Elf Sternberg

Well, Elf, I know from reading your blog that you're fairly out on the bleeding edge of web design and production. There are a pretty large number of companies out there, though, that don't care. They see IT as a sinkhole for money, and want to spend as little money on it as possible, and if that means having a production system require IE5.5, then so be it.

In the last couple of months, I've seen myself or been told about by reliable acquaintances the following systems, in production:
* - Building heating/controls system which requires IE6 (and only IE6)
* - Security system, for electronic door locks, which requires WinNT 4.0
* - Several scanners which were multi-thousand dollar scanners when purchased, but will not work with anything newer than Win98.

In many cases, it's hard for IT to make the case that replacing antiquated systems will save money, or generate enough new revenue to justify in the money-controllers' minds that it's worth spending any money on.

Falbert