marlin13

Having just popped along to the speedtest site to check out the mega quickness of our exchange activate broadband which showed as .46/.18. -I suppose thats rougly what is says on the crappy tin. I was tempted to see what the rest of the world was getting, a small island group was very near the top of BOTH the upload and downloand speed tables. Those of you at the recent island games should have noticed! The Aland islands quoted as 15.31 down(4th) and 5.31 up(3rd). I have just self edited a very long rant which was to have followed and would no doubt have caused the mods to chastise me vigorously. An appeal to the SIC, please please please pay attention to this issue and if neccessary spend some money on it as it will, unlike other notable investments, produce tangible economic and social benefits for the people and economy of Shetland. A start has been made with the pilot projects in Vidlin and Fetlar, so far so good just "keep the wagons rolling"

People you seem to forget in your maligning of the multinationals which you appear to support slaveishly, that there are local shops which offer in the vast majority of instances excellent service and more frequently than you'd think prices lower than supermarkets. I am especially concerned about the lady from the westside who had to return home without her vanilla essence for baking, did she not try any of the shops on her way home eg robinson and morrison in weisdale or da eid coop???? I'm sure they would not have had a problem selling her or her husband this product. At the end of the day its a use or loose philosophy, regretably in 'da toon' the "punters" appear to have opted for the later...

The No Sweat classic " on the piss" is the only possible anthem for shetland like it or lump it it does what it says on the (red) tin

RSN have proved the "kiss of death" for da boy Murray oh well back ta selling da sweeties you mind da jingle murray mints murray mints to good ta hurry mints! PS rsn had nowt tae do we dat afaik

PURE are alive and well in Unst, its probably just that their business focus has changed. Due to the potential problem of other unscrupulous companies who would be chuffed to nick their ideas hey are quite tight lipped about the detail of what they are up to. They also employ a fair number of people.

Some of us of a "certain age" I thought might find this link interesting. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8024182.stm

Not sure if anyone else has posted this but the powerline adapters also have a wifi version, instead of the ethernet port it has a wireless aerial, they can be mix n matched with the wired ones. The wired versions are being used by shetland broadband in the two wireless broadband trials(vidlin and fetlar) and they seem to work very well. Speak to Shetland broadband if you want some of the kit as they will probably have loads of it knocking around. I think the wifi boxes were about £50. I wish I had got these boxes instead of having to set up a wds in the hoose bouncing around, up and over 3 foot stone walls. There was also another company which provided really low cost wireless kit the idea being that you would open part of your network to visitors and vice versa while travelling you could access wifi networks hosted by others. A noble theory in principle but I don't know if it ever caught on - probably not or we would have heard more about it.

as an ex merchant navy person one of my last ships under "foreign flag" traded regularly around africa. As we often had to hang around for daylight entry into ports, we would usually keep a fair distance offshore. whyat we did have was a pump action shotgun and a copious supply of shells on the bridge. Our Irish skipper an experienced firearms handler tried quite hard to get the owners to supply assault rifles as the shotgun is really a short range weapon but he was turned down. We were all instructed in the proper use of weapons by him and were lucky to have a person with the experience. I am all for ships having defences but feel a dedicated team of specialists onboard with "heavy metal" and the knowledge and experience required is a much more sensible solution. There are a number of companies who offer this type of service employing eg ex royal marine commandos. Couple of other points the ships used to ferry nuclear waste around are fitted with turret guns 20mm canon if I remember correctly and probably other defences as well. I remember having a similar conversation onboard a ship in the 1980's when the same sort of increase in piracy was going ahead, albeit maybe not as bad as now. A fellow officer pointed out something in the statistics around pirated ships. There were no Russian, Chinese or israeli ships listed, perhaps because they all at least at that time carried defensive arms. As to paying off pirates the recent increases are i think due to exactly that. A hard line has to be held and while there will be some casualties it will save many more lives in the longer term.

