[ale] OT - Portable Drive

[List]

JK wrote:
> List wrote:
>
>> I keep my K&E 4083-3 Log Log Duplex Vector in the top drawer of my 
>> desk.  Never know when the batteries are going to run out on the 
>> idiot box.
>
> I inherited my Dad's Pickett & Eckel 1010-ES (box copy: "Your Slide Rule
> is the one tool you will use all through your career").  Unfortunately,
> though, my first device was a Trash-80. I understand the basic
> principles of slide-rule function, but I've no practical experience.
>
> -- JK
>
I went to school (high school and college) just when the switch from 
slide rules to calculators was happening.  In college (Ga Tech) there 
were some courses where you could use calculators, some where you could 
use slide rules, some where no calculation assistance was allowed.  So I 
got to learn all the ways of doing it.

I think the approach at the time was best summed up by my statics 
professor, a cagey old Chinese guy, who greeted us the first day of 
class with the following statement:

"I engineer from old school.  If I have a computer, I use computer.  If 
I don't have computer, I use calculator.  If I don't have calculator, I 
use slide rule.  If I don't have slide rule, I use pencil and paper.  If 
I don't have pencil and paper, I guess."

-Tom