Welcome to a new year of Backbytes. We’re familiar with the emotion that every year seems like the last one, so we’re excited to see the development of the Hanke-Henry Permanent Calendar, which would divide the year onto four 91-day quarters, and so, reliably into two 30-day months and one of 31 days.

It would mean that 19 May (for example) was a Saturday every year and that the year always starts on a Sunday. Every five or six years we’d add an extra week at the end of December, to keep in sync with the solar system.

It allows the “permanent, rational planning of annual activities, from school to work holidays” says one of the inventors, but if you have a birthday on 31 January, we’re sorry to tell you that you will be abolished.

On the subject of calendars, we’re sure that all readers of the Huddersfield Daily Examiner among our readership will be aware of the activities of PC Specialist Ltd in Holmfirth.

“Twelve brave staff from Brockholes Business Park shop went for spray tans and then posed for the camera in a professional studio,” it reveals.

Yes! They stripped for a charity calendar, which seems to be a ritual that’s as British as chicken tikka masala or going to Ibiza these days. Have a peek here.

“Now you can see who built your new computer”, the site threatens. Any more techie nude calendars out there?

This year we believe that the robots will finally take over, for which we’re extremely grateful. We haven’t had a decent afternoon’s kip on the Backbytes newsdesk since 2007.

So, as a good start, http://romotive.com/ will sell you a device to turn your smartphone into a little robot. You can download apps to make it dance (when it is strapped to its little cart), explore, or remote control it. And developers can create their own iOS apps to make it do things like play bad football and take over the world.

This is great, until your phone works out how to program itself.

For those of you who prefer your possessions not to plot the destruction of the planet, then the new range of "Minty Geek" kits are a safer option.

The kits come on those tins that usually contain posh mints, but instead they are packed with little kits to build stuff.

Some of you will enjoy the Electronics Lab 101, others will relish the astronomer’s torch kit. Promised soon: a universal timer and an LED clothing kit. Just don’t give them as presents to anyone under 18. They won’t understand.

Kudos to Read Write Web, which has published its second round-up of the worst Tech Tattoos. Actually, it is called “The Best (and Worst)…”, but we’re struggling to identify the best ones.
On the other hand, among the obligatory Steve Jobs tributes and naff bits of code, there are more creative ways to embarrass yourself.

Our favourite: the guy who had CIE 4736 tattooed on his knuckles “because I have been a Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert for over 10 years.”

If your colleague has a geeky tattoo, please send it to us. We’ll send a nude techie calendar for every one we publish.