Our window into the digital universe has long been a glowing screen perched on a desk. It's called a computer monitor, and as you stare at it, light is focused into a coin-sized image on the retina in the back of your eyeball. The retina converts the light into signals that percolate into your brain via the optic nerve.

Jaycar Electronics has moved from Gore Hill to new premises at 96 Pacific Highway, St Leonards.

Austronics 2004, widely recognised as Australia's premier exhibition for the electronics industry, will be held in Melbourne from Tuesday October 5 to Thursday October 7 at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre.

Spy networks and international financial systems may benefit from an advance in teleportation technology developed at the Australian National University.

Particle & Surface Sciences has become the sole distributor for Lighthouse Worldwide Solutions.

The low yield of optical semiconductor processing, compared with today's silicon industry, is stalling progress in major markets such as ultra-high bandwidth communications networks for enterprises and homes.

The 2004 Westpac New Zealand Hi Tech Awards will be held in Wellington for the second time since the Awards began 11 years ago, and the organisers are now calling for entries.

A little over a year ago, a Swedish scientist learned the hard way that laptop computers do not quite live up to their name. According to the British medical journal, the Lancet, the mercifully anonymous man spent an evening writing a report, periodically shifting position to avoid heat from the machine. The next day he woke to find himself blistered in a very sensitive place. He'd been well and truly fried.

Victoria's Minister for Manufacturing and Export, Tim Holding, has announced that an Electronics Industry Capability Mission to North Asia will be conducted in October 2004.

Engineers at Oregon State University have created what is claimed to be the world's first transparent transistor, a see-through electronics component that could open the door to many new products.

An improved method for correcting nano- and micro-scale friction measurements has been developed by researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

Farnell InOne has issued the first of what it says will become a regular email newsletter to its customers on issues relating to the RoHS (restriction of certain hazardous substances) and WEEE (waste electrical and electronic equipment) directives.

Future Horizons predicts that robots will become mainstream consumer products within the next decade, providing a significant growth opportunity for the electronics sector.

Deliberate jamming of communications to and from space satellites is being overcome with a system that identifies and locates the source of the jamming in minutes.

Invensys Powerware has partnered with Lightning Protection International to distribute the latter's range of Guardian CAT (controlled area triggering) series air terminals, LPI surge and transient protection products for data, communication and signal lines, and LPI grounding products throughout Australia and New Zealand.