Sorry about the bubble bursting and everything

So began a speech made by leading US VC John Doerr last weekend. And what's he sorry about? The dot-com crash, that's what.

Mr Doerr was speaking to Democrat congressmen and industry leaders on Sunday, and for a grand opening took responsibility for the ever-growing number of dot-com drop-outs strewn around the gutters of cyberspace.

He apologised for certain statements he made a while back which "may have led" to the rapid boom in the sector, which has, of course, been followed by a big bust. As it were.

He has now revised his earlier opinion that the internet was "the largest legal creation of wealth in the history of the planet". He now says it's "the largest legal creation (and evaporation) of wealth in the history of the planet".

It's nice of the man to own up, if not a teeny bit arrogant to take 'credit' for the whole shooting match. But don't worry: he reckons we should all remain believers in the new economy, and predicts it will rise, phoenix-like, from the ashes of the dot-com crematorium.

It may take another 12 months, he said, but it will be back. Mind you, he got it wrong last time.

Incidentally, John Doerr is a major backer of Ginger - remember that? The remarkable innovation that's going to revolutionise our lives? No, really, it is. John Doerr says so. See http://www.silicon.com/a41960 if you've forgotten the details.

"Good morning! Every now and again a company does something special - something unexpected."

You're telling me. This is the opening line of a particularly perky press release from Corel, proclaiming the release of a "special and unexpected" new product. It's powerful, fun, edgy and innovative, apparently.

But what's really special about it is its name: Procreate. We'll leave you to make your own jokes about Corel's powerful new tool.

First we had broadband from a balloon (see http://www.silicon.com/a45600 ). Now we've got it from a flying boomerang.

Sunday saw the first flight of a Nasa aircraft which could replace satellites for many applications, including broadband net access.

Helios is a 247-foot long craft resembling a flat, black banana. It has a series of propellers powered by solar cells. In the test, it reached an altitude of 75,000 feet before beginning its descent.

One day Nasa hopes these things will be able to stay airborne for months at a time, bringing fast net access and other services to remote areas which can't be reached by cable, or, say, ADSL. Speaking of which...

To get ADSL in your home, you have to be within 3.5km of your local exchange - until now that is. BT Ignite (the bit of BT which looks after the network infrastructure and resells access to other telcos and ISPs) has introduced something called RADSL (rate adaptive DSL, in case you're interested). This extends that limit to 5.5km, opening up speedy access to another two million homes in the UK.

Several ISPs have leapt on the potential of the technology and are starting to offer their customers this service - all except BT's own ISP, BT Openworld.

Which seems a bit odd. The two BT divisions claim the Chinese walls between them are in fact sound-proof, and that BT Openworld does not get preferential treatment from BT Ignite.

No one's ever really believed that, especially not other jealous ISPs, but maybe we now have proof that they don't talk to each other. At all.

But no: RADSL will indeed be available through BT Openworld by the end of this month, or early next. No explanation for the delay though.

Let's get it off! No, that's got nothing to do with Corel's new product. It is, in fact, the name of a campaign which aims to make the UK working week end at mid-day on Fridays.

If you go to letsgetitoff.com, you can sign a petition to be delivered to 10 Downing Street, demanding that workers be allowed to spend their Friday afternoons away from their desks, preferably in the pub.

A spokesman for the campaign said: "People in the UK work the longest hours in Europe and we think they deserve a break. We're asking the government to give us a completely work-free Friday afternoon, without any reduction in pay."

They've got 12,000 names so far, and want to reach 100,000.

But they're not entirely convinced Mr Blair will agree to the petition's demands. The site's FAQ section admits that "there's slightly more chance of David Icke proving that Prince Phillip is a giant lizard. But at least we're both trying".

In last week's Round-Up, we took the mickey out of ITV Digital's mysterious monkey (see http://www.silicon.com/a45721 ). You may have seen it on billboards, or on TV.

We actually think it's rather fetching, and, determined to find out about the 'real' monkey behind the celebrity, the Round-Up got in touch with ITV's press office. But we only got as far as asking one question before realising our enquiries were going to be fruitless, and that the enigma of the monkey will remain intact.

"What's he called?" we asked.

"Monkey," said the spokeswoman.

Oh dear. Surely we can do better than that? Log on to our latest story about ITV Digital here - http://www.silicon.com/a45746 - and add a reader comment with your suggestions for a better name. We'll forward any inspired ones to ITV. You just never know where this may lead...

That's it for now. If you want to read about the humiliations suffered by silicon.com readers at the hands of technology, then log-on to our brand new Digital Blunders microsite at http://www.silicon.com/goto-Digital-round