But of course not all machines uses Intel's hardware and until companies start talking to each other our digital devices will remain a chain of islands rather than a border-free mainland.

BBC: NEWS | Technology | Battle over the digital living room

Its breezy cosmopolitan capital, Papeete, sits on Tahiti's northeastern tip and is the gateway to a captivating world of indigenous culture that infuses a chain of islands spread across 5 million square kilometres of sparkling ocean between Australia and South America.

BBC: Getting in the Tahitian spirit

Hartman died in 1991, but the do-it-yourself ethos among U.S. expatriates continues to pave the way for better tourism in the Exumas, a chain of 365 Bahamian islands and cays (pronounced "keys"), low reefs of sand or coral.

FORBES: Blackbeard's Beach

The Florida Keys, a 113-mile-long chain of islands, is one of the five suggestions in Lonely Planet's top five day trips from Miami, but the laid-back streets feel more like they belong in the Caribbean.

BBC: This is Miami week