KCNET NEWSLETTER 06/12/05 COMMENTS AND SCHEDULE PAGE
MIKE'S COMMENTARY THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE NEWS & NOTES BY SUE FOUST
MIKE'S COMMENTARY AND/OR BITS OF WISDOM:
Friday, June 10th to Sunday, June 12th Shop, Eat, Play in Downtown!
Friday, June 10th 6 PM to 8 PM For more information call 893-5900
Classic & Antique Cars will be displayed on West Main Street - adjacent to Triangle Park and the Lock Haven Post Office An informal cruise will take before and after the Pastime Concert in Triangle Park
Friday, June 10th 5 PM to 9 PM For more information call 748-4038
Friday, June 10th 5 PM to 7 PM For more information call 893-1785
Court House Parking Lot -- Jay & Main Streets
Saturday, June 11th 6 am to 11 am For more information call 748-1576
A Celebration of Clinton County’s Rich History on Water Street, downtown Lock Haven All day Kayak Demonstrations courtesy of Rock, River & Trail Outfitters on the River 30K/5 K Run Walk “Tune Up For History” Music, Workshops, Wagon Rides and much more
Saturday, June 11th and Sunday, June 12th For information call 748-7254
In Flanders Fields...somehow I missed this great poem and story. It should have been offered in the Memorial Day Newsletter. Take a few moments to feel the words. You might be surprised with the story that follows.
IN FLANDERS FIELDS the poppies blow Between the crosses row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields.
...the story!
Although he had been a doctor for years and had served in the South African War, it was impossible to get used to the suffering, the screams, and the blood here, and Major John McCrae had seen and heard enough in his dressing station to last him a lifetime.
As a surgeon attached to the 1st Field Artillery Brigade, Major McCrae, who had joined the McGill faculty in 1900 after graduating from the University of Toronto, had spent seventeen days treating injured men -- Canadians, British, Indians, French, and Germans -- in the Ypres salient.
It had been an ordeal that he had hardly thought possible. McCrae later wrote of it:
"I wish I could embody on paper some of the varied sensations of that seventeen days... Seventeen days of Hades! At the end of the first day if anyone had told us we had to spend seventeen days there, we would have folded our hands and said it could not have been done."
One death particularly affected McCrae. A young friend and former student, Lieut. Alexis Helmer of Ottawa, had been killed by a shell burst on 2 May 1915. Lieutenant Helmer was buried later that day in the little cemetery outside McCrae's dressing station, and McCrae had performed the funeral ceremony in the absence of the chaplain.
The next day, sitting on the back of an ambulance parked near the dressing station beside the Canal de l'Yser, just a few hundred yards north of Ypres, McCrae vented his anguish by composing a poem. The major was no stranger to writing, having authored several medical texts besides dabbling in poetry.
In the nearby cemetery, McCrae could see the wild poppies that sprang up in the ditches in that part of Europe, and he spent twenty minutes of precious rest time scribbling fifteen lines of verse in a notebook.
A young soldier watched him write it. Cyril Allinson, a twenty-two year old sergeant-major, was delivering mail that day when he spotted McCrae. The major looked up as Allinson approached, then went on writing while the sergeant-major stood there quietly. "His face was very tired but calm as we wrote," Allinson recalled. "He looked around from time to time, his eyes straying to Helmer's grave."
When McCrae finished five minutes later, he took his mail from Allinson and, without saying a word, handed his pad to the young NCO. Allinson was moved by what he read:
"The poem was exactly an exact description of the scene in front of us both. He used the word blow in that line because the poppies actually were being blown that morning by a gentle east wind. It never occurred to me at that time that it would ever be published. It seemed to me just an exact description of the scene."
In fact, it was very nearly not published. Dissatisfied with it, McCrae tossed the poem away, but a fellow officer retrieved it and sent it to newspapers in England. The Spectator, in London, rejected it, but Punch published it on 8 December 1915.
Gary Clark sent this:
Nobody rushed to accuse the White House, the army, and the secret services that they are only a bunch of losers. Nobody rushed to empty their bank accounts. Nobody rushed out onto the streets nearby to gape about. The Americans volunteered to donate blood and to give a helping hand.
