In a message dated 97-07-17 21:02:45 EDT, you write: true, most everything has been done now. pnp and usb were/are trumpeted as new, but IBM ps/2's and macintoshes have had similar things in that the ps2 was essentialy plug and play after running the reference disk, and macs have the adb which allows things to be chained into the keyboard cable. i'd like to hear of other examples also. i can't think of any more right now. << Somehow, it seems like most of the major breakthroughs/advances in the use of computers took place early on, i.e. word processing, spreadsheets, and databases, and what has been taking place over the past 15 - 20 years would fall more into a refinement catagory. We are getting faster hardware, more ability (also known as bells and whistles), but no major breakthroughs that open up a whole new field for the use of computers. Am I missing something? I've heard that one of the early spreadsheets (Visicalc?) was responsible for selling more Apples than any of their marketing efforts. Regardless, that is the type of advance that I am talking about. >> david