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December

(24.12.06) Ever wondered how Santa gets around the world and how close he is to your house? Well now you can find out, thanks to the friendly folk at NORAD, who take time off from their normal job of tracking incoming air threats to the USA every Christmas to track his progress across the world. Click hereto find out where he is now!

They've being doing this for years, ever since a newspaper offered to tell people where Santa was but printed the NORAD number by mistake!

Have a happy Christmas everybody!

(22.12.06) E-Cards start arriving in the last days before Christmas as those that forgot to post a real one make up for it for by sending their friends a hilarious animation but beware. They're not all innocent fun, many contain spyware, that's a progam that tracks your internet use and sends the information to spammers or trogans, a program hidden inside another that might actually hijack your computer. The ones to e careful of are the ones that ask you to install something before you can view them, if they do, don't!

Yesterday's Firefox update is downloading and installing automatically, even on relatively slow dialup connections! Hooray and thanks to everyone who wrote in to tell me!  

(21.12.06) Firefox has issued an update that fixes several security problems highlighted recently. I was online for sometime today and it didn't download automatically, so it might be a good idea to get it yourself. Just click on Help at the top of the browser and then on "Check for Updates", it will start to download immedietly. It's a 780kb file so it will take a few minutes on a dialup connection and after it's downloaded you'll get a message asking you to restart Firefox to complete installation. Read the technical details on the flaws it fixes it here .

(18.12.06) You, yes YOU, are Time magazine's "Person of the Year 2006"! They've given the award, which dates back to 1926, to everyone who uses the Internet, so there's a lot of us but I think we can still be proud, afterall previous winners include Kissinger and Stalin and this year we beat the President of Iran into second place. Read more here and see the original YouTube appeal, referred to in the article, here.

On a much baser leveler, you've probably seen in the news that the man arrested for the Ipswich murders had a MySpace page. I feel slightly ashamed that I found it but here it is none the less (well, you don't have to click).

(17.12.06) One of the Microsoft updates that came out this week restarts the computer automatically, which might be a bit worrying for some people. Oddly, it happened on mine after it came out of hibernation having been on for several hours, which I don't really understand. Anyway, if people start remarking that comuter is restarting for no apparent reason over the next few weeks, that's probably why.

(15.12.06) Skype, the free or very cheap internet phone service, is to offer users a lie detector as an addon to the existing service, it won't be free but it will probably be fairly cheap. This may seem an odd offer until you consider that Skype was bought by ebay a couple of years ago and is widely used by ebay members to communicate with each other. It's probably the cheapest of the phone over Internet services because you only need a headset to use it and they can be had for a couple of quid, you don't need a handset or to join a particular ISP to use it. Read more here and visit Skype here (Skype does work with dialup but it's much better on broadband).

(14.12.06) Ubuntu is an alternative operating system to Windows and it could revive that old PC that you have sitting around doing nothing since you bought that flashy new one. It's based on Linux and so is free to use and it can perform most of the functions of an XP system. Probably a lot faster too but it's a big 700mb download, which as I discovered yesterday, isn't really practical on a 512k connection. The good news is that you can get a copy on the DVD version of Computer Buyer magazine, unfortunately I subscribe to the CD one, so I only got to read the article about it.

What struck me was that it seems to be much easier to use than previous versions of Linux and you don't even have to uninstall Windows to try it out. That's because, once you've changed the boot order of computer, you can boot from the Ubuntu disc and most cases access most of your Windows files once the computer starts. This makes a copy worth having in itself because if your computer is infected by a virus, you can use the disc to rescue otherwise inaccessible files. You can try it yourself by either getting hold of the current copy of Computer Buyer DVD or downloading it from here, if you have an 8mb connection. If anyone has a copy I'd really like to hear from them! 

(11.12.09) The Epson C40 might not be up to what we want from a photo printer but it seems that some cutting edge organisations can still find a place for it. Look in the background of this screenshot from Channel 5's NCIS and there it is, starring next to Mark Harmon, head of the forensics team! Surely that can't be a NAIDC tower under the desk could it? Who said C5 runs on a tight budget!

Criminals are trawling websites like MySpace and Beebo and using information gleaned from the profile pages to create emails that are more likely to be opened. If they manage to automate this process it could turn into a serious threat as people are far more likely to open something and trust an attachment if it appears to be about something they are interested in and to come from someone they know. If you or your children have profiles on this sort of website be extra careful, even if messages seem to come from someone on your friends list.

(09.12.06) Channel 4 has launched a TV download service which allows users to access their huge archive of programs and movies. It requires to users to download a free media player, which enables them to browse the archive. Namy programs are free but some cost 99p and movies are £1.99. See for yourself here. Requires a broadband connection, the faster the better.

Microsoft has launched a booksearch service in an attempt to match Googles search services. It's simple to use but doesn't work as well as Googles. I searched for the phrase "It is a truth universally acknowledged" and, while Google found several references, including the original book, Microsoft only came up with three books on Jane Austin. Compare them here and here.

(08.12.06) Wii, the successor to PlayStation 2 and one of the most desireable Christmas presents out there, has launched in the UK with people queueing overnight to get their hands on the new console. What makes it different from the Xbox is not the games but the controller. Instead of risking an RSI, it works with body movement so that, for instance, playing a tennis game involves actually moving your arm as if you were actually on the tennis court. Pretty soon games are going to be indistinguishable from reality, at which point people may think that reality might be worthy a try too.

That was bit of a ramble, back to the news. The Wii is out in Europe, 50000 were sold at launch but as far as I can tell, none are available for delivery before Christmas. It seems there were limited numbers available and they've all sold out, which will disappoint a lot of people. You can order it but none of the reputable retailers are claiming to have it in stock and I would be very wary of anyone who says they do. Read more (about the launch, availability is just my opinion) here

November

(30.11.06) Vista, Microsoft's new operating system*, has finally been released, along with the new version of Office, to business customers. Home users will have to wait until early next year but if previous launches and reports from people testing the new operating system are anything to go by, they'd be well advised to wait for a bit longer. All operating systems have teething problems in their early days (months, years), for instance, the NAIDC computers which arrived with an early version of XP, didn't really work until Microsoft released Service Pack(s) 1 and 2 and no doubt Vista will be the same. Read more here.

*Someone asked me what "Operating System" meant today, which is hard to explain. If a computer was a book, the operating system would be the arrangement of pages and the language it was written in. Just about every book in W.H. Smiths uses this operating system, just as all the programs on your computer use XP.....(sort of).

MyMP3, the very, very, cheap music download site based in Russia, is due to close after their government agreed to industry demands, apparently to improve their chances of joining the WTO. I wish I'd downloaded more tracks when I first wrote about it now....Read more here.

(28.11.06) My broadband connection speed has been cut in half! While Iona looks forward to 8mb downloads, I'm having to come to terms with being reduced from 1mb to 512kb. I'm connected to an Exchange Activated exchange which only allows the most basic broadband connection and offers a very limited number of ISPs. For reasons I've never really understood I managed to get connected with Pipex at 1mb just after the exchange was enabled, which demonstrated to my mind that the restrictions on speed and ISP were entirely artificial and nothing to do with any technical restriction.

I didn't think it would last forever, and I suppose I should be grateful it's lasted this long. The drop in speed does have a very noticable affect on how well the Internet works, text based sites are more or less the same, but YouTube, for instance, can't be streamed anymore because the image keeps freezing and things like Google Earth are very slow. I haven't found out exactly what exposed my somewhat illicit connection, some more digging is required.

(25.11.06) Iona's residential broadband customers are getting connected now but they're not getting the full 8mb service that neighbouring business customers are. Instead they're being restricted to 512kb due to their "distance from the exchange" according to their ISPs. This would appear to due to the differing methods used when checking the lines and hopefully will be sorted out soon. Thanks to Gordon for the update.

AVG: Contrary to the impression given by the pop-ups generated by the anti-virus program and various postings on the Interent, AVG will still be offering a free program next year. They are ending technical support for version 7.1 but will be offering it to people downloading the newest version, 7.5. According to their website:

 GRISOFT is announcing a new version of the AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition. This new 7.5 version with improved performance and full compatibility with the latest Windows Vista version is available. Users that are using AVG Free 7.1 will be provided with a specific dialog, within the next few weeks, with the opportunity to choose the right option fulfilling their needs. AVG Free 7.1 version will be discontinued on 15th of Jan 2007.

It would probably be easier to download it yourself which you can do from here. Thanks to everyone who got in touch about this.

(23.11.06) Chapin Information Services is warning of a security flaw in Firefox and Internet Explorer that enables login details to be stolen by fooling the browsers into thinking they're displaying the genuine webpage. It requires the hacker to create the fake page on the genuine website's own server, which seems pretty unlikely but they managed to do it on MySpace and so it may be possible on many others that allow users to edit content.

It requires the browser to have autofill enabled, so disable it in Firefox click on "Tools", then "Options", the "Security" and click on the little box next to "Remember Passwords for Sites" to remove the tick and in Internet Explorer, click "Tools", then "Internet Options", click on the "Content" tab, under "Auto-complete" click on "Settings" and click on the box next to ""User names and passwords of Forms" to remove the tick.

Read more detail on the security flaw here.

(22.11.06) There's a hoax email doing the rounds warning of a virus called "Life is Beauiful" that will wipe out everything on your computer and asking you to forward the warning to all your friends. Happily, there's no such virus and the email's only purpose is to see how many people it can get itself forwarded to. So just delete and ignore please. You can read the full text of the message here and thanks to everyone who sent it in!

(21.11.06) Great news for Iona, thanks to some detective work by Gordon McCormick
everyone can now get broadband! It transpires that when the lines were initially tested the microwave connection back to the Fionnphort/Bunnesan exchange was mislabelled a device that prevented connection, like a DACS box would, this resulted in the lines being "tagged", which meant that every subsequent test by an ISP resulted in a rejection.

Now, customers can reapply to (almost) any ISP and ask them to contact BT Wholesale Helpdesk on 0800 169 9576 to request that the tag is taken of their line. Once this is done they'll be able to get an up to an 8mb connection. Congratulations to Gordon, who has said that any of his fellow islanders who need any help in this matter can get in touch with him.

Christmas shopping: Although it's still over a month away, today marks the passing of the "30 working days" mark, meaning that it would be advisable to make sure that any company can deliver in time for the big day before ordering. Most online retailers have a contact number and if there website doesn't definitely state that a item is in stock and give delivery estimate, either find someone or phone them up. 

(18.11.06) I changed the logo today, it's supposed to look like heavy rain but it doesn't quite work really. Needs another try I think!

(16.11.06) One of the updates released by Microsoft (see Anorak page) today causes the computer to restart without warning, which may be a bit of a shock to some, well it was to me anyway. There probably was a warning message but if you're in the habit of pressing start and going off to make a cup of tea, all you here is the start then shutdown music playing in rapid succession, so be warned!

(15.11.06) Thanks to everyone whp pointed out that the link to the video actually went to an amazon page; click here to watch it, I hope it was worth the wait!

(14.11.06) Rate My Teacher is a website that allows pupils to anonymously rate and comment on their teachers and its already caused such a stir in Oban that access to the site has been blocked from school and hostel computers. Nationally the BBC is reporting that there have been comments that have amounted to libel and bullying but looking at the site itself it appears more reasonable than the hype suggests. Although it must be painful to see your work, appearance and habits criticised on the Internet, it really doesn't add up to much more than what has always been discussed in the playground and there are more teachers getting good reviews than poor ones. One the other hand, it must be tough walking into class after reading some of the comments, and teaching's hard enough already. Read the BBC report here and the Oban RMT page here.

(13.11.06) There's been some progress in the Iona broadband saga. It appears that the problem boils down to an internal communications problem at BT and the fact that applications for business broadband services go through a different checking process than domestic ones. Gordon MacCormick, who chairs the local Bb committee, has had a reply from Brendan Dick, who has promised to look into the matter and has arranged a meeting with the head of local BT engineering. So, as there appears to be no actual physical impediment, broadband should be reaching the island in the near future.

I'm a big fan of youtube, the video hosting site and every so often something really good turns up on it. This isn't quite as good as the "Imagine" film but it comes close, being short but very very sweet. Click here to enjoy.

(11.11.09) Iona isn't taking their lack of broadband lying down, their broadband committee has written to Brendan Dick, head of BT Scotland, explaining the problems and asking him to do something about them. As reported previously, they are connected to the 8mb Bunessan/Fionnphort exchange via a microwave link and there's been a long running dispute between BT and the Scottish Executive about whether they should be included in the scheme to upgrade rural communities, despite them being part of the signups that got the B/F exchange upgraded.

Now they're being told by BT helpline operators that they can't get a service because there are either "Line Concentrator" (a device that shouldn't inhibit broadband as far as I can tell) on the line or bizarrely, that the "wrong kind of sockets" are fitted in the house! Stranger still, there are two people who managed to sign up to broadband but they'd applied for a "business" service, i.e. one that's a lot more expensive. It's all reminiscent of the problems that people had getting DACS boxes removed and found that it would suddenly become possible if they wanted to sign up for ISDN. Thanks to Gordon for the update.

(10.11.09) Luing: There are reports of BT broadband service problems on Luing on Thursday but no information of how far they might spread. I've had no reports from Seil, which is on the same network nor from my contacts in Oban. The BT service status page only gives the latest five areas with difficulties and no further at the moment, while ISP monitors show a fall and recovery of download rates for BT over Thursday and Friday. Hopefully this is jus very local and temporary! Thanks to Phil for the initial tip!

(08.11.09) Hoaxers have come up with a new varient of the ebay spoof email and rather than try to persuade you that there is something amiss with your account, it poses as a "question from member" and hopes that sheer curiosity will inspire people to click on one of the several links it contains. It looks very convincing and the links lead to a perfectly reproduced ebay sign in page, which could well fool the inexperienced unless they have the latest version of Firefox.

If you use Firefox and click one of the links a huge pop-up message appears warning that this is a suspected "phishing" website and offering the options to close it or "get me out of here", clicking which takes you to the real sign in page. Click here for resized image of the email, here for the Firefox warning and click here to get the latest version of Firefox.

(06.11.06) Scotnet appear to have resolved their throughput problems, which is good news but I hope that they've come to some sort of agreement with BT to prevent them in the future. Incidently, Scotnet have a special offer for people connected to Exchange Activate system exchanges, you get the first three months free before the price reverts to the normal £19.99 per month, there is however a £50 connection fee. Click here for more.

Firefox doesn't appear to have added the latest version of the browser to the list of automatic updates yet and so if you want it now, you'll have to click here and download it.

(03.11.06) Ebay and online retailers are often cited as the cheapest place to buy things but it's not always true. I was in Browns hardware store in Tobermory today and noticed they had some very useful computer extras at reasonable prices. There was a "Belkin cube" style surge protector for £5 and a four port usb hub for £7, which is about what you'd pay online with Maplins and there's no postage. If you keep your eyes open there's lots of examples of things you can buy just a cheaply locally as you can online! 

(02.11.06) Scotnet, one of the locally popular broadband ISPs, are having "network throughput issues". In practice this means that their service is running slowly and some websites are completely unobtainable, these include Microsoft Update and several others in the US. It could be a coincidence but Microsoft is pushing out a lot of updates at the moment, including the latest version of Internet Explorer and this could be causing Scotnet's bandwidth to be busier than normal. Scotnet is working with BT, who supply the connections, on the problem. The company notice can be found here.

(01.11.06) I keep writing about new Google services and I thought it about time that I listed them in one place, so I have. I've just picked my favourites and left out some things I don't like, such as desktop search but even so it's quite a list. It includes word processors, drawing and editing tools and several specialist searches. Check it out because most of us don't make as much use of them as we could and they're free! Click here for the list.

October

(29.10.06) Allofmp3, a Russian music download site that I featured a couple of years ago, is facing severe problems as credit card companies withdraw services and some countries attempt to block access to the website, just type their name into google news search and you'll see what I mean. This is because they sell music at ridiculously low prices, which is perfectly legal under Russian copyright law but is proving rather annoying to rights holders when they sell to international customers.

