This page will take a while to load but once it does you'll have all the news from 2002 at your fingetips. If you are interested in a particular subject, click on "File" at the top of this window and then on "Find on this page", type a keyword into the dialogue box and click on "Find Next", click again to find other entries. Sorry if some of the older links don't work, if something is of particular interest, email me!

(30.12.03) Argyllcom: Click here to relive the Criech (Fionnphort) Christmas party with lots of pictures by Tim Dawson and text by Jane Brunton.

Dazedandconfused has written a guide to how to print out the part of the webpage you actually want without all the extranious stuff. Click here to try it out.

Pictures wanted! Send in pictures of your new year festivities and I'll put them up on Argyllcom to entertain the world and embarrass your friends! Use the link at the top of the page to email them in.

(29.12.03) Have you had problems updating your Norton Antivirus? If so you'll be getting a message every fortnight telling you that your defintions are out of date, if you have changed your ISP from Freeserve to something else I might have found the solution.

Norton updates uses a specified connection and if that is never dialed it won't update, changing the one that it looks for is simple, find out how by clicking here.

Just for fun click here and listen to the best of "I'm sorry I haven't clue" (click on the "listen to the latest show link").

(28.12.03) No news, so here are some odds and ends from around the net (click on the bold text). Some Californians more toxic than New jersey, Erich von Däniken (remember him?) has opened his own theme park and the perfect gift for the lonely Japanese woman?

(27.12.03) AOL: A question posted on the forum suggests that there could be quite widespread problems with AOL email, both sending to and from it. A search of the Internet for other reports of the problem which affects emails sent to multiple recipients in particular threw many examples of similar tales of woe. The cause appears to be AOL's policy of refusing to accept emails that come from whole blocks of IP addresses if suspects that one of them has been sending out spam. I know a number of people within the community have signed up with AOL and many more will have friends who use it. If you've had problems with there email service click here to read the thread.

Click here for a fishy story from Mull on Argyllcom.

May the 21st 2004 has been designated "silver surfer" day by the City Guilds organisation. People are encouraged to organise events for internet users "50 years young or over" and to nominate them for the coveted title of silver surfer "Queen". I nearly didn't mention this because the whole thing is coached in this kind of condescending language but there are grants of up to £1000 for event organisers and I'm all in favour of money. Click here for more.

(26.12.03) No real news, the usual server glitches prevented Christmas updates, so no 2000friends e-card this year and not much, if anything, is happening in the community - so here are some snippets from the wider world (click on the bold text). Who'd have dreamt of a white Christmas for California? They've had three feet of snow! A naked man who got stuck in a chimmney told firefighters he was looking for his keys. Taiwan claims the largest Santa gathering record. Not funny if you get taken in but worth knowing about; "fund transfer" scammers are now claiming to have Saddams millions, imagine the success these people would have if they could write a decent letter... and there's an email Visa scam doing the rounds. It's the usual "please verify your details" with a link to a spoof website.

Hope you all had a good Christmas!

(23.12.03) Need a last minute gift? Did you know that you can send Amazon gift vouchers (and quite few other shops but they're the biggest) by email? They work like an online book token except that Amazon is more than just a gift shop and sell thousand of other items too. Click here to send someone an instant present or click here to browse the store. 

(22.12.03) A home has been found for the computer and it couldn't be much more local or needed. Thanks to those who wrote in suggesting place to sent it, in the end it was an easy choice. It's good to know that an unwanted community computer is staying here, if you know of any that might like to be rehoused let me know, there's plenty of people who want them!

Google/.eu scam: I recieved an email from Google regarding my complaint that they were making advetising money from people selling .eu pre-registrations saying that they were contacting the advertisors concerned and indeed the adverts have changed but some of them are still placed by scammers.

Apologies for the lack of updates over the weekend, the front page appeared and the new dates next to the page links but not the pages themselves. I've no idea why.

(18.12.03) Free to a good home an unwanted and virtually unused NAIDC computer and accessories. The donor would like it to go to a deserving local household without a computer and that the recipients should promise not to sell it on. The computer is on Mull so it would be best if the it went somewhere on the island and I'll try and arrange installation. So if you know of someone who failed to get one of the free ones for some reason email me and I'll put them in touch. If anyone else has one they'd like to give away get in touch.

Meanwhile Metronomy is working with IBM and giving away £800 computers to people willing to have their work interupted by advertisments lasting 1 minute 3 times an hour. Users will recieve a CD every month and if it's not loaded the computer will cease to function, amazing, read more here.

(17.12.03) A lot of .eu pre-registrations emails have started to appear again and are still selling the same scam. They invite you to register with a company now for the forthcoming .eu domain (with sites like this) even though the EU's own website states categorically that pre-registration is impossible (click here). While looking for that link I typed in ".eu domain registration scam" into Google and came up with an interesting set of results. Down the left were a list of websites warning of the scam and down the right a list of advert trying to sell it to me. Is this a proper way for the worlds favourite search engine to make a living? I think not.

Mess, Mull and Iona's environmental group, have released their latest newsletter, full of useful information on recycling and more, click here to read it (hosted by the Mull & Iona Community Trust, scroll down to the MESS link).

Thanks for the emails about the Oban Hospital march photos, for those interested they were taken on a digital Nikon 2100 at various setting and enhanced and joined useing Ulead PhotoImpact.

(16.12.03) Oban Hospital march: I've finally been able to upload the pictures I took on Saturday, which came out OK I think. I've reduced them in size a lot but the page still takes a little longer than normal to load though. Click here to see what the marchers went through.

Also on Argyllcom are details of the meetings that will held on Mull to discuss the draft Gaelic bill, click here to make yourself heard.

Tideplotter: In amongst the reams of spam I receive everyday I came across this program which might be useful to fishermen and sailors in the community. It charts the tides and all the anchoring depths of all ports around the country and can be put on a pda for taking aboard. Click here for more info.

(14.12.03) Oban Hospital march: Apologies to everyone hoping to see pictures from the march on Argyllcom, for some reason I can't loggin. This has happened before and it should be sorted out tomorrow. I got some great pics too, especially after the weather turned nasty! I've also got details of meetings on Mull to discuss the draft Gaelic bill, so check back tomorrow.

Memory prices have reached £46.11 for 256mb (inc VAT and P&P), the highest since we started tracking them. This is a bit disappointing as they had started to fall again. You can track prices on a daily basis on the forum.

Nothing to do with computers or the community but if you've seen the pictures of Saddam since he was captured you might enjoy this cartoon - click here (it's not by me, I just liked it).

(12.12.03) NAIDC computers have started to be offered for sale, sometimes at surprisingly, how shall I put it - optimistic prices. I've come across a complete NAIDC setups going for up to £500, enough to get you a much better PC these days. It's hard to say what it's all worth as you can't buy computers of the same spec easily but I think what concerns me more is that there is no co-ordinated returns policy so that the systems they could be recycled within the community. Obviously people have a perfect right to sell if they want and good luck to them but I know people who want them and there must be a lot just sitting in cupboards waiting for something to be done.

My idea for a get together has fallen on stony ground, no one at all responded, well one did to say that they couldn't make it which was nice of them. Never mind - see you all on the boat and hopefully I'll get some good pictures of the march for Argyllcom.

(11.12.03) Ezboard, the host of the 2000friends forum, is the latest website to be hit by a scam email asking for "account details". Fortunately it only affects administrators (i.e. me)and not the forum's members. It's amazing that after so many warnings that people are still taken in by these but they must be, after all the "Nigerian" scam that claims that there are millions of $'s sitting in an account somewhere rakes in a lot of money every year despite being so old it probably predates the computer.

Plus: The new EU regulations on spam came into force today, it's not worth a headline of it's own because they're not going to make a happeth of difference...

Anyone fancy a pre-Christmas get together? It occurred to me that a lot of readers and forum members would be going to Oban this Saturday for the Hospital march or to do a bit of Christmas shopping and it would nice to get together for a bit of a blather. I've posted a thread on the forum and I'll post the when and where here tomorrow.

(10.12.03) The details of the march for Oban Hospital have been posted on Argyllcom along with the latest developments in the story, click here to read it (see you there if you go along).

Printer reviews; A lot of people have noticed that the printers aren't all that they might be, they are after all an all purpose office machines and many will be thinking of getting one for Christmas. Tom's Hardware is the best independent review site around in my opinion and it's just done a review of all the major manufacturers and their printers starting at the budget models. The prices are in dollars but you can easily find the UK price (which will be higher). Click here to read it.

The forum has a new member but I can't figure out who it is, I mean what their username is, I can't access real identities. I've checked the username index and can't find a new entry but there it is at the top of the forum, we've got 140 members! Whoever you are -welcome! 

(09.10.03) An Island Blogging rumour was quickly scotched (where does that word come from?) in a thread on the forum today. Basically a story was going round that a blogger had had their blog censored because it was critical of a company. However it transpired that this wasn't the case and that a language filter had mis-identified a word, a glitch that has now been rectified. With admirable speed a message has been posted on the blogg site by one of the people running explaining what happened and what exactly the website's guidelines for posters are. Click here to read it.

(08.12.03) Nat West has issued a warning to all customers about an email asking them to reconfirm their account details. It's the usual kind of fake that has been sent to many companies customers over the last couple of years. As ever, no one asks for your card details in this way so never be taken in by this sort of email. Read the full detailshere. 

The Hi-Wide/BT announcements are causing some constination in the Scottish IT community which is concerned that all but 11 of the 37 communities scheduled for broadband being given trigger points for their exchanges. I continue to be optimistic and believe that with exchange activation more people will be able to get the technology than before the announcements.

(07.12.03) Argyllcom News has an item sent in about the draft Gaelic Bill. Draft bills can get amended as a result of contributions from the public so everyone interested should read it and decide what they think. Click here for the story.

Corrrection to the thread in the forum on Exchange Activation (see below), the cost of the first 30 connections is £25 000 not 30 as stated, which makes the the other figures make sense, thanks to Steve for pointing this out. Click here for the thread.

(06.12.03) The BBC Scotland Blog site has got got off to a good start with 9 people making contributions. They seem to come from all over the community and cover all sorts of subjects. Not bad for the first few days of a brand new project, click here to visit and why not start one of your own?

(05.12.03) News from elsewhere:

Read about the Hi-Wide meeting on Lismore in a report on Argyllcom by clicking here , it's the first since the rethink that followed BT's announcements on trigger points and exchange activation.

Speaking of which, I've started a thread on the forum on the exchange activation in the form of a FAQ, except it's not really a FAQ as not enough people have asked questions for any of them to classified as "frequent". Even so, click here and read it, it actually contains costs!

For those who missed it you can see the BBC News report on a community which Hi-Wide helped get broadband by clicking here (requires RealOne Player), it interesting not only because of the testimonies extolling the advantages of having it but also the complaints from a neighbouring community who haven't got it and feel disadvantaged. Feelings that will no doubt be mirrored across the digital community in the not to distant future. Thanks to Dr.Zog for the link.

Also on the forum the latest Scottish Islands Newsletter, as packed as ever with local news and information that often doesn't appear anywhere else. Click here.

Last but definitely not least details on how to get tickets for the meeting at the Corran Halls on the the future of Oban Hospital and health care on the west coast in general have been posted on Argyllcom, click here.

(04.12.03) Hi-Wide held a meeting on Lismore to explain their plans for introducing broadband onto the island. As expected there had been considerable changes in the presentation since Colonsay due to the rethink following BT announcement lowering trigger points and exchange activation (AE). Hi-Wide no plan to use AE to get the first 30 people connected to Bb and they got off with a great start as around 20 people signed up on the spot and many forms were taken away to pass on.

AE involves putting a device into the exchange which enables 30 people to get broadband but Hi-Wide have indicated that they will step in and assist small communities that get a lower number to commit. The exact number will depend on the population just as the in the past. They will also use wireless to bring broadband to those homes  just out of reach of an enabled exchange by installing a new line and a wireless base station. This could be crucial on the Ross of Mull for instance.

Despite the disappointment that the news that Fionnphort would not get a wireless system, the outlook is not bleak, the Ross and many more communities could be be closer to getting Bb than ever before. I'm also told that no decision has been taken regarding the upgrade to the Tobermory system.

Island Blogging has gone live after a few false starts and I've dipped my toe into the blogging water by trying to create one of my own. Unfortunately or maybe fortunately, I can't give you a link to it because everything is approved before publication but it looks to me as if they've decided to go with a simplified blog to start with. There doesn't appear to be a facility to add pictures or links yet but people can post responses to messages, there are basic html commands and a choice of templates are available for bloggers. One of the guys running the site has his own blog which serves as a demo and you can see it by clicking here.

(03.12.03) Exchange Activation: Following yesterday's item about Hi-Wide's cancelation of its plans for Fionnphort and the prospects for other areas, a few emails have come in expressing interest in the possibilities of Exchange Activation. I think we need to start some new local campaigns in places like the Ross of Mull and Salen to see if we can drum up enough people willing to commit to getting broadband. Anyone who is in business or just self employed can get a lot of help with the costs and for everyone else there is evidence that broadband availability can affect house prices by as much as 2%. Watch this space.

The first posted Christmas cards have started to arrive so this is a good time to remember that e-cards aren't always what they seem to be. Like normal cards they provide links to download a card but actually download programs that make changes to the way your computer behaves, from reporting what websites you visit to changing the number you use when you logon to the Internet. Like spam messages they often use plausible names in the sender line to make the them look legitimate, so as rule ignore them if you don't recognise the name.

(02.12.03) As reported in Round & About (Mull & neighbours free monthly newspaper) Hi-Wide have dropped their plans for wireless broadband for the Bunessan, Fionnphort and Iona following BT setting a trigger point for the exchange. This is because as a publicly funded company it can't offer a service that competes directly with offered by a commercial company.

However all may not be lost. Although the BT trigger of 100 is absurdly high for an area with such a low population and is very unlikely to be met, Exchange Activation (which I've been eluding to in the DIY ISP items) may offer a way forward. This involves a community coming up with between 20 and 30 people who will commit themselves to broadband for three years and BT installing a device at the exchange that enables 30 Bb lines. Hi-Wide might then pick up the "last mile" for those out of the 5.5km range of ADSL.

Perversely this be good news for very small exchanges and in the long run mean that more people are able to get broadband because Hi-Wide will now look more closely at outlying communities and very small exchanges now that BT is considering the medium sized ones. Also BT has put out statements indicating that they are willing to work with local initiatives which could lead to Hi-Wide getting together with BT. ADSL will figuring more in their plans and they are already re-examining their Lismore system. All this is in flux and much of the above is to some extend guesswork but thanks to R&R, Tommy and Steve for offering some clues.

(30.11.03) Sophos has published its top 10 viruses for November. It's mostly populated by things that haven't turned up in the community as far as I know, Sober.A is at number 1 and the various incarnations of Mimail, which I've been sent once, make up four places. MS-Patch which was so prevalent a few weeks ago has disappeared but Klez.A hangs on at 9. Klez is still being sent out by someone in the community, I get sent infected emails about 5 times a week. I wish whoever it was would sort the problem out! Read more here.

The DIY ISP article is on hold until BT decide what the new pricing is now that they've dropped automatic trigger levels to as low as 100 for some exchanges. A community creating its own ISP might seem a bit fanciful but plenty are doing it already. You only need between 20 to 30 to commit for three years to make it viable and BT will install a 30 line ADSL adaptor in the local exchange.

It might also seem a bit pointless in the light of the HIE scheme but even that has its blind spots. For instance Lismore was able to get wireless broadband despite only having 19 registrations because it was a high proportion of a low population expressing interest. Salen on the other hand has been passed over despite having more people registering with HIE and on the face of it having a much higher number of potential users. With a DIY ISP Salen could get its own scheme under way at which point they could approach HIE for help. The various tax breaks and grants for businesses make it a real possibility for some areas, especially if they a have a high number of businesses and self employed people. So watch this space (but don't hold your breath ;¬)

(29.11.03) Emails sent out by legitimate organisations asking if it's OK to keep sending email are confusing many people. They are being sent as a result of EU legislation requiring companies to get explicit permission to send advertising email or face a large fines. People are contacting me because they are arriving from unexpected places and have subject lines very similar to unwanted spam.

It's very hard to know what to advise on an individual basis and it's only a matter of time before spammers and virus writers spoof genuine organisations email to tempt us to open a message (you read it here first!). So I've written a guide to finding out what's in an email without actually opening it, click here to read it.

I haven't finished the DIY ISP guide/article, I can't work out the exact cost. WHich seems rather vital to the whole thing really...

An IT writer on the BBC website was affected by Tuesday Internet slowdown and it kept off-line until the next day. He writes about here but only click if you want know less than you've read here (see below). 

(27.11.03) Hi-Wide, our friendly neighbourhood broadband providor, is to feature on the BBC's News at 10 sometime over next few days with a feature on their pilot project in Achiltibuie. This was one of the first places to try out the system and is right up in the far north, you can read more on the community's excellent website here (scroll down for the Bb link).

Still not much on the news sites about the Internet slowdown the other day even though it was very wide spread. One exception to this silence is the PC Pro news page (here) which reports that servers went down due to an DOS attack by criminals based in eastern Europe. A DOS attack is basically a flood of messages which overwhelms a servers (ISP computer in this case) with data so bringing it down.

A message on a forum connected the ZoneAlarm and damaged cable item by claiming that the damage to the cable led individual ZoneAlarm programs to accidently send a DOS attacks as they tried to verify unavailable Internet addresses. Thanks to Steve for the info.

(26.11.08) NTL users weren't the only ones suffering last night, people who have changed to Virgin, Tesco and even those who have stuck with Freeserve found the Internet very slow last night even if it didn't completely disappear. NTL, which also provides services for tesco and virgin, is reporting that two of its servers were down due to an unexplained power outage.

By coincidence a major internet cable was damaged off the French coast yesterday which seriously affected some ISPs, while elsewhere on the net people are reporting that ZoneAlarm suffered a DOS attack which affected its DNS lockup service. Thankfully most of this seems to have been sorted out (fingers crossed). Thanks to everyone who wrote in.

Hi-Wide held a meeting on Colonsay to explain thier plans for broadband on the island. Read more here, including how the system works and how much it costs. The same technology will be used on Lismore, Seil and Fionnphort so it's well worth checking!

(25.11.03) NTL users are off-line tonight unless they've had a call from forum member sge! The two NTL servers that convert web addresses into DNS numbers are down which means that people can connect but no webpages will appear. What's worse is that there's little you can do if you haven't made your own connection to NTL and only have the dialler because it prevents access to its settings.

Sge has been recommending that people create their own connection for sometime because the dialer has some nasty side effects which are outlined in the link for the number below. People who aren't connecting won't be reading this but if you know someone on NTL click here for the number they need to make their own connection and tell them to put 194.72.6.57 as the primary DNS and 194.73.82.242 as the secondary. It worked for me, thanks for the call sge!

An update to the Oban Hospital story has been added to Argyllcom, details of the last meeting, possible futures for the facility and the when/where of the next meeting. Click here.

(24.11.03) Someone local is sending out viruses! Having stopped the MS Patch that was plaguing me, I haven't been sent one for a fortnight, I'm now being sent the occasional Klez infected email. They all have one thing in common, a fsnet digital community style address. Klez is one of those viruses that "spoofs" the from address, so this means that the emails are once again coming from someone with a lot of local email addresses in their Outlook Express program. Email me if the same thing is happening to you and we'll see if we can track down the sender again!

(23.11.03) Seil, Fionnphort, Tobermory, have exchange triggers set - see Broadband News page.

People who let their Norton subscription lapse maybe interested to know that Computer Associates are offering a free years trial of their anti-virus program (inc. updates) bundled with ZoneAlarms firewall. I doubt this affects many readers of this page but you may know someone it would help. Read more on the Software Updates page here.

(22.11.03) The new EU  spam regulations have started to bite and the first emails from legitemate websites asking for permission to contact arriving. The new EU law comes into force on the 11th of December and it will be interesting to see if it has any impact on the amount of offensive rubbish appearing in our in boxes. The only websites that are likely to write and ask if they can send stuff to you aren't the ones the EU is after. Unless this type of law becomes worldwide it is unlikely to make any difference and will only put good websites at a disadvantage.

Symantec has raised the status of the Mimail.J worm to catergory three which means it's started to spread rapidly since I first reported it. You're OK if your definitions are dated the 19th or later. Read more here.

Memory prices are still creeping up, now 256mb is over £43, the second highest we've recorded (still worth buying if you need it though!).

(21.11.03) I've joined the ranks of NTL subscribers! Fed up with the inconsistency of Freeserve I changed to I tried tesco.net for a month when the free year ran out before going back to my original ISP, Clara.net. It's an excellent ISP but since I last used it, has introduced a 120 hour monthly limit on the basic "anytime" package which just isn't enough!

So I've signed up to NTL Freedom, 24/7 unlimited Internet access and up £15 per month of phone calls for £15 pounds a month! I haven't sorted out all the email things yet but it seems to work very well, there's not even a dialer box to install anymore. I know this isn't really news but I just had to share...NTL freedom here (warning: contains annoying tune).

(20.11.03) A connection saga concludes. Regular readers will recall the news items, going back more than a year, about two people on Lismore and their struggle to get on line. Their connections were just good enough for the engineer to register their machines but to slow to be of practical use. It transpired that there were two dacs boxes on the phone lines. Then we found out that the neighbouring school was giving up two 56k lines and thought it would be easy for them to get the boxes removed. Sadly it wasn't and eventually NAIDC got fed up and several months ago decided to they should get ISDN instead but it never materialised (a problem with the "Anytime" contract apparently).

Now, suddenly, BT has relented and removed the DACS boxes, giving the two households decent conventional connections. What has brought about this change of heart? Pressure from NAIDC, the imminent arrival of wireless broadband on Lismore or maybe the new Oftel guidelines? We'll never know but it's great that finally, 18 months after the rest of Lismore went online, the Lismore 2 can finally join the community!  Thanks to Steve for sending in the news.

Two additions to the How2 section of the forum. Sgegreen explains how to get rid of the "rydialler" which has plagued some tesco.net users in one of the most popular guides (click HERE) and I've written a guide on how to turn a folder of your favourite pictures into a screensaver (click HERE, it's really easy).

(19.11.03) Argyllcom: A nice story on the Mull news page about the Gaelic meeting last Saturday, in both Gaelic and English and with some nice pictures too. Click here to read it.

Local Scotbloggers should have their text and pictures at the ready because it looks like the site might launch for real this week (fingers crossed). There's 40 people across the islands with blogs ready to go apparently!

(17.11.03) Argyllcom is back online and looks the same as ever. I've not delved into the details of the page editor but there don't seem to be any new features. So I've no idea why it was offline. No sign of the BBC Scotland blog site yet either, which is a bit of a disappointment.

Memory prices leapt to over £41 for 256mb today, a rise of about £5. They've been going up for a while now, you can get the daily price by going the forum and hovering your cursor over the advert at the top of the page. You can check the trend by clicking here.

For the first time it's cheaper to by a Pentium 3 processor (the fastest our computer will support) than to buy a motherboard and Athlon processor bundle. It would make your computer run 20% faster! Read details here. Thanks to sgegreen for posting this.

(16.11.03) Microsoft has issued the first update for MS Office 2003 after only two weeks. It's not being included on the Software Updates page because a: hardly anyone has 2003, and b: there's quite enough stuff on the page already. But I thought you'd like to know and there's not much news around anyway.

The Mimail virus has spawned another evil variant, this one displays a webpage that tries to steal your paypal and hence, credit card details. Norton definitions were up dated on the 13th, so check your virus definition date. Norton has a good page on this here.

(15.11.03) Argyllcom.net is off-line and apparently "under construction". I'm not sure what this actually means but I do know that new features for our community website have been in the pipeline for sometime, so hopefully this is good news. See the under construction page for yourself here...if you have nothing better to do!

Had the website been available  I would have added a follow up to the Coll vs. Cal-Mac story. Cal-Mac have agreed to reconsider the 2003 timetable following strong representations from islanders and local politicians. Read more on the Isle of Coll website here. Thanks to Peter MacKay for the info.

(14.11.03) The HIE has told Seil residents that not everyone who registered with them for broadband is within range of wireless broadband. This isn't new news, residents were told a while ago but it does make me wonder if HIE has given up on ADSL for some areas. The Seil/Balvicar exchange is the worst in the community and they registered a lot of people with HIE. This would have meant that there were more than could catered for by a mini ADSL adaptors and that the whole exchange and a lot of lines would have had to be upgraded. Which would have cost a fortune. The HIE has limited funding for the broadband project and may have decided to go with wi-fi, ignoring the costlier ADSL all together.

(13.11.03) A Which report on ISPs makes interesting reading for those wondering whether they should stick or change. All the locally popular ones come out pretty well, with Freeserve and Clara.net being recommended as best buys in the PAYG category. Tesco missed out on a recommendation because although it had above average download speeds, upload was a bit slow. That probably wouldn't bother most Tesco.net user however.

Of the subscription services, NTL and Freeserve did well, with very good downloads and average uploads but Clara and  Tesco were average or below average. One thing that stood out was that the speeds of all ISPs were better for their PAYG service, which surprised me. I can't go into more detail as Which are very protective of their reports but you could find out more by clicking here and signing up for a free trial. Thanks to Peabody for sending this synopsis in.

(12.11.03) Two new viruses have appeared this week, neither of which have been picked up by Symantec yet. One, Yaha.z is the latest incarnation of an old enemy, spreading via email. While the other is a Spybot which is only a problem to the file sharing community. Read more here.

(11.11.03) Forum hits, page hits, the log that records how many times a page is looked at passed 150 000 over the weekend and bandwidth (the amount of data transferred) is averaging 18mb a day. I don't log all the threads individually but the most popular are the email error message and the software update guides. Thanks to everyone who has contributed to the success!

Spammers are expected to target online shoppers this year with offers of gadgets, DVDs etc and in particular finance. In amongst the genuine (but annoying) offers will be a good deal of scams, so be careful what you click on. Remember a lot of spam accesses information from the web, just opening an email tells the sender that you have an active address and are tempted by their message. This will lead to yet more spam arriving! If you are unsure right click on the unopened email and click on properties, near the bottom it will tell if you it is listed by spam cop or if bounce messages failed to get an response.

Meanwhile Microsoft is to disable pop-ups with the release of the next service pack for XP. These can be very annoying but a lot of legitimate websites use them to generate income and they are also used to display useful information, so a lot of businesses are protesting this draconian approach. Read more here.

(09.11.03) Argyllcom has a story about a public meeting being held in Oban this Wednesday to discuss the future of the hospital. Click here to read it.

(08.11.03) Scotblog the new BBC Scotland project that will enable anyone to have a web presence failed to launch yesterday. Unexpected glitches occurred (what other kind are there!) apparently.

Argyllcom has a new news story about people locked into Sky contracts (click HERE) and details about two events on Mull. One a meeting about harbour proposals for Fionnphort and the other, a Gaelic learners get together (click HERE).

P2P users (i.e. Kazaa etc) are warned to be on the look out for the Darker.A virus. It can spread through email too but is so rare it's not to be worried about. P2P networks however allow viruses to spread rapidly in a short time and I don't think Norton have it on their list yet. Read more here.

(07.11.03) Another weekend - another Freeserve story! This one's a good one though. As you all know after seven days of a subscription running out Freeserve deletes the account, the email address and any undownloaded email. A friend has told me that when he started a new account with Freeserve he decided to try the old address and hey presto it worked! And why wouldn't it? Its very unlikely that anyone else would ask for our old address as they are generally based on our real addresses.

