SSgt Baloo Posted February 3, 2010 Report Share Posted February 3, 2010 Re: "Neat" Pictures Heck, I can still remember when kilobytes were considered, if not huge, at least big enough. My first computer was a TRS-80 Pocket Computer*: *AKA the "TRaSh-80" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SSgt Baloo Posted February 3, 2010 Report Share Posted February 3, 2010 Re: "Neat" Pictures - Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ragitsu Posted February 3, 2010 Report Share Posted February 3, 2010 Re: "Neat" Pictures My uncle had a "laptop" that could quickly put your legs to sleep if you rested it on them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SSgt Baloo Posted February 3, 2010 Report Share Posted February 3, 2010 Re: "Neat" Pictures My uncle had a "laptop" that could quickly put your legs to sleep if you rested it on them. When I was 10 years old, my BIL, a civil engineer for the US Park Service, was issued a portable electronic calculator worth $10,000 (in 1968 dollars). It was about the size of a typewriter of the day and had a vacuum ("Nixie") tube display with an eight-digit read-out: Imagine some more of these all in a row and you've got it. It could add, subtract, multiply and divide (and that's it). I'd guess it weighed about 40 lbs. (20 of that was the battery pack). It held enough charge for about 1 hour's use and could be recharged in about eight hours. They were delighted that now they could use a calculator out in the wilderness where they did their surveys. Less than five years later they got a Hewlett Packard "Pocket Calculator" with trigonometric functions, a 12 digit display, and costing about 1/10th what the old one did. Nowadays I can pick up a superior calculator (alas, without the "Reverse Polish Notation" that used to be a feature of the old HPs) for less than a tenth of that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted February 3, 2010 Report Share Posted February 3, 2010 Re: "Neat" Pictures ... Nowadays I can pick up a superior calculator (alas' date=' without the "Reverse Polish Notation" that used to be a feature of the old HPs) for less than a tenth of that.[/quote'] In fact, you have trouble rinding an RPN calculator if you prefer those, as I do. Sigh. RPN is the Betamax of calculators: superior, but lost the marketing war. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matrix3 Posted February 3, 2010 Report Share Posted February 3, 2010 Re: "Neat" Pictures In fact' date=' you have trouble rinding an RPN calculator if you prefer those, as I do. Sigh. RPN is the Betamax of calculators: superior, but lost the marketing war.[/quote'] You can get them straight off Amazon. Here's the HP-12c that my mentor in High school used (which I liked because the sideways orientation allowed an extra-long display)(oh, and I don't know if he had the "platinum" version or not, but he had the 12C), here is the 35S scientific calculator, here is the 48GX graphing calculator, and here is the 50G graphing calculator, all of which offer RPN. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bloodstone Posted February 3, 2010 Report Share Posted February 3, 2010 Re: "Neat" Pictures In fact' date=' you have trouble rinding an RPN calculator if you prefer those, as I do. Sigh. RPN is the Betamax of calculators: superior, but lost the marketing war.[/quote'] While I have no direct experience with any RPN calculator programs... there have to be at least a dozen available for download on any major touchscreen cell phone OS (I know iPhone, Windows Mobile and Android all have them) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rapier Posted February 3, 2010 Report Share Posted February 3, 2010 Re: "Neat" Pictures Eh. I missed RPN entirely. I ran into it a time or two and was like 'meh.' It may have been a few keystrokes less (especially on longer equations), but it wasn't worth the bother of trying to get used to it, especially since it had already by that point started to become a little rare. Besides that, we were required to have a graphing calculator and those used pretty normal notation, much like you would write it out longhand. Shrug. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SSgt Baloo Posted February 3, 2010 Report Share Posted February 3, 2010 Re: "Neat" Pictures The problem now is, I've mostly forgotten how to use RPN so it won't save me time OR keystrokes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matrix3 Posted February 3, 2010 Report Share Posted February 3, 2010 Re: "Neat" Pictures The problem now is' date=' I've mostly forgotten how to use RPN so it won't save me time OR keystrokes. [/quote'] Eh, it's like riding a bike. You can practice with the RPN calculator here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Obvious Posted February 3, 2010 Report Share Posted February 3, 2010 Re: "Neat" Pictures Imagine some more of these all in a row and you've got it. That is a badass display. It would be nice to see more stuff like that, from an aesthetic point of view. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted February 3, 2010 Report Share Posted February 3, 2010 Re: "Neat" Pictures You can get them straight off Amazon. ... Yeah, I will have to go the online shopping route next time I need one. Walking into a brick-and-mortar store the success rate was less than 50% last time I looked for one with intent to purchase. I have an (old) HP-11C at home, and an (not so old) HP-33s at the office. I bought the latter when the former disappeared for a couple of weeks under my car seat So I've had HPs on hand to work with continuously since 1979, and I find I have problems doing anything but simple one- or two-operand calculations with a standard algebraic. I am still troglodytic enough not to have any flavor of PDA or cell phone, so while there are certainly RPN calculator apps available, I just keep the idiot box where I need it: on my desk or in my briefcase or backpack. Of course, not only do I still have my old Pickett, I still know how to use a slide rule, too. To my kids' generation, slide rules are less real than vampires, werewolves, and unicorns. