The optical fibres of the internet carry huge amounts of data at great speed, but the computers we attach to it have to work with comparatively crude electrical signals to route data around inside of themselves. Chip-making giant Intel is working towards a solution to this problem, by embedding lasers into special silicon chips to achieve cheaper faster switching. If and when this technology becomes readily available, the data transfer landscape may be irrevocably altered in favour of speed, utility and low cost.

The power of computer games not to merely entertain but to educate their players is a growing phenomenon. Two upcoming releases address the nature of the recent Israel-Palestine conflict, and from very different angles. Global Conflict: Palestine puts you in the role of an embedded journalist walking the wrecked streets of Palestine, talking to soldiers, terrorists and civilians and trying to get to the bottom of the story while developing your own views of the situation. Peacemakers, on the other hand, allows you to assume the leadership of either of the two states, and work through the conflict as if it were a turn-based strategy game. I wonder if players will take the opportunity to look at the other side of the equation, or act on the assumptions they already hold?

How do you raise the profit margins of the traditional convenience store? Simple – get rid of the need for employees. Get & Go Express has done exactly that, by placing all their products in vending machines, which has the knock-on effect of reducing the amount of floorspace the outlet needs – the reduced overheads counteract the inability to stock products that would require age verification by staff. Market forces being what they are, we’re sure to see a rise in automated retail, but what effect will that have on unemployment figures?

An economist has announced that the purchase of eco-friendly products may in fact be bad for the environment. While most of the products in question are actually beneficial to the sphere of endeavour in which they are created, evidence seems to indicate that people who buy such products are less likely to donate or contribute directly to environmental causes. I wonder if there is a similar effect whereby people feel that they can cancel out ecologically unsound habits by buying eco-friendly products – people driving to the organic market in their SUV, for example.

This concept may be no news to a fair few readers of this blog, but it bears mentioning for the fact that it has become accepted enough to garner laudatory reports from ‘serious’ technology magazines. ‘Personal infoclouds’ is just a fancy name for the growing multitude of webservices that enable you to sychronise data from your computers and portable devices with a remote storage location, but silly names aside, it would appear to be a paradigmatic idea that is gaining in popularity. Personally, I couldn’t live without Mobical.