In programming, (or coding) this is very embarrassing and annoying. Picture this: You're writing a routine to do something that you're sure hasn't been done before. You go on deja.com and do a search - nothing. Okay, time for Google - nothing. Yahoo, AltaVista, Excite, and every single one of your bookmarked programmers' info sites - nothing. Okay, it's time to code! You've been up all night, powered by caffeine, and are just about to put the finishing touches on this routine. All of the sudden an instant message pops up from a friend, also pulling an all-nighter. You tell him about the amazing feat of programming skill you've spent the last few hours on... and to your horror he replies: "Hey, I saw something that does the same thing in half the code at www..." Congratulations - you've just reinvented the wheel.