Or that cognitive decline starts as soon as you are being watched by researchers. :-)

It's a pity. I was still buying their printer paper to print my photos on (when I print photos that is). I did have a Kodak Digital camera at one stage, but switched to Nikon and have never looked back. Up to my second Nikon camera now, and they are wonderful things. But, every photographer I know recommends either Nikon or Canon for anything that is more than just a point and shoot (and my nikon works wonderful even when I'm lazy and just doing a 'point and shoot' thing on 'Auto'). So, they really didn't get a look in at that end of the market. As far as point and shoot cameras go, my old Kodak was expensive, and it is a crowded market, and as some people always point out to me, the cameras in mobile phones are getting to the point of being just as good (in some case better) as point and shoot cameras.

Why did I just have flashbacks of the 'Stand Up Philosopher' bit from Mel Brooks 'History of the World Part 1' ???

One of the problems holding us back at work is the software some of our designers and engineers run is brilliant on XP but second rate on Win7. They complain to me and ask me to 'fix' the versions that run on Win7 as they have bugs/flaws. I can't 'fix' the software, as the software is third party. Many times I hear the designers saying things like 'Version 11 (XP version) is great, but version 12 (Win7 Version) stuffs up and makes it look like I can't do my job.' One of the design engineers was showing me how in the Win7 version two metal beams that join perfectly in the XP software don't quite match up in the Win7 version. They join the beams perfectly in one view, swing it around and it's 5 cm out in a different view.

To cut a long story short, until the Win7 versions of the software have had the bugs ironed out and removed, the XP versions of the software are the only things we can actually use to do our jobs. We had to wait months for the Win7 versions of the software, but after testing, they just aren't up to scratch yet. We can't move to Linux or Unix (or anything else) as the software we use (and our clients use) are all Windows based.

Agree with you except for one small point.

Less quality cinemas usually have 'new movies' too at the discount rate. I know as I used to deliver the flyer for a cinema (and had a 'free pass' to see all the movies I wanted ... except the 'R' rated ones as I was under 18 at the time). But I saw the original 'Battlestar Gallactica' and 'Buck Rogers' (yeah, me old), as well as Rocky and Rocky II all when they were brand new and being shown at 'quality cinemas', (and 'The Empire Strikes Back' ... which I saw two nights in a row, Oh yeah!), and the less quality cinema was about two thirds the cost of a regular cinema.

I currently get an email from a 'less quality' cinema in my city, (though I admit I've never gone) which shows the latest movies at a lesser price. Admittedly they don't show 'ALL' the latest movies, but one of the reasons for that is they have only one screen to show the movies they are playing. But if there are say, ten new movies out, they'll be showing about three of them each week, along with two or three 'art movies' that you'd never see at the mainstream cinemas.

One 'less quality' cinema that I used to frequent in my University years had two screens, so could show two movies at a time. But, it shut down due to financial difficulties. It used to play a combination of latest movies at a cheaper rate and 'classic' / 'cult' movies such as 'Blues Brothers', 'Rocky Horror Picture Show', 'Song Remains the Same' and 'Clockwork Orange' etc so was always good if you ever wanted to see something 'classic' like 'Citizen Kane' or 'Seven Samurai' on the big screen. Though, with todays home theatre experience who needs to go to a cinema to have that experience.

Not sure about the 'lesser quality' cinemas in your location, but the perception that they show 'older movies' is something that was always persistent with the 'lesser quality' cinemas I used to frequent, and was more a perception based on the fact that they do show old 'classics' and often never have a 'specific' latest movie that someone wants to see (due to lack of screens to play them on).

One good thing I will say about the 'lesser quality' cinemas I've been to though, is they tend to be cleaner and smell less than the big cinemas. This, I will assume, is probably due to them not having a 'patrons are cattle' attitude. The big cinemas tend to do a 'quick' clean between showings and get the next lot of patrons in ASAP, where as the 'lesser quality' cinemas show less movies (sometimes only one or two a night per screen) and do a better clean between screenings. I've sat in a big cinema where the area I was in smelt like urine ... but couldn't move seats because there wasn't anywhere to move to (it was packed) and the people I was with didn't want to wait for another showing.

You're being ripped off. We outsourced a $10 million project to India for $900,000. Admittedly it didn't work and came back all wrong, but after getting them to correct it and make it 'usable' it still came back at about $1 million total. Still, it was one tenth the cost for something which, though not as good a quality, still did the job it was intended to do. So, get an Indian guy at one tenth the price, or maybe one at one fifth the price to maintain the quality. :-)

I've worked with several 'good' IT managers who are worth their weight in gold. 'Bad' IT managers are, unfortunately, the norm. There are several problems I always had with 'bad' IT Managers.

First, is the IT Manager who knows NOTHING about IT. Often they are accountants who have risen through managerial ranks and somehow talked their way into IT positions. They make demands like 'ripping out the firewalls' which they think do nothing and are an 'expense' or 'remove all Linux boxes from the network' because Linux is free and therefore can't possibly work. They're also naturally arrogant sods who think they know better than their underlings because 'they're managers' and if the underlings actually knew anything they'd be managers.

Second, is the IT manager who has risen through the ranks of IT to make it into management. They often know their IT stuff quite well, but due to their 'nerd' nature are often poor communicators, loners with poor social skills (brush your teeth 'Mister Sticky Green Teeth'! Sorry, flashback to an IT manager form 1988), and treat anyone who doesn't know 'everything' that they know like they are idiots, (and with 20-30 years IT experience under their belts, they think they know it all).

BUT the flip side to this is I've also found people don't care / want to know what IT does, so IT managers NOT explaining things sits well with them. Then there are the users from 'hell' - those who like to 'fiddle' with their settings till they break - those who expect computers to 'read their minds' - those who expect the computer software to do things how THEY [the user] wants it to work, not how it was designed to function - users who think you are an expert on every piece of hardware / software etc even invented, (Had a conversation today that went something like, 'Where can I buy a TX75 card? I used to have a TX65, but the manufacturer stopped making it and the TX85 is now out and I can't find it in the store, but my old TX75 stopped working and I thought maybe you'd know where I can get one.' 'Er, what's a TX75 card and what does it do?' 'Oh, come on, you're in IT. You know what it does! Have you heard what specs the TX90 is getting? I heard it was phasing out USB two point zero support and had an internal SATA jack that can be attached from outside the box.' *faints*)

... the Universe is held together by stupidity. It's a theory, based on the fact there is so much of it about.

Didn't they prove that theory wrong? :-)

Nothing to translate for those of us who can read original Klingon.