Household computers are under threat from a UK government scheme. But the programme, which involves trading in personal computers for low-tech access points and relying on network-based applications for everything from playing video games to doctoring holiday snaps, could help to save the planet in return. The UK government has announced that it will be launching a pilot project for the scheme in Manchester in 2008. Details are still fuzzy, but the basic idea is to replace PCs in tens or hundreds of households with simple access points, perhaps in TV-top boxes, and establish a system of central servers to...