Hello again, here we are with another WOW News for you.

Yet another busy couple of weeks – and already it’s Spring in Australia. Our weather today is just magnificent, the air is fresh and the sun is shining. And the school holidays are just around the corner for us – one more week to go!

And yet amongst all that, we have yet another anniversary of that most awful date in America’s history, September 11. My heartfelt warmest wishes to anybody who is affected by that awfulness.

FOCUS GROUP

We had our first focus group – gee a week ago already … it was great fun. And a couple of friendships were formed right there on the day, it was lovely to see. I have already got some great feedback from that day, so I’m looking forward to the next session in Mordialloc after the school holidays.

IT’S NEVER TOO LATE TO LEARN

Now for anybody out there who thinks they’re too old for all this technology stuff – perhaps take a look at this article from CNN. Ivy Bean is a woman in England – who is 104 years old, and is Twitter’s oldest user!

Here’s the CNN article, if you care to read about Ivy.

BRADFORD, England (CNN) — Tuesday is her 104th birthday, but that hasn’t stopped Britain’s Ivy Bean from being an avid Twitter user and possibly the oldest person on the social networking site.

Ivy Bean has 27,000 Twitter followers and tweets from the care home where she lives in Bradford, England.

From the care home where she lives in the northern English city of Bradford, near Leeds, Bean updates her more than 27,000 Twitter followers about the ups and downs of her life — from getting her hair done with her good friend Mabel, to eating fish and chips and watching her favorite game show, “Deal or No Deal,” on TV.

Last month, she tweeted her sadness that her friend Norma had passed away overnight.

Before getting onto Twitter, Bean was already active on Facebook, where she maxed out her 5,000-friend limit in no time.

Bean says she prefers Twitter because it’s easier than Facebook — it only requires updating. She has linked both accounts so that her tweets automatically show up on Facebook.

Bean says she knows people must think it’s amazing that she’s so active on online, but she thinks it’s a good way of keeping in touch with people.

And for those who find it hard to jump on the Twitter bandwagon, Bean offers this advice: “Keep on at it.”

“Old” is not the first — or second or even 10th — word that comes to mind with Bean, an engaging, lively and friendly lady with a warm and infectious smile.

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A resident of Hillside Manor, she recently won a gold medal at the residential home’s Over-75 Olympics in the Frisbee-throwing category. And she enjoys bowling on the home’s Nintendo Wii.

No surprise, perhaps, for a lady who was a gymnast when she was younger.

What do her friends think of her online popularity? “I think they might be jealous,” she said with a joking laugh.

Others at Hillside Manor also have Twitter accounts, but not Bean’s friend, Mabel Davis, 87.

“Just put me on yours, Ivy,” she says.

Already, Bean’s centenarian tweeting and Facebooking have attracted international attention, and news outlets from around the world have interviewed her.

Bean’s daughter, Sandra Logan, 61, said she arrived for a visit one day only to find her mom busy with a call.

“I’m on the phone with Israel,” Bean called out to her daughter.

Part of the reason Bean is so active online is because the care home makes activities for its residents a priority. One resident wanted to learn more about photography, so he now takes a course once a week at a local college. The home also helped another resident get a passport so he could visit his son in Spain.

Hillside Manor also recently hosted a quiz with students from the local college. The subject was history. The Hillside Manor residents won.

“We’re trying to do something different than knitting or crochet,” explained Pat Wright, the home’s manager.

Bean came from a large family with four brothers and three sisters. All are gone, Logan said.

Bean, who was in the middle of her siblings, was approaching 40 when she got married during the “great war” to Harold Gibson Bean. He was a cook in the army, and she worked in a mill.

After the war, the couple got a job “in service” to a wealthy family. Ivy Bean was a housekeeper and her husband was the cook and butler to Lord and Lady Guinness in Northamptonshire, England. Daughter Sandra, their only child, was born two years later, in 1947.

The couple retired together but Harold Bean died a few years later, when he was in his 70s, Logan said.

Bean now has three great-grandchildren with two more on the way, Logan said. They all call their famous great-grandmother “Little Nan.”

Wright says Bean is “very open” to new suggestions and new ideas and is always willing to have a go at something.

“She must have been like that all her life,” Wright says. “It’s not a new thing. I think if you’re one of those people that’ll try anything through your life, it doesn’t stop when you get old.”

As she types an update on her Twitter page, Bean certainly seems to be displaying an open mind. Would she agree?

“I don’t know if I have or not,” Bean says. “But there’s something there. There must be!” END ARTICLE

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This week’s problem and solution

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Slow Computers

One of the most annoying problems with computers is the way they inexplicably slow down. You buy this nice, shiny computer and everything works so fast. But within a short time, things seem to slow down. What used to take seconds, now seems to take minutes.

There are all sorts of ways to speed up the way your computer works, some of the ways of course are quite technical, but there are several steps we ordinary people can quite easily take to improve things.

One of the many reasons our computers slow up is because they get clogged up with unwanted files. And one way to speed up your computer can be to clear out your computer’s hard disk of these unnecessary files. You can do this manually, but Windows has an automated program to do it for you.

