Slashdot Mirror
Net Access From your TI-85
BlueCalx- writes "Affinix has just recently released an interesting program called Wireless TI - a set of utilities that lets you access a UNIX shell, IRC, or chat with another computer: all from your Texas Instruments-brand graphing calculator. You can download the utilities from ticalc.org. "
I wonder who will be the first person that gets a story on slashdot because they hosted a webpage off their TI-85.
In one of his "Fifth Wave" cartoons, RT drew a gag where the office techie had tools and hardware strewn around a work area, and he was holding a calculator that had what looked like an RS-232 port grafted in it...the techie's word balloon reads "My God, it works! I'm getting files!"
"How many light bulbs does it take to change a person?" --BMcC-->
here's a useful link to some useful information about the things.
i was gonna paraphrase, but i hear that's bad news these days ... *smirk*
while your theory is right, it can not be applied to age levels, and all problems.
At the post secondary level, what you have said is definetly correct..we should not be bothered with such mundane details as arithmetic..there are much more interesting problems to be solved.
But at the elementary, and secondary levels students need to get have strong grasp of arithmetic, and basic mathematical functions. From there you can work up and tackle more complex problems.
Look at the way math is generally taught, in calculus you are first taught the First Principle for deriving functions, after you play with that for a while you are taught the short cuts, so you can more easily apply the derivatives to large problems.
thats the way pretty much everything is taught in math, you learn the "hardway" of doing things, and the basics of that type of problem, and after you have a good grasp of how and why it works, then you learn the shortcuts so you can apply what you have just learned to more complex problems, without being bogged down by arithmetic and what not.
The basic sleazeware produced in a drunken fury by a bunch of UCBerkeley grad students was still the core of BIND. --PV
Why would you buy a TI-92 anyway? Get a TI-89, which is the same thing except the size of a normal calculator, and without a QWERTY keyboard. It has the same features as the TI-92 Plus. It sells for $150 or less.
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No more e-mail address game - see my user info. Time for revenge.
Win dain a lotica, en vai tu ri silota
> All the teachers will do is make students with wireless access (for
:)
> the exams that wouldn't allow them) is to construct a small box lined
> with a couple layers of tinfoil.
Nope, it's much easier than that. I just plain don't allow calculators.
Hmm, it's going to be interesting in my intro to stats class this fall, when I tell them that calculators are forbidden, but dice are mandatory . . .
Ok, not only send this all the way up to 5, but re-root it as a top level comment :)
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I was delighted to find students here griping about their intro to stat class that was really "funny calculator 101"--they *wanted* to know what was going on. NOt much I can do as a visiting professor, but next year when I teach the comparable class at another school . .
Yes, you should know what a "mean" means, not just how to get one with a calculator . .
btw, anyone know where we can cheaply order those cheap dice of various sizes? They're going to be mandatory . . .
Gee, you couldn't find a way to use a calculator for measure theory? :)
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:)
Hmm, start with the null set, then the set containing a calculator, then the set that contains . .
Hmm, the number of people reading this that have any idea what it means is probably of very small measure . . .
Software such as this has existed for HP calculators since the days of the HP48SX.
I have used some of the terminal emulators for my HP48GX to dial up to *nix boxes to check mail, chat, and even code.
For more info on HP calculators and all the software that exists for them, see hpcalc.org
Oh, how I miss the days of walking around with an HP48GX w/ 1.25MB of RAM and an external 9600 baud modem...
- Malkthulhu
But how does RPN work with shell commands?
parameter 1 [enter]
parameter 2 [enter]
command
And while were at it, lets get rid of textbooks. Students should be made to discover everything on their own.
No notebooks either. If you haven't memorized it you haven't learned it.
Ah hell, let's just do away with written language altogether.
And why are we using higher math anyway? It's just cheats and tricks. Students should learn Euclid's axioms and the Peano postulates and be forced to derive everything else. (Division, blah! who needs division when you've got subtraction!)
I know the post was just a troll, but this argument against calculators is used. And it is fundementally flawed.
Technology changes things. Why don't we use slide rules any more? Why don't we use Roman numerals to calculate with any more? Why don't we use abaci? Why have we given up on straight edges and compasses?
Because we found better tools. And the use of these tools has not made us 'stupid'. Our skill sets have changed (we use algebra and calculas to solve what we once used geometry to solve; we use notebooks where we once used memory tricks).
The tool is not the problem. Use of calculators in schools does not cause math scores to go down. Poor use of calculators in schools does.
If students can't add, then the teaching methodology is flawed. And it needs to be changed. Those calling for banning calculators (just like those calling for banning Napster) don't understand the problem. And are probably just looking for a quick fix.