While this is bad news for them, it does have an upside. You can now download there entire catalogue literally tens of thousands of tracks for free. It will only play on their own software, which is also free and the tracks aren't of the highest fidelity but the music still sounded pretty good to me. I'm not sure how long this will go on for so get it while you can by clicking here and creating an account, which is just a matter of providing a name, password and email address. Once you find something you want, click on download and then the "Free" option. Click here to download their player. When I tried it download speed was slow by broadband standards but it's free so one can't really complain. Thanks to Charles for the tip.

(25.10.06) As predicted broadband is leading to more online services that mimic PC functions, Google and Microsoft have released various applications, such as word processors and now BT has announced a very simple online storage service. You get 2 Gb for free and 20 Gb with an automatic backup service for £4.95 p.m., which is plenty of room for most people to store their most important stuff. Learn more and sign up here. 

Firefox 2 is now available from the proper website (here) and presumably through automatic update. Having used it for a bit longer I've found that a lot of extensions that never worked with the last version, aquweather for instance, do with this and that themes and extensions have been amalgamated into a single dialogue box called "Add-ons", reached through the "Extras" menu. There's also more functions on the "Options" menu, such as one that reloads the tabs you had open when you last closed the browser. The spellchecker works once you've downloaded a dictionary, which you do by right clicking on any web form and restarting. So, on second thoughts, a thumbs up!

(24.10.06) Firefox 2 has been released - honest - it just hasn't made it onto their installation page (here) or their automatic updates yet. You can get it here, on their ftp server but I wouldn't bother because it doesn't work quite as well as the last version and lots of addons haven't updated and themes don't seem to appear at all. Not only that but it doesn't seem to remember what tabs were open (I think that's because one of my add-ons isn't working). Anyway, to sum up, don't all rush at once. You can still go to one of their parties though, clickhere for tickets, they have shirts and probably beer.

(23.10.03) Firefox 2 is to be released tomorrow, adding new levels of security to the already pretty secure browser. It will now warn you when you visit a phishing website, that's one that's pretending to be something it isn't, ebay for example. There'll also be a spell checker, handy for people who use message boards and individual "close" buttons on each tab. It will probably download automatically, as long as you don't have a really old version but you can get it yourself by clicking on "Help" at the top of the browser and then "Check for updates".

(21.10.06) Ever wanted to record sound you're listening to on the computer? Me too and so I was very pleased to discover a very simple program that will record from any source, including the Internet, at the click of a button. It even has a "what you hear" function that just takes all the thought out of it. Once recorded the file can be saved as an mp3 which can be played back on the computer or transferred to any portable mp3 player. And it's free and there's no nasty spyware or anything! Click here to download it or click here for more detail on how to use it.

(20.10.06) Internet Explorer 7 has been released and it seems to run a lot faster than the test version I've been using for the last few months. It's still not without problems though as this website and the release notes here indicate. In my experience the installation took a while, requiring the computer to be restarted and go through a lengthy checking process but I haven't had any of the difficulties described by others. I don't use it that much though, like any sensible person Firefox is my preferred browser. I'm not sure if it's being included amongst the automatic updates, so if you want it you might have to get it yourself, you'll find a link on the Anorak News, Software Updates item on the left.

(17.10.06) Microsoft has released a fix for a problem which so far doesn't appear to have been included in the automatic updates list, so if you don't get it yourself you might not get it for a while, especially as the latest list added up to a whopping 500mb! It cures a problem caused by an earlier patch which caused computers to "hang" while installing some updates, so it's well worth getting as soon as possible. You can't get it directly from Microsoft but if you go to the Software Updates page, link on the Anorak page left, you'll all the information plus a link to the file.

(16.10.06) MySpace is the latest "big name" to be exploited by spammers. Messages with subject lines like "New message from Nicki on MySpace" are appearing in inboxes and conning people into visiting websites which have nothing to do with them. The ones that I've got have all led to sites either selling music or ringtones, products that appeal to the mostly young users of MySpace. Because of the way that the community works, they may be fooled into thinking that the email are genuine recommendations and take them at face value. If you've got friends or relations who use MySpace, warn them!

(14.10.06) The price of legal music downloads has long been a source of complaint and the main driver of illegal file sharing. i-Tunes charge 79p per track and most of the other online retailers are priced around the same figure, in the case of some like i-Tunes there are restrictions on what equipment you can listen to the music on or how many times you can back it up, if you can back it up at all.

So "eMusic", a new service whose charges start at 22p per track and get cheaper the more you download is off great interest, especially as they put no restrictions on what you can play the music on, you can even play it on an i-Pod. It works on an a subscription basis, with a payment of £8.99 allowing you to download 40 tracks over the next month, for £14.99 you can 90, which works out at 16p per track I think. There's no long contract and you can cancel at anytime. They've got an introductory offer at the moment, sign up and get 50 tracks for free, you don't even have to commit to a monthly payment and can cancel after downloading them. Click here to see for yourself, I haven't tried it myself yet, so can't actually recommend it as such but if you click on the "Scoop" tab you'll find that they've been endorsed by some pretty impressive publications.

By the By; that Cameron video spoof has been removed from the YouTube website after widespread ridecule.

(12.10.06) Carphone Warehouse has taken over AOL UK. This isn't the sort of story normally posted here but lots of you use AOL and the availability of Talk Talk, Carphone's "free" broadband service, is one the most frequently asked questions I get. 

The industry seems to think that CW hopes that the purchase of AOL's service centre will help it clear the backlog of both pre and post installation problems but it could just lead to existing AOL users getting a poorer service as staff is hived off to sort out Talk Talk. I'd be interested to hear from anyone who has personal experience of the change over. Read more here.

You've probably heard that the Labour MP Sion (pronounced "Sean") Simon has posted a spoof of David Cameron's webcam on YouTube. He says that's it's a satire on the Tory leader's attempt to reach out to a younger audience but it could be said that he's doing exactly the same thing by posting the spoof on YouTube. See the spoof here and the original here.

(11.10.06) Internet security worries us more than burglary according to a survey by the government sponsored Get Safe Online, meanwhile a BBC test found that a computer with no firewall protection was attacked every fifiteen minutes. So the news that Scotland Yard has issued an urgent warning after a computer in the USA was found to have the credit card details of 2300 computer users. The answer is, as ever, simple, keep your antivirus and firewall subscriptions up to date and if you can't afford to pay to renew, get a free one. Read more here, here and here.

Google has officially launched it's online document and spreadsheet creation and sharing service. I thought it worked very well even in it's testing stage and recommend anyone who hasn't tried it to give it a go. Click here.

(09.10.06) History, to quote Alan Bennet, is just one thing after another and too many of us are losing interest in it according to History Matters. They, in tandem with the National Trust, have created the "One Day in History" progect which invites everyone to contribute a diary of their activites on Tuesday 17th of October. The idea is to record the mundane as well as the dramatic because in time who can tell what will be of interest to historians. It's in the tradition of mass observation progects that date back to the abdication and you can take part by clicking here.

(08.10.06) Online gaming has long thought to be the domain of men but a new study reveals that women out number them by 2 to 1! This is down to games becoming more socially interactive, with some being virtual living spaces in fantastic environments. In addition, while a lot of players are teenagers or students, 55% are older. I don't play online but I'm beginning to wonder if there might be something to it! Read more here.

(06.10.06) Just a bit of fun for Friday: Ever thought you could write music like Phillip Glass or the Aphex Twins if only you had the right computer program? Well now you can, just click here, click on the cells, use the +/- buttons to add or remove columns and away you go.

(05.10.06) Data Theft: Lots of people worry about giving their details to online shops when in fact they are just about the safest place you can use them, providing you're using a genuine website of course. Tonight at 9pm Channel 4's Dispatches reveals the real risk of giving your details over the phone when it investigates just how easy it is to buy stolen data in India. Read more here and be very wary next time you're put through to a foriegn call center. The documentry may be available online later in the week if you miss it tonight.

Google Earth has been around for sometime now but I never realised just how good it was until I downloaded the software and gave it a real try. Now, I'm afraid this is one of those things that only really works if you have broadband but if you do, you can get a lot of fun out of it. Basically it takes the familier Google satellite pictures of the earth and lays them over a frame of the terrain, producing a fair impression of a real 3d landscape.

You can zoom in, tilt the camera and fly across the landscape of your choice, such as this, much reduced view of Iona looking towards Ben More. You can view from any angle, "fly" in any direction and pick any point on the earths surface to visit. Because these are 2d photos you have to find the right angle to view buildings to get the right affect but it's remarkable how well it all works. Click here to give it a try.

(03.10.06) The British Museum is to monitor ebay antiquities auctions and will report suspicious sales to the police. This is the first time an outside organisation has monitored ebay in this way and augers well for the future. Although experienced buyers can probably spot the true nature of an item, many, perhaps most, can't, or maybe they don't care because while ebay is full of genuine bargains, it's also a haven for people selling fake stuff. I was recently asked to look into a seller of high fashion and from what I could see, absolutely everything on offer was not what it appeared to be. So hopefully the people chasing fake goods will stop harrassing file sharers and start looking for the real pirates. Read more here.

(02.10.06) Tesco are to launch their own software range and will be offering Office, antivirus and photo-editing programs through their stores for around £20. They've teamed up with Teamjet who already sell Ability Office and Panda antivirus, so this could be happening quite soon. While some paople are wary of Tesco moving into yet more retail sectors, having a cheap and widely trusted rival to Microsoft is a welcome development, especially in Office applications and may result in price competition. Read more here.

September

(30.09.06) Another new guide has been posted, this one is on the subject of photo editing and it deals with adjusting brightness and contrast using those odd looking graph (or histogram) on the "Levels" dialogue box. I've been messing about with pictures for years now but for some reason I've never got round to learning what they did, now I have done and to my surprise they're simple to use and produce better results more quickly than the auto-fix options. I used Adobe Photo Elements but most photo editors have a levels dialogue which work in the same way, so the guide should work for everyone. Click here to try it.

(28.09.06) A New Guide for a brand new thing called "guided help" is on the forum. Well it's brand new for Windows users anyway, Mac users have had it for ages apparently. It's going to be standard with Vista, Microsoft's next operating system but it's already available for us XP users if you know where to look and happily forum member sgegreen does. Unlike previous help systems, guided help is semi-automated and will perform the necessary tasks needed to fix something rather than just telling you what to do if you ask it to. See for yourself here.

(24.09.06) Sometime ago I wrote a piece reporting fears that some had over the way that Windows Media Player 10 handled your "digital rights", that is what it allowed you to do with music that you'd downloaded and paid for. Basically, while they advertised it on the basis of its many great features, such its ability to copy music to disc, it actually restricted what you could play stuff on. It's a bit like buying a cassette and finding out it only works on your living room stereo and not your walkman or in the car.

Now it seems that the next version, WMP 11 will go even further and will, amongst other things, limit the number of times you can reinstall music files on the computer you actually downloaded them to, which just seems rediculous. I realise that artists and companies have to make a living but at some point they have to accept that when they sell something the purchaser has some rights too, it's as if they are just selling limited licenses to view or listen to things, in the same way Microsoft licenses rather sells software. It will be sometime before this becomes an issue for most people but it will do eventually and you might be advised to think carefully before installing it. Read more here. Or you could just go here and listen to a lot of music for nothing.

Picasa: On a brighter note, I've had a chance to try out Google's picture organiser and very good it is too. It loads the thumbnails very quickly, makes them easy to view and the picture editor couldn't simpler. The options to brighten, sharpen etc work as well as any dedicated program such as Photo Elements and are ideal for making quick fixes. It's not to big a download either and so available even on a dialup connection. The link's below.

(22.09.06) Google has yet more freebies available, if they carry on like this, pretty soon it's going to be pointless for anyone else trying to make living selling their own. First up is Picasa, a phot organising program that makes it easy to put them into folders, transfer them to CD or upload them to the Flickr hosting websites. It even has a basic photo editor to help you fix things like "red-eye" and it doesn't appear to contain any spyware. Click here to download it.

They also have something called "Google Pack", a suite of programs from google and other companies including the latest versions of Firefox, Adobe Reader, Adaware, Realplayer and Google video player. It also comes with Norton Antivirus 2006 with a 6 months subscription, not that I recommending that particular element which in my opinion slows down your computer. However you can pick and choose which bits you want by clicking the "add/remove software" button, see for yourself here.

(19.09.06) The Royal Mail has introduced a "print your own stamp" service on its website and from what I can see it's very easy to use. The stamp is in the form of a barcode which you download as a .pdf file and you can print it out either directly onto an envolope or onto a sticker for larger items. There's a calculator to work the cost of heavier items, which will be really useful for those of us living some distance from a Post Office. Click here and bookmark the page for when you need it.

(18.09.06) Microsoft has issued a warning concerning an "ActiveX" control that most people will be using. These are little applications that pluggin into Interent Explorer, Firefox etc and are necessary to view the content of many websites. Only Internet Explorer is affected and as yet, the only solution other than blocking all ActiveX content, which you can do via Tools > Options > Internet Options, is to only allow trust worthy websites to install them. Read more here and here.

(16.09.06) Both Firefox and Opera have released updates recently, the latter will just present you with an alert and link to follow, while Firefox should update automatically if you have version 1.5 or above. You can check which you have by clicking on "Help" at the top the Firefox window and then on "About". If it says 1.5 or higher just leave it alone for a bit and it will update itself, if it's lower click here to update it yourself.

Nintendo has announced that there new consol will be released across Europe on December 8th at a cost of €249, roughly equivilent to the US price of $249. It's way below what stores are asking UK customers to stump up though, some of which are demanding £249 or more. I think it should be boycotted if this is the price demanded when it finally hits the stores, which is a pity because it's still a lot cheaper than the XBox and has some very interesting features such as a motion sensitive control pad that mimics your hand movement on screen.

(15.09.06) There was no update yesterday because I installed McAfee Internet Security  and it took a bit longer than expected. You may recall that I recommended MIS as a cheap replacement for Norton Internet Security and one that wouldn't slow your computer down as recent versions of Norton would. Well, at £12.44 delivered I still think it's a bargain and once up and running it works very well but I have to say that an inexperienced user, especially if they're on a dial-up connection may find the installation process a bit of trial. You can find a link and my more on thoughts on the program here.

Google has added yet another search engine to it's already extensive range with a "news archive search" which searches over 200 years of material from most major newspapers and several libaries. They say that they hope to encourage organisations to make more available but I suspect that they are making a bit everytime someone clicks through to a subscription only source. None the less it's a very useful service and has nice touches like "timeline" which puts stories in chronological order, enabling you to see how events unfolded over time. Click here to give it a go.

(13.09.06) Watch out for an ebay/Paypal pyramid scheme that is being circulated amongst people who have done business together on the site. Many may be passing it on in all innocence and were taken in by the fact that it came to them from someone they had a successful transaction with and so trusted, they are none the less, breaking the law by passing it on and risking losing both their ebay and paypal accounts by doing so.

The email follows the familier form of asking you to add your (paypal) address to the bottom of the six listed, removing the top one and sending £3 to it. It actually mentions that it is a pyramid scheme but uses an abbreviation of a legal term MLM, which stands for "multilayer marketing" and it plays on the small amount of money requested. Like all pyramid schemes there have to be far more losers than winners and if you've got £3 to waste why not send it to a charity instead?

The copy sent to me had forty five addresses in its carbon copy line, all of them ebay customers of a seller who appeared to be doing a nice line in fake designer clothes, so promoting a pyramid scheme isn't such a big step for them. If only a few of those forty five passed it wouldn't take long before it spread throught the whole ebay network. Read the email here.

No progress regarding the Iona situation yet I'm afraid, I'm waiting for replies to emails.

