Monday, November 8, 2010

Social Security Administration

Will visit our lab
on
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
at 1:30 pm
with an informative presentation
by
Ms. Shirley Saxton
from
The Social Security Administration
highlighting
Medicare Part D Enrollment
ALL ARE INVITED

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

All FREE HICAP Services

As students who attend classes learn computer components, navigation and Internet browsing, we are gearing up to serve those community members, whom are physically unable to attend. We are offering an in-home video e-mail service. HICAP representatives will capture sentiments and e-mail them to the addresses provided by the recipient. We are honored to assist all participating members of our community.

Monday, August 2, 2010

SEPTEMBER 2010 EVENTS

HICAP will resume its scheduled classes every TUESDAY and WEDNESDAY
(unless otherwise specified)



  • Tuesday, September 14-Registration & Opening Day

  • Tuesday, September 21-First Day of Class

  • Wednesday, September 22-OneWebDay founded on September 22, 2006 by Susan Crawford, who currently works with the Obama administration celebrates the Internet's affect internationally with over 30 countries. Come, celebrate the Internet's OneWebDay with HICAP!

Friday, June 25, 2010

Message to the 2010 HICAP Graduates

Thursday, June 24, 2010
.
I would like to thank you for coming to class through your pain, after chemo, after waiting in the sun so long that you almost had heat stroke trying to get here on time; and also for coming to class after doctors' appointments just to capture the last few minutes of knowledge.
.
I would like to thank you for believing that this boring technical language will someday be useful. Most of all, I would like to thank each of you for achieving and surpassing my expectations.
.
A special acknowledgement to those who've had family and health issues and could not continue with us; remember, we are here when you are ready. My mission is to empower you with the understanding that you control this bit based system that we call computer. Your coursework over the summer is to remain hungry for knowledge. Most of all, I thank you for being you--HICAP ISOC-NY.

HICAP 2010 Graduation Celebration





Thursday, June 10, 2010

Senior Fun & Wellness Day

Friday, June 11, 2010
from 1 pm - 4 pm
at the
HARLEM YMCA
Gymnasium
180 West 135 Street * Harlem, USA
Games * Raffles * Food * Nutritional Info * Exercise Demo
Guest passes to the YMCA will be given to all in attendance

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Harlem Living Will Seminar

Saturday, June 5 and Sunday, June 6

Questions will be answered about:
  • Power of Attorney
  • Will
  • Living Will
  • Health Care Proxy
  • Final Directive

This Life Preparation is sponsored by
St. Mark the Evangelist Church
65 W
est 138 Street * Harlem, USA
212 690 1821

Monday, May 24, 2010

FCC Ban of Microphones

To all my friends in Internet land
I want to tell you of an FCC ban
After June 12th, 2010
Microphone use will begin to end
Not all mics, now here's the dirt
Only those within 700 MHz
This rule occurs in urgency
Affecting bandwidth used for emergency

To see if the law affects your mic, go to: www.fcc.gov/cgb/wirelessmicrophones/manufacturers.html

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Privacy and The Internet

I am perplexed by the notion of privacy on the Internet. The law in the United States protects against illegal search and seizure, the law does not apply to data. The Internet is designed to broadcast throughout the world. One would not seek confidentiality in a place intended for sharing. There is knowledge that has remained buried for many years; it was never placed on the Internet. Governmental, medical, business and educational institutions are responsible for securing our personal data that is input onto their networked systems. Nothing, once it leaves you, is sacred. The best use of the Internet is to broadcast and to share data. In an earlier discussion we stated that, 'Nothing should be done on the Internet, that would not be done in a court of law'.
*
Google and privacy-the government has access to all data searched on Google. After 18 months, Google anonymizes data, but a person can still be tracked through discarded records. All searches are connected to your IP address. Googles states that no one owns posted data.
*
InPrivate is Microsoft's answer to privacy, but it entails numerous keystrokes. Every keystroke is recorded by the computer, even deletions. The computer stores deleted files until they are written over.
*
Seek privacy within yourself, not on the Internet. The Internet hold numerous breach opportunities, even with encryption.

