Or just, think about the magic - I close a windoe and I can still see the outside :) Hmm, I don't know, I think quite a lot. Back, when I was young (Hi, yougsters :), I had a close friend (both around 12) and we did anything that gives fun - like building explosives, fire igniting devices, etc. Fro exaple we used ball penn springs as heating wires to have electric controlled detonations (or rocket ignitions). So we did some serious tests to have reliable results (and we selectet the brand names of ball pens to 'aquire' carfuly to get the best result:). Nuw, what I want to tell is, he is now an account man - shifting numbers and managing senseless stuff. So we can't assume that behinde (some) suit carrying face is only a dump guy without any idea how the world is turning. Could be Germany too - or at least we are on the same way - maybe slow, but in a few years all breaking people will have retired - brave new word. :( Von den USA lernen heist siegen lernen! OOps - wrong context :) I ad this kind of discusion with some politicians two month ago - the idea was that our school system has to be changed to tell the studends more about the 'real' word - and they belived that 'multimedia', 'pc-knowledge', etc. will do it. So engeneers had to learn how to handle word ... Shure, on the short run you will get better prepared people right from the university, but on the long run none of them will be able to do anything new - the basics are just missing - and managing Word is no basic ! Gruss H. -- Ich denke, also bin ich, also gut HRK

<soapbox> This is why, as curator of the Slide Rule Trading Post (SRTP), I often receive comments along the lines that it's a real shame that slide rules are no longer used in schools. They are a perfect tool for developing an understanding of logarithms and how to use them. They also make you think about the answer (what magnitude you expect) and help in mental estimates, rather than blindly relying on the numbers that come up on the screen. I'd still like to see slide rules return to schools. </soapbox> You can visit the SRTP at http://www.comcen.com.au/~adavie/slide/ I have a pretty dang neat Java slide rule (IMHO), too, at http://www.comcen.com.au/~adavie/javaslide/javaslide.html I recommend a visit to JavaSlide, at least :) Cheers A

<soapbox boxsize=2> Call me heretric, but in my opinion a slide ruler and a pocket calculator is the same. Both are calculating devices that give a prety neat answer IF YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE ASKING. Before using either you have to know what you want. If you just use them to solve the operation instead of thinking about the process, you just get rubbish. </soapbox> Gruss H. -- Ich denke, also bin ich, also gut HRK