Ah, but **** CHAT is the glory of any forum that doesn't have a special "gritch" section. The subject stays on, then wanders, then comes back, then wanders ..... isn't that the same way it works when you have an in-person informal group discussing something? One doesn't deride another for veering off-subject then.
Nigel: "Hardly the same, the confederacy hasn't existed for a LONG time - it would be more like the 'damn yankees' flag being banned."
Yeah, but in the States, flying the Confederate flag vs. the U.S. flag is considered to be racist and in most cases, I think it is. Some state courthouses were flying the U.S. flag, their state flag and then the Confederate flag and were chastized for the latter.
I've been teaching since 1982 and chalkboards are still my favorite except for the chalky hands you always get. You can project on the green ones and overwrite as well, but it is difficult to see the projection. Although white boards are great for the projection and write-over aspect, I have never liked them. Sure colored markers and the projection aspect is OK, but you go through markers like mad. Schools aren't as happy about supplying gross boxes of markers as they are chalk. And there is colored chalk, great as long as you have a wet sponge handy to properly erase a board since the more saturated chalks tend to be less erasable.
It takes a pretty heavy budget to afford a smart board, the the bigger it is, the worse it is. I'm of the opinion that computers have invaded the classroom far too much already to the point where the computer becomes the focus (and the distraction) and the educational content takes a back seat. Sorry, but you can't convince me that with the same level of teaching skills that students didn't learn more in 1960 than they do in 2008.
AND RIGHT BACK TO THE SUBJECT: I don't feel that there's any practical use to a resistor program like that other than to perfect programming skills. A voltage divider program that includes load resistance and spits out standard resistor values would be more useful as it replaces a lot of calculation. A value-to-code program is poorly replacing something that I can do on-sight many times faster than turning on a computer, running a program, entering the values, .... For that part, one could almost say the same for the voltage divider program suggested above.
I guess when you've worked in electronics as long as I (and Ron) have, there's just some things that you have as a second language. Color code is one. Standard 5% values is another. Have those memorized? Yeah. Not deliberately, but just from constant use. 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 27, 30 .....
Dean