On Sun, 25 Sep 2011, Tony Duell wrote:
  Firstly, I am suprised you couldn't solder 4 wires
onto 4 pins of a DIN
 plug. When I was a lad, audio equipment often came with a few unconnected
 plugs in the box, an they expected you to solder up the right
 interconnecitng cables. How times change... 
Why wasn't soldering a required skill in school?
It greatly expands the available pranks.
C'mon!  How many hijacked the school PA system?
  Secondly, I know very little about medical matters.
But I am sure that an
 operation to removen ingrowing toenail is a lot simpler than a kidney
 transplant (say). 
I doubt that they will perfect EITHER any time soon.  My toe hurts, in
spite of having surgery twice.
  And however little electronics yuo know, I am sure you
 can judge which of the following 2 procedures is more complicated :
 1) Cut off an existing plug, strip the cable, . . .
 2) Dismantle a keyboard, trace out how it's wired (so . . . 
But which is more FUN?