The New Scientist has a nice little piece on a mystery solved. Apparently some users of Windows XP and Office XP have noticed their machine behaving as though it has a ghost in it – words automatically inserted into documents, menus and toolbars opening on their own, that sort of thing.

Well it seems that it has been traced to the fact that some computer dealers are leaving the voice recognition feature of these products switched on by default, and the feature is desperately trying to convert innocent sounds from unsuspecting owners into user commands. So, no exorcism needed here then, that’s a relief.