[ot: tape music]

[jh]

>Just imagine engineers would do it the same: 
>2 years of pyramid construction, then 1 year cathedrals, ...

This is not so far fetched. On the University of Erlangen,
in the lectures about "technical electronics", I learned to read
transfer courves, graphically construct bias points, etc. on
what examples ?? Tubes ! Not kidding. (But don't tell Eric (;->) )
Yes, we were kind of puzzled, and yes, even when the tutor
switched to transistors after a few weeks, we thought it was
a waste of time, and wanted to learn about opamps. 

But in retrospect, I think it was the right thing.

JH.