Do I really need a computer?

[frogman159]

The tables work just fine... Very true.

So that means your calculator or the computer on your desk is just another tool in your tool box. I'm not sure I can remember the last time I pulled out the yellow pad and No2 pencil to figure a percentage but because of what I was taught during school some simple percentages can be done in my head.

I sure do

Just as you don't NEED a calculator every time you figure certain math, You don't NEED a computer to do certain dives.

Do I think it is a tool to make things eaiser, hell yes, but do I NEED either a calculator or a dive computer No..At least not in the same sense that I NEED a tank with air in it

 

[djanni]

I sure do

Just as you don't NEED a calculator every time you figure certain math, You don't NEED a computer to do certain dives.

Do I think it is a tool to make things eaiser, hell yes, but do I NEED either a calculator or a dive computer No..At least not in the same sense that I NEED a tank with air in it

I'm glad we agree.

 

[NudeDiver]

This whole thing reminds me of second semester of general physics at university. Professor said that no calculators were allowed to be used on exams (too many people programming them with info and/or equations and/or whatever). People were up in arms - very angry, etc. etc. Professor said that, "look - the exams are designed so that if you know what you're doing, you don't need a calculator" - and he was right. But people still bitched.

 

[evac93rd]

I always dive with my Galileo SOL and I love it, but I always checked myself after my dives with the PADI tables just to keep in practice. (obsessive-compulsive) until I took an Intro to Tech course offered by one of our instructor who has TDI's instructor ratings in everything from cave to Advanced Tri-Mix.

He has convinced me that the smart money lies in diving using tables before and using your computer as your real-time back up during the dive. Now Bill is not a nihilist and believes diving should always be fun. When he is Rec diving to 60' in the tropics, his idea of a dive plan is a quick check of the tables prior to reef diving. The plans we make when we are in class are fairly complex but then they are for more complex situations.

Just my humble $0.02