To an extent. If my manager suddenly told me to turn off the print servers (printing for over 10,000 users) I wouldn't blindly log in and shut them down. It's an action which affects the vast majority of the business operations, and therefore needs more than my manager coming to me and saying "kill the servers" before it'll actually happen.

The trouble with lanyards is they get caught, especially annoying if you're crawling under desks. Plus once you start adding the paraphernalia of all but the most state-of-the-art centrally controlled door locking systems you end up with a wide variety of swipe cards and keys which mean it's equivalent to carting a good pocket full of crud around your neck. I don't want to walk around with my ID badge, two USB sticks, a SecurID fob, two RFID fobs and twelve keys bouncing off my chest.

How about the tried and tested solution - name badges. Your name on one line, "IT Services" on the second line, and the corporate logo on the left hand side. Make them the fancy magnetic clip type so they don't ruin clothes and can be pulled off if they snag. Simples.

If you don't have enough time in the day to read bits of /. during office hours, you don't have enough staff. There should always be a bit of idle time in an IT department's day so that when the shit does hit the fan you've got enough slack time to deal with it without sacrificing other things.

Yep. It's called Active Directory and Group Policy. Plus Windows Installer is amazing for managed applications.

We were once like that, with every room having a printer. Now it's all centralised and it's a 5 minute trek to your nearest printer to collect anything.

American cars manage straight lines perfectly well, but fail miserably around a small feature of most road networks - corners with a radius of under 300 yards.

Come to Europe and we'll explain concepts such as handling, fuel efficiency and build quality.

I knew American cars always had a blind spot for manual transmissions, but popping out of gear at high temperatures? Is your friend revving the nuts off it or what?

Here's why. Imagine your car, full to the brim of GPS, rangefingers and inter-car communication - it's completely ready to drive in harmony with other road users and speed you to your destination.

Then, it tries to switch lanes whilst doing 70mph down the motorway and gets walloped by the lorry coming up on the outside because a) the rearward facing rangefinders can't see into the other lane and b) the lorry driver hasn't bothered to fit £3,000 worth of gear so that his cab can tell your car what it's doing.

The 3GS had an oleophobic screen you didn't have to clean quite as often. I however seriously doubt they're going to finish development on, test, announce and ship a new iPhone before Christmas.

It seems to be an ongoing trend in the world that vocational and academic strands of life are being muddled into one, and they shouldn't be. I would not expect a plumber (with a vocational, hands-on, 'tradesman' career) to be able to design a dam any more than I would expect a hydrodynamic engineer (with an academic, theoretic, 'professional' career) to be able to fit my toilet.

The trouble is the word 'professional' - I would consider that plumbers, electricians and mechanics are all professionals since they have a profession they do for a living.

I'm an Online Services Team Computing Officer, in the Online Services team, which is a part of ICT Services department, which is a part of Business Systems.

If anybody can tell me what's supposed to go on my business card (and by extension my CV) I'll give them a cookie.

I'd strongly recommend hitting the East Coast Main Line up to York, but generally speaking if you cannot get to where you want to go directly from London then it's really not worth the hassle of fighting the UK rail network.

Alternatively, you can pay for access to the BT OpenZone hotspots on either a short or longer term, which tend to be broadcast from some phone booths, places like Starbucks, McDonalds etc so it's unlikely you won't be able to find wifi within 50 yards unless you're outside the tourist areas.

One's colder than the other, even taking into account England's notoriously unreliable weather.

In all seriousness though, they do taste quite different.

Small but incredibly useful tip if you plan on travelling around London to see the sights and intend on using the tube (It's easier and in most cases faster than anything else):

Get an Oyster Card instead of buying individual or daily tickets. Cheaper fares, easier getting through the gates, and it works on busses as well.