Is this a piece of news regarding world politics, sports, business, or science and technology?
Life in the IT fun house For IT professionals, working in IT during the past few years has been a frightening whiplash tour through a carnival fun house. In the foyer of this (not so fun) fun house -- known as the 2001 Room -- the gag is simple: A rug is pulled out from under those fortunate enough to be standing, while others tumble down a dark chute, passing flashing neon signs that read layoffs and consolidation. In the background, the cacophony of late-night conference calls to Bangalore blares over loudspeakers.&lt;p&gt;ADVERTISEMENT&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/idg.us.ifw.general/sbcspotrssfeed;sz=1x1;ord=200301151450?" width="1" height="1" border="0"/&gt;&lt;a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;11714255;9651165;g?http://infoworld.com/spotlights/sbc/main.html?lpid0101035400730403idlp"&gt;SBC Datacomm White Paper&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Find out how Crate   Barrel expects to save \$180,000 by moving to VoIP, compared to a traditional PBX.&lt;/p&gt; 
