My good friend Jeremy lost his laptop this week, after his two year old son poured water in it because it 'looked thirsty'. With it goes his HDD and all the data on it, including the latest chapters of the book he's been writing. Like me, Jeremy is self-employed and relies on his computer for work, so I feel his pain only too acutely. It would be a nightmare for me to lose my laptop - which will happen soon as it now has seven lines on the screen - but at least I have my desktop to fall back on. Jeremy is left borrowing other people's computers and wondering how he will get any work done.

If you happen to be in a position to help, either with a cheap computer to sell, parts to fix his old one, or a bit of unneeded cash you can donate to him, please do. If not, please go to his site and relentlessly click on his ads, and we'll see if we can't earn him an extra penny or two that way.