As for the 'computers replace humans' scenarios, I think case is somewhat overstated. The ability to spell or to use correct grammer does not equal thinking. Written language is arbitrary. And it changes (try reading Chaucer in the original 'English'). If my computer can deal with the grammer and spelling then it allows me to concentrate on the ideas I'm trying to communicate. I do the thinking, it does the spelling. And that's fine with me.
It's the same with calculators. I still have to determine the problem to solve. And choose the tool(s) to solve it with. The calculator just handles the 'mechanical' (i.e. non-thinking') part.
Steve M
It's quite possible to write a primitive TCP-IP stack on TI-85 and serve web pages from it. It has 32kB RAM (minus the screen area 128x64, 1kB) + 128kB ROM (hmm... maybe it would be possible to replace this with EPROM?). Lower 32kB is mapped for ROM with bank switching and upper 32kB for RAM. It's running ~6MHz Z-80. You can pretty easily turbocharge it by just modifying one capacitor on the circuit board, but of course it eats a lot more batteries up then. Z80 is able to execute about one instruction every 4-8 cycles, so it's not that fast, but some guys programmed a Wolfenstein clone, Daedalus framerates being like 5 frames per second on so on unmodified TI-85! Ricochet + Daedalus + some extra programming = deathmatch on TI-85? :)
There's also a 512kB memory expansion for it, although it's more like a RAM-disk.
TI-85 a neat system if you're such person who wants to play with gadgetry (and modify it too). And it's pretty cheap too.
Heh!
That infernal paper and pencil has rendered the Art of making your own papyrus, utterly useless. What a waste!
Why, when I was a yun'gin, we had to impress little lines onto clay tablets, WITH STICKS. Back then, we couldn't even spell cuneform, let alone set it down as Illuminated Manuscript.
Damn! Damn that Guttenberg! The skill of memorization that was taught by Homer is lost for eternity. Man will never again truly use his mind for anything useful. These lazy kids today, I tell ya!
Back in the glorious days of mankind, I tried to destroy every wheel I could find since using wheels keeps people from carrying everything everywhere - our muscles have just wasted away ever since... I also tried to put out all fires, since cooking is bad!
And I would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for you PESKY KIDS!!
-- What you do today will cost you a day of your life.
Maybe I should dig up my old TI-85 and try this.
Anyone know if you can do with with an HP-48GX as well?
--
Technology just keeps making easy things easier!
Got Rhinos?
Oh, it said wireless T I. Damn fonts >:(
from Netcraft: "Sorry, couldn't determine what the server was for host www.macross2000.org on port 80."
Whatever it is, it isn't at the moment. (Maybe it's running off a TI-85 itself?)
I use Macs for work, Linux for education, and Windows for cardplaying.
I wonder when I'll be able to run Apache on my TI-83 Linux shell.
Got Rhinos?
What's next, how to run a '68 TransAM in SMP?
Ahh yes, the ramblings of someone who had it the hard way and is now bitter that they didn't have nifty "tools" to help them out. I'll counter your argument with this. How many times have you had to take the derivitave of anything in your daily life??? (Engineer's excluded..that's understood) I've had 5 quarters of advanced calc, and more than half of it would have taken days to do without some sort of computer aid. In my courses the calc's allow students to rush past the simple things and focus more on advanced topics. No one really needs to know the mechanics of taking a derivitive. What is more important is what it means, what its graph can tell you about the function. Understanding Green's Theorm cannot be accomplished in 2 days (as it was in my course) without the use of some pretty ballsy linux machines and mathmatica. I couldn't even dream of trying to visualize any of the more advanced theorms without computer aid. The tool is not teaching us less, its allowing us to for go simpler mechanics to see the big picture.
--Should work--
CmdrTaco...please!
If someone develops apache for the TI OS, don't put up a link to a server!
Just a few days ago we slashdotted the SPUD potato-powered server. A while back it was the Atari.
For the love of god, man, won't someone please think about the calculators?
You're a sick sick man. You probobly want the link to my Mac Plus Debian 68k 8Mhz Web servin' bad boy don't ya...?
Enough posting..time to play zTetris.
/nutt
So let our students be mediocre at long division. I couldn't care less. (When I need to do a complicated long division problem, I reach for the calculator -- why waste my time doing otherwise?) As long as they have been exposed to the mechanics, and (more fundamentally) how those mechanics can be applied in math and in life, who cares?
