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Okay, here’s a question for electricians and other wireheads. At random intervals, the flourescent light in my office just suddenly goes out, and stays that way for an hour or so, then just as mysteriously comes back on, and works fine for a couple more hours. Is this something serious I should be concerned about (fire hazard?)?

A completely different and separate topic is: “If you could put together the most useful cost-effective and time-saving computer, technology and communications systems for your business, what would it be?” I envision, for starters, that employees could send & recieve e-mail, or fax in materials orders to suppliers, and could download time card info directly onto the computer daily via cell phone with something like a Palm Pilot. Are there any estimating systems that really fly? accurately? We’re currently using QB Pro both for accounting and estimating, but the system that worked a couple of years ago takes too long now. We have Softplan for design, Wordperfect for documents, Lotus Organizer for database of customers & suppliers, HOT2XP for energy analysis… what would be your pick of the best combination of software?. Laptops: are they worth the money? I always figured one would pay for itself, but still haven’t made the leap. What else would you do, if you could start out from scratch right now?

hey, the light just came back on with a snap! maybe I’d better fix that….