State-sponsored Nerdism

You might expect it from some cheesed-off pen-pusher in Dundonald, but certainly not from the hard-working salarymen of Chiyoda. The Civil Service it would seem, is so universally boring that employees across the world prefer to spend their working hours editing Wikipedia.

Only recently, the Northern Ireland Civil Service was embarrassed by a software tool that can track the IP addresses of anyone who edits this 'people-powered' online encyclopaedia. The edits were pretty puerile - changing an entry on the Koran and adding links to websites that sell Viagra - and a sad endictment of the calibre of an industry that accounts for a mind-bending 63% of the economy of Northern Ireland (for the UK as whole - which includes that crazy NI figure - it's 43%).

But their state-sponsored Japanese counterparts spend their time, among other things, honing the pages devoted to Gundam, the giant manga robot. Gundam - originally known as Freedom Fighter Gunboy - dates back to the late seventies, and has been a major contributor to the phenomenon known here as otaku, or nerd adults.

Japan is so gadget-tastic that it's hardly any wonder that geekdom is in the ascendancy. USB-specialists SoundAlliance make a whole variety of wacky tech products ranging from the slightly useful - memory sticks in the shape of sushi, 'omelette' mice - to the somewhat strange - 'ghost radar' - to the downright weird - business card holders fashioned to look like raw Kobe beef.

Also much in demand - they can only be bought online, and there is a waiting list - is a mouse pad which claims to alleviate RSI, but is actually an enterprising and tactile combo of eroge - manga porn - and silicon implants. Not quite sure why there's a lady pictured tweaking them though.

The latest must-have gadget is Sony's curiously-named 'Rolly'. I say curiously named because it combines letter-sounds - 'L' and 'R' - that give the Japanese the most phonetic distress, so it could be 'Rolly', 'Lolly', 'Lorry' or 'Rorry', depending on how lithe - or indeed rithe - your tongue is feeling. Nice one, Sony.

Although the initial reaction is "Wow, that's cool!", on further inspection it's actually a case of mistaken identity. It's just, well, eccentrically different. We had one demonstrated to us at the local denki-store (you can't buy them yet, you have to reserve them, and even then the girl didn't know how long you would be waiting before you got one). It does all the spinning about stuff, as advertised, but the sound is pretty tinny, Jack would rip the ears off it in seconds, and it has 'fad' written all over it. And it's not cheap, at the best part of 200 quid.

This is kids' stuff - MP3-player meets Furby - and not anything the hardcore otaku is going to fall for. But don't take my word for it, just ask the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.