There are some jobs where computer use isn’t practical – namely the ones where you have to be on foot a lot, or where there are too many risks to fragile gadgets. Warehouse workers and builders may soon be getting their fix of mobile technology, however, if more ‘ruggedized’ portable devices like the latest from Symbol Technologies make it to market. Give it a few years more, and maybe they’ll be using them to control and command a fleet of robotic machines and plant hardware.

There are a plethora of ideas for interstellar propulsion units around, some of which are pretty bizarre or extreme. That’s hardly a recent phenomena, however – Centauri Dreams takes a retrospective look at Project Orion, the brainchild of (among others) Freeman Dyson, which was based around the concept of a generation ark mounted on a huge copper plate that would drop nuclear bombs behind itself every thousand seconds to provide the propulsive force.

Sometimes the oldest of scientific tools can still produce data that turn the cutting edge of theory on its head. The venerable Voyager probes are just that sort of tool. These aging probes are still functioning well and sending back valuable results from the heliosheath, the poorly understood outer regions of the solar system. Those results are sending the theorists back to the drawing board – the heliosheath’s role as our first line of defense against galactic cosmic rays is far more complex than they imagined.

No, it’s neither…or both. The Dutch are developing a project called the SuperBus which, World’s Fair-esque hyperbole aside, looks like an interesting approach to sustainable public transport solutions. Able to switch between running on normal roads and special tracks, the bus is aerodynamic and hence needs only a ‘modest electric motor’ to reach cruise speeds of 250kph. Add one door for every passenger, and you have an attractive sounding package. The demo version is slated to see the light of day at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 – if it doesn’t sink through lack of funding.

The internet is pretty good, but wouldn’t it be nice if it were faster, more secure and more suitable for mobile devices? The Chinese certainly think so, and are working hard to roll out their CNGI ‘China Next Generation Internet’ project in time for the Beijing Olympics in 2008. The core of the idea is a new version of the internet protocols, which among other improvements will allow a much larger range of addresses to be assigned.