AVR-Chat

> ... a smart company can allow an employee to BUY parts at cost...

One of my early employers evolved from the Mercury spacecraft days.  We 
were never disallowed access to parts, even for obvious "Government 
jobs", i.e. personal projects, provided the work was at least 
sort-of-related to assigned work and didn't delay delivery of 
contracts.  The policy paid off handsomely for the firm which became the 
largest data communications adapter manufacturer (deliberately avoiding 
the common name for the devices since they held the principal patents).  
The payoff for several engineers was a corner office, pretty much 
free-run of the place and, eventually, stock that ultimately did very 
well.  And we had a repeater on the roof.  It was fun, and profitable 
for employer and employee.

de ex/K3URO