What are your thoughts on Privacy and The Internet?

Wednesday, May 12, 2010


Ms. Saxton is demonstrating how to search the http://www.ssa.gov/ site, while students follow on hicap laptops.

Today, May 12, 2010

Ms. Shirley Saxton from the Social Security Administration is here at HICAP explaining how to make an appointment by calling 800-772-1213. She helps students access the multi-lingual page, so that they can source information and publications in Cantonese, Spanish and English. The site supports approximately 15 other languages. Another way to access Socical Security is through http://www.youtube.com/ with help from Patty Duke an ssa.gov spokesperson. To assist the legally blind, Ms. Saxton shows students how to enlarge the site's text. Her session ran an hour or more overtime. The seniors did not want to leave. Gift bags were given to all attendees.

Monday, May 3, 2010

The Month of May

  • This month we will review what we've learned
  • Prepare a PowerPoint Presentaion of class pictures
  • We will record the voices of students for 'In Our Own Words' series
  • Invite Social Security Administration and a local business to demonstrate ease of accessing their site via the Internet
  • Prepare for June 24, 2010 Graduation

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Philip Emeagwali * Internet Pioneer


PHILIP EMEAGWALI, born in Akure, Nigeria on August 23rd, 1954 to Agatha and James Emeagwali; is the oldest of nine children. Son of a scientist and mathematician, his father insisted upon him doing 100's of calculations daily in his head. He became known as the human calculator. By the time Emeagwali was 12-years-old, civil war broke out and he was inducted into the Biafran army as a cook; a position that he says saved his life. He was smuggled out the country by his family and came to America; where he studied and earned his GED. From there he's won many awards and has received several degrees. Emeagwali speaks of the comparison of him to Bill Gates:


"It is like comparing apples to oranges. I am a supercomputer scientist while Bill Gates is a software entrepreneur. The scientist creates the knowledge while the entruepreneur takes it, monetizes it, and runs with it."


In 1989, Emeagwali created the knowledge that thousands of electronic brains, called processors could outperform a supercomputer. His discovery was against the prevailing dogma: The president of the leading supercomputer company told The New York Times [11/29/89]:


"A major scientific discovery by a team of 24 co-discoverers supported by a 400 person laboratory or $400 million grants. How then did an African immigrant who worked alone...indifferent to other's skepticism of wild theories achieve a break-through in supercomputing?
"New knowledge builds upon old knowledge and the names of most contributors were lost in antiquity. For instance, I developed nine algorithms which I implemented as 24 million algebraic equations. My work therefore builds upon the knowledge of the ninth century Persian mathematician, Muhammed idn Musa Al-Khwarizmi, who published an influential book Al-Jabr wa'l maqabalah. The words "Al-Khwarizmi" and "Al-Jabr wa'l" were corrupted to algorithm and algebra, respectively. I could not have solved 24 million algebraic equations without building upon the knowledge developed 1680 years before Christ was born by an African mathematician named Ahmes who wrote the oldest mathematic text book with solutions of equation. There were many discoveries and inventions that I built upon to make mine."[1]
(c)1972-2005 emeagwali.com info@emeagwali.com Page 51 of 517


EMEAGWALI is responsible for:


* 65,000 computers in 1970 connected around the world is what we now know as the Internet
* 65,536 processors in 1988 configured in parallel to yield 3.1 billion calculations per second
* Hyperball model represents the earth is what meteorologist use today to predict weather
* Real time video Internet conversation exists because of enumerated processor speeds


[1] http://www.emeagwali.com/ to learn more about our cyberspace pioneer!


Monday, April 26, 2010

Computers & Extensions

All computers contain:

Fan for cooling the system
Power Supply stimulates electrical activity through system circuits
Motherboard allows system's components and periphery to communicate
System Crystal pulsates at specific frequency, keeping system's time
Ports USB, RJ11, cable, media
System defaults...
*
How does a series or parallel configuration work?
*
What is an extension? List country extensions

Saturday, April 24, 2010

This Week We Explored

  • Excel
  • Publisher
  • Word
  • Accessories
  • Paint
  • Internet Explorer
  • Initializing
  • Loading
  • Buffering

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

This Week's Discussion

  • Flash Drives
  • USB ports
  • Desktop
  • Icons
  • Click-left or right
  • Screen Savers
  • Accessories
  • Media
  • Volume
and
Philip Emeagwali, Father of the Internet

Students in Attendance


Last Week's Discussion

Last week we discussed the difference between Hertz and bytes:

  • kilo = 1,000
  • mega = 1,000,000
  • giga = 1,000,000,000
  • tera = 1,000,000,000,000

Utilizing the above prefixes combined with Hertz or bytes produces either the speed or storage capacity of a computer.

Standard and assigned disk drives

Recognition of symbols for media

Saturday, April 10, 2010

After Class, Students Leaving


The Internet Law

Nothing is to be done on the Internet that would not be done in a court of law.

*

Seniors hard at work, surfing the Internet. Two students are searching in their native Chinese dialect. Our legally blind student searches in large print. A representative from the Social Security Administration is coming to HICAP to demonstrate to students how they can access the SSA website from our lab.

*

This week we discussed:

Internet Law, keyboard commands, trouble-shooting tips, DOS, amplitude/frequency modulation, USB ports and hubs.

Also, we contacted the NYC Parks Dept. for list of parks offering wireless fidelity.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

March 30, 2010 Discussion

Our Class Discussion:
  • Difference between Computer and the Internet
  • Difference between Desktop and Laptop Computers
  • Parts of the Desktop Computer
  • Bits, Bytes, Hertz--Kilo-, Mega-, Giga-
  • Search Engines

Sites Visited:

Happy Students at HICAP


Friday, March 19, 2010

HICAP Opening a Success!

Beginning: Tuesday, March 30, 2010
HICAP Lab
will be OPEN every
Tuesday & Thursday
from
1:00pm - 3:00pm
*
Instruction
from
1:30pm - 2:30pm

Monday, March 15, 2010

March 18, 2010 HICAP Lab Opening

Walker, wheelchair, cane, gurney or by foot
All are welcome!
to the
Harlem Internet Computer Access Program
Explore this opportunity to be immersed in information about the
latest technological advancements in computers and the
Internet in a hands-on, stress-free envirnoment
&
Access the Internet
Establish an e-mail address
Source resources via the Internet
View current health and longevity data
Correspond with loved ones and much more!

OPENING & REGISTRATION
Thursday, March 18th, 2010
from 1 pm - 3 pm
at
The Gen. Chauncey Hooper Towers
10 West 138th Street
Harlem, USA 10037
*
FREE OF CHARGE
*
Classes begin March 30 - June 24 Graduation Celebration
Classes resume September 14, 2010
This project was made possible in part through a donation from the Internet Society

and Council Inez Dickens through Department of the Aging






Saturday, March 13, 2010

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Joly McFie of ISOC wrote:

Harlem Internet Computer Access Project - Now christened with the handy acronym HICAP - Merle Bush's ISOC funded effort to bring Internet literacy to seniors in Harlem is on track,and we are just in the process of purchasing the first round of hardware. Something she is needing are good ergonomic & comfortable chairs that are suitable for her client. If you know of any going spare, or any other good quality equipment, particularly laptops -please feel free to get in touch direct.

http://isoc-ny.org/wiki/The_Harlem_Computer/Internet_Access_Programme

Monday, February 22, 2010

Preparing for Report

Today technician installed router and software resulting in excellent signal in HICAP lab.

Would like to include in our March Report that we have lab up and running, preparing for the HICAP Open House and Registration on March 5th at the latest.

Currently compiling list of interested senior citizen from the Harlem community to participate.

Preparing invitation and flyer with date T/B/A.

Met with Richard Lobosky about Muratek prices and specs.