I always loved going to the doctors surgery when I was younger because it was one of the few places around that had a rocking horse. This gadget has been described as a rocking horse for the wealthy. It is in fact a simulator which lets people ride in their own home. The virtual reality riding machine includes a mechanical horse with electronic sensors and a screen. It allows users to trot, canter and perform various dressage manoeuvres but unlike a real horse produces no mess and does not require feeding. Its an interesting concept but personally I think the real thing is much better. For me part of the joy of riding was building up a mutual relationship with my horse and of course the fact that you can never predict what a real horse will do, no matter how well you know it. Its an interesting variation on the rocking horse, though but not cheap at just under £40,000.

According to this article you might have a long wait for PS3 movie downloads if you live in the UK. Although the service has just been launched in North America the European market is unlikely to get it until sometime next year. Apparently the issue is that Sony needs to sort out its country specific content before they launch it in Europe. The exact dates for specific European countries will be announced later this year.

I had a very unproductive weekend last week because I have been revisiting some of my old computer games that I have never got around to completing. The main reason for doing this is because I am feeling a little poor at the moment so rather than spending money on new movies or box office films I thought I would make use of what I have already. That said, my husband is obviously not feeling poor because another box arrived today with a Playstation 3 inside. I'm not sure where he managed to find it because its one of the 60GB versions which will also play Playstation 2 games (yes I have already tried it, even though I am meant to be working). I expect there will soon be more details on Rory's blog shortly as well as a more technical view of my new laptop. I see another unproductive weekend ahead.

It was our wedding anniversary a few days ago and I was surprised to receive a parcel from my husband. I was even more surprised to find that it contained a new laptop from Dell. Its a Dell Inspiron and it makes my old laptop look very inferior. I am currently busy installing everything, so am still mainly working on my old machine for now. So far I am very pleased with the new one, its certainly a lot faster and it has the advantage that it doesn't constantly overheat and of course its nice and new and shiny.

This is BMW's latest concept car and surprisingly it is made of cloth. The cars skin is made of an expansion resistant textile which stretches across movable metal wires controlled by hydraulics. The car is more flexible than a car with a metal skin and it is able to change shape at a touch of a button to suit the owners mood.

I am slightly happier today after my bad day yesterday. My laptop is alive once more, for how long I'm not sure, but for now it works. I might still look into purchasing a new one soon, as the problems appear to be caused by it simply overheating.

I have had a really bad day. It started when I turned my laptop on this morning, only to get a blue screen of death moments later. The laptop appears to have died completely and I'm not sure whether it will live another day, it depends on whether my husband can do anything to fix it. In the meantime I have been using a really old really slow computer. It doesn't have most of the software on it that I need to complete my day to day work and I am also unable to access most of my email. It has been a very frustrating day. My only consolation is that I don't store any work locally so whilst I am inconvenienced I have not lost any data. If my laptop is dead though, I might have several more frustrating days ahead whilst I wait for a new one to be delivered. Watch this space, will the laptop live again? Who knows?

I'm still playing with new Nikon D40 and in just a few weeks have already taken hundreds of pictures. Rather than bore people with the details, in future I will just post a selection of the better ones every week or so with a short caption. Starting with the picture on the left which I was quite pleased with.

Yellow Rose in My Garden

This is an interesting idea, its a ceiling that recreates the effect of a sunny day indoors. Called a SkyCeiling the ceiling creates the illusion that you are underneath a sunny sky and can be used to brighten up a room even it has no windows. It works by using high resolution photographs of the sky and overhanging trees which are suspended from the ceiling to create a 3 D effect. The photos are produced on transparent tiles and are lit from behind with high powered fluorescent lights. The system can be programmed to mimic the time of the day and different seasons. It is expected to be popular with offices and hospitals where it could be used to reduce stress and boost feelings of well being.

This is an interesting idea, a suit that can be worn and washed in the shower. It is made from fast drying Australian merino wool and is designed for the Asian market. It is aimed primarily at businessmen who are required to wear a suit in the humidity of an Asian summer. At the end of the day all you need to do is hose the suit down in the shower and hang it up to dry. It regains its shape and is ready to wear again the next morning without the need for dry cleaning.

I’m still getting used to my new iPod that my husband brought me for my wedding anniversary and have been looking at iPod software that will make things easier. iPod Audiobook is a new conversion tool for people that own iPod’s. It converts audio files into a a format supported by your iPod. It can deal with MP3 files, Wav files, OGG files, Wma files and CDA files just to name a few. It’s made to integrate seamlessly with Windows so you can convert all of your audio files without even having to launch the program. It can also convert hundreds of files in one batch and you can get a 30 day free trial.

The TV remote could soon be a thing of the past. Scientists in Australia have invented a device that allows viewers to control the TV by using simple hand gestures. The gadget includes a camera that can recognise hand gestures and could be easily incorporated into set top boxes. A clenched fist turns the TV on, a thumbs up sign controls the volume and a sideways sign can change channels.

Retailers are now starting to offer free laptops as incentives to customers who sign two year broadband contracts. PC World was the first to introduce the offer, giving free laptops to people who signed up for a two year contract with Orange broadband. Now the Carphone Warehouse has introduced a deal to give a Dell laptop to each customer who signs up with AOL Broadband and signs a contract for 24 months.

A boy who brought a Playstation 2 on Ebay was surprised when he received a parcel containing 65,400 Euros, that’s about £44,000. The boy parents contacted the police who are now trying to find out who owns the money. If no one claims it the boy’s family may be able to apply to have it returned to them. Now that I think about I remember posting a large sum of money to Norfolk last week, I wonder if they will believe me.