Our new group website now works reasonably well, by the time you read this www.wakefieldsupportgroupautism.org will be past the present (late June) embryonic stage, a fair bit bigger and more useful.

At first it didn’t work at all well. Each time I solved one problem, another difficulty arose. Eventually I had to request the hosting company’s help. This was the answer I got;-

"This will most likely be either down to http caching or the caching of the actual domain name (DNS caching). This will most likely settle down after a time if this is a new virtual server that has recently been moved, although some ISP’s employ large proxy servers which sometimes mislead the actual contents that should be delivered from a site even though it has been updated. Again these symptoms disappear over time, usually a few hours."

And our kids are supposed to have communication problems!! Enjoy our site, try to contribute and please also don’t forget our newsletter either.

Jrc

Our Friends…at ABC Leeds have just informed me of the opening of their new web site. The site is simple to use and contains a lot of important information as well as a Poetry Corner from Daniel – who often appears in their newsletter… Well worth a visit.

Went very well indeed. A short, illustrated write up is on our group website already on the "past events" page.

For those unable to access internet, Mandi Gay ran a tombola stand with the prizes kindly donated by Asda Stores PLC. This stall raised a useful sum of cash for our group.

In addition to the three on our site I took a number of other photographs during this nice warm afternoon. If any one wants a set I’ll be very happy to put them free of charge on a CD for you, please just ask me. I believe most of our children feature on it somewhere.

John Clayton, Tel;- 01924 270144

The day was Sunday 15th June 2003; the sun was shining down us, which made it such a perfect day.

The trip went wonderful all those who went enjoyed themselves very much, that they are waiting for the next one.

We had a guided tour around the station and into the shed, whilst on our train journey which is a lovely long ride, and very relaxing for both Adults and Children. They all loved the dark tunnel it is a quarter of mile long, it was me who was scared I thought of all the spiders lurking around. When the train arrived at the end of the line the children were able to get out and watch the train turning around on the mini turntable.

There are also mini roundabouts, swings, and smaller train ride around the pond, all in all it was a grand day out well worth the money.

Melanie Sykes

With the holiday season on us, Jeanette Crawford has kindly sent us the following few Spanish words. Not any old Spanish words, but some jolly handy ones should you or your child need (say) casein free or for that matter casein rich foods.

Here they are;-

Milk = leche

Soya milk = leche de soja

Cream = nata

Butter = mantaquilla

Margarine = margarina

Casein = caseina (I think)

Lastose = lactosa

Whey = suero

Cheese = queso

Yogurt = yogur

Cow = vaca

Sheep = oveja

Goat = cabra

Hope this helps, enjoy your holidays!

Aaron Swithenbank and me are thinking of starting a social group for young people and adults with Aspergers and/ or High Functioning Autism.

At the moment we are collecting details of anyone who may be interested.

So if you are, or know someone who might be, please contact me, Laura on: 01924 278463 or by email at: rainbowspirals@yahoo.co.uk

Thanks

Laura C.

Pupils with special educational needs are to get new facilities at Castleford High School Technology College and Methodist J&I, Wakefield.

Up to 20 Deaf and Hearing impaired students between 11-16 will have a new resource at Castleford High to work alongside facilities already provided at Heath View Primary School, Wakefield and The Rookeries, Carleton.

Additional facilities for 10 Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder are being built at the METHODIST School, Thornes to complement those at Northfield School, South Kirkby and St.Thomas a Becket RC High.

The two developments are expected to open in September this year.

Clip art is one of the most commonly used functions on the word processor and can lead to either a wonderfully illustrated document or a nervous breakdown.

Common causes for complaint are:

1. Positioning or not
2. Working with layers
3. Rotating your work
4. Not being able to do anything other than resize.

In MSWord click on Tools at the top of the window and select Customize near the bottom of the menu.. You should now have a box with three tabs at the top – Toolbars, Commands and Options. Choose the Toolbars tab if that is not already displayed then place a tick in the box beside Drawing and close. You should now have a new toolbar usually at the bottom of your window when you select your clipart you can edit it using this toolbar, you can now also draw using AutoShapes and insert Text boxes (very useful).

Select your clipart and click on the Draw tab from the Drawing toolbar now click on Ungroup and straightaway use the same menu to Regroup. You should now find that the Free Rotate icon is available on the drawing menu.

But with some practice using the Order sub menu from the Draw menu you will be able to alter the position of the layer you are working on. Lots of fun and some heartache.

This is caused by the Wrapping option, which is by default set at Top and Bottom. Select your clipart and click on Format at the top of your window and select Picture then select Wrapping. Now click in the box above None suddenly your clipart is obscuring your typed work. Use another of the Wrapping options to give the desired effect.

Rob

Viruses can be very scary. So scary in fact that many of us fall for hoax viruses.

You see some people, usually those people who think that any one who doesn’t know exactly what they are doing shouldn’t own a computer in the first place - Yes they are usually teenage computer nerds with a lot of spare time on their hands. Well some people think it’s funny.

So exactly what is a hoax virus? They can take many innocuous forms from simply informing you of how to find and delete the virus to printing thousands of sheets of paper every time you turn on your computer.

The first kind may seem at first glance the least offensive. However, this is not always the case and may actually be leading you into opening up your computer to Spam mail or even Hacking.

The second is at least annoying and at worst very distressing. But given time the "JOKE" will normally take it’s course. Please also note that someone you know usually sends this type of hoax virus.

Take care. Viruses are usually sent by email:

1. Do not open anything if you are not sure who sent it to you.
2. Do not open attachments or run programs that have been sent to you unless you are expecting them to be delivered. Your friends may have viruses that will send themselves to you!
3. Get a good antiviral system like NORTON
4. Don’t panic a virus will only usually activate if you do something. If you suspect it DELETE IT.

Finally you could always try an alternative Internet Browser. Internet Explorer is known to be flawed – for a start it gathers information about how you use the Internet, what you buy and how you pay. It even keeps things like your date of birth, address, telephone number, Oh and credit card number. In fact it may store all the information that you have ever typed onto a form on the Internet. That information is available to those who know how to get it.

Opera is a good all-round internet browser and the only one that I will use. It comes complete with an integrated POP-UP ad filter and is easily customisable it may also make your internet connection faster and is less prone to either hacking or viruses.

Opera is available free (with advertising) at http://www.opera.com/

Norton Antivirus and the Symantec security check are available at http://www.symantec.com/

PS if you think you have a virus please don’t e-mail anyone to let them know.

If you have a question related to computers or the Internet, please do not hesitate to get in touch with me (Rob – The Editor) in the usual ways all details on the committee sheet.

If you have anything to say on the subject why not send in an article for us – or could you perhaps suggest/review a game or piece of software.