There are obvious caveats to my comments above, and this is why I partially agree with you -- teachers do need to make sure that students receive enough grounding in simple technique that they're not dependent on calculators for everything; for trivial calculations, nothing beats pen and paper. I think one ultimate goal is for the students to be able to solve any problem in the manner that is most appropriate -- clearly sometimes that will be in their heads, and just as clearly, sometimes a calculator is the way to go. Coupled with this, as I said above, is the goal of teaching the students to think in a mathematical way. Calculators obviously aren't a catch-all for accomplishing both goals, but I see no reason why they can't help you along the way.
This is a common sentiment. It is also wrong.
Math is not about being able to perform long division. Memorizing arbitrary rules for dividing numbers is not math. Punching numbers into a calculator is not math. Math is a way of thinking about problems. It is a formal system of abstraction. What are numbers? Abstractions of groups of everyday things. Three apples, three houses, three people, etc. What are variables? An abstraction of numbers.
Learning mathematics is learning how to think abstractly. There is some advantage to knowing how to do arithmetic, for example when you are shopping and need to figure out how much something will cost when it is on sale for 30% off. But arithmetic should not be the focus of math courses. Calculators take the focus away from arithmetic and put it at a higher conceptual level.
Does learning every command of x86 assembly make you a better programmer? Well, sometimes it's useful. But nowadays we have things called compilers that do all that for you. Tools don't make you dumber; they let you tackle more complicated problems. Of course calculators can be misused in the classroom, but used correctly they force the student to spend more time actually thinking.
-Nathan Whitehead
I suspect that you are trolling, but I get this a lot from educators who don't really understand how to use the technology, so I'll dignify it with a response.
Yeah, right. Most teachers can't use a 4-function calculator, let alone something that has percentages and square roots on it. How the hell do figure they're teaching their students something they don't know themselves? This is laughable. The US has always been behind! The scary thing is that it has taken people like you so long to realize it. This is what lead to my "don't understand the tech" remark. With programmable calculators, you're talking about programming, not math. Push button derivatives? It doesn't even get interesting until you start doing integrals.Remember when you had to fill up a couple sheets of paper to figure out how many digits of accuracy were affeted in you answer by the value of the quantum? Remember how pleased you were when you programmed your ... whatever it was ... to do that in seconds, at the push of a button, instead of taking hours with pencil and paper?
You don't, do you. You don't understand the tech.
I still remember writing these kinds of little mini-programs back before those functions were available on a calculator. When the instructor said "Show your work," I printed the program. He got pissed because he couldn't read it, of course... but he damn well couldn't claim I didn't know the material.
The fact that the instructor didn't think of it, and doesn't know how to do it doesn't invalidate the educational value of the execise.
Do you also assert that somehow the student learns more by storing notes in wire-bound wads of pressed, bleached, and dried vegatable matter? Explain. Not a bad idea. In fact, I had every intention of doing just that, until I found that the average grammer checker is pathetically inadequate, to the point that I can correct my own grammer quicker and easier "manually". That type of tech is still very primitive. I had hoped to have generative programs the write my essays for me, by this time, but... well, that's a separate rant. Well, you're partially correct. In case you haven't noticed, schools have already stopped teaching everything except political correctness. They don't even teach typing; besides typing as a computer skill is already obsolescent.I think humans being replaced by machines may not be such a bad idea. Goddess knows, the humans have totally fsck'd things up for long enough. If machines become intelligent enough to survive as humans drive themselves extinct, hey, more power to 'em.
I mean really, what does the human race have to reccomend itself, objectively? From a perspective that encompasses humanity, rather than being contained within humanity, not much. And the contained perspective is about as valid as a circular definition...
It doesn't end. Death just introduces complex numbers.
"Life: Nothing gets out alive."
"The Internet is made of cats."
I'm surprised that given how poorly math and science scores are in this country (US, that is), that teachers still train their students in punching little buttons on the keyboard. Is that math? I know from my own experience that if you give most kids here pencil and paper and ask them to do long division, all you get in return are blank stares. No wonder the US is falling behind.
As an "educational tool", calculators have about the same educational value as school prayer: namely, none. You don't learn how to take derivatives by punching an equation into your HP48GX, and you don't learn advanced calculus by playing Tetris on your TI-86. And you don't learn anything by storing notes in your calculator's memory. So what do you learn? How to cheat? How to play games?
How about this: how to let machines do all your thinking for you. Your calculator does your math. Your word processor corrects your spelling and grammar. Pretty soon, schools will stop teaching everything but typing because computers will handle the rest. You've heard the "scare scenarios" from Bill Joy and other experts claiming that machines will replace humans. And guess what? Humans will gladly allow themselves to be conquered by machines. Why think? That's what computers are for, after all. If intelligent machines ever take over the world, it will be because no one will want to resist.
It starts with "1+1=" and ends with your death.