Inflation.

I think your right on about the help functions, and not making the "UI to accomodate the lowest common denominator" But the Paperclip! X| I agree he can be helpful, unfortunately he's extremely annoying.

I'm kind of new to this, but if your looking for something on Visual C++, I really enjoyed Ivor Horton's Beginning Visual C++ 2005. I found it easy and enjoyable to read, but hey I'm a noob, and "what would I know?"

I'm gonna go with the laser mouse theory.