Ally

I, for one, welcome our thread-merging, topic-tracking overlords So, everyone's got freeview boxes that will work for all their TVs then? Fine dat!

Watch that on the DVD on your computer did you? Nah, I'm only teasing you and longdog - I myself went without a TV for 3 odd years while I was away travelling and certainly didn't miss it. Mind you, programming outside the UK has to be seen to be believed - it is totally abysmal. Still, living in Shetland during the winter without a TV is not a lifestyle choice that holds much appeal for me for several reasons - Mock The Week, Argumental, Channel 4 News, Family Guy, The Simpsons, Lost,24, The Daily Show, BBC4 to name but a few...

Don't do TV... "Yeah, but, you are aware that there's an invention called television, and on this invention they show shows, right?" Sorry, that's a quote from a movie called Pulp Fiction, which I suspect you probably haven't seen, seeing as it's never been played at the Garrison and you don't have a television....

Have we all got our TV's digi-ready? Switch-over on the 5th of May or there abouts, apparently. Most folk'll be fine with their main TV's I expect, what with sky/freeview and so on. But what about all the old tele's in spare rooms etc? I thought we'd be sorted with a couple of old ONDigital boxes lying around... but apparently many 'old' digi-boxes won't work. If you're still using video recorders then they will no longer be able to record one channel as you watch another either, which must be a pain for some. Whit says du? (***Mod Edit - Merged with existing thread***)

Not me, although I bought the Xmas single, so I was kinda hoping they'd send me one personally... Seen 'em a few times anyway, so nivir leet.

I remember when we'd go on family holidays south on the old P&O ferries - their kennels were horrible things, pretty much exposed to the elements. We used to put the dog in them at the start of the journey, then take her for ' a walk' on deck an hour or so later... then me and my sis would keep look out while my ma smuggled the dog into the cabin. We did this all the time, pretty much hassle free. Obviously we had our own cabin and the dog was well behaved - and fully house-trained I might add...

Seen the price of fags these days? Most of it goes to the government (£10 billion plus a year). The amount your average smoker pays per week in excess tax would be enough for full, private cover. I agree that smoking related disease takes up much-needed NHS resources, and I'm certainly not encouraging smoking, but in a round about way the smokers more than pay for it. With illegal drugs, however, all profit goes to the dealers and suppliers...

The Happy Haddock sells garlic mayo dipping sauce on the counter, and is absurdly close to The Marlicks, where they don't seem to mind if you east your supper if you're buying a pint - something I discovered this Sunday to my profound joy.

No .. what year were you thinking this was? Ally - yes tlady - 80's? Thanks.. thought I was loosing it there - several friends have denied it's existence and it's become something of a running joke. Does anyone mind the big wall display in the auld museum that showed all the oil rigs. You could press buttons and the various pipelines etc would light up... Iused to think this was amazing. Clearly I was quite easily amused as a child

Personally I think heroin is the real concern, although I'm not sure what can be done about it, given all the failed campaigns and initiatives by successive administrations. I think one of the problems is with the umbrella term 'drugs' and the whole Drugs are Bad rhetoric. If kids are repeatedly told that all drugs are evil and that you'll end up like like Zammo from Grange Hill (showing my age there) when you have a drag on a joint, then it's not long before they realise that their being lied to. Once that trust is gone then a natural curiosity can take over, possibly leading to harder stuff like heroin, all because the kid was lied to about the perils of 'softer' drugs.

Cheers Para handy and trout - aye, I was away for 3 years, just got back at Christmas - my finances (or lack there of) have dictated that I need to stay hame for a while, pack in this travelling malarkey and maybe get a proper job... I note there's an opening for a new chief exec that might be worth a look...

Just noticed that I'm not the first to mention Clarke's 'wine brandishing'. Dat'll teach me to not leave it until Saturday morning until I read the paper...

