Profile……

Don Tweedie – Portrait of an Achiever

“I was born and raised in Portland, Oregon,” Don told me. “I joined the Navy when I was a young lad in high school–it was the patriotic thing to do then because of World War II.” Don served aboard the USS Lexington in the South Pacific where he was a helmsman and was on a 40 MM gunnery crew. After his discharge in 1946, he spent four years in the reserves and made yearly cruises on destroyer escorts. “I once spent two weeks in a diesel-electric submarine. I don't ever want to do that again!”

During that same time, Don enrolled at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, and then went to work for Tektronix. “I spent five years there,” Don continues. “I was the seventh employee to join the company, so I was in at the very beginning.” That was the start of the groundbreaking work Tektronix eventually did in developing electronic test equipment. “Their major product at that time was a five inch oscilloscope—all vacuum tubes—this was before solid state electronics,” Don pointed out.

While Don was at Tektronix, he got married. “I married my childhood sweetheart,” he says proudly. “And now, 57 years later, she’s still my sweetheart!”

After Don left Tektronix, he and Maryann took to the road. “We moved down to Southern California and I went to work for the guided missile division of Convair in Pomona. Then I went to work at the Naval Ordnance Laboratory in Corona.” By this time Don had enough of the defense industry, “so I joined the microwave division of the National Bureau of Standards in Boulder, Colorado.” Don found Boulder entirely too cold in the winter, so he thought about moving to more moderate climes. “I found an IBM ad in the Denver paper and thought, I can do that! So we moved to San Jose and I ended up spending 25 years doing storage system development work there.”

Don finally retired and he and Maryann took to the road again. “We moved up to Cottage Grove, Oregon; then to Sacramento; back to Portland and Vancouver, Washington; and finally to Grass Valley six years ago.”

Don started volunteering in Sacramento, teaching junior high school in Elk Grove. “I remember we had Commodore 64 computers. Those were the days!” Don says with a chuckle. Don did volunteer work again in Vancouver, where he helped computerize a hospital’s record system. When he arrived in Grass Valley he quickly became a volunteer for RSVP’s Help Line. Less than a year later, the Learning Center started up and Don became one of the original coordinators.

I asked about Don’s family. “We had six kids,” Don said proudly, “four daughters and two sons.” Don told me that his oldest son recently died of cancer in Seattle. “Our other son lives in Wisconsin, one daughter is in Camas, Washington, one is in San Jose, and two are here in Grass Valley.” I asked about grandchildren and great grandchildren. After some counting, he calculated that there are a total of 10 grandchildren and three great grandchildren.

At the Learning Center, Don holds a number of important jobs. He is on both the curriculum and education committees, and also serves as a senior technical advisor. “I’ve been spending a lot of time writing manuals recently,” he says. “I wrote the one for Computer Fundamentals and the one for Introduction to Computers, which Bob Reeves is presently test-teaching. We should be releasing that one after the first of the year.”

Don takes his Learning Center responsibilities very seriously. His message for prospective students? “If you have a computer and don’t know how to use it, come to the Learning Center and we can set you up. We’ll get you on e-mail, get you surfing the Web, and teach you about text processing.”

Don Tweedie is the Learning Center’s Energizer Bunny. He just keeps going and going!

What do you know about our free computer lab?

Submitted by Doug Worthy

Here is a simple quiz. Answers follow.   (All answers are YES or NO)

Tech Tips

Submitted by: Dick Thompson

Lost Files

To use this search feature, click “Start/Search/For Files or Folders.” You will be presented with a menu that asks, “What do you want to search for?” Since you are looking for a photo, choose “All files and folders.” Now you will see another menu that allows you to enter part of the file name or a word or phrase that may be in the file name. You can search for “Bob’s Wedding,” or “Bob,” or “Aunt Emma.” If this doesn’t work, and you still can’t remember the name you assigned to the folder or the photo, you can try some of the “More advanced options.” Or, since you remember the wedding was in June, you can click on “when was it modified?” Then enter 6-1-05 and 6-30-05 in the beginning and ending date spaces.

For every key word or date you enter, click on the “Search” button and a list of files matching your search will appear in another window. Double clicking on one will take you to that file. While a photo was used for this example, you can search for programs, documents of all kinds, almost anything. Remember: practice makes perfect. The more you use this feature the easier you will find it.

