I'm a statistic's freak, so here are some recent factoids I've put together to wrap up a year of amazing changes. Call them the Harper's Index on technology, or not. Maybe you'll find a description of yourself somewhere in the stats.

First, how about those raging surfers in the UK? About 61 percent of those over 15 years-of-age regularly get enraged when surfing online, according to Barclay's Bank, which commissioned NOP Omnibus for a study on the subject.

For the UK as a whole, the most common response was to log off and have a cup of tea (75 percent), followed by 41 percent who used obscenities. Other responses include shouting at the cat, hitting the table, having a stiff drink or in one case putting a slice of toast with jam into the disc drive to teach the computer a lesson.

The most common cause for a tantrum among angry adults was being timed out (29 percent), followed by web pages not being available (22 percent). About 16 percent of respondents in Scotland and the North have admitted hitting their computer when experiencing e-rage. About 11 percent of those living in southern UK have admitted directing their anger by shouting at their partners when something goes wrong, compared to only one percent of those in "middle Britain" who show their frustration by screaming. Meanwhile, people from Scotland, the north and "middle Britain" are most likely to swear at their PC (43 per cent) and 16 per cent of those surveyed from Scotland and the North said they throw a tantrum.

How inventive is Bermuda? Some indication can be gleaned from the "utility" patent filings with the US Patent and Trademark Office. Eight utility patent filings, which are those issued for the invention of a new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or a new and useful improvement, were issued to Bermuda resident companies or individuals in 1999.

That's the record in the statistics that go back to 1965. Five were issued in 1998 and one in 1997. The previous record was seven in 1986. By comparison seven utility patents originated from the Cayman Islands in 1999, 15 from the Bahamas, one from Barbados, and two from the British Virgin Islands.

@EDITRULE:

Looking for a gift with a difference this Christmas, then check out the US government web sites, though which $3.6 billion in products were sold to the public online in 2000. That's more money than that taken in by Amazon.com, according to a study released by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

The analysis shows that the largest e-retail operation is run by the Treasury Department, which sold $3.3 billion in US savings bonds, T-bills, and Treasury notes to the public in 2000. My favourite US government site is the Library of Congress' American Folklife Centre (www.loc.gov) at which you can purchase albums of historic blues music recorded during the 1940s by Alan Lomax and others.

The study found that shoppers could buy rare wild mustangs and burros from the Bureau of Land Management, oil-drilling leases in the Gulf of Mexico from the Minerals Management Service, framed "silken flame Barbie" photographs from the US Postal Service, federal land, including a light-keeper's house in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, from the General Services Administration, and luxury items seized in drug busts from the US Marshals Service.

Another study shows that Internet users are still denying that they're anti-social animals. About 72.3 percent of Americans in 2001 went online, an increase from 66.9 percent in 2000, and spent an average of 9.8 hours per week, up from 9.4 hours per week in 2000, according to the UCLA Center for Communication Policy, which published a survey on the "Digital Future".

Internet users spend more time than nonusers socialising with friends, and almost as much time socialising with family members, according to the study. This does not gel with the reality I know.

Users and nonusers report similar amounts of time involved in activities with household members. The only decline was time spent watching television. Almost one-quarter of children now watch less TV than before they used the Internet.

A small number of users say they have multiple personalities - or screen names - and each name has its own personality, a trend most common among girls ages 16 to 18.

@EDITRULE:

I join the masses in missing an important security update for Microsoft's Outlook E-Mail program that can prevent or lessen the impact of most viruses such as BadTrans and SirCam. Since the protection was released by Microsoft in June 2000 less than one percent of all Outlook users have installed the update, according to a Wired story. Go to the http://office.microsoft.com site and see the "Downloads" section for the patch.