Should I follow my fridge on Twitter?

Once you read it you'll have this expression. Or think I'm talking bollocks, one or the other.

• “Ed just made toast” @Ed_toaster_314

The internet of things, a term long bandied around in technical circles is rapidly becoming a mainstream concept. This isn’t a new trend, connecting devices and sensors together with human beings is a basic goal of the internet, but the omnipresence of wi-fi and mobile phone bandwidth as well as the rapid strides in low power processor and better battery development has changed the game. According to an Intel survey the number of internet connected devices will increase from around seven billion now to over two hundred billion by 2020. There will be over twenty connected devices for every human being on earth and all of them will be sharing data about their environments, their activities and you, their so called owners. By 2030 some projections indicate there will be over fifty trillion connected devices, in effect; every device/artefact/thingy/widget on earth, from your car and your sunglasses to your front door and your shirt buttons will have the ability to sense their environment, talk with each other and you.

Clever investment, cool stuff and why bigger isn't better

I use this when I want to get out of doing the dishes.

There are times when one despairs of sensible investment in the UK. The talk of throwing over £40 billion into HS2 and the ongoing debate as to the best location for airport expansion in South East England can easily lead one to think that all politicians are obsessed with big dumb investments and value posturing in front of vast steel and concrete white elephants above prosperity and opportunity for all. Then you read about some under reported but very clever investments HMG has made in UK high tech industries. Like the £36m various bodies like the office of the Mayor of London and SE development agencies put into Inmarsat ( read more here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23380147 ) or the £60m HMG Treasury put into the SABRE engine ( more here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23332592 ) which are two or three orders of magnitude smaller than the grand gestures proposed for UK transport infrastructure, but have the potential to deliver vast benefits for the UK in terms of wealth, opportunity and advancement.