G'day All, First, I'm an Australian who is living and working in Las Vegas. When I was in Australia, friday lunch was "the friday lads club" (of which I was the vice president) which involved going to the bottle shop, loading up some good beer and heading across the road to the chinese restaurant (where one of the waiters [whom we tipped handsomly] told us all the (private!) conversations of other people from out work that had occurred during the week! Friday afternoon was (for the most part) unproductive, just chatting with people to find out what they are going to be up to over the weekend. Now, flash to the US. Drinking is prohibited during working hours. Does this mean Fridays are any more productive? No, I don't think so. People just sit around doing sweet FA. I must say that I think the Australia model is much more benefitial, as I got to know everyone on the team much better, much quicker. We ended up working as a team better as well - as you knew everyone, and what they did, what their roles were, what questions you could get answered from whom etc. etc. All at the expense of a few drinks on a Friday afternoon (plus moral was up as well) Hmmm... Have fun, Paul Westcott

I disagree. The amiga, when it was released, was technically superior to any competition of the time (well in its price range anyway) It was the poor marketing decissions made my Commodore that led to that machines ruin. (I'm sure there were other factors, but the machine beening seen as a games machines didn't really bode well - in Kickstart prior to 1.2 [I think], there was an Easter Egg message in one of the configuration programs - "We made it, they f**ked it up", but they didn't include the *'s! - "they" referred to Commodore) And competition is always good. It is the whole way that our society is based!! I mean even if it doesn't directly affect you (ie. you never use linux), Microsoft is forced not to rest in order to make a better product (if that is what they indeed offer - I'll make no comment either way) Have fun, Paul