Grumpy_Mike, your moniker has a ring of truth to it. I thought what I was doing was to ask a question. And, yes, I suppose I should have spent more time on google. Partly, what I was trying to accomplish with my question was to gently persuade the responder that when a person asks a question such as "can I put LED's on a serial line to show activity" it is obvious from the question that he will have no idea what sinking vs. sourcing current means. Sort of like asking the doctor "why does my knee hurt?" and he says "you have displasia on the bilateral quadrahedric bifurnial pomegranite" and walks out the door. You are left sitting there saying "Huh?".
Sometimes this forum has a tone that is intimidating to the less knowledgeable. You reach out for help and draw back a stump. I have had enough years dealing with gruff, antagonistic people that I can usually ignore it or consider the source, but I wonder about those with thinner skins who simply give up and move to friendlier places.
Of course, I realize that you folks with the know-how will sometimes get your fill of answering the same ID 10 T (IDIOT) questions over and over to newbies that can't seem to form coherent questions and who keep coming back for clarification. Could it be possible that the newbie doesn't know enough to ask a concise question? Could it be that a terse answer to a newbie might not be an answer at all to said newbie?
Just an observation.
John