly under paid technical support staff of a computer support department near you... 1. DO NOT call us and complain about a problem with your system and then say you're not in front of your computer when we try and help you. We aren't technological psychics. 2. DO NOT call us assuming the problem you're experiencing is our fault. If your computer crashes, performs illegal operations, gives you the blue screen of death, or flips you off and runs away with the toaster to Mexico, you can be darn certain it isn't us who caused it. 3. DO NOT call us and announce to us that you don't know anything about computers. This really ticks us off. Trust me, we're well aware of that fact. We figured it out the minute you called and announced, "Help, the Internet is broken!" Something here definitely needs help. People who know computers don't call us. 4. DO NOT call us and act as if you know all that are computers and that you're doing us a favor by gracing us with your call. This ticks us off more than 3. Chiming in with stupid suggestions and comments only increases the already tremendous temptation we face to use you as an unwitting instrument of destruction and really do some damage to your system. Not that you'd notice. 5. DO NOT (in addition to 4) say acronyms you don't know the meaning of or even what they are for. Just admit that you're completely lost and leave the techno BS to us. 6. DO NOT call in if you can't speak English. This might seem like a small thing to you, but we find it just a tad annoying when we try and assess your problem and we can only understand every fifth word you say. And no, just because those words may be 'computer' or 'broken' doesn't absolve you of the offense. 7. DO NOT call in hoping to get another tech rep to tell you something different than the first one did. If one of us tells you your system is screwed, it's screwed. The second guy is going to simply look at the log and tell you the same thing, it's screwed. That is of course unless you really tick him off and then he's going to make sure your computer has the functionality of a house plant. 8. DO NOT be stoned or drunk when you call us. You wouldn't think this would need to actually be said, but believe me it's come up. For goodness sakes, if you can't control yourself and must call, at least have the common courtesy to offer us some. 9. DO NOT tell us that this just happened on its own, as if your computer suddenly was inspired to break for no reason. Simply admit what you did to cause this, so we can help you fix it that much faster. Trying to salvage your pride will only make it worse, because we will find out what you did anyway, and then we will REALLY be annoyed at you for wasting our time. 10. DO NOT expect us to educate you in the most simple aspects of using a computer. If you can't figure out the difference between a right-click and a double-click, then you really shouldn't be using one in the first place. If you insist on doing so anyway, then take a class. Or you can pay us $35 an hour to teach you, because we won't do it for free.
In a heartbeat I could reverse that dialogue and write about the things that upset me with some techno dingbats who think that they know it all. I especially mean the ones that enjoy subjecting you to total humiliation before they try to impart their idiotic information as if it all makes sense.
Thanks to Bud Casselberry. The General went out to find that none of his G.I.s were there. One finally ran up, panting heavily. "Sorry, sir! I can explain, you see I had a date and it ran a little late. I ran to the bus but missed it, I hailed a cab but it broke down, found a farm, bought a horse but it dropped dead, ran 10 miles, and now I'm here." The General was very skeptical about this explanation but at least he was here so he let the G.I. go. Moments later, eight more G.I.s came up to the general panting, he asked them why they were late. They all had the same story. "Sorry, sir! I had a date and it ran a little late, I ran to the bus but missed it, I hailed a cab but it broke down, found a farm, bought a horse but it dropped dead, ran 10 miles, and now I'm here." The General eyed them, feeling very skeptical but since he let the first guy go, he l et them go, too. A ninth G.I. jogged up to the General, panting heavily, "Sorry, sir! I had a date and it ran a little late, I ran to the bus but missed it, I hailed a cab but..." "Let me guess," the General interrupted, "it broke down." "No sir," said the G.I., "there were so many dead horses in the road, it took forever to get around them."
As Art Linkletter used to say, "Kids say the darndest things." Tom Livingston is responsible for the following. A small boy is sent to bed by his father. Five minutes later: "Da-ad..." "What?" "I'm thirsty. Can you bring me a drink of water?" "No. You had your chance. Lights out." Five minutes later: "Da-aaaad..." "WHAT?" "I'm THIRSTY...Can I have a drink of water??" "I told you NO! If you ask again I'll have to spank you!!" Five minutes later... "Daaaa-aaaad..." "WHAT??!!" "When you come in to spank me, can you bring me a drink of water?"
An exasperated mother, whose son was always getting into mischief, finally asked him, "How do you expect to get into Heaven?" The boy thought it over and said, "Well, I'll just run in and out and in and out and keep slamming the door until St.Peter says, 'For Heaven's sake, Jimmy, come in or stay out!'"
One summer evening during a violent thunderstorm a mother was tucking her small boy into bed. She was about to turn off the light when he asked with a tremor in his voice, "Mommy, will you sleep with me tonight?" The mother smiled and gave him a reassuring hug. "I can't, dear," she said. "I have to sleep in Daddy's room." A long silence was broken at last by his shaky little voice: "The big sissy."
A mother took her three-year-old daughter to church for the first time. The church lights were lowered, and then the choir came down the aisle, carrying lighted candles. All was quiet until the little one started to sing in a loud voice, "Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you..."
It was that time during the Sunday morning service for "the children's sermon," and all the children were invited to come forward. One little girl was wearing a particularly pretty dress and, as she sat down, the pastor leaned over and said to her, "That is a very pretty dress. Is it your Easter dress?" The little girl replied, directly into the pastor's clip-on microphone, "Yes, and my Mom says it's hell to iron."
Finding one of her students making faces at others on the playground, Ms. Smith stopped to gently reprove the child. Smiling sweetly, the Sunday School teacher said, "Bobby, when I was a child I was told if that I made ugly faces, it would freeze and I would stay like that." Bobby looked up and replied, "Well, Ms Smith, you can't say you weren't warned."
John Laubscher forwarded this one. OH,so true I hope not, Huh? So don't get old. Think young. "OLD" IS WHEN..... Your sweetie says, "Let's go upstairs and make love,"and you answer, "Honey, I can't do both!"
"OLD" IS WHEN..... Your friends compliment you on your new alligator shoes and you're barefoot.
"OLD" IS WHEN..... A sexy babe catches your fancy and your pacemaker opens the garage door.
"OLD" IS WHEN..... Going bra-less pulls all the wrinkles out of your face.
"OLD" IS WHEN..... You don't care where your spouse goes, just as long as you don't have to go along.
"OLD" IS WHEN..... When you are cautioned to slow down by the doctor instead of by the police.
"OLD" IS WHEN..... "Getting a little action" means I don't need to take any fiber today.
"OLD" IS WHEN..... "Getting lucky" means you find your car in the parking lot.
"OLD" IS WHEN..... An "all nighter" means not getting up to pee!
I just got these somehow and I would like to blame someone else for them. Some friars were behind on their belfry payments, so they opened up a small florist shop to raise the funds. Since everyone liked to buy flowers from the "men of God," the rival florist across town thought the competition was unfair. He asked the good fathers to close down, but they would not. He went back and begged the friars to close. They ignored him. He asked his mother to ask the friars to get out of business. They ignored her too. So the rival florist hired Hugh MacTaggart, the roughest and most vicious thug in town to "persuade" them to close. Hugh beat up the friars and trashed their store, saying he'd be back if they didn't close shop. Terrified, they did so, thereby proving (Brace yourself.)
That Hugh, and only Hugh, can prevent florist friars.
A blonde walked into a library and said, "Can I have a burger and fries?" The librarian said, " Sorry, Be quiet, but this is a library." So the blonde whispered, "Can I have a burger and fries?" OK! That's a Wrap. See ya next week! I hope you enjoyed this communication and can attend one or more of the sessions scheduled for this week.