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Happy Monday Bloggers

Interesting story this morning that: "EVERY adult in Scotland, regardless of wealth or income, can apply from today for a grant of £100 for basic computer training. The only condition is that they pay at least £10 towards the cost of any course they undertake.

Application is via the website www.ilascotland.org.uk or phone helpline (0808 100 1090)."



Also - can I just mention that if you've lost your password we can retrieve it for you. Sheepish bloggers just email us at islandblogging@bbc.co.uk

thanks
Mike

This report just out...

"Weblog monitor Technorati is currently tracking more than 14.2m blogs – almost double the March figure of 7.8m. On average, the number of blogs is doubling every five months, with a new blog now created every second, it said. About 55% of new bloggers continue to update their pages three months after starting their blog, and 13% update weekly or more often."

More and

Look at

The sharp-eyed amongst you will notice that - - Sanda and the Holy Isle have been axed for terminal inactivity (I was kind of holding out for the daily wisdom of a Bhudda Blog) but I guess not having internet connections kind of precludes you from taking part.

However as one door closes another opens and you will notice that Fladda has made an appearance, and hopefully very soon, its small band of occupants will be posting some reports.

We want to keep an open mind to islands participation or not, basically it's open to all however big or small.

A while back Jim from Caoles on Tiree contacted us with a suggestion for a link from the Tiree Island page (here), of his great site of photos.

Take a look here at

Nice site, I like that fact that the photos are quite 'real'. It's not all sunny days. This ones of the An Turas 'waiting room' at the ferry port on Tiree.

If you've got a site you think we should include on one of the island pages email us at: islandblogging@bbc.co.uk

An Island Blogging contributor from Tobermory has suggested a re-vamp to the Gallery in that each gallery should have a theme.

Anybody want to suggest a theme (anything but landscapes!) to get us started?

Mike

A couple of people have emailed in asking for advice on how to reduce images.

As you know they need to be under 200 k (that's the 'weight' of the image).

To reduce a file size you need to open an image editor, that could be something like Photoshop or Microsoft Photo Editor or similar. They all work in roughly the same way.

Open the image you want to change. Typically choose from the menu bar at the top and go to:

File
Open

...then select Image then got to Image Size. Select - say - 300 or 400 pixels in width, then go to

File
Save for web

You can then choose to save the image as jpeg or a gif (choose jpeg) and you should also be able to choose the quality of the image and the corresponding weight.

It's always a trade-off between these two factors, a huge image will look great but take longer to download.

You should be able to get good quality images no problem.

It's good practice to always save images with a name that is all in lower case and with no spaces. So don't call your image That Day in the Sun.jpg - call it thatdayinthesun.jpg

Any questions, other hints, this way.

A couple of points that might not have been immediately obvious to new users of the site, we are rolling this project out to the Western Isles and Orkney and Shetland, but they will not be part of the project till the Autumn, as it seems almost inevitable to say for some reason, 'Watch this space!'

Also you may have been finding some difficulties posting comments to the site, that's because there was an attempt to stop spam coming in to the blogging process that instead stopped anyone and everyone Commenting instead!!!

Finally we will be adding to and expanding our over the next few months. Currently it covers the basics on how to get started, post images and fix your settings. Any suggestions or issues you want resolved, just ask and we will update.

A new report says: "We now have more broadband users than dial-up diehards, according to the latest figures from the UK's Office of National Statistics."



It would be interesting (and useful) to see a quick snapshot of who has broadband on an individual and island basis, and when it is promised?

Maybe we can track the delivery?

Also, here's one from Blackwaterfoot beach on Arran as the sun fades...

Good to see the return of one of our oldest bloggers (in duration not age).

Reminds me of some quotes that I was sent used by Warwick University who usd famous quotes to inspire their own blogging project. The town was flooded with posters, beermats and banners saying...

"If I don't write to empty my mind, I go mad."
- Lord Byron

"The power to question is the basis for all human progress."
- Indira Gandhi

"I am just going to write because I cannot help it."
- Charlotte Bronte

"The important question is not to stop questioning."
- Albert Einstein

There's a (relatively) up here with some great pictures of the Gigha Raft race amongst other things here, but the next one has the theme of 'Water' and we're kicking it off with a great photo of a Basking Shark off Tiree sent in by Ian and Linda Clephane.

Thanks - what a picture!

New prize to be announced early next week, in the meantime let's be having you pictures...un-watery entries need not apply.

This in from the Scottish Islands Network:

"The European Small Islands Network Inter-Island Exchange Project (ESIN IIEP) aims to promote the sustainable development of Europe’s small islands. As part of the ESIN IIEP an information exchange visit to the island of ¹ó±ð³¾ÃƒÂ¸ in Denmark is taking place on Sunday 9th to Tuesday 11th October 2005.

This visit is based on the project theme of Education and aims to identify innovative methods of education delivery on European Small Islands.

For more details contact Lisa Stephen at the

There is a limited amount of funding available through the ESIN IIEP Project to cover the costs of participation in this visit for 2-3 people. To help us ensure that these limited funded places are put to best use we have had to draw up some selection criteria in line with the projects overall aims and objectives. To be eligible for a funded place on the exchange visit you must:

*represent a community group or organisation based on, or working closely with, island communities;

*be involved in (or planning involvement in the near future in) a project relevant to the theme of the visit;

*demonstrate that your participation in the visit will be of benefit to your local community / interest group;

*show that you will be able to disseminate the findings of the visit to a broad audience