Club Updating Armstrong County’s Computer Knowledge
Mid-Armstrong Computer Club Member John Shannon, of Kittanning, navigates the club’s laptop directory via a large screen the Kittanning Public Library allows them to use monthly. The club also meets at the library the second Wednesday of each month.
by Jonathan Weaver
For more than 23 years, a social club that concentrates on advancing the County’s computer skills has moved throughout central Armstrong County.
Members of the Mid-Armstrong Computer Club – which started meeting at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Kittanning and met a handful of other places before their spot now at the Kittanning Public Library - have dealt with their own learning curve with the advances of the Internet, different operating systems and computer models.
President Joe Mores summarized the group’s mission statement.
“People bring in questions – we present different things that are going on with computers,” Mores said. “We try to make it as simple as possible.”
Mores, of West Kittanning, started using his computer a few years ago for genealogy research as he was recovering from a kidney transplant. He has found distant cousins from around the world, including in Germany, Argentina and Denmark with five different spellings of his last name (such as Moeres, Moehres or Meueris in the 1500’s).
“I wanted to have something to keep me busy during the winter, so I started with myself, my father, my grandfather, my great-grandfather whom I had only seen in pictures. Going through the computer and the genealogy society, the whole world opened up,” Mores said. “Going through using the computer on different sites since then, I have found the street where my family came from, the relation between them and other people in Ford City.
“I found some things that just blew my mind.”
Mores, who once had his own typewriter, said club members or visitors also can also learn how to make home repairs, get relevant information regarding the upcoming Windows 10 operating system and stay in contact with voice or video communication with family members all over the world.
“It’s really nice, but this is something people have to learn,” Mores said.
John Shannon, of Kittanning, has been in the computer club for 10-12 years.
A retiree from WPIT Radio for 24 years in Pittsburgh, Shannon maintains a website with his ham radio activities.
Since 1963, Shannon has made 85,000 contacts from 223 different countries – all through Morse code.
“I get on every day – I’ve made a contact every day since August 5, 1994,” Shannon said.
On his website, Shannon – who previously was treasurer in the computer club - maintains a list of his contacts during the past 10 days and their unique call station and band.
“You don’t get to talk too long to them – they just exchange signal reports – but once in a while you get involved in a long conversation that’s interesting,” Shannon said. “English is becoming a very prevalent language around the world.”
“I remember back in 1979 with computers when you had to type in your program- then they got sophisticated and you could load from a cassette tape – which you might have to record four or five times,” Shannon said.
Then came different sizes of floppy disks, DVD drives and USB drives.
“It’s amazing how much it’s advanced in 36 years,” Shannon concluded.
The club meets the second Wednesday of each month at the library on North Jefferson Street
Dues are $10 per year and help raise money for new equipment (such as their current laptop), but members also hold social events. The group also donates $75 to the library to help pay for room rentals.
“Ask a question, and we’ll get you an answer,” Mores concluded.
Local News | jweaver August 18, 2015
By Just sayin, August 18, 2015 @ 10:14 AM
Oh, please help them.
Some of the buildings still have Windows XP on their systems, and as we ALL should know, Microsoft does NOT do updates on Windows XP anymore. That compromises a lot of our county’s confidential information.
No wonder China and Russia are hacking our governmental departments.