ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, September 5, 1996 TAG: 9609050065
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: COMPUTER BITS
SOURCE: STAFF REPORT
YOU CAN GET YOUR BROWSER running and head out on the Information Superhighway for Harley-Davidson's site, which may make you halt the hard drive and hop on a Hog.
Even the experts have problems! The August issue of "Soft Talk," the newsletter of the Roanoke Valley Personal Computer Club, mentions that one of the group's officers almost destroyed the membership database.
But, he recovered; he had a backup. Plus, he's the club treasurer, so he likely was inspired to keep up with who pays dues.
The importance of backups, how to make them and a myriad of other tips are available through this group. You have a problem? Someone in the club likely has an answer.
Treasurer Del Kirschner - the speaker for the Sept. 14 meeting - invites computer aficionados to come. The club has been around since the mid-1980s. It meets the second Saturday of the month at the Arnold R. Burton Technology Center, near the General Electric Co.'s plant on Roanoke Boulevard in Salem.
The club has an arrangement with the Roanoke County school system by which the group uses the center in exchange for technical assistance and promotion of the county's adult continuing education program. Some even teach in it.
General sessions run from 9:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and special-interest groups sometimes meet after that. Dues are $30 per year, but it costs nothing to visit.
Members come from a variety of backgrounds, including some who work with computers and others who just bought them and learned the hard way.
President Tim Johnson is a diesel-engine mechanic for Shelton-Witt Equipment and a Windows 95 veteran. He even got the preview version of Windows, so he knows the glitches. Vice President Ernest Arnett runs computers at the General Electric Credit Union and is the general technical adviser.
Some people work with Windows NT, the version for networks.
The club also runs a bulletin board at 562-1827 (8 bits, 1 parity, no stops). It's for members, but guests can sign on and look around a little.
The ultimate librarian
Belinda Harris, The Roanoke Times' librarian, is an on-line expert. When she recommends a site, it ought to be good. So we listened when she sent this note:
"Found a neat site for you. It's called the Digital Librarian. This place has links to everything under the sun. It would be easy to spend hours at this site!!"
She wasn't kidding. This is like a chocolate lover wrestling in a Godiva mix. In the wee hours of a recent morning, we read a review of the Snappy Quick Chuck tool on the This Old House site, and then at the International Netsuke Society site, we lingered over a beautiful photograph of a 19th-century wood carving of a seated rat.
This is the Year of the Rat, of course.
When you sign on to Digital Librarian, you get a screen of key words to click on, and each leads you to links on the subject you choose. Those links have more links, which in turn have more links. Click on mythology, and you can get a listing of the gods and goddesses. Then you can go look at some of the art that has depicted them.
What's that rumble?
Harley-Davidson calls its site "on line with an edge." Site builder Steve Piehl warns that everything on the site "is designed to make you want to shut off your computer, pack a small bag and see the world on a Harley-Davidson."
And it gives you some ideas of where to ride. There's no Virginia category, but Virginia is mentioned under North Carolina, which touts the Blue Ridge Parkway's appeal.
The site also asks if you want the "shock wave version," but being cautious, we didn't try it for fear that it actually makes the computer roar.
Site sightings
Roanoke Valley real estate agent Greene Lawson's page lets you calculate how much house you can afford and browse some properties for sale in the valley. He has a nifty e-mail icon, too.
Hanes T-ShirtMaker & More! software developer has a site where you can learn more about how to create T-shirt designs, print them out on special paper and transfer them to shirts. Beginning Oct. 1, visitors to the site can download a free 10-day trial version of the software, which will sell for about $40.
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