People used to make (and still do!!) Crystal Set Radios despite the fact that tripple-superheterodyne receivers with digital displays probably cost the same amount of money as the Retail price of the sum of parts for the Crystal Set. Why? To learn something. To get a sense of achievement and accomplishment. Just for the fun of it.

When tag-strips and point-to-point wiring became obsolete in favour of PCB's, hobbyists probably cried that they wouldn't be able to make PCB's and it would kill the hobby. It didn't. People adapt. Moving forward, folks on this forum play with, and interface with, GPS for example. They didn't make the receiver - it was bought-in as a module, but there's still a lot of mileage and fun playing with, and designing products with those.

I've got a drawer full of ideas that I want to progress when I've a free moment... some of those ideas are for valves... you know those things with heaters and anodes and grids... Why? "It's all been done before" you might say. Sure, but it's not been done MY WAY, and there's nothing nicer than walking down Hight Street Anytown and seeing something you've designed in a shop window. There's that feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment again. Not quite orgasmic - but close.

I do really think however that one thing has gone down the pan... fifty years ago when you played with 400v HT supplies and you didn't know what you were doing, you didn't last long - kinda survival of the fittest. Those wannabe's ended up falling by the wayside (usually in a smoudering heap). Evolution at work - you had respect for the survivors. Sadly, there is a perfect example of the true state of affairs today, with a request for conversion of code from Assembler to Basic where the poster hasn't a clue of either, yet still wants to produce a working PIC project of some complexity. Gimme strength!