As I ventured forth this past weekend upon yet another Christmas shopping quest, I had visions of TV commercials still fresh in my head. Amazing toys, remote-controlled buggies that sailed over any and every terrain, amphibious robots that feared no geology. And I began to think. Some years ago, I read "Managing Martians", I believe by Donna Shirley (it's been a while, and I loaned the book to a former coworker who has since retired, taking my book to Bora-Bora with her!), a fascinating read about the Sojourner Martian rover mission, the people who built it and the day to day challenges Shirley faced as program manager. These bright engineers, while facing a mandate to use off-the-shelf technology whenever possible, still designed much of the vehicle and it's various mechanisms from scratch. And I don't recall reading that any of the team members ever contacted Tyco R/C division. Could it be that much of the required engineering of remotely-operated, all-terrain vehicles has already been done- by the toy manufacturers? Or is it the other way 'round? Ho Ho Ho! ;) C. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Protect your identity with Yahoo! Mail AddressGuard http://antispam.yahoo.com/whatsnewfree