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matrix3 Posted February 4, 2010 Report Share Posted February 4, 2010 Re: "Neat" Pictures Yeah, I will have to go the online shopping route next time I need one. Walking into a brick-and-mortar store the success rate was less than 50% last time I looked for one with intent to purchase. I have an (old) HP-11C at home, and an (not so old) HP-33s at the office. I bought the latter when the former disappeared for a couple of weeks under my car seat So I've had HPs on hand to work with continuously since 1979, and I find I have problems doing anything but simple one- or two-operand calculations with a standard algebraic. I am still troglodytic enough not to have any flavor of PDA or cell phone, so while there are certainly RPN calculator apps available, I just keep the idiot box where I need it: on my desk or in my briefcase or backpack. Of course, not only do I still have my old Pickett, I still know how to use a slide rule, too. To my kids' generation, slide rules are less real than vampires, werewolves, and unicorns. I'm pretty proud that despite my generation, I know how to use a slide rule. Sort of. ...ok, so it's been 15+ years since I used one, but I used to be alpha geek amongst my friends in high school for knowing how. I actually re-taught the dad of one of my friends who hadn't used one in decades. And, I still have the HP 22S that I used from middle school through college. Really great calculator, even if it wasn't RPN. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadow Hawk Posted February 4, 2010 Report Share Posted February 4, 2010 Re: "Neat" Pictures I'm pretty proud that despite my generation, I know how to use a slide rule. Sort of. ...ok, so it's been 15+ years since I used one, but I used to be alpha geek amongst my friends in high school for knowing how. I actually re-taught the dad of one of my friends who hadn't used one in decades. And, I still have the HP 22S that I used from middle school through college. Really great calculator, even if it wasn't RPN. I took a high school class in 'radio engineering' in 1980 where we were required to learn how to use a slide rule, since calculators are just a fad. So, yes, I know how to use a slipstick. I use it mostly for pushing buttons on my calculator watch, that can do more calculations per second then the computers used on the Apollo missions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeropoint Posted February 4, 2010 Report Share Posted February 4, 2010 Re: "Neat" Pictures Of course, not only do I still have my old Pickett, I still know how to use a slide rule, too. To my kids' generation, slide rules are less real than vampires, werewolves, and unicorns. I've got a couple of slide rules, just for the geek value. They certainly require you to pay more attention to what you're doing than a calculator would. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemming Posted February 4, 2010 Report Share Posted February 4, 2010 Re: "Neat" Pictures I rather like the larger size. It says you are computing god. That little card says I am a computing wimp. Now if you walk up from IT carrying the bigger one' date=' it says you mean business.[/quote'] And if the guy gives you a problem, you can whack em with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ragitsu Posted February 4, 2010 Report Share Posted February 4, 2010 Re: "Neat" Pictures The future awaits us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Celt Posted February 4, 2010 Report Share Posted February 4, 2010 Re: "Neat" Pictures The future awaits us. Damnit, that's what things are supposed to look like now! Say, is that a Lambda-class T-4a shuttle delivering the 'za? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted February 4, 2010 Report Share Posted February 4, 2010 Re: "Neat" Pictures Looks like it, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattingly Posted February 4, 2010 Report Share Posted February 4, 2010 Re: "Neat" Pictures I think I see Corbin Dallas's cab... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted February 4, 2010 Report Share Posted February 4, 2010 Re: "Neat" Pictures Nah, too un-banged-up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadow Hawk Posted February 4, 2010 Report Share Posted February 4, 2010 Re: "Neat" Pictures Because everyone needs thier own boat. All images are the same boat. [ATTACH=CONFIG]34834[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]34833[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]34832[/ATTACH] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemming Posted February 4, 2010 Report Share Posted February 4, 2010 Re: "Neat" Pictures Naturally, my cats want this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drhoz Posted February 4, 2010 Report Share Posted February 4, 2010 Re: "Neat" Pictures Naturally, my cats want this So they can do this? http://www.gocomics.com/lio/2010/01/24/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveZilla Posted February 6, 2010 Report Share Posted February 6, 2010 Re: "Neat" Pictures "The Art of Meow." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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