I've been working since posting this and haven't had time to properly read or reply to your comments, but wow - some really fantastic stuff here, from some very respectable people. I am going to have a great time reading and exploring what people have said, once I get a moment to sit down...

It seems a shame that all this expertise be confined to the bowels of the HN news list (which isn't search engine indexed, right?) - would it be acceptable to make some attempt to compile it into a (properly referenced, ofc) blog post or something that the rest of the world can see? What do people think about that?

Thanks for your responses, I am very impressed.

Dan