The big surprise came when he logged onto the new account and recieved emails sent while the old one was still active and this over a month after it was deleted. I wonder if the Freeserve computer is like ours, things aren't fianlly deleted until overwritten by other data.

Having your old address back saves writing to everyone with your new one, so if you know someone who wants to reactivate an account tell them to try the old address, they will probably find it available and might even receive some undownloaded emails! Thanks to James for this story. 

(05.11.03) The Isle of Coll has a new look website as those of you who followed yesterday's links will have noticed. Created or rather recreated by Pete Mackay from the previous "Collinfo" incarnation. The new look site has expanding articles on the front page (I really envy that!), carries advertising and has an interactive guest book that is proving very popular. It's a great example of what can be done with a local website and more developments are promised for the future. The advertising will transform into a buy-online facility for local businesses while accommodation will display available dates and be bookable online as well. Click here to visit. Thanks to Pete for the info and congratulations on the website!

New guide: Quite a lot of people have bought Epson scanners and so I've added a guide to scanning documents to the How2 section. You can turn a letter or just about anything else into a Word document in just a few minutes, saving lots of work! Click here to read it. 

I'm going to Oban tomorrow so there probably won't be an update, check the forum though - there's always something going on!

(04.11.03) Argyllcom has been updated with a story from the Isle of Coll about the disruption that changes in the ferry timetable will cause next summer. Click here to read it.

Two new viruses have appeared that people should be aware of. The mimail virus arrives with a zipped attachment containing "beachphotos.jpeg.exe" or similar. Norton has definitions for version D available today via intelligent updater and tomorrow from live/automatic update. However new versions are appearing frequently so don't take any chances and look out for the tell-tale .jpg.exe file ending. Click here for more.

Sex in the City fans should look out for emails promising screensavers made up of out takes from the show. This hasn't appeared on the Norton radar yet so I've no idea when a definition will be available. Read more here.

(03.11.03) I'm getting an increasing number of emails from around the world asking me to either renew or cancel subscriptions to various web based services. Some want to renew Norton Anti-virus which is talked about in these pages while others want me to cancel subscriptions to programs I've never heard of. The senders are probably attracted by the "End of Year/Renewing Subscriptions" pages. I enjoy the emails from around the world that come in but it is worrying how confused people are!

Apologies to people who checked the anti-spam tip early last night and found a message that made no sense at all. I forgot that the forum would automatically convert the replacement code and I've now edited the message, click here to read it. Thanks to Marel and dazedandconfused for drawing this to my attention.

(02.11.03) Anti-spam code tip for webmasters: The IT pros amongst you will be well aware of this but for the less knowledgable amongst us a new guide on the forum could dramatically cut the amount of spam we receive. It's a simple way of writing the "mailto:" format for email addresses so that most web-bots can't detect them. Click here for the guide. 

Northern Lights: I asked if anyone had any locally taken pictures of the lights and James Westland was good enough to send me two great ones along with the details of how and with what they were taken. See them on Argyllcom by clicking here.

(01.11.03) Non-subscribing Sky viewers will be interested in the news story on Argyllcom about the card that will enable to receive ITV/C4/5, it explains what's going on and how to get the new card. Click HERE for the story.

Also on Argyllcom a story about Hallowe'en night in Fionnphort complete with some great pictures. Click HERE to see them.

(31.10.03) Bargains! ULead Photo Impact, the image editing program that does almost as much as Paint Shop Pro but is a lot easier to use, has just realeased the latest version XL at over £70. The version before last, which came out earlier this year, V7, is for sale on ebay at £14.99 + 2.50 p&p. This is a great bargain if you are interested in graphics. There's only two copies though so hurry, click HERE for details and link to auction.

The Scotsman is giving away £20 vouchers for Virgin online wines when you sign up to their website (which is free and a great website anyway). I can't find a catch in the offer, they even charge the same postage for the islands and if you don't spend the whole £20 the balance is carried forward for your next purchase. Click HERE for the Scotsman and HERE for Virgin Wines, the details about the voucher conditions are in the Help-FAQ section.

The latest Scottish Islands Newsletter for October is out, as jammed packed with news and links as always, there's even a section in Gaelic about Gaelic (I think!). Click HERE for the newsletter.

(30.10.03) The Northern Lights have been illuminating our skys but have garnered very little attention in the press, so I've added a story about them to Argyllcom along with some links to further information on the phenomena. If you have any pictures of them or anything else you'd like to contribute please email me. Click HERE for the story.

As promised I've added a guide to useing your computer to making personalised Christmas gifts. I found a couple of great sources for kits for everything from mugs to jigsaw puzzles, dazedandconfused found a free (for 30 days) link to a calendar creator and I've written a guide to making a calendar useing Microsoft Picture-it. Click HERE for the guide.

(29.10.03) A new virus known as "Sober" has turned up and has caused enough concern for the BBC website to report it. It comes with a variety of subject lines (see link below) that imply that you are sending out a virus and an attachment that pretends its a cure but actually contains the virus itself. Norton Antivirus have added it to the definitions list which is available today, if your list doesn't update automatically open the program and click on "Live update". More details are available HERE and the BBC story is HERE.

Meanwhile, although I've had no response to the round robin (see below) I sent out, the number of Swen and Klez viruses I'm receiving has dropped dramatically which suggests that it found its target.

(28.10.03) Sorry there was no update yesterday, there were problems at the server.

New banking scam: Well the same old scam but this one is affecting Halifax and Nationwide customers. As usual an email arrives asking you to confirm your account details and containing a link to a website. The link leads to a very convincing fake bank website and people are  asked to fill in the banking details including their PIN numbers. Never be taken in by these emails, no bank sends out this kind of email.

Meanwhile spammers have started altering the date on their emails so they seem to come from some distant time in the future, this means they stay at the top of the email list long after they've arrived. I think I'm the first news site to notice this!

New Guide: I've added an entry about an email error message that Norton can generate when it checks outgoing emails. If you have ever received the message "unable to send email because connection to mail server was interrupted.  Please open your email client and resend message from the sent message folder" then click HERE.

Check back tomorrow for my "how to make cheap Christmas presents" guide! Well hopefully, I'm still writing it...

(26.10.03) Service Pack 2 has been delayed and now only a beta version will be released this year and there's no firm date for the final version. Microsoft has also announced that it will now be issuing patches monthly rather than randomly, they will however issue patches in emergencies. I don't think this will change things much as the patches seem to come in threes at roughly monthly intervals anyway, with the occasional one popping up in between. Read more HERE.

(25.10.03) Check your Norton Antivirus update date because I've noticed that mine hasn't been updating automatically every week and a couple of people have emailed me with similar complaints. Just open the program via the Start>Allprograms menu or by double clicking the icon in the bottom right of the screen. The date is next to "Viruse Definitions", if its older then last Wednesday click on "Live Update" and follow the instructions.

(24.10.03) I'm fairly convinced that a local business's computer is harbouring a virus but I've no idea whose. I think it's local because the "from" address is local but spoofed and it contains a webpage from a local website. I think it's probably a business because virus is old and the NAIDC computers are immune to it, so it has to be from someone with an old computer.

The trouble is that viruses not only search a computer for email addresses to send to, they also search it for addresses to put in the from line and they don't just search the address book but virtually the whole computer.

So there's no way I can tell who sent it. I'm pretty sure it won't be one this site regular visitors but not everyone in the community visits (I know it's hard to believe!). So this weekend I'm going to email a lot of local businesses and no doubt annoy a lot of innocent people, if you're one of them please accept my apologies in advance. Thanks to the readers who've got in touch with me about this and helped to piece it together.

(23.10.03) Island Blogging - What's that all about then? BBC Scotland is useing the digital community as a test area for it's new blogging project before it launches it nationally sometime in the future. Blogging (from "web log") is a way for anyone to have an easy to maintain website, without the hassle of knowing anything about webdesign. There are millions of them around the world created by all sorts of people with something to say. Anything can be the subject of a blog, a diary of your life, thoughts or passions and it's amazing how popular they are. The blogging site goes live on the 7th of November, find out more, including how to register for your free personal blog by clicking HERE.

(22.10.03) ComputerBuyer magazine comes with a sign up disc for Freeserve Anytime which offers the first 3 months at £6.99 per month. The offer is not open to people who have been an Anytime member in the last two month (which might explain the Luing problems) but is available until December 31st. So if you're one of the many people who have changed to a No Ties account until you find out how much time you're spending on the Internet it could be very handy to have a copy of the disc for when the phone bill arrives!

A virus posing as a warning and patch for the Klez-E virus has turned up in the community, the virus is so old that all of us are protected from it but we may get friends from further afield either forwarding it to us or just telling us about it. If you get an email offering Klez-E immunity just delete it.

Also; the police and the banks have issued a joint warning about banking scams, one is the familiar "you need to reregister your account" scam but the other is subtler. The crooks involved in the first scam need UK based account holders to move their funds out of the country so they are sending out spam and posting on job sites asking people to act as holding accounts in return for commission. These "money for nothing" jobs can be very tempting, read more HERE.

(21.10.03) Memory prices fell today, dropping from £34.06 to £32.89 for 256mb of SDRAM (our sort). This is the first drop in over 3 months but an analyst says that they could be rising in the longer term. I'm not saying whether this is a good time to buy or not (I think it's always a good time if you need it!) having been completely wrong in the past but you can read an expert opinion HERE. The article refers mostly to DDR2 but this has knock on affects as manufacturers move to make the type of memory in high demand.

(20.10.03) New Guide: I've added a new guide to the How2 section on printing multiple pictures on a page. Very useful if you have a digital camera, have some sort of display to produce or want a thumbnail index of a folder of pictures. There's an easy and quick method that just prints pictures and a more complex one for adding text to the page.

It's the first new guide for a while and I think it's time to produce a few more. With Christmas coming up I thought people would be interested in making things for gifts, personalised calendars for instance. If you would like a guide to something either post on the forum or email me. Click HERE for the new guide.

(19.10.03) Argyllcom I've added a news story about last week's meeting between the Forestry Commission and local residents concerning their proposals for Mull's Kilfinichen Bay. Read it HERE.

Also Argyllcom: I've had a couple of reports of contributors having difficulty logging in. This doesn't affect many people but it could explain the lack of new content recently. If you are unable to login to the edit site please email me (link above) and I'll see what I can do.

(18.10.03) i-Gear, not a word familiar to most of you but a key component in the computers that are installed in the study centers. In many cases the computers don't actually have the same operating system as the ones we have and i-Gear is a program that allows them to mimic them look the same as the ones the students are used to using (I hope I've got this right!).

Anyway, right from the first classes students in the centers based in the schools have had problems connecting to the Internet. Something to do with the interface between the firewall and the i-Gear software apparently. At the Salen center an engineer from the council won some sort of merit badge from the students for connecting one of the three computers to the Internet but failed with the other two. The problem affects other centers too and we'd like to know how many so that we can highlight the problems and hopefully get them sorted out. If you have any info on this either email me or post on the forum. Thanks, also email me if I've got the technicalities of this wrong!

Argyllcom I've added a couple of stories to the main news page, one covering the report below about people being disconnected despite being promised a free month of Anytime and the other about the MS Patch.

The MS Patch story is interesting because it shows that some people have not renewed their Norton subscriptions. I know that readers of these pages will have but if you know people who haven't it might be useful to send them a link to the story. Click HERE for the news page, there's pictures and everything...

(16.10.03) Freeserve have served up an unpleasant surprise to one of the people on Luing who was offered a free month's Anytime connection to tempt them away from changing to No Ties. Despite the offer from the Freeserve phone operator, when the year was up they were disconnected like anyone else and have had to reconnect using the No Ties number while they decide what to do. The bizarre variety of emails and offers coming from the ISP was amusing, if a little baffling but this is more worrying. Why can't they decide on a procedure and stick to it? Why are they treating people, most of whom have never had to sign up for an ISP before, in this shoddy way?

(15.10.03) Apology Sorry that there was no update yesterday, I had to go to another meeting and it went on (and on!) for much longer than expected. It was about the forestry development in Kilfinichen and I've been trying to write about it for Argyllcom, it's very difficult to report on something complex and that you have a personal stake in though. Hopefully I'll post something about it tomorrow.

MS Service Pack 2 has been brought forward to December, months ahead of previous release dates. This is because XP's security "is not been good enough" according to Richard Kaplan and he should know, he's in charge of the MS update page. From what I can tell the key feature of the service pack is a change to how memory works in XP. Many of the recent worms and viruses have exploited "buffer overflows" and tightening up how programs can write to memory should close this loophole (what on earth does this mean? Ed.)

The bad news is that it will mean another big download for people on dodgy connections unless they are prepared to be wait for a disc to be delivered, which usually takes a month. Read more HERE.

To make up for the lack of an update yesterday click HERE for a link to the forum and a thread about cheap digital cameras. You can now buy a "fun" camera that can even record video clips for about £20 inc VAT and delivery (3rd post down).

(13.10.03) There was no update on Sunday because I had to go to a meeting, soory not to warn everyone.

Argyllcom has an update to the general news pages about a new centre and website to support people involved in voluntary work and the organisations that support them. It seems a great initiative to me and a perfect use of the digital community. Click here to read it.

Sorry today's update is a bit late, I was watching Fightbox, as it's only on BBC3 at the moment I'm not going to go on about it though. Wait until it appears on BBC2!

(11.10.03) NTL users will be glad to know that forum member sgegreen has written a guide to the new "connection kit" has been added to the How2 section. It explains what it does, various problems it might create and how to get round useing it if you don't like it. Click HERE for the guide.

FightBox: I've written about this BBC combat game before because its free and quite fun as long as you have a graphics card installed. Next week they are to start to broadcast the TV series in which players will pit the creatures against each other and it's thought that it will be as popular with kids as Robot Wars. You can still download and built your own fighter to play online and who knows, maybe you'll qualify for the next TV series! Click HERE for the BBC's website. Parents will thank me for this next week :¬)

(10.10.03) Friends & Family: I have been asked whether it was possible to add a No Ties, pay-as-you-go, number to your BT friends and family list which would  save 10% on Internet calls. I'd always replied "no" because I thought that 0845 numbers were excluded, however I'm an emailer tells me that they have successfully added their Freeserve No Ties to their Friends and Family list and so are making the saving! Thanks to Judith for this info.

Norton scam email: An email has appeared in the community that starts with the line "Your Anti-virus program is out of date". It goes on to offer you Norton Antivirus 2003 at a bargain price. There are three links on the page, two for "more information" and on to "unsubscribe". All the links lead to the same webpage and contain an identifier that will alert them that your email address is active. The page does appear to sell NAV but is unsecure (no padlock icon in the status bar) but at $29. Don't be taken in by this, even if it is genuine you can buy Norton Internet Security on ebay for £15. You can renew your existing program, by far the easiest option for £11 (NAV) or £17 (NIS). Click HERE for screenshot of the email. Thanks to forum member dazedandconfused for this.

(09.10.03) Yet another Freeserve offer: Some people on Luing who call up Freeserve to change to a No Ties account are being offered a free month rather than the 3 months at £6.99 reported below. Not to be sniffed at but not so much of a bargain as yesterdays offer and I think they should ask for the other deal. If you are thinking of sticking with Anytime I suggest you call up anyway and see what they offer.

Oh and I forgot to mention, they've changed the email again, the new one starts "we hope you have enjoyed your free trial". Hardly seems worth mentioning given all the other quirks! Thanks to baldeagle for keeping me in the picture.

(08.10.03) Freeserve renewal: A DC member on Luing called the number on their renewal email and asked to be changed to a No Ties Account. The operator immediately offered them 3 months Anytime access for only £6.99 a month, which they took up and they were told to call back at the end of the 3 months to "review the situation"! What a bargain, I can only advise everyone who has yet to be disconnected to try the same, if they don't make the offer tell that they made it to a neighbour! I don't what I'd do without Freeserve coming up with news stories for me to run or without forum members sending them in, thanks to baldeagle for this one.

The Lions club have contacted me to say that they also recycle inkjet cartridges and have collection points at various places around Mull (look out for the posters). Proceeds are distributed around various island charities. I wish I'd mentioned this earlier but its good to know that recycling them is easy! 

(07.03.10) Recycling inkjet cartridges is now easy on the Ross of Mull, you can just drop them off in the Kinloch Steading's post box (right next to the road, just past the Post Office). Joanna Gardner is collecting them on behalf of the Trigeminal Neuralgia Association which helps people suffering from the very painful nerve condition of the same name. They can take all types of inkjet cartridge except genuine Epson ones, compatible Epsons are fine though (which is good...). If anyone living in another area or island would be interested in collecting them for recycling you can email Joanna by clicking HERE and you can find out more about this excellent charity by clicking HERE.

There's been a report of a problem with the Freeserve renewal email as it starts to arrive on Luing. It seems to arriving early, which has happened before and the link doesn't seem to be working correctly. It would very helpful if other people who have experienced problems either posted a message or emailed me with how you got round them. The people at Freeserve read these pages and so it will be helpful to them too. Thanks to baldeagle for reporting it.

(06.03.10) Job Ad: I've received another job ad! I don't have a notice board at the moment but hopefully mentioning it here will help. Here's the ad:

"I am running a website design business from Mull. It is very successful in spite of the lack of broadband. However I have a small job which can only be done on broadband. Does anyone know of any lucky soul out there with broadband who would be prepared to do this job for me about once a month ? It involves starting a program at night before you go to bed and emailing me the results in the morning. I will make it worth their while!"

If you know anyone who would be interested tell them to send an email by clicking HERE, could help them defray their broadband costs!

Swens enough is enough! I've been sent over 165 copies of the Swen virus, it just never stops coming. I've had to create a special folder for it and rule that redirects it, still they turn up in my inbox from all varieties of "MS Security Department". Is anyone else being deluged like this? I feel I'm being picked on!

(05.03.10) To make it easier to find answers to questions on the forum I've created a new icon. Whenever we manage to solve a problem it will be marked with the icon above, hopefully the forum will be littered with them eventually! Of course people can still post in the thread if they need elaboration on an explanation or have a varient of the original question. I've started adding them to the messages in the "Absolute Beginners" section and will work my way through the rest oover the coming week or so. 

(04.10.03) Microsoft has banned magazines from carrying it's updates on cover discs which means that there will be no more unofficial update discs arriving in forum members post. This is a bit of blow for people on slow connections, especially as the updates seem to be coming thick and fast these days. The common wisdom is that they are doing in order to encourage people to use the automatic update system which will allow them to control what updates are put on our computers. It won't much affect on more experienced computer users who will manually download the updates they want but eventually the majority will find that things like Windows Media Player are updated without them knowing. Don't forget you can still stay on top of MS updates and more by keeping an eye on the forums Software Updates page, link on the Anorak News page.

Argyllcom: There maybe a problem with the login process at the website for content providers. There aren't that many of us but 2 or 3 have reported that it's no recognising their passwords, when I contacted them about mine it had to be re-enabled at the server. If anyone else is experiencing similar problems please email me or post in the Staff Room. Thanks

(02.10.03) No Broadband for Salen yet: I'm sorry to say that an email from HIE has confirmed that Salen, Mull was wrongly identified as having been listed for broadband. This was due to another Salen, near Ardachal, getting on the list. This wasn't immediately evident because Ardachal was the main listing. HIE went on to say that the further communities will be announced in the future and that Salen could be one of these. So I'm afraid it's time to get out and start getting people to register again. I'm really to have got peoples hopes up.

National Computing Day: ComputerActive magazine is running a National Computing Day tomorrow with the backing of Learn Direct and the Office of the E-envoy. It is aimed at improving general computer skills and like the magazine itself is aimed at the beginner who doesn't like jargon. There's a helpline which will be open form 8am to 11pm for technical queries, 0870 739 7612 (national rate call charge) and a website full of advice and tips (click HERE). 

(01.10.03) The latest Scottish Island Newsletter is available, jam packed with news from right across the island communities, I could fill a weeks worth of updates from it but instead I post the whole thing on the forum for you. Click HERE to read about the Iona housing crisis, the EU islands congress, bottle nose dolphins and so much more. I probably use stories from it anyway...

New virus: There's another virus masquerading as an email from MS and containing an executable attachment that contains the Dumaru-E worm, the latest variant of the Dumaru series. It purports to come from security@microsoft and claims to have been sent in response to the recent spate of email viruses. Microsoft never sends out patches in this way and so any email that makes these sorts of claims should just be deleted. When I checked Norton didn't have anything on this, so be extra careful! Read more HERE.

(30.09.03) .eu registration: A lot of us own our own domains, I own lots of them for this website, from .co to .biz. As you might have read a new "high level" domain is to become available for the European Union to be designated .eu and is set to rival the US's .com. I've started to receive spam emails offering pre-registration for the domain and I expect many others will have done too. The offers are very convincing, lead to legitimate looking websites and ask for reasonable amounts of money.

Don't be fooled by them, it is not possible to pre-register because the EU has not yet selected the registry or set the fee and the domains won't be available for some time. The firms offering the service are merely going to administer your application (if they are even around when it comes to do so), something you can do for yourself. Most hosts offer these domains at a reduced rate anyway so it is best to wait for the official announcement from the EU. Read more HERE.

DACS removal: The reader who got the offer from BT to remove his DACS box for £50 did so by saying it was so he could install broadband. He comes from an area with ADSL, something very few of us will ever be and so the tactic wouldn't work for us. Will they remove them if you can't get ADSL or want ISDN? I think we need to find out. Thanks to my distant  friend!

(29.09.03) BT offers to remove DACS! An emailer has written to tell me that BT has offered to remove their DACS box for £50. A bargain in my opinion but is it really in the spirit of the new Oftel guidelines that instruct the company to remove them where reasonably possible? In any case it would be worth people asking if BT would do it if they are cursed by the box and can afford it.

Tidy up: A couple of people contacted me about things they should do to maintain there computers and I replied that I'd write a guide. I'd forgotten that I'd already written one and so I thought other people could with reminding too! If you think of your computer as an office, with a desk, files, cabinets etc you can imagine what a mess it would be if you never tidied up (I just need to look around...). The guide takes you the process of getting rid of things you don't need and then tidying up whats left. If you've never done it you'll be amazed how much your computer runs afterwards. Click HERE for a guide to defragmenting.

(28.09.03) Salen Broadband: Eagle eyed readers will have noticed that the list of communities which are slated to get wireless broadband (pending surveys) doesn't actually include the Salen on Mull but it does the one somewhat further north near Acharacle. When I first heard that it might be enabled I got in touch with HIE and they told me it would and indeed our Salen has exceeded the HIE trigger point for registrations. I'll get in touch with them again this week and clarify the issue. Thanks to those that wrote in.

It's Sunday, the weather has taken a turn for the worse, so why not waste a bit time looking at a completely pointless but amusing website? Click HERE to visit Brunching.com, a strange pot pourri of humour and comment, my favourite bits on it were the generators which could create things like random pub jokes and Elana Morrisette lyrics.

(27.09.03) Argyllcom Update: Following the recent story about Kilfinichen Bay and the forestry (more to come on that shortly) another story covering a controversial local issue has been posted on the Mull news pages. This one is about the closure of traditional camping places at the head of Loch Scridain. Click HERE to read it.

(26.09.03) Freeserve emails: The saga continues with Freeserve coming up with a new way to confuse customers and we thought they'd exhausted all the permutations, sending them out early, not at all, referring to free month trial at the end of the free year, sending two differnet emails to the same person but no!

Now customers on Mull who were cut of a fortnight ago are receiving emails that start "  We hope you're enjoying your Freeserve AnyTime trial. Unfortunately, your trial is due to end in 7 days..." I've been sent one myself, addressed to me by name and it's happened to other people who have been completely cut off. I don't know what to say really, this is getting surreal...Thanks to everyone who reported this and forwarded emails!

Salen Classes: I'm happy to report that Internet access at the Salen classes has been restored. There was a mix up at the server with passwords for the classes and the resource center. At least it's been restored on two of the computers, the other two have never been able to get on the Net and they've given up asking why or trying to get them online....Thanks to my friend in Salen.

(25.09.03) Broadband: The communities that I reported as being listed for broadband have been confirmed pending geographical surveys. The communities Lismore, Tiree, Colonsay and the Ross of Mull will have wireless broadband installed by a newly set up HIE not-for-profit company H Wide. The geographical survey is a significant hurdle as line of sight is crucial to the technology working and even if communities get it there may still be households in the shadow of a hill or forest that can't. You can read more about Hi Wide in the Scotsman by clicking HERE.

(23.09.03) Forum future: I am considering whether or not to move the forum and form onto another server. Now that we are paying for Internet access or will be soon the load time is more than just an annoyance. Moving the website will be quite a bit of work but won't affect visitors but moving the forum does present some problems.

I can move all the content without problem but the membership list is another matter. It would mean people would either have to reregister or I would have to do the registering and send out the new passwords. The problem with that is that many members email addresses are no longer working. I would appreciate peoples thoughts on this, please visit the the forum topic by clicking HERE and tell me what you think.

Microsoft is closing its  unmoderated chatrooms on October 14th, it is saying that this is because they are presenting to much of a risk to children who may be targeted by stalkers or subject to unsuitable spam. However a press release from MS International in Israel says it also part of the policy to convert free web content into revenue streams (according to the Register, click HERE).

Whatever the reason the move has received a mixed response. Some child charities have welcomed the move because unmoderated chatrooms do present a risk while other groups say that this will push children to seek out even less regulated areas of the net and also to swap personal details with online friends out of fear of loosing touch.

Parents should advise their children not to share personal information online for any reason and to familiarise themselves with the world of chat. This may involve paying a fee to become a member of a moderated room but fees are generally low and well worth it for the security. Read more on the BBC site by clicking HERE and also visit the excellent links on the page.

(22.09.03) The saga that I've been writing about for a while has finally come to an end with BT mysteriously managing to boost a users Internet connection to 50kbps. As you may recall I reported that BT had installed a new line on the orders of NAIDC which had only produced a speed of 22kbps. Complaints to BT resulted in an initial boost to 26-28 and I thought this was a classic case of BT installing a DACS box despite the line being for a computer.

Further complaints by the customer got another boost to 34kbps and the explanation from BT that the problem was that the new cable they used had less copper so it was slower! But the customer didn't give up and after further complaints the speed leapt to 50kbps! No one has any idea how this has happened, one can only be pleased for the customer and admire their persistence but it would be good to know what happened, to go from 22 to 50 is extraordinary.

(21.09.03) The winners of this months prize draw are...Peabody and Maureen! They win a chice of a custom made mouse mat or a pair of compatible ink cartridges.

I'm getting emails about the latest virus and I'm not surprised it is confusing people. The email is very realistic as you will see if you click HERE. Antivirus programs have the definitions to keep those who have kept their subscriptions up safe but I know some people haven't, so warn your friends. The email comes with a variety of subject lines but all seem contain the same email body along with an attachment. It is opening the attachemnt that starts the virus - so don't!

(20.09.03) More areas could get broadband! As I hinted a while ago more of the digital community is set to get wireless broadband through the HIE scheme if the an article in the Press & Journal proves correct. HIE have announced that Lismore, Colonsay (but not Oronsay), Tiree, the Ross of Mull (Bunessan, Fionnphort) and Iona are being considered. The article also refers to Carsaig but this is the one on the mainland, not the one on Mull unfortunately. The official descion will be announced on the 25th.

If this is all true there will still be a significant number of the community still without broadband and we should continue to campaign for them. Lets see if we can get HIE to look at the Hydron scheme as well as wireless and ADSL.

