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Brave New World is a lurid, satirical dystopia in which the hopes and fears of the 1930s are writ large and yet the book seems uncannily prescient about our own time. But why did Huxley feel the need to write it and is Brave New World really as dystopian as we are led to believe?

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Netbooks are evidence that we now know what personal computers are for.Which is to say, a pretty small list of things that are conducted almost entirely online. This was Asustek's epiphany. It got laptop prices under $300 by crafting a device that makes absolutely no sense when it's not online. Consider: The Eee's original flash drive was only 4 gigs. That's so small you need to host all your pictures, videos, and files online—and install minimal native software—because there's simply no room inside your machine.

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However, a couple of sacred cows of environmentalism also come under the spotlight. Goodall questions, for example, whether organic agriculture can really help feed the world – arguing that yields are only just over half what can be produced through other methods, and with meat consumption, biofuels demand and populations rising, organics will need to step up to the plate if it is to be part of the solution.

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File-sharing is no longer just in the realm of frustrated Star Trek fans, with almost every television show that screens in the US or Britain available online within 24 hours at DVD quality or better. Movies are also often available before they even open

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...but the footage of the murder was taken – by more than one phone – from the front row. Which means whoever shot it did so not to record the horror of the event, but to commemorate it. To share it. Because it was cool.

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Microsoft's biggest weakness is that they still don't realize how much they suck. They still think they can write software in house. Maybe they can, by the standards of the desktop world. But that world ended a few years ago.

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Yup, it’s time for some serious Vista-kicking: in this article we’ll discuss the competition Windows Vista is getting this year and what are the odds for success or failure.

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Who knows if The Terminator, for example, could have gotten the green light in this environment? It was made in 1984 for $6 million -- the kind of midrange budget that rarely exists any more -- and starred a little-known weight lifter with an unpronouncea

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It is trite but nevertheless true to say that Beazley's problem is that of the dynastic son: someone who has been waiting for the crown to be offered to him on a plate.

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No, the Zune's sole wireless feature is "squirting" -- I know, I know, it's Microsoft's term, not mine -- music and pictures to any other Zune device within direct Wi-Fi range. Even if the track is inherently free (like a podcast) the Zune wraps it in a D

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Dawkins and Harris are not writing polite demurrals to the time-honored beliefs of billions; they are not issuing pleas for tolerance or moderation, but bone-rattling attacks on what they regard as a pernicious and outdated superstition.

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...suggesting that theoretical physics has become like the deconstructionist realms of literary criticism in the 1970s, which disappeared up its own fundament, “incapable of ever converging on the truth”.

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George W. Bush's presidency appears headed for colossal historical disgrace. Barring a cataclysmic event on the order of the terrorist attacks of September 11th... there seems to be little the administration can do to avoid being ranked on the lowest tier

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The unreasonable expectations do come from offerings such as Gmail - after all if they can offer 2GB just for email then you should be able to give me much more for file storage! There is a big fault in this assertion and email hosting can not be compared

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But BitTorrent could also be the solution. Hollywood is definitely interested in distributing its movies over the net. King Kong is the first major film in the UK to be released as a download at the same time as on DVD.

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I do think it’s an advanced user service, in much the same way that Gmail attracts a more sophisticated email user. In that way, it’s a great fit with Google’s target audience of early adopters.

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After being dumped by her label, singer Imogen Heap was broke and despondent. Then a surveyor, a TV soap and a lion came to her rescue.

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One way or another, consolidation is all but inevitable. A single, pervasive environment will emerge, uniting the separate powers of today's virtual societies. And then we really will have built the Matrix.

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Just to answer a few questions: No, this doesn't come from anywhere in particular. It's just how all the pieces fit for me. It's written as "fact" as a stylistic convenience; I have no inside information. It's also not comprehensive, and there are things

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Annie Proulx on how her Brokeback Oscar hopes were dashed by Crash

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