Are these strange symbols above the Psion logo the lord's prayer backwards in runic? Apparently not. Psion, we find, is a highly sensitive, decency-obsessed outfit. Read on.

A couple of days back we noted a Psion release about a netBook in schools project, thought that the project's existence suggested that Psion just might finally have got some decent ethernet drivers together for the netBook, and emailed PR factotum Anthony Garvey with a mild enquiry.

So far so good. Anthony replied in the affirmative, copying Psion's Mr netBook in on the message. That's when it all started to go wrong. We replied exuberantly:

"Vipul? Ah yes, I remember Vipul. I'm replying on a Netbook, BTW, so I'm obviously still interested. Yup, gimme gimme. While I'm about it, could you nuke the control freaks who're responsible for the tollgate on your software updates? Why the **** is it necessary, for example, to be registered in order to get Wavefinder updates? I mean if you want them you've obviously got a Wavefinder, and the s*****g things don't fit in CD burners, do they? (-:

Congrats on the share revival, BTW. I was just musing about buying some yesterday. B******.

John"

The asterisks, we regret to say, were not in the original message. For reasons you may have guessed already, publication of the message here will be Anthony's first opportunity to read it.

Back came the response from mailsweeper@psion.com. "An attempt to send this message has been blocked as it may breach the corporate policy." But we hear from Anthony. "To new heights: your message has been banned. So I am unable to reply with my normal level of accuracy (steady...)"

So we tried again, this time with asterisks, and outlining the likely problems with the previous effort:

"Oh, the usual, f***, b*****, b*****. I'll debark it and send again some time. Anyway, the bowdlerised version is that yes please, I'd like the Ethernet code, and possibly an up to date network adaptor, if you could see your way. The gold card issued with the netbook isn't an Ethernet combo.

I'm stunned that you get any email at all though, if you've got a decency bot enabled. Your mates are a f**** rough crowd, after all, aren't they?

John"

There were, we blush to admit, again substantially less asterisks in the original, although no risky word was used in full.

Well, hello again mailsweep@psion.com, which apparently does asterisks. And hello Vipul Palan, who turns out to have got the first one, bad language and all. Psion only uses the language minder for the PR guy, not for the execs? Funny that. We replied to Vipul, deliberately not cutting the copy of the original offending message off the bottom, and cced in Anthony so he could get another puzzling bouncer alert. And we've decided to send him a word or phrase of the day, every day.

Today's word was "smeg". This seems to have passed. Yesterday's was "bunch of radishes". This passed too. Onwards and upwards. ®