This is great news and a tribute to everyone who has got their friends and neighbours to sign up. Thanks once again to forum member Peabody for sending this in, a full list of of the areas that are to get Bb can be found at the Press and Journals website HERE.

The virus I mentioned yesterday has turned up 5 times today in my email and is causing a slowdown on the Internet. So much so that Tesco.net tell me that users they suspect of having infected computers are having their Internet connections redirected to a "quarantine"  page which they will not be escape until they follow the instructions. What a great idea! if only all ISPs did the same.

(19.09.03) Virus Alert: There's an email going round which claims to be the latest security patch from Microsoft but in fact contains a trojan (a type of virus) in an attachment. Experienced users will be aware that MS never sends out patches in this way but the recent flurry of security problems for Microsoft may fool new comers. I've been alerted this via security newsletters and it's on the BBC website but the first person to send me the mews was eagle eyed reader Sandra, so big thanks to her. You can read more details on the BBC site by clicking HERE.

Classes in Salen have been disrupted because access to the Internet has been denied because the password has been changed. Unfortunately this has coincided with John McLuckie (of Argyll College) going on holiday so nothing has been able to be done about it. Some classes have just had to sent home as it wasn't possible for them to do any work. Thanks to my friend in Salen for this.

(18.09.03) Just when you thought it was sorted out the old Freeserve email reappears! People receiving cut off notices which have been written for the digital community are also receiving the old, generic "end of free month" email. I expect it's just a computer glitch and Freeserve have forgotten to disable the old one and I hope people aren't confused. Thanks again to Peabody.

Memory prices are up again to £34.06p continuing the trend of the last couple of months. It's still the best £34 you can spend though, unless you like to make the tea while the computer starts up that is!

Prize draw: I almost forgot but this Sunday is the draw day for this months prize draw. This one is open to everyone who has ever posted but is still drawn on the basis of one post = one ticket, so the more new messages you post, the more chances you have to win either a custom made mouse mat or a pair of compatible ink cartridges.

(17.09.03) Freeserve have started sending out emails again and this time they have been written for the digital community! Not only that but if you want to stick with Anytime there's number to call and a code word to quote which will get you your first month free. This is great news for the people who haven't been disconnected for more than a week but where it leaves those who have been I'm not sure. But at least they've started sending out emails again which is a big step forward. A big thanks to forum member Peabody for sending me a copy. I'll be updating the How2 guide accordingly.

ISDN on Lismore: You may recall the long and tortuous saga of the two community members on Lismore whose Internet connections were so poor that they were effectively cut-off from the net. After trying everything else NAIDC decided to pay for ISDN lines to be installed. This normally happens very quickly but not in this case. The problem was that BT does not have an "Anytime" account for ISDN users (why?), rather they are restricted to 150 hours a month online and have to pay by the minute there after. As my music downloading friend could tell you, this can work out to be very expensive, so they have had to negotiate a special contract before the lines could go in. Now it appears that this issue has been resolved and they should get their shiny new connections "soon".

(16.09.03) Computer Support: NAIDC is in the final process of finalising post free year computer support. Local engineers will co-ordinated via the helpdesk, rather than contacted directly as they tend to be now. This will make for a faster response time for people needing their computers fixed because they won't have to wait for an engineer to be sent from Glasgow and for the helpdesk, which NAIDC is also taking over to keep track of problems.

Exact figures are still being worked out but in order to have some control over costs, support will be capped at £100 and/or two call outs. This is enough to replace a motherboard and modem for instance. This is great news for the community, it's very unusual for free onsite maintenance to extend beyond the first year and great news for the local IT professionals as the council give their industry a significant shot in the arm.

Remember the Sitemaker ad?: It ran on the now defunct Noticeboard appealing for applicants to take on website optimizing work for Mull based website creators Sitemaker. The work is done at home and involves getting a website to the top of search engine results. Well Sitemaker has now taken on 3 people, 2 on Mull and one off, to do the work, a great example of how computer access can bring employment to remote areas. Hats of to Pat at Sitemaker (click HERE) for creating the jobs, maybe I should revive the Noticeboard?

(15.09.03) Website & forum access statistics on the up!. The website hasn't quite reached the heights of the new year visitors are significantly up after a quiet summer. More people than ever are useing the forum to find information on what to do at the end of their free year. Page hits, which took a year to pass 100 000 have just 125 000. Meanwhile bandwidth, (the amount of data traffic) is running at between 25 & 30 mbs a day. 30 is a significant figure because if the average rises above this I have to pay more for the forum and I never thought this would happen! It all goes to show how valuable an active forum is and how essential it is for generating the information the community needs. So thanks to everyone for all the emails and forum posts, keep them coming!

(14.09.03) Ebay scam email: There’s another fake email purporting to come from ebay and asking you to update your account details, including those of your credit card. This one has actually turned up in the community and is very convincing apart from one small flaw. It links to a page with an account change form on it and what is very clever is that it links to real ebay pages. Needless to say ebay never ask for your credit card details in this way! As I say there was one small flaw, as pointed out by James Westland who sent it to me, the very first line reads “Dear ebay Uder” rather than user. All that effort and they forgot the spell checker…Thanks to James for sending it in.

New twist to the connection tale: A community member who was convinced that BT had installed a DACS box rather than a full line (and so was I) has managed to get the line speed boosted from 26 to just under 34kbps. This is a suspiciously DACS like figure but BT claim that the slow speed is due to  greater resistance on the cable they now use, it has less copper in it than it than the old cable. Is it possible that when BT are told that they have to install a new line, rather than using a DACS box on the line, they now use a cable that is just as slow? If BT wants to write in and explain this I will be more than happy to publish their comments.

(13.09.03) No news today I'm just tidying up a bit. Until normal service is resumed tomorrow why check out the Bible in lego by clicking HERE . (From what I can tell this is not a satirical site but a genuine, if eccentric, attempt to tell the story in lego).

(12.11.03) Norton Antivirus: Triedit3, the forums resident engineer, has written to me to say that in his experience merely un/reinstalling Norton Antivirus is not enough to reset the subscription renewal date and that only a full system reinstall will achieve this. The story I ran a couple of days ago under the title Hot News also came from a reliable source and I can only conclude that there is some variation in the way that Norton was installed on the computers in the factory. Attempting to get a free years subscription in that way is not something I would recommend anyway because, as I said when I first mentioned it, it would involve a huge download of virus definitions (52 weeks @ 300kb(?) per week = 15mb). Thanks to triedit for getting in touch on this.

Also on the subject of Norton, I've noticed that my virus definitions have not been updating as regularly as they should and are sometimes a fortnight old. Eventually you get an alert about this but it's worth checking for yourself just in case.

(11.09.03) Yet more people are contacting me about being cut off from the Internet, it has caught a lot of people by surprise. Everyone is astonished that neither Freeserve nor the NAIDC management emailed everyone before the cut-off came. Now of course many of the community no longer have that email address and if they are to become active members will have to be contacted by other, more expensive means. This is a significant loss because those who have lost their accounts are the very people the project was aimed at.

The DIY guide to Freeserve seems to work though and if you live in an area that is still online I suggest you print it out so you can give it to your neighbours when the time comes. If you installed the connection kit you can make the change now so you have the No Ties connection ready the moment you are cut off.

I have added a new error to the list of common email error messages guide (click HERE) to cover those who are having problems useing old email accounts after signing up to a new ISP. This specifically affects people who signed up to Tesco.net and are having trouble sending email useing their Freeserve address and there is a guide to making the account work again.

(10.09.03) The Isle of Coll has joined the connection map community as Peter MacKay sends in a speed to be added. It's a pretty low 40, indicating a low quality full line and he also tells me that he thinks that the average of the computers he sees (he's a mentor) is 34. Which indicates either very efficient DACSed lines or very poor full ones. Peter is the webmaster of the excellent isleofcoll.org (click HERE) and has a very interesting community web project in development, I'll post more details closer to it's launch date.

DIY No Ties: So many people have been writing to me about how to get back online that I've added a short guide to connecting to Freeserve useing their No Ties, pay as you go, package. Provided you do it within 7 days of being cut-off it is just a matter of entering a new number into the connection and anybody should be able to do it. If you haven't been cut off yet take a look before it's to late or print it out for someone who has. Click HERE for the guide. 

(09.09.03) Hot news! According to an email I received today PC World has admitted you can get another free year out of Norton Antivirus by uninstalling it and then reinstalling it. This is due to an error when the program was installed at the factory apparently*. Of course reinstalling it would involve a big Internet download and is not for people for people on poor connections. This news is supplied for informational purposes only, I’m not encouraging anyone to do it but it does seem suitable compensation for the subscriptions running out early. *I wonder if the same thing caused some peoples subscriptions to automatically renew? Big thanks to Andrew for sending this in.

Belkin Units: Trish at the Tobermory center tells me that there are still many units to be collected and I think the same is true of Salen. They’re not going to keep on replacing modems for nothing forever so if you notice someone who hasn’t collected theirs yet remind them!

(08.09.03)  Scottish Islands Radio has been revamped, with a new look, commercial sponsors and online music provider and very good it looks too. This is a great project and one I feel I've neglected since it first appeared earlier this year. The station is looking for people to provide content and it would be a great way for a local band to publicise its music or for people to promote local events. You can find out how by clicking HERE. Thanks to Paul of SIR for sending this in.

The Freeserve customer service number is working again after I called the technical helpline (at 50p per minute!) and told them it wasn't.

(06.0903) Postal charges to the islands have been a big issue in the community and anyone who has shopped online has found an item suddenly leaping in price as the off mainland surcharge is added to the bill. So I've created a list of recommended online shops that don't discriminate against us (click HERE) and have a good range at decent prices. There aren't many but new ones will added as they are found. The newest is "CpuCity" who I just and found very good with an excellent customer service desk. The thread will also have a list of the best of the rest in case you can't find what you want and because the problem doesn't affect everyone in the community.

Popular Guides: Checking through the page views in the How2 section I discovered that the email error message guide had leapt into first place, leap frogging the software updates page by some margin. I think this must be because of the recent spate of viruses which generated a lot of false undeliverable error messages as peoples own addresses were falsely given as return addresses. I'll add a note to the guide explaining this over the weekend. Click HERE for the guide.

Memory Prices rose again today for the second day running and are up to £32.89 for 256mb. There seems to be an upward trend but prices are still relatively low.

(05.09.03) Argyll College are trying to get in touch with all their prospective and returning students in order to get the classes organised for the new "term". If you haven't been contacted by them by the end of next week please do so by either emailing John McLuckie (by clicking HERE) or calling 01631 559504.

Incredimail: Lots of readers use this popular email program and will be interested in the post by triedit3 on the forum today. There's a new website dedicated to the program with lots of new templates and add-ons, as well as a users forum for help and advice. Click HERE see for yourself.

It doesn't seem 5 minutes since we past 3000 messages on the forum and now we've hit 4000! Actually this happened a while ago but I forgot to check, never mind. I can remember when I wondered if we would even hit a 100. Thanks to everyone for their contributions!

(04.09.03) Classes: The classes on Coll, Lismore, Luing and Salen and hopefully Colonsay will be starting next week. It is hoped that they will start in the remaining centers but that is dependent on contacting around 200 students including some who have attended classes at Tobermory, Lochdon, Fionnphort, on Seil and on Tiree. Thanks to John McLuckie of Argyll College for the info.

Meanwhile home mentoring is continuing on various islands and has proved a great success for those unable to attend the study centers in person.

Mike Small has posted his first messages on the forum about the BBC Blog site I mentioned yesterday. He gives a brief explanation and some links to web blog sites that have been up and running for a while. Click Here to read more.

(03.09.03) Mike Small, a co-producer of the BBC Scotland has joined the forum with the view of seeking views and spreading the word of their new project, Scotblog. "Blogs" have been in the news quite a bit over the last few months and are one of the fastest growing areas of the Net. Basically they are an easy way for people to create personal content on the Internet without needing any technical skills, once they were almost the sole preserve of disaffected Californian teenagers but now even politicians maintain them.

Weblogs fill in a gap on the Internet and the BBC project will compliment this site that covers computer news etc, Argyllcom with it's news and events coverage and the various island websites. Hopefully people who are inspired to create a blog (it's short for web log) will then go on to provide content for other local websites. Click HERE for Scotblog which has lots of information on the subject and check out "Island Life" an entertaining blog written by a couple on Tiree.The latest Scottish Islands Network newsletter is available on the forum, as jam packed with news and information as ever. Click HERE to read it!

Website problems: The website didn't appear yesterday because the server was repairing the problem that was causing it to be published with missing content. And I hope they succeeded...

(01.09.03) Salen Classes: They aren’t starting today as previously reported but on Tuesday the 9th and will be held on Tuesdays, Wednesday and Thursdays only.  They won’t be starting today in Lochdon either but when the start dates are yet to be determined, I’m contacting Argyll College for more information. Indications are, in Salen at least, that quite a number of people are wanting to enroll which is good news for the project as whole.

Argyllcom: Updated with a great little item on the Mull news pages about Mull on the radio, complete with a link and the time to fast forward to to hear the item, click here to read it.

(31.08.03) The Events pages on Argyllcom have been updated with news of geology walk in Fionnphort on the 13th, click here.

(30.08.03) Yet more on the Freeserve email! Surely everything that can be said has been said? No, a reader has added yet another twist to the saga by reporting that they found the phone number on the cut off email was unrecognised, so they called the customer service number but they wouldn’t recognise the offer without a code word (?). Eventually the operator offered them introductory two months on Anytime at £9.99 if they changed their account! Confused? So am I!

Gaelic Choir: The item on Argyllcom mentioned below isn’t about a choir but an open air service in Gaelic, sorry for the error. Thanks to forum member dazedandconfused for putting me straight and for the item about the repairs yesterday.

(29.08.03) Repairs: The engineer who was on the Ross of Mull and Iona yesterday fixed a variety of problems including replacing modems affected by surges (I'm surprised they are still doing this as we all have Belkin units now*), faulty motherboards and hard drives. One user had lost access to the PC after trying to correct a mis-spelt username, a fault that should have been fixed via the helpline really and a couple of others had been caused by other user actions. The engineer felt that people’s computers would be running more smoothly if they had the MS updates installed (so check out the Software Updates page and the guide to Windows updates in the How2 section of the forum!).

 *If you haven't got your Belkin Unit yet, it's waiting for you at your nearest Argyll College center.

This is the last chance to get your cut price (£76!) MS Office Pro, you need to enrol for a course and then go to www.phoenixs.co.uk/msstudentselect, download the order form and send it off before the first of next month! Details in the pack you received from Argyll College.

Argyllcom has an update to the Mull news pages with an item about the Gaelic choir, click here.

MS Blaster virus update: They may have got a suspect in custody! Not the actual writer but an 18 year old kid from the US who tweaked it to be even more damaging. Click here for more detail, including an impressive list of affected companies and institutions.

(28.08.03) Repairmen from PC World are at work on the Ross of Mull and Iona today, I'll post more detail on the problems the were working on tomorrow.

The Argyllcom news item about the despoiling of Kilfinichen Bay by the Foresty Commission has been updated with an email address so people can express their support for the protest against the proposals. Click HERE for the story.

(27.08.03) Two of the Lismore disconnected are still waiting for BT to install the ISDN connections that NAIDC ordered for them. NAIDC ordered them because it became obvious that BT were going to do nothing about the appalling connection speeds the two households were suffering from even though two spare lines were a stone throw away. It's been month since the lines were ordered and yet nothing has happened and BT have been unresponsive to complaints. This has now been brought to the attention of NAIDC are they will be drawing the problem to BTs attention. I think it is fair to say that the those in overall charge of the project have found BTs responsiveness to the communities needs frustrating.

New Guide: A brief guide to configuring your Internet connection if you are changing to a "pay-as-you-go" deal. It is important that if you are paying by the minute that the computer isn't online any more than necessary, the guide shows you how to set up the computer so you don't spend a penny more than you need to. Click HERE.

(26.08.03) Free Freeserve Anytime month! As you will recall the Freeserve cut-off email isn't written specifically for the digital community but is a generic message sent to people who have been trying Freeserve Anytime on a trial basis. A community member who received one took advantage of the line in it that offers a free month to people who sign up to the Anytime package and got a free month out of them! "After some debate" the customer service line agreed to honour the email's offer, so if you were one of the people lucky enough to get an email from them and want to stick with Anytime, give them a call.

Home page changes. I've added links to guides on general end of year issues, renewing Norton and Internet Access.

(25.08.03) Good news for the people who received early notice of the end of their Freeserve free year. After calling the customer service line and going through a fairly long process of explaining why I needed to know about other peoples accounts, it transpired that the emails had been sent out early by mistake and that the free access would end on the expected dae and not the one in the email. So if you get an early email from Freeserve it's probably just a mistake and the free access will end on the day before the date of installation. You could check though, just in case, the customer service desk was very helpful.

(24.08.03) Classes restart in Salen & Lochdon on the 1st of September (that's Monday week) and presumably most other places too. It's hoped that they will be better attended this time round, with fewer people dropping out.

However the restart will come after the end of the free year and some people worry that those that most need the courses are the very ones who will have left the computer gathering dust. Now that they won't have free access to the Internet one of the big incentives for learning how to use them will have gone. Indications are that many people in the area have just let their Freeserve access lapse and maybe intending to pass their computers on to other members of the family. It is hoped that NAIDC will both republicise the classes and organise the collection of unwanted computers so they can be redistributed within the community.

Meanwhile Salen Resource Center has taken delivery of the special needs equipment which will enable it to demonstrate the alternative control devices and to teach people how to use it. More details on when this will become publicly available soon.

(23.08.03) Windows Messenger users (and of the MSN version) are going to have to update to version 5 by October or lose the ability to use the service. MSN users need to update to V6. MS has taken this unusually draconian action because of unspecified security flaws in the instant messengers. The Windows version will entail a download of over 8mb, not something people on slow connections will look forward to, while MSN comes it at, a still large, 4.66mb. Check the Software Updates (click HERE) page for a link to the Windows messenger and click HERE for the MSN version. I reported the MSN story on the Anorak page yesterday, the article I quoted referred to "XP based messenger" and I didn't realise this meant Windows Messenger. I'm really not as bright as people think I am...

Argyllcom has an update to the Mull news pages, a quite dramatic story about a threat to Kilfinichen Bay (near where I live!). Click HERE to read it.

The BBC reports that we might have seen the worst of the Sobig virus, at least in the way it affects servers. The security companies appear to have saved the 20 servers they suspected where spreading the virus. In China though an enormous number computers appear to be infected. Read more HERE.

(22.08.03) Some people are getting cutoff notices early. As reported below not everyone is receiving a warning from Freeserve that their account is about to close and those that are are being sent a generic email aimed at people who have just signed up with them. Now it seems that some people are receiving emails early and are being told that the free year is ending a week early. Those affected, all living in Ardmor, have had no luck when they've called the customer helpline. I've contacted NAIDC about this but there isn't long to sort this out as the new cut off date is Tuesday, if this has happened to anyone else please email me. Thanks to the Ardmor reader for getting in touch on this matter.

New Guide: I've written a guide based on readers experiences and information from the Freeserve helpline in what happens at the end of the free years subscription to Freeserve. It has general advice including contact numbers, examples of what different ISPs offer and a copy of the Freeserve email. Click HERE to read it. 

I've also editied the "Renewing Subscriptions etc" page (link on the left) to clarify what happens after the free year runs out. To reiterate; When the free year ends if you do not renew you will lose your Freeserve Internet access. You then have 7 days to retrieve (reactivate) the account after which time it is deleted. 

The sobig virus continues to wreak havoc, with AOL reporting that it has stopped 20 million infected emails. Security experts say that infected computers will attempt to download a new program tonight but they don't know what it's purpose is yet, possibly it's a "proxy spammer" ( aprogram that hi-jacks a computer to send anonymous spam). There's lots of good stories on this about, click on the bold text to read the ones that interest you: The BBC has a good overview on the story and a piece about Symantec's work (they live in an underground bunker!). The register has news on tonights threat, while CNN says that experts are looking for 20 key companies they say are at particular risk. I hope you are as interested in all this as me! 

(21.08.03) Freeserve renewal email: I've been sent a copy of the subscription renewal notice that Freeserve are sending out to some digital community members and I wouldn't be surprised if some are ignoring it. The email starts "We hope you're enjoying your free month of Freeserve AnyTime" and continues in much the same vein. It is clearly a generic email for new subscribers and although the instructions contained in it are correct, the wording could lead people to think that it didn't apply to them.

On the face of it people should be aware that their free year is coming to an end but many didn't start using the computer for sometime after installation and may have forgotten the exact date. A lot of people think that the free year is going to be extended, so we should all do as much as we can to remind our neighbours that the END IS NIGH! (I've always wanted an excuse to say that). You can read the full text of the Freeserve email by clicking HERE. Thanks to Martin Low for sending it in.

MS Office offer: Regular readers will recall me promoting the Argyll College courses partly because students could get discounts on MS Office 2002. The program is the full version of MS Works and anyone who has used office will know how inferior Works is in comparrison. Well the offer ends on the 31st of August so you have a week to sign up and get your copy for £76, about a 75% discount!

Virus Update: I'm sure everyone reading this will have noticed an influx of emails infected with the Sobig virus, not to mention those mysterious "mail delivery error" ones it generates. I've had about 70 and spam filter companies are reporting that its accounting for as much as 6% of all emails. Read more HERE. 

(20.08.03) Virus Alert! Symantec (makers of Norton Antivirus) has issued warnings on three new viruses this week, Welchia (the new version of Blaster), SobigF and Dumaru. Welchia seems to be causing more problems to servers than to local users as the virus definition and Windows patch works very well on XP home but not so well on Win 2000 which a lot of servers use. If you've been reading this site for the last week you'll be safe from it anyway.

Sobig F, the new variant of the notorious original, is tuning up by the dozen in peoples email, I've received at least 50 myself. They have a variety of subject lines, such as "Your details", "Your Account" or "Approved" but contain a single sentence in the body of the text "See attached file for details".

The third, Dumaru, has a lower alert level but may catch people out because it purports to be a virus warning and has a "patch" to fix the problem.

I advise everyone to check there antivirus definition dates, all of the above have been added to the list by Symantec but only as recently as the 18th and sometimes the auto-update fails. There are instructions for checking the date and updating manually if the date HERE (see the second message in the thread). I would also advise that people shouldn't retrieve their emails as soon as they go online, especially if it's the first time in a few days, check the definition date first and update if necessary.

(17.08.03) This months Prize Draw has been won by dazedandconfused who will receive a large format guide to Microsoft Office complete with utilities disc. Next months draw is now underway, post a message for a chance to win!

Reports from Salen indicate that few if any are getting emails from freeserve warning that the account is about to run out, just a sudden cut off. Also the cut off is coming on the date of the installation (minus 1) with no seven days grace to renew as the customer service line said there would be. If you intend to renew I suggest you do so now, you aren't saving money by waiting to the last minute! 

(16.08.03) The Blaster virus (getting bored with this yet?) has been beaten claim Microsoft but it seems that they only mean in the sense that they have disabled the site that it attempts to flood. They are still concerned enough to have put an article on their updates page, the first time they have ever done this. You can read what they have to say and get the patch that will protect your computer by clicking on "Tools" and then "Windows Update" at the top of this page.

Most of the computers affected locally seem to be non-NAIDC and unprotected by an anti-virus programs. If this doesn't persuade people to renew their NIS subscriptions nothing will.

(15.08.03) ISDN - a cautionary tale: A good friend of mine decided to give into the blandishments of BT and rather than put up with a DACSed phoneline get ISDN. He was impressed with the speed of installation (incidently the installer told him there was plenty of line capacity in the area for a conventional line) and once he had signed up for the "Business" version, very impressed by the repair service. So far so good and it wasn't costing more because he had been paying for two DACSed lines before the change.

However he's a keen music fan and downloads a fair amount, doing so overnight. He decided to use the full 128kbps connection to do this, afterall this is the "midband" that the product is sold on. However this involves utilising both lines and the ISDN package only includes payment for one, the second is paid for by the minute and how those minutes add up! His first quarterly bill after the installation for this second line was over £300! No wonder BT are so keen for us to sign up for it.

Meanwhile Forum member Dr Zog (such a great name) tells me that the Blaster virus continues to wreak havoc on local computers. He has removed it from one already and knows of other possible infections. The virus (or worm) seems to do two slightly contradictory things, firstly it bombards the MS site as part of a denial of service attack and also it prevents the computer accessing the Internet to get repairs.

This is causing havoc with administrators, the speed with which the problem appeared after the vulnerability was detected means that many companies haven't been able to test the MS patches before it struck. Now ISPs are being advised to redirect computers away from the MS website to slow the DNS attack and there are reports that some MS computers have already succumbed. There is no connection with the power failures in N America however. The BBC reports that a new round of attacks is expected to start at midnight tonight (read more HERE).

This worm, the speed with which it appeared after first being spotted by the US Dept of Homeland Security, it's target and the way new versions have maintained the threat seem very unusual to me. Somethings going on here.

(14.08.03) Cut offs: I've had reports of people being cut off "without warning", perhaps "by suprise" would be a better phrase. In one case Freeserve had sent emails but these were mistaken for spam and ignored but in the others no emails were sent at all. Wether or not they send emails we all know the end is nigh and should take steps to resolve the situation or we will lose access to the Internet. If you are uncertain what to do check the Renewing Subscriptions page HERE and contact Freeserve. Keep emailing info on the end of year issues, it's very helpful and thanks to everyone who has done so already!

The virus I've been writing about for the last couple of days may have struck on Mull. This maybe because it struck before Norton updated, people who have not renewed the Norton subscription are also at risk. Check the link to the Symantec page below (12.08.03), as well as information there's a removal tool to get rid of it. About 1/4 million computers have been infected worldwide already!

Argyllcom: Luing has contributed a 4 in 1 news item (its a busy place!) to their news pages as they continue to make full use of the website. Thanks to this free service people all over the world can keep in touch with the islands life. Click HERE to see what they've been up to!

(13.08.03) The virus I wrote about yesterday continues to cause ripples across the net, earning prominent stories on most website including the top three articles on the Inquirer (there's a new version already, IBM has been affected etc). I think it worth pointing out that the vulnerability that the virus exploits was addressed sometime ago on the Software Updates page on the forum before the virus even appeared. Sgegreen posted a link to an article by the US "Department of Homeland Security" that explained problem as well as one to the patch. One of the peculiarities of the virus is that it stops the computer from accessing the patch which is fiendishly clever. See the Anorak News page for the link to Software Updates and click HERE for the Inquirer stories.

(12.08.03) Virus Alert! A virus is sweeping the Internet that is considered so serious by Symantec that they've taken the unusual step of putting an alert on the front page of their technical support site. The definition (which Norton Internet Security uses to detect the virus) has already been added to the list for automatic download but our computers may not check for the update until tomorrow so I advise people to download it manually. Here's how:

Open Norton Anti-virus by clicking on the yellow telly icon or by clicking on "Start", then Norton Anti-virus and check the date of the "Virus Definitions". 

If it is older than 11.08.03 click on "Live update" at the top of the window.

Norton checks for updates and comes back with a list of available updates, click on the plus (+) signs next to all the updates except the anti-virus definitions. Click on "Next" to download the definitions.

I don't want to panic people, the likelyhood of being infected is as always low but it is better to safe than sorry, not to mention cheaper! Click HERE for the Symantec page on the virus and HERE for the BBC version of the story. Thanks to forum member Peabody for alerting me!

