Hello Kevin, charming as ever. ;-)

>>On point #1 (the dreaded Excel manager), I've seen too many instances where these types of "applications" (using the term loosely) became "de-facto" in-office standards, via "managerial fiat". They wouldn't have been so bad, were it not for the fact that they didn't scale at all...sometimes not even beyond the original author. <s>

Sounds terrible, but surely that's an organization/management failure including IT?

The topic at the referenced link was Kittyhawk, which is not a spreadsheet being extended beyond its obvious boundaries. I had assumed that the NET commentators brought up the naughty manager example because they were feeling threatened, but now you're doing it too. So maybe there's a similarity I haven't perceived. I guess I'll find out when Kittyhawk descends a little closer to earth. Until then, just a reminder that my example was Google App Inventor which is being trialed by primary school kids and nursing students and apparently requires NO programming knowledge. I can't say if it's true, but if so, that seems more significant than the specter of a manager using Excel to create a Tribble.