>(don't ask -- they have an entire team which does nothing but configuration >management for this beast).

Hi Evan 'BeastMaster' Pauley,
Very interesting. I once was involved with a project of similar concept although lesser sized (2 programmers, 200+ sites). Regularly distributing update pieces worked quite well even if it was a "best of 1993" kind of approach. And yep, it hasn't been replaced yet either. :-)

Steven-