Messenger: So many people are mentioning problems with logging in to the service that I feel I should mention a response from sgegreen on the forum about the problem which links to the MS updates which will sort things out for most people. Click HERE to go the thread, sg's message is the 10th message.

(11.08.03) Coll has contributed a page to Argyllcom, in the shape of a interesting piece on initiatives to revive the islands economy. In fact it was posted some time ago but no one wrote to tell me. I've got rather used to people writing in when the add an item and so I've missed a couple of items recently, including an addition to the Mull news pages. The Coll addition is very welcome and means that nearly all the major islands are contributing to the website, I wish I could get someone there to sent items in to this one though! Click HERE for the Coll page, HERE for the Mull news item and HERE for the updated Luing History Group story which now has pictures.

(10.08.03) New page: In response to the emails I'm receiving regarding the end of the free year I've created a new page called "Renewing Subscriptions etc" which I hope will answer the most frequently asked questions. If it doesn't answer yours just fill in the form at the bottom of it and send it in. The page links to guide on renewing Norton Internet Security and will link to one on Internet service providers. Click HERE for the new page.

Missing Discs issue seems to have come to a sort of resolution as Gerry Wilson has started to send out the first replacements. As expected he was unable to supply the operating system disc but can the the Quick Restore and driver discs. All other missing discs (except the OS) are available via Internet download. See the forum for details.

(09.08.03) Bob Downes, director of BT Scotland, has replied to the letter that occompanied the petition that I copied to him a while back. When I started to read it seemed a polite acknowledgment and a reiteration of the familiar BT position but the fourth paragraph is very interesting:

" BT recognises however that a customer on DACS, using their PSTN line to connect to the internet, may experience slower download speeds than their neighbour who is not on DACS. We are committed to reducing the usage of DACS in our network and we are currently exploring a number of initiatives to help bring this about."

It goes on to say that BT have been working with Oftel on a way forward and accept the new Oftels guidelines on the subject of DACS boxes. Click HERE to read the full text of the letter and to have your own say on it (if you are a member of the forum, email me if you're not or join!).

Satelite TV: I know it has nothing to do with computers but a lot of people in the community have it and so I added a topic to the "Off Topic" section of the forum. It shows you how to get the regional versions of BBC 1 & 2, click HERE.

(08.08.03) Argyllcom: There haven't been many updates recently but this weekend will see a few starting with a report on the Luing Historical Group's annual exhibition, click HERE to read it. There'll be more additions tomorrow.

(07.08.03) News from Bellsmyre, our urban digital community sibling, reveals that they have had some of the same problems/questions as we have. I was contacted by their project director regarding a problem with the MS Messenger login which has been reported on the forum. He also told me that they too had the same issue with the Norton Internet Security subscription running out before the free year was up. Saldy they had had as little success in getting it sorted out as we have.

Intriguely people in Bellsmyre had also reported that NIS had renewed itself for another year and like us they hadn't complained about it! This phenomena hasn't been mentioned on any Internet news site that I'm aware.

I can't help feeling that two communities with so much in common should be in more regular contact so thanks to Bob for getting in touch again. Click HERE for their website.

ComputerActive magazine reports a study carried out by PC World and the Parents Online website which reveals the extent of parents laise faire attitude to their childrens online activities. 54% were unconcerned about their children being contacted by strangers online, 40% unconcerned by what was viewed and 38% admitted that they had taken no measures at all to activate online protection! I can't find a link to the survey but click HERE to visit the Parents Online website which has excellent advise including a family computer use contract.

(06.08.03) bwilderbeasts day off: As you may have noticed, well I hope you did, I took yesterday off. I suppose I should have announced this in advance but it was unintentional, I went to Oban, came home to a thunderstorm and decided not to switch on the "thing" at all.

Switching back on brought the expected avalanch of email, two thirds of which was spam, most of which is caught by spam filters (one that really annoys has the subject line "technical problems" which I always have to check). Of the legitimate email I got two new speeds for the Connection Map (click HERE), the first for a while and both from areas that haven't sent in many speeds (unlike Coll which has sent in none).

Nothing had been posted on the forum (except on the updates page, thanks sgegreen) which only adds to my feeling, akin to the phobic airline passenger, that the whole thing only keeps going as a result of my concentration. If I think about something else for one moment...

I'll try and warn readers of the next day off, my apologies to everyone who visited expecting updates. To make up for it here's a great link sent in by my friend Dr. Zog (turn your speakers on!)

.(04.08.03) New cartoon, nothing to do with computers, click on the image to see it.

The virus I reported yesterday has a write up on the BBC website which explains thing very well. Click HERE to read it but remember you read it here first!

People in my area have received there letters from NFO, the survey company employed by Argyll and Bute to see how the projects going. They contain a very rough outline of what the previous surveys have found, at least I hope it's a rough outline and explains the payments for taking part in the next one, which will be face to face rather than over the phone. First they give us a computer and Internet access, then they pay us to tell them what we think of them and we still complain ;¬)

(03.08.03) New Virus: A virus has appeared that could catch unwary digital community members. It has the subject line "Your account" and "I would like to inform you about important information regarding your email address. This email address will be expiring. Please read attachment for details." The attachment is a zipped html file which runs an executable file when opened.

Many people will be getting emails from Freeserve about there accounts over the coming months and so could be taken in. Don't be, Freeserve emails don't come with zipped files attached to them.

This hasn't been spotted by Symantec yet but I don't want to panic people as it has only just appeared in the "wild" and the likelihood of being sent is low. Forewarned is forearmed etc, click HERE to read more.

(01.08.03) DACS box case: The campaign for the improvement of conventional lines has been in obeyance since the petitions were sent off but an example has come to my attention that may bring it to the fore again. A line ordered by NAIDC, so BT knew it was for a computer, was installed and only provided a 26kbps connection after BT boosted the signal. When the customer complained she was told that BT was under no obligation to improve the line but she could upgrade to ISDN even though the line it comes off has plenty of capacity and she was assured at installation that it was a completely new line. We hope to gain publicity through the Oban Times and after going through the BT complaints proceedure, will appeal to Oftel. Expect regular progress reports.

Yesterday's story (see immediatly below): Having read phone logs and emails forwarded to me it is clear that there are two sides to the issue. PC Business are clear that the instructions they gave over the phone were not carried out or fully understood and were debating how to proceed. Gerry Wilson meanwhile has cut through the Gordian knot by asking a local engineer to sort it out, which should satisfy all sides. I wonder which more stressfull, being a new computer user frustrated that a computer won't work properly or a helpline worker?

(31.07.03) A community member who has been having problems with their computer for eight months is still waiting for an engineer to arrive a month after receiving a letter saying one would be sent out. A call to the helpline asking what was going on only produced the suggestion that the a quick restore should be carried out, as this had been tried numerous times before they were not best pleased and left uncertain whether an engineer had actually been assigned to the job.

The helpline engineer in question was described as "unhelpful and uncooperative" in a strongly worded email from James Hilder (of MICT) to NAIDC. He went on to question the general standard of technical support from PC Business and expressed concerns that as the contract was coming to an end they would fall further. I'll keep an eye on this case and report when it's sorted out.

It has to be said that the helpline has generally been found to be, er, helpful once you get through to it and while the engineers have been praised there have been complaints about the time it takes for them to arrive after a fault is reported. Customers from just about every computer company say that helplines will do almost anything before agreeing to actually send someone out. It seems that PC B, despite the best efforts of their staff, didn't fully appreciate the logistics of providing "on site" repairs to islands.

(30.07.03) Freeserve email online: It is now possible to access your freeserve email online from any computer! I used to get asked this a lot when the computers first arrived but it was only possible to fsmail (Freeserves version of hotmail) this way, now however conventional email is accessible to. You read and reply to all the email that hasn't been downloaded to your own computer via Outlook Express. I have written a draft guide to this HERE and will finalise once comments come in. Someone's bound to write in and say this has been possible for ages but in the meantime I'll thank peabody for asking the question and making me look into it again!

(29.07.03) Lismore's website is back online after it's host crashed last week and they've managed to get all the content back. The island has also popped up in the Moscow Times which gives it a very nice write up. Click HERE for Lismore's site and HERE for the Moscow Times.

NIS reminder: Just a note to say that there is a guide to renewing your Norton Internet Security subscription HERE.

(28.07.07) Website & forum trends: The forum just passed 100 000 hits and is only a few shy of 4000 messages posted which aleviates the fall in website hits over recent weeks. The forum is as getting as many visitors as ever though but there are the occasional dips in the number of posts. This could be because there hasn't been a big (by DC standards) news story recently or just because it's the summer and people have better things to do.

Accesses from outside the community have invreased and there has been recent surge of help requests and notes of thanks from as far away as California, maybe the website is appearing higher up the google list.

Thanks to everyone for there contributions both on the forum and to the website. Keep them coming in, what may seem trivial could turn out to be relevent to a lot of other people too!

(27.07.03) I've had a terrible time updating, the connection seems very slow so just a new cartoon today and I'm not even that happy with that! Click on the image to see the full sized version.

(26.07.03) The Scottish Parliament has relaunched the  Pàrlamaid na h-Alba website giving it a greater emphasis on news and generally more dynamic feel. I don't speak the language unfortunately but the site appears well set out, easy to navigate and if the email from the creators is anything to go by, will be responsive to readers. Click HERE to visit the it. Thanks to Sarah Gundry and Alasdair MacCaluim for sending this in.

The under 18s are surfing the net more and being supervised less according to research by the Schools Health Education Unit. Only 8% are not spending any time online while the average is now 16+ hours but over 50% say they are not supervised at all. Click HERE to read more on the BBC website and check the other useful links on the right of the page.(

(25.07.03) Apology: Sorry to everyone for the non-update yesterday. I was able to upload the message saying I was updating but then something went wrong with the server and I couldn't actually post an update. Hopefully this an isolated incident.

Belkin Units: The recent lightning storm demonstrated the value of the Belkin Units as there have been no reports of people computers being blown up at all. As you will recall the units were sent to the learning centres and distributed to the people attending the classes, non-students were told to go along to collect them (this saved a lot of postage and was very sensible). However not everyone has got theirs yet and some remain at the centres, at least they do at the one in Salen. If you live in the area you go to the any weeknight 1800 to 2100 when the classes resume on tues 19 august. Thanks to Sandy for sending this in!

Free Access ending: It is nearly a year since the computers arrived in Tobermory and people will be facing the dilemma of what to do about renewing their Freeserve Anytime account and the anti-virus subscription. By far the easiest thing to do for inexperienced computer users is to renew both of these things by following the links that pop-up on the screens. Some people will find this a bit pricey and maybe looking at alternatives and advice is available on the forum, Argyllcom.net or directly from me via email by clicking HERE. It is imperative that everyone maintains an updating anti-virus subscription - please advise your friends not to let it just expire!

(23.07.03) Oftel has published the new guidelines for telecoms. I haven't had a chance to fully digest the document yet but broadly speaking the most important element for us is the change to the minimum service requirement. This used to be only 2.4kbps, capable of for sending and receiving speech but not data and BT had their own inhouse standard of 9.4kbps, just enough to connect to the Internet. Occasionaly.

The new standard  is to be 28.8kbps but this is only a guideline, not a legal entitlement. BT are also instructed to remove DACS boxes wherever possible but I'm not sure how mandatory this is. What is clear however is that people who have poor Internet connections should contact BT Customer Services as soon as possible, if they are going to remove them it makes sense that they would send a team to do an area that complains a lot.

My thanks to Richard Bellingham of the Digital Inclusion Unit, who sent me this. The input of the Scottish Executive is recognised in the document and they recognise our input, so thanks to everyone who sent in their speeds, organised petitions or signed them! The campaign for decent Internet for all continues and you can help by writing to your MSP or the Oban Times, addresses are on the Connections Campaign page. Click HERE for the Oftel paper, more on this tomorrow.

(22.07.03) Argyll & Bute's three isles initiative has won an honourable mention in this years e-gov awards run by a "the forum", an association of civil servants involved in e-government. The 3 isles project has installed service points on Islay, Jura and Colonsay where islanders can access information from a one-stop-shop computer. Video conferencing and Internet access is also available. Click HERE for the A&B page on the project.

Argyllcom has been updated with a story accompanied by lots of pictures of the fisherman's gala in Fionnphort, click HERE to see it.

(21.07.03) Dial-up charges are set to fall following a decision by Oftel announced today. They have ordered BT to cut the wholesale price of 24/7 access contracts (like our Freeserve Anytime) by 17%, which could mean the cost of Anytime dropping from £14.99 to around £12.50 per month (hooray).

This is because when the 24/7 service first became available for wholesale 3 years ago BT charged for various technologies that gauranteed routing and connections . Now, due to improvements in telephone network infrastructure these services are no longer needed and users are paying for something they no longer get. The price cut is immediate and back dated (to the ISPs) to 2002. This should encourage a significant number of the digital community to stick with 24/7 rather than move to a more restricted service. Read more HERE.

(20.07.03) Argyllcom needs you! Although many islands have taken the oppurtunity to make their presence felt on the internet by maintaining pages on Argyllcom, some are still to put any content at all up.

Contributing to Argyllcom is relatively simple, especially if you are experienced with Word and gives islands an easy way of letting the world see what they are all about. There are benefits to those posting items too, they can link back to their own websites which can bring a significant boost to traffic and every webmaster knows how that is to generate! If you would like to contribute to Argyllcom email Gerry Wilson by clicking HERE and he will provide you with a username and password. Come on everyone - it's our website, lets make the most of it!

(19.07.03) Thursday's storm fried a Mull friends ISDN box after ball lightening struck a neighbours garden, the computer had been unplugged as a precaution but the box was "upline" of the Belkin unit. The BT engineer turned up the next day (he has a business account) and put everything right. Apparently 14 households in the Fionnphort area had their lines burnt out but how many of these saw damage to the computers is unknown. Lets hope they'd all installed the Belkin unit! 

(18.07.03) DACS boxes: Got a great tip in the email from Paul O'Brien for a way of finding out if there is a DACS box on your line. If you register with BT for broadband* and there is a box on your line somewhere the page will display the message 'Shared Device on this line'. It is almost certain that if you have a speed of below 33kpbs (see "Connection Campaign" page) there is a box on the line but it's nice to know for sure and this is quicker than phoning BT customer services.  

*Don't forget to register with HIE too, the link's on the Broadband page.

(17.07.03) Salen has passed the HIE trigger point for getting broadband and are eligable for a community wireless braodband system. HIE are currently putting contracts to supply the technology out to tender and are setting up a "not for profit" company to supply wireless broadband across the highlands and islands. They expect to be rolling out the service to eligable in October. Thanks to Paul O'Brien, our local HIE man, for responding to enquiers so quickly.

Argyllcom news has been updated with a story about a new stamp which features Ben More, Mull's highest mountain. Click HERE to read it. Argyllcom has also had updates to the missing discs page and information on what to do when your Freeserve account runs out.

(16.07.03) Memory prices started to rise again today after a succession of falls and went from £25.01 to just over £28 for 256mb (inc. VAT, p&p). This is still low when compared to a recent high of over £45. You can follow price trends by keeping an eye on the thread in the Buyers Club (click HERE).

With the end of our free year of anti-virus subscriptions approaching (or past) people are looking for alternatives to paying for another 12 months as highlighted by a question on the forum yesterday. If you don't need the parental controls that come with Norton Internet Security (NIS) there are quiet a few free anti-virus and firewall programs. Personally I think most people would best just renewing NIS, it only costs £17 afterall but if you have been thinking of trying alternatives click HERE to read the topic on the forum.

The recent news story about the missing school girl will have concerned many people. You can find some basic advice on safe surfing for children by clicking on the "Protect your kids online" link on the left or by visiting the excellent CBBC website by clicking HERE.

(15.07.03) The "Teddy Bear" virus hoax has reappeared in the community. Sent from outside it but by someone with several local contacts was swiftly corrected in a very responsible manner but it may have been passed on before the retraction arrived. So if you receive an email that tells you look for and delete a file called jdbgmgr.exe ignore it, it is a well known hoax.

All the hoaxes of this type that I have seen contained the phrase "cannot be detected by anti-virus programs". If you get any email claiming to warn of a virus and it has this in it be very suspicious. I recommend going to the Symantec (Norton) website and searching for the email's subject line or the virus name mentioned, this will swiftly tell you if it is a hoax. I would be grateful if readers would forward such emails to me so I can mention them here.

Sadly one of the great hoax archives might be closing down due to the drop in Internet advertising revenues, click HERE to visit vmyths while it's still available.

(14.07.03) This months draw has been won by forum regulars sgegreen and dazedandconfused! sgegreen has picked the 128mb of memory donated by fellow member doggo and so the rather fantastic pen drive goes to dazedandconfused. I haven't decided what next months prizes will be but one will be a guide to MS Office. I would like to reiterate that the point of the draw is to encourage people to post messages, so if you're a member don't not post because you think the prizes should go to the regular posters! We all want more people to post messages, so even if you just want to say hi, login and do so, every message gets a number in the draw!

Norton subscription dates: I called the helpline and they confirmed that the incidents of the subscription date changing on its own was nothing to do with them. NAIDC always announce these things by letter and so they can be ruled out, so all that is left is a program glitch. Reports from Lismore indicate that the auto-updating is random and not universal, don't count on being one of the lucky ones! When you start getting the reminders keep an eye on the date and when there is only a couple of days to go renew the subscription. It's only £17, a lot cheaper than repairing an infected computer.

Website up date time will change to 7.30pm, I'm finding 7 to hard a deadline to meet.

(13.07.03) Lismore: The issue of the Lismore Freeserve account extensions has been finally resolved with the arrival of a letter (you remember, on paper, in an envelope) from NAIDC with instructions on how to renew them.

The letters start with an apology from NAIDC for the delay (even though it wasn't really their fault) and go on to explain how to renew the Anytime account by using a voucher number. I don't think that this has proved as straight forward as everyone had hoped but at least it's sorted out now and Lismore can enjoy another free 3 months online in recognition of their status as a test bed for the rest of the NAIDC installations. Thanks to Steve for sending me a copy of the letter. Thank goodness that's all over!

Still more cases of the Norton Internet Security subscription dates changing to June or July 2004. The changes seem to be occurring in sinc with installation schedule.

How2: I enabled "page views" which record how many time an individual topic is visited, in the How2 section of the forum a fortnight ago. I should have done it ages ago because it throws up some interesting numbers. The Software Updates page is the most popular, demonstrating that it is widely used and not just for us anoraks. I was surprised to see that the page on email error messages came a close second as it a topic that I only get the occasional email about. Everything else was far behind but the Belkin and Update guides were the next most visited. Depressingly hardly anyone had looked at my newest guide on printing, oh well, early days! People were using guides on all the pages which suggests that they are using the index rather than just browsing, click HERE to see if it has anything that might help you.

(11.07.03) Missing discs: I spoke to Ann at the PC Biz helpdesk and she told me that two months ago she had been told to refer all requests for discs to the forum, unfortunately she couldn't remember by whom. Even more regretably she doesn't have a record of callers, she estimated 20, who had been in contact because she just passes that information on and doesn't record it. Obviously I can't supply the discs and from now on she will be refering callers to Gerry at NAIDC, I will pass on anyone who contacts me trough the forum to him as well. Once again, this won't help people who are missing Operating System or driver discs nor those who want the logitech disc. I think we have to find a download link for the latter.

New Guide: I've posted on for getting more out of your printer so you can print better quality photographs etc. It walks you through the advanced options of the print preferences dialogue boxes with pictures. Click HERE to read it.

(10.07.03) Missing Discs: Gerry Wilson, as reported previously, has taken on the task of supplying the missing Quick Restore* system discs to anyone who needs them and announced this officially last week. To his credit he has asked PC Business, who have had problems obtaining them from Compaq, to pass on the names of the people who have contacted the helpline requesting them so he can send them out.

So he is as baffled as me by the news that the helpline staff have been told to contact the forum because I can supply the discs. This follows the community member who contacted me after being told I could sort out the shortfall in the Norton Antivirus subscription, which I can't do either as my super powers only extend to leaping tall buildings.

*These can be supplied because they are not computer specific, it will not be possible to supply the operating system discs. They were only included with some of the computers and are not part of the specification of most of the systems. Check the thread on the forum for a fuller explanation.

(09.07.03) Ink: There have been many complaints about the printers, mainly revolving around the price of the replacement cartridges. Whether by accident or designe NAIDC did us one big favour, they didn't give us printers that use "chipped" cartridges. Chipped cartridges not only monitor ink level and interact with the printer but also stop the ink flowing when the ink drops to a certain point. Now research by a Dutch consumer organistation has shown that this can be when there is still enough ink left to print up to 50 pages!

Many people have emailed me that they have recieved warning that ink levels are low and asking if they should change the cartridge. I always adice them to buy a new cartridge but not to change them until the print quality drops and even then to try cleaning the print heads first. Read more about chipped cartridges, what the consumer organisations say and what the EU is doing about ink prices by clicking HERE.

The Luing news page on Argyllcom has a great story about the prospect of funding a bridge to the island by combining the link with a tidal power station. Click HERE to read it.

The forum has just clocked up 90 000 page hits!

(08.03.07) Announcement: I've been asked and agreed to attend NAIDC steering group meetings to put the community's view on relevant matters, replacing James Hilder of the Mull and Iona Community Trust who has given up his place due to work load after a year of good service. I hope I will be able the raise the issues that are concerning the many people who email me and to help with communicting the work of the steering group to the computer users. I don't know how full my role will be, I would imagine that some commercially sensitive areas will be closed to me but I hope that I will be able to make an affective contribution

.(07.07.03) The over 60s who aren't entitled to a fee waver are entitled to a 25% discount on fees on the Argyll College "phase 2" computer courses. The courses are already discounted and coupled with the MS Office deal (see below) makes signing up an absolute bargain. Half the forum members who responded to a poll say they are going to take up the MS office offer by the way. 

Prize Draw - last week! This months prize draw comes to an end on Sunday so get posting, every message on the forum counts as a "ticket"! First prize is a 64mb pen drive, an easy to use storage device which holds as much data as 45 A discs! You just plug it into a USB port on any computer and use like any other folder. The picture on the left is just to give you an idea of the size, the prize drive is in black and a slightly different model (it works beautifully, I've just started using one).

Lismore: Still no progress on the Freeserve accounts. I only mention it because it's annoying a lot of people.

(06.07.03) Argyllcom has updates to the Mull news pages with stories about a retirement do, live music at the Aros Hall and the producers market, click HERE to read them.

(05.07.03) Ink Prices: According to Which magazine ink costs more than Dom Perigon if you buy the manufacturers own brand and thats the only one that they say is covered by warranty! Buying unbranded ink is risky, sometimes it does mess up your printer and it might shorten its life but as our printers only cost around £40, the price of two sets of Epson cartridges it might be worth checking out the local suppliers of cheap alternatives. Read more HERE.

Another report of someones Norton Internet Security subscription renewing automatically, so check out yours if you have had a reminder! Thanks to Joe for emailing.

(04.07.03) Get a personalised 2000friends mousepad! If you send me an image I'll print it on a mousepad along with a small 2fk "Don't Panic" logo for you. The first 10 will done at cost for £5.50p inc p&p, email me by clicking HERE and put "mosuepad" in the subject line..

(03.07.03) Paid for opinions: People on Lismore who took part in the first two phone surveys are receiving letters (yes - real letters!) asking them to participate in the final stage of the survey. NFO Systems want to visit each household and interview everyone over 12 about how they use the computer, each interview taking about 20 minutes and the interviewee will get paid £5 (bet you wish you hadn't slammed the phone down on them now!) . They will also be asking each household to keep a computer diary of what they do on it, the person in charge of the diary will get another fiver.

Previous surveys have been down at a certain time after the installation of the computer and as Lismore was first they've got the letters earlier than the rest of us. Thanks to Steve for sending me a copy of the letter.

Yet more Lismore:I called the Freeserve technical support line (at 50p per minute!) and asked if I could gift an Anytime account to someone whose account had lapsed due to non-payment. They said it was no problem, I just needed to know the username, password, name and address etc. So maybe that's what the glitch has been, PC Business don't know the username and passwords. The good news is that account would be reactivated with the same username and therefore email address.

Memory prices have fallen to the lowest level since I started tracking them and 256mb is now only £25.84 (inc. p&p and VAT)! Buy it buy clicking on the big banner at the top of the forum.

Freeserve Slowdown: There seems to have been another slowdown in the Freeserve service yesterday with people reporting difficulty getting online and reduced speeds, so if it happened to you, you weren't alone.

(02.07.03) Lismore: The island is still not connected to their Freeserve Anytime accounts and the emails some have been sent by Freeserve say "Unfortunately your payment details haven't been accepted and as a result we've closed your Freeserve AnyTime account. Once you've resolved the current problem you're free to register for another account"

By "another account" do they mean with a new email address? I hope not.

(01.07.03) NIS renewal date update: More people have contacted me regarding yesterday's story about the mysterious redating of the subscription date for Norton Internet Security (NIS). This confirms that it is not an odd quirk but a phenomena that is likely to affecting a lot of people. Note that this is not the same thing as the redating that occurs when a "full" restore is done on a computer. Another oddity that is emerging is a difference of about a week between the new date for the anti-virus component and the one for NIS. No one has an explanation for this and it has not been reported on any of the computer news website, I can only advise those who find that their subscription date has changed to keep an eye on it in case it changes again without warning.

Coincidently Symantec (the makers of NIS) has issued an alert aimed at everyone who has used the Symantec Security Check facility which tests your computers firewall. Apparently it leaves an Active X component (a small program that allows a website to interact with your computer) on your computer which could be exploited by a malicious website. Users who have tested their firewall before June 23rd are advised to visit the Symantec site again (click HERE) to run the test again which remove the component or to use the removal tool by clicking HERE. Surely there couldn't be a connection with the story above? No that's just paranoid nonsense. I'd love to hear from someone who's date was changed and then removed the Active X component even so...

Warranty story update: On the 25th of last month I ran a story about a user who had contacted the helpline and been told that the warranty on their computer had expired in February. Rather than wrangle with PC Biz they chose to call out a local engineer. The engineer has contacted me to confirm the story and says he was surprised when it eventually transpired that this was the reason for the call out as he frequently refers people to the helpline rather than take on jobs. Thankfully it seems to have been an isolated incident.

The latest Scottish Islands Network newsletter is out and as ever is full of useful information and news. Our campaign to improve local conventional Internet connections gets a mention and there is information on grants, other local issues and much more. Click HERE to read it.

(30.06.03) Norton Internet Security subscription date: A strange thing happened when I went to help someone renew their NIS subscription, I wanted to get screenshots for a guide and they were nervous of using their credit card online but I didn't get my shots and they didn't use their cc. When I clicked on the Subscription Service date link in the NIS window and then clicked "Renew" I was just offered a update download, which I did and when I rechecked the date it read 10.06.2004!

I posted a message on the forum about this and to my surprise two other members reported the same thing. Now, although it is widely read, not that many people actually post on the forum and so three is (the magic number :) not a lot of people it still suggests that this could a common phenomena.

Has NAIDC secretly renewed our subs for us? That seems unlikely given the problems PC Biz has had renewing the Lismore Freeserve accounts (that should be straight forward enough why is Freeserve making it so hard?). So it must be an abberation at the Symantec (who make Norton products). Which is worrying, they could discover the mistake at any moment and people will be presented with demands to renew immediately. Symantec is a responsible company in my experience and I would be surprised if they cut subscriptions without warning but I would advice people to keep an eye on their subscription renewal date just in case.