(11.09.06) Iona is still not connected to broadband! This is dispite the announcement sometime ago that the work on the microwave radio connection from the Fionnphort exchange was underway. BT's availability checker states that a service of up to 512kbps should be possible "but due to distance from the exchange" a line check will be necessary and according to the Scottish Executive, the work has been paid for but the reality is residents can't get broadband. What's going on? More on Wednesday (I'm off to Oban tomorrow), in the meantime if anyone has information on this please get in touch! 

(08.09.06) I had a lucky escape on ebay this week after attempting to buy a graphics card. Needing something quick and cheap to tide me over until the replacement for my broken one (the fan fell off!) arrived, I clicked on "Buy Now" to purchase one from a seller/buyer of long standing with lowish but positive rating. Because I was in a hurry, it was only when I went to pay that I realised that the seller didn't accept PayPal, which is practically unheard of with "Buy Now" items these days; the only option was payment by cheque or postal order. I also noticed that while the item was going to be shipped from Germany, payment had to be sent to an address in Hull, which seemed a bit odd.

So I emailed the seller using the "ask a question" facility, waited for an answer but none came, normally sellers reply very quickly, on top of that the only communication was the automated one from ebay, which again is unusual. After two days I was considering cancelling the order, which I was loathe to do as it could result in negative feedback, when I recieved two emails from ebay. The first warned that any communication from the seller could be an attempt to find out my email address, a bit worrying, and the second informed that the auction had been cancelled because they believed his account had been taken over by an unknown third party. So, it just goes to show, if you're suspicious and can't get in touch with the seller, cancel a winning bid if you think you have reasonable grounds, I could have lost over £60!

(06.09.06) I should have looked into the gift horse's mouth more closely because Browzar, which I promoted yesterday, has a sneaky trick hidden beneath its plain interface. It does practicaly nothing apart from go to webpages but it does have an imbedded search function and that search function doesn't produce straight forward results, some of them will be put there by by advertisers.

It's not uncommon for browsers to finance themselves through advertising, almost all of Firefox's income comes from Google adwords generated by its search bar but the paid for links are clearly seperated from the genuine search results. Browzar's aren't and they should be, I don't think it means that it deserves to be labelled "adware", as some have done, because you aren't personally identified and if you don't use the search bar you'll never see any but it is pretty underhand. Read more here. Thanks to Steve and Runnybabbit for the info.

(05.09.06) A new browser has been launched by Ajaz Ahmed, the creator of Freeserve. Called Browzar, it is aimed at those who are serious about preserving their privacy online and because of this it stores no record of pages visited, doesn't fill in any forms or allow any cookies. In fact it doesn't do much apart from visit webpages, you can't even keep a record of your favourite websites.

Because of this it probably won't be many people's first browser but is worth a try anyway, especially as they're going to introduce tabbed browsing (which allows you to open more than one webpage in the same window) in the near future. It's a tiny download, only 264kb and you don't even have to install it, just download it to your desktop and when you want to use it, click on it. Oh, and it's very fast! Download it from here and read more here.

(04.09.06) Large email attachments are the curse of a dialup connection, being sent one can make it appear that your email account has frozen for no apparent reason. You'll be able to send OK but nothing will arrive and there'll be no error message to investigate. When I first started offering help to computer users this was the cause of about one in three email problems. 

Sorting it out should be straight forward enough, go to your ISP's website, login to your email account and delete the offending email online - hey presto, email starts arriving again. It was when I tried to do this for a friend who was having problems that I discovered that Orange (who now own Wanadoo and Freeserve) have made this a lot more difficult.

When Orange email has been jammed by a large attachment it impossible to access your online account through their website and the people on the helpline can't do it for you. What you have to do is go to the mail2web (click here) website and login from there. The address you type in isn't your normal one but "your username@pop.orangehome.co.uk" (your user name is the bit after the @ sign in your email address); the password is your usual email password.

This will take you to limited version of Orange online email, from where the offending email should be easy to spot and delete. Make a note of this if you still use a Freeserve or Wanadoo address, it could come in handy, with more and more people getting broadband they seem to be forgetting what using dialup was like; the attachment I deleted was over 10mbs!

(01.09.06) The price of a 256mb strip of memory for a NAIDC computer has fallen to £28.19 inc. vat, delivery and so it's an absolute bargain comparred to it's avareage price of around £36. All our readers will have upgraded by now but if you know someone who hasn't pass this on or perhaps a strip would make a nice Christmas present. Click here order.

August

(30.08.06) Google Book Search is the latest service available for free from the Microsoft of web searches. What makes it different is that it not only allows you to look for book titles, authors etc but by keyword. Not only that but it will allow you to read online and download out of copyright material. The reading online works very well if you have a broadband connection, with the pages appearing to presented in facsimile form but dial up users might prefer to download the .pdf (a file that reproduces printed matter) file. I found over 10 pages of results when I typed in "Isle of Mull". You have to create a Google account in order to get the most out of the service, which probably means they own your soul (I'll write about this in the near future) but the process is very simple and you can access everything immediately. Click here to try it out.

(29.08.06) Junk mail, the sort that comes through the letter box rather than the Internet, is a bain of all lives and you've probably heard the story of the post office worker suspended for telling his customers how to reduce the amount they get. What's interesting about the story is that he was only publicising a scheme that the Royal Mail already runs and will become even more useful once they drop their policy of only delivering three items of direct mail a day. Read more about the postie here, where you'll find the address to opt-out of some junk mail and you may find registering with the mail preference service, here, useful too.

(28.08.06) Scotnet's problems seem to have been resolved but there is still no indication on their website that there was a problem in the first place. Meanwhile, a Tesco.net customer has reported difficulties connecting over the weekend on the forum, just as NTL, which supplies the Tesco service, customers were finding. Perhaps it was all down to an unreported BT problem. We can all be thankful that none of us have suffered the fate of Euro1net customers who found their ISP going bellyup due to a dispute with BT. Some had paid a lot of money for two year contracts and have now to wait until the end of the month before being able to change provider. Read more here, thanks to forum members for the tip.

(26.08.06) No update on the Scotnet situation but I have had reports of connection problems from both dialup and broadband customers using a variety of ISPs. Of course, all local ISPs use the BT network and its service status page reports "problems affecting several areas" over the last couple of days. These are now resolved apparently, so hopefully everything will be back to normal. What's odd is that some people said they couldn't access the Internet through one ISP but could through another but there was no consistancy as to which these were. Thanks to everyone who wrote in.

(25.08.06) Apple has joined Dell in recalling laptop batteries due to them overheating to the point of catching fire. What's amazed me about this story is that a) they didn't do it ages ago, its months since I posted the "fry an egg on an Apple" item, and b) no ones sued them. They've known about the issue for almost a year, as this news story reveals. Find out if your Apple laptop is affected by clicking here.

(23.08.06) Scotnet Broadband seems to be having problems again, with web pages loading even slower than they would on dialup. The notable exception is the ISP's own pages, one of which, the service status page, doesn't give any hint as what the cause might be. It evidently isn't planned maintenance but its affecting email as well as web surfing. What's odd is that there aren't any complaints from users of other ISPs on EA exchanges. More on this as soon as there's an explanation.

My Google Writely link didn't work to well yesterday, I suspect because I hadn't figured out how to publish a document correctly when I posted. Still, the collaboration aspect worked very well and you can see the results by clicking here. I've tested that link, so it should work and you don't have to register to see it.

(22.08.06) Google Writely, their online document creation, sharing, publication and storage service, is open to new testers again and well worth a try it is too. Apart from a name that is so awful its own spellchecker rejects it, everything works very well. The interface loads very quickly, I'd say 30 seconds my broadband connection and it works like a cut down version of "Word". Even the advanced features like publishing and sharing seem simple to use. Because they're stored online it's simple to collaberate on documents and I hope to be testing this with one of the forum members, more on that tomorrow. Click here to register and try it yourself. I knocked up a document this evening and once you've registered, if you click here hopefully you'll be able to see it. Microsoft has also launched an online word processor which I'll be testing that out too.

(19.08.06) Did you figure it out? Like any trick the solution is annoyingly simple but I think this one is as intriguing in its own right. If you add the individual numbers that make of any two digit number and then subtract them from the original number, the result will always be a multiple of nine. Now take another look at the page of numbers and symbols you are asked to concentrate on in the puzzle, all the multiples of nine have the same symbol! So you don't get the same one each time you run the puzzle, they change the symbols around. Well done to everyone who figured it out and thanks for writing in!

(18.08.06) Here's a bit of fun to start the weekend off, it's a weird little game that reads your mind and works out what number you're thinking of. At least that's what it claims. Can you figure out how it works? Click here to have to try it out (takes a moment or two to load on dialup), I'll post the explanation tomorrow but if you can't wait until then, it's already posted somewhere on the forum. Thanks to Bearsarus for posting it! 

(17.08.06) Ebayers are being advised to look carefully at the ratings of sellers following the discovery by security firm Fortinet that scammers are using automated programs to generate positive ratings. At the moment they are using the programs to buy very cheap items, such as .pdfs, which sell for as little as one pence and then leave positive feedback for the seller. Because the items are so cheap the selling process is automated too and the positive feedback generates a responce, so building up the scammers rating.

After a very short time and for very little investment they've built up a great score, it's then that they start selling hi-value items. So you've got to look out for sellers with positive feedback built up on cheap buys over a short period of time but no doubt they will realise that they could make it even more convincing buy being the seller too, so watch out for that in the near future. It's not really that new, the forum guide on ebay warns about this pattern but it may be becoming more common, so be careful. Read the guide here.

(15.08.06) Dell is recalling millions of laptop batteries that were sold between April 2004 and July this year because they have a tendency to catch fire. Dell is one of the most popular consumer brands and if you have one of their laptops you should check with their website (click here) to see if your model is affected (click "accept" if you get a popup asking about the site certificate). Read more on the story here and see one them catch fire here.

HSBC has been warned of a critical flaw in its online banking system that could lead to sensitive customer information being harvested by hackers. This is an as yet unexploited flaw and one that has existed for two years, which is worrying but not as worrying as the protential it has to be exploited by hoax emailers. HSBC customers, who at time of writing aren't at risk from the flaw itself, should be particularly wary of email claiming to warnings coming from the bank. Read more here.

(12.08.06) ZoneAlarm seems to be having a problem with the latest round of MS updates and if you use the ZA firewall, you may find the following message popping up; "Suspicious Behavior" "Windows Service Pack Setup is trying to modify an existing driver of service: SENS" "Application: update.exe". No matter how many times you click "Allow" and check "always use this action" it will keep coming back, which is really annoying.

"Update.exe" is the Microsoft updater and SENS is an essential component of the operating system, so there's nothing to worry about and it should be allowed to get on with it's task. I found that switching off ZoneAlarm (right click on the tray icon then left click on "Shutdown ZoneAlarm") and restarting the computer when promted solved the problem. It also got rid of an odd message regarding my Epson scanner. Thanks to Ed for reporting this, I thought it was just happening to me.

(11.08.06) This isn't really a news item, more a request for help. BT offers two types of Internet phones with their broadband packages, the "Softphone", which appears to be a service similar to Skype, works through the computer and offers free calls to other BT Softphone users. May turn out to be good value but why not just get Skype?

The other offer is more interesting. Called BT Broadband Talk; its a "voice over internet service" (voip) service which works like a conventional telephone and allows you to make free calls to most UK numbers (not mobiles, premium etc) at evenings and weekends and has very low international rates too. You don't need to turn on the computer to use it and you don't need to sign up to BT Broadband either (there's different price structure for non-customers). The BT promotion pages make it very clear that sound quality might not be as good as a conventional phone etc but don't give any indication of how good it actually is or how easy it is to set the system up. So, if you have any experience of BT Broadband Talk, get in touch, I'd love to know what you think about it. Click here for a BT promo page.

(08.08.06) The Clydesdale Bank is the latest target of email scammers, or "phishing" as this type of con is known. The email is similar to those that are sent out in the name of Halifax and NatWest, not particularly sophisticated but given the number of people on the west coast with Clydesdale accounts, of concern. The email subject line is "CBOnline Alert Service: You Have An Update (Important)" but whatever it was it should be ignored as the bank doesn't send out email in this way, instead instead it posts messages on customers account pages.

While the email lacked sophistication, with some poor spelling and unconvincing graphics, the login page it led to was identical to the bank's own, the only difference being that the genuine one opens as a popup window, not as a webpage. It also had an incorrect address and no security padlock displayed. So if you receive one just delete it without a second thought. A .jpeg of the email can be seen here, thanks to Tim Barnard for sending it in.

(06.08.06) Plusnet, a popular ISP amongst broadband customers lost 700Gb worth of email this month due to an engineer accidently deleting them. The problem was exacerbated by the engineer trying to fix the problem and as a result everything was lost. Pipex say that over half were spam, most had been read and only 2% was unread. That's still 14gb, which is a lot of email, so if you missing something, that could be why. Read more here, thanks to Steve for the tip.

I was wrong when I said there weren't any translations of the Doomsday pages, apparently there are but one wasn't included in the page I bought, so I'll have to search for it. More details here, thanks to Angela for putting me right.

(05.08.06) A cautionary tale: A member of the NAIDC community recently signed up for an all in telephone, broadband and unusually, line rental package from a fairly popular provider only to discover that they couldn't provide a broadband service. Why? Because the phone was connected to an Exchange Activate exchange and the provider wasn't one of the few ISPs licensed for them. Of course if they were a reader of this website they would have known that this was the case but for reasons that escape me, not everyone is,and the information isn't readily available elsewhere.

What makes matters worse is that the BT broadband pages (click here), a very popular starting point for people wanting to find out if they can get a service, gives no indication that there might be restrictions when they process your phone number. To discover what is really available you have to consult this BT Wholesale webpage, which eventually leads to a list of ISPs that can supply an exchange activate exchange. How many people would think to consult BT Wholesale?

Happily things appear to be working out for our unlucky neighbour, after a great deal of persistance they persuaded the telecom to cancel the 12 month contract and they will be able to get a service sometime in September. It all goes show that despite our best efforts the information about exchange activate is still not widely enough known.

(04.08.06) The Doomsday book, the great survey of English counties of 1086, became available online and you can by facsimilies, in .pdf format, of its pages for £3.50 each. The good news is that the website hasn't crashed due to to demand which similar launches have but the bad news is that theres no translation of the page you get, so they don't make much sense. You can find the archive here. Scotland has it's own online archive too which contains all sorts of interesting material, from church records too photos of the Somme, it can be found here.

(03.08.06) Firefox has released another update only days after the last one, possibly because that one was swiftly followed by the discovery of a new security flaw. If you followed the tips in the last post on the subject, just scroll down a bit if you missed them, your version of Firefox will update automatically. When it does you'll be asked to restart to install it, you might get some popups from your firewall (especially if you use ZoneAlarm) and it will sort itself out without to much effort on your part. Click here to get the latest version if you want to sure or are still using Internet Explorer.

(02.08.06) The problem of adults infiltrating young peoples' Internet meeting places has been an issue for years but up until now there hasn't been any way for children to check that the person they're chatting with is who they say they are. netidme addresses this problem and intergrates with Windows Messenger and ChatShield, at the relatively low cost of £9.99. I think it well worth any parent looking into, click here to do so.

(01.08.06) Believe it or not there are still a few unlucky souls outside the reach of broadband and for them there is only one way to get it, via satellite. I've been contacted by a reader who is selling his system, which includes the dish, modem and all cabling, for just £200, which is a big saving on the £900 BT charge for it. Once installed it provides a 2mb download, 450kb upload service for a monthly fee of £60, which isn't cheap but it could be the answer for a business who can't get broadband through their phoneline. Email me if you're interested information on BT satellite Bb can be found here.

BT shed the shackles of price regulation today, leading to immediate cuts in the cost of some of its packages. At the moment these are only for conventional calls and there are suggestions that line rental will rise, which isn't good news as very few of us have any other option but to pay it. In the future it will could lead to lower broadband prices but there's no sign of that yet. Read more here.

