There's irony in the connection between two key themes running through just-auto's news this week - the latest round of ingenious electronic trickery unveiled through the first ever virtual CES show (a moment of silence for the huge loss to Las Vegas' hospitality and entertainment sectors, please; this could stick) and the acute shortage of chips which power said electronics. Back in my earlier journalist days, I gigged freelance shifts for a well known global publisher of personal and business computing magazines and, early 90s, CES - the Consumer Electronics show in 'Vegas - was the holy grail. A media trip invitation, or an employer funded excursion offer, made the editors gleeful for months ahead and turned the rest of us drones in Sector Seven C green with envy, even more so when said editors returned from the States to the office laden with 'blags' (corporate gifts to attending media) and enough press packs to guarantee several months' worth of copy. I've been a fan of consumer electronics (not called that then) since devices such as radios, TVs and tape recorders (remember them?) contained valves (tubes) and voltages lethal to the unwary DIY-er so, when I finally got to see CES for myself a few years ago, as a guest of Kia's UK unit, I was simply blown away by the arrays of leading-edge TVs, phones, tablets, smart home appliances and all the rest.