I could tell something was wrong when the little green LEDs on my BT Home hub started flickering. And after several futile attempts to connect to the Internet had failed miserably, I realised that my broadband connection was dead. Read the rest of this entry »

Being a writer can be a frustrating job at times. Often, you can spend hours attempting to craft a piece that you hope will appeal to your readers, only to find yourself so disappointed with your efforts, you end up throwing your work into the wastebasket and starting anew. Read the rest of this entry »

I didn’t have good weather during my summer holiday in the south of France this year. One night last week, a treacherous thunderstorm hit the small thirteenth century village where I was staying with astonishing intensity. Read the rest of this entry »

I am happy to lend Engineeringtalk’s name to support the Institution of Engineering and Technology’s search for the Young Woman Engineer of the Year award for 2008 (see Industry News below). Read the rest of this entry »

When I was a little lad in the late 1970s, I remember that my grandmother, alongside the biggest collection of James Last records in Western Europe, had a vacuum cleaner with a small sticker on it. It had a picture of a bulldog and the moniker ‘This one’s British!’ I don’t know why this has stuck in my mind but I remembered it this week when listening to some of the vexed commentary on the ‘foreign’ ownership of ‘British’ football clubs, after the United Abu Dhabi Group’s spectacular takeover of Manchester City. Read the rest of this entry »

The advent of the personal computer brought with it a revolution in the industrial marketplace. For when PCs started to sell in high volumes to consumers, the components inside them became a low-volume commodity item that designers of industrial equipment could also take advantage of. Read the rest of this entry »

In 1971, the birth of the microprocessor heralded in a new era for systems builders. Designers of machines vehemently embraced the new chip in their designs, providing them with an unprecedented level of intelligence. Read the rest of this entry »

Every four years, TV channels across the world devote an inordinate amount of coverage to the consecrated ceremony known as the Olympic Games. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve never been too handy at doing Do It Yourself jobs around the house. And for some reason, I’m no better at organising other people to do the work for me. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s something that I could have guessed anyway. And now, a new report from Durham University has confirmed my suspicions. Read the rest of this entry »