M-Saunders, please ignore the hate and thanks for your enlightened views on publishing. I was disappointed when you guys "forked" LinuxFormat but I have enjoyed what I have consumed of the new magazine and podcast. I hope your business model is sustainable and look forward to catching up with the issues I've missed.

I doubt there will be any "legitimate" uses of this particular technology.

However, it may be a model on which we can base future online retail. The existing model is utterly broken: I really don't want databases all over the world holding my username, password, credit card details and billing address waiting for the next SQL or SSL vulnerability to vomit the information into the hands of criminals. Nor do I want to trust, use or respect services like paypal.

View this as an iteration towards a more secure and decentralised system for legitimate commerce which keeps credit card and escrow companies out of the equation. Surely that is a good thing?

The line which tends to ruin my software is: /* Copyright (c) 2013 Neil McPhail */

(Sigh)

I christened my main box "beast" because I put in a whopping 2GB of DDR RAM. It continues to serve me well. Hardly ever swaps (I even ran it for about a year with no swap space - by accident - with no noticeable ill effects...). The processor is the choke point but not that I notice unless I'm editing video.

Far too much prior art in that little corner of the world, I'm afraid.

In my limited experience, MP3 decoding under Linux sounds more pleasing than under other operating systems on the same hardware. I have mentioned my experiences with Rockbox on a 3G iPod previously.

You are aware that the correct spelling is "fetus"? "Foetus" would be derived from the Latin for "stench" - which tends to be a post-partum phenomenon!

Moral objections aside, the pictured device looks reasonably similar to several dry powder inhaler devices (e.g. http://www.serevent.com/how_to_use_serevent.html) used for the treatment of asthma. Patients get confused about their medications and devices on a frequent basis, and it won't be long before someone tries to inhale a lump of lead.