I Haven't Lost My Mind, It's Backed Up On A Disk Somewhere

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Pre 1. Do you NEED a computer? Or could you use a MORE UPDATED one? You would be amazed how many folks out there buy a new computer every year or so to keep on the cutting edge, and the old one goes into the closet to collect dust. But it might be much newer than the one you are now using. Put a small ad in your local paper or penny saver saying that a senior citizen needs a computer in order to get online. You may be pleased at the response. Or join www.freecycle.org, an organization that probably is active in YOUR community. Rather than throw away useful things you no longer need, they are offered online free to anyone who will pick them up. I once got a decent computer this way.

1. Beware an online scam called phishing.  (pronounced fishing). You may get an email that appears to come from a business where you have an account. They tell you that you either need to update your records right now, or something terrible will happen, like your account will be cancelled. If you click on their link they may ask you for your social security number, credit card numbers, or other personal information. Don't fall for it. These emails look very convincing. They copy real company logos that look very real. If you ever get a request that resembles this, get on the phone and call the company to see if they are REALLY requesting this info. And get the phone number from a source other than the email. Never give out personal information online or on the phone unless YOU initiate a transaction or activity---and even then be VERY cautious. FTC Consumer Alert on avoiding PHISHING scams.  Very important for you to read. 

Also, ebay has presented a "Spoof Email Tutorial" website to help you identify fake and dangerous email.

2. Hewlett Packard Computer Tune Up Site

3. Hewlett Packard personal computing security center

4. Give Your Old Computer to a Senior   Are you getting a new computer?  Consider giving your old computer and components to a senior who could use one. So how do you do that. There is probably a senior center in your community. Go there, or call there, and place a notice on the bulletin board, or speak with the director. You will want to be sure to remove all of your information before doing this. This article might be helpful in that regard. Giving Your Computer Away

5. http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/    Test your computer's download and upload speeds.

7. Look for high speed connections at prices lower than some dialups. I use Verizon DSL at $17.99 per month plus those pesky taxes. And this is not just an introductory rate. The first month is even free. I am sure this will be duplicated by others soon if not already. It is fast, but they offer even faster at higher rates. I have used their service at both rates, and find NO difference in actual performance. The $17.99 service is more than enough for most users. No matter how fast your service, you only get information as fast as it will go from and through other pipelines.

8. It is EASY and FREE to build and have your own website hosted online. FREE!  I have built several personal sites with this service, and have really enjoyed it. (If you want to see one that I have built go to  http://houseforsalepa.tripod.com . I made this site when I was selling my home. It is now sold, and the site aided me in that process. I have left the site online so I can go in to look at a home we enjoyed very much.)        If you want to give it a try, go to this Carnegie Mellon University Site at Tripod. Click on the little white "sign up" button after the word "LYCOS" at the top of the open page. This will take you to another page, where you want to go to the box marked "free". CLICK ON "SIGN UP" AND GET GOING ON YOUR ADVENTURE.

9. Seniors more likely to be connected to the Internet  Seniors are increasingly more likely to be connected to the Internet, and those that aren't connected would probably like to be. I've found the following data to be very interesting, which has been collected from various studies.

10. Senior Citizens Who Master Computer Have Less Depression     

Senior citizens who become adept at using a computer appear to have fewer depressive symptoms than those older adults who aren’t so technologically connected.

That’s the finding of a research study, Depression and Social Support Among Older Adult Computer Users, presented August 18 at the 113th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association. One must be careful, however, not to substitute the internet for social interaction in the flesh with others. But it is a great way to find entertainment (for fun), travel the world, learn new things, and make new friends. A physically challenged Senior will find a whole new world open to them online. Careful use of chat rooms can bring real new friend to the Senior.

11. Another scam says something like, "you have won", or "we need a representative in your country to accept a large amount of cash, and we will pay you well."  What they will do is gradually get more and more information from you, and then clean out your bank account. Report them to your internet service provider. I was getting a series of a couple of these a day. Finally, I sent them a massive number of disgusting LARGE photos depicting someone being very ill in a toilet, and a few others that I cannot describe here. My emails from them stopped THAT day, and have not resumed. They can't afford to have their scam congested with large disgusting clutter.

12. Another popular computer scam. You get an email that tells you you have been referred because you are honest or something like that. The person has a lot of money from an inheritance, a business deal, life insurance, or some semi-illegal source. It is usually millions of $$$. All you have to do in order to get a nice percentage of this money is to give them your bank account and they will send the whole sum to you. When they come to the country they will expect you to give them the balance, less your rich commission. FAKE, RUSE, SCAM, THIEVES.  They are trying to clean out your bank account ,not fill it. Report computer scams to your internet provider so they can track them.

