..., the patience of IT help desks around the world, and courtesy of Ann Michael who sent me this link. The worry is that I recognise myself as the technophobic monk.

I've just been sent this picture of the Publishing Innovation Conference I wrote about on 16 March. We don't look like innovators. That could be the problem.

The best futurologist in the UK is Ray Hammond an dthje best insights into future technologies can be found in his monthly newsletter, Glimpses. The April issue jus out has the usual mix of wondrous things - sugar-powered batteries, ethics for robots, air-conditioned vests, poetry-writing software etc - but, being a doting grandfather this item caught my eye. It all sounds fine except for the headline in the catalogue. It may be tempting at 3.00 a.m. but we don't really want to put the babies to sleep forever, do we?

The plush toy features a digital audio player loaded with womb sounds. Apparently an internal microphone was placed into a living womb while music played in the outside surroundings.

Put your new baby on a bender of sloshing fluids, heartbeat, and muffled music and he or she will be out faster than you can say "sweet dreams". And what happens when baby wakes to find he's been duped by a giant mouse? No worries, a "baby mood switch" will sense the baby's cries and generate an audible "curiosity trigger" to make baby forget why he was crying in the first place. Another cocktail of womb music and he's back to sleep. Feed, cuddle, repeat. Magic.