> what the politicians do not want to hear. The US is the last place where > they want their research networking infrastructure to be developed, > everything should be done within Europe. Significant energy is expended Europe doesn't have a monoply on this sort of thing, you know. Just look at any large gov. agency in the US. They need a computer system? No problem. The agency will do it all itself, hardware, software everything from the ground up. If you are lucky it will work in about ten years, sort of, but of course it is so hopelessly outdated by the time it comes online they must start building from the ground up, again (no we don't need any outside people, or hardware or software, only our custom stuff will do). We were lucky with the IRS recently when they chucked the latest fiasco after only about six months and a pidling $17 million. Douglas