How is satellite navigation on a cell phone going to change your life? Forget about fears of nasty government types tracking your every move. Instead think of the satisfaction you will get defeating cheating taxi drivers. This was the story recounted by a conference speaker here in Naples, Italy at a satellite navigation conference.

"I noticed we were going a different way so I held up my cell phone and said 'Look I have GPS, take me directly to the hotel'," said Colonel David Madden, commander of the GPS Wing of the US Air Force. A satisfied chuckle went through the room. Madden was making a small but useful point, after being asked how the new GPS services and others are going to change our lives. Of course he and others on the panel threw out a lot of other ideas, some of which I have previously outlined in this column.

There is no doubt that we will be swimming in new satellite navigation systems within 10 years. A new more accurate version of GPS is being put into space (GPSIII). Europe is creating the Galileo system. Russia is redesigning its system, GLONASS, and China is putting 35 satellites into space for COMPASS.

The aim is not only to end dependency on the US GPS system, but to also improve the accuracy, reliability and integrity of satellite navigation so it can be used to land airplanes and for emergency situations where safety of life needs to be guaranteed, among other applications. If you are a boat owner, think about how useful it will be to be guided to within less than a metre of your target. Current GPS technology is only accurate to with three to 10 metres on the best of days, and you can never be guaranteed of receiving the signal.

Many of the presenters in Naples were recipients of EU (European Union) research funding under the Framework Programmes. Billions of euros are handed out for such research, especially for high technology areas such as satellite navigation or the Internet, which got me thinking that Bermudian entrepreneurs and companies should try for some of the pot.

Bermuda sits in a strange spot in the EU firmament - it is a colony and not a overseas department of an EU member state; such as is the relationship France has with its Caribbean holdings. They are part of France and vote in national and EU elections, and use the euro.

While Bermuda may not have direct access to EU research funds, it can do so indirectly, such as Canada, China and a 100 other non-EU countries have done. All you need to do is to have a good high tech idea, expertise in your chosen field, and the ability to gather a consortium heavily weighted with EU-based companies and researchers. You also have to outline how your proposal will benefit Europe's citizens or economy. Whew!

But I have reviewed a lot of the projects, not just in the satellite navigation field, and have seen how it can be done. For example the big Bermudian reinsurers, who either have their headquarters or offshoots in Europe, have developed sophisticated software prediction models for disaster mapping. That's partially how they determine what risks to take on how to price policies. Similar high tech research could presumably be co-funded under the safety and security tranches of the EU's research funding.

Your proposal does not have to be astoundingly high tech. I recently reviewed the ELU project, which developed teaching methodlogies and software learning programmes to help teachers develop interactive video courses for children and adults coping with change in the EU's Eastern European member states. The development is seen as an interim measure to provide interactive education in countries where computer and Internet penetration rates are low.

Europe is now in Framework Programme 7 (FP7), which runs in stages named "calls". These are being made all the time for various themes, such as information and communication technologies (ICT). You can find out information about FP7 here: http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7 Click on the section 'Outside countries' to see the conditions for participation. You can find out information on ICT funding at: http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict To get an idea of some of the funded project you can access the database of current and past projects. Get thinking!

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Here is a very good service that allows you to withhold your personal e-mail address when signing up to an online site. Mailinator (www.mailinator.com) gives you a temporary e-mail address with a prefix you choose coupled to one of seven e-mail suffixes provided by the site. You can then go to your temporary mailbox just by typing in the prefix to retrieve registration e-mails and activate subscriptions. And no, you do not have to sign up to Mailinator to get a temporary e-mail. However I do not think the service will last very long. Subscription sites will soon start blocking the Mailinator sign ups, since collecting valid e-mail addresses is their bread-and-butter for offering free services. But for now, it is a good way to cut down on spam or unwanted e-mails.

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We are exposed to some form of viewing screen - whether it is TVs, cellphones, GPS or computers - for about 8.5 hours on any given day, according to a study released by the Council for Research Excellence. TV remains our favourite medium for media consumption but computer usage has taken over second spot from radio as the second most common media activity, according to the Nielsen study. The study found that the average American adult watched five hours and nine minutes of live TV each day, about 15 minutes of TV via a DVR device and 2.4 minutes of video on the computer.

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