Damn.....

I'm not clear about the title of this thread....
I hope you meant "Bangs HIS head against wall"
I won't make him any smarter. It won't make him any less smart... But it might make YOU feel better. lol

I use the skyports.
I have on a couple occasions been in situations where there were a dozen photogs with different gear including cheaper slaves, and pocket wizards and can say there was one advantage to having excellent, (but not so popular) triggers and slaves, but amoringello is right, find something affordable that meets your needs.

When you're trying to scratch out a living with your gear, a hundred bucks makes the difference between peace of mind or the types of difficulties you're having, well I'll pay for the peace of mind. But I'm sure the cheaper ones will work for you.

and safari

you can write off two printers.
Keep your photo printer and use it for photos, and business full color reports, brochures, etc.
use a cheap or old printer loaded for other tasks.

process of elimination...
clean the electrical contacts, cotton swab and alcohol first, scrub with pencil eraser second. test
check the little pins are making good contact, and aren't stuck/bent/broken. test
then clip a wire lead and reverse the wires. test.

all else fails, look at a replacing leads and or slaves.

could be a polarity issue, any chance you can reverse tha synch cable wires?

Camera...my k10's are fine for now...
lenses on the other hand..........to many to list here, but we'll start with everything.

I have a quick flip bracket.
I hate it, Gerri loves it.
I find I can work faster, and with more versitility with the flash in one hand and the camera in the other.
Gerri likes the predictibility and repeatability of having the flash mounted.
Of course people say I tend to talk, think and react fast like I'm on speed.....that's my natural state.

best way is against either your camera, or in a studio set up, against known, good meter.

to set up against your camera, you need a greycard. With a constant lightsource, take a reflected reading with the camera... take a reflected reading with the meter, both off the card....pop the battery compartment off, and there's a button to push, then use the rocker switch to dial in any + or - stops to get the meter and your camera reading the same.