In reply to sutty: I agree. My recollection is that a few years ago the Petzl catalogue used to have a very useful technical advice section. The same advice was also available through their web site. I don't think they've changed the content much, although they do seem to have dropped a lot of the useful basic stuff, and to have made it much more difficult to find anything relevant. I wonder whether it's a symptom of them having to be careful to avoid corporate liability risks?
If, on the other hand, it's symptomatic of a change in the company's philosophy to allow style to take precedence over function then it would certainly make me think twice about choosing their products.
I've always rather felt that Petzl are the Bang & Olufsen of climbing gear anyway: very flash, but couldn't the same result be achieved with something rather simpler? I only own two bits of Peztl gear: a Tibloc and a Reverso. I don't usually bother to take them out with me because most of the time I can achieve the same ends with a regular belay plate and a prusik.