Kai and Michael:

First, I want to thank you both for your thoughtful and expert responses on a wide range of subjects. It's always a pleasure, and I usually learn something.

I am a 60 year old computer nerd / circuit designer / board layout artist, and as such have as little to do with humans as I can get away with. Watching most of these threads decay into pissing matches simply reinforces that attitude.

Anybody know why this always happens? How come we can't have a nice quiet technical discussion without all of the shouting and invective that seems to develop?