identical two-phase commit in a mental state of complete tedium

On the Path to XML Hell [via Scripting.com].  Hey, I feel this guy's pain.  I'm teaching courses 1013 (Mastering VB6) and 1017 (Mastering Inder-freakin'-dev 6) in the next few months.  At which point I will be faced with chapters talking about how DHTML Scriptlets are the solution to everything, how COM will last forever and ADO is the most usefull technology for accessing databases. 

But I what the hell is up with this sentence: "Has our industry ceased to involve creativity, and is it concentrating instead on simple nuts and bolts and teams of beavering clerks setting up identical two-phase commit in a mental state of complete tedium?"  That sentance ranks at least an 82 on the UCR.