You get all sorts of technical knowledge in the strangest places. Standing in the queue at Greggs, deliberating between the array of doughnuts, pasties, and other contributors to my expanded waistline over the years, everyone in the shop overheard two teenage girls were engaged in heady debate just in front.

“T-Mobile is a rubbish network”, protested one. “Daz never got my texts when I was with them”.

“Vodafone are crap though, int they”, countered her young friend. “My bill last month was £180 with them. I’m thinking of changing”.

And here’s the thing: they’re both right. Much as you may shudder at the thought of the teenage Greggs-favouring, no doubt (if you read the Daily Mail) binge-drinking generation discussing mobile phone networks, and much though you may conclude that the technical background knowledge that leads them to their conclusions is a little shaky, they’re still absolutely right.

Because what’s hard to predict – for magazines reviewing technology, and for IT managers deploying it en masse – is how a human being will interface with it once it’s in their hands. Then, that long list of features is an irrelevance: it comes down to does it work, and does it do what I want to do when I want it to do it. And does is text Daz.

Of course, the teenage girls were no doubt equally enthralled by the discussion between two more senior ladies nearer the front of the queue, who were flummoxed by whether to have their bread sliced or not. Personally, I stuck to the cheese and onion pasty, and token can of Diet Coke.
Moral of the story? That entire IT departments should spend more lunchtimes in the bakers. Might be able to get it back on expenses, too…