13. And then there is the scam about winning a contest. My mother got a call from someone who was quite excited about her winning a camera in some kind of drawing. Could come to you as an email. It was described in glowing detail. All she had to do was send $49.95 to them for some kind of special handling and insurance or some damned thing. They sent the camera! THE KIND YOU COULD BUY IN SOME THIRD RATE DISCOUNT STORE FOR ABOUT $9.95 ---or less. My mother sent them the money. She felt ashamed that she sent enough from her $800 social security check to more than pay for her electric bill. Shame on some sleaze for preying on the elderly and trusting senior who thinks they are getting something great for her grandchild. If it sounds too good to be true----it is too good to be true. Call an agency in your local government, or in the Federal government and ask about it before sending anyone a penny. ( Fraud Against Seniors )

14. The best deals I have found on computers and other electronic products is at www.TigerDirect.com  and www.globalcomputer.com . I think the two companies are related, but seem to feature different products. I also check out Circuit City for great package deals. But at Christmas 2006 I just bought my new HP system and an Acer 19" flat monitor at sears.com. They had exactly what I wanted at a good price, free shipping. I have a lot of confidence in the Sears customer service. But remember, I have a history with Sears. And even so, I am a believer. Editor

15. You can get a tremendous amount of FREE computer help online. I have found a site called  http://www.thetechguys.com/  to be very useful. There are articles to help with questions and problems. The message boards are places for you to ask detailed questions of other experienced computer users who want to help you. I have solved several problems with the help of other members of this site.

16. When I search for a word, term, or phrase, I generally use Google. ( www.google.com ) But don't limit yourself to just one "search engine" like Google. Try Yahoo ( www.yahoo.com ), or one of my favorites, MSN (Microsoft) ( www.msn.com ). Don't ask me how, but one of them often finds something the others COMPLETELY missed.

17. Have you ever searched for something online,  but when you go to the result it is near impossible to find the word(s) you searched for? The page may be so long that it would take many minutes to locate the object of your search. If you search on Google or Yahoo, look at your search result, and at the bottom of the little blurb about what the search engine found,  you will see a word in blue "cached". Click on that word. This will take you to a copy of the page when that search engine "crawled" it for insertion into its information. Look at the page now. The word(s) you searched for are now highlighted in a bright color. WOW!  It does not appear that MSN or AOL do this, even though AOL says the search is enhanced by Google. They need to enhance it a little more. I use Explorer 7. If you are searching for a word you searched, and the results come up in an Explorer 7 window, left-click "edit" at the top, then click "find on this page". Enter the word or words----and a miracle occurs. This also works with explorer 6. Try this on earlier versions, but I am not sure.

20. If you have CDs that you've burned with treasured pictures on them, be sure to store them in a safe. But be sure that the safe can withstand fire temperatures that can melt CD plastic! Many safes sold are fireproof for PAPER. Paper burns at 451 degrees Fahrenheit. Plastic will melt at much lower temperatures. Be sure that the safe you get to preserve your digital/computer information will protect the plastic of your data storage device! Rivahcat - Virginia

22.   8 Helpful links for Seniors and Computers:   Why should I learn how to use the computer and the Internet? | Are there computer training programs designed for seniors? | What deters seniors from becoming computer literate? | Can seniors with disabilities of aging become computer literate? | What are some computer training tips and tools? | Having fun online | References and resources | Related Helpguide articles

23. For free computer lessons try your local library, they usually have beginners computer classes. My local library has an excellent program for novices. Another place where lessons are given are, local computer clubs. Check them out, they are a good place to meet other computer students. Senior Citizens Clubs are another source for computer lessons. Believe me, there are many places out there that will help you with computer lessons.

Click picture to enlarge.           Fentec   White Keys with Black Legends                    $68.95

          Amazon  Keys-U-See Keyboard - Yellow Keys with Black Print  $39.95

         My Board III Keyboard  $99, sale $69  

25. In western society we have gotten so used to all out electrical gadgets and do-dads that we seldom stop to think about the cost of these devices. Yet, a modern computer for example can cost several hundred dollars per year in electricity alone! And when you are done using your computer for this session, you WILL turn it off - right?!

26. My cyber-story: My helpmate died in May of '98. Sometime that fall, my cousin in NC sent me a newspaper article about WebTV. I guess I was halfway intrigued. In Jan.99, I happened to spot a USED WebTV receiver for sale for $79 at Sears. I bought it and started the adventure. Since then I've managed to just about fill up 4 of the 6 addresses or stations(?) offered. The other 2 are used by my son & daughter. I've not changed to a computer as this seems to fill most of our needs and there are no virus worries.
 Besides the usual uses like ordering medicine, e-mailing, card-making, etc., I've published two dozen web pages covering such things as my grandfather's books, family history, poetry, my autobio & military stories, etc. Lots of fun!
 BUT, like you, I seem to find it very hard to convince certain older folks (my brother included) about the advantages of joining the WWW and the relative ease of doing so. Good luck to us! Bob,  Mercer, PA

27. Tools MSNTV and WEBTV users need to manipulate images, validate HTML, source-view web pages and files, transload or upload files, grab image colors, extract and crop images, find MIDI files, optimize and transparentize images, clear recents, and check browser data, IP numbers and connection rates.

