Have you ever seen a Sony Aibo, Sony's robotic dog, ''in the flesh'', so to speak? Amazing and stunning.

My other half, June, has one. Technologically, it's an amazing achievement - I read somewhere that Sony say it's one of the most complicated and intricate things they have ever manufactured. Featuring a 200Mhz RISC processor, 20 motors, colour TV vision, infra red distance sensing, acceleration sensors, vibration sensors, temperature sensors, touch sensors, voice recognition . . . (etc etc.) it's a technical marvel. However, as June points out, you cannot interact with it without changing to calling him "he". June has named him "Maxwell" and he delights and amazes her (and I) every time he's turned on, and he never fails to do something new.

If you have £1250 to spare, go and buy one. Doubtless Maxwell will crop up from time to time in the Blog, but for now, if you have no idea what I'm on about, click here.