Today we will look at two areas that usually take up a lot of space in your computer’s hard disk – all the Temporary Internet Files and everything that’s in your Recycle Bin. When you delete things from your computer, they go into the Recycle Bin. Just like your email’s deleted Items Folder, the Recycle Bin needs emptying from time to time.

And there is one other thing that works a treat – disabling the automatic indexing of files. That might sound weird or complicated, but all you need to do is click in a box, and it’s disabled.

There are only a few steps to do all three of these functions, which you’ll see in the video.

1. Click Start, then click on Computer (or My Computer if you have XP.)
2. Right-click on your C drive.   (C: drive or Local Hard Disc C: or something similar), scroll down and click on Properties. A new window will be displayed.
3. Click in the box down the bottom, next to: ‘Allow Indexing Service to index this disk for fast file searching’. (this will remove the tick, which stops the function).
4. Click on Disk Cleanup. If a window appears asking which users files to fix, click on  All users for this computer, (or just my files, if that’s what you want).
   - Your computer will work out which files are available to be cleaned up, and will put a tick in some obvious categories. Leave these ticked, unless you’re certain you want to keep them.
5. Click in the box next to Recycle Bin and Temporary Internet Files (this will put a tick in the box)
6. Click OK.
   The computer will ask you if you’re sure you want to permanently delete these files.
7. Click OK

Come along and watch the video and you’ll see how easy this is to do.  http://tinyurl.com/mgft32

And for the more adventurous amongst us, here are two links I’ll give you today. They each have different suggestions, but both articles are quite informative and easy to follow. But please, only tackle what you feel confident in doing.

http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/maintenance/speed.aspx

and: http://www.connectedinternet.co.uk/2005/12/03/10-simple-ways-to-speed-up-windows-xp/

Click on the link to either or both of the articles, and print out the steps if you want to do some maintenance. There are also a multitude of programs out there, called registry cleaners, but I don’t trust most of these. If you see these flashy little boxes, saying “they’ve discovered you have 32,000 errors on your computer, download here to fix it”, – please don’t listen to them. Usually, they scan your computer and give you some huge figure of perceived problems and then when you’re really nervous tell you “purchase now and we can fix it for you”.

Of course they might work just fine.

But I believe any reputable company wouldn’t use these scare tactics to get you to buy their product. There are of course some excellent products out there, but we’ll look at them another day.

Oh, and if you’re a Gold Member and want a hand with this – you can use your one-on-one time this month to have me actually DO this for you. With the wonders of technology, I can do this for you from my office. Email for details.

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How are you?

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I am so excited with this news. Allison Ford from Actively Ageing is a physiotherapist who specialises in exercises for the over 65 age group. Ali has a book and DVD which takes you through some simple exercises.

Ali has made a very generous offer to our Web on Wheels members and subscribers. Purchase Ali’s book and DVD package – ‘Actively Ageing’, which normally sells for $88 for only $67, plus postage.

Ali is also going to throw in a free mystery gift for us. The book has two exercise sessions -30 mins each. Two different levels of exercise-one using a chair, the other using a mat on the floor.

And if you don’t want to purchase online, or don’t have a credit card, you can let me know, and I’ll be able to organise things for you. I’m not making any money out of this, I just want to let you know about this great way to exercise.

Next week I’ll be chatting with Ali, and for anybody who is interested in finding out more, I’ll send the details of how you can see the video of our chat. This way you’ll get to ‘meet’ Ali, before you get her book, whilst using your computer skills.

And now all we over-fifties in our fancy new glasses might appreciate this week’s joke.

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Humour me!

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Two pieces for you today.

The first is what we need after the techie problem we looked at this week.

This cartoon is a light-hearted look at how we people who help with computer stuff really do it.

The second is sent from David – thanks!!

I LOVE THIS ONE – HOPE YOU APPRECIATE IT TOO!

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Now on to David’s funny:

Subject: tomatoes

An Old Italian man lived alone in the country. He wanted to dig his tomato Garden, but it was very strenuous work as the ground was rock hard. His only son, Vincent, who used to help him, was in prison. The old man wrote a letter to his son and described his predicament:

Dear Vincent,

I am feeling pretty badly because it looks like I won’t be able to plant my tomato garden this year. I’m just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. I know if you were here my troubles would be over. I know you would be happy to dig the plot for me.

Love,
Dad

A few days later he received a letter from his son:

Dear Dad,

Don’t dig up that garden. That’s where I buried the bodies.

Love,
Vinnie

Because his mail had been censored at the prison, at 4 a.m. next morning, FBI agents and local police arrived and dug up the entire area without finding any bodies. They apologized to the old man and left.

That same day the old man received another letter from his son:

Dear Dad,

Go ahead and plant the tomatoes now. That’s the best I could do under the circumstances.

Love you,
Vinnie

Till next week, smiles and best wishes!

Viv

In this edition we’ll look at:

• 104 year old Ivy Bean
• Speeding up your computer;
• Keeping active; and
• Humour – Help desk and tomatoes

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A quick word about the content of this message.

If this message doesn’t display properly, please click here to read the message online:    http://tinyurl.com/n58xpq

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Until next time, please take good care of yourself.

Viv

” To be wronged is nothing, unless you continue to remember it.”
Confucious