Biggles,
Agree fully mate. You would't believe the outback buttf*&k places you are required to have an ASIC. The best we could possibly hope for though is either some reduction in the fees or increase in the validity period. Otherwise short of some major shift in the thinking by those with a vested interest in all of us sticking to the status quo, we are going to see ASICs around for a very long time indeed. Nothing would make me happier to be proved wrong on that point.