Have a favorite tip?
E-mail it to the editor at
publicity1@goldcountrycenter.or

1. There are three lab days per week every month of the year.
2. There is a lab monitor available for each lab day.
3. You are eligible to use the lab if you’re taking any of our classes.
4. Only students taking a class can use the lab.
5. Lab hours are available in the morning and afternoon.
6. Assistance is available in the lab for any class you are taking.
7. You should know how to use sign up book for the lab
8. You can sign up online for the lab.
9. You can use the lab on the third Thursday of each month.
10. There is a small charge to use the lab.
11. There are eight computers available for use in the lab.
12. When signing up for lab, you must use the whole two hours.
13. You should bring your lesson manual and CD to the lab.
14. You are allowed to use the lab if you forget badge, CD, or manual.
15. There’s a “lost & found” for items left behind in the lab.
16. Asking the office personnel to help in the Lab is okay.
17. All our computers use the Windows XP operating system.
18. You will have time to make notes when using the lab.
19. You may stay after your class and use the lab.
20. You may use the lab if you are not a Community Center member.

Lab Quiz Answers

1. No There are no lab days during August and December.
2. Yes
3. Yes
4. No Both former and current students may use the lab.
5. Yes Monday and Tuesday from 2 to 4 p.m. and Thursday from 9 to 11 a.m.
6. Yes
7. Yes If help is needed, please ask.
8. Yes Instructors and coaches can show you how to do that.
9. No That day is reserved for our Users Group meetings.

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New Vacation Photo Feature

We are starting a new feature for our many readers who are getting into digital photography–the “Vacation Photo of the Month” E-mail your photos to the editor at publicity1@goldcountrycenter.org Please try to size them, so the largest dimension is between 600 to 1000 pixels. Also include a brief explanation of your photo.

We’re starting this off with one of my photos. This past September, I made a “Lighthouse Tour” to photograph all the lighthouses between Crescent City, California, and Westport, Washington. This photo is of the very beautiful lighthouse at Cape Blanco, Oregon. - Editor

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Kim Komando – America’s “Digital Goddess” ®

Review

Despite the rather pretentious copyrighted sobriquet, Kim Komando looks like the real deal.

She is a PC guru.

You can read her weekly syndicated column in over 100 Gannett newspapers across the country. She writes two columns a week for the USA Today Website. She also hosts a weekly three-hour weekend radio show. (She’s on Nevada County’s KNCO Radio 830, from 4 to 7 p.m. each Saturday.) Every weekday, you can hear her Computer Minute. Additionally, she writes for Microsoft.com's Small Business site. And you can see her columns at the CNN Money Web site.

Kim really gets around. You can find her on the Web at:

http://www.komando.com/

On her Website you can sign up to receive a free weekly newsletter, daily news, daily tip and/or daily news. You can reach the tips archive from this site, as well as buy her books, her software, and have access to PC shareware……..and lots of other stuff.

Kim began her businesses in 1992 after several years of selling computer and telephone systems for IBM, AT&T and Unisys. She started with a radio show at KFYI and a column in the Arizona Republic, both in Phoenix.

Today more than 400 radio stations carry her weekly show around the world. Kim also is a syndicated columnist, appearing in over 100 newspapers. In addition, she publishes three e-mail newsletters that have more than one million subscribers, and she is frequently asked to appear on network television, including CNN.

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GCCLC Needs Coaches:  Become a “Computer-Tutor”

Do you know how to use a computer? We need volunteer coaches who assist the instructors and help students during classes. Coaches are roving helpers. We like to have three coaches per class but do not now have enough volunteers to meet that goal.

All that’s needed is basic knowledge of computer operation, the ability to perform simple word processing tasks (i.e. save, cut, paste, format), send and receive e-mail, surf the Internet, and the willingness and patience to help others.

If you are uncertain whether or not you qualify, GCCLC personnel will be pleased to do an assessment.  If needed, tutoring is available to sharpen skills.  
 
We’re a friendly all-volunteer group.  We offer structured, non-stressful lessons to help beginners, mostly seniors, join the information age with dignity.  If you would like to help, call Karen at 470-0270 or email ed2@goldcountrycenter.org.   You can also sign up online at our Website.

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There are no GCCLC events in December, so ....

  Happy holidays from all the volunteers at GCCLC.