After the first moments of panic, they raised their flag over the smoking ruins, putting on T-shirts, caps and ties in the colors of the national flag. They placed flags on buildings and cars as if in every place and on every car a government official or the president was passing.
On every occasion, they started singing their traditional song: "God Bless America!" I watched the live broadcast and rerun after rerun for hours listening to the story of the guy who went down one hundred floors with a woman in a wheelchair without knowing who she was, or of the Californian hockey player, who gave his life fighting with the terrorists and prevented the plane from hitting a target that could have killed other hundreds or thousands of people.
How on earth were they able to respond united as one human being? Imperceptibly, with every word and musical note, the memory of some turned into a modern myth of tragic heroes. And with every phone call, millions and millions of dollars were put in a collection aimed at rewarding not a man or a family, but a spirit, which no money can buy.
What on earth can unite the Americans in such a way? Their land? Their galloping history? Their economic Power? Money? I tried for hours to find an answer, humming songs and murmuring phrases with the risk of sounding commonplace.
I thought things over, but I reached only one conclusion...Only freedom can work such miracles.
~ Cornel Nistorescu ~
According to Snopes, formerly Urban Legends, the above has the following origins:
Since the piece as presented here is undated, untitled, and unsigned; contains no publication information whatsoever; and is a translation of an article not originally printed in English, tracking it to its source was not easy. Fortunately, some helpful readers pointed us to its origins.
This article was written by Mr. Cornel Nistorescu and published under the title "Cîntarea Americii" on September 24 in the Romanian newspaper Evenimentul zilei ("The Daily Event" or "News of the Day").
As Associated Press reported about Mr. Nistorescu: Nistorescu, managing director of the daily newspaper Evenimentul Zilei — News of the Day — published his editorial Sept 24, two days after watching a celebrity telethon in New York for victims of the attacks . . .
Like his other columns, "Ode to America" was meant for domestic consumption. No one knows when — or how — the article first reached the other side of the Atlantic. But Nistorescu figures it began when someone pulled it off the English-language version of his daily's Web page and sent it to a friend.
Since then, thousands of Americans at home and expats around the world have e-mailed it to friends, saying it captured their nation's spirit. It has been read out to U.S. soldiers and on radio talk shows and posted on U.S. Web sites.
Nistorescu says he had no idea his "Ode to America" would resonate so far away . . .
Nistorescu remains surprised and touched by the success of the piece, one of thousands he has penned in a more than 20-year career.
"It is all about the American spirit and how freedom cannot be crushed," he says.
Group participants will not be required to commit personal dollars as formal Investing Clubs do. We will use fictitious money as we learn investing on line. The idea is to share investing experiences and knowledge. Bring a friend.
This session will be free, then a $5.00 fee after that. Any additional group participation charges will be determined by costs incurred as direct overhead to maintain the sessions and will depend upon group decisions and requirements. See you Wednesday, July 13 @ 6:00 PM.
KCNET CLASSES:
Beginner Windows 9x/XP 4 session course Topics include an introduction to all parts of the computer, learning about the desktop, mouse features and operation, and features and operation of the keyboard. Also creating shortcut icons, using recycle bin, wallpaper and screen savers, toolbars and taskbars, drag and drop, using window features (minimize, maximize, resize, etc), control panel, accessing the different drives, and more. There is always time for questions and general exploration.
Intermediate Windows 9x/XP 4 session course Topics include organization of windows programs, creating and organizing folders, file extensions, saving files from Internet, folder and file views, formatting floppy disks, installing programs, download programs from Internet, HTML email, uninstall vs delete, scandisk and defrag, email attachments, and more. There is always time for questions and general exploration.
Advanced Windows 9x/XP 4 session course Topics include a review of the management of folders and files, an introduction to photo manipulation, introduction to web page creation, using the sound recorder, attaching recordings to emails, introduction to eyeball cams and Internet transmission, and an introduction to burning your own CDs. There is always time for questions and general exploration.