Bargains Galore! It's been a great week for postings in the Buyers Club section of the website, photo printers available locally at £80 off , 2.1 megapixel cameras for under £50 and good quality graphic cards for under £30 inc p&p! And  256mb of memory is still only £27, click HERE for the Buyers Club.

(29.06.03) MS Office Pro 2002: As reported below you can get a copy of Office Pro if you enroll  in a "phase 2" course with Argyll College for only £76, an fraction of the normal price and a reduction on even the normal student rate. There was some debate whether the license was the type that expired when the the course was completed so I phoned the suppliers and they assure me that it is a perpetual, i.e. full, license. This is a fantastic offer and is open until August the 31st.

(28.06.03) The Belkin Unit Guide has been edited because the advice that you could plug the unit into bar that the rest of the equipment used was inaccurate. This in fact would invalidates the warranty, the unit has to be plugged directly into the mains. Thanks to sgegreen for spotting this, the updated guide is HERE.

People around Loch na Keal and Salen (connected to the Aros exchange) are reporting difficulties getting online and slow speeds once they do. One reports that using another Freeserve number helped, which makes it sound like the problems of a fortnight ago which affected people across all the islands but this is oddly localised. Loch na Keal is a long way from the exchange and has some poor lines which can't help but there is obvious reason why this should suddenly happen.

I hear that some people on Lismore are signing up with other ISPs rather than wait for the Freeserve renewal. Although I can understand their frustration this seems a bit premature to me, unless they are heavy Internet.

New Guide: Renewing the Norton subscription. People will start getting messages from Symantec popping up as the subscription date draws near and the new guide covers how to respond to them. It is aimed at the new user and so recommends a straight forward renewal of the subscription, rather than upgrading or just renewing the Antivirus part. Click HERE to read it.

(27.06.03) Lismore Update: Lismore is still off-line, apparently Freeserve needed account numbers from PC World which took a while to appear and the extra details to enable the accounts. NAIDC has received apologies for the delays as the extension was agreed ahead of time and they were assured their would be no problems.

Meanwhile the islanders are either using the No Ties, pay-as-you go option to access emails, while the keener surfers often had alternative ISPs and are using those.

Belkin Units: Following requests I've written a guide to using them, which basically tells which socket to plug which telephone into, there's a picture to make it even simpler. Click HERE for it, could be handy for mentors and DCs to email or link to if they get asked about them.

Harry Potter online: I'm so cross about this, I trailed it a few days ago and then forgot to post the link. J K Rowling was online reading extracts from the new Harry Potter novel (the "Golden Cash Machine"?) and interviewed by Steven Fry. However it is still available to view for the next week, not as much of a thrill as seeing at live but HERE (click on 56k) it is anyway. Thanks to dazedandconfused for sending this in.

(26.06.03) The Website was down today from midnight to about 10.30 am due to a accounting error at the ISP. They had mistaken the end of the first year as a bill point even though I'd upgraded to a better package in the meantime. It gave one regular visitor a nasty shock who had just downloaded XP Service Pack1 and the next thing he saw on his computer was an error message in German!

No progress has been reported from Lismore for either the Freeserve accounts or ISDN.

On the bright side Argyllcom has updated with a small item on the Luing pages recording their visit to Lismore. But even that is late because the editor (er, that's me) forgot to post it when it was first submitted! Click HERE for the Luing news pages.

(25.03.06) Snippets:

A Tobemory computer user was told by the helpline that their computer had been purchased in Febuary of last year (when the Scottish Executive bought them) and that the warranty had expired. As a result they called out a local engineer and paid for the repair. This was obviously an mistake and an aberation by a the helpline staff as many people are still getting their computers repaired under warranty but I hope it doesn't happen again.

Lismore is still off-line and the local digital champions are tearing their hair out, I expect that NAIDC is too..

And the two households waiting for ISDN are still waiting for it.

(24.03.06) Argyll College is in the process of sending out its info about the second phase of training and a very interesting package it is too. As reported a fortnight ago there are two sets of courses available, one free and one which we have to pay for but get a 50% reduction on. All this is very clearly set out and there is plenty of choice.

The big news is that Microsoft Office professional is available to students for only £76, a huge reduction on even the Amazon price of £370 and cheaper than most student versions are available for. There is also a limited (free I think) license version for AC students but that has to be uninstalled when you finish whatever course you've bought it for. This is an absolute bargain and incentive to improve your computing and office skills by signing up for a course.

Also included is XP Service Pack which fixes many of the problems that the operating system had when it was first released. It comes with very clear instructions with every stage of the process illustrated with a screen shot. I hope this will mean the end of the many problems caused by people not installing the service pack. Also included is the on disc introduction to the Internet.

I've been contacted by someone who checked their Norton Internet Security renewal date only to discover that it had been registered in a neighbour up the roads name! I've no idea how this will affect the renewal process, thankfully it unlikely to be a widespread problem.

(23.03.06) Lismore: The island should be back online either this evening or tomorrow according to sources close to the NAIDC steering group. The island went off-line as a result of administrative errors at PC Business who handle the Freeserve accounts. We (the community) assumed that NAIDC were responsible for the Internet access but it is part of the Scottish Executive - PC Business contract. NAIDC had arranged with PC B to extend the Lismore accounts by three months at the last steering group meeting, just before the announcement at the Lismore "do" (see below). So those of us who were blaming NAIDC for the island going off-line were wrong, it was down to PC B.

Missing Discs: Because of the excessive amount of time that people are waiting for their replacement discs NAIDC is seeking permission from PC Business to copy and destribute the restore discs themselves. They have also asked to be supplied with all the names of the people who have asked for the discs so that they can be sent the copies. The restore discs are generic and not machine specific so this should be straightforward . We could therefore copy and pass on the discs ourselves but this could invalidate warranty and so it is best to wait for the official ones. DCs can however use their own Compaq discs in other peoples computers.

Still on Lismore: The computers that needed fixing again still need fixing, they need to get parts! It's a very odd problem though.

(22.06.03) Lismore (small) Update: The island seems to be still largely off-line, no one has contacted me to say they've got back on and everyone seems to be waiting for Monday to get things moving. I've been unable to contact anyone on the issue, the good soul who sent me the Freeserve email contacted me to say that they hadn't been cut off but that was yesterday and they haven't been back in touch today. Watch this space!

The Seil classes at the Easdale primary school are to stop for the school holidays like the Salen ones and I think its safe to assume that the same will be true of all school based classes.

The ISDN installations on Lismore are still to go ahead, I think that's three weeks they have been waiting (and remember that they've already had the computers for a year). BT are usually so quick to install ISDN.

The computer, again on Lismore, that was fixed last week has gone wrong again and the engineers have been called out.

On Seil two modems have suffered the same fault, becoming undetectable, having to be removed and put back in again before they worked again.

The Connections Map (click HERE) has been updated with a speed from the north-westerly corner of Mull, an area of few reports and one from Balvicar which is the fastest ever reported from that exchange.

(21.06.03) Most of the computers on Lismore are off-line following the cancellation of their Freeserve anytime accounts. This was unexpected because of the announcement by Paul Cairns a fortnight ago that NAIDC had arranged for the accounts to be extended by three months in recognition of Lismore being used as a guinea pig for the rest of the project (see news 08.06.03 below).

Some people received emails from Freeserve informing that their account was about to close but these were ignored because thats what people had been told to do at the meeting. The emails have a number to call between 8 am & 10 pm 7 days week to renew the account, 0870 872 0099. Like last weekends story, if you are affected you aren't reading this.

Those that had downloaded the connection kit were eventually connected to the "No Ties" number, which is pay by the minute but people who hadn't have been left high and dry. Some people are still online because they have other ISPs, are using the no ties number or have renewed their Anytime number, which is how I know about this.

Apparently those who can't connect are philosophic about the situation and are hoping that it will be sorted out on Monday, although I must say that I'm not so optimistic. Is this another example of something being announced before it was actually organised?

*Full text has been posted on the forum (click HERE).

(20.03.06) The Salen training center on the Isle of Mull is to close for the summer holidays and classes will resume in August. People hoping to attend classes during that period are being offered 10 hours mentoring at home if they don't want to wait for the resupmtion. The Salen center is in the primary school and the same may be true for other training centeres based in schools (I'll check).

The computers that were waiting for engineers to come out and fix them have been finnally fixed on site, one on Iona at a training center and the other, a domestic PC, on Lismore. Both had waited for around a month.

(19.03.06) Norton Internet Security (NIS): Although it is some time off and the update subscriptions don't run out for 5 weeks (on average) people are starting to get notices from Symantec (who make NIS). After the subscriptions run out people will no longer be download new virus definitions and their computers will not be protected from new viruses. If you don't know how to get rid of a virus once your computer has been infected it will cost more to get rid of than renewing the subscription does.

Fortunately renewing the subscription is relatively cheap (£17) and simple to do online with either a credit or switch card payment.

Members of the forum can buy an upgrade disc for NIS 2003 for £15 but they will have to uninstall NIS 2002 and then download a big 6mb list of virus definitions to get the new version up and running, so this is not the best option for people on a slow connection.

People will notice that the update subscription runs out sometime before the end of the free year of Internet use. This is because the Norton program was installed along with all the other software in the factory and that was sometime before they were installed in peoples homes. NAIDC and PC Business have been unable to sort this issue out but whatever the fairness of this is it is imperative that people do not allow their subscriptions to lapse. A single infection will cost more to remove than the cost of renewal.

Argyllcom has an update to the Mull News pages: click HERE.

(18.03.06) Win a 64mb Pen Drive or 128mb of memory by just posting on the forum! The new draw will run over the next month ending on Sunday 13th of July and again every message you post will get you a "ticket". The first prize is a choice between the pen drive and the memory, second prize will be the other one, if you see what I mean although I might change this. Both prizes are worth about £16 and the memory has been kindly donated by forum member doggo.

For those who don't know a Pen Drive is a storage device that plugs into a USB socket (like the webcam) and this one holds as much data as 45 floppy discs. And it's really small! So get posting and if you haven't already - join!

The missing disc replacement delay is down to the time it takes for Hewlett Packard take to replace them anything from 10 to thirty five days according to triedit3 on the forum. I think that it should be assumed that a significant proportion of the users are missing discs and stocks ordered in advance so that when the lose is discovered they don't need to be ordered piecemeal.

(17.03.06) New page: As a result of the website survey I've added a new page called "Ask a Question" because it turns out that what people want from a help site is a simple way of getting answers to their problems. Who'd have thought? The new page is very simple, it just has a form to fill in and send at the bottom and an email link in case people aren't happy with that.

Check back tomorrow for details of the new prize draw!

(16.06.03) Prize Draw In a solumn ceremony attended by thousands of midges the posts were toted up and using a random number generator, two numbers selected to decide who one the first anniversary prizes. Happily regular posters won both the first and second prize, Yorkie winning first prize, a copy of Norton Internet Security 2003 and a guide to MS Word going to runner up beararus. 

Public Access PCs: This could be a good time to apply because the Scottish Executive still has lot  to give away. The scheme winds down shortly and they might be more flexible on the terms and conditions which state that the computers have to be available to the public for 40 hours a week. This is difficult for businesses that have seasonal opening and they could be ameanable to negotiation at this late stage. Click HERE to visit their website and apply. Thanks to triedit3 for posting the info on the forum.

(15.06.03) As reported last week NAIDC is to distribute copies of the XP Service Pack 1a and an Internet instruction disc for beginners. As Sunday is a slow news day I thought I would write a brief review and give my copy to a forum member for their thoughts. Many will think the disc is a bit late in coming but it has been made especially for us and their are still a lot of people who haven't really started using their computers yet. Click HERE to read the review.

The Mull News pages have been updated with an item on the RNLI day at Tiroran House, click HERE to read it.

(14.06.03) One day later and some people are still experiencing problems. Strangely using an alternative to the connection kit seems to provide a solution and even more strangely the solution is using one of the old numbers that is about to be discontinued. Click HERE for details.

The connections map has been updated with the latest numbers but with an error. It has two dots  marking the households that where NAIDC has announced that ISDN will be installed due to BTs unwillingness to install a decent conventional line. This was announced last week and I assumed that BT would have done it by now but apparently they haven't. (Click HERE for map).

I've made a rough graph of the changes in 256mb memory prices since December (click HERE), it's a bit fuzzy due to jpeg compression but gives a good idea of the trend. You can currently buy 256mb of Crucial memory via the banner on the forum for £27.01 inc. VAT and P&P.

(13. 06.03) Friday the 13th and people, including me, are having problems connecting to Freeserve. Connections are very erratic, with many disconnections and if my email inbox is anything to go by a lot of people aren't getting online at all. So hardly anyone is reading this but you all get back online you'll know it was a widespread problem. I tried connecting via a neighbours computer, which uses Freeserve No Ties, and could only connect at 4660, on tenth of their usual speed. Freeserve aren't aware of any difficulties and the websites that monitor network status aren't either, so it could be down to the islands telephone network. So what else is new?

Fed up with searching through endless folders to open or save common files? The new guide on the forum could be a help, it shows you how to create a folder that is always just a couple of clicks away. There are now over 50 guides plus the Software Updates page in the How 2 section of the forum, all written specifically for the NAIDC computers and in response to forum members requests. If there is something you have always wanted help with why not join the forum and ask! Click HERE for the new guide.

The prize draw closes on Monday at 5.45pm so you've got 70 hours or so to post a message and get a "ticket". The competition has bumped up the number of people of posting (hooray) and I'm thinking of running one every month.

At long last the date format on the forum has been changed from the American style of Month/Day/Year to the much more sensible European Day/Month/Year. So now it's much easier to see when something has been posted. It's taken European Forum hosts more than a year of nagging to get this change!

(12.06.03) Repairs: I have had reports of people waiting considerable amounts of time for their computers to be repaired. PC Business agreed to "on site" repair when they won the contract to supply the computers but do not seem to have appreciated that this was not straight forward here as it is in cities. I know of two cases where people have been waiting a month to have work done, in both cases PC Biz has had to order parts from Hewlett-Packard(H-P) who now own Compaq and organise an engineer to come out.

The same delay is affecting people who have asked for missing discs to be replaced. Several people have written to me saying that they have waited over a month for the discs and all PC Biz say (once they answer the phone) is that they have passed the order onto H-P and it is now down them. No its not, NAIDC didn't buy the computers from them!

This kind of delay would not be acceptable if we were individual customers and I don't see why it should be for NAIDC, if anything you would have thought the volume of their order would have meant that we got a better service. It doesn't take a genius to know that problems are going to occur and to lay in stock to cope with them.

The Oban Times has a story announcing the arrival of broadband in Oban. This is in part a result of the of the HIE scheme that has subsidise the upgrading of exchanges. The article carries comments from me about the need to upgrade exchanges and lines for normal Internet connections too, a decent connection should not just be available to those who can afford ASDL and ISDN afterall. We should keep this issue alive by writing to the Oban Times and explain how difficult connecting to the Internet is for many of us, find a link on the Connections Campaign pages by clicking HERE.

(11.06.03) Connections Campaign: In order to simplify things I've gathered the Internet Connections pages into one section, you will now find an introduction to the campaign by clicking on "Connections Campaign" on the left and this will open the map, speed and contacts pages.

People should continue to sent their speeds and personal experiences in because it goes to build a picture of the situation across the islands (who knows maybe someone from Coll or Kerrera will contact the site!). This information has already been accessed by the Scottish Executive and has helped them make their submissions to Oftel.

The contacts page (now with Oftel added to it) is for people to write to various people with their individual experiences and complaints. This kind of pressure will keep the issue at the top of the agenda and make it more likely something will be done.

(10.06.03) Connections: NAIDC has connected three of the households who BT refused to provide a line to with subsidies from its somewhat stretched budget. Two of new lines are on Lismore and have been written about before because they lived within a stones throw of a decent line but BT would not remove the DACS boxes that were causing them the problem. They were, like so many others, offered ISDN and it is this that NAIDC is installing. This is good and bad news, good because it shows that NAIDC will dig deep if necessary but bad because it demonstrates the depth of BTs recalcitrance on the issue (hence the connections campaign!).

The third connection is also because of BTs refusal to provide a line at a reasonable price, this time it is more understandable as the house is miles from the nearest neighbour (they would done it before they were privatised). NAIDC has installed a GPRS device on the computer which communicates via the mobile phone network, like ISDN it provides a fast connection but costs a wopping £1 per megabyte downloaded! It's easy to see why this is not seen a solution for all in remote areas.

Argyllcom Updates: Two recent updates to the Mull news pages, one reporting on the opening of the MESS swop shop and the other on Gaelic (it's in Gaelic so I'm not sure what it's about!), clickHERE to read them.

(09.06.03) 2000friends first anniversary! It was around this time last year I launched the website with yellow background and a very confusing front page. I only told a few people about it at first but by time the computers were being installed on Lismore it was up and running and getting up to 30 (!) hits a day. Since those early faltering steps it has gone from strength to strength, mostly due to the support and suggestions from you, the readers. The site has now had thousands of visitors and it is read regularly by the people running the NAIDC project, by PC Business and even by the Scottish Executive.

To celebrate there will be a prize draw next Monday based on messages posted on the forum. The first prize is a copy of Norton Internet Security 2003 worth at least £27 and second is a Guide to MS Word. I've recorded the number of messages that members have posted so far and next Monday I will look at the messages posted during the week and each new message will get a number in the draw, so the more you post the more chances you have of winning! So get posting and if you're not a member join! Click HERE for more details and click HERE to join. If you have joined but have had trouble posting email me and I'll do my best to help. Good luck!

John McLuckie of Argyll College (that's him pictured speaking below) announced at the Lismore do on Saturday that people who had been unable to get to the classes would be entitled to 10 hours home tutoring with their local mentor. People who had managed to attend classes but had had difficulties doing so will entitled to 10 hours minus the time they had done in class. This is great news for people with transport or health problems.

He also outlined the next phase of training which will have two basic routes. One will be provided online by the Scottish University for Industry and will be free but notassisted by the mentors and the other will through Argyll College and supported by a mentor via phone. There will be a small charge for the latter.

Memory Prices plummeted from £34.06 to £27.01 (inc VAT and P&P) today, a return to a sensible price at last! (Memory can be ordered via the banner at the top of the forum)

(08.06.03) Lismore one year on: It's hard to believe that a whole year has past since the first computers were installed on Lismore but it has!

To mark the event Teenie Wilson and the Lismore Computer Club, that has been so influential in the success of the project there, invited islanders and people involved in project to an evening in the Community Hall. Despite falling on the same night as a hen party and a wedding (?!), around 50 islanders attended along with Paul Cairns of NAIDC, John McLuckie of Argyll College and myself.

The islanders listened to announcements and speeches from Paul, John, myself ( I was terrible, I really need to practice), Steve Green on ISPs and Pauline Dowling on Lismore's website. I'll mostly concentrate on Paul Cairns announcements which were very interesting.

Lismore will have the free Internet access extended by three months in recognition of the way they were used as guinea pigs for the rest of the project.

NAIDC are going to set up their own ISP (Internet Service Provider) through which we will connect to the Internet and offer the service for free! There isn't a firm date for this yet but maybe Lismore's 3 month extension is an indication of time scale ( I'm guessing ).

The XP service discs have arrived and will be distributed in the next fortnight along with training discs (both were handed out at the meeting).

John McLuckie handed out Belkin units which have finally arrived and the rest will distributed on Mull in the very near future.

I had to leave early to catch the last ferry and so missed the end of the do but could see that the computer group had gone to a lot of trouble to create displays of computer equipment, Internet demonstrations and much more. I would like to thank the computer group for inviting me and organising such an interesting evening, I'm just sorry that I couldn't stay longer and chat to more people.

As it is Lismore's first anniversary it is also this websites and I will be celebrating with a competition, check back tomorrow for details!
(07.06.03) Connections Campaign: As I mentioned on Thursday it is time that we took our campaign to the next stage and started writing directly to MPs and Ministers. The petition has made a lot of impact but a stream of letters, each of which has to answered, will keep the issue in their minds and keep it on the political agenda.

To this end I have created a new page called "Connections Campaign" with the contact details for our MP, MSP and the relevant Ministers and in the next few days I will add those of BT and Oftel. Everyone who is concerned about this issue should write a letter, print it out and post it off to one or all of these people. They will find it hard to ignore if enough of us write! The link to the page is on the left of this page.

(06.06.03) 3 years for sex offender: A man who sexually abused 13 year old girls that he had met online received a 3 year sentence at Norwich Crown Court today. He met his victims in Internet chatrooms when they were as young as eleven and "groomed" them until they were 13, the age when the sentence for abuse drops from life to 2 years. The grooming involved posing as 16 and offering sympathy to insecure children, buying them gifts and taking them to the cinema. The girls were so taken in that they deceived their parents to keep the relationship secret.

Researchers have found that a child will be be approached in a chatroom by an adult posing as a teenager within 20 minutes of entering a chatroom. One in twenty children have arranged secret meeting with people they have met online. If you want advice on protecting your children online click HERE.

(05.06.03) Now that the petitions have run their course and have been virtually presented (although not actually posted yet), it is time to take the campaign to improve telephone connections to new areas. I have received advice from various sources that the way forward is to start writing letters (that's real ones) to MSPs, Ministers, Oftel and BT. Over the weekend I will be posting the relevent addresses on a new page and will be urging everyone to get writing!

The Scottish Executive's submission to Oftel regarding future guidelines and BTs response came up at yesterdays meeting. The Scottish Executive's contribution (click HERE)is very interesting and demonstrates that they are well aware of the problem and lobbying actively on our behalf*. BTs response (click HERE the relevent section is 3.i-ii) to Oftels consultation document is predictable, they reject a minimum service of even 28.8kbps basically on the basis of cost but also claiming that improving the line would not improve Internet speed. They also claim that they will not be deploying new DACS type devices in future. *This is a matter "reserved to the UK Government" and so the Scottish Executive cannot dictate to BT or Oftel. Indeed, it may go further than that, as telecom regulation is subject to EU legistlation.

Mull events pages updated with news of a meeting to discuss the establishment of a gaelic Center on the island, click HERE for more.

(04.06.03) Tele-conference: I am happy to report that the tele-conference with Richard Bellingham of the Digital Inclusion Unit (DIU, see below) went very well. When the we started collecting connection speeds and the idea of petitions was first mooted we believed that we were starting a campaign to get the issue recognised at all. Then the Scottish Executives contribution to the Oftel consultation on future guidelines appeared and it was clear that they were aware of the problem.

Following the meeting today it is evident that the DIU is working to improve the state of the local exchanges and the conventional connections to them. Rather than the petitions and information that we have gathered being needed to convince DIU of our case, it will used by them to reinforce the case that they are already making to BT and Oftel.

Mr Bellingham confirmed that information from the website has already been used by them and asked me to include examples of the problem in my covering letter that will go off with petitions. More on this tomorrow, in the meantime I would like to thank Mr Bellingham and his staff for meeting with me and to everyone who has contributed to this campaign.

(03.06.03)The Petitions that have been running on various islands wind up this week and will be sent of to the Digital Inclusion Unit (the Scottish Executive department charged with bridging the digital divide) over the next few days. It was hoped that we would all get together and present them in person at a meeting in Oban but this has proved impossible to arrange so, perhaps appropriately, I will be "presenting" them via a video conference to Richard Bellingham, head of the DIU.

The petitions call on the DIU to make sure that those who can only afford a conventional Internet connection are not left behind in the move to a "digital" Scotland. Those who have signed believe that it is unfair that people are offered the choice between a poor ordinary connection or paying extra for some form of broadband. We have a lot of evidence of how BT will consistently offer people on lines with DACS boxes an ISDN service but never agree to improve the line in any other way, even where it is known that this possible. More on this tomorrow but possibly a little later than "usual".

More people are being caught out by the so called "dialer" scam. This scam is found on websites that offer "free" access to premium content, usually "adult" material. In order to gain access (no checks-no credit card needed!) you have to agree to install a "dialer program", a medium sized box will appear in the middle of the screen and you just have to click OK. Doing this reconfigures your Internet dial up setting so it connects through a premium rate number. And there's nothing you can do about it when the phone bill comes in because you have agreed to install the dialer, you just have to pay up. XP seems better at stopping this happening, especially in limited accounts but you can still get caught out. Be very careful agreeing to accept anything from a "dodgy" website. I've had reports of this from various places, so if you think this refers to a specific person or area - it doesn't.

(02.06.03) Dixons (which owns PC World) maybe dropping Freeserve as its favoured ISP according to the Register (click HERE). The contract comes up for renewal later this year and it is said that Dixons is looking to other ISPs to replace them. It's hard to say how this impacts on us but as our free year comes to end and Argyll and Bute consider the alternatives it may have significance

.(01.06.03) Today's cartoon won't mean much to you if you're not a Guardian reader and seen Graham Rawle's weekly joke which involves removing a letter from a word and illustrating it with a poorly made collage. 10 years they've been running it!

Argyllcom: Update to the Mull Events page, click HERE.

(31.05.03) Norton Internet Security subscriptions are about to run for some and all of us are reaching the end of our free year. The subscription is to the virus "definitions" that we download every week (you might not even know it's happening but it is) and protects you from the latest Internet nasties. If the sub is allowed to run out then any new viruses will able to attack our computers and they often have disastrous and expensive consequences.

You can see the date that your definitions run out by clicking on the Norton icon (it looks like a yellow telly) in the bottom right of your computer screen (you might have to click on the left pointing arrow to find it). It's in the bottom section.

You can renew your definitions online (£20+) or by buying a disc online (£27 delivered) but I am wondering if there is a demand for 2000friends to supply discs at a lower cost. I can buy online and then sell them on for £15 for forum members or £17.50 for non-members. I've ordered 3 discs which I should have around next weekend and I will order more if people say they want them. You can read more on the forum HERE and post a message if you are a member. Non members should email me by clicking HERE (put Norton in the subject line).

There is also an issue around the expirey date of the subscriptions which has yet to be resolved. Norton was set up at the factory before the computers were delivered and in some cases they run out 2 months before the end of the free year. Neverless it is better to be protected rather than hope this is sorted out before the definitions run out. You can always keep the disc in a drawer until it is needed anyway.

(30.05.03) Two new guides have been added to the How 2 section of the forum. "All about Ink" (click HERE) starts with instructions on how to change a cartridge and goes onto cover how to change them if they aren't empty, dealing with faded printouts, wobbly text and ends up with a couple of ink saving tip. "Working with text and pictures in emails" (click HERE)does what it says on the tin and shows you how to wrap text around a picture in the same way as you can in a word document.

Yesterdays saga with the BBC auto-response messages ended late last night, three hours after I switched the a-r on my server but not before the total had reached over 4000 emails. I don't think auto-response is suppossed to work like this and there must be a fault in either their system or my email hosts. I suspect mine.

(29.05.03)Easdale is the latest island to start adding content to the Argyllcom pages. As well as a nice picture on its main page (it really does look a nice place) there is a story on the news page and a lot of items on the Events page. Well done to Stephen MacNally of the The Ceilidh Bandidos band for his hard work, click HERE for Easdales pages and HERE for the band's.  

Ever wondered what would happen if a computer with an auto-responder sent an email to another computer with its own auto-response? Well I have and today I found out. I sent two emails from my 2000friends email account to Radio 5 yesterday, Radio 5 acknowledges all emails with an automated email, so does the email account I used. In the next 24 hours I received over 2500 messages from them thanking me for contacting them. It took me a while to figure out what was going on then I realised that my account was answering all their thank you's with one of its own, which generated another one from their end. then it dawned on me that I needed to turn off my auto-responder, hopefully this will stop Outlook Express from filling up with endless useless messages. So there you have it, how to create your own denial of service attack without really trying.

