Since I've never really hacked anything, at least I can get a feeling of power by being a saboteur here.

1) I would have to assume this, but based on articles I've read and interviews I've read, there already are banks and banks of computers scanning data and voice traffic already. I would also assume that there are other software tools besides foxpro that fit this bill.

2) I also would have to assume, based on your comment that you don't do UI, that we are not even debating on the same plane. I've worked with several scientists and saw the results of their efforts. Lots of data manipulation with an extremely simple output method of the results. I doubt many others here produce this type of work. Look at the threads on a daily basis, at leat 75% have to do with a UI issue.

3) I think it's partially ego to think that some people complaining here influenced MS decision to create LINQ. Personally, I think it's their marketing machinery at work. It's folks looking at dotnet vs. java and looking for technologies found at MS that could be added to dotnet to create a larger gap between the two.

>>have spent much of the last 2 years developing a pretty rich set of reusable UI, database, reporting, and connectivity components in .NET
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>I haven't developed a UI or normal report for over 5 years.
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>This is why we *need* to be able to hold conversations without saboteurs bursting in. One reason why autospanning datasets is "obvious" to me is because I need it all the time. Whereas all the cool work you do with components and UIs is as nothing to me. Perhaps the converse applies as well. But we'll never know, because every time we try to discuss it "somebody" bursts in calling people paranoid, uneducated, and all the rest of it.