Leo wrote Not sugesting that either be tossed out,
Mike - my comments are
related to the relative importance that should be placed on CW, or
abacuses (abacii?) in the context of the modern world. Some folks
will want to continue to use 'em, for a variety of valid reasons - but
they are no longer the primary tools for accomplishing the tasks that
they were originally designed for - does that mean that we should
insist that everyone gain competence in their operation, whether they
intend to use them or not? For what purpose? To accomplish what
objective? I don't see it.....

When I first became involved in electronics, slide rules were the one
absolutely necessary calculation tool owned by every engineer and
technician. They were simple, uncomplicated, easy to use (after some
period of rather tedious practice), and delightfully low tech. They
were the calculation tool-of-choice for over three centuries.

Then, as the giant asteroid was to dinosaurs, overnight the $9.95
pocket calculator killed the slide rule. Despite it's ubiquity and
utter simplicity the mighty slide rule went extinct in less than a
decade! Perhaps somewhere, in a backward company in a backward
country
without sand from which to make silicon chips, a group of stalwart
engineers still treasure their Pickett or K+E slipsticks, and still
require a practical examination, down to the third significant digit,
of an engineers proficiency, and whether they actually could explain
the difference between the CIF and DIF scales.

Perhaps some amateur mathematicians still are proficient on slide
rules
(after all, they haven't been outlawed!). I bet they even hold speed
and
accuracy contests at a nostalgic "Slippers" convention each spring in
Akron, Ohio. Led by the scratchy but firm voices of their oldest club
members, Jim 'Bentupcursor' Nichols and Larry Elscale, they close each
convention by quoting the 1940's fight song of that bastion of
wood-assisted math, Cal Tech:

"E-to-the-x du dx, E-to-the-x dx,
Cotan secant tangent sine,
three point one four one five nine.
Square root, cube root, QED
Slipstick, slide rule, Hooray! CT!"

The next SLIPS newsletter duly reports the resolution of the IEEE BoD
to
gain legislation to include slide-rule competency testing as a
requisite
to all engineering degrees, except those seeking 2-year Stickless
Technician degrees. Regular Technicians will require 5CPM (Calculation
Per Minute) exams, BSEE will require 13CPM, and MSEE will require a
20CPM exam.

On another front, when I first became involved in amateur radio, Morse
code was the one absolutely necessary communications mode used by
every
ham. It was simple, uncomplicated, easy to use (after some period of
rather tedious practice) and delightfully low tech. It was the
communications mode-of-choice for over three generations.

Then, as the giant asteroid was to dinosaurs, overnight..........

73, de Hans, K0HB/4ID

~~~
"Beware of the man who works hard to learn something,
learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before.

He is full of murderous resentment of people who
are ignorant without having come by their ignorance
the hard way." -- Bokonon
~~~