I couldn't disagree more! C++ is an elegant language that is only becoming more elegant with the improvements introduced in TR1/C++0x and the Boost libraries. I learnt C++ way back in 1993 and have been an addict ever since. OK, it may take a higher intellect to understand the subtleties, but if you do there is no language more powerful than C++. To be honest, I am sure there were many more useful languages (but not more powerful - except for assembler) in the 60s and 70s, but most of which got killed off by the DoD's standardisation process and Ada - not C/C++/Java/C#. Nevertheless, I've programmed seriously in three main languages - Pascal, C and C++ - and C++ is the most flexible and powerful (and most complex!) of them all. Add in Boost, Std Lib & STL, and all the enhancements of TR1/C++0x and it is unstoppable! And what killed Borland? Probably Delphi/VCL creator Anders Hejlsberg being poached by M$ to write C#/.Net. That's innovation for you - if don't have it, buy it, steal it or copy it! Derek

The worst email mistake that I heard about was someone signing off an email "Great work toady." He meant today... ;-)

The increase in efficiency of having two (or more) monitors has been known for some time. Tell your boss to read the study by NEC-Mitsubishi, ATI and University of Utah (see a reference to it here http://features.cgsociety.org/story.php?story_id=1674[^]), also there's lots of anecdotal evidence like this http://blog.alecsatin.com/2008/06/two-monitors-are-better-than-one-for-efficiency-that-is.html[^]. And tell him the extra work you'll do will pay for the monitor in two months! Derek

Good answer. Newtonian mechanics concentrates on the things that most people can see or do everyday. For example, if you play pool or snooker you should use Newtonian mechanics to work out where to hit balls with the cue ball to get them in the pockets. But Newtonian mechanics starts to break down at extremes. For the extremely small, quantum mechanics comes into play. If you start going fast, that's very fast (ie, you travel in a space rocket, not a fast car), start using Einstein's theories of relativity (also used for nuclear bombs, E = mc^2). If you go very big, ie, look at the cosmos - galaxies and the universe, then you start going into other theories, like string theory that models the universe as 11 or more dimensions. So, do the laws of physics change? No. But, they do break down at the extremes and new theories are written, tested, proved or disproved.