I gave up the dream of a paperless office years ago and settled for the more practical target of an organised desk. I have yet to achieve even this modest ambition. But not for want of trying.

When I began my drive for a cleaner desktop in the mid-1990s, the first thing I did was to install a business card scanner called CardScan Executive from Corex Systems, recently acquired by the Dymo division of Newell Rubbermaid.