I guess I have to reply, however reluctantly, to this presumed example of "old fashioned european civility":
[N.B. Any "engineer" naive enough to believe that the world is always market driven, and not engineering driven, either is very young or has not been paying attention.]
I think I made my point well enough; I can't help it if some people don't get it. As for my age and experience, I'm 53 years old, have BS, MS and PhD degrees in electrical engineering, written 5 books, helped start two successful companies, and have been a professor of electrical engineering at UCLA. Now, WHO "hasn't been paying attention"?
I also used considerable care to make sure my postings were civil, in spite of some rather irritating responses, including the one above. I posted them because I thought the insight might be interesting and useful.
I think I'll vote with my feet, too.
Steve Maas
Long Beach, CA