Sir: In your otherwise beautiful poem 'The Vision of Sin' there is a verse which reads -- 'Every moment dies a man, Every moment one is born.' It must be manifest that if this were true, the population of the world would be at a standstill... I would suggest that in the next edition of your poem you have it read -- 'Every moment dies a man, Every moment 1  1/16 is born.'... The actual figure is so long I cannot get it onto a line, but I believe the figure 1  1/16 will be sufficiently accurate for poetry. I am, Sir, yours,etc., Charles Babbage

-- Charles Babbage (father of the computer) to Victorian poet Sir Alfred Lord Tennyson, 1851

Brought to you by Karlin Lillington  -- technohack (you can find some of my writing here -- mainly on technology and technoculture, which I have covered for The Guardian, The Irish Times, Salon.com, Wired.com, The Sunday Times, Red Herring, eCompany/Business 2.0, New Scientist and assorted other places). These pages are an attempt to provide a platform for exploration within the broad category of technoculture (the divisions are, at times, somewhat arbitrary). I've intentionally interpreted technoculture in the widest sense, striving for a good and, I hope, intriguing mix of techno and culture. But do keep in mind that there is -- especially on the Web -- no accounting for taste...