July

(30.07.06) There's an update to Firefox available which most of you will get through automatic update and a popup will, erm, popup to tell you that it will install next time you start the browser. However, if you have an old version of Firefox you'll to download it manually and you should because it fixes a security hole which allows spyware to installed on your computer. Find out which version you have by clicking on "Help" at the top of the window and then on "About", if yours is 1.5 or above it will download automatically, if its older go to the Anorak page and check the link at top of the page marked "Sotware Updates Page". Read more about the security issues here.

(29.07.06) Office 2007 beta (beta is a test version) is available for download, which I'm not recommending because previous recommendations have proved somewhat ill-advised but you might be interested in trying it out online. You have to register or use your messenger sign in, answer a few questions and install a "plugin" for Internet Explorer but once you've done that you can actually try it out.

And unlike other editions of Office, which have just tweaked things a little, '07 looks radically different. They've taken the concept of tabs used in Internet browsers like Firefox and incorporated them into various programs that make up the Office suite, which really makes it a lot easier to use. Rather than having a series of menus to manage, say, the formatting in word document, you click on the formatting tab and all the functions are displayed along the top of the window. Choosing a font is just a matter of hovering over the font colour icon, moving the cursor over the colour palette that appears and watching the text change.

Even though you're using it in your browser (I think it only works in Internet Explorer) it feels like the program is installed on your computer. Obviously this is only practical if you have broadband but if you do, it's really worth having a go. Incidently, they're charging $1.50 for the beta version, I can only think that they're trying to avoid the chaos caused by the release of the last beta version of Vista. Click here to see for yourself.

Internet Explorer 7 is to be released as an automatic update, with the option not to install it because, as Microsoft says, "when [updates] have significant new experiences and features, we wouldn't install until users explicitly said okay." Hopefully they'll have ironed out the problems that have plagued the test versions but I think the option will confuse some people and they'll miss out on the security features. Read more here. I still think FIrefox will prove more secure and easier to use.

(26.07.06) The BBC is running a memory survey to coincide with the spate of programmes on the subject and anyone can take part. I haven't done it yet but I think it may take some time as they say that you can "come back to it" as often as you like. Click here to take part.

Not news really, I just liked this story of what happened when a princess walked into the Gigha Post Office and asked "any chance of a lift for her Majesty", click here.

(25.07.06) Cyber bullying, be it by mobile phone, email or perhaps most nasty, via website, is affecting one in five children in the UK according to the Anti-Bullying Alliance (all be it from a very small survey). Anyone who was a victim of bullies will remember how it coloured every school day but when we were children at least it stopped when we closed the front door behind us; thanks to modern technology, today's child can be bullied 24/7, which must be hell.

Now the government is going to address the problem, bringing together children, teachers, parents and service providers, in an effort to educate and where possible control. The legislation will eventually result in perpetrators in receiving £1000 fines but until then, my advise to anyone who finds they're being targeted is to record the details of the event, not to respond and to get in touch with the company that the bully used. All of them will have terms and conditions that state that the service should not be used to harass people and doing so can result them losing the service. Read more here.

(24.07.06) This hot, close weather is often associated with thunder storms, so it might not be a bad idea to check that Belkin cube and for those who haven't got one, to do so. They insulate your phone, modem and computer equipment from surges on the line and could save you a small fortune now that we have to pay for labour as well as parts. Make sure both lights are glowing brightly, one can be lit a little by the other and the unit will continue to allow your computer to work and connect to the Internet even if the fuse is blown. If you haven't got one or find yours needs replacing, they can be bought very cheaply from Amazon by clicking here.

(22.07.06) Sky, as mentioned below, is launching a broadband service aimed at its TV subscribers and as mentioned below, it won't be available to those of us connected to an "exchange activated" exchange unless they become one of the accepted ISPs, which seems unlikely (I think I'll write to them about it though). It hasn't stopped them emailing me and several readers offers of an "up to" 8mb connection though. I wish it was available but it's not. Thanks to everyone who wrote in!

(20.07.06) Sky is to launch a broadband service for it TV subscribers and the prices look pretty good for those within reach of it's exchange network. At present the network reaches 28% of UK households but they're converting 30 a week, so it will be with us before to long. For those outside the network they're offering an up to 8mb connection for £17 per month but if you're within it, a 2mb, with a 2 Gb download cap, service is completely free, 8mb (4Gb cap) is £5pm and 16mb (unlimited) is £10mb. These prices compare very favourably with NTL's cable TV and broadband packages and could offer people a real alternative in the future. Read more on the story here, Sky pricing here and NTL's here. (Those connected to Exchange Activated exchanges will have to wait a bit longer)

(19.07.06) The NAIDC computers are quite good when it comes to keeping cool, they're relatively low powered and don't generate that much in their basic state, but in this hot weather it's hard for any computer to get rid of the heat they produce. This is particularly true if they're kept near the floor, in a dusty environment and haven't had their inside dusted for a while, if ever. So, it might be a good idea not to leave them on if you're not going to use them for a while and if you know someone with a bit of computer experience, get the inside cleaned and checked over. Dust, particularly in homes with wood or coal burning fires, produce dust that can short out circuits as well as preventing efficient cooling and heat can cause various components to malfunction.

There's a hoax email going around masquerading as a promotion for a new Google toolbar. It looks very convincing and there is new toolbar avialable for beta testing but the link in the email links to a porn site.

(18.07.06) Microsoft has sent me (not just me I'm sure) a correction stating that the previous email was incorrect when it said that support had ended for computers running XP Service Pack 1, it will as their support cycle page says, end on October 10th. Which is a relief but it means that we have less than three months to make get people who haven't installed Service Pack 2, to do so.

(17.07.06) Firefox declared July the fifteenth "World Firefox Day" to celebrate the two year anniversary of the creation of the foundation that oversees the development of the browser. It's also offering users the oppurtunity to have their devotion recognised in Firefox II, due out later this year, on an interactive "friends page". All you have to do is recommend a friend and if they download it,your and their name will be added. Click here.

I often recommend people give new Google services a try but I advise you steer clear of their web accelerator. It seems to offer a boost similar to OnSpeed for nothing but I found that it stopped a lot of pages loading at all and took ages to get going when I started a surfing.

(15.07.06) Google is adding an online document creator/editor to it ever expanding stable of freely available applications. It looks very much like Word and includes the ability to create spreadsheets and webpages, as well create ordinary documents. Users will be able to store their work online, share it with no one, a restricted list of people or everyone. They'll also be able to collaborate on editing documents and see who's done what, much more convenient than sharing via email. At the moment its in the testing stage but you can take a tour of the features and sign up to be one of the first users when they next open it to the public. Click here to see for yourself.

(14.07.06) According to an email I've just received from Microsoft, they not only ceased support for Windows '98 and ME this week but for users of XP Service Pack 1 this. This means that if you haven't installed Service Pack 2 yet you may not be able to get Windows updates anymore and given the number of people who are on dialup connections and only connect to the Internet to get their email and do very little surfing, this is quite serious. Their computers' are still vulnerable to infection but they're being denied one of the three basics of security, hopefully they'll have an antivirus program and firewall but updates are just as important.

Oddly, the Microsoft page that lists when products cease to be supported (click here) lists XP SP1 as being cut off in October but I have to assume that the email is correct.

(12.07.06) Microsoft is going to rethink the interface of its next operating system, called Vista, after reports that testers hated the basic version of the "Aero" interface. The full version is a clone of the look used by Apple computers, with groovy semi-transparent windows and the like but it requires users to have quite fast systems, so there's a basic version for basic computers. From what I gather from friends who've tried it, the full interface isn't that good either, so I for one won't be rushing to upgrade my computer.

(11.07.06) Symantec are reporting a spate of ID thefts on the Yahoo instant messenger system, a similar service to Windows Messenger but more popular with children and teenagers. They're warning about links to websites set up to "phish" usernames and passwords sent through anonymous messages, something that's quite common on social networking websites. So if you use it, be careful.

Just a bit fun but following the popularity of ArtPad, I thought some of you might enjoy the brief diversion provided by JacksonPollock.org. Pollock, as any fuel no, was  famous for large canvases covered with apparently random splashes of paint and now you can create your own without making a mess of the living room. Click here and just move the cursor around to make a line or splodge, the faster you move, the thinner the line and the colour changes every time you left click.

(10.07.06) Apologies for the longest break in updates since the website started four years ago, I had a problem connecting to the server at the end of last week but didn't get in touch with the helpline before the weekend, which meant things didn't get sorted out until today.

A stitch in time... Replacing a Belkin cube costs less than ten pounds but replacing the a modem fried as a result of a lightning strike can be quite expensive now that we have to pay for the engineers time as well as the parts. Not only that but a strike can damage the motherboard, as I've found to my cost, and they come in at £85. So for the sake of a tenner you could end up paying out well over a hundred quid. Make sure that both lights on the cube are glowing brightly and if they're not, replace it, they can be bought very cheaply on Amazon amongst others.

(05.07.06) Those of you with old computers running Windows '98 or, heaven help you, ME, won't getting any support after the 11th of July. That means no more software updates and more critically no security patches, something worth bearing in mind if the computer has internet access and is networked with your newer systems. This is part of a long established "support lifecycle" and in the case of Win'98 its been extended from the original schedule. In my opinion, it's no coincidence that Microsoft's next operating system is on the horizon, if I recall correctly, support for Win'95 ended around the time that XP appeared. Read more here.

(04.07.09) The new Orange website looks much the same as the Wanadoo one it replaced, it's a mixture of celebrity "news", broadband offers, shopping links and the sign in boxes for accessing email etc are still at the top of the page. I did find one significant change though, it's now much harder to find the link to reactivate a dormant account than it used to be.

Accounts go dormant if you don't use your Orange (previously Wanadoo and before that Freeserve) connection for 90 days. Lots of us have changed to another ISP but still use our old Freeserve email address and its really easy to forget to connect through them often enough. You'll find out soon enough because you'll start receiving email error messages as soon as it happens.

Previously the reactivate link was quite prominent but on the new site I had to run a search of help and support and eventually found it on page three of the results. So it might be a good idea to bookmark the page by clicking here, just in case.

(02.07.06) Ebay hoax email: I've noticed a change in the way ebay hoaxers are wording and presenting their messages recently. The new generation are less direct than the usual "account details" type that we're all familier with and appear to be concerned with administration rather than a problem with your account. Some are using "Question from ebay seller" in the subject line but they all have one thing in common, they aren't addressed to the account holders username, which all genuine ebay email is. The advice is to ignore all such email and if you wonder if they are genuine, login to your account and check things out from there.

June

(30.06.06) Anyone with an interest in island transport issues should check out the latest European Small Islands Network meeting, to held on the 22nd and 23rd of August on the island of Gräsö, Sweden. Funding is available to cover expenses and it would good if someone from the region could go and put our point of view to this influencial organisation. Read full details here. Thanks to Lisa Stephens for the information.

(29.06.06) Craignure may be getting its exchange upgraded from an EA, with a 512kb connection, to BT Max which enables connections of up to 8mb. It's always been a bit of a mystery why a community with so many prominent businesses and only a single microwave link from Oban, wasn't fully upgraded in the first place and this is a very welcome move on the part of BT if true. It could also be good news for Lismore, which connects to Oban via a Craignure but that depends on whether they connect through they exchange or through an independent system.

(28.06.06) I've written recently about Google's expanding portfolio of free online applications and inspired by a friend enquiring about 3D archtectrial design software, I gave "Sketchup" a try. It's free and has an extensive website of support and downloads but requires you to download the program, which is a hefty 19mb, so for broadbanders and patient dialup users only I think. It's well worth it though, it's easy to use, the video tutorials are very helpful and you can generate a model in very little time. If you've ever wanted to design your dream home, click here. 

The Over 50's are one of the fastest growing groups on the Internet and it's making them a powerful force in the market place. They make up a quarter of surfers and as they are in control of 80% of the nations wealth, advertisers, services and webdesigners are going to be taking a lot more care adressing their needs in the future. This could be a very good thing for areas like this which has an older population profile than the national average. Read more here.

(22.06.06) I haven't written about the risks children and teenagers face online for a while but two cases this week highlighted the problem and how it should be dealt with. The first is from the USA, where a family is suing the popular Internet community MySpace for not ensuring the safety of their daughter after she was abused by man she met through the website. The second comes from the UK, where a man has been convicted of a string of offences after a teenager, suspicious of his online approaches, told her parents who then reported the incident.

Really, the American family have little hope of succeeding in prosecuting MySpace and it wouldn't help their daughter much if they did and the only way to protect our children is to educate them as the UK family did. The rules are simple, teach children to report any suspicious behaviour or approach, never to believe people are who they claim online and never under any circumstances agree to meet them unaccompanied. Oh and don't give out email addresses that reveal where you live, which is surprisingly common. Read the stories here and here. 

(19.06.06) Opera, one the popular alternatives to Internet Explorer and said to be the fastest browser in the world, has released version 9, promising improved security and features. It's very similar to Firefox but isn't as freely customisable, it's a good choice if you just want to get away from Internet Explorer though and it does have some very nice features. Click here to read more and download it.

(17.06.06) With the holiday season coming up for some of us, what to do with email we aren't in to answer becomes a problem. If you're going somewhere with an Internet connection you'll probably be able to access your account online but if you can't, you might want to set up an auto-response, a message that everyone who sends you an email will recieve, a bit like an answer phone.

Most ISPs have this facility, just go to their website, login to web mail and look for a "settings" link and something like "auto-responce" or "away message". Setting it up is fairly straight forward but care should be taken to ensure that you turn them off when you come back or you have the ISP spam filter switched on (also found in the "settings" panel), if you don't everyone who sends you spam will know your email address is live and you'll just get more.

(16.06.06) Scotnet problems appear to be continueing, despite reassurances that they were about to be resolved. According to Scotnet the fault lies with a BT "core router", as we suggested it might earlier this week and they are trying to sort things out. However, despite the Scotnet service status page, which is updating now, reporting no problems, customers say that several websites, mostly in the US are unavailable, including Google.

The BBC reports that websites connected with teams and players at the World Cup are infested with spyware and worse. Particularly bad are websites offering screensavers and wallpapers, which are always risky to visit, so stear clear of unofficial websites and don't be tempted by free offers that appear in Google searches. 

(12.06.06) Scotnet appear to be still having problems, with some US websites unavailable and worse still, their email service is failing. The Scotnet website is working but the service status page hasn't been updated for some time and unsuprisingly gives no indication of what might be going on. Most worringly they seem to have taken the phones off the hook.

As a very small operator they will buy their capacity from one of the bigger ISPs and would be interesting to know if other customers of that ISP are also having difficulties.

(11.06.06) Google is going Yahoo, if a test version of the search engine is anything to go by. If you came to the Internet when Google had already established itself as number one and had such a grip on the market that many people don't realise that there are actually alternatives, you might be surprised to know that Yahoo used to hold that position. Yahoo grew over time to provide a wide variety of services and it was the simple, no nonsence approach that was partly responsible for Google's success.

So it's a surprise that the new Google has many of the features of Yahoo, the main difference is that there's no need to join if you want to customise it (unless you want gmail etc). Click here to see for yourself, try setting the weather to your area, choosing your favourite newspaper headlines etc and click here to compare it with Yahoo.

(09.06.06) Felt I had to mark the start of the world cup with a cartoon, hope you like it and the new logo!

(08.06.06) The release of Microsoft Vista beta b (a test version of the succesor to XP) might explain yesterday's Scotnet problems. Almost immedietly after the release was announced a number of major Internet networks collapsed in the US, as did one of BT's in the UK and they may have been overloaded by the volume of data being transfered. The Inquirer (click here) couldn't get the MS page to load which suggests high demand but today the networks and the Scotnet website seem to be still down, although I'm told that other webpages are loading normally for Scotnet users.

(07.06.06) Scotnet users may be experiencing problems connecting to some websites today, including the Scotnet site itself. I can't tell if this is an issue specific to the ISP or if its related to the collapse of one of BTs main trunk networks. Scotnet is one of the most popular broadband providors, especially with people connected to EA exchanges, it being one of the few alternatives to BT avialable to them. Hopefully the difficulty will just be a short lived. Thanks to Steve for the tip. 

