Hi Richard,

A few months ago, walking along minding my own business, a gentleman approached me and asked if I had 45 seconds for a 5 question survey. His first question was "Do you think people are working harder today than they were 15-20 years ago?". I told him that I couldn't reply yes or no to that one, but would have to answer 'harder, no, but longer, yes'.

Getting back to your comments, I do think what we see is the price of progress. My biggest worry in all of this, and I truly think that it *will* come back a get MS, is the layer-upon-layer-upon-layer of software required to deliver today's trendy applications. Yes, the potential to kill real "availability" is getting higher and higher.

The other thing is the quality of the documentation, as you mentioned (in addition to the quality of the product itself). On this score people seem generally satisfied to fly by the seat of their pants and they seem to take pleasure out of finding 'workarounds'. When the majority seem to be happy MS (or other software providers) are not likely to do much about things.

Jim N

>>< SARCASM >
>>You may be on to something. Maybe you should pioneer the new anti-technology revolution, and show the world how productive your office is after you've replaced your computer and telephone with a fleet of secretaries and two cans tied together with a string.
>>< SARCASM >
>
>Sarcasm aside. I read an article a while ago by an anthropoligist who estimated that primative cultures living in tune with the enviornment worked on average less than 6 hours per day. He argued that they not only had more leisure time but had better health to enjoy it.
>
>I am not really anti-technology. I just think that is worth stepping back and taking a hard look at the pros and cons of where we are going. I am not convinced that the technological path we are placed in is always for our benifit.