Online filtering, government travel portals, Microsoft and security (and WinFS), ticket machines and much more

This week's print edition of the Technology supplement is online too..

• Surfing with a safety net
  The government is leaning on ISPs to install web filters for home broadband, at huge cost. But, asks Sean Hargrave, is that the best way to stop paedophiles' online activities?
• Time to tell this travel site where to go
  Apart from giving wrong directions, what is a public-sector behemoth doing in the dynamic knowledge economy? Michael Cross reports.
• Will Microsoft corrupt the security sector?
  With the wreckage of Netscape, Lotus and Borland in its rear-view mirror, Microsoft now seems to have another group of software vendors in its sights, ready to run them down: antivirus vendors.
• Big Brother takes a controlling interest in chips
  A chilling novel details how everyday technologies could gradually lead to a far more invasive society than even Orwell dreamed of.
• Newly Asked Questions
  • Who is winning the Blu-ray battle?
    Funnily enough, both sides are losing. We were looking forward to a slugfest between Blu-ray and HD-DVD, the two blue-ray laser formats bidding to become the high-definition replacement for DVD, but both seem more intent on committing seppuku (aka "hari-kari") instead.
  • How much does it cost to display an OS map on a website?
    Much less than we estimated last week. In "Time to account for travel maps' costs" (June 22), we wrote: "For a charity to put [those maps] on a webserver that might be used by hundreds of people (a typical server can handle 2,000) would cost millions of pounds annually."
• Don't let the politicians play games with us
  Aleks Krotoski: The US comic Jon Stewart gave Congress another what-for on last week's episode of his programme, The Daily Show. Stewart's handling of the congressional hearings into videogame violence set out to lampoon the greyhairs in charge of the nation. In doing so, he exposed the ignorance that saturates elected officialdom.
• Games
  New Super Mario Bros | Hitman: Blood Money | The Movies: Stunts and Effects
• Thinking small could be beautiful for Britain's IT
  Michael Cross: Every working day, the government spends about £20 million on information technology. As it is more than anyone else in the country lays out on computers, and shows no sign of decreasing, it is worth asking what the spending is for.
• Why WinFS had to vanish
  Windows users won't miss the planned storage and search system - nobody could find a good use for it.
• The revolution will be online - virtually
  Victor Keegan: I was at a conference the other day when someone came up to me afterwards to share a recent experience. He was involved in selling services to the National Union of Students and was worried by the amount of time students were spending on MySpace.com.
• Technobile
  Chris Alden: Buying a train ticket from a machine shouldn't be this hard. If the Germans can make it easy, why can't we?
• Ask Jack
  Send your questions and comments to jack.schofield@theguardian.com. Published letters will be edited for brevity, but include full details with your query.
  Please visit our Ask Jack weblog for daily updates.
• Newsbytes
  Carbon fibre TX3 | Are you mouseproud? | Charge on the go | Total broadband | Safer shopping | Talk to the trees | Hello Gbuy | Not that K9
• Letters and blogs
  Send your letters, comments, questions and rants to tech@theguardian.com, and please include your address and post town.