The fact that technology and the ‘always-on, always-connected’ world we live in can be somewhat addictive will be no news to many readers here, I’d imagine. What might be, though, is that in the near future your employers may be legally liable for the effects of work-related technoaddiction. A new report suggests that the high paced nature of modern business leaves employees wide open to having their drive and ambition exploited by companies desparate to get an edge on the competition. So, if your boss offers you a Blackberry, you know what to do – just say no, people.

In the never-ending quest for instant reportage, the business information group Thompson Financial is using computer programs to automatically compile and publish simple articles on the reported earnings of companies. Early results have been error free, if a little wooden when it comes to the language used. The programs are short on adjectives and human feeling, but then that’s not really a requirement for the sort of story being made here. Could this spell an end for financial and business blogging, at least blogging done by people? If machines can produce accurate factual pieces more quickly than a real person, a margin-sensitive media outlet will be keen to cash in.

We’ve superceded the abilities of traditional ground based telescopes with devices like the Hubble, but even that can’t let us look as deeply into the universe as we’d like to. However, there is a way to exploit the power of gravity to bring incredibly distant objects into view, and that is gravitational lensing – a phenomenon whereby the immense gravity of a star bends light passing around it just like an optical lens. An Italian astronomer has been pushing this idea for over a decade, claiming that a probe known as FOCAL should be sent out into the solar system far enough to enable the use of our own sun as a gigantic telescope, permitting us to observe distant star systems in sharp detail.

Check out Cory Doctorow’s “Truncat,” a sequel of sorts to Down and Out In The Magic Kingdom (on my list of personal favorite futurismic pieces).

The business and finance world, while happy to make hay while the sun shines, have been muttering about the possibility of a re-run of the dot-com bust after the current ‘web2.0’ hype engine runs out of steam. New grist for their mill today, with the arrival of once-lauded online calendar startup Kiko.com on the market – and that’s not the stock market. No, it’s being auctioned off on eBay, and the half-serious slogan ‘Google is the new Microsoft’ is gaining credence in some camps. If you’ll excuse me, I must call my broker…