> The colour code system for resistors is out-dated. It has no> merit
whatsoever today in 2008. It's a relic of human insensitivity

my $0.02 on this from a service technicians point of view is that SMD is
leading
us at an accelerating rate further into the disposable society.
I really don't have anything against SMD parts, there are plenty of merits,
but introduce a case where a piece of equipment that is only a few years
old,
fails and stops working. upon inspection two or three SMD resistors and
maybe a Dpak device have volcanic holes in them. Unless you have original
circuit schematic (not always the case in the repair industry) then you're
out of luck, unless the circuit is easy to reverse engineer (factor in
economies of scale).
When thru-hole components were more common, if something let the smoke out
then generally there was enough left to ID the part by colour,  value or
number,
then find and fit new parts.
An observation of most consumer equipment currently puts the average
lifespan
of said equipment at less than 5 years. and at this rate in another 5 years,
expected equipment lifespan will be under 3 years.
I'm currently maintaining equipment that was produced in 1994, manufacturer
support stopped in 1998, but the owner(s) expect to continue usage
indefinitely
(realistically probably at least another 5 years).

Andrew
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