[OT] Luddite Teachings (was OpenStreetMap compatible GPS?)

[Jon 'maddog' Hall]

>teacher decided to force logs on us... by way of a slide rule.  I was
>the fastest in my class -- but it still made me wonder if
>similarly-dire Luddite-esque predictions hadn't been made when they'd
>come along.

While I learned to use a slide rule, for some reason the relation of
logarithms and their use in the way the slide rule worked escaped me for
a long time.  Then one day the relation flashed through my mind, and I
was in awe of slide rules ever since (and I still am).  The fact that
slide rules were invented in the 1600s only solidifies that awe.

I think that slide rules reinforce the concepts of mathematics instead
of replacing those concepts the way that calculators do.

Slide rules also reinforce a basic concept of engineering that I wish
all beginning computer science students would learn:

"If you don't need the precision, please do not calculate it"

How many times I have seen things calculated to the umpteenth decimal
place when the machines capable of doing the manufacturing could only
handle three or four decimals of precision?

Want to fire a rocket to the moon?  Don't bother calculating the angle
of launch to the 23rd decimal place.  Get the ship five miles off the
ground and adjust the direction with the rockets.

md