Making up a wish list for presents is something I've done every year (and in fact do continually throughout the year) for some time, but this is the first time I've given it to anybody but my closest family. And yes, it really has included some of the items on this list.

This year though there's a slight difference - aside from the fact that you're reading it - this year I've included a few things that aren't really available, but that I'd like nonetheless. Hopefully some technologist at Apple, Sony or whoever will think 'hey what a cool idea' and make me one.

One can but hope.

1. A proper portable convergence device. By that I mean something with the storage space of my 20Gb iPod combined with the new Sony NX70V and my T68i. Something that I could truly use as a portable device that would enable me to do about 90% of the things I like to do on the move. I still wonder why somebody hasn't combined a PDA/phone with a Bluetooth headset - that would solve the issue of clamping a brick to your head each time to speak.

2. A Sony GRV516G. One of my biggest bugbears about notebooks and portables in general is their screen. I don't use less than 1600x1200 on the desktop, why should I do so on the move? This Sony has a 16.1" TFT panel and the magic resolution, along with the usual Sony niceties.

3. A house in the Lake District, our favorite place in the UK. It has the best scenery, some of the nicest people, and all the best restaurants (as far as we're concerned at least).

4. Another Sony NR70V, not for me, but for my wife. I bought mine in August, to replace an aging IIIc which she then inherited, in turn to replace an aging Psion S5.

5. Three cars. I've always thought you should need only three cars at any one time. One 4x4 Pickup, for off-road, bad road conditions and transporting the newest kit that's too large for a normal car. A sports car, for when you want to enjoy the drive as much or more than the destination. Since there's no upper limit here, I'll have a Lamborghini Murcielago. Finally, you need that everyday vehicle that you take to the grocery store, perhaps a Mercedes C36AMG.

6. One full height 19" rack, full of fully populated Apple Xserve boxes.
That should give me quite a bit of storage for the music and photo collections.

7. A device that would, legally, enable me to copy all my DVDs onto an attached HD, so that I didn't have to have DVD storage solutions or keep getting up and putting DVDs on each time. Whilst I'm at it, it should be able to play my MP3 collection (stored on that XServe array) and display my photos. Oh, and I should be able to access my movie, audio or photo collection from any of a number of client boxes round the house.

8. A ban on computers in schools, except for research facilities, and a return to the days when kids used books, pens and their brains to do their work.

9. A limitless supply of cash to fund the WWF - not the Wrestling people, but the World Wide Fund for nature. They do an immense amount of work to protect all sorts of animals and a species, usually in a way that doesn't exclude or penalize humans, but that aims to benefit both man and beast.

10. An end to the national debt here in the UK. By that, I don't mean the debt of the government, but of the people who live and work here in the UK.
It cripples too many people, and it's far to easy to get into debt, so I guess I'd better back that up with an end to the easy credit facilities offered to so many people who should never have had it in the first place.
We'd probably have a better economy because of it.