The auto-da-fe continues: yesterday's USA Today brought news of Kodak's new "Picture Maker Film Processing Station," soon to be placed in CVS stores for a test. The kiosks are said to take your film and develop it in less than five minutes.

You return later to decide exactly how many prints you want by choosing from an on-screen menu. "The entire process should take no longer than 15 minutes," says Kodak.

You get back your negatives on a CD instead of traditional negatives. Oh, yeah: Kodak did announce last month that it would stop selling film cameras - but not film - in the U.S.

Why doesn't this new venture make sense to me? I'm sure it's a really great idea, and I'm just not smart enough to figure out why trying to flog $40,000 machines to CVS stores to process a product that you've clearly given up on is a super idea.

Giving you back your negatives on a CD, so you can't even look at them without a computer, is another nice brain-dead touch.

And forcing the customer - who just wants to get her pictures and leave - to visit the kiosk not just once, but TWICE, and do stuff on a computer screen requiring still more time, thought and effort, is, even for Kodak, an over-the-top fillip.

This company is a classic M.B.A. case study in the making.

Man, I'd dump this stock if I had any: the death spiral as Kodak circles the drain is really picking up speed.