WEEKLY GROSS-OUT: Rong spelingz

Wher woud sume of us bea withoot spelchekk? Before we answer that, we'd better tell you why the blog has a blue background. Prince William and Kate Middleton now have a little baby. The baby, which is a boy, was born at 4:24pm yesterday (British Summer Time), weighing 8lb 6oz (almost 3.8 kilos). A name has not yet been announced for the child, who is third in line to the throne. The royal couple remained in the private Lindo Wing of St. Mary's Hospital in London overnight but hopes were high that they'd make an appearance as early as today. If so, they will likely appear holding their son on the same hospital steps where Charles and Di gave the world its first sighting of Prince William 31 years ago. Multi-gun salutes will be held today to mark the birth of the new royal heir. The King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery in Green Park is expected to release 41 rounds, while the Honorable Artillery Company at the Tower of London will sound 62 rounds. The bells of Westminster Abbey, where William and Kate were married a little over two years ago, will also peal for over three hours, in keeping with royal tradition. It's not yet known where William and Catherine will take the baby after their discharge from hospital, but it may be hard to escape the world's interest. But of interest to us tonight is the spell check issue, so let's get back to that. The sometimes annoying, but frankly indispensable computer aid has spared billions of typographical blushes. Now, an ingenious prototype pen developed by a German start-up is promising to give our longhand writing a similar sort of safety net. Lernstift (German for "learning pen") is a digital pen with a difference, carrying not only ink inside its casing but also a tiny computer that alerts users to spelling errors. Daniel Kaesmacher, co-founder of Lernstift told CNN: "Basically there are two functions. The calligraphy mode which helps you correct individual letters, and the orthography mode which vibrates when a word is misspelled." The AAA battery-powered Linux computer includes a vibration module and a patent pending non-optical motion sensor which recognizes specific movements and shapes of letters and words. The pen employs a menagerie of sensors, including a gyroscope (for measuring orientation), accelerometer (for calculating propulsion), and magnetometer (a device that measures the strength and direction of magnetic fields) - all to calculate the pen's 3-D movements. But the truth is, I couldn't care less. I have very little use for a pen in this electronic world.