Raoul,

It is interesting that virtual businesses do work. I have been a virtual business for a while now. I have some clients in town but on the whole my clients are spread across the country. Mostly it works. there are exceptions when I get people who want to stand over my shoulder and guide my hand as I work but I'm not sure it would work out any better if they were with me in my office. I only mean that it is difficult as it can be time consuming trying to make the thing (whatever it is) what they want exactly. with Skype, ftp, email and the phone it's pretty easy to get things done.

Pilou,

You should see all the failed attempts. but this project is not as bad as when I was a grad student. My job then was to build an articulated robotic arm on a gantry that rode across a vacuum table. It was a painting machine. I spent one month alone just working out a brush that could ride across the table and not splash and not have the line undulate in any way. That was tricky (and a lot of fun) I learned how to be endlessly patient from that project.

Val