KCnet Users Group: (formerly know as "Senior Net Learners" most recently called "Advanced Class"). I wanted to call this class "The Abusers Group", but Sue would not hear of that. Attendees are persistent in their search for computer knowledge. They ask great questions and present interesting challenges. The cost for this class is $0.00 for members of KCnet and $2.00 per session for non KCnet members. There is no set format for the sessions. Occasionally we will take a specific subject and do a detailed study over a period of successive weeks. Don't be afraid to ask questions. The folks that have been attending for awhile are always happy for a review and in most cases new or better ways to do things will surface. Questions stimulate in-depth exploration with the usual result being an understanding of how and why. We welcome new attendees from the Advanced sessions and our forever growing KCnet membership. This is an advanced group and we cover a lot of territory. We are kind of free flowing. You never know what will transpire. It is not necessary for attendees to have their own computers but it sure helps with the learning curve. KCnet Advanced Class computer knowledge and Advanced Class computer skills are necessary.
OTHER CLASSES: CLICK HERE FOR ORIENTATION - BEGINNERS - INTERMEDIATE - ADVANCED CLICK HERE FOR SCANNING - MAC- GENEALOGY - WEB PAGE - EXCEL - WORD - DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY - PHOTO MANIPULATION - OTHER SPECIALTIES
THIS WEEK'S CLASS SCHEDULE:
EMAIL June 14, & 16 -- 9:00-11:00 AM Instructor: Wayne Smith
WINDOWS INTERMEDIATE June 14, & 16 -- 12:00-2:00 PM Instructor: Wayne Smith
KCnet Users Group: Every Wednesday The starting time is 9:00 AM on this Wednesday June 15. We meet in Computer Lab 1 (The Big Room). Leadership is Mike Foust and anyone that wants to jump into the fray. WOW! We had a jam packed day of this and that a pot-pourri for sure. There were a lot of yucks and a ton of lernin'. We looked at a new product for convenient access to the many types of USB connectors. The product has a retractable USB connector/extender plus five different adapters to provide connections for digital cameras, video cameras, printers/scanners, external CD and DVD R-Ws. The entire batch fits into a small cloth pouch and is very reasonable. Actually cheaper that one 10 foot USB cable extender. It excited the heck out of me and I'm nt that easily impressed with gimmicks. I do like the toys though. We saw some cuties, movies, pics, and games. I promised two links for the games: http://www.permadi.com/java/spaint/spaint.html http://turbulence.org/spotlight/thinking/ Click on Play the Game.
We revisited Google and addressed the auto complete feature that suggests tracking/site history on Google's part. A good feature for some thinking and not so good for others. We also registered The Advanced Users for the history Tracking Program that Google promotes. Nice program. Write me if you are interested in the procedure.
Mike read a response from an HP tech to a KCnet member that had recently purchased a new HP (expensive) computer. The user was having connection problems. HP explained that their Sequoia modems were not able to connect when a user had more than three phones on one line. They also said that surge protectors were of no value for phone lines and that modems/computers are not fried by lightning and surges through telephone lines. This is not good info folks. So be cautious with HP tech talk.
Mike demonstrated some neato features for column management in Windows programs. Many were surprised at the number of features available.
We talked about a new Free online course available from CNET. A detailed write-up and directions for enrolling are available on the tech page of this newsletter (first article).
We briefly discussed passwords. More on the subject at: http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-3513_7-6241740-1.html?tag=nl.e501
This class often becomes idea swapping and we learn by sharing our many experiences and I'll tell you all again, that really happened this week. Thanks to all that brought in suggestions, asked questions, and helped with explanations.
OTHER KCNET CLASSES STARTING SOON Call KCnet 893-8111 to register
EXPLORING CONNECTIONS KCnet COMPUTER CAMP For Middle School Students (finished grades 6, 7, or 8) Week 2 August 8-12
Music Creation Starting when four students register--call 893-8111 to register. Participants should be able to play a piano/keyboard by sight or ear. Instructors: Carsten "Jon" Ahrens & Mike Foust
Orientation to KCnet One-Session Class – No Charge for KCnet Members Third Wednesday of Every Month 6:00 – 8:00 pm Instructor: Bob Fenton
MAC User Group Meets 2nd Wednesday of each month Time is 4:30 PM Instructor: Clair Falls
For more class details and to register visit: http://www.kcnet.org/class/ Registration can be done online, simply click on the course you are interested in and enter the information requested. Registration can be done via phone 893-8111.