I mind going to see Return of the Jedi when I was about 7 years old at the North Star, My first length underwater at the old swimming pool and my first under-age pint in The excelsior. Can anyone remember when Lochside stores was called The Igloo? Nobody believes me about this and I'm starting to think that maybe it's just the confused memories from of a really boring dream I once had...

Having only come back to Shetland this year, I can't claim to be that well informed regarding this guys antics, but the general feel I'm getting from folk is that he shouldn't get a penny. Fair enough, emotions clearly run high when it comes to this issue, but I was surprised by the tone of the front page article in this weeks Shetland Times: "During the guizers' procession that evening Mr Clark watched from outside Ms Miller's house in St Olaf St brandishing a glass of red wine and a cigar..." Hardly relevant information, and it does rather paint him as some sort of malevolent emperor figure, lauding it over the peasants from the comfort of his mistresses property. Don't get me wrong, it's a good article and I've always secretly hoped that the Times would inject a bit of spice into some of their stories - it makes a change from the old 'A MAN was arrested for an assault in Lerwick. A report is to be sent to the Procurate Fiscal"

Other people have shared your view, Rona. Specifically Mr Mohamed's American appointed defence lawyer, who said: "You have to realise, I'm a soldier, I was a true believer. I thought 'This guy's a terrorist....I was concerned, walking into a cell with someone that someone had told me was a terrorist, the worst of the worst, and I truly believed that." However, unlike you or I, she was in the unique position of being able to speak to the guy and find out the truth, which, as it transpired, was that he was locked up for several years, severely tortured (including a scalpel to his genitals, repeated beatings and being strung up for literally weeks on end) and ultimately released because he clearly wasn't a terrorist. You should read this article for a fuller picture: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7906880.stm Also, do you really think we should close the doors to people seeking help? People trying to escape the horrors of their own country to try and make a safer, better life for themselves?

Yeah, it's difficult to say. I read extracts from his pre-presidential books and he does come across as a highly intelligent, morally grounded individual... be a shame if it was all bull, or he was in some way compromised. He certainly seemed more ideological and progressive than Blair clone David 'Milli-bland'; a careerist cypher whose principles and opinions are little more than a tired assembly of soundbites and Blairite Cliche. Almost makes me miss Thatcher. At least her unchecked lust for power and obvious contempt for the 'working man' wasn't hidden behind a bland, media-savvy facade...

"Today we are engaged in a deadly global struggle for those who would intimidate, torture, and murder people for exercising the most basic freedoms. If we are to win this struggle and spread those freedoms, we must keep our own moral compass pointed in a true direction." - Obama, 2008 That, to me, reads that America and her allies should not endorse the use of morally dubious interrogation techniques, ie water-boarding and out-right torture. Shame, then, that the BBC's website today carries this story : http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8509787.stm "...Mr Mohamed was intentionally subjected to continuous sleep deprivation, as well as threats and inducements, including playing on his fears that he would be passed on to another country.... ...London learnt that the stress brought on by these deliberate tactics was increased by him being shackled during his interviews and that Mr Mohamed was eventually placed on suicide watch...". Much of which was backed up by photographic evidence. Despite pleas from the UK and US government for courts to deny this man the opportunity to show what he's been through by releasing the photos, both administrations petitioned the courts to prevent their disclosure. "the court's judgment will complicate the confidentiality of our intelligence-sharing relationship with the UK, and it will have to factor into our decision-making going forward.", claim the US. Perhaps Obama's moral compass has, sadly, been realigned since his inauguration?

Cool, that's what I thought. It's just that when you see PCs on networks at the Department of Work and Pensions, The Police and the American Military it's easy to get paranoid. So I guess these are just employees in those organisations that are also sharing torrents? As you suggest, 'No More Herring For The Countess' clearly enjoy a far broader appeal than I'd first expected...