(05.06.06) The Artpad cartoon proved surprisingly popular, as did the website it was created on and so I thought I'd post another, this one's inspired by the release of the new version of "The Omen" and the superstitions we attach to certain dates. Click here to see it and visit the Artcom website. (Image moved to Cartoon Archive improve loading time)

(04.06.06) The latest version of Firefox is available, version 1.5.0.4. If you are using 1.5.0.0. or above it should download and install automatically but if you aren't you should follow the link at the top of the Anorak page and download it yourself. It won't take to long even on a dialup connection and it contains a fixes for various vulnerabilities. You can check which version you're using by click ing on "Help" at the top of the browser and then on "About Firefox".

(01.06.06) The Broadband Information page has been completely rewritten and now includes a service status map showing what's available where in the NAIDC community. My intention is to update the map as information comes in and add details such as the areas covered by exhanges. If there's the demand the map will be expanded to cover a larger area of the west coast, which could be particularly useful for the exchange activated communites which tend to be small, isolated and without the voice to get things done on their own. Click the link on the left to see the updated page.

May

(28.05.06) The cartoon on the left may not be my best effort but it was made on a website called Art Pad, part of the larger art.com that sells prints etc. An easy to use online program lets you draw, paint and write on a blank canvas and then share the pictures with your friends. If you click on the image you'll be taken to Art  Pad and watch the picture developing in front of your eyes, you can even add to it yourself if you want to. Pictures can also be put into a public gallery, although they never actually appear there in my experience. The canvas is much bigger than the example here, which has been reduced so it loads quicker. Obviously the system works better on broadband but it's perfectly useable on a dialup

(27.05.06) The arrival of the BT Max service has highlighted the disadvantage that those connected to an exchange activated (EA) are at when it comes to accessing broadband services. It was bad enough when they could only get connected at a quarter of the speed of their better served neighbours and only had a few ISPs available, now they are connecting at a sixteenth of of the speed.

That makes a real difference, the jump between 512kb and 1 or 2mb is noticable and makes sharing a connection more practical, it probably doesn't have a huge affect on how you use the net. Having an 8mb connection does though, not only in file sharing, online storage, video conferencing etc but in the services offered. With 8mb you can access high quality television services (click here), make phonecalls over the net and share a connection between several people, saving you money and inconvenience.

On top of that there is an "underclass" of EA customer who has applied for broadband to late and been told there aren't enough lines on the exchange, some of them are stuck on DACSed lines and a 28kb connection, grateful if they can send a small .jpeg via email. It will be five years before these exchanges are upgraded, can we wait that long?  

(26.05.06) BT low user tariff can delay people getting broadband because it is seen by ISP's availability checkers as a "device" that makes the line unsuitabl for ADSL. Changing your BT account to a normal one will solve the problem but it might take someone a while to figure what the problem is. Other "devices" include DACS boxes and the older type of remote alert that social services issue to vulnerable people.

(25.05.06) Check the Anorak News page and the Software Updates item at the top, for a link to an update for Internet Explorer that makes the browser run much faster. The update isn't avialable via automatic update yet, so this is the only way to get it.

Microsoft continues to challenge Googles dominance of the search market with the launch of "Virtual Earth UK", a similar mix of maps, satellite images, directions and places to spend money, as Google Maps. I'm a sucker for satellite images and I'm always disappointed that google doesn't offer the kind of resolution available for city locations, where you can identify makes of cars, for rural areas such as ours. Sadly Virtual Earth is exactly the same and apart from a slightly smaller map and different colouring I can't see much difference between the two. Still, it's another chance to freak out your city friends by phoning them up and describing what's outside their house. Click here for Google Maps and here for Virtual Earth, the best way of getting a result on both is to type in the postcode of the area you want to look at, click on "satellite" or "Arial" for the sat image.

(22.05.06) Memory prices for the NAIDC computers have fallen again, down from £30 to £27 for 256mb delivered, so it's a great time to replace the 128mb strip if you haven't done so already. This is the cheapest its been for ages and way down from the £50 peak it reached eighteen months ago or so. Thanks to Steve for the tip, he also points out that also very good value comparred to the 128mb strip, which is around £20 delivered.

Steve also points out that the hard drive utility I highlighted on Saturday comes with a handy little program that can recover lost images from cameras and other storage media.

(20.05.06) Partioning hard drives is increasingly popular with more and more people either replacing their old one or buying a new computer but it can be all to easy to erase the information, the partition table, that make the partitions work. Reformatting the C drive, a virus or human error can lead to it being lost and with it, all the data that has been meticulously backed up.

So I'm grateful to Charles at the Kinloch Hotel for telling me about TestDisk, a small, free, program that will run on all Windows and Mac operating systems and will recover data across partitions even if they're on a RAID system. Click here to read more about its capabilities and download it.

(19.05.06) I've found another charity website worth a look at, one that more about fun than prizes. Costing £3 to enter, your task is answer a few questions about the World Cup and then predict the outcome of matches. The person with the points total will win one of the donated prizes which include a signed England shirt. Ok, I realise that's not the most desireable prize north of the boarder but its in a worthy cause, SOS Childrens Villages, the worlds biggest orphanage charity and every penny raised goes to it. Click here to enter.

(17.05.06) A charity lottery launched last week and was so successful the server crashed on it's first draw day. Called "Monday", after the day it holds the draw, it promises a better chance of winning (although with a much lower top prize) and to give more money to charity than the National Lottery. You can also get alerts when your favourite charity is going to be featured. Click here for more.

(16.05.06) New Guide: If you've ever wondered what exactly is inside that black box this is the guide for you. It doesn't go into a great deal of technical detail but explains what the basic parts are and what they do. Click here. 

(15.05.06) The Internet seems to be having problems today with numerous websites becoming unavailable, from the one that hosts the "smilies" I use at the top of the forum to various government pages. I haven't found any mentions of it on the newsites yet but a look at some that monitor Internet network activity indicates that some European networks have collapsed altogether, including part of BT's UK "backbone". On top of that, and possibly due to, several of the ISP "service status" pages I checked were reporting problems with email (Wanadoo for instance) and their networks. So if you're finding it hard to get some websites to appear or email isn't arriving, you're not alone.

(14.05.06) Wanadoo has published a list of FAQs on the changeover to Orange which people should find reassuring. Essentially there won't be any change to the service for current customers when the change occurs in June. Click here for the FAQs.

(13.05.06) Be careful what you type into search engines like google, a survey has found that common search words will produce results that lead to sites intend on installing spyware or sending you spam. Innocent sounding phrases such as "free screensavre" or "mobile ringtone" are the worst culprits and Site Advisor, which did the research, thinks that the search engine owners should do more to weed out the offending websites.

To be fair, they will remove websites when they are reported, Google ditched a lot of advertisments for free anti-spyware programs after I informed them that most were actually spyware in themselves but now that over 85% of spam comes from hijacked home computers and ID theft is a growing industry, perhaps it's time they became more pro-active. Read more here. Thanks to Steve for the tip, if you' find a story that you think might be of interest to the community - send it in!.

(11.05.06) The Rural Community Gateway is carrying out a survey into local petrol prices and everyone's contribution is needed, don't worry if you think that someone will have sent the price at your local pump already, it may have changed since then. It may not seem much but remember the impact that reporting our connection speeds had? Click here the RCG page or email me (link above) and I'll send it in.

(08.05.06) Wanadoo, formerly Freeserve, is to change it's name again. Later this month it will "rebrand" itself as "Orange", the name of the company that now owns it. Freeserve/Wanadoo users probably won't notice any change apart from receiving messages from Orange rather than Wanadoo and the company's website will look a bit different. Email addresses will function as normal.

(07.05.06) Internet Explorer 7 beta is not proving to be as good as we originally thought and numerous bugs are emerging as more people use Microsoft's next generation browser. These include the inability to access online banking sites, an incompatibility with McAfee Security Suite and several anti-spyware programs, not to mention a possible security vulnerability. Forum member, dazedanconfused was affected by poor scrolling, a problem that seems to afflict users of Logitech mice, which has been reported on several MS support forums but is as yet unresolved.

You'd think that when Microsoft promotes a beta 2 release to home users as heavily as it did IE7, it would make sure that these basic issues were sorted out but their attitude seems to be that it's up to others to make sure that their programs work with them, rather than the other way round. I recommend that anyone who has installed it, to uninstall it immedietly, you can find instructions here (It's fairly straightforward, just make sure that "show updates" is enabled in the Add/remove programs" window).

Watch out for emails offering a free interactive World Cup wallchart, the links in them will install a trojan (type of virus) that will allow others to access the infected computer. At present its only being sent out in German but this is bound to change. Read more here.

(05.05.06) Spam has killed the "Ask a question" page, I've replaced it with near identical one titled "Get help here". Not very interesting in itself but if it defeats the avalanche of spam that the old page and its for was generating, it might be.

(03.05.06) Scottish children will be sitting Intermediate 2 and Higher biotechnology exams online later this month. The multiple choice tests are a trial to see if the system works and if succesful will be extended to other subjects. Read more here.

(02.05.06) BBC Radio 5 has reported a "nationwide" computer failure affecting the collection of social security payments from post offices. According to them counter staff have been authorised to make emergency payments of £20 to customers but I haven't been able to find any weblink to more details. 

(01.05.06) Changing the email address on the "ask a question" page has made no difference, its still generating the same amount of spam, which is very annoying. I've noticed that all the links in the message are in UBB code which is used on message boards, which suggests that they are intended for them and aren't generated by the usual harvesting of email addresses. I think they've adopted a new tactic and I'm not sure what I can do about it, apart from delete the page, which I don't want to do.

April

(30.04.06) I've had to drop the email address "askaquestion(at)2000friends" because it has become the target of spammers. It's the one used on the Ask a Question page feedback form and by a few people when the contact me for help, if you're one of those just change the bit before the @ sign to "questions".

(29.04.06) Phishing, as the use of fake email to steal personal details is called, fools 9 out of ten people according to a survey by mailfrontier.com and 2 out of 10 will be convinced enough to visit a spoof website. Which is an enormous number considering that most are well aware that people are trying to fool them in this way. You can read more here and take the survey yourself here (I'm not endorsing the email service). 

The Daily Mirror is warning about a website that appears legitimate and is apparently delivering what it offers, is actually one of network run by a conman with a history of defrauding customers. It sells DVDs at greatly reduced prices, considerably cheaper than Amazon and has secure payment status. It could easily turn up in a search for popular titles, so read more here before buying and visit the website here. 

(28.04.06) Iona is, at long last, seeing some progress in its bid to get BT to enable broadband on the island. As you will recall, it should have got it along with everyone else connected to the Fionnphort exchange but, even though their registrations had been needed when BT set a trigger point, they weren't. This was because Iona is connected to the mainland via a radio link and this was not included in the upgrade. Despite pressure from local residents, the HIE, this website, local representitives, BT has been unwilling to do anything until now. Work is underway and things are suppossed to be up and running next week but as the Oban Times reports, residents aren't holding their breath.

Meanwhile there's no improvement in Pennyghael, where it is a shortage of lines that is preventing people from getting broadband. This has been reported before but it was uncertain what the cause was, now it appears to be down to a poor line infrastructure, rather then capacity at the exchange. Some residents can't even get their DACS box removed, let alone get broadband and so are stuck on a 28k connection. The situation is exasperated by the number of holiday homes in the area, which take up lines but generate little in the way of demand for improved services.

(27.04.06) The Home Computing Initiative has ended and it's not coming back, even though it has led to job loses at UK manufacturers and has proved popular with the public. The scheme enabled employers to loan or sell computers to employees free of tax, at greatly reduced price and has
enabled many to improve their skills. 

The end of the scheme was announced in the last budget and in yesterdays PMQs the MP for Mid Worcestershire, where Evesham is based, asked the Prime Minister to reconsider in the light of the job loses the change had caused. The PM brushed off the question and so it looks highly unlikely that the scheme will return. So if you didn't take advantage of the offer last year, you're not going to get another chance. Read more here Thanks to Steve for the link, the story is relevent to us because the Scottish Executive distributed around 60 000 computers every year in this way.

(26.04.06) Internet Explorer 7 beta 2 is getting some great reviews, some calling it a match for Firefox. I'm not sure if I would that far but it has cleverly incorporated Firefoxs best add-ons, such as middle clicking to open links, close tabs etc, into the browser but it can't be customised to suit in the same way. Further more its yet to seen whether the fundemental problem with Internet Explorer, the way it intergrates with the rest of the operating system, has been addressed. FIrefox, Opera etc don't and that's why they're safer. Read a favourable review of IE7b2 here.

(25.04.06) Internet Explorer 7 is now available for testing in what is almost its final form. As expected, it looks remarkably like Firefox and Opera, with tabbed browsing, a search bar with the option to add more search engines and better security options than its predecessors.

It's not as fast as Opera nor as customisable as Firefox but it is a big improvement on Internet Explorer 6, which most people are using now (why?). Some of the functions actually work better than they do in rival browsers, the security options, pop-up stopper etc, are easier to turn on and off and it has quite an attractive "feel" to it. On the other hand, I don't like the way command toolbar, where the favourites button etc is intergrated with the tabs, it looks crowded and ill thought out.

I haven't found any obvious problems in my initial tests, it works well with my website updater, which can be a very buggy program but it does seem to completely replace Internet Explorer 6, rather than installing alongside it. When you install it you are asked to update it immedietly, it also downloads any other available MS updates at the same time and you have to restart the computer a couple of times, one of which is quite slow as IE7 imports your settings from IE6.

You can download or just get a preview here (11.9mb download).

(24.04.06) There's still six weeks to go until the World Cup but scam email offering tickets, competition wins and the like have already started to arrive in my spam plagued inbox. As ever these should just be dumped without opening, as merely opening them can alert the sender that your address is active and will encourage them to send you more rubbish.

Sorry for the lack of updates over the weekend, for reasons that are beyond me, the connection with the server kept freezing.

(20.04.06) Another new guide! One of the handy but hidden features of XP is the facility to display several folders as menus, rather than links, on the start menu and taskbar. This means that you don't have to click on the Control Panel, then on a catergory and finally the thing you want, you just hover the mouse and a list of things in the control panel appears. You can do the same things with My Computer and Documents amongst other things. You can even make a list of things on your desktop pop-up from the taskbar, so you don't have to minimise open windows, which is really useful. Find out how here.

(19.04.06) AOL is being criticised by its users for not only its plans to introduce an email "tax" but for blocking email protesting it. The company intends to offer a premium service which will allow companies who pay for the priviledge to send email that bypass the normal AOL filters, promising faster delivery of what is essentially spam. Users fear that this will lead to everyone being charged to send or suffer a slower service, so introducing a two speed mail service. I'd have thought they'd be a bit annoyed at having a filter system that frequently stop legitimate messages getting through but will now give the nod to spam. Read more here and on the protest here.

(18.04.06) A guide to buying a new PC has been posted in the How to section of the forum and hopefully it will give some clues when decoding the plethora of jargon that infests computer advertisments. It's been one of the hardest I've written because some of the items are very complex and difficult to explain in a few lines. I've tried to keep it simple but if you want further explanation don't hesitate to write in or post a message. Read the guide here.

The latest version of Firefox is available, version 1.5.0.2 and the company is recommending that everyone downloads it because it addresses several security issues. If you already version 1.5 it may have downloaded and installed automatically, as mine did. You can check this by clicking on "Help" at the top of the Firefox window and then on "About Firefox". If you need to get the new version you'll find the link at the top of the Software Updates page (link on the Anorak News page).

Software Updates also has a link to a Microsoft page describing how fix a problem that is affecting a lot of Hewlett Packard products, from cameras to printers. It caused by a recent Microsoft update, which people will probably download automatically and can then make several folders, including My Documents, inaccessable. Again, find the link on the Anorak page. 

