I'VE OFTEN WONDERED if clients at Vogue magazine insist that Kate Moss turns up for work toting a hexadecimal calculator and a TCP/IP Nutshell Handbook. It makes about as much sense as a Unix jockey or VB Hacker tarting up in a pinstriped suit, which is to say no sense at all.

The rules aren't even rational: I've worked in places where coloured socks are frowned upon but outrageous braces (that´s `suspenders´ if you´re West of Penzance) are expected, and even places where you can't go to the lavatory without wearing a jacket. (Unless you have breasts, of course, in which case none of the rules apply.)