(28.05.03) For a the next month I'm asking readers what they would like to see covered on the website. Maybe you have another computer which has a different operating system or hard/software you would like news on or maybe you think there is an aspect of the NAIDC computers and community that is being neglected. So I've created a new page called Website Survey (I'm so imaginative) with a simple feedback form, just fill it in and press send!

(27.05.03) Compaq disc drives: I had trouble getting my NAIDC computer to play a CD-RW disc that I had created on my other computer. As I've been able to read other CD-RWs from the same source I was a bit baffled by the message "please insert a disc in drive D" (D is the name of the CD tray) that I received when I attempted to access it through Windows Explorer. So I posted a question in the Forums General Discusion (1200 messages today btw) section and sgegreen rode to the rescue before the morning was out.

It seems that there are two makes of CD drives used in our computers, a Lite-on and a Lucky Goldstar. Unfortunately the Goldstar is not so lucky and has problems reading some types of CD-RW disc. Fortunately there is Compaq (or HP as it is now) patch for this and after downloading and installing I was able to read the disc without problem. Click HERE to read thread on the forum and see Anorak News for more details.

Argyllcom has had updates to the news and events pages for Mull, with Jane Brunton reporting on the Producers market and me posting on the Garden Open Day in Tiroran. Click HERE to go to Argyllcom and click on the Mull link in the left hand panel.

(26.05.03) Lismore Connections: Lismores' district nurse Beth Campbell is so fed up with the service she is getting from BT and lack of action by NAIDC that she is considering going to the press to publicise her situation. She is holder of the slowest reported connection award, having managed to send me an email at a speed of 9.6kbps. Unsurprisingly it is the only one she has managed to sent in. Like many people BT have informed her that they would come and install Homehighway (the ISDN connection) for £75 even if it meant putting in a new line. Her neighbour is in the same situation and it's just not fair that the quality of their connections is dependent on spending extra for getting the kind of service most of us take for granted.

The email I received expressed the hope that the meeting with Richard Bellingham to present the petitions will go some way to resolve cases like this, sadly I have to report that after initial enthusiasm Mr Bellingham is proving hard to pin down with an actual date to meet. There'll be more on this later in the week.

Update disc note: I forgot to say yesterday that you can only access or even see the Staff Room if you are doing something for the digital community at "ground level", are a member of the forum and ask for access. So if you are a mentor, tutor or contributor to Arrghyllcom join!

(25.05.03) Update Disc: Others may promise them or take an age to deliver them (see Anorak News) but the forum delivers. The latest Update disc is available to all mentors and DCs who are members of the forum, just post in the Staff Room to order. The disc contains almost 700mb of the latest drivers and patches, not only for the NAIDC computers but also for other MS operating systems and popular hard and software. They are sent free of charge, on an "as is" basis and on the understanding that they will be shared locally. So if you're a mentor or dc pop into the Staff Room and place an order. There really is an astonishing amount of stuff on the disc, everyone who receives one will appreciate the hours of downloading that they save.

Argyllcom update: Luing continues to make the most of its Argyllcom web space as it updates the News pages with stories on the campaign to raise funds for First Responders, the islands own emergency response group and this years competition for the Curly Cup. Click HERE to read the stories.

(23.05.03) The forum has clocked up 3000 messages! This follows hard on the heals of it passing 70 000 hits and the increase is reflected in the amount of bandwidth it's using up (a measure of the amount of data transferred to and from computers). I may have to upgrade to a better package, something I never expected it started. To celebrate, apart from sending out another newsletter telling people things they probably already know, I've added a link to a game to forums main pages which will change every day. The first one tests your memory, try it and remember to come back tomorrow to try the next one! Thanks to everyone for their many contributions!

(22.05.03) Upgrade service mooted: Dixons Stores Group, which owns PC Business, is considering bringing an upgrade service to the islands, starting with Tiree. The idea is to advertise the service locally in advance and then to come over and set up a base from which for a couple of days. It was brought up on the forum by triedit (see below) to gauge opinion. Unfortunately we don't have any active members from Tiree and none on Coll (I have never been contacted by anyone from Coll!) and reactions so far could be decscribed as mixed. Most concern revolved around how it would affect local businesses doing this sort of work now but it was thought that on islands without a resident computer service it would probably be welcomed. Read more HERE and if you are a member post your thoughts.

The How 2 pages have had a make over to make them easier to read. Gone is the dark blue background that could make the black text difficult to make out, replaced by alternating white and silver message backgrounds. The Index has also been rearranged, now each section appears in its own message. Click HERE for the index.

(21.05.03) I'm very happy to announce that one of the engineers who was involved in the computer installations has joined the forum to offer us advice on technical matters. He has done this off his own bat but with the approval of his line manager. While he can't comment on policies of the official bodies involved in the project or be a conduit for complaints, his experience and direct knowledge of our computers will be a great asset to us. So look out for postings by triedit3 and give him a warm welcome if you are a member!

Virus delert (I just invented that)! Symantec have sorted out the virus I warned about on Monday and released an update late that night. They call it Sobig2 because it is a variant on the "successful" SoBig virus that appeared round Christmas. So we are protected against it and there's nothing to worry about. Nothing but good news on this page today, makes a change...

Apologies to Mull Online Radio for somehow copying and pasting a link to sitemaker1 into their email link on the Noticeboard. I'd urge everyone to have a look at the advert for ideas and contributions, it strikes me as a great way to get online. Local muscians for instance may find it a useful way of getting their work heard by a larger and international audiance

(20.05.03) Missing Discs: New information indicates that two of the missing discs, the XP Operating System and Driver backup, might not be missing at all but rather be additional to the ones that normally come with that computer model. More importantly they aren't needed to restore the computers should they suffer a catastrophic crash, the quick restore discs suffice for this. They also contain files specific to our model of computer. 

We discovered that the discs were missing because a forum member wanted to install the XP backup utility, which is not a part of the standard installation of the operating system. This is not available on the Quick restore discs but I have obtained a copy which can be downloaded from the 2000friends group file store. Click HERE to read a little more.

Logo: The eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed that a logo has crept onto the top right hand of these pages. I don't know how happy I am with and maybe I'll change it again, there's a thread on the forum for suggestions and comments HERE.

Argyllcom: The Luing pages have been updated today with a news item about the opening of the village hall, with lots of pictures. Click HERE to see it. 

(19.05.02) Virus alert! In the news section becuase unlike 99% of the ones I report this one can't be detected by Norton yet, in fact it doesn't even appear on their database yet. What's clever about is the sender line, support@microsoft.com and the subjects, such as Re: your account or Re: your password, which are fooling a lot of people. The virus comes in the form of an attachment (MS never send out files in this way) with various extensions including .pif. This may also fool the unwary who may think it's only .exe files you have to watch out for. For more on this story click HERE for the BBC version and for slightly more detail HERE for the Registers'.

Todays Argyllcom's updates: Teenie Wilson has added a very nice May update to the Lismore News page and I've added the latest events calander to the Mull events page. click HERE to go to Arrghcom and then to the island pages.

(18.05.03) Fancy using your computer to work from home? Well check out the website's new Noticeboard where sitemaker1.com is advertising for a teleworker to help them with their expanding work load. Click on the link on the left.

This could be the first of many such job opportunities as more and more people turn to the web for employment. New businesses will inevitably grow and take on people as sitemaker has done. Despite the state of our Internet connections I already know of people who rely on the net for business and many more who like to do more if the connections were faster. For that we need broadband, so if you haven't done so already go to the Broadband News page and register your interest with HIE and Hydro Electric.

Anyone can submit something for the Noticeboard, things to sell, job adverts, announcements or whatever, just click on the link on the left and email or use the auto-reply.

The forum has clocked up 70 000 hits! Thanks to everyone for their contributions.

(17.05.03) Lismore Connections: BT are still doing little to solve the connection problems on Lismore. While some people are fortunate enough to have decent 50k lines others can't connect at all. BT had an ideal opportunity to get rid of some DACS boxes when the school gave up two of its phonelines but are refusing to utilised the spare capacity. This clearly proves the point we have been making for sometime, this is not a matter of technology but one of money.

Meanwhile one user's line was so poor that they could not be registered with Freeserve Anytime and instead were connected to the pay-as-you-go option. Without them being told by the installer. This meant that every minute online (when they could connect) turned up in the phone bill, despite sending the bills into NAIDC as instructed they have not been reimbursed. Yet another has no connection at all, BT could solve both these problems by utilising the old school lines but are refusing to do so. This is one of the issues that I will bring up when we meet with Richard Bellingham, it typifies the problems we face on many of the islands. Thanks to Steve Green for the info.

The Luing page on the Argyllcom website has been updated with news of the ferry timetable, click HERE to visit and then on the Travel and News links. 

(16.05.03) Petitions: The Colonsay petition has been completed and over 50% of the households have signed it, an achievement that rivals Easdale's I think. Meanwhile Aros's is still looking for signatures. This is one of the hardest areas to collect due to it's wide geographic area which covers about a third of Mull. If you would like to sign it contact Martin Low in Salen (he's one of the mentors), I will pass on any emails (click on the link above). Thanks to Martin and Angela Skrimshire on Colonsay for their hard work. 

Meanwhile as if to highlight the issues that the petitions address, another forum member has discovered that the cause of the dramatic slowdown in their Internet connection is due to BT adding another line by putting a DACS box on the line. For this reason I've altered the Internet Connection page slightly and asked people to say if this has happened to them.

(15.05.03) New Website: I spent a very pleasant day in Tobermory on Tuesday demonstrating how easy it is to create a website like this to local community group. They want to set up their own website that they can run and update themselves without the need to find the funds to employ an IT pro. It is simple to create a site like this and I often meet professionals who are surprised that I had no experience of html when I set this up.

It's all done online with a "Word" like editor, you just select from a series of templates, colour choices etc and then you just add your text your and images. Its very easy and I am more than happy to advise anyone who wants to do the same kind of thing. I'll let you know when the new website goes online, soon I hope!

(14.05.03) A computer user that contacted me earlier this year because they could not get her phone connected (which was eventually resolved) has still not been connected to the Internet! They were not issued with a username and password by the installer (because  of the lack of phoneline) and it was a while after the phone was installed that one was issued. Now they find that the connection fails half way through the dial up process! I don't know what the cause of this is, maybe the settings are wrong but I suspect that it might be because the line is not capable of carrying a data call (I hope I'm wrong).

Meanwhile Lismore has reported the slowest speed yet, 9.4kbps. The user has taken all this time to get on line (remember Lismore was one of the first islands to get the computers) and I feel that at that speed they deserve a round of applause for succeeding at last.

A new page has been added but it's just an archive for the old Anorak News, hence it's name "The Cloakroom". Hopefully I won't be deleting news before I archive as I did last month. Speaking of which, if anyone has got a cached copy of the website from last month I'd be very grateeful to hear from you.

(13.05.03) The Cloakroom: I've created an archive for Anorak News called the cloakroom, hopefully this will make the main page load quicker.

(12.05.03) Lost News: A bit depressed to discover that I have deleted three weeks news when I was moving news from this page to the News Archive. I've written to Google to see if they have the page cached for last month but I'm not very hopefull. This doesn't seem very important now but if you go through the news archive it reveals the developing community in a sort of potted history. Oh well...

Another well intentioned but worthless email is doing the rounds asking people to help Amina Lawall, a woman who has been sentenced to death for bearing a child out of wedlock. The case is genuine but the email asks people to go to a Spanish website and sign a petition. It is causing so much trouble that Amnesty has had to put up a page pointing out that the email has mistranslated the Spanish page. So if you receive it ignore it and don't forward it to your entire address book. Read more HERE.

(11.05.03)Click the thumbnail on the left for the first joint cartoon, it's created with a caption posted in the forum by peabody and a photo montage by me.

Click HERE for cartoon.

A problem that was preventing contributors posting content on Argyllcom has been semi-resolved (I know) with a work around that has been posted in FAQ section of the website. It was caused by Norton Internet Security preventing the edit pages displaying, disabling NIS for a brief period stops this happening. Click HERE for the Argyllcom FAQ page on ading content for the website.

Two new guides have been added to the How2 section of the forum. The first decodes those error messages that you get when a email fails to go and the second shows you how to repair Microsoft Word if it starts to act up and to generate error messages.
Click HERE for error messages and HERE for Word.

The Mull pages of Argyllcom have been updated with an item on yesterday's ploughing match at Fidden and the coming Wildlife Week. This is just the sort of news that I think the site is perfect for and is the first to added by one of the new Mull contributers, click for the Mull News page.

(10.05.03) No update due to server problems.

(09.05.03) Missing discs: People are reporting differing experiences when they call the PC World customer support line to get their replacement discs. Some are finding it hard to get through in the first place and being kept on hold for ages when they do. Others have been incorrectly told that the problem is nothing to do with PC World and to get in touch with Compaq. And then some peopel have found a friendly voice on the other end of the line (Hi Ann!).

There have also been delays in the discs arriving, one forum was initially told to expect a 10 day wait and when they didn't turn up for 12  was told that PC World was awaiting their own delivery! Thanks to everyone for emailing and contributing their experiences on the forum.

The Mull page of the Argyllcom website has been updated with a story about the island's eagle watch campaign taken from BBC online. Click HERE to read it.

(08.05.03) Belkin Units update: Thanks to everyone who has written to me on this issue. It seems that a number of areas are still waiting for their units, including Luing and Tobermory. The problem is due to the suppliers failing to send the units to Argyll College for redistribution promptly.

An international peadophile ring was broken up today following the arrest of a number of men who master minded a complex structure of message boards and websites and were known as the Brotherhood. This was organised by an US unit who co-ordinated the operation world wide which included two men based in the UK. Read more by clicking HERE and get advice on protecting your children online by clicking the link on the left.

(07.05.03) Belkin Units (where are they now?): Lismore is still awaiting for the arrival of their Belkin Units which seem to have been distributed to most other areas, mine turned up in my local pub. Are there any other islands still waiting for theirs? Email and let me know (check with your local study center first).

(06.05.03) What next? It is now almost 10 months since the first computers were installed on Kerrera and the question arises about what we will do when our free year is up. There are 4 main issues to resolveand now is the time to start thinking about them:

Most important is which ISP will we use. At the moment we all have an account with Freeserve Anytime, which normally costs £14.99. Will we stick with this despite the problems people have had sometimes or will we choose another supplier and if so which? There's a possibility that NAIDC will be offering a reduced rate ISP package of their own which could solve the problem. There's some debate on the forum about this, click HERE to read it.

Our subscriptions to Norton Antivirus will run out. Fortunately these are cheapish to renew (less than £20) and there are some free alternatives out there too.

The warranty on the computer will be affectively up so make sure you've got the full inventory of discs etc (see link on the left). Support will still be available here and from NAIDC though.

Finally, what is going to be done with unwanted computers? I don't think they are worth that much now and will be worth less when the bulk of them become eligible for resale. many people will pass them onto a family member but another alternative is to return them to NAIDC so that they can be given to someone else in the community. There are quite a number of people who for one reason or another didn't sign up in time and are now on a list awaiting returns. Details of how to return them will be posted on the Argyllcom website shortly.

(05.05.03) Petitions: Very encouraging news regarding future legislation and Oftel's guidelines on telephone standards has arrived in the form of a draft consultation drawn up by the Scottish Executive.* The document draws on information supplied by AIE and drawn from this website (it doesn't say so but it is) and recognises the problems caused by DACS boxes and according to Paul O'Brien (of AIB), aluminum lines which is something we hadn't picked up on as a cause of problems.

Without doubt the efforts of all the people who have sent in their speeds and encouraged others to do so have made an impact on the minds of those who make decisions. When we started collecting them many people thought it was a waste of time, when I spoke to officials their view was that broadband would solve the problems. This is no longer true and we may now be pushing at an open door. So get those petitions signed, the sqeekiest wheels will get the attention in my view. Well done everyone who has helped in any way and in particular to those gathering the signatures.

Click HERE to see the draft consultation document. Thanks to Paul O'Brien for keeping us informed. 

(04.03.05) New Guide: I've added a guide to downloading and installing programs from the Internet and chosen "Pop Up Stopper" as the example. This is because so many people have been worried by the so called "Messenger Alerts" adverts that purport to be security warnings. The small program is free and doesn't require you to register for anything. Click HERE to see the guide and HERE for information the "Messenger Alerts".

(03.05.03) Petitions: The petitions to improve the conventional connections to our local exhanges will enter the final round of signature gathering next with 2 already completed and 4 more underway. The petitions are a response to the appalling Internet speeds many people have to put up with and BTs attitude that the only solution is to upgrade to ISDN. They will presented to Richard Bellingham of the Digital Inclusion Unit and a civil servant responsible for telecommunications at a meeting in Oban at the end of this month. You can read more on Argyllcom by clicking HERE.

Argyllcom has had more updates than just the above, including items on the missing discs, Luing fences and Mulls new ferry . Some of it will be familier to regular readers of 2Kf (as some readers call this site) but the pieces tend to be longer summaries rather than day by day news items and to have more pictures. (Click on the bold text to visit the pages).

(02.05.03) More on Luing electric electric fences. It seems the problem affects quite a large part of the island. I should emphasis that no one I have been in contact with blames the farmer who owns the fences. They form part of the bull parks of the famous Luing cattle of which the island is rightly proud and they've been there since the 1940s. Rather the problem seems to be caused by BT running the cables through the parks so that any earth leakage causes interference. It is clear that BT need to insulate the cables from the ground better, a lot of people are finding there connection speeds dropping to below 14kbps everytime it rains!

The Scottish Islands Network (SIN) has published it's latest newsletter and as usual Lisa Stephen has packed it so full of news, views and information that it really isn't possible to even highlight the best stuff here. So I've posted the whole thing on the forum, there's items  on fishing, ferrys, GPs and lots more relevent to us all. Read it for yourself by clicking HERE.

The Election 2003 pages will wind up over the weekend, so check them out now for final thoughts and links.

(01.05.04) Firewalls are blocking some classes from accessing the 2000friends forum so preventing the mentors introducing their students to it. This is because the firewall is configured to stop the computers from being used to visit chatrooms and message boards. I don't know how many classes are affected but as the i-Gear software is in stalled across all of A & B Council computers it could be a lot. It's ridiculous that the students can't access their only source of online help dedicated to their needs and I am writing to NAIDC to get the situation resolved.

(30.04.03) Iona classes start next week and that's the last of them I think, everywhere has it's classes up and running now. The classes will held in the primary school and 12 people have signed up, not bad on an island with only 56 households*. Not population as I said yesterday!

Click HERE for cartoon

Elsewhere problems are being reported connecting the computers to the Internet and running various bits of software. People running the classes can get help by joining the forum and registering for the Staff Room.

New pages: I've added a page about the missing discs (see below), it has the full inventory and the phone number to call to get replacements. Click the link on the left.

A Political Links page has been added for the next few days. Don't waste your second vote, click the Election 2003 link on the left.

(28.03.04) Classes start on Luing tonight at the school and are fully subscribed. So hi to everyone there who might be visiting 2000friends for the first time! Ah, the joys of Mavis Beacon!...thanks to Phillip emailing the info.

Also on Luing, the problem with electric fences in the South Cuan area is still affecting peoples Internet connections. Those who have in the past have had reasonable 46kbps + speeds are seeing them drop dramatically since the installation of the fences. Surely there must be a way round this problem? Shielding the cable in some way for instance.

On the forum marel nipped in to post the 1000th message in the General Discussion and peabody posted this haiku:

A crash reduces
Your expensive computer
To a simple stone

(27.04.03) Wouldn't it be great if you knew what the weather was going to be like in Oban before you set out for the day. Well assuming you're going to Oban that is. Well now you can! I've dropped the Amazon advert from the forum and replaced it with a link that takes you straight to a webpage with a ten day weather forecast for our favourite ferry destination.

At the top of the page you see the present temperature etc, scroll down and you'll find the ten day outlook, a satelite picture (choose from 7) and even an hour by hour estimate of the chances of rain. Type Tiree or Fort William into the search box and you'll get similar page for them as well. The link doesn't earn any money but neither did the Amazon ad.

(26.04.03) Two new guides have been added to the How 2 section of the forum. They cover image resolution and how to sort out your incoming emails automatically. Image resolution is probably the most useful but will be least read! It answers many common questions but it is hard to explain why people need to read it. The most popular of these questions regards people receiving pictures that take ages to download and are then too big for the computer screen. The one about sorting emails is a new version of the spam filter guide from another point of view, it shows you how to get incoming emails put in specific folders, very useful if you want to keep all messages from your family etc in one place. Click HERE for image resolution and HERE for email sorting.

Norton Internet Security our firewall, parental control, ad blocking and anti-virus program, is generally left to update itself. In fact that is the best thing about it, unlike a lot of programs we can just leave it to get on with it, assuming we don't use the parental controls that is. However, as forum member peabody points out in a message (click HERE), the program does need the occasional manual update to make sure that the firewall has the latest settings. Click HERE to read an excellent summary of why (and later how).

(25.03.04) Newsround, the childrens news program, has an excellent guide to safe surfing. Easy to follow and actually entertaining rather than lecturing, it provides everything they need to know to avoid the common pitfalls. Did you know that 5% of children meet up with someone they have met online without telling their parents? Click HERE to visit the site.

I found the website because of a news item on BBC online about Newsrounds website of the year award going to the Daily Prophet, the Warner Brothers Harry Potter website. They didn't have a link to it (they never link, I think it must be policy) but HERE's one. Be sure to check the musical links on the left!

(24.03.04) Thanks to persistance of forum member dazedandconfused we now have a number to call for replacement discs. Ann at the PC World customer service desk asked to have the her name and number publicised so here it is.

To get missing discs replaced call Ann on 0161 447 3209 and give her your Compaq serial number and they will be replaced.

Well done dazedandconfused and thanks to everyone who contributed to the thread on the forum. 

(23.03.04) Yet more people reporting missing discs, this is largest problem we have encountered in a while. It highlights the benefits of having a forum for community issues, without it we would be left to sot these things out one by one and NAIDC would have no idea that a problem was so widespread. 

(22.03.04) Missing Disc update: Good News and bad news. Good News: As a result of a message posted by sgegreen on the forum, I contacted Hewlett Packard (who own Compaq) and they confirmed that the Operating System and Quick Restore discs are not machine specific. This means that NAIDC can get replacements without to much difficulty. Thanks to sg for posting.

Bad news: It seems the problem is quite widespread given the number of forum members who have reported missing discs. Unless digital champions are going to travel everywhere with a full set of discs then PCWorld are going to have to supply NAIDC with a lot of discs.

Poetry Corner: Sometimes things appear on the forum from out of the blue that just make me smile. Today peabody posted a couple of Haikus (poems made up of 17 syllables) which she received via email and promises to post more (haiku of the day? I hope so!). Apparently these are being used in Japan instead of the usual MS error messages, which is a good idea if true, hiakus are usually a little obscure but they're easier to understand than MSs alternative. For example MS has Error 404, the haiku is:

The Web site you seek
Cannot be located, but
Countless more exist.

Click HERE to read more and post your own.

Update to election 2003 pages: I've posted a link under my explanation of the 2nd vote which takes you to a website created by the Green party. This is because it explains the effect of the vote very well and has an excellent interactive map. Obviously it encourages people to vote Green but the principle it espouses applies to all parties. Basically don't waste your second vote by voting for the same party you did with your first vote. Your second vote allows you to really express your political opinion. You might vote Labour say but be a bit anti Europe as well, so you could use your second vote to vote for a party that reflects that view.

(21.03.04) Missing discs: A message on the forum has highlighted a new problem which could cause affected users problems in the future. Some people have not been left all the system discs that they should have been when the computers were installers. The most serious is the lack of the Operating System disc which is essential for soing a "full" restoration of the computer. This happens when the computer completely crashes and the only thing to do is to completely reinstall all the software, including the XP Operating System.

Unlike other operating systems XP requires a specific or brand new disc to install it*, you can't just take a disc from one computer and use it on another. Doing a complete reinstall is not that incommon either, many of us have been through the process already and with more people useing their computers now it's going to happen to many more. It is essential that you check the brown box that the installer left and check that he's left a complete set of discs. The computer will be yours in a few months and you'll have to sort it out for yourself if there is a problem. I think, there is a debate about it on the forum at the moment.

I have posted an inventory on the forum of all the discs that should be there, if you are missing anything either post a message or email me. It is very important that we sort this out quickly. Click HERE for the inventory.

Election 2003 I'm adding pages on the Scottish elections today, a main page explaining the voting system (I'm off for a lie down now) and a page supplied by the Green Party. This is not a political descion on my part, all the parties have been invited, they were just the first to respond. New pages will be added as they appear. Click HERE for 2003 election pages. This was going to be the top story but the disc issue emerged.

I've also had a big tidy up, this page should load a lot quicker for a start, the registration guide has been dropped and the Easy Form page rewritten. The front page has also been tweaked following suggestions from friends on Lismore.

(20.03.04) A list of our favourite websites has been posted on the forum by members over the last week or so. Everything from the fun to the divine is covered and you're bound to find a great new site that you'd never heard of. There's a lot great links leading to places where you can express your creativity, find out everything from a timetable to a dictionary, meet your spiritual needs and of course play lots of online games. Click HERE to have a look. Thanks to everyone who contributed and keep the suggestions coming!

Luing is the latest island to add content to Argyllcom. There's a brief intro to the island and an article about the reopening of the Toberonochy village hall and there'll be more to come in the near future. Click HERE to go to Argyllcom and then click on the Luing link on the left. If you want to make a contribution email me via the blue news link above.

More reports of people reporting periodic problems connecting to the Internet, disconnections and sending or retrieving email. From what I can gather it seems to have something to do with Freeserve because people who have other connections available (like me) find that those work fine.

(19.04.03) Internet slowdown? I'm updating the website early today in case I can't get online later. For the last 36 hours I have been experiencing difficulty getting online, once online getting pages to display and frequent disconnections. Two other users have also reported similar problems which prompted me to look at the websites that monitor the Internets performance.

The average speed of the UK seems to be stable but 3 out of 5 of our main routers (the main lines that carry Internet data) are experiencing periodic slow downs and packet loss (a packet is a chunk of data). Europe and the USA are stable but Poland is having real problems apparently. So if you are having similar difficulties, this could why.

I hope to update both this and the Argyllcom website tonight but may not be able to.

(18.04.03) Belkin Units: If you are attending the free computer classes you will already know this but the first batch of Belkin units, which protect your computer from surges down the phoneline, are available from your local study center. If you live on Mull and some distance from one it's worth finding out which one you have been assigned to because that's where it is. The second batch are expected shortly.

A manual explaining how to add content to the Argyllcom portal has been added to the training section. Go to Argyllcom and click on Training to download it.

Also available is guide to how to reinstall windows, one of the most daunting proceedures a digital champion might have to perform. It's not that difficult but the responsibilty of it makes it seem very worse than it is. Again go the portal, click on community and click on Help, the documents are at the bottom of the page.

(17.04.03) Lismore became the first island to add its own content to the Argyllcom portal yesterday. Other islands have things on their pages but this was mostly added by the portals creators, Lismore's is the first page to be added from scratch.Their first contribution is lovely set of pictures of the island along with text and a link to the islands own website. A great start which someone (uncredited) has put a lot of work into. Click HERE to see it.

(16.04.03) Argyllcom Update: I've added the first part of a FAQ on how to add content to the Aryllcom website. They topics covered include how to become a contributer, how to upload pictures and add text. I'll be adding more later covering the final stages of getting your item published. Click HERE for Argyllcom and Help for the FAQs.

