Sean, are you sure this was the Bud at Radio Shack? It sounds more like Bud from SAIC. -alan ......... Sean Doran is rumored to have said: ] ] | I asked Bud, "Bud, will your I/R to RF transcievers send data at ] | greater than 2.4kps?". ] ] "Yes", replied Bud, "but it will take some work, and cost $X". ] ] | "And will your I/R to RF transcievers send data bidirectionally?" ] | I asked Bud. ] ] "Yes", replied Bud, "but it will take some work, and cost $X". ] ] So you paid him $X and he set about his business. ] ] Some months later, you are wondering why you haven't had ] a fully-working, delivered, useful, marketable product. ] ] "What happened?", you ask Bud. ] ] Bud explains that the problem was that there were some other ] organizations who didn't put in the (unpaid-for by Bud) ] effort needed to get Bud the information Bud needed to make ] things work as planned, even though those organizations ] might get some benefit from the work Bud was doing. ] ] "But given $X or even $X times N, could you have accumulated ] all the information yourself, in principle, in this time?", ] you ask Bud. "And could you not have foreseen this problem, ] or even explained to me earlier than now that it was a ] difficulty that could be overcome by more resources for you ] to gather up this information more independently?" ] ] Hm, I wonder what the answers are. ] ] Sean. ] ]