Crackberry addiction to stay I have always been a bit of a gadget freak but my Blackberry addiction is beyond normal. When my boss first left it on my desk with a note saying: "I think you need one of these so I know where the hell you are," I purposely left it in it's box for a few days, a little out of spite but mainly because I knew that I would be one of those annoying people that walks down the street staring at the screen whilst furiously thumbing the tracking wheel up and down and knowing full well that I would get out of bed in the middle of the night to see if I've received a "Charlton Newsflash" email. Saddo indeed.

With my regular travelling and what with my laptop recently being out of action, my Blackberry has become a godsend. It gives me access to the worldwide web all day long, blogger, emails from mates, oh and work stuff too. I have even developed a blister on my right thumb where I have been a bit over anxious with the tracking wheel!

In recent months the long ongoing dispute between Blackberry's manufacturers Research in Motion (RIM) and a small Virginia based company NTP over a patent infringement threatened a complete shutdown - although government officials and emergency services were apparently going to be spared - of the handheld device. NTP argued that in 1990 one of their co-founders created a system to send e-mails between computers and wireless devices that RIM had stolen.

But yesterday in an out-of-court settlement, Ontario based RIM agreed to pay $612m in a full and final settlement thus meaning I can add repetitive strain to my frazzled brain by mobile phone over-use and stress from being a Charlton fan! Oh joy.  ¶ 12:39