Obsolete, was Speaking of cubes

Mike Ford writes: However, that begs the question of "in use by whom?" If you define it as "in use by me", or "in use by someone, somewhere", then it's not a particularly useful term. There are electromechanical adding machines still in use by some people somewhere, but any sensible person considers them obsolete. The conventional meaning is "no longer in *common* use". Last time I said on this list that something was obsolete it started a huge flame war because people took offense at my claim that something they own is obsolete. These people seem to associate a lot of emotional baggage with the word obsolete, and think it's a personal insult. For my own part, I recognize that almost every computer I own is obsolete, and it doesn't bother me in the least. In fact, part of my enjoyment from activities like restoring PDP-11/70s is *because* they are obsolete. Eric