(for West Country Life Jan 2020) It always makes me smile when my 7 year old tries to use my laptop. I purchased it last year so it is not exactly old school, but the fact that it does not have a touch screen somewhat flummoxes him. “What do you mean I have to press...Read More

For me one of the joys of what I do is to be constantly surprised and challenged by the way people have invented gadgets for the genuine betterment of society. And while some of those ideas sadly disappear into obscurity far too quickly, their concepts can often live on through the work of others. A...Read More

If you are nerdy enough like me to have an interest in the history and development of the humble television remote controller, then (like me) you’ll know that the information out there on the internet is currently pretty one-sided. While every country of course created their own range of television products, the remote-control market was...Read More

The Second World War is widely remembered as a technological war in which both sides raced to out-manoeuvre their opponent using cutting-edge science. And while many of those innovations would subsequently have a lasting global impact such as the invention of Radar, Jet Engines and the Atomic Bomb, not every idea would prove to be...Read More

Today video chatting is an integral part of most of our lives as business, family and friends spread themselves ever wider around the world. For many including myself such communication enabling services including Skype, Messenger, Whatsapp, Google chat, Viber and more are no longer considered mere luxuries, but necessities for social survival. But while such...Read More

Up until the invention of electronic valve computers after WW2, the world was largely run by analogue computers. These machines worked off the time-honoured tradition of carefully engineered interlocking moving parts that were manually triggered to give a certain intended result. Some, like the aircraft and missile trajectory machines used by ground and air defence...Read More

More than any other medium, cassette tape was to dominate the recorded music and data market for nearly the whole second half of the 20th Century. From groovy reel to reel tapes, compact cassettes with their colourful boxes and big hi-tech computer data reels, all were based off a clever idea that simply required a...Read More

As we celebrate 30 years of what has become the marvel of the World Wide Web it is perhaps worth remembering back even further to where our digital age really all began. While the American Claude Shannon and Bell Labs are rightfully credited with being the founders of the information age, we Brits can still...Read More

    The days following Christmas are a time when everyone gets to put their feet up, turn on the Television and get lost in the inevitable re-runs of seasonal classics and wholesome family gameshows. It is a ritual we quietly revel in and is only made sweeter by the sparkling technicolour of the images...Read More

Back in the 1960s and 70s there were two types of electronic gadget you could buy- the slick and finished product and the do-it-yourself kit. While the finished item would naturally cost more and appeal to a lazy public who didn’t care what was inside the shiny plastic case (just so long as it worked),...Read More