NEWS AND NOTES WITH SUE FOUST:
Over this past weekend, many KCnet members got notices from register@kcnet.org and info@kcnet.org and several other fictitious usernames. The notices were supposedly to inform you of your account status and had a .zip file attached. The big problem – KCnet didn’t send them.
KCnet and most other Internet Service Providers have anti-virus programs installed to scan e-mail. But even the best anti-virus program updates, corporate version or home version, can be minutes behind a new virus. And in those minutes, you may receive the virus!
It is very important to have a good anti-virus program installed on your computer. We recommend that you configure your anti-virus program to scan all files that you work with in real time. Most virus scanners can also be configured to scan e-mail as it arrives and quarantine infected messages. We also recommend that you enable this option. Also, because new viruses are discovered almost daily, be sure to keep your anti-virus program up-to-date. Most anti-virus programs have an automatic update facility that can help with this. Every time I turn my computer on and log onto the Internet, my anti-virus program connects to the update address and downloads any updates available.
You should also use Microsoft's Windows Update feature to be sure that you have Microsoft's latest fixes for your version of Windows. Windows Update also has an automatic update facility that can help keep you up to date. And, even if you do all this: • Never open a Zip file that is attached to e-mail from an unknown source. • If an unexpected Zip file is attached to e-mail from someone you know, consider verifying with the sender that the attachment is legitimate. Some viruses spread by e-mailing copies of themselves to everyone in the contact lists of infected computers; this means that you can receive infected files even from people you know. (Example: the recent ones that looked like KCnet sent them) • Avoid downloading Zip files from untrusted web sites. Of course, these guidelines don't apply only to Zip files; they apply equally to any file type.
Don’t Hide File Extensions All current versions of Windows are initially installed with an option called "Hide extensions for known file types" enabled. When this option is enabled, Windows will not display the file name extensions (.EXE, .DOC, etc.) for file types that it knows about. This option is considered by many knowledgeable users to be dangerous, primarily because it can mislead you about the true nature of your files. For example, you might have a virus-infected file named "vacation.jpg.exe". If the hidden extension option is enabled, this file will appear on your desktop or in Windows Explorer as "vacation.jpg", leading you to think that it is a harmless vacation picture. In fact, it is an executable program, and opening it could infect your computer. To disable hidden extensions: • Open My Computer or Windows Explorer. • Click Folder Options, which will be located in either the View menu or the Tools menu, depending on your version of Windows. • In the Folder Options dialog, click the View tab. • Uncheck the box labeled Hide extensions for known file types and click OK.
Do you need to run an adware removal program and a spyware removal program on your computer, periodically? YOU SURE DO! While adware and spyware do not do the damage to your computer and files that viruses do, you certainly don’t want popup ads and little programs that track your whereabouts on the web! The software company Webroot has released an updated version of its "State of Spyware" report. The firm found that 88 percent of PCs are infected with some sort of spyware.
Spyware continues to be one of the most significant threats for Internet users, at least according to this newly published report. Since the company is a developer of anti-spyware software, Webroot may be biased, but the research findings are nonetheless concerning. Results were created by collecting information from more than one million scanned consumer PCs and more than 35,000 corporate computers.
According to Webroot, 88 percent of PCs were infected by spyware during the first three months of this year, down slightly from 92 percent in the prior quarter. The average PC revealed 25 infections, about 18 cookies and seven applications such as adware, system monitors, keyloggers or trojan horses. The company found that 4294 websites and 89806 web pages carried spyware and potentially could infect PCs.
Webroot said that spyware has become a major economic factor of online advertising. The company estimated revenues generated by spyware at $2 billion or about 25 percent of all Internet advertising revenues. The company believes that 2004 marked a "turning point" for Internet threats when malware was turned into money-making machines. For 2005, Webroot expects related cybercrimes to increase: "Incidents of spyware being used to break into computer networks are on the rise," the report said.
Until next week…
KCnet Board Of Directors Officers: President Judy Yoho, Vice President Bill Raco, Secretary Donna Lannan, and Treasurer Don Miller. Other members of the board: Carsten Jon Ahrens, Fred Bierly, R. Keith Kelly, Paul Korn, Amy Lapriola, Tom Livingston, Ray McGill, Bob Rolley, and Rich Wykoff.