No matter what you think of either Macs or PC's you have to cringe at the recent PC adverts, the only relief is the last bit where the guy says Im a PC and i sell feessh, this totally cracks me up. While there can be healthy debate about the quality of the products and software that microsoft makes surely no one alive can defend the quality of their adds, they take the term "cringe worthy" to a new level. Anyone who charged for making these should

Mac laptops have had a reputation for running hot since the G4 Powerbooks a gentleman in scandanavia apparently burnt some very sensitive bits while using his Powerbook G4 sans clothing, makes you grimace just to think about it

Trooter yes spotted that early on but is not to much of a problem in itself, especially if you have cooperative relations, in any case it appears that they are doing a brisk trade in iPod touches at fair old prices when you add up the bids !!!!!! Perhaps the shetlink mods should do a few of these on here to make a few quid to help with bandwidth costs

Nigel Yes I was aware quite quickly of how they made their money, Not a site for the feint hearted or the serial unlucky !!

have a look at swoopo.co.uk this sort of business model probably has more chance of success than a standard web selling operation where you are competing with guys who are buying stuff in by the container load and will be able to sell at a lower cost than you can buy.

Anybody using this site and any feedback/comments?

Get yourself a macbook me boy. You can order direct from Apple or John Lewis in Aberdeen does them. The new Macs all allow you to also run windoze if you really have to

Is there anyway, other than contacting the other ISP's one by one , to find out if there are available slots in an EA exchange? Personally I found Scotnets T&C's verging on the ridiculous as regards cancelling your connection even after the first year and I wouldn't advise my worst enemy to go with AOL. PS Thanks for your offer of assistance Marvin, I'll be in touch via email

The late Brucie of Arisdale was a great teller of stories particulary ghosty stories including a good number aboud Windhouse. Since his demise i think the stories have slipped a bit from the popularity, if thats the right word, that they once had

I believe that there was a least one person on Foula who was able to speak the "Norn" still alive in the first part of the 20th century. In conversation with Andy Gear who originally came from Foula he mentioned he had been doing some research into this and this person, a woman if I remember correctly taught limited amount of it to one of his brothers.

Hi Cathyrn Know this reply is a bit late and you've probably been and gone, but Maurice Henderson of Fiddlers Bid has a bit of a reputation for telling the odd trowie tale or two, he'd be as good a person as any to ask if you havn't already got the info you need.

Does anyone else know of areas in Shetland where people cannot get broadband, not because of range or location issues but because BT do not have capacity in their exchanges. This is currently happening on my exchange in Gutcher where at least three families that I know of ( and there are probably more) can't get broadband because there are no more connections available. BT were given wads of cash to upgrade exchanges by the scottish exec and its a bit rich now saying to customers that they can't have any sort of broadband until they roll out 21st century networks god knows when( at least 2 years away) Broadband should be classed as essential as a phone and if they wouldn't provide phone lines I'm sure there would be a real stink. If anyone with any control over this situation reads this post would they PLEASE get it sorted. If anyone else knows of similar situations please post here. I do believe that Vidlin had some success after a similar situation occured there, again comments welcome

Apologies for inappropriate punctuation in the link. It brings back memories of debugging programs in basic many many years ago, the comma instead of the full stop was so often the problem

Jeanette you should also have a look at www.shetland.org, its a newish site set up to provide information for people looking to move to and/or set up businesses in Shetland.

DavrossT I cannot believe that site u posted , I would like to think its a joke but I feel really uneasy in that its probably for real. if it is real shouldn't these people be locked up ?????

"Ewe's should not be preserved in fomaldahyde they should only be preserved very briefly in gravy before serving with a good meally tattie" Above is a quote from Da Yell mans rough guide ewes by dat auld ram "Bertie o Toogie" - I tink u can still get it on ebay

Hi Not fairly shure if dis is fur man or wife but in either case any shoes with a smooth leather sole should be fine. Usually something is put on the floor to help,there used to be a product called sliperene which I think was banned, health and safety no doubt Not sure whats used now, but I digress if you visit any local shoe emporium they should be able and willing to assist. PS if its wifes shoes your looking for the 6 inch heel variety is not a good idea for dancin in !!