Welcome to Random Access, a daily column by staff writer Robert MacMillan that explores the latest trends in technology and how they are changing daily life.

Random Access wants to change the way that you see technology. It is, after all, such a loaded word. People who aren't Internet geeks see the word and turn off faster than their PC during a power outage. Random Access is a column for them and for anyone else who wants to see not only how technology molds average people, but how they in turn mold the technology.

Random Access won't tell you why the Xa78##2.4 gizmo will revolutionize your ad server. It will tell you about episodes from daily life -- exasperated waiters who use blogs to vent about their customers, whole runs of salmon injected with nanoparticles for individual tracking in Norwegian fjords and the growing number of DJs who are sick of being sidelined in favor of iPods. (Only one of these stories is fake -- which one is it?)

The stories in this column come from all over the world; we find them in major city daily newspapers, radio stations, newspapers and wire services from around the world in several languages and in blogs and the e-mails that you send us. Most of what you see will be culled from these sources, though we will supplement Random Access with original files from Robert MacMillan on the novel, unusual, bizarre and reactionary happenings in the world of technology and society.

washingtonpost.com runs Random Access every weekday at 10:30 a.m. ET. Get it in our Technews.com daily newsletter or sign up for our RSS feed.