28. Do you "burn" information onto removable CD's or CD-R's? (R= rewritable over and over) Be very cautious if you are relying on them to store irreplaceable photos, music, or other data. They can deteriorate, sometimes over a very short time period--even months.  Factory-pressed CDs are totally different from recordable (burnable) CDs. In a pressed CD, the data is literally "molded into" (actually pressed into) the media and will not disappear unless the CD is physically damaged. Recordable CDs use a dye that changes color or reflectivity when heated. There are different dye types commonly used in recordable CDs, and they do not all have the same life expectancy and stability.

Read a C-net forum discussion on the matter.  Be careful not to store them in hot areas, or to scratch them. Store them independently. Their life will also be affected by the quality of your burner, and the manufacturer's quality of the disk. TDK claims a life of 100 years, obviously unproven by time. Others have reported that their disks have become unreadable in months (brand unknown).

Another note: CD-R's should never be used to store material except for an extremely short period. The degrade very easily. The contributor at C-net at the link above says he will not even buy a CD-R because of this problem. One-time recording disks are cheap enough to discard when no longer needed.

29. Seniors Are On Their Computers.  Using the Internet has become the favourite pastime for pensioners, according to a survey. Traditional hobbies such as gardening and DIY have been relegated as 'silver surfers' spend an average of six hours a week online. E-mailing and chatting to friends and family are their most popular online activities. They also enjoy researching, booking holidays and shopping, the survey by insurance company AXA found. Spokesman Alison Green said: 'The report highlights how pensioners are using the Internet to support a less stressful approach to life. 'The potentially arduous task of struggling with the shopping is becoming less of an issue as retired people can simply log on to their computers and select groceries at their leisure. The survey found that 41 per cent of retired people voted the Internet as one of their favourite pastimes. DIY and gardening were named by 39 per cent, hobbies by 36 per cent and travel and walking by 28 per cent. Four in ten said they were regular Internet shoppers. http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news

30. A survey conducted by Home Electronics Journal (HEJ) in the U.S. has revealed that 93.3% of affluent Americans research their upcoming consumer electronics purchases on the Internet, before making the trip to a nearby Best Buy or Circuit City to actually buy the items. Despite doing their research on the web, consumer electronics purchasers still prefer to shop in person.

31. Xerox Corporation scientists say they have invented a way to make copies whose images last only a day, so that the paper can be used again and again. The company has filed for patents on the technology, which it calls “erasable paper.” SeniorARK hopes our creditors use this paper for our debts!

  33.

  <<<(a) This gives new meaning to the phrase "multitasking".

                     ***click pictures to enlarge***

       (b) When you know that your computer has become an obsession.>>>

34. Very useful site for Senior computer fans: http://www.csuchico.edu/~csu/seniors/computing2.html Discussion on using the internet, advice on getting online computer training, important terms, and search tips.

35A. What is the difference between a DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW?

36. Avery Bowron, a computer-savvy 19-year-old, readily acknowledges that he learned something valuable about technology from senior citizens: good software can be obtained at no cost. Read the complete article on SeniorARK.

47. I receive lots of ‘scam’ emails, anywhere from 6 to 12 daily.  The examples in your article fit the patterns I see, but I have also noticed some things that I rarely see mentioned in articles on this subject.

     1)      I am usually not the person the email is addressed to.  It is most often addressed to ‘undisclosed recipients’.  If I was truly the beneficiary, etc., it would be addressed to me personally.  My solution was to add the ‘To’ column to my email inbox.  This helps to isolate the scams from my actual email.

2)       Beware of one of these emails with an attachment.  Delete it.  Some file extensions can turn themselves into execution types of files upon opening.

3)       Never answer one of these emails that are not sent to your specific email address.  Scammers do not know which of the undisclosed recipients belong to live email addresses until you answer.

4)       Turn off the receipt function so that you will not inadvertently authorize a receipt when requested by the sender, or your system will not automatically send one.

5)       Look at the contact address or phone number in the ‘From’ address or in the body of the email.  The phone number may include a non-US country code such as +234 or +229 (Nigeria, Benin).  The email address may end with .hk or .ru or .cz.

6)       Check the spelling, sentence structure, and use of singular vs. plural when the email looks official.  If it is coming from another area of the world where English is not the primary language, there most likely will be flaws.

 These are some of the patterns I see, in the order of their importance.  I retired from a company that controlled this type of email traffic through its front end servers.  I got spoiled I guess, because now I have to watch out for this stuff myself.

I apply an email rule which separates out any incoming mail which is not addressed to me or contains certain words such as ‘lottery’, ‘Nigeria’, ‘000,000’, ‘beneficiary’, etc., and puts the above types into a separate scam folder where I can give a final check before deleting.

Thanks to Brenda McQ______

48. If your computer is running well today, there's no reason it shouldn't stay that way for several more years to come. Like a car, a computer needs regular maintenance and care to keep it operating smoothly. There are easy steps anyone can take to help extend a computer's useful life, saving money and the environmental impacts of throwing a computer away. Read Article

Devolution??

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