From: Adamsc@io-online.com (Adamsc)
Date: Fri, 6 Dec 1996 00:10:46 -0800 (PST)
To: "tcmay@got.net>
Subject: Re: The Science Generations
Message-ID: <19961206080621390.AAA81@gigante>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


On Thu, 5 Dec 1996 22:10:04 -0800, Jamie Lawrence wrote:

>> I'm not sure if Gilbert chemistry sets went off the market for liablity
>> reasons, or for "lack of interest." The "4-banger" I had in 1961,
>> supplemented with varius Bunsen burners, arc furnaces, Erlenmayer flasks,
>> and whatnot, was amazing for its time. (And not terribly expensive, in case
>> some of the "social democrats" on this list are thinking I lived a

>I can provide a datapoint here. I started getting into chemistry
>when I was about 8, which was in 1981. I can't remember the brand
>name, but my first (and last, actually) 'value-added' kit was
>designed to keep kids from doing anything that could be
>dangerous, a fact tactfully explained on the packaging.

Or how about those TrashShack kits everyone buys a science-oriented kid
(until you warn them not to)?  Geez.  It's about as fun as one of those
slide-show demo programs.

>To solve that problem, my mother gave me an Edmund Scientific
>catalog and a (severely limited, given my family background)
>budget for whatever I wanted.
>I ordered direct for supplies from then on.

Gee, you too?  I probably could have broke the $30k mark, though, if given
the chance. Still could, easily, but it'd be Computer Shopper now.

>computers as a daily part of their work. You can run, but you can't
>hide.

Hehe ... 
Person one: "And they [computer illiterates] will call us"
Person two: "Secretaries"
Bonus points if you get the reference.

>> get the point. Being 44 years old, and almost 45, I claim no knowledge
>> about what the "latest generation" is all about. Maybe it's the "Beavis and
>> Butthead" generation...I don't know.)
>Yes, many of us are devoted to the study of Brute Force Insect
>Dissection.

Many others are devoted to "the study of Chaotic systems involving realtime
exothermic reactions with common household substances". (Pyromania might not
be a bad sub title)

Others still are most interested in Brute Force Wallet Extraction.  Or, of
course, the ever popular: Members of the Opposite Sex and How to Attract
Them.

#  Chris Adams  <adamsc@io-online.com> | http://www.io-online.com/adamsc/adamsc.htp
#  <cadams@acucobol.com>                 | send mail with subject "send PGPKEY"
"That's our advantage at Microsoft; we set the standards and we can change them."
   --- Karen Hargrove, Microsoft (quoted in the Feb 1993 Unix Review editorial)