I wrote my little Cayman story in January 1994. Since then the monopoly phone
company (Cable and Wireless) has started to offer PPP connections for about
US$0.20 cents/minute. I'm not sure how great this is, though, because I noticed
that all the packets in September 1995 were going through a 64 KB line to
Washington, D.C.
Trista, one of my readers, supplied the configuration she uses for her Cable
and Wireless hookup...
Phone Number: 976-4638
IP Address: 0.0.0.0
Name Server 1: 205.161.240.10
Name Server 2: 0.0.0.0
Netmask: 255.255.255.0
Host Name: CandW.KY
Domain Name: CandW.KY
The Marooned Engineer
yet another story harvested from the Internet whose author has been lost
There was this male engineer, on a cruise ship in the Caribbean
for the first time. It was wonderful, the experience of his life. He
was being waited on hand an foot. But, it did not last. A Hurricane
came up unexpectedly. The ship went down almost instantly.
The man found himself, he knew not how, swept up on the shore
of an island. There was nothing else anywhere to be seen. No
person, no supplies, nothing. The man looked around. There were
some bananas and coconuts, but that was it. He was desperate,
and forlorn, but decided to make the best of it. So for the next four
months he ate bananas, drank coconut juice and mostly looked to
the sea mightily for a ship to come to his rescue.
One day, as he was lying on the beech stroking his beard and
looking for a ship, he spotted movement out of the corner of his
eye. Could it be true, was it a ship? No, from around the corner of
the island came this rowboat. In it was the most gorgeous woman
he had ever seen, or at least seen in 4 months. She was tall,
tanned, and her blond hair flowing in the sea breeze gave her an
almost ethereal quality. She spotted him also as he was waving
and yelling and screaming to get her attention. She rowed her boat
towards him.
In disbelief, he asked, "Where did you come from? How did you
get here"?
She said, "I rowed from the other side of the island. I landed on
this island when my cruise ship sank" "Amazing", he said, "I
didn't know anyone else had survived. How many of you are
there? Where, did you get the rowboat? You must have been
really lucky to have a rowboat wash-up with you?"
"It is only me", she said, "and the rowboat didn't wash up,
nothing else did."
"Well then", said the man, "how did you get the rowboat?" I
made the rowboat out of raw material that I found on the island,
replied the woman. The oars were whittled from Gum tree
branches, I wove the bottom from Palm branches, and the sides
and stern came from a Eucalyptus tree".
"But, but, asked the man, what about tools and hardware, how
did you do that?"
"Oh, no problem, replied the woman, on the south side of the
island there is a very unusual strata of alluvial rock exposed.
I found that If I fired it to a certain temperature in my kiln, it
melted into forgeable ductile iron. I used that for tools, and used
the tools to make the hardware. But, enough of that, she said.
Where do you live?"
At last the man was forced to confess that he had been sleeping
on the beach. "Well, let's row over to my place, she said." So they
both got into the rowboat and left for her side of island.
The woman easily rowed them around to a wharf that led to the
approach to her place. She tied up the rowboat with a beautifully
woven hemprope. They walked up a stone walk and around a Palm
tree, there stood an exquisite bungalow painted in blue and white.
"It's not much, she said, but I call it home. Sit down please,
would you like to have a drink?" "No, said the man, one more
coconut juice and I will puke."
"It won't be coconut juice, the woman replied, I have a still, how
about a Pina Colada? Trying to hide his continued amazement, the
man accepted, and they sat down on her couch to talk.
After a while, and they had exchanged their stories, the woman
asked, "Tell me, have you always had a beard?" "No", the man
replied, "I was clean shaven all of my life, and even on the cruise
ship". "Well if you would like to shave, there is a man's razor
upstairs in the cabinet in the bathroom." So, the man, no longer
questioning anything, went upstairs to the bath room. There in
the cabinet was a razor made from a bone handle, two shells
honed to a hollow ground edge were fastened on to its end inside
of a swivel mechanism. The man shaved, showered and went back
down stairs..
"You look great, said the woman, I think I will go up and slip into
something more comfortable." So she did.
And, the man continued to sip his Pina Colada. After a short
time, the woman returned wearing fig leafs strategically positioned
and smelling faintly of gardenia.
"Tell me, she asked, we have both been out here for a very long
time with no companionship. You know what I mean. Have you
been lonely, is there anything that you really miss? Something
that all men and woman need. Something that it would be really
nice to have right now."
"Yes there is, the man replied, as he moved closer to the woman
while fixing a winsome gaze upon her, "Tell me ... Do you happen
to have an Internet connection?"