(16.04.06) Argyll & Bute Council have launched a bird registration scheme for the keepers of small poultry and other flocks. Up until now only those keeping more than 50 birds were expected to register but with so many people far fewer it was thought wise to open it up to all. Registration will mean that people recieve the latest news from Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department (SEERAD). The scheme is voluntary, free and available online here, more information can be found here.

Ebay is to launch a non-auction website for all those people who prefer the simplicity of the "buy now" system, rather than having to bid for what they want. It will be more like a conventional retail website and will allow established ebay sellers to provide a more conventional shopping experience for their customers. Click here for more.

(14.04.06) The Exchange Activate issue isn't just about choice, it's also about something more basic - money. There are 19000 households and businesses connected to exchanges that offer a choice of five ISPs and the lowest monthly charge available is £17.99 (after the cheap offer period expires) from AOL, a company that doesn't have the best customer reviews, to put it kindly.

If we assume that the current national of UK broadband take up of 15% will be replicated in the EA exchanges, the restricted choice will cost over £3 million but if everyone signed up, the additional cost would be over £20 million, over the five years of the EA contract. National take up will go up over time but it will never reach 100%, so the true cost is somewhere in between but whatever it turns out to be, it's a massive cost for an already disadvantaged region. Estimates based on the difference between the lowest EA supplier and the free broadband services currently available on unrestricted exchanges.

(13.04.06) A Pennyghael business has been told it can't get a broadband connection because there is no more capacity at the exchange. This seems extraordinary as the exchange only serves about 44 households and 3 businesses and seems unlikely that all thirty broadband lines have been taken up. Which suggests that either the backhaul to the Fionnphort exchange or the Fionnphort exchange can't support the additional line. The latter seems unlikely as it's been fully converted, all be it using mini-dslams.

Another possible explanation is additional load that comes the Tiroran exchange, which connects to Fionnphort via Pennyghael but that only has 38 residential and two businesses and I'm pretty sure  broadband take up is fairly low. More news on this as soon as it comes in. 

(12.04.06) Exchange Activate has made the news at last, as part of an article on the problems some people still have getting broadband dispite the Scottish Executive's best efforts. The article does repeat the old canard that the slow speeds are due to the equipment used in EA exchanges but the author can hardly be blamed for this, it took us ages to prove it wasn't the case and even so it remains the official line in some places. The good news is that the issue is in the news at all and hopefully there will be more to come. Read the article here.  

(10.04.06) Free Broadband! We're about to be engulfed in adverts from companies offering free broadband, first from the Car Phone Warehouse, then Sky and then everyone else I would imagine. First of all the offer won't be open to anyone connected to an "exchange activated" exchange unless BT decide to offer the service, which I doubt they will and secondly, it requires you to get your landline service through the same company.

This could turn out to be a real bargain depending on how much they charge for their phone calls and what the terms and conditions are on the broadband service. My guess is that it will be a capped service, meaning that you can only download a certain amount without incurring a surcharge. So be read the contract very carefully before signing up! Read more here.

(08.04.06) You can save the printer that came with the council computer by following some relatively simple instructions and save yourself the expense of buying a new one and its expensive ink!

Over the last few months I've received quite a few requests for help about failing Epson C-42s, quite a few of which have been the result of a "Maintenance call" message which pops up for no apparent reason. The message is generated by a counter that tracks the number of times the print heads are cleaned and is an estimation of how full the waste ink pad, which collects the ink used cleaning the heads, is. It is possible to clean and reuse the pad but up until now all the instructions I'd come across seemed very complicated and so I've just advised people to buy a new printer.

However when the question popped up on the forum I managed to find a very clear set of instructions, with photos and so I posted a link to them. They've been thoroughly by a team of top forum researchers (step forward dazedandconfused and Peabody) who found they worked but there was a couple of things you had to watch out for. Click here to read the thread (with the instructions link) and if you've got a spare Epxon C-40 let me know as I'd like to test the proceedure on it.

(06.04.06) Avian Flu has reached Scotland and everyone who keeps poultry will be concerned about what the Fife discovery means to them. At the moment, not much but with reports of other birds being tested as close as Glasgow, it can't be to long before it starts to affect Argyll. In Fife a 3km control zone has been established within which commercial bird movements are restricted and if there were any, commercial flocks would have to be kept indoors. Read morehere, about the restriction zone here and the DEFRA site is here. The number to call if you find a dead bird is 08459 33 55 77.

The Anti-Phishing Working Group has announced that reports of the scam have reached an all time high, with over 17000 unique reports coming into them in January alone, making it a major risk to every email user. Don't be taken in and check the story below to see just how convincing the email and website constructed by fraudsters can be. Read more here.

(05.04.06) BT Max, the high speed broadband service that was suppossed to become available at the end of last month, hasn't, at least not for most people. Users are finding that although line test might show that an 8mb speed is possible on their line, in reality it is still capped at 2mb. It turns out that to get it you have to register and then sign up for the premium service at £29.99, otherwise it could be as long as a year before it becomes available. BT rationalise this by saying it allows the really kean user to get it early but that's not how the upgrade was being promoted a month ago. Read about one journalist's frustration here and BTs explanation here. Thanks to Steve for the tip. 

(04.04.05) Phishing is common word in the computer world and I use it frequently when writing about the latest scams but I don't think I've ever given a really good example of what it means in practice. Basically, phishing is a word coined by hackers, when they replaced the f in fishing with "ph", to describe the act of fooling someone into giving up sensitive information, such as credit card details or passwords, by fooling them into visiting fake websites.

Today I received a classic example of phishing in the form of an email request from Barclays Bank asking me to confirm my online banking details. I don't have a Barclays account, which immedietly alerted me to the possibility that this was a fake and although the message looked authentic enough, it wasn't addressed to me personally, which a genuine one would have been. The webpage its link took me too looked identical to Barclays' own login page but the address was incorrect and there was no padlock displayed at the bottom of the browser nor in the address bar. The genuine webpage is even easier to identify in the Firefox browser because it colours the address bar of secure webpages yellow. Click the links for half sized screenshots of the fake (here) and the genuine (here) webpages.

(01.04.06) Have you ever wondered what's inside a Belkin Cube? Well I did, so when mine was blown by a power surge I decided to take it apart and have a look. I can't say it's very exciting but there's more inside it than just a big fuse. Click here to see for yourself.

Google never cease in their efforts to serve every aspect of our lives, so it was inevitable that they would get involved in the vast online dating phenomena sooner or later and it turned out to be sooner, with the launch of Google Romance. It uses a similar algorithim to the one that has made their search engine such a success and claims to be the most accurate predictor of compatibility in the world. Click here to to try it yourself.

March

(31.03.06) Watch out for email purporting to bring you BBC news alerts, they are being used by virus writers to trick people into visiting specialy created websites that exploit recently discovered, and yet unpatched, vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer. Each news story in the email has a "click here for more" link which takes the reader to a website which will automatically install code on their computer, leaving them open to identity and credit theft amongst other things. Read more here (it's safe, trust me)

(30.03.06) 2000friends email was down over the weekend for the first time in four years but everything should be working OK now. If yours isn't and you are getting an error message when you try to send and receive its because there is now a seven character minimum for passwords which came into affect as a result of the maintanance. If you're having problems just let me know and I'll reset the password. 2000friends email is a free service available to all members of the forum.

Computing can be stressful at times and we all need to take a break now and again. Who hasn't known the inexplicable pleasure of popping bubble wrap? Well now you can do it on line whenever things are driving you mad, click here and pop to your hearts content! Try "Fresh sheet - small" and "Manic Mode".

(28.03.06) Colonsay's broadband log jam appears to have broken, with at least one of the frustrated customers successfully connecting through BT. What's freed things up is a bit a mystery but it could be the case that BT has bought back some of the capacity they sold to other ISPs. Whatever the reason, it's good news. Thanks to forum member Peabody for the info.

(27.03.06) Anyone looking for a cheap alternative to renewing or upgrading Norton, could do worse than 7 Day Shop's McAfee offer. At £12.44 for the 2006 version delivered to your door, it's an absolute bargain and is as easy to use as Norton. I reported recently that recent versions of Norton slowed systems down and there's no reports of McAfee doing the same, so it's not only cheaper than an upgrade, it's better too. Click here for links to the shop and a review of the program. 

The website was down over the weekend for "maintanance" and my email was'nt working either, so if you sent me something you probably got an error message, please resend it now everything's working again - thanks and sorry for the inconvenience.

(24.03.03) Wi-Fi: This won't affect many of you right now but will some and a lot more in the future, so it's worth thinking about before it becomes a problem. Wi-fi is the increasingly popular method of connecting computers in a home network and on to the Internet and hacking these networks is an increasingly popular crime. The problem is that the wireless signal that it enables it to work leaks out of the house and can be picked up by any wi-fi enabled device, such as a laptop. At the very least this allows people to piggy back on your internet connection, at worst it gives them access to all the data on your computers, including passwords and credit card details.

Fortunately its quite easy to secure a network but security isn't enabled automatically and if you're using wi-fi you should check its security immedietly. If you don't, you are broadcasting all your personal details to anyone passing your house. Click here for a recent BBC news story on the subject.

(23.03.06) Wanadoo (formerly Freeserve) has emailed all its customers to inform them of changes to their terms and conditions, including the privacy policy which dictates what they can and can't do with the information they hold on you. The good news is that the T&Cs are very reasonable and easy to understand, which is a good thing because you only have to carry on using to the Wanadoo service to accept them. They don't share your details with third parties but they do say the change is being made so they can better target their services, which is code for "we're going to send you more email" but I doubt it will be that much. So, basically, if you got one of these messages, don't worry and you don't have to do anything about it.

(22.03.06) The price of a 256mb memory strip has fallen to it's lowest for quite sometime and has dropped to £30.56 (inc. VAT and postage) from £37 only last week. It might fall even further but even if it does this a great time to buy and nothing improves the performance of a NAIDC computer like adding memory. Click here to go to the forum and then click on the banner at the top of the page. Thanks to sgegreen for the tip.

(20.03.06) Apologies for the lack of updates over the weekend. On Saturday I got to involved in the rugby and then on Sunday I was trying to run the BBC Climate Experiment in Safe Mode but it needs an internet connection and I just didn't have one SM. That seemed to cause the program to freeze and I spent ages restarting or trying to figure out what was going wrong. I discovered today that all I needed to do was select "Safe Mode with network support" to enable the connection, I'd assumed that referred to people with more than one computer connected in a local network, silly me :¬(

The BBC is launching a podcasting trial today which will eventually enable people to download their favourite radio programmes and play them on their computers or mp3 player. How to save and replay radio clips was a popular subject on the forum in it's early days and so I've written a rough guide to what the BBC is doing, which you can read here.

(15.03.06) Microsoft is urging people to update their Office or Works programs in order to patch a vulnerability that can allow remote access to documents. By this they mean that a virus writer could create a program that could be spread via email or websites which, if it got on your computer, could steal vital information. You can find a link to the Microsoft update of the Software Updates page (see Anorak News) or you can download updates by opening Word, clicking on "Tools", then "Update" and follow the instructions. This is receiving a lot of publicity and is thought to be quite serious.

(14.03.06) Correction: In yesterday's item about the power cuts I should have told you to check that the Belkin cube's green (not red) light was lit. Sorry for the confusion, I was working from my faulty memory, thanks to Peabody for pointing out the mistake.

Hope you all like the new logo!

(13.03.06) Power cuts: Yesterday's power cuts and today's ongoing electicity supply problems in some areas, are a timely reminder of how important it is to protect your PC from surges in the power supply. Those of you who are using the Belkin cube supplied by NAIDC should check that both lights are on, check that that the top one, the Green "protected", isn't being lit by the lower Red "earthed". If it is, your computer isn't being protected and you should replace the unit.

You can buy a simple plug and phoneline protector for under £10 but if you want to make sure that you can shutdown your computer properly when power goes out you need UPS (Uninterupted Power Supply). Basically they're big batteries that allow enough time to save the work you're doing and shutdown the computer in the normal way. I've use the Belkin Superior Series UPS 500VA (click here), it gives me up to none minutes to close programs and turn off the computer. (This is not a website recommendation, just an example of what's available). Thanks to forum member Peabody for the Belkin Cube tip. 

(11.03.06) A couple of weeks ago I suggested people should have a look at the BBC Climate Change Experiment that at the time was being heavily promoted on BBC2. In my notes I did say that it was only really suitable for people with a broadband connection and a commputer faster than the standard NAIDC one but if my experience is anything to go by, anyone, no matter how fast their system is, will have problems running the program. After more than a fortnight, I've still not completed any work, it just crashes with no real explanation as to why and the message board that supports progect users is full of similar tails of woe. So, until I figure out how to run it, I'm withdrawing the recommendation and instead I suggest people donate their spare computer time (when it's on but you're not using it) to one of the other research progects that do work. Try United Devices, which performs cancer research or Seti, which searches for extraterristrial life, instead.

The Cultural Lab is closing, which is sad news. Run by the Foriegn and Commonwealth Office to promote British design, it's been one of my favourite websites for a long time and the source of many stories I posted here. I'll miss the succinct and well written articles on innovations that just didn't appear anywhere else, it was a sort of "Tomorrow's World" of the web really. Check out the latest news before it closes at the end of the month here. 

(09.03.06) I've had a chance to have a look at Brendan Dick's responses in more detail and there was a lot of interesting information to be had, some new and some confirming what we had already been told. For example there's confirmation of the £1000 pound limit on the cost of removing a DACS box, if it would cost more than this to remove yours, it won't be. The BT availability checker has been updated and now lists all the ISPs available to customers on EA exchanges. The situation on Colonsay is as confusing as ever, the partitioning of BT into very distinct commercial entities seems to have resulted in a lack of communication and co-ordination. Worryingly, it is revealed that BT is only contracted to supply a broadband capacity to exchanges and although Lismore has had a second d-slam unit installed, this could mean that some small exchanges won't supply more than 30 customers for the forseeable future. Read more in the additional posts here.

(08.03.06) Q&A: On the 17th of January the Rural Gateway website invited it's members to put questions to Brendan Dick, general manager of BT Scotland, on the subject of broadband. I put in a few and today we received the replies. Read them, and my comments here. More tomorrow, when I've had time to analyse the rest of the messages and find links.

(07.03.06) Biometric Passports are on their way and will be introduced this year over a five month period. These are not the same thing as the controversial ID card scheme and will only contain one form of biometric based on facial recognition. As well as the normal photograph, a chip inbedded in the passport will contain a mathmatical algorithm based on the face's proportions and the carriers own face will be matched with at airports. A ten year passport is only going to cost £51, which is good news. Read more here.

(06.03.06) AOL has introduced another email filter which validates and charges commercial senders. There are already protests from voluntary organisations which AOL is trying to address but the real question is how will the filter identify email from people who the charge doesn't apply to at all. In the past every filter they've introduced has wrongly barred some senders and I anticipate the same thing happening again. If you experience sending to or recieving at AOL addresses, email me!

(03.03.06) BT has announced that 99.6% of its broadband exchanges will be supply speeds of up to 4mb by the end of this month and the 78% of those using its lines will be able to get the top speed. Amazingly this includes all the exchanges with a full ADSL service, leaving only those connected to an EA exchange in the ever slower lane. People will have to check with their ISP to find out if the increase will be avialable to them and how much it will cost but this is still great news for most people. Unfortunately it also emphasises just what a disadvantage being connected to an EA and stuck on 512 is. Read more here.

(01.03.06) Lismore: A computer user has been told by BT that they can't have a DACS box removed unless they sign up for broadband. This is despite the fact that they are the only ones connected to it, the other house got a new line installed when they signed up for ISDN some time ago. This is reminiscent of the early days of the digital community when people trying to get boxes removed would find that it only became possible if they signed up for ISDN.

