> Frequent releases also teach how long a render takes.

Actually, I *was* doing that.  What I wasn't doing was the 2 'detail' 
images, as I had been doing close ups of the detail shots in other renders, 
so I didn't need to preview those.  The net result is that I was well aware 
of how long a render took, but the backup image wouldn't have met the 
requirements.

As I noted in the original, due to a versioning mismatch, the photon times 
suddenly shut up dramatically the last day, but that's an integration issue. 
Like all integration issues, proper planning from the start would have 
corrected that, so of course it's my screwup.  *so* much went wrong at the 
end there was only so much I could do.  Of course, I could have done better.

  The image is part of a series for a book I'm writing so it will live 
again, however.

> This is a "best practice" in software engineering.

  Right.  I've signed checks (authorized funds) for 16 million for software 
projects.  (no kidding).  You?  :)


        == John ==