Most muggles simple don't have an inkling into how common this sort of situation is... or how many of the IT systems we rely on are really just a thin layer of gloss on a very wobbly pack of cards. The world needs a year off so all the coders can actually implement the re-writes they don't have time to do otherwise!
I only hope that one outcome of 'climategate' is that some managers (at least within this particular field) will heed your rule 1.
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