What is the real difference between Pointers and References?

Question

AKA - What\'s this obsession with pointers?

Having only really used modern, object oriented languages like ActionScript, Java and C#, I don\'t really understand the

Answer 1

Write more than 2 lines of c or c++ and you'll find out.

They are "pointers" to the memory location of a variable. It is like passing a variable by reference kinda.