Child's play

Working in IT you get used to tech-makers coming up with highfalutin analogies comparing their business or technology to something like, oh let's say, Borussia Dortmund, the city of Barcelona, or heroin. (What? No, of course those aren't genuine examples...)

But this week I encountered one of the more bizarre comparisons I've ever come across, when a vendor exec likened his firm to insufferable purple dinocretin Barney. Apparently, this manufacturer has sometimes fallen into the trap of having a "Barney relationship" with resellers.

He was suggesting the channel scheme was becoming far too redolent of the cuddly dinosaur's biggest chart-smasher.

"I love you, you love me, we're a happy family," says the song.

The exec stressed that, while he loves his VARs, he doesn't want to be as indiscriminately accepting as the anthropomorphous T-rex.

Come to think of it, I've often felt I have something of a Barney relationship with my suppliers. In that they treat me like a child and I often feel like I want to rip off their dopey-grinning head and play football with it.