I've also created a "Staff Room" on the forum for people who contribute content or are mentors or digital champions. I'm afraid it's only available if you are a member of the forum and fall into one of these catergories because I feel that people working "on the ground" for the digital community need a somewhere private to let off steam and discuss issues. If you think you should be able to see it and can't send me your forum name and I'll make it visible to you.

Mull Radio, which I wrote about a couple of weeks ago has changed it's name to "Isles Radio" and will now include streaming TV! Goodness knows what we're going to put on it (it's open to community contributions), "one man and his disobedient dog" perhaps? They're still testing at the moment but there are links to other highland radio stations. Click HERE to see what's up at the moment.

(15.04.03) 2000friends has been made website of the week by the National Grid for Learning! NGLF is part of the Scottish Executive's digital inclusion project and there website has a host of information and features relevant to the our little community and it's well worth a exploring. Click HERE to for the wotw page. Note that the accolade says "maintained by local volunteers", a fine tribute to all of you who have sent in news, run petitions, contributed to the forum over the life of the website. Once again, thank you!

I think we're all vaguely aware that our project is one of two being run by the Digital Inclusion Unit and that the other is in an urban area. I thought you might be interested to see what they had been up to since they got the computers. They've created a website which looks to me as if it is more intergrated into the local authority than our independent Argyllcom.net which is intended to be community driven. It's very attractive, well organised with lots of information and has some good ideas for getting the community involved. I think there is a lot we could steal, sorry, I mean learn, from their website. Click HERE to visit.

In a surprise move, the forum hosts didn't take the forum down today for maintenance despite telling me they would. Sorry for the lack of inconvenience.

(14.03.04) Argyllcom has had some updates over the weekend, mostly to Mull's events page. Some items have been added about the Music Festival and an events diary has been supplied by Am Muileach. Click HERE to visit Argyllcom.net.

It seems the "dialer" scam I reported yesterday was not as I thought. The teenagers concerned hadn't simply downloaded an innocent looking pluggin but signed up for a premium rate telephone line via a webpage. They still had to download a pluggin dialer but this was explained more clearly and they were connected to an 0909 number which covered by UK regulations. They're not supposed to charge more than £3 to access a site aimed to children and to disconnect you form other sites after £20 (!) has been spent on the call. But how many people, especially those new to the Internet read the details of a contract? Many people could be caught out by this and have a lot of explaining to do when the bill comes in, especially given the nature of a lot of the websites. The premium rate regulator has an excellent leaflet  about this which you can find by clicking HERE, it is clearly explained and contains other useful links. Thanks to my emailer for sending this in.

(22.03.03) Local News has found it's first news story this week with a story about last weekends peace vigil from Pat Logan and you can read it by clicking the link on the left. There's a photo by Rae Ogilby-Wood in a clickable thumbnail and instructions for sending in your own copy. The page is open to all and you can send in as many stories as you like. If you have a website or email address you would like mentioned that can be included to. There's also a new letters page but that awaits the first letter, so if you want to get something off your chest email me!

My apologies to various people who have been expecting emails from me regarding the connection campaign and various other matters, I've been snowed under this week and will get round to them over the weekend. Sorry everyone.

(21 03.03) Seil Computer classes will start on 1st April  and will be held on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays & Fridays. There are three mentors and the classes will be held in the Primary School. Thanks to Helen Simcox for sending this in.

Tourist Board members should not bin an email marked "Fraud Alert" as spam  because it's actually a genuine message from the tourist board. From Fiona Morrison, it carries an attachment containing a warning from Strathclyde Police warning of a conman traveling the highlands who has a habit of running up bills he doesn't pay. He's described as having a round, friendly face and as having disinct beer belly, which sounds like rather a lot of people I know. I'm posting this because the hotelier who showed it to me thought it was spam with a dodgy attachment. We're getting so used to malicious spam being sent from plausible sounding names with common subjects that there's a danger of throwing out legitimate emails. I've had to give up sending emails with "Hi!" in the subject line because of this.

(20.03.03) Memory Prices hit another high today, leaping almost £6 to £45.84 (inc VAT & p&p) for a 256mb strip. This continues the recent trend and for the first time SDRAM is much more expensive than DDRAM which is the newer type and used to be much pricier. The rise is due to factories either closing down or changing over to making the now more popular DDR. Memory used to be a cheap upgrade for our computer but now costs more than a good graphics card, even so it is a good investment in my opinion. 

The Oban Times has a good story about the upgrading of the Oban exchange to broadband today on page three, which is worth pointing out to friends who don't follow this website which carried the story last week.

(19.03.03) Oftel is the place to take our complaints about the state of our telephone lines I'm reliably informed. They regulate BT and are apparently quite sensitive to public opinion, as a result I'm thinking that is where we should deliver our petitions.

There seems to be a minor spat of computers getting no further than the safe mode boot screen on start up or in one case the "windows loading" message. The helpline is advising people in most cases to do a reinstall, which people are loathe to do because of the time it takes and the lose of data. It's to early to say if there is a common cause.

(18.03.03) Conventional connections: I've been contacted by AIE with the view of collecting information regarding the state of Internet connections across the NAIDC. They want to build up a clear picture of where the problems are and what are the causes. This is because in contrast to the impression many people have they are as interested in improving the lot of all, not just those who might be able to afford broadband if and when it arrives. So if you have any information or would like to take part in a group to improve the state of your local connections get in touch with me.

(17.03.03) People who could not be connected by freeserve even though they had a phone line may get ISDN if negotiations between NAIDC and BT go well. As Freeserve doesn't support the dual line internet connection this would mean they would have to make do with the single line, 64kbps, version. This could effect up to 10 people across the islands. For those without a BT line and no prospect of getting one (why not? Must check this...) NAIDC is still looking at alternative connection methods, connecting via vodaphone is the favourite.

A Freeserve group has been established for forum members so they can post files and pictures easily on the net. I hope people will show off the work they are pleased with but also the things they want help with. Yesterday someone asked for guidance in making a GIF (a small animation) and someone else said they'd like to see the result, the group would be the ideal place to make the image available to all. Details of the group in the photography and graphics section of the forum.

There are over 300 DACS boxes across the NAIDC islands, potentially that's 600 households effected by this second rate phoneline.  

(16.03.03) Starting this week there will be a new page on the website featuring non-computer related community news. It will be like a mini Oban Times but the big difference will be that the content will be provided by you, the readers. This may , like some of my other ideas, be complete non-starter but I think there is a need for it. Every so often I get contacted by someone wishing to publicise or report something that has no place on the website as it is now organised but would be perfect for a such a page.

Anyone can contribute and if they have a website or email address for contact that can be linked to. The articles don't have to be long either, I don't think people like scrolling through long articles but if you feel that something needs to be gone into at length then a summary can be posted here with a link to a longer item on a website or the forum.

I hope this will go some way to drawing the islands together into more than just a community of computer users, by highlighting our other common interests. If you think you can contribute email me using the link above.

(15.03.03) Connection Speeds have dropped for some people as the new users are connected due to BT installing a DACs box rather than a proper new line. I think this sums up one of the contradictions of the new digital community. As the new users come online, the exchanges and line networks have not been up to the challenge. We all want to see more people using the net, generally speaking the old users are evangelic about the Net but the way that BT is connecting the new users has resulted in them and the old users getting an inferior experience of the Internet. If you have found your connection dropping to around 30kbps email me, even if you have already done so. Thanks 

The keen eyed amongst you will have noticed some changes to the website this week. The Computer Updates page has disappeared and relocated to the forum where it is maintained by sgegreen and the Connection Map is now accessable from the main menu on the left.

More significantly I've removed the forum password from the website pages, this is only needed when registering for forum membership. From now on people will have to email me to get it, this means I can advertise the website more widely without the worry that it will be flooded by people outside the community. The forum is still viewable by all, whether or not they are members and the password is still the same, so feel free to pass it on to NAIDC users. Of course if you use the Easy Form you don't need to know it anyway.

(14.03.03) Help Wanted! As you know this website has had a lot to say on the poor connection issue. This has resulted in a great deal of information being gathered and some of the most glaringly poor exchanges being highlighted (hello Seil). Groups have been set up in some areas to improve things and many people have emailed me on the matter but the information is still patchy. I need to hear from more people on Mull, particularly on the Aros exchange and in the north west, as well as Tiree and Coll. Still No one on Coll has made any contact with the website on any matter at all, I'm beginning to take it personally because they're a very friendly lot.

So I would be grateful if you could send in your speed via the Internet Connections page on the left and if you would be willing to coordinate information gathering in your area email me.

Hewlett Packard who merged with Compaq last year are to drop the Evo brand from its range as part of a rationlisation of its catologue. I hate it when they stop making my type of computer! Thanks to Steve for bearing the bad news.  

(13.03.03) Mentors & Digital Champions have been attending training courses this week in some of the more esoteric aspects of the computers. Organised by Melody McKay Burton, the day course covered what could be accessed by different types of account and how to set them up, using messenger and remote access amongst other things, I think we all got a lot from it. Melody has also set up a MSN webgroup for the mentors and DCs to ask questions about their work. A very pleasant surprise for me was that 2000friends was one of the websites that the "students" visited as part of the work. I really like meeting my fellow mentors and tutors, we should have a get together in Oban sometime and bore ourselves to death talking about computers. Thanks to Melody for putting together such a good day.

Another new guide has been added to the forums How2 section covering connection and Internet slowdown problems. This has some relevance to the previous story as it was generally felt that the surge of people going online since the classes have started is one of the causes of things getting sluggish. The guide can't improve your local exchange but some of the tips have improved things dramatically for some people, click HERE to read it. Thanks to everyone who contributed via the forum and email.

The police have arrested another 42 people as part of Operation Ore, bringing the total to 1600 out of the 7000 names they received from the FBI. It looks like Pete Townesend (sp?) will get of with a caution according to the Daily Mail. Read the details HERE and HERE but more to the point, protect your children from other "researchers" by clicking the "Protect your kids online" link on the left.

(12.03.03) Air services to Colonsay has become a topic of debate in the off topic section of the forum, usually a venue for recipes and odd posts by me. I welcome this as I would like to see the forum become a place where any local issue can be aired. It has the advantage that people who might not feel happy standing up at a public meeting can have a say without the fear of being shouted down. If you would like to have your say on the this click HERE or if there's anything else you'd like to get others opinion on start your own topic! 

A new guide has been added explaining how to get text to wrap round picture in a Word document. That's when the words flow around an image like they do in a magazine article say, it can make your work look a lot more attractive and professional and is very effective in newsletters etc. Click HERE to read it (that's over 40 guides now!).

(11.03.03) A new directory and search engine for the Isle of Mull was launched today by Peter Pinnington of Dervaig. Although still in it's early stages, with some test pages needing to be deleted and some graphical issues to be sorted, it is easy to see the potential of a well thought out website. It will cover everything from accommodation and transport to events and community groups, so encompassing the whole of the islands online life. It's not only a directory but incorporates a simple to use search engine, obviously this doesn't produce that many results as yet because of the newness of the site. Anyone on Mull who has a web presence is invited to send in their link, which will be hosted free of charge, through the link on the website. Click HERE to visit and send Peter your comments and websites (there's also a thread on the forum). 

(10.03.03) The only change that installing the connection kit has made to (I'm on a good line) is that it has put 1470 in front of the number I dial. The number is still the same and indeed I can still access the old connection which hasn't been deleted. Adding 1470 to front of the number is apparently for "security reasons" which I don't quiet understand but it allows the number you connect from to be tracked by Freeserve. Also email doesn't seem to be being sent to all of the community. All the reports I've had of it so far have been from "problem" exchanges and from people with DACs boxes on their phoneline. This maybe a coincidence, so please email if you get the freeserve email and include your postcode or area.

Following the initial good reports of the Argyll College classes from Lismore the ones in Fionnphort seem to be going well too. Thanks to Beararus for posting this review (click HERE).

(09.03.03) Freeserve Anytime Support are sending an email to all account holders instructing them to download a "Connection Kit". The kit, which has been recommended by forum members, makes getting online easier by trying different anytime numbers if the first one fails. The number you connect to maybe different to the one you used in the past but it still an Anytime and therefore a free number.

The email has answers to frequently asked questions on it and a thread with a few more details is on the forum HERE. Thanks to Mavis MacNeil for forwarding the email to me.

Argyll College start the computer classes in Fionnphort on Monday, other venue dates still to be confirmed as far as I know.

(08.03.03) The Argyllcom website would appear to be out of bounds and protected by virtual barbed wire. Not the never changing website that promises the portal launch in December, that's still there but the test site that potential contributers were given limited access to last year. I happened to click the link in my Favorites list by mistake and got the "error 404 message-try the homepage" message so I did. It produced a blank page with "You should not be here" with "Go away" underneath. The go away was a link and of course I clicked it. Big mistake. It generated cascading emails boxes which couldn't be closed, nor could the webpage. They came so fast that Ctrl+Alt+Del was overwhelmed and 70 had appeared before I managed to shut it down. I heard they have security issues which are causing the delay in launching but this seems a bit of a pro-active response to me!

(06.03.03) A chain letter that is doing the rounds of the community is genuine in stark contrast to majority that I receive or hear about. It urges you to visit a website called MoveOn.org and to pass it on to others. Not is it a legitimate anti-war online campaign and petition (550 000 signatures so far) but the one I received was blind carbon copied, so my email address wasn't being broadcast across the Internet. If you get one visit the website, if you sympathise, in confidence and forward it with a clear conscience. For instructions on how to blind carbon copy click HERE. Thanks to Angella for sending me this.

Memory prices soared to their highest level since 04.10.02, to £39.94, a rise of £4.70. Prices have been fluctuating after a period of stability but the trend seems to be upward. Whether this is the peak is impossible to tell, price follows supply and demand, supply is falling as factories close or change to producing DDR memory. It's still the best thing you can spend money on if you want to improve your computers performance. The memory price is monitored daily and posted on the forum and in the text over the Crucial advert.

(05.03.03) Mentors & Digital Champions will be attending classes in some of the more advanced aspects of the XP system in Oban, Tiree and Tobermory. Among the topics that will covered are: Advanced File Handling, Working with Images, Documents and Media Files, Web Publishing Wizard, using Remote Assistance. However they are still looking for suggestions about we think the mentors and DCs should know about and so I've started a thread on the forum so people can make suggestions, click HERE to make yours.

A new guide and reorganised index has been posted on the How2 section of the forum. The guide is to the basics of email security and the index has been reorganised into subject categories to make information easier to find. Check it out, there guides for every level of experience, from sending an email or opening an attachment to speeding up your computer or installing a CD rewriter. They've all been written in response to most frequently asked questions so you are bound to find something useful. Click HERE for the index and HERE for the email security guide.

(04.03.03) There's a rumour that Freeserve intend to follow BT's example and restrict their anytime customers to 150 hours a month online. The story appeared on the Register, a source of many stories on this website but according to Freeserve and Gerry Wilson of NAIDC untrue. Gerry said in an email that "Our current contract with Freeserve cannot be changed in this way", which is reassuring. Read the original Register story by clicking HERE.

A new guide has been added to the How2 section of the forum. sgegreen has taken it on his shoulders to maintain an index of the software updates available for our computers. This will replace the page on this website which I found difficult to maintain even with his help. The page includes the updates for the XP operating system, installed soft and hardware, as well as the more common things people install for themselves. The critical updates will move back to the Anorak page and I there will be a new page on the website shortly. See the new guide by clicking HERE.

The Scottish Islands Network sent out its latest newsletter and always it's full of the kind of news that you don't find anywhere else. Even though I'm in contact with a lot of people and am an avid newspaper reader, it always has something new to me. This month the highlight was a great story about an island postal service brought down by red tape. Click HERE for their website and to sign up for the newsletter.

(02.03.03) Not much news around on a Sunday so here's a map of how the computers are distributed across the NAIDC islands made up from figures supplied by the Argyll College presentation to mentors. No surprise that the largest concentration is in the North of Mull and that places like Shona have the most but it's interesting how many are in places like Iona and Coll. Even though they have almost as many Lismore I've still not been contacted by anyone there! Click  for a larger version. 

(0.03.03) One of the unexpected side effects of the NAIDC project has been that some people have seen their connection speed reduced dramatically.  This is because in quiet a few cases a house where a computer was being installed needed a phoneline, so BT installed one. To save themselves money they did this by splitting the existing line in two with a DACS box. This meant the people who where already online suffered a drop in speed down to the dreaded 28.8 so common across the islands. What can be done about it? Nothing according to BT and NAIDC are powerless to do anything, they are convinced that broadband is the answer to the problem. Which it is, if you can afford it.  This story has been edited because a few people wrote in thinking the previous version was about them, which it wasn't. None of those who wrote expressed resentment towards the neighbor, just frustration at the situation.

Click HERE for cartoon.

(28.02.03) Freeserve are sending out an email advising Anytime users (that's us) the charge for the service will rise on March 3rd (that's not us). This is a standard email that is being sent to all Anytime users of a price rise but it doesn't apply to our free year with the computer, this will still run from the day that the computer was registered on the Internet. So don't worry! Thanks to forum member doggo for sending this in.

(27.02.03) Win an Oban hotel! The owners of the Kimberley Hotel are retiring and have decided to raffle the hotel instead of selling it conventionally. The gimmick is that you buy a tile online rather than a ticket and in order to buy it you must first answer three questions. If you win you get the whole darn thing for the cost of the ten Euro (about £7) tile. This isn't the first time this has been done, people have raffled houses before but I've not heard of a business being disposed of in this way. Click HERE to look at the Hotel and HERE to buy your tile. Thanks Ruth

(26.02.03) Argyll College are hoping to start classes on Mull and Seil, and possibly Easdale and Tiree, on the week starting March 10th. Colonsay, Luing and Coll should start soon after that. The Belkin units should be available then, they've received the first half of the order and are waiting for it to be completed.

I keep getting sent chain letters and I wish it would stop! The peace petitions are the most common but I also get my fair share of the "increase the amount of love in the world by forwarding this email" type.

What's odd is that they almost always come from people I regard as intelligent people, what annoys me is my home email address being sent out willy-nilly across the Internet because people always carbon copy instead of blind carbon copy. If you want to send out emails to multiple recipients click HERE and if you want to learn more about chain letters click HERE for an excellent website.

(24.02.03) Salen computer classes will run from Monday to Friday evenings at 1815-1945 & 2000-2130 at the Primary School. There appear to be no daytime or weekend classes. No news about when they or the classes at any other center will start, Argyll College are waiting for NAIDC to inform them about availability. As a knock on to this, there is no news of when the Belkin Units (the telephone surge protectors) will be available for collection.

Forum member dazedandconfused posted the forums 2000th message on Sunday! I don't know why I like these milestones but I do, thanks dazedandconfused and all the other members for posting so many messages!

(23.02.03) Internet Slowdown: Following a spate of emails from people complaining that they couldn't get webpages to appear or connected at all, a thread was started on the forum and enough people have posted experiences and ideas for an interim summary to be posted. It's not quite a guide as there are so many variables that can effect a connection but it does summarise the various causes and solutions to the problem. If you are finding it harder to get online than you used to check it out and see if it helps by clicking HERE. Thanks to everyone who contributed, keep the comments coming!

(22.02.03) Lismore added 19 numbers to the Help the DC! map this when Teenie Wilson sent me the numbers she had collected. The numbers reveal a typical pattern on speeds for a local exchange rather than a severely disadvantaged one like Seil or Colonsay's. Many people seem to have reasonable connections, although few are over 50kbps but a there areas where everyone seems to be sharing a line via a DACS box. And there is a new low, 9-14kbps for one person on a double DACS line. Check out the map by clicking HERE. Thanks to Teenie for sending this in along with the two Lismore stories below.

Not only does a Lismore computer user have the lowest speed (see above) but they have also been connecting via the wrong number. So they have been waiting forever for a page to load and been charged for the privilege! They have had to purchase itemised bills from BT at £4 a time and now to cap it all no one's answering the NAIDC telephone line! This is getting ridiculous! Thanks to Steve for this.

(21.02.03) Still No News, despite numerous emails and articles here, for the people on Lismore waiting to get connected or for those waiting for decent (i.e. over 14k) connection. No news either about Argyllcom.net, for which we had such high hopes, its webpage still announces the countdown to it's launch in December, just as it did last November (maybe they meant December 2003). If anyone else has heard anything email me!

Freeserve might be for sale according to The Register because of problems at its parent company the French owned Wannado. They might be selling off the things they acquired in headier times in order to get rid of the borrowing they incurred in the other parts of its business. Freeserve just won a big award for being the best unmetered ISP, so I hope the sale doesn't effect service. Hope I've got this right, I don't like financial stories, read more by clicking HERE.

(20.02.03) More areas are showing interest in starting petitions to bring pressure to bear for the improvement of their telephone exchanges. They will be presented to the Scottish Executive's Digital Inclusion Unit, the body with overall control over the NAIDC project. The petition declares that is unfair and against the principles of Digital Inclusion that people should be have the choice between a poor conventional connection and an expensive broadband. The petitions will carry more weight if presented in a co-ordinated fashion and although things are far from organised now, we are trying to achieve this. If you want a copy of the petition to adapt for your area email me and I will send you a copy.

(19.02.03) Classes on Lismore are going well, some of the more experienced computer users are finding some of it a bit basic but everyone seems to be getting something from them. Argyll College seem to have pitchd the work at the right level for those needing basic training and the mentor system is working well. Despite the classes being held on four evenings, a morning and an afternoon there is still a waiting list of people wanting to start. There has been a predictable rise in work for the digital champions who are being called in to answer the questions and fix the glitches that readers of this website will be all to famelier with. It seems Argyll College should be congratulated for its work in adapting the course work and organising the classes.

Also on Lismore four people got a nasty shock when they checked their phone bills and discovered that they had been charged for their internet calls. All had been connected by the installation engineers and hadn't changed the settings since. Freeserve have a page for  checking numbers which you can find by clicking HERE and people who find that the engineer gave them the wrong number should contact Ian Gillies, our councillor on the NAIDC committee by clicking HERE.

(18.02.03) The Forum reached its 100th registration today! Hot on the heals of the 20 000th website visitor, it is a small milestone that reflects the growing part the website is playing in the digital community. It would all be rather pointless without the visitors and were it not for the forum members I would have reached the end of the questions I could answer sometime ago. The forum allows the community to help itself, not by providing a manual of definitive answers (although we have come up with some!) but by enabling it to thrash out problems and to find an solution to common problems. It has highlighted issues that wouldn't have emerged in any other way, alerted NAIDC to things they wouldn't have otherwise been aware of and let people just let off steam. The list of members to thank is far to long, so thanks to everyone who has contributed and big welcome to Rose who made the 100th registration!

The Register, from whom I've taken a lot of stories, has run the 2000friends item about peace march webcams again today, this time highlighting the SEC's camera being down for the Scottish march and Blairs appearance. Click HERE to read their version but remember-you read it here first!

(17.02.03) The website passed 20 thousand hits last week despite the number of accesses being down on the previous weeks all time high. The statistics are hard to analyis because most local users connect through the Freeserve cache which disguises individual computers but it seems that website is being visited by about 20% of the NAIDC computers on a regular basis and more occassionally. Thanks to all of you who have contributed help, stories, money and encouragement over the past months.

(16.02.03) I'm happy to report that my friend on the Ross of Mull has at last had her telephone connected, three weeks after the problem was supposed to have been sorted out. I've no idea of what the problem was or who was responsible for sorting it out as I only got a thank you note from her rather than the information from the powers that be. I'm just relieved it's sorted out.

The webcam story on yesterday was picked up by the Register after I emailed them a tip. They go into a lot more detail and added an interesting footnote to it, they speculate that the camera's will be back on line today, which indeed they are. Read their story by clicking HERE.

On the other hand I was wrong when I said there weren't any particular Valentine's Day emails to watch out for. Computer Active report that an email from cupid @valentines-ecards.com (without the space after cupid). The card encourages you to download an e-card which is actually an 800kb (i.e. big for a card) download, so far antivirus firms have found that it makes alterations to your browser, so don't download it and be careful of any other anonymous e-cards. Read more by clicking HERE (page takes a while to load).  

Tiree added its second speed to the Help the DC! map this week (thanks Duncan), which is very welcome. There is still no speeds from Coll or Kererra, if you are from either of the islands please send yours in.

(15.02.03) People hoping to see friends and family on the peace march through the SEC's webcam will have been disappointed as they decided to take it off-line for routine maintenance today. Funny that they should choose the day that the Prime Minister addresses the Labour Party and the day of the peace march to do this, you'd have thought that it would have been a very busy day for people to visit. By odd coincidence most of the webcams that covered the London march were also off line, some were functioning right up to the start of the march and then died. Terribly unreliable this technology you know...

An old email hoax reappeared in local inboxes this week, probably getting a revival due to the marches. It claims that the UN is collecting signatures against the war and asks you to copy and send it to as many people as possible after adding your name. The problem with this is that the UN isn't collecting signatures and copying a petition to more than one person invalidates it, names on a petition must be unique for it to be valid. I'm not sure what the purpose of it is, a naive peace lover or a method for collecting email address maybe. Either way ignore it, find details of this and other scams and hoaxes by clicking HERE.

(14.02.03) Good and bad news from the Ross of Mull. First the bad: It seems I was premature in announcing that a woman who had been waiting since September for a phone line had had the problem resolved. It is now over three weeks since I was told everything was sorted out and she is still waiting for the matter to be resolved. It is not a matter of the line being brought to the house, she sorted that out herself, and it just needs BT to switch it on. Whether it is BT waiting for NAIDC to agree pay the bill or slowness on their own part I don’t know but it’s a long time to wait to go online. I've written to NAIDC about this and the other outstanding nonconnections but as yet have not response. 

On the bright side the capacity of the Ross’s exchange has been increased by the installation of 20 boards each of which can carry 20 lines. Hopefully this will lead to the removal of the DACS boxes in the area. 

MSM and MSN users who have been having problem signing in and accessing their MS accounts should read yesterdays critical update bulletin on the Anorak page. It describes a fix for the flaw that has caused the problem.

Valentine's Day has been a favourite wit virus writters in the past, the famous "I love you" had it's greatest success on this day. I haven't had any reports of new viruses appearing but be careful when opening attachments, save them to disc and scan them with Norton Antivirus before doing so. There's a guide to the correct way to do this HERE.

(13.02.03) BT tells customer "Pay for ISDN or put up with it". An Easdale user informed that BT told him that he would either have to put up with his slow connection, caused by a DACS box or sign up for Homehighway (ISDN) because it was to expensive to remove the DACS box. Removing the box (which splits a single line in two so slowing the connection) was not technically impossible to do but just uneconomic for BT to do the work. This confirms the stories below of people who couldn't get BT to improve their line but could get them to install ISDN in a matter of days. It is appalling that the government is allowing BT to create this two, people with a DACS line pay the same for it as anyone else but only get half the service. Why should they be allowed to get away with it? It is time that we lobbied the Scottish or London Parliament to change the law! Thanks to M for sending this in.

People are still connecting to the wrong number, despite this website boaring the hindlegs off everyone last year about it and the issue being mentioned in the NAIDC news letter. I've been sent a question from a reader asking if their number that starts 0845 was correct. No thats the pay as you go number, it charges by the minute! If you're worried click HERE for the Freeserve page on the subject.

