Student of the Quarter Corey Sloan is presented with her award by Delta Lions Club member Dean Cummings on Monday, January 28, 2002.  For the story see the community news. Photo courtesy of Debbie Jennings.

Delta News Web Classified Ads to be Enhanced

Since nearly the beginning of the Delta News Web in May, 1999 we offered free classified advertising. We have run hundreds of free ads since that time.

The Delta News Web has become quite popular. In the last three months of 2001, the Delta News Web home page served 15,603 page views -- about 164 per day, on average. Delta folk and visitors seem to appreciate the mix of community information, pictures, classified ads and other features.

When we began the Delta News Web, we started operating as a community service. It was a fun thing we could do for our town. We still feel that way about it, but the expenses have started to mount and we have begun to search for ways of recouping some of these costs.

As a first step towards bringing the Delta News Web to a place where it pays for itself, we have decided to enhance our commercial classified advertising and charge a modest fee. Future commercial classified advertisements will now have a place on the Delta News Web home page, a link to the classified page, and a "thumbnail" image (if needed). We will charge only $4/week, $12/month and $25/three months as an introductory fee. We will accept checks and credit cards in payment.

As much as we would like to continue operating this as a totally free service, we are simply unable to do so. We hope you will support this new system and that it will serve your business needs even better than before.

To kick off the new system, we are offering up to one month free classified advertising to the first five businesses that send in an advertisement.

Delta News Web staff -- January 17, 2002

Virus Hoax Making the Rounds

Many of us have received a virus hoax message recently. The message basically says "There is a new virus on the loose that cannot be detected by Norton and McAfee. Check your computer. You probably got it from me. The file is sulfnbk.exe. If you have it here is how to delete it." Detailed instructions follow.

The problem is sulfnbk.exe is not a virus. It is a legitimate program sometimes used by the MS Windows operating system. Almost EVERYONE has it. If you delete it, you reduce the functionality of Windows. (Interesting wrinkle: according to Norton, "the virus/worm W32.Magistr.24876@mm can arrive as an [e-mail] attachment named Sulfnbk.exe.")

Here's my recommendation: if you get a message like this, do not follow the instructions in the message, but get some independent advice from anti-virus experts. Here is the Norton Anti-Virus information page on this hoax. If you get an e-mail message with sulfnbk.exe as an attachment, don't run (double-click) it.

The safest thing any of us can do is obtain anti-virus software. Even better is to get the software and keep the virus definitions up to date. It has become a social necessity to have good anti-virus software. Without it, we run the risk of infecting people we correspond with. This past fall I received 180 copies -- 30 mb total -- of e-mail from a person who did not have anti-virus software. His computer kept sending me the same virus infected message for about a week. The total download time was several hours.

David Johnson, Outdoors America Communications -- January 18, 2002


Four year old Arthur, son of Al and Rose Edgren, gets ready for hockey practice.  Photo courtesy of Debbie Jennings.


DeeDee Jonrowe preps her dog team before the Copper Basin 300 Sled Dog Race.  The race took place January 11th and the temperature was at six degrees.  Photo courtesy of Paula Groundwater.


Several trucks work to pull a sunken flatbed out of Quartz lake.  Photo courtesy of Fronty Parker.


A group of Dall Sheep pause from their ascent of Rainbow Mountain to stare at the camera man.  Photo by Glen Johnson.


The prominent Mt. Drum as seen from the intersection of the Glenn and Richardson highways in Glenallen.  Mt. Drum is a volcanic peak located in the Wrangell Mountains.  Photo courtesy of Northwest Webcraft.


An unusual card game took place at the Park service cabin at Fielding Lake this past New Years Eve.  Photo courtesy of Fronty Parker.


Five moose graze along the Donnelly Dome area near Delta Junction.  Photo courtesy of Deltana Outfitters.


Shown above is a beaded lotus pin created by Viki Faber.  For more information on Viki's work click here.  Photo by Northwest Webcraft.