Heh almost forget the venerable 555. Back in the day just out of high school, I was taking a course on Digital Microprocessor Technology in Jamaica and we used

Heh almost forget the venerable 555. Back in the day just out of high school, I was taking a course on Digital Microprocessor Technology in Jamaica and we used 555 chips on our breadboards wired up with a CPU (I forgot which one -- might have been a 6800), at the time the "College of Arts, Science and Technology". I had no idea this course was for tech guys working in factories who needed to maintain and run the industrial control equipment. I was just interested in the stuff and decided to take that night course too. That short course (and the 555) were what got me a true understanding from the ground up, of digital computer technology. Which is why, we will hire computer science graduates from any country these days. That curriculum is very similar everywhere.