It is rare for me to contemplate new gadgetry without a pang of regret for the early passing of Douglas Adams. I miss him both as friend and technology guru. For years, we played with digital toys together, swapping software and finding new ways to make our systems crash. Back in the 80s, we had acoustic coupler modems, capable of what we thought was a dazzling half-duplex 1,200 bps. In ...