I heard recently about a friend of a friend who got charged a few hundred quid for illegal file sharing in Shetland - Is this a common occurrence do you think? Not that I've got anything to worry about, officer... Also, on a quite unrelated topic, I recently installed Peer Block - software that stops third parties (spammers etc) accessing your PC. I notice an alarming number of connections when you use this software in conjunction with uTorrent for legal file-sharing (I perform, record and distribute my own 'nose-bleed-acid-skiffle', with an underground dance troupe from Luxembourg called "No More Herring for the Countess". That's my story and I'm sticking to it). Anyway, when doing this I find the number of connections trying to access my PC is mental - From Haliburton to the Ministry of Defence, various telecom services and obscure American companies. After the mild paranoia attack faded it occurred to me that, because of the nature of file-sharing, could these just be other PCs engaged in file-sharing themselves, perhaps by individual employees of the companies/departments mentioned? The attempts to access my PC stopped as soon as I closed the torrent software, so I assume I'm not personally under investigation by sinister government operatives... Any serious tech-heads care to enlighten me?

Halfway though Ian Rankin's "The Complaints". Totally recommend it, even though Rebus is notably absent . I think with Rankin it's the little pieces of normal, day-to-day life that he weaves into the narrative that make it so absorbing : ".. He flicked through the Freeview channels until he found Dave. It was all repeats, but still watchable. Fifth gear followed by Top Gear followed by another Top Gear..." Then the protagonist goes on to solve a few murders and smash a paedophile ring. Love it.

I quite enjoyed the show. Okay, otters don't give me the same buzz that they clearly do Simon, but hey, it's primarily a wildlife programme. There was a reasonable level of human-interest to stop non-outdoor types from switching over, although I'll admit to cringing a few times; "with a beach like this who needs a TV?" That Guardian review, however, was disappointing to say the least. The author was clearly trying to emulate the brilliant Charlie Brooker, but failed utterly and came across as an ignorant, sneering, city-centric idiot. You can almost detect a hint of real malice behind his juvenile , lazy critique - hinting at an underlying professional jealousy perhaps? I haven't bought the Guardian for a few years, but if that's the standard of journalism the paper currently expects of it's writers then I'll stick to The Beano...

The snow has melted. Of course everyone's saying it'll be back later in the week, but in the mean time we're pretty much snow-free. Plus this Sunday's hangover is no where near as bad as I deserve. This pleases me.

Sure, it's lame, knee-jerk student crap... but it's laugh innit? Like putting your religion as 'jedi' on the 2000 census.. initially wacky, then lame and geeky and, finally, something that in years to come will need to be explained in an historical context... the Kids... of the future should be told that the anodyne pish that was documented as being 'popular' in december2009 was, in fact, widely disliked, regardless of how ham-fisted the gesture may be. Or you could, like me, pretend to buy it and then either take some credit if it makes number one, or smugly sneer from the sidelines, safe in the knowledge that you were right all along!

National express and no pints with mates in London for me, then. Gutted.

Having recently got an iTouch (after my iPod was nicked - boobalubes!), I admit to having warmed slightly to iTunes. I still hate all the unnecessary synching, authorizing and a few other impositions, but otherwise it's tolerable. Also, I've heard countless tales from backpackers and other travelers who've had their entire music/movie collection wiped because they've plugged their device in to a different PC and iTunes has 'synched' it. I know there's prompts and safeguards that are supposed to prevent this, but not all folk are as tech-savvy as, say, the contributors to this thread. I had to plead for weeks for this one lass to lend me her iPod to copy some of her music (she had 70gigs of mainly decent stuff), as she'd been burned before and was scared to attach it to any other computer except her home one. I I've heard of this happening to several people. Whether or not these folk are just inept is by the by ; loosing all your music in a few clicks shouldn't be something a user should have to fear, should it? Besides, I think I'm seeing a pattern here : All mac users are perfectly happy with it, while PC users aren't feeling it at all. Perhaps the mac version interacts better with the OS for obvious reasons?