(12.02.03) Petition: Last week I sent out an email to my contacts on Luing, Seil and Easdale suggesting that a petition should be raised demanding that the local telephone exchange and lines should be upgraded. The area has posted more connection speeds than any other (see map) and clearly something must be done. The idea was raised at the Luing community council meeting and received a positive response and we are now working on the wording. It is essential that, in the rush to broadband, we do not lose sight of the fact that most people just want a decent concentional connection. Thanks to P.R. for this.

The forum saw had its 40 000th page hit over the weekend, it's always nice to pass these milestones!

(11.02.03) The forum is eagerly anticipating its 100th registration after the 99th joined on Sunday. I wish I had some sort of prize to give away but I don't and the new member will just be entitled to the free 2000friends email address, icon, signature and complete catalogue of fonts that all the other members are. It's still worth joining though, just to be able to ask the questions about your computer, have your say about the project or just let off steam about the ***** computer. Click Here to visit the forum. Hi to Bogwood, the 99th!

There seems to be an increase in the number of people complaining of a slow down on the Internet since Christmas. The slow down doesn't always affect the reported modem speed but in the time it takes webpages to appear. It seems that the problem is localised and evident at certain times of day, which suggests that some exchanges are having problems coping with a rise in people connecting to the Internet. If you have noticed such a change email me.

(10.02.03) I have no news. No news about the hold up at Argyllcom or what it will be offering to people wishing to host websites there. No news about when the people who have still not got a connection to the Internet can expect one or even if anything is being done about it. No news of digital champions. Sorry, no news on any of the above.

Component prices have taken a big drop over the last couple of weeks. This would normally go on the Internet but I know a lot of users have been thinking about buying either upgrades or peripherals for the computer for a while and I thought you'd like to know that this seems a great time. There are really good graphic cards available under £45, scanners for under £35, decent digital cameras for under £50, some of the prices are hard to believe for those of us who've been using for a while. If you need any advice check out the forum's Buyers Club by clicking HERE (anyone can read, only members can post a message).

(09.02.03) A hoax virus is turning up in local email boxes, spreading through the network of children's address books. It warns of an virus that you that have already received but Norton cannot detect and then goes on to explain how to get rid of it. However the file it mentions is not a virus but a part of the operating system and deleting it can lead to problems.

The file referred to is called jdbgmgr.exe and should not be deleted. Do not forward the email, the hoax spreads by well meaning but inexperienced computer users passing it on to their friends. I have written about this hoax in the past when it was known as the "teddy bear hoax" and Symantec have a response page about it. Click HERE for the Symantec response and HERE the forum thread about this and other email/web hoaxes and scams.

(07.02.03) Shop local! One of the issues that has emerged on the forum is the cost of getting things sent to the islands, so I thought I'd have a look at what was available on mine, Mull, and this is what I found.

Hannah Thompson of Loch Buie has compatible ink cartridges available for only £3 for black and £4 for colour, she's been using the brand for quiet a while and says they're excellent. Contact her on 01680 814260.

Tackle and Books of Tobermory have a range of products, from Epson ink @ £13 for black to an excellent Lite-on CD-RW for £50. They have over ink for many printers in stock, the CanonScan N67ou for £70 and a range of specialist papers. Contact them on 0168 302140

Contact them for postage details and email me if you know of anything else available locally. Click HERE for a cartoon on a comletely different subject.

(06.02.03) A Seil Isle user has sent in the slowest modem speed so far. Clocking in at between 9 and 16kbps, I'm surprised they could actually establish a connection to record, the lower figure is regarded by BT as the absolute minimum for a functioning phone line. Even for that area this is slow, blighted as it is by an infestation of DACS boxes. It sounds to me as if there are two on the line in question which in turn implies there is at least one and maybe 3, other households in the same position. They would have been better off with no connection at all because if the engineer hadn't been able to register the computer then at least NAIDC and BT would have looked into the problem.

I'm going to send details of this connection into NAIDC and see what they will do about it. I also think it's about time that some sort of action was taken about that particular exchange, there are far too many people reporting very slow connections from it. I'm still waiting for a progress report on the five cases already reported by the way. 

(05.02.03) A cheque arrived this week from A&B Council (on behalf of NAIDC) to cover the costs of running this website and the forum! Members will have read about this a while ago but a delay due to the A&B accounts department delayed its arrival and hence this announcement.  What's nice about it is that there are no strings attached, NAIDC appreciates the websites independence and wish it continue along the lines it has in the past. The money covers expenses only, the hosting, backup equipment etc. but not the time involved, so I'm still looking for a sponsor to cover that! Thanks to Gerry Wilson, Paul Cairns and Ian Ghillies for supporting my request for financial help.

1600 people have been arrested so far as a result of operation Ore, in which Pete Townshend featured, police announced today and there have already been prosecutions. Read more details on todays news by clicking HERE but if you want a frightening insight into who these peoples minds work, click HERE.

(04.01.02) ISDN A friend of mine has just had homehighway (hh) installed, the so call half-band internet connection which will run at a maximum 128kbps*. Like many people who I know who are considering hh he didn’t get it for the high speed, he got it for the standard 64kbps line because he just couldn’t live with his 28kbps, DACS boxed line anymore. I have an inbox full of emails from people complaining that BT won’t do anything about their DACS box but it seems that if you are prepared the extra and get hh, BT will be round in a matter of days to install it in an hour.

This says to me that in many cases the problem isn’t in the exchange but in BT’s priorities when it comes to its customers. Why can’t the ISDN technology be adapted for single line use and why should those who just want a decent phone line be discriminated against like this? * Standard speed is 64kbps, ISDN costs £70 per qtr plus phone charges and provides one 64/128kbps internet + 2 voice lines (I think, its very complex!). There's a link to technical information about ISDN on the Broadband page.

The website again broke it's record for accesses last week, up about 30% on the previous one. It's hard to say exactly what proportion of NAIDC computers it reaches because most people connect through a Freeserve cache (an archive of webpages) and these appear as one site to the hit counter but it is significant. I expect the figures to drop off a bit this week as many people will have come here as a result of the NAIDC newsletter which provided a big boost.

(03.02.03) A computer was saved from lightening damage by their Belkin unit over the weekend, a reader from Aros (Mull) tells me. The unit is part of their non-NAIDC surge bar and protects the modem against surges along the phoneline. Had they not replaced the standard one, they would have woken up to a fried modem at the very least. When it happened to me it damaged the motherboard too. So it's a good thing that NAIDC have bought us all one then...

A new guide has been added to the How 2 section of the forum, it explains what to do if the computer, a webpage or the computer freezes and refuses to respond. Read it by clicking HERE.

(02.02.03) The prospect of broadband should not be allowed to obscure the need for decent phone lines for all. As was pointed out in a letter from a reader, many people who are on very poor connections now will never be able to afford the extra subscription costs and many will have no use for the extra functions the service brings. So just because the “powers that be” are putting all their efforts into getting broadband to the islands and we should give them every support in doing so, we must not allow them to forget the rest of the NAIDC users. Why should people be forced into getting broadband just to get a decent online service when all they want is a decent phone line?

Lightening storms effected parts of the NAIDC area over the weekend and I've received a report of one affected reader, on which more tomorrow. Were you hit? If so, email me (if you still can).

(01.02.03) No real news today so just a bit of fun to pass the time. Flash-Game.net produce games you can play online without downloading them, they have over seven hundred to choose from, ranging from puzzles to action. My favourite is 3D Ping Pong but in Downing Street Fighter you get to punch Tony Blair and Robin Cook, which is worth a moment of anyone's time. If anyone catches you when you should be working on something else, just tell them that you're practicing your mouse skills. Click HERE to play, you don't have to sign up and there's no adverts but you might have to download flash player if you haven't done so in the past, it only takes a minute. 

(31.01.03) Whither Argyllcom? Apart from the appeal in the NAIDC newsletter for contributors (which I urge people to respond to), no progress seems to have been made since the temporary website’s update last November. It’s still there, announcing the arrival in stages starting in December (December 2002 that is) and asking people to keep returning for updates. So what’s the hold up?

I heard but have no idea if it’s true or not, that they are having problems with the security side of the portal. This effects the section of the portal that is dedicated to the NAIDC users, through which they hope to, among other things, bring us e-government. To do that they need to make sure that the people logging in are who they say they are, it is this that is causing the difficulty apparently. It is a great pity if this is holding up the development of rest of the portal though.

(30.01.03) The 50th modem speed arrived today and it was no surprise that it was from Easdale. The area has posted so many I've had to change the map to accommodate them all and really should give it one of its own. In contrast some places have never posted at all, Coll for instance is a blank canvas, as is the North west of Mull. I would like to hear from any area that hasn't reported so far and every speed sent in helps build a picture. Click the link to the Help the DC! page on the left and post yours today!

(29.01.03) People with special needs who have had to adapt their NAIDC computers already should be reimbursered. It is unfair that they have had a choice between either being out of pocket or waiting for the special needs roadshow in order to get what everyone else was getting for free or immediatly. In my experience NAIDC are very fair minded about these things once they are drawn to their attention and now that the initial stages of the project seem to be coming together things seem to be getting resolved more quickly. As the item below demonstrates.

I am happy to announce that, following the earlier success in getting a users phoneline connected, that another long standing case has been resolved. The website was contacted regarding a disabled user who needed a particular program and extra memory in order to use their computer. NAIDC was contacted and they quickly agreed to fund the parts and even got in touch with the installer personally.

If you know someone who needs help, email me.

(28.01.03) A NAIDC email address directory is an ambition of those running the project. Posts on the message board indicate users are generally in favour of them but when it comes to actually adding their names to a web based directory they're less keen. However, Luing has come up with the great idea for providing a local directory by selling a list at the local shop and giving the proceeds going to charity. This gets everyone connected without them worrying about online security. Click HERE for cartoon.

(27.01.03) Following questions asked on the Forum Gerry Wilson has replied to an email stating that the Belkin surge protectors will indeed be available to all users, not just those attending Argyll College classes. They've decided to distribute them through the classes and the digital champions rather than spent £1000s on postage for such a heavy item. The Belkins protect the computers against surges along the phone line, by far the commonest cause of electrical damage. Thanks to Gerry for getting back to me so quickly on this.

Some people haven't received their prospectuses yet probably due to A&C still waiting for the final delivery from the printers. However if you are worried that all your neighbors got theirs and you might have been missed from the list, John McLuckie of A&C has been kind enough to allow me to let me pass on email address. So if you want to make sure of yours click HERE to send him an email.

Forum member Dr. Zog's spotting of the phone number error on the recent newsletter has also produced a swift response from NAIDC, who will be emailing a correction out accordingly. This isn't because I emailed them, which I did but because they saw the original message. Neatly demonstrates how well a community forum can work sometimes.

Sunday's access statistics confirmed the week as the websites best ever, with hits up almost 50% on the previous high. The three best days followed the newsletter mention and rather than the top spots being shared amongst various servers the top ten all came from the Freeserve cache (which 99% of NAIDC users connect through). 

(26.01.03) The NAIDC newsletter has had a dramatic effect on website hits, they doubled on Friday and rose again on Saturday. Everyone who has contacted me has welcomed the email and it has produced some lively contributions on the forum. More comments are of course welcome! 

Salen Resource Center will host a roadshow demonstrating equipment and software for those with special needs, for those who cannot reach the center details will be available here as soon as I have them. There is a great deal available and most people who are having difficulty with computer can be dramatically helped by the adaptations.

An appeal for contributors to the Argyllcom portal was included in the newsletter and I can only urge people to offer their services. There will be knock on benefits with links to the contributors own sites and the technology involved is very easy to get to grips with. I use something similar to create this one, so if you have any questions before you commit yourself just email me.

(25.01.03) Don't Panic! The first NAIDC newsletter arrived yesterday as most of you will know! I'm very pleased to say it mentions the website which should bring in more visitors, there's already been a small surge in emails. It highlighted some things that the website has been involved in for sometime and stories that have been covered in the past but will be news to many.

One of the stories from the past it highlights is the problems a few people had connecting via the wrong Freeserve number but the number it mentions as the correct is not the one most of us use nor the one mentioned on the relevant Freeserve advice page. The numbers that start with 0808 or 161642 are connecting to the correct number so don't worry if you check and thats the case. You can check this information for yourself by visiting the Freeserve advice page by clicking HERE. Thanks to forum member Dr.Zog for spotting this (yes,of course there's a thread on the forum about it!).

(24.01.03) One to one training at home is going to be available for those who cannot attend one of the A&C centers and be part of a class. This depends on the mentors having the same kind of clearance certificate that the Digital Champions have had to get and will be restricted to those who really can't get to a class. So if you know of someone who isn't applying because they feel they can't get to the class then encourage them to do so!

People who choose to study at home rather than attend a class will have their progress monitored by a mentor via phone and email. Mentors will also be available for phone consultation for help with the course material.

(23.01.03) I attended a training course for mentors today and came back with lots of info. There's to much to put in the news section about the course work, so I've started a thread about it at the forum. Comments and questions are welcome, click HERE to read more and ask them! Below are some odd bits and pieces of news I picked up.

People enrolling in A&C courses qualify for student discounts on relevant software and this will also be discounted when negotiations with Microsoft are completed, a discount on a discount in other words.

Classes on Lismore start on Monday but the rest of us will have longer to wait while they sort out the logistics. Lismore, where the forms went out earlier has had 33% of the people sign up for the course, the average for the other islands so far is 12% and the forms are coming in at a rate of 30-40 per day.

Kererra will probably have to go to the A&C center at Dunstaffanage as the is no suitable venue on the island.

There 1906 NAIDC computers, the biggest concentration is in Tobermory, which has 500.

More tomorrow....

NAIDC is bigger than we thought! In the dead of night the islands of Shuna and Torsa were added in a NAIDC coup. Torsa only has one resident I think, Shuna only a few more but I still want your connection speeds!

(22.01.03) No "News" today - it's all on the broadband page!

(21.01.03) More people's connection problems will hopefully move towards resolution this week when they are discussed at the NAIDC steering group meeting. I've sent a list of the 5 people I know of to members of the group but if you know of someone who needs help email me the name and I'll see what I can do.

(20.01.03) Argyll & Islands Enterprise will be organising training for the digital champions (DCs) as soon as they have the full list of champs. The one day course will cover the more advanced parts of using XP and assumes that the DCs have, being keen computer users of some experience, had time to get used to the basic functions of the NAIDC computers. The courses will be held in the Argyll College facilities and hopefully commence sometime towards the end of next month.

They will also be carrying out a survey on the demand for more advanced training, the aim of which is to provide courses in specific areas not already covered by Argyll College. The survey will be on their website and as soon as its up I'll post the link.

I'm happy to report that the problem of the person waiting for their phoneline to be connected has been resolved through Councillor Ian Gillies liaising with Gerry Wilson, head of A&B IT. I'm sad to report however that there is one more person waiting to be connected on Lismore, thats two with over DACSed phonelines and two with none at all. 

(19.01.03) The Amey report (see story below) highlighted the need for the development of an ICT (Information & Communications Technology) strategy by A&B Council. An example of how much “joined up thinking” (to quote Amey) is needed, is the video conferencing (VC) equipment at the Glencruitten Hostel. They have been waiting for 8 months for the residents to be able to VC with their parents. This would seem to be an exemplar of what the whole purpose of the NAIDC project and a digital community is for. VC would do a lot to alleviate the problems that sending children away to Oban for the week entails by allowing parents and their children to maintain a more normal relationship.

 And yet, despite the equipment being installed at the hostel last May and all the parents getting their NAIDC computers around September, they still cannot use it to contact each other. The problem lies in the firewall used by the A&B Education Department; it will only allow connections to specified IPs, which is fine for connecting to websites but not to our private computers whose IP addresses change every time we go online.

The solution to this problem is straight forward enough, A&B/NAIDC just have to enable us to use their much publicised VC server. This would allow us to sign into a central server and access other users at will, similar to the way we use Microsoft messenger or Netmeeting. A&B already use the server for VC, in fact it has been rented out to outside organisations but for some reason we, the voters and rate payers, are still waiting for it.

(18.03.01) Everyone will have read the stories about Pete Townshend this week (given the number of recent celebrity stories the phrase "Entertainer Danger" will shortly enter the language) but how many of us will have read behind the headlines. A Guardian article (click HERE ) has some very interesting information. Apart from the fact that two former ministers are on the list of suspects (!), I'm not sure whether or not we should be worried that complaints about dodgy websites have doubled over the last year but we should definitely be worried about the problems that the police have tracking down those behind them. As ever my view is that parents have to be responsible for their children's online safety and again I urge people to read the guide to protecting them from harmful content and contacts. Click HERE for the guide and useful links.

(17.01.03) It looks like BT and NAIDC have sorted out most of the backlog of phone line and misc. problems that were preventing people from connecting to the Internet or using the computers. I received two emails this week from people who were still waiting for a connections or equipment (these are being addressed by NAIDC following emails from me) and so I emailed all the forum members and started a thread for people to post similar experiences. There was not a single response and so I must conclude that the vast majority of the disconnected are now connecting and using their computers, quiet a lot of work in a short time really.

I did receive some information, 2nd hand, concerning an unspecified number of people on Lismore who were still waiting for phone lines but nothing firm. BT have been doing a lot of work there which begs the question why are there so many DACS boxes on the island?

If you know of anyone who is still waiting for a phoneline or equipment to enable them to use their new computer, email me or post on the thread at the forum.

(16.01.03) Argyll & Bute Council recently published the Amey report into its structure and delivery of services. They have appointed a 9 person committee to report on the the report, they, er, report today. There's a couple of sections relevant to the computer community which amongst other things recommend the development of an IT strategy (surprisingly A&B don't seem to have one) and the review of current projects, the possible out sourcing of web and IT services and the promotion of broadband. I've copied the main text that covers this to a page on the forum, with links to the document itself and the Councils response to date. Click HERE to go the forum page.

(15.03.01) Another forum member has written a guide! This time to installing a CD-RW into your computer, a topic which has come up a couple of times on the forum.sgegreen's guide goes over the basics and advises what to look for in the kit you buy. Click here to read it HERE and follow the discussion about the subject HERE. 

(14.01.03) A new "guide" has been added to the forum, really a to do list called "things you should have done by now". These include the Microsoft updates that are absolutely essential to it's well being, how to set it up to be used by children and a couple of small programs that make the web more fun to use. Click HERE to read it. In addition forum member Dr.Zog has written an introduction to creating a CD collection on your PC, essential reading for all you music lovers out there, click HERE to learn more.

(13.01.03) Both the Forum & the website enjoyed a good week despite the problems on Sunday (see below). The Forum recently passed the 30 000 page hits mark and also saw its 1500th message posted. People are accessing it now on a regular basis and although there are still peaks, there are no longer any real troughs in an average week. The website had its best week and if the lull caused by the holidays is ignored shows a steady trend upwards. The time of day people are visiting has changed too, with more the increase in accesses being in the evening, which suggests that working people are using the website and forum more than they were. Thanks to everyone who has contributed to keeping things going, be it with items for the news, money, practical help or messages on the forum!

Hate Jargon? Me too and so I've added ComputerActive's excellent Jargon Buster to the forum. Just type in the word or acronym you want explained, hit "go" and it generates an answer. Try it out by visiting the forum ( click HERE ) and scrolling to the bottom of the page.

Yesterdays forum troubles were due to a router (a bit of cable that joins the server to the world outside my experts tell me) failing. I think this means someone pulled the wrong plug out...

(12.01.03) And it's back up again! The problem lasted approximately 4 hours and seems to have effected a lot of similar message boards. I've still no idea what happened but I'm glad it didn't last long. Failures like these are one of the reasons I keep the website and forum on separate servers.

(12.01.03) Apologies to members for the forum being down today. People attempting to visit are getting a "gateway timeout error" message, whatever that means. The problem is effecting all the message boards hosted by ezboard and even their own, corporate, website, consequently I can't find out what the problem is or when it will be fixed. I assume that because it is so widespread, that is a general failure at the host computer and that engineers are working very hard to fix it. My apologies to disappointed members, hopefully it will sorted out soon. Written at 4pm Sunday, hopefully things will be back to normal soon.

(11.01.03) Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the modern Internet, 
sent me a very brief but encouraging email yesterday. He invented html, the basic language which webpages are written in and runs an organisation that promotes the integration of and freedom of access to the Internet. In his email he says "Keep up the good work with your web site - community projects like yours which make it and the world a better place." It's a great endorsement, I'm thrilled that he's visited and feel a bit like I did getting Jimmy Greaves autograph as a kid. Visit his website by clicking HERE. If you click HERE for the cartoon, you'll see I've run out of computer jokes... 

(10.01.03) NAIDC has agreed to sponsor the the costs of running this website and its message board (the forum). The money will cover the hosting fees and the purchase of back up equipment to protect the service against computer and power failure. As well as being a great financial help, sponsorship demonstrates faith is the service provided and the help it gives to the many users who, er, use it. We are still discussing the terms by which the website would become the official provider of help etc, which would include payment for the time the it all takes but I feel this is a big step forward in the evolution of 2000friends and I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude for the help.

The sponsorship of the website will not change the editorial stance, which is supportive of the prject as a whole but critical of certain aspects of it, nor should it inhibit the expression of views in the forum.

(09.01.03) Argyll College carried out the first stage of mentor interviews this week on Mull, this will be followed by a training day to be held in Tobermory in 2-3 weeks. All the participants will be paid for this (bet you wish you'd applied now) and then AC will make their final selection. The lucky people selected will be paid £7.50 per hour, 50p more than previously rumoured.

As reported yesterday, the prospectuses and application forms started to drop onto doormats today. The free classes in the basics of computing are introduced by a letter along with a straight forward application form on A4 paper. The accompanying booklet outlines the many other courses that Argyll College run. The computing section starts on page 34 and lists over 30 courses in more advanced and specialised subjects. You might be interested to know that the costs have subsidised by up to 60%!

Should I start a letters page on the website? If you would like a letter published expressing you views on using your computer, the NAIDC project in general or whatever takes your fancy, as long as it's vaguely connected with computers and the Internet, I'll consider publishing it. Please include your name and address, which will be with held if you wish.

(08.01.03) Argyll College (AC) will be sending out prospectuses and enrollment forms for the computer classes this week and by the beginning of next week most people should have received them. The courses are free and flexible, with students working at their own pace in small groups at the A C centers. There will one student per computer, not two as rumoured and each group will be looked after by a "mentor" who will help and monitor progress. A C anticipate that the course will take an average of 30 hours to complete but people can take as long as they need.

Each student will receive a course pack including printed material and an interactive CD, both of which have been created to specifically for our PC's. The work covers basic computer skills, from using a mouse and keyboard (good old Mavis Beacon), email and internet, through to document creation and file management. More tomorrow inc. mentor pay and recruitment.

(07.01.03) Argyll & Bute Council has added 2000friends to its links page. This is pleasing because they don't just add anyone to their website and also because of the speed with which it was done, I only wrote to them on Friday! Wouldn't it be nice if all of the so-called "Digital Scotland" project was as effecient? Click HERE for cartoon.

(11 pm 06.01.03) The Microsoft Messenger service went down on Monday, so if you had trouble signing in you weren't alone. The problem was worldwide, as yet unexplained and is still effecting some regions. Read more (but not much more) HERE. Thanks to Steve for the link.

(06.01.03) The Government launches a one million pound campaign to promote online safety that targets children in chat rooms. As regular readers will know this has been a recurring subject for this website and when you see the TV adverts you will see why. 1 in 5 children use chatrooms regularly and 1 in 10 of those have had face to face meetings with people as a result. Researchers have found that on average it takes only ten minutes to start chatting with an adult posing as a child.

The key advice of the campaign is never to give out personal details online and this is of particular interest if your email address resembles your real address. If it does tell your children not to use it to register for messenger services, not to make it available in any online "profile" and never to give it out to anyone they don't know personally already. There is further advice on this website on the "Protect your kids online" page (link on the left) and you can read the BBC News story by clicking HERE, it has excellent links and further information.

(05.01.03) No real news today so just a bit of fun for Sunday. HERE to visit a page from a strangely appealing and pointless website called rathergood.com (click link on page for main site). Also worth a visit is the recently launched Pathe News archive which has lots of stuff of local interest inc. films of the island from the 1930's. Click HERE for Pathe. Thanks to Dr.Zog for finding the cat!

(03.01.02) Argyll & Bute Council have relaunched their website with many improvements to its layout and services available. Its now very easy to navigate, with the most important elements easy to find  and there's even a text only version for people on poor connections. Click on HERE to visit it. 

(02.01.03) The need for NAIDC (or PCWorld) to distribute official update discs was brought home to me today by two contacts with local users. The first was a call from someone suffering the familiar problems getting online, the classic symptom of a computer needing XP Service Pack 1. The second came in the form of a CD-ROM sent to me which contained all the updates the new computers need. There were approximately 150mbs of essential files, including the service packs for XP and Word, the latest drivers for the display, modem etc (the modem update speeds the connection by 2.2 kbps). NAIDC has been talking to Microsoft and PC World about distributing the service packs to users and I hope they announce something soon. There is no copyright involved, the updates appear regularly on cover discs and it's hard to see what the hold up is.

(31.12.02) The last night of the year is for looking back on the old one passing and you can relive the Internet's year at Google's Zeitgiest site which tracks the rise and fall of the most popular web searches. Check it out by clicking HERE and find out which people find more important, the World Cup or the Iraq situation, is Ann K still Queen of the Internet and what "all your base belongs to us" means. What surprised me was how big the Latin/Spanish Internet world was and what it found worth searching for. "Loft Story" is well worth translating from whatever language it's in, while "Las Ketchup" appears to be an oddly named girl band.

Have a good night everyone, see you in the new year!

(30.12.02) How to get an old game to run on the new PC's was a question that baffled us for a while on the forum until Dr.Zog came up with the following tip. It turns out to be simple to make XP (the operating system of the new computer) to emulate the operating system of a Win95 or Win98 computer! Click Start, go to All Programs > Accessories and click on "Program Compatibility Wizard" which walk you through the process of getting your old software going on the new PC.Honestly,  I spent a good while searching for how to do this on the Internet, another member checked the games website, the good Dr. looked in the PCs help file. So it does have some uses after all.  

(29.12.02) 2000friends is "the best website in the world" according to Googlism, a new search engine which distills the results of the pages found on Google. The Isle of Mull comes out equally as well, as do all the other NAIDC islands but it doesn't know enough about Argyllcom to comment.  Tony Blair, on the other hand, is set to "star in a new advert" (for holidays in Italy I imagine) and is a "grinnywimp" and I'm being played by the actor Brandon Kirkland apparently. All you have to do is type whatever you want the Google worlds opinion on and click "Googlism!" I told you news was thin on the ground...

Check out the new Help the DC! map, it's slightly better. 

(28.12.02) Apologies for the lack of an update yesterday, I was unable to connect with the server, a problem that has occurred 4 times in the last week. It has been compounded by the lack of engineers at the server, due to the holidays. The week has seen predictably low numbers of visitors to the website following the three highest weeks since the launch. Forum numbers have held up however and have actually seen higher daily averages except for Christmas day. 

It's hard to know whether the server problems have been sorted or when they will occur during the day, so the website may not be updating as regularly as normal. Keep the news tips, questions etc coming in, everything will get used or answered eventually.

(26.12.02) I've not much to report this Boxing Day afternoon and no real desire or ability to think about anything more serious than pointless games and news of the absurd. If you feel the same try these two free websites. Nonags has dozens of free games, from Asteroids to Pokemon; The Fortean Times has one of the best collections of strangeness anywhere on the internet. Enjoy! 

If you've got any money left and fancy getting to the January sales early check out the Californian town for up for grabs at ebay.