Oh yes, i understand. One tool rarely does it all. I always
   wanted a copy of Mathmatica, so I'm a tad bit envious.

   I remember the kids who were doing higher math in 1990/1991
   using Mathematica and it seemed like SUCH a powerful program
   compared to anything else I saw before.

   I worked in the computer lab, and I had to help tweak the
   computers so the kids (I say kids - they were "older" to me then
   - 19, 20, 21) and professors that used it could use it at its
   maximum efficiency.

   But I was taking child psychology, pascal programming, and other
   courses having little to do with mathematics.

   But I'd see them with their fancy formulas and think, "Man, I
   should be using the sink, not improving the plumbing".

   Man, 25 years ago. Yow. I don't even know when Mathmatica came
   out honestly. It must be ancient - I don't *think* Excel even
   existed back then. It was Lotus 1 2 3 and.. hm.. Quattro Pro.
   Wait - the Macs had Excel. Yeah, I played with it on the Macs.

   Had other friends doing AI, but I DID get to play around with
   Fractals. My downloaded copy of Fractint was worn out; I'd beat
   up my poor computer trying to make it do more and more difficult
   fractals, probably my frustrated response to the students that
   understand the higher math scribbles that I didn't.

   But I got to make prettier pictures and see recursive math in
   beautiful 16 and then 256 color when THEY were graphing in
   boring black and white. So, I had some vindication tongue
   emoticon