Hello again,OK?

The title you saw above said 'hello again? Ok, I did not exactly reproduce the above, but the fact you notice most of us take the ability to read for granted. Now switch to a slightly alternative topic. Personal Video Recorders (PVR) threaten to undermine part of the fabric of society we have taken for granted for a long time. Now one does not even have to bother reading television guides, or even owning that piece of equipment itself. Missed a program? Then simply 'rewind' the schedule and replay. This extends to even pausing shows at crucial moments, just as if you had a DVD. This can all be automated so that you watch only what you want, when you want. And the driving force behind this? Technology, that simple.

The social comment I was making is most relevant. Many are taught the three R's around the world - reading, writing and arithmetic - and while you try and work out where the r's are, it must be said that with the revolution under way only a little bit of common sense would suffice. With so many things to help with even the most basic of tasks, bothering to read a manual a book must seem like such an effort. The growth of online communities I mentioned earlier this week point to the important skill of being comfortable with technology. If one is not, there are always the likes of The Tech Guys to help you with your technology fix. The only reading these IT people require is maybe the programming language, which is very different from ordinary words and more to do with patterns and symbols, a way of thinking quite removed from the airport novel perusal.

With all that in mind, remember not to take it too literally and return to READ the next installment next week, tomorrow in fact.