Why should people have to sign up for a broadband when it is relatively cheap and technically possible to remove a DACS box and so get a decent dialup speed? This is especially important for those connected to EA exchanges and will have to pay far more for broadband than dialup because they don't have the same choice of ISP. BT has been given a huge amount of money by the Scottish Executive to upgrade their own exchanges and they are benefitting financially from the thousands of people taking up broadband, you'd think they could afford to look on cases like this with more sympathy.

February

(25.02.06) (Correction) The Luing Community Council website has been launched and very nice it looks too, even though its described as a work in progress on its front page. It already has a lot of useful content and more is promised in the coming days. Click here to see for yourself, thanks to Phil Robertson for the correction, it isn't a relaunch, it's a brand new website. I think I must have been confusing it with Luing.co.uk.

(23.02.06) The Colonsay saga took a new twist over the last few days as islanders were given an explanation for the problems getting connected to BT broadband but, as ever, it just prompts more questions. According to a very diligent BT helpline worker, who pursued the issue through their superiors, BT has been told by HIE (Highland and Islands Enterprises) that they have to give up their position as monopoly Bb supplier to the island but this information has not been passed onto to BT Wholesale, who are still accepting orders from prospective customers. Islanders have been advised to try one of the other ISPs but not as far as I know, been told which ones. They have also been told that BT may buy up an allocation of lines at the exchange in the future.

I presume the "other ISPs" are the ones available on the other EA exchanges and that BT lost the monopoly that they inherited from Zetnet when the Colonsay exchange, which had been upgraded under another scheme, was included in the one funded by the Scot. Exec.. But why didn't that result in them having the same "lead ISP" status that they enjoy in the other 146 EA exchanges? More research needed I think. Thanks to our friends on Colonsay for the information.

Availability Checkers have been a bit unreliable when it comes to "exchange activated" exchanges, some don't detect them at all, AOL's for instance and some do but can't give accurate information about speed. So the change at the ADSL guide is welcome, its checker will tell you that an exchange is EA by informing you that the speed is restricted to 512k. Click here for more, the story is primarily about the BT "Max" service, more on which tomorrow.

(21.02.06) You may have noticed the adverts running on the BBC for the Climate Change Experiment and wondered about taking part. The idea is similar to the SETI (search for extraterrestrial intelligence) and the United Devices (cancer research) projects, using home computers to process data quickly and cheaply. Unlike those projects however, the BBC experiment requires a fairly good computer and broadband connection to run properly. To find out if your's is suitable click here.

(20.02.06) Bird Flu: Nothing to do with computers but most of us know someone who keeps chickens and the news that the virus has reached France is very worrying. While the speculation is all their own, most of the facts in the media come from the Department of Argriculture and Rural Affairs and that's the place to find information about what to expect when it reaches the UK. Click here for the latest Defra news story on the situation in France and follow the links for the department's advice and further information.

(19.02.06) A sign of how many people are changing to broadband is the number of "change of address" emails I'm receiving. Which is great but I wish so many weren't arriving with all the other recipients addresses there for all to see. It's completely unnecessary to share an address book in this way and I'm sure that many people would object to it purely on the grounds of personal privacy, afterall, we wouldn't hand out phone numbers in this way, would we?

There's another reason why it's poor form and that's security, most spam and virtually all viruses come from hijacked personal computers and the more that your address is on, the more chance of one them is infected in some way. Not sharing email addresses is very simple and only takes a moment, click here for a guide to how. Also, there is no need to abandon your old address at all, find out how to keep using it here.

(17.02.06) Colonsay: I've been sent a list of excuses, sorry, reasons given by BT when explaining why they can't supply them with broadband and they make bizarre reading; here's the list with my comments in brackets:

Quality of cabling or distance from exchange (when situated among other houses that are connected);

"Old exchange" (Odd it's supplying other people);

"Exchange (or equipment) doesn't belong to BT" (BT installed their own recently and have taken control of Zetnet's),

"BT is not the ISP, there are 2 others one should sign up with" (yes it is).

What on earth is going on here? Surely the people on the helplines are working from the same computer information and yet the information they're giving is inconsistent and inaccurate. Islanders have received no reply to email enquiries sent up to a week ago and HIE has been contacted in the hope they can help. There is obviously something preventing BT supplying a service and it's not the exchange or the lines causing it.As far as I can see leaves the backhaul, the connection from the exchange to the mainland.

(15.02.06) Not much news about today so I thought some of you, well the broadbanders anyway, might be interested in "Flash Earth". It's based on Google earth, which is focusing on the Winter Olympics at the moment by the way but is much easier to use. You start off looking at an image of the whole world and can zoom in to any point with the easy to use controls and from that you can pan around at will. It's another example of the two speed internet because it probably isn't useable on a dial up connection. So if you have broadband click here. 

(14.02.06) Valentines Day, with its combination of cards and anonimity, the perfect oppurtunity for criminals to get people to open things they would normally ignore. My advice is to be very careful about opening anything from a sender you don't recognise and to check that e-cards come from a legitimate website.

(13.02.06) Hot on the heels of the dodgy e-cards comes a hoax email that warns of dire consequences should you open an email with the subject line "Invitation". Known as the "Olympic torch" hoax, it has no basis in fact and merely wishes to scare people into forwarding it. What's the point of it? I've no idea but it's been around for years and this won't be last time we see it. Read the full text of the email here.

The dodgy e-card I warned of yesterday is almost certainly of local origin. Today almost every email address I have received one, including those I haven't used for some time and it's very unlikely that anyone outside of the community would have all of them in their address book.

(12.02.06) Watch out for e-cards coming from post@postcard.com. The website is still under construction and the email contains code that my computer won't display automatically but others might. If you receive one delete without opening. 

(11.02.06) Internet Explorer users are as much as twenty-one times more likely to have their computers infected by spyware than those using Firefox. Researchers tested unpatched versions of the browsers against spyware found on the Internet and found that they barely touched Firefox. This tells us two things, firstly that it's essential to keep your computer and so Internet Explorer up to date with the latest patches and that spyware writers mostly ignore non-Microsoft programs. It's just one more reason to change browsers, read more here and find details of two of the most popular alternatives to Internet Explorer here.

Aramiska (see below), the satelite broadband company favoured by communities beyond the reach of a BT based service, has indeed declared bankruptcy. Not much help to the those who lost there connection but at least they have a clearer idea of what's going on.

(09.02.06) AOL email went on the blink again today, it's been sorted out apparently but if you failed to receive something you should have, that might be why. It only affected 1% of the their users but that's more than 20000 people. Read more here.

Wanadoo broadband promotions: I wrote about this last month and I thought then that their adverts were a tad on the optomistic side and it seems the Advertising Standards Agency thinks so too. They've told Wanadoo to withdraw the ads for 8meg broadband because less than 5% of the population can get that speed. Read more here.

Update to yesterdays Colonsay story. The people who received modems but no broadband service from BT were told by the ISP's helpline that BT didn't carry out a proper check of the line before sending out the equipment. Instead they send it out as soon as a customer signs up, presumably because the initial line test is rarely proved wrong. The type of phone line and the speed that one of them is getting on dial up, suggests that the problem is not with their connection back to the exchange though.

(08.02.06) Two people on Colonsay who signed up with BT Broadband and received their modems etc, have been told they can't be supplied with a service because of a "lack of capacity" on the island. This is very odd as the exchange was kitted out with another mini-dslam unit recently, raising the number of lines it can serve to sixty. The island is usual mish-mash of lines types and some areas can't get broadband at all but I don't think think the line can the cause of the problem because BT must have tested the line quality before they sent out the modem. A bit of a mystery.

Local News: It's while to go before the Coll half marathon but not to early to start preparing, you find details of this years race here. The Scottish Islands Network has places available on the Inter-Island Tourism Exchange which will be held on Arran in March. It aims to promote sustainable tourism and enable islanders from all over Europe (well the coastal bits anyway) to share ideas and concerns. Full details here.  

(07.02.06) There's a strong rumour that BT is going to by Pipex, whose share price has gone up as a result. It's thought that BT are doing it in order to get their hands on Pipex's Wi-Fi license which would allow them to supply broadband hotspots directly. A knock on of the aquisition could be Pipex becoming avialable on EA exchanges, which would be very good news. Read More here, thanks to Steve for the tip.

(06.02.06) (Edited 07.02) The Luing computer clinic attracted so many "patients" that they couldn't all be treated on the day. The clinic was a great example of how the NAIDC project has worked in practice. An engineer, based on another island, arranged with a local user, Phil Robertson, who only took up computing as a result of the project, to organise things and lots of people from all over the island brought the computers that the council had given them in for a free service.

It was the first such day that Steve has run on Luing and the unexpected workload was probably due to people realising that it might be last chance to to get their computer looked  for free. The NAIDC project has been far more successful than is widely appreciated, as this clinic demonstrates. We're really going to miss it once it's gone. Thanks to Phil for the picture, which shows just some of the computers brought in. Credit for organising to day should also go to Watson Young.

Apart from the number of computers brought in and the slowness of systems with only 128mb of memory, the main reason that all the work couldn't be completed on the day was that much of the work involved installing the many updates that have been released over the years. They should have been downloading automatically and even though some of them are very big, most of them should have been downloaded by now and it appears that the Freeserve proxy settings were preventing them from doing so.

To my knowledge we haven't come across the problem elsewhere, which suggests that the settings changed over the time the computers were being configured by the manufacturers and delivered to the islands. We don't know how many might be affected by the problem and the people who are affecte probably won't be reading this website. Should you come across a computer that still uses its Freeserve dialup and isn't updating, I suggest that you go into the connection settings and untick the box next to "use proxy server".

(05.02.06) The Phone Co-op is the latest ISP to succesfully supply a broadband through an EA exchange, although at present I don't know if it's an officially licensed one or if it slipped in "under the radar". The speed they're getting is 570k, slightly over the official 512k but nowhere near what one would expect from a 1mb connection, so it's hard to tell. I'll try and find out when the Phone Co-op's lines open again after the weekend.

(03.02.06) The EuroMillions lottery has received a lot of publicity today due to the £127 million jackpot that has built up as a result of prize money being "rolled over" since last November and some of you might be thinking of entering online. Well, don't bother, even though news programs are reporting people are still doing so, because entries for tonight's draw have closed at 9am this morning and you'll be entering next week's draw. That might be a slightly better bet because if it's not won tonight or next Friday, the money will be distributed amongst the lower tier of winners.

Microsoft has issued a warning about a virus called W32.MyWife, which is a sign that they expect it to become very common. It propagates itself once a month but anyone who has an up to date anti-virus program has no need to worry, Norton released the protection against it on the 17th of January.

(02.01.06) Does Norton slow down computers? The issue has been raised over and over again on message boards and is often mentioned in reviews of the program but I'd never noticed the sluggishness that some have mentioned. Then sgegreen told me that he'd noticed a difference in NAIDC computers when he'd replaced it with another anti-virus program and so I thought it was time I tested it for myself. I timed various common processes running the computer wbefore and after replacing Norton and I have to say that there was a difference in performance. Whether or not it was enough to warrant changing antivirus program is up to you, click here to see the results. 

(01.02.06) Top Tip: I've just discovered that it's possible to rename lots of files within a folder at the same time. I'm sure that most of you knew all along but on the off chance that some readers don't, all you have to do is select the files you want to rename, right click on one of them and type in a name for the group. They'll all be given the same name with a number at the end to distingish one from the other. It's very handy if you have a lot of related files scattered around a large folder because their names vary so much and want to group them together. Click here for full instructions on how to rename.

WinAmp users are advised to download the latest version due to a critical security vulnerability found in previous versions. Read more here.

January

(31.01.06) From what I can tell not all fully converted exchanges have been fitted with full sized dslam units (the connection boards needed for broadband connections) and instead have the same mini-d-slam that is used in the exchange activate exchanges (EAs). I stumbled across information while researching the location of the 147 EAs through the SamKnows website (click here) which lists the number of dslam units in each exchange. To my surprise some exchanges that were offering a full broadband service were listed as having none, just like the EAs are.

All the fully converted exchanges, that apparently don't have a full d-slam, serve small communities which wouldn't require the 600 lines that a full d-slam provides, so the use of a mini-dslam is a sensible use of money. What this proves is that there no technical difference between the types of equipment other than the number of lines they can connect.

(30.01.06) eBay members will be receiving messages with "Dear (username), Gear up for bigger profits with eBay" and surprise surprise - they're genuine. As they say at the top of the email, you can tell it's really from them because it's addressed to you by username (I have to say that I still checked it out on their website before I trusted it though).

And it's promoting something that appears to be really useful too. People buying or selling can now access statistics covering the selling price, the frequency of listing etc, which is very useful if you're wondering what it's worth bidding on an item. The service isn't free but the prices seem reasonable and if I was buying something expensive I'd definitely use it. See for yourself by clicking here. 

The length of Exchange Activate contracts has been extended from three years to five, which means that BT will be in control of who can offer a broadband service to the 19000 customers connected to the 147 EA exchanges for even longer than we thought. I wonder why.

Regarding Ameriska: They were suppossed to release a statement today but I haven't found any reference to it on the Internet yet. Meanwhile a number of companies are offering to replce the service they used to provide.

(29.01.06) Would it be possible for a community to raise money to upgrade the backhaul from their exchange? That's the question I've been asking myself this week and I can't see why, if the local circumstances allow, it shouldn't be. Backhaul is the link from the exchange to the main telephone network and it's what was left alone when the 147 EA exchanges were upgraded last year. That's why across Scotland, there are 19000 who can only get a connection of 512k, while they see the rest of the country race away with ever faster connections.

Many of the 147 will get their backhaul upgraded by the Pathfinder project, which will bring higher broadband speeds to remote communities that have one of a variety of local services, a school for instance. A lot of them connect back through cable, which is very expensive to replace but there are a few exchanges that will be left out of Pathfinder and use wireless backhaul and these would be relatively cheap to upgrade. I've still got a lot of work to do on the idea but in the meantime, if you know of an exchange that meets the description above, let me know. If any of the terms above are new to you, look them up in the Broadband Dictionary for an explanation by clicking here. Three of the customers on Lismore waiting for the BT broadband have had their connections activated, while another two have been told they will be next week. Apparently the problems in Glasgow only affect some new customers, which I don't really understand.

(27.01.06) Hundreds of broadband customers found their service had been cut off yesterday after their satelite provider Aramiski abruptly cut the connection. They are mostly in remote areas where communities had got together to bring broadband to their area and when it became clear that there was no chance of the exchange being upgraded, adopted satelite as a relatively cheap alternative. The only warning was an email sent out seven hours before the service went dead and a terse announcement buried on the companies website (click here).

These communites, several of which are in Scotland, have been grant aided and the system was seen as a solution for those living to far from an exchange or to one that was impractical to upgrade. It is still being considered for those out of reach of the current Scottish Executive scheme, so it comes as shock that a company that was apparently sound enough to meet with official approval could affectively cease trading with so little warning. An article on Telecomweb however (click here) suggests that the financial problems may go back sometime. It also says that no announcement about the situation will be made until Monday. Thanks to Steve for the tip.

Meanwhile, I hear that BT problems in Glasgow have prevented lines being activated for broadband, so those on Lismore will have to wait a bit longer. It will affect everyone else whose line links back there and is waiting for a connection too.

(26.01.06) Broadband connections: Is it quicker to get connected through some ISPs than others? Even when the issue of getting a DACs box removed is set aside, I've heard several stories of people who waiting longer for an activation date than neighbours who have signed up with a different ISP, in some cases having signed up earlier. Its hard to get hard evidence because ISPs often don't contact people inbetween the result of the line test and the date they are given for activation and people only find out there's a problem when they call the helpline. If anyone has a similar experience, please get in touch - especially if you have anything in writing.

(25.01.06) The forum clocked up it's 7000th post this week, which works out at about 2000 a year since it started out in July of 2002. Back then I wasn't sure it would see the year out and used to herald the passing of every 100 mark more in relief than celebration. In the years that have passed we've covered just about everything concerning the NAIDC computers (bet there's still more though), from problem solving to how to upgrade, we've run campaigns that have been cited by the Scottish Executive and discussed everything from the problems sharing Word documents can cause, to receipies for clootie pudding - with pictures. Thanks to everyone who has contributed and keep the messages coming!

