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The TI-30 and similar calculators used a 9 volt battery but had rechargeable battery modules which could be used as well that operated like this. Inside was a NiCd battery and boost converter which always ran producing the 9 volts that the calculator expected. Operating life was good even though the boost converter never shut off. Today we could do much better.

http://www.datamath.org/BP_Rep...

You should take your own advice. There's no "silicon" of the LCD panel, it's ON the glass panel. Furthermore you have an odd idea of what a chip is.

http://www.datamath.org/Graphi...

This doesn't look like a bare die bonded to a flex PCB that attaches to a glass panel?

The first programming I did involved entering opcodes into a Radio Shack EC-4000 calculator. Two years later during a field trip to the high school, a guidance counselor informed me that people actually do that sort of thing for a living. I've been hooked ever since.

This being slashdot, expect the next poster to regale you with stories of vacuum tubes, paper tape, or punched cards. OK, I've done Fortran 77 on punched cards, but vacuum tubes were before my time.

FWIW, PHP is my least favorite language by far. I would not be surprised if initial exposure to PHP has encouraged some potentially great programmers to pursue careers in marketing or perhaps even janitorial service.

- T

http://www.datamath.org/Speech/MyOwnPlayphone.htm

Really?

Just found http://www.datamath.org/

http://www.datamath.org/Sci/Slimline/TI-30LCD.htm

Just found http://www.datamath.org/

http://www.datamath.org/Sci/Slimline/TI-30LCD.htm

<graybeardmode>

Back in 1979 (IIRC), a college classmate and I discovered that our TI-55 calculators would put out a blast of noise on the AM dial whenever something was written to the LED display! We tuned a nearby radio to the most effective frequency and started exploring.

Imagine our excitement when we discovered there was a different delay between bursts depending on how many LED segments were lit up! (That is, it took longer to display 88888888 than 11111111). Hey! We can make Music!! Frustratingly, we were limited to a 32 step program, so many promising attempts fell short because we needed a few more steps to complete the beat. Still, we came up with a dozen or so different rhythms and had a heck of a time doing it!

</graybeardmode>

I'm sure we weren't the only ones to discover this phenomenon... I'd love to hear from others about their experiences.

I recommend Big Brain Academy. I have it for the Wii, and my daughter enjoys it. It is a game that forces thinking, but reading is only needed to read the instructions for most games.

http://www.gamespot.com/ds/puzzle/gentlebrainexercises/

I don't think that using a pda-sized device is any good at teaching a young person reading skills. My daughter is only 4, and is only beginning to recognize all the letters, but she exhibited interest when she was 2, calling out the large capitals as I was reading her a story. You should hone this interest, and build on it by playing with her, spending time together, using books. I also had a great toy when I was younger, The Little Professor. That kind of functionality could be very good for a child, but I am not aware of any that is available. http://www.datamath.org/Edu/Professor-76.htm

I got you all beat - my watch is more powerful than the first computer I owned - back in the early '80s...a TI58 programable calculator.

Of the recent explorations of circuit-bending, Sonic Boom's Data Rape, recorded under the "Experimental Audio Research" ("EAR") banner and available through Space Age Recordings, stands out as the most distinctive. The entire LP was recorded using modified Texas Instruments Speak & Spell devices, together with some audio processing using a Morley phaser and an EMS VCS3. Speak & Spell was the first in a series of educational toys that was to establish electronic speech synthesis in the mass market. Subsequent products included the less successful, and therefore rarer, Speak & Math, and the downright obscure Speak & Read.

http://www.hpmuseum.org/hp16.htm

I need a calculator that can do hex, and shifts, and bitwise operations. I mean I love my TI LCD Programmer, but I really miss the shift operations...

I never needed anything more than a TI-55.

After this, getting my first Apple ][, I remember being thrilled by looking at BASIC and saying: "What ? you can really use _all_ those variables ?"

Actually, it is TI, not HP.

And they are recalling 160,000 calculators, not 11,000. .. if only they had used the original TI-30