Ever try casting out 9's?
Well, once in prehistoric times, I was taking a computer science class in assembly language, and we worked almost exlusively in octal... Before I realized it, I had began balancing my checkbook in octal, and it caused me some problems... The funny thing was that there was about 2 month period when none of the checks I wrote had 8s or 9s, so it just "happened," and I didn't notice!
Mark
Well the "new" math used base 7, so it was pretty much useless except for teaching. Using octal to demonstrate number systems would have been more useful to many (hex might have been too tough for many kids to wrap their minds around). Unfortunately around that time (60s), I had to live a deprived life as my parents wouldn't buy me an IBM 360 for my bedroom.