Google has come in for a lot of criticism today following it s decision to produce a censored version of its search engine for China. The Chinese government is determined to control the websites its citizens can visit, blocking anything relating to Free Tibet campaigns, human rights and independent news about the country. Many people outside China are saying they will stop using Google as a result but how much real effect that has is yet to seen. Read more here, oddly, the poll link didn't work when I tried it.

What the BBC article above doesn't mention is the amount of data that Google keeps on its visitors, if they do the same on their Chinese website it could prove very useful to those doing the monitoring. Read more here

(24.01.06) System Restore warning: People who are in the habit of saving documents to their desktop prior to saving them to an archive, should be aware that they might be deleted if they perform a system restore. The solution is simple, just save it somewhere else before doing the restore. The problem affects many types of file, including most office docs, .exe and other popular formats. Read more (a lot more, it's quite technical) .here. Thanks to Steve for the tip.

Windows Vista, which will replace XP in the near future, is in the last stages of testing and is being promoted around the trade shows. Microsoft has put a preview of the operating system on their website and it does appear to have some nice new features. Internet Explorer has been reworked so that it's a lot more like Firefox and presents less of a security risk, there's new back-up utilities that exploit today's larger hard drives and search and support appears to have been improved. See for your self here but be warned; it takes a while to load and you might prefer to go straight to the features page here.

The time it takes for the preview to load on dialup seems symptomatic of an operating system that is aimed at this generation of computer user, you need broadband to preview it and a fast system to use it. Microsoft are recommending that vendors wishing to demo it at trade shows should install it on computers with at least a 3ghz or equivilent CPU, 1Gb of ram and Radeon 9800 or equivilent card, plus they'd like a 7200 rpm hard disk with a Sata connection. If that's all a bit geeky for you, roughly translated it means that Vista won't run on a NAIDC computer properly even if you've upgraded everything. Which is a pity because Vista looks like it will be a much better operating system than XP. More here and here.

Shutdown Shortcut: The eagle eyed amongst you might have noticed in the Vista screenshots a button to shutdown the computer on the desktop, in other words, no need to go through the Start - Turn off computer - Shutdown sequence of clicks. So, I thought you might be interested to know that you can have one now, just by adding a shortcut to the desktop and it's quite easy to do to, click here to find out how.

(23.01.06) Lismore broadband delays: Five people who signed up for broadband have had their activation date put back for the second time due to a shortage of "frame engineers". They are the ones that go into exchanges and switch your connection onto the broadband equipment and BT has been trying to recruit more for a while now. Having been promised activation last Monday or Thursday, they've been told that it will be this Friday at the earliest. One can sympathise with BT, there is a shortage of suitable engineers and Lismore doesn't have the best of ferry connections. On the bright side, a couple of DACs boxes have been removed, rather than just moved onto another line and new phone lines installed, in an area which has been plagued by them for years. Its not the worst DACS area on Lismore but even so, it's good news and at least people are seeing their dialup connections improving. Thanks to my friends on Lismore for the info!

The RSPB is running this year's "big garden watch" this weekend and is asking everyone with a garden to count the the birds and record the species for one hour on either the 28th or 29th of January and report their results. Last year 400 000 people took part and the sparrow, starling and blue tit made up the top three. This year even more are expected to take part, suggesting that "absolutely no idea" will be the commonest sighting. Read more here.

(20.01.06) A new guide to using Firefox is available, explaining the basic functions of the popular alternative to Internet Explorer. It starts with an illustrated walkthrough of the browser window and goes on to explain how to download and install the extensions that add so much to Firefox and concludes with an introduction to the Options menu. Click here to read it. Like most of the links I post it opens in a new window, if you were using Firefox it would open in a new "tab", which is some much more sensible.

(19.01.06) NTL / Wanadoo Email problem: It appears that the problem that is preventing NTL, Tesco and Virgin customers receiving some email from Wanadoo/Freeserve customers is down to the way that NTL filters email to weed out spam. According to an email from Wanadoo that I found on a message board, Wanadoo are aware of the problem but as yet have not been able to resolve it. The IP addresses (a number that identifies a computer on the Internet) of their email servers have been listed by a "popular DNSBL anti-spam database" which NTL is evidently using to identify senders of spam.

There are a lot of these databases and some are very crude in the way they list addresses they consider guilty of sending out spam and email Yahoo groups has also been affected. It's hard to say who is at fault because it is a very complicated subject, made more complex by the spammers trick of putting false addresses in the from line of the messages that get send out by the computers they have hi-jacked. Read more about the databases here and here.

(18.01.06) New Guide: With more people than ever using Firefox I thought it time for some guides on it. The first one is about adding and managing bookmarks or Favorites as they're called in Internet Explorer. It's much easier to do in Firefox than in its Microsoft rival, click here to how much easier.

Symantec (makers of Norton Internet Security) are warning of emails purporting to be collecting money for the survivor of the recent mining disaster in the Virginia. Needless to say they aredoing no such thing details and should be deleted without a second thought. Read more here.

(17.01.06) NTL email: There may be a problem with the NTL email service, which in turn could affect Tesco customers (NTL hosts Tesco.net). It appears that email sent from Wanadoo or Freeserve addresses is either not arriving at all or only after a delay of many hours in the Inboxes of NTL customers. This could result in a lot of local email going astray given the number of people using these ISPs.

AOL had a similar problem sometime ago and it turned out to be due to their spam filter that had been adjusted to block email from IP addresses (every time you connect to the Internet you are given an IP address) from which it appeared that spam was being sent. Unfortunately because a computers IP address changes every time you connect, they ended up blocking email from innocent computers. If you find any email being delayed please email me. Thanks to Steve for the tip.

The Useful links page has been updated with more links and fewer descriptions. Now every island in the NAIDC community with a website has been listed along with other websites of local interest. If you'd like a link added email me.

(16.01.06) New Guide: After a spate of emails from people asking me how they can keep using their old email address when they change ISPs, I think it's a sign o how many are signing up for broadband, I've written a brief guide on how to do it. It's pretty straight forward but if you have any questions about it don't hesitate to email or post a question on the forum. Click here for the guide. 

The Argyll & Bute website is back online! Click here, it's well worth a visit.

(15.01.06) Mozilla Thunderbird, the email program from the makers of Firefox, has released version 1.5, boasting enhanced security in the form of "phishing" detection and various improvements in useability. It's hasn't been as popular as its browser equivilent but still over 18 million people have downloaded it's previous versions. Click here for more detail.

The Argyll & Bute council website has been down since Friday, when there was a power cut in Kilmory. I don't know if the two are connected though and hopefully the website will be back up on Monday.

(14.01.06) Exchange Activate: I thought it was time that I wrote a definitive guide to Wxchange Activate or EA, as I usually call it. I say "definitive" but it is liable to change as more information comes in and it doesn't doesn't go in for the vageries of individual exchanges such as Colonsay's. None the less I hope it will be helpful to those trying to get their heads round a very complicated subject. I've added it to the broadband dictionary, which you can find here, it's the third post.

Sorry there was no update yesterday, I was away in Oban, here's a video of a dog floating in a small plane going through "weightless" manouveres (might take a while to load on a dial up connection but its worth it), click here.

(12.01.06) Symantec has released a patch for a flaw in Norton System Works (not Norton Internet Security) that could enable malicious code to be excuted on a computer. It's not a huge risk and will only affect a few people but those that use NSW should open the progam, click on "Live Update" and update because the patch won't arrive automatically. Read more here.

The agency that oversees software licenses in schools and colleges has announced that it is to review the way that Microsoft licenses its products in the educational sector. This isn't huge news now but could have a siginificant affect on education and the range and cost of cheap software available to students of all ages in the near future. The basic concern is that MS might have gained a dominant position and "locked in" customers to its products in return for relatively low prices. Read more here.

(11.01.06) The "Million Dollar homepage" sold it's last six pixels on ebay tonight, making it's creator Alex Tue, a student from Wiltshire, just over his million dollar target. His idea was simple, start a homepage and sell a million of its pixels to advertisers, for a dollar each and it's taken him since last August to sell them all. See the webpage, which looks great, here and wonder, like me, why you didn't think of it first...

Some computers are rebooting automatically after downloading the WMF patch that Microsoft released a couple of days ago. This is very unusual because it's happening on machines set to download automatically and then ask before installing and restarting, so it means that MS can override a systems settings if they wish. It shows how worried they were about the threat but it's quite worrying in itself. Read morehere. Thanks to Steve for the tip.

(10.01.06) The curse of the DACs is still very much with us and with the arrival of broadband, the degree of disadvantage they bring increases. Once they were only stopping you getting faster dialup, which is a bit like listening to a bad loud speaker at a higher volume. Broadband isn't just "louder", the quality of the sound is much better and you don't have worry about it dropping out unexpectedly. Not only that but even if you aren't interested in the Internet yourself, availability affects the value of your house. UK sellers still don't list it as a factor but as long ago as 2003 I reported that in the US it was thought to add as much as 2% to the value of a property, now that about one in three UK buyers will have it already, it is bound to be having a greater impact.

Getting them removed is as problematic as ever and in some areas it seems as impossible as ever but even when it obvious that it should be easy, it isn't. Only today I heard of someone on a fully converted exchange who signed up with an ISP in September and is still waiting for the DACs box they can see from their front room to be removed. Ofcom need to strengthen its guidelines and the Scottish Executive needs to look at this very basic issue along with its laudable initiatives to improve speeds in remote areas. If you have a problem getting broadband because of a DACs please get in touch, just click on the blue banner above.

(09.01.06) AOL has long been one of the ISPs you could sign up with from an EA exchange but unfortunately their availability checker didn't recognise them as being active. It was possible to sign up if you could get the contact address of a chap at AOL who would sign you manually but this wasn't widely available and to date only two people had managed to join them.

So I'm pleased to announce that I when called the AOL registration line today, got them to run a number through the BT availability checker and when it produced a positive result, to check with their supervisor that it was OK to sign up over the phone, they told me that it was!

This is great news because AOL Silver service (the only one available on a 512k connection) costs £17.99pm and has no cap on the amount you can download, so it's the cheapest of those available on an EA exchange.

The number to call is 0800 279 9327, option 1.

AOL Silver details here.

(08.01.06) Not-Spot Survey: Avanti, a company that creates high speed internet connections for rural communities (amongst other things), is running a survey to find the areas that still can't get better than a 512k connection. With well over 90% of the UK within reach of a 2mb service, those that can't are very much in the minority. The information is being gathered for commercial purposes but will publicly available and could be of great use to those of us campaigning for faster connections. And who knows? Maybe it will be Avanti that provides them. Click here for links and more.

(06.01.06) Wanadoo users in some areas are receiving emails from their ISP saying that an 8mb connection will soon be available but from what I can tell it won't be available locally anytime soon. Reading through the information on the Wanadoo pages here it seems that at the moment it is only available in urban areas. By the end of 2006 they hope to have upgraded all their equipement and most of the UK will be covered, in practice this means that unless your exchange has Wanadoo equipment now, they can't be offer an 8mb service until BT upgrades its equipment. It's very frustrating because they offer the fastest possible speed in their basic package, you don't have to pay extra to go faster. On the other hand, given what has happened to every other news story this week, it will probably be available tomorrow.

The official Microsoft hotfix (temporary patch) for the WMF flaw is available and it will download if you automatic downloads switched on. If you isntalled the patch I recommended, I suggest you uninstall it, which you can do via the Control Panel. 

(05.01.06) Having waited until enough people recommended it, the day after I do, it gets panned. Typical. It's not that it's bad in itself, it's that it may have to be uninstalled before the MS Patch (when it arrives) is installed and there's work around involving resetting your Internet security settings. Read more here.

(04.01.06) There is an unofficial patch available for the Windows WMF flaw that reported on the 29th. The flaw has been attracting more and more attention in the media and Symantec (makers of Norton) issued its own warning today (click here). I've installed the patch myself with no illeffect so far but I'm recommending it to all. It is as I say, unoffical and Microsoft is expected to release its own patch in about a week according to the BBC (click here), rather I think that experienced users who surf the net widely should make their own minds up and the average user, who only visits well established websites, should wait for the official version. And again, if you have installed the Google toolbar, you should disable it until the problem is fixed. Get the patch here (scroll down the page, it's just a small link in the text).

Google has nice tribute to a great pioneer today, visit the search engine and you'll see that the familier logo has been replaced by coloured dots. Very strange but if you hover your cursor over them you'll find out whose birthday they are celebrating! Click here.

(03.01.06) Zetnet: I managed to speak to someone at Zetnet today and he was able to shed some light on the status of the Colonsay exchange. It seems that for partly technical and partly financial reasons Zetnet had to hand their EA contract back to BT last summer and its an oversight on BTs part that they are still listed as a supplier on BT's availability checker. More detail on the forum thread here, where the first post has been edited and the new information has been added further down.

(02.01.06) Zetnet correction: I was wrong when I said that Zetnet was not issueing MAC numbers, they are willing too do so but are under the impression that they will be of no use because they think they are the sole providor of broadband to the Colonsay exchange. They are evidently unaware that BT are offering to connect people, which is surprising considering that the terms and conditions of their contract require BT to inform them of any change and to compensate if the contract broken. More information on this on the forum here, where there is an edited version of the yesterday's story and links to more information. Thanks to my friends on Lismore for keeping me updated.

2005 Roundup: I've updated the 2005 archive with all the news from November and October and written a summary of the year in an attempt to put it all in perspective. It probably isn't of that much interest yet, with everything still fresh in the memory but hopefully in years to come it will be useful to someone. Click on the link on the left to read it.

(01.01.06) Happy New Year and thanks to everyone that has helped so much over the last year by sending in stories, information and questions. Tomorrow I'll post a summary of the year, which has seen some big changes in the community. 2006 is already shaping up to be even more interesting, with the arrival of broadband for all and the issues surrounding the Exchange Activated exchanges, so keep those contibutions coming in!

Colonsay: This story developed considerably since first posted, for the updated version please click here Islanders are going through a confusing and frustrating time at moment due to problems with their Zetnet ISP and the status of the exchange changing. The island got broadband in August of 2004, through the original exchange activate scheme run by the now defunct Hi-Wide. This involved the community in the choice of ISP and they duly chose Zetnet to be the sole provider for the three year duration of the scheme. Back then the company was based in Shetland but has since relocated to Manchester were its computers are, citing financial difficulties and logistics as the reason for the move. The move didn't solve the money problems because in October of last year the company went into administration and re-emerged as Zetnet Ltd. which provides an identical service.

The new company doesn't appear to be taking payment from their existing customers on the island but there hasn't been any interuption in the service apart from the occassional outage that all ISPs suffer from. There is a problem with email at the moment, described as "ongoing" by their service status page, due to company they outsource the service to not having any engineers available over the holiday period. 

Zetnet's status of sole supplier has changed with the exchange being included in the Scottish Executive scheme. BT have installed equipment to allow more people to get broadband but the exchange will still be "exchange activated" with a very limited choice of ISPs and speed will still be restricted to 512kb and the extra lines should have gone live last night. The terms and conditions of the original Exchange Activate scheme allowed BT to upgrade an exchange at anytime to full broadband, which was why the scheme wasn't very popular with ISPs but this appears to be more like a takeover and it's possible that Zetnet has been bought out in some way. 

Now islanders are considering changing ISP but are having difficulty doing so because Zetnet does not appear to have signed up to the MACs protocols, which make swapping to a new supplier very easy (more on MACs .here). Also, like the rest of us, they can't understand why they can't sign up with whoever they like, even though many ISPs appear willing to provide a service.

Presumably it was the extra demand that got Colonsay included in the Scottish Executive scheme but it raises an interesting question. Zetnet's status as sole supplier would have run out in just under two years, at which point the islanders could have signed up with anyone, so, when does the choice of ISP open up for our 147 EA exchanges?