I have stayed out of this until now. Something some of the protagonists have forgotten in their prattling (from the verb prate see Old Norse to speak), is that for the most part we have never met each other and therefore are unable to judge, tone, manner, inflexion, speech pattern, whether the cat furballed them first thing in the morning, the butter tore into the bread and to cap it all the car wouldn't start, Great Aunt Absinthe died etc - resulting in bad mood/feeling vulnerable day. A big mistake made with emails and blogs/forums is that for some reason people tend to think they know each other in a way that they wouldn't if scribbling with a quill and ink stone, and pen missives accordingly. Again as most people here have never met, we have no baseline to judge people against, if we have met, we make judgements and can offset bad days against the person as generally known, forum typing unless perhaps accompanied by live camera does not allow for this. As with people we know, sometimes a statement can be taken the wrong way, when the stator (?) knows that normally the statee (?) would take umbrage. Another mistake that is often made in this type of arena is someone types as though they are in actual conversation with the list as an extension of what they were doing immediately before electrons were sent forth into the cybersphere, which means that a question might seem lazy, idiotic and demanding (English use of the word) Therefore it behoves (another Old Norse derivative) us to attempt to use a more conciliatory approach in our replies and comments. Someone I personally know, I may well call lazy or an idiot, but someone I've never met, I need proof that they are indeed being annoying before I resort to calling them that. Yes, I have bitten peoples head off on the Acronis forum, but only once I've asked for more info and they have told me to take a funny run or have catapulted themselves at me. Besides the art of being politley rude is much greater fun. Lecturing list mode off! Colin -- cdb, colin@btech-online.co.uk on 3/06/2008 Web presence: www.btech-online.co.uk Hosted by: www.1and1.co.uk/?k_id=7988359 -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist