Slashdot Mirror
HP Releases New RPN Scientific Calculator
majid writes "HP just announced a new calculator, the HP 33S. It supports RPN and algebraic notation, and sports a funky V-shaped design. I don't think it looks as nice as the 33SII it is supposed to replace, and it seems to have rubber keys instead of the wonderful hard plastic keys on older HP calculators, but it's nice to have a new RPN scientific calculator that does not have the intimidating learning (and remembering) curve of the 48 or 49 series. This one just might join my trusty 15C ...
The User's manual PDF is available courtesy of Amazon, where it is apparently already No. 85 on the best-selling list."
Except, I can't seem to do addition or subtraction with it.
Really, why bother, the dedicated calculator is dead. Just install EasyCalc and EasyStat which can do some pretty neat stuff for your Palm and you're all set. My Tungsten T3 has a 144Mhz ARM CPU, which is loads faster than anything dedicated calculators can offer and has a beautiful 320x480 16bit tft.
Plus there are loads of software for Palms that can do statistics, etc..
Too bad HP can't see it. Or maybe they can and they want to rip you off? After all, if you buy a Palm, all you have to do it upgrade your software to get new features. With this, you need to buy a new calc.
Talk about a rip-off if I ever saw one.
That's old school. No one uses subtraction anymore...but hey, if you like the oldies...
... does it run Linux?
Until it can play a Tetris clone, it's not replacing my TI-92. :)
I just give the closest unemployed math student a buck to solve anything more complicated then 1 + 1 = 3.
Hate me!
For product descriptions, especially when they note "Pocket-sized - take it anywhere".
What is algebraic notation?
I tell ya, this generation would have HELL if they were forced to survive back in my day
MY SECRET DIARIES
... but does it matter?
;-)
Daniel
Carpe Diem
This calculator good for basic math and people in non-engineering majors.
... however it has its limitations. I am taking Partial Differential Equations this summer and I don't think any calculator can help me get the answer quick and easy.
The Ti92 (or Ti89 if you don't want the qwerty keyboard) is still the best route to go for higher-level mathematics (Calculus etc)
Yes! I listen to NYC Speedcore and do math at 3AM. I suggest you try it too.
How can a calculator that does not support volkswagen's and libraries of congress as conversions units be of any possible interest to /. readers?
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
I just finished reading this. Turns out the X-register did it.
Try using a stupid stylus during a calculus final, or during an engineering project...
No, for 'real' usage, you cant replace a real calculator with a flat emulation of one.
That said i do have a RPN emulator for my Toshiba 330, but still, when i have to do more then just a quick calculation, its back to my HP48. ( or 41, that got me thru college.. )
---- Booth was a patriot ----
I'm all for geek chic' and all (being a former Navy Nuke and now a network security engineer) but the line has been crossed when I see review of someone drooling over a new model of HP calculator.
I'm just waiting for that day now when I turn on Tech TV and see the new show "Pimp My Calculator" hosted by Ludicrous and Bruce Schneir!
There's been some complaints on the HP newsgroup about a near invisible decimal dot in the display, IIRC. Something to look out for.
And people, this isn't a replacement for the graphing calculators, it's meant to be a competent calculator for people who don't need graphing, and it can be used on tests where the HP49G+ and such are often forbidden.
Belief is the currency of delusion.
Nokia finally bought out HP. I guess if you cannot make the phone with the normal keys, you can make other consumer devices so screwed up that people think that it is OK to go on diagonal to type anything.
Sometimes I think form should still follow function. But I guess my brain was not destroyed by the rapid MTV editing.
If its anything like the recently released 49g+, its a flimsy, flaky piece of junk.
Keypresses dont register, screen flicker, the works.
Why couldnt they have made it like the 48sx?
The US Internet Price is $49.99
... sit down ... $112.61
... no - wait ...
The campus bookstore at my college (DTU Denmark) charges
Granted, Denmark has a 25% sales tax. Let's add that and compare: $49.99 * 1.25 = $62.49
I believe the words I'm looking for are "HOLY FUCKING SHIT!"
Good thing I'm not a poor pennyless student
We do not live in the 21st century. We live in the 20 second century.
Fifty bucks buys you a calculator with rubbery keys (in a weird 'newbie-friendly' pattern), a two-line (!!!) screen, and 31KB (!!!) of "RAM user memory"? What the fuck are they smoking? How is this better than a used HP48G that you could get for probably the same price?
Jesus Christ, it's 2004. We should have HP48G-looking units with 64MB of RAM, double-high-res colour transflective screens (think GBA), USB ports, AND full backwards-compatibility with all the wonderful HP48[G/GX/S/SX] software out there (think of how the newer Palm devices can run older Palm software), but no, we get this pile of steamed monkey dung...
I guess this is what we can expect from..... Compaq.
Honey, I shrunk the Cygwin
Why is amazon trying to sell a 30-pack of AAA batteries as an accessory on the product page? According to the specs, it only needs the lithium batteries...
RPN
I
love
Equals!
You are not the customer.
~~~
They couldn't have made it solar powered?
I seem to recall an announcement a while back saying that HP was getting out of the calculator business. Since then they have released two new calculators(HP49G+ and then this one). What's up? I love HP calcs though. I have an old HP41CV that I have thought about selling on ebay(they are worth quite a bit now) but I think I'm going to keep it. RPN is the best idea ever.
I'm in grad school in EE about 6 or 7 years behind my fellow students (cashed in on the dotcom boom, etc.) and we were talking about this yesterday.
When I was in engineering school, the HP48GX was the calc. Everyone knew RPN, all the circuits students learned quickly how to solve linear algebra rather quickly on the HP. Now I'm the only one with an HP. Everyone, everyone has a TI-89. Symbolics plus nearly everything the HP could do (except RPN), much improved graphing, much improved processor. The new HP calc? Overwhelmingly, reviews have pronounced it crap, both in interface and underlying engineering. (It still uses the same old "Saturn" chip the HP48 series did ten years ago, with a slight speed bump.) Two or three students had never even SEEN an HP calculator.
Is this true everywhere? Has the HP calculator series been relegated to the trash heap? If so, how did HP allow itself to bungle this so badly?
OpenGLFan, whose love of RPN is the only thing attaching himself to his current calculator...
I still miss my HP 42s. I replaced my stolen 42s with with a 48GX but while the 48gx does everything that the 42s did (and more) I still like the smaller form factor on the 42s.
I've seen 'em for sale on e-bay but I don't feel like paying $250.00usd just to get one back, expecially since the only thing I use a calculator for anymore is balancing my checkbook.
The 42s had a lot going for it - I think HP would do well to re-release it, or at least make a new version.
The reason those HP calcs kicked so much ass is the keyboard - you could enter things quickly and you didn't need to double or triple check you hit the key right.
I really want a next-gen hp48 with the same form factor.. but it doesn't seem to be likely. I've thought about surgically removing the keyboard from a hp48 and making a frankendevice with a Palm..
..don't panic
The Linux port is almost done.
the enlarged image didn't work for me (don't know why). but at last I managed to get it. In case some of you had similar problems - here it is:
j pg
http://www.hp.com/calculators/images/33s_350x350.
#
#\ @ ? Colonize Mars
#
http://www.systemrecycler.com/imag0184.jpg
http://www.systemrecycler.com/imag0183.jpg
http://www.systemrecycler.com/imag0182.jpg
Still works after almost 2o years. Only changed the batteries ONCE and I use the hell out of it.. I wish I still had the original manuals though, the ex threw them out just to be mean..
That thing is painful to look at and resembles something out of my kid's Transformers collection. What's wrong with rectangular keys and straight columns and rows other than Marketing doesn't think that's 'cool' enough? On the plus side, it has a "last x" key. The 48GX doesn't have one and I miss it.
Looks like the golden oldies are still top of the line. It's amazing that over 10 years old calculator still beats the living daylights out of these new toys. HP calculator division should take more note about their roots... if you can't design a worthy successor, heck, at least put out a slightly modernified (more memory, higher clockspeed) version of 48GX.
Not that this is even meant to be a competitor for 40>, it's supposed to be few steps below, and the reason for "easy learning curve" is obvious, it just does so much less, but still... it's hard to know if those keys are as bad as they look, but apparently they are if fellow posters are correct, and the display sucks as well (in addition to being way too small for lots of things).
Looks like you still need to pry my 48GX from my cold, dead hands.
Small buttons, too small of an enter key. Not the same quality as a real HP calculator. Sellers of HP32SII (sub-$40 new) are now getting over $200 on ebay.
Maybe its just me, but this sounds like a marketing gimick for HP.
trusty Post Versalog. Ooops, am I giving away my age?
"Do the Right Thing. It will gratify some people and astound the rest." - Mark Twain
"Do the Right Thing. It will gratify some people and astound the rest." - Mark Twain
... that works. I'm a very successful and effective engineer who never made it past Calculus 2 at university. I have a strong creative impulse, good work habits, and an intuitive grasp of EE topics from signal propagation to circuit analysis that has served my employers well. But I can't deal with math. I don't like it, and it doesn't like me. I have the same problem with abstract mathematics that dyslexics have with words.
The truth that you'll never hear in college is that in engineering, intuition and imagination will get you 50% of the way there, and self-discipline will buy you another 40%. The remaining 10% is purely analytical work. It has to be done, and it's hard as hell. It's why they don't let EEs graduate without course upon course of advanced calculus, differential equations, and thermodynamics. However, at the Fortune 1000 company where I work (Agilent), there are always plenty of math geeks around, and I treat them like very smart, very valuable calculators. "Here, optimize this." "How's our max temperature looking?" "Can this be done any cheaper without sacrificing operating margin?"
Engineers and mathematicians make a killer combination. Personally, I think a lot of talented, creative folks are kept out of the EE community by the stiff math requirements, and that's a shame.
In my view, all current HP scientific and graphing calcs look kind of cheap and fail to evoke that classic HP feeling (e.g. look where the Enter key is placed). Just recently I acquired a 48GX since it's the last sci/graph piece which reminds me of what they used to be. On the other hand, some of their financial calcs have the beloved 15c/16c shape, even sporting the yellow/blue f/g keys. Now that's what I call decent design.
The big advantage my old trusty 15C has for me is dedicated A-F keys for doing hex math. This new HP suffers the same problem that the 48SX/GX has: you need to do the friggin' "Alpha shift" key before every hex digit.
No thanks man... if it doesn't have dedicated A-F keys it ain't no programmers calculator.
--Rob
http://66.98.186.127/lm/ (the above link) can be reported to abuse@ev1.net -- being located in the U.S., it might be helpful to mention Ashcroft's hardon for obscenity.
Might be OT, but I'll trade anybody for my nearly unused HP-48G. :)
Email jollyleprechaun@yahoo.com to trade through ebay.
Everything works. It's a good deal, actually (auction is not actually mine, but similar).
Comes w/soft case, orig. box, both manuals, batteries, NO MODS to orig. hardware
goodbye karma
If it ain't broke - don't fix it.
The 41 was THE calculator in its day. Nothing could come close to its power. The 41 was also one of the few calculators you could truly hack, both the software and the hardware.
-- Will program for bandwidth
these
of
cluster
beowulf
imagine
++++
perl -e '$_="\007/4`\cp%2,".chr(127);s/./"\"\\c$&\""/gees
The only way your're getting my TI-86 is by prying it from my cold, dead fingers...
... or if you get me a TI-89.
The HP 33s is HP's most advanced, programmable scientific calculator, packing 31 kilobytes of user memory along with the powerful "HP Solve" application into a shirt-pocket-sized unit weighing only 119 grams (4.2 ounces).
Wow, how do they manage to "pack" an entire 31K into something that can fit into your shirt pocket!?! Amazing!
Seriously, I'm sure the calculator is fine, but they really need to find some better marketing people.
A while back I owned a HP 28S.
:) A lot of other people were hacking on that calculator, there was a real scene, with a lot of good free software.
Then a 48SX and it was really an amazing beast. Not as a calculator but as a geek machine. Programming in assembly language was a breeze. I really loved the Saturn CPU. In fact, I spent a lot of time at school coding on the calculator instead of listening to teachers
Then the HP48GX was out. It rocked. It was twice faster as the HP48SX. More people joined the HP 48 scene, new tricks were found (like using interrupts for grey levels), minitel services were there to share and download code... well... it was just excellent.
-HPdream.
{{.sig}}
As long as it's in HEX mode. Otherwise those keys act as math functions.
It replaces the 32SII, not the 33SII....
The NCEES just banned the HP48/49 from their popular engineering exams. People were using them to steal exam questions and/or to cheat by transmitting to one another. The HP33s is the ONLY RPN calculator that is explicitly approved. They are seriously considering switching to only allowing calculators that have been explicitly approved, but say they want to keep the list short (so may exclude the great vintage RPN calcs like the 15c). There was a HUGE rush to get the 33s in time for the April exam a week or two ago & they were being sold on ebay for hundreds of dollars.
Good time to plug OpenRPN, a project to develop a series of open hardware RPN calculators. It just started, so don't expect learning TOO much from it (they still have some problems with their forums, so please be gentle with the server), but if you can help out please do so!
>Keypresses dont register, screen flicker, the works.
This is a little unfair. As far as I know the screen flicker only happens if you run grayscale programs written for the HP48 (typically games on which the bang-the-hardware-asm isn't "properly" emulated), or possibly in an older firmware. I have had no screen flicker on my HP49G+ at all, unless you count the 'garbage' on power-on that was visible on _old_ firmwares?
The keyboard problem is somewhat overhyped IMHO, but it's at least a real problem. I guess it depends on your disposition how much of a problem it is.
Belief is the currency of delusion.
I am what you would call math challenged. I got to right around algebra and lost it when we got to pre-calc. I've read the wikipedia on RPN, but why exactly would you use this? It seems like you are more likely to make a mistake (but again, the most math I do in a day is to add up how many cats I have or something). Am I missing the boat on something?
> We should have HP48G-looking units with 64MB of RAM, double-high-res colour transflective screens (think GBA), USB ports, AND full backwards-compatibility with all the wonderful HP48[G/GX/S/SX] software out there
Yes, it's called the HP49G+
512KB memory + one Secure Digital slot -- so you can get oodles of memory very cheaply (512MB? No problem). USB? Yes. Compatibility? Yes (source level). Higher resolution? Yes (16px higher IIRC)
Belief is the currency of delusion.
That thing is painful to look at
You're using the wrong browser then. HP's "Enlarge image" link only works on Internet Explorer.
I have pimped my calculator. I have a TI-83+ Silver Edition, with the clear/pearl case, i cracked it open and put 2 blue LEDs and a switch inside. Lights up real good, enough to read by in the dark. Doesn't backlight the screen however.
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
I like the 33s. I would like it more if it had the matix and complex math that were on the 15c. We still have the 17c, so why can't they bring back that model?!
HP used to make great products. Now it just sells printer refill cartridges.
Pssh... Everyone knows the real purpose of scientific calculators is to play Tetris instead of paying attention to your Discrete Math assignment.
Count your stars lucky.... At least HP still manufactures decent calculators. It's not that far a stretch to see HP take their calculators down the road of so many of their other products like their printers, which used to be sooooo good.
Here's a plausible scenario:
Imagine having to first activate the calculator via a Windows software install. This would, of course, require an Internet connection, so that the latest firmware (2.45, of course, to fix recent problems with totals) could be downloaded to the calc. The firmware, by the by, is 12.85 megabytes. (Well, not _really_ but there's other stuff in there, too, of course.) No Internet? No activation. No calcy.
Oh, and you must register the product, otherwise you won't receive support or updates. And while installing, Share-to-Web, BackWeb, and five other processes will be installed. They'll come up with the next reboot. (That explains the extra 50 seconds added to reboot, anyway.)
*sigh*
If Nalgene water bottles are outlawed, only outlaws will have Nalgene water bottles.
Thats exactly what i thought at first. When i switched cell companies i wanted a nokia phone because i like their UI, and i wanted a color screen too. Unfortunatly i couldn't find any with out wacky buttons. Ended up getting a nice LG flip phone. But yeah, i prefer my cal buttons as roughly rectangles and arranged at roughly 90 degree angles. Could be worse though, at least the thing doesn't look like a football or a taco.
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
I love RPN. Many of the posters here love RPN. But to the average user, RPN is like "lol i dont get it its all BACKWREDZ". I remember offering to loan my HP48G to people who handed it right back to me after trying (and failing) to comprehend RPN.
Is there a paper somewhere on why RPN is a Good Thing(TM), and not just "lol teh math is backwardz"? Cuz to the average user, RPN is like "speak like Yoda do I!" It seems pointless to them, and only slows comprehension.
Honey, I shrunk the Cygwin
mine has a plastic sleeve not leather.
The ARM on the new calcs are almost too much for a calculator.
On comp.sys.hp48, someone posted a clip of a porno film in grayscale. I guess if TI's have games for kids to play in their calc courses, HP has to have adult entertainment.
Does this mean I can boot Apple ][ DOS?
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
For anyone that hasn't read User Friendly, Erwin (the SGI Box in the comic) is an AI that the non-geek marketing guy Stef (the guy in the comic) is trying to seek revenge on for various reasons (read the archives to figure all that out).
& mode=classic and the next several comics.
Check out http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=19990823
Michael C. Hollinger
Need I say more?
Besides you should be using rechargables anyway!
Here come the HP vs TI flamewars
They won't know how to use it.
The User's manual PDF is available courtesy of Amazon, where it is apparently already No. 85 on the best-selling list."
Anyone else find it odd that a User manual is No 85 on the best selling list?
You can have my HP 15C RPN calculator when you pry it from my cold dead hands!!
Anyone else noticed the CPU in the specifications. Anyone remembers the C64?? Or am I the only one left?
My HP 48SX (circa 1989) is still working strong but the display is starting to fail--it's losing vertical lines on one side. Is there any way to get spare parts or repairs for such a beast?
BTW, when I heard that HP was getting out of the calc biz I rushed out and bought a 48GX as a backup for the SX. Now I can keep one at work and the other at home, always handy. Hope to God that I don't have to ever replace them!
The white zone is for loading and unloading only. If you need to load or unload go to the white zone. It's a way of life
The new HPs, as mentioned, use ARM chips, not Saturns.
On the downside, HP really didn't do a very good job with the 49G+, or the new 33S. The 49G+ has a terrible keyboard, and the people on comp.sys.hp48 have blasted the 33S for having an unreadable LCD.
Clear, Dark Skies
Great! Now if my HP 21 every breaks, I'll be able to buy another RPN calculator to relplace it.
on this note, can anyone recommend a good calculator as a present for my girlfriends birthday. she is studying architecture and is working towards her exams in statics (and she loves math). thanks in advance.
Peter: What're you watching?
Jason: "Query eye for the database guy."
Peter: "Well you've got to hand it to TechTV for trying."
If I get a color display, it'll shorten my battery life. It'll probably need a back light to read (think GBA SP) and that'll shorten the battery life MUCH more.
I'm happy with B/W on my calculator.
I have a 49G+. It's okay. The keys are still nothing like the old ones.
I occasionally ran the (real time) strategy for our solar car on my TI81. It wasn't ideal, much better on a spreadsheet, but it was usable.
I wouldn't do it again, since laptops are now ubiquitous, but that was not the case 12 years.
I'm a big fan of graphing, in general, and I like the way the TI does it. But, frankly, apart from the solar car thing I've hardly ever used it.
For amusement it might be fun to give a PHB one of these HP calculators and watch the concept of RPN make their heads explode.
The Machine stops.
Slightly OT, but does anyone know of a good resource for learning how to use the HP 49G+?
I bought one two months ago, and it's so radically different from anything I've used before (i.e. from TI), that I hardly can figure out how to use the darn thing.
HP provides a huge manual in PDF format, but I haven't found it particularily helpful.
1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21 -- Mathematics is the Language of Nature.
I am reasonably skillful at maths, and a somewhat successful engineer (leastways I enjoy it and get good appraisals). For most of my career I have been involved in Noise and Vibration, which meant I had to eat Fourier transforms for breakfast. FTs are one of the few 'advanced' maths concepts I regard as easy.
There are a lot of people around who have a good feel for stuff that I tend to analyse, but often I analyse it because its fun, not necessary. I have had some technicians working with me who could not have described an FT, let alone worked one out, who still managed to do very good work.
Now I work in a field where a basic knowledge of Hamiltonians is helpful (suspension/mechanisms analysis/non linear dynamics), but, I have a strong suspicion that many engineers in my field don't use them or understand them. Doesn't seem to hold them back.
If you want to emulate the 48SX, 48GX, and 49G calcs on your Palm...
http://power48.mobilevoodoo.com
They look fantastic - an impressive graphics job, and look like they work well to me. Sadly, I'm just a wannabe geek hanging around slashdot to look cool, so I don't actually follow a fraction of what they do.
How sad is that?
PigPog.
dude, his nick is "tech-dreamer"
he'll never get a bid on that auction 'cuz it's out of the ballpark.
I have been using Emu 48 for years now. What could be better than having a software HP48/49 on your laptop? 100% free too. There is also a WinCE version floating around, although I've never used that one.
This one just might join my trusty 15C
A true software geek would know that the 16C is the one to have...it's the hex version of the 15C. I just wonder how hard they had to work to get their hex calculator to have '16' as it's model number?!
www.sjbaker.org
Easycalc is good enough for me. I have it running on
an old Palm Pilot Pro with Palm OS 2.0.5
BTW, I bought the Palm Pro for $5 with cradle.
I am still using my 48G on almost a daily basis after at least 10 years of use and about 3 sets of batteries. In fact, just replaced the 3 AAA's last week. I also have an HP business calculator, seemed like the 48G handled all the finacial stuff except for MIRR that's been great and can switch between RPN and normal mode.
"The problem with socialism is eventually you run out of other people's money" - Thatcher.
...or you'd know that the keys are classixc HP 'clicky' style, unlike the horror that was the early 49G+.
I bought the 15C used for $20 and sold it for $179. I bought two new 32SII calculators for $40 each when they were discontinued and sold them a couple of years later for $185 and $215. Good small HP RPN calculators did even better than most tech stocks in the 90's tech bubble. They're great investments.
Two years in a row, I emailed HP, asking them for a replacement for the 32SII. I made sure they were aware the used price had shot up to $200+. That should motivate them. I told them I wanted RPN, small, rugged, easy to use, and some built-in conversions.
I have a pair of $50 eBay 48G calculators. They're better than the HP algebraic clunkers. I can no longer use anything but RPN. But the 48 series is a bunch of overly complicated crap. Good hardware, bad user interface. I've been waiting for the 32SII replacement. Smaller, better, faster.
From the specs, the 33S looks a lot better than the 48, but not as good as the 32SII. It appears to be flimsier, too. And the design looks like a damn Romulan tricorder from STNG. But I'll still buy one and give it a try, once they're widely available. The 48Gs have got to go.
If the 33S is not good, I'll sell it and the 48G's, bite the bullet and buy two $200 32SII calculators on eBay. Ouch. The 33S specs are all screwed up. They claim the calculator is .06 inches deep, and the mindless retailers copy the same specs to their websites. Almost certainly .6 inches. And most sites claim they use coin cells, but there are references to AAA batteries. Pin head marketing dweebs.
>> My ultraviolent Linux switch video.
'nuff said.
it's keyboard is great - nice and clicky, like the older HP's
RPN is the best for calculator input. OK, perhaps you need to learn how to use it, but once you understand the stack thing there is nothing better. RPN is for more predictable and efficient.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
That FAQ is from several years ago - talking about the 49g. The g+ has a totally new hardware base.
...I remember just last year reading *here* that HP would no longer make calculators...
||| I still can't believe Parkay's not butter.
The 49g+ wasn't released in 2000, you cock-smoking teabagger.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Why is something completely wrong modded up +5? Its full of errors.
They need to improve the hardware. I don't know if anyone has tried symbolic integration on an HP. It's like those coffee commercials. Walk the dog, check the calculator, learn Dutch, check the calculator. The HP49g+ still runs on a 4 bit bus
Bullshit. The 49g+ has an ARM processor. The bus is 32 bits. You can calculate 299! and the result will display in the blink of an eye (try that on a TI-89). see This {Page for some specs
but TI can actually perform calculations in a reasonable amount of time.
HP's hardware beats the crap out of TI's. You can up 512MB of memory in a 49G+. compare the 2
It doesn't seem to support matrices nor imaginary numbers, like the 15c did... Strange.
For me, the most important reason I like RPN is that I don't have to save intermediate results and recall them later. They are pushed onto the stack. This turns out to be a much more intuitive and easy way to evaluate large expressions. You don't have to remember that you saved the 1st and 4th parts of the numerator in memory slots 1 and 2 and that the two parts of the denominator are in slots 3 and 4. If you don't ever need to evaluate complicated expressions RPN might not be that much of an advantage to you.
-Dan
The 33s keyboard is NOTHING like the diaster that was the early 49G+ keyboard. I have a 33s on my desk right now. The keyboard is perfect. Every key is reliable - I havn't not had a missed keystroke yet.
I have an old HP calculator - the 33s has the same kind of feel. Very good.
Recent 49G+'s have this keyboard as well.
The original 49 was discontinued a while back.
From HP's site
CPU: 75Mhz ARM9 Display Size: 131 x 80 pixels Display type: Pixel Memory: RAM 512KB (330KB available to user), 2MB flash ROM (800KB available to user) IR Port : IrDA Serial port: USB Expansion port: SD card Power Supply: AAA x 3 + CR2032 Auto power OFF: approximately 5 minutes
Clear, Dark Skies
-=monkey --
there are 10 types of people in the world. those that understand binary and those that don't
Does anyone know of a usable RPN calculator which isn't programmable?
I will be taking a series of professional examinations which allow a calculator, but it cannot be programmable which nixes my beloved 32SII. This is also an issue for many other standardized tests.
Thanks for any help!
--- Corporations Are A Fad.
The 33s isn't a 15C, and it isn't made by HP, but despite some minor annoyances it seems to be a decent effort at a fair price. I got my 33s ASAP, and I'm VERY glad to have it. My beloved 15C was a vital classroom and lab tool for 10 years, and now it can assume the place of honor (and safety) on my desk while the 33s does hazardous duty in the lab and field. I don't get why some people insist on pronouncing that the calc is dead - I'm still using mine to bang out calculations on-the-fly wherever I'm working. Yeah, numbers - some of us still work with them, you know? The calculator is the right tool for the job, was perfected many years ago, and still serves its purpose quite well thanks.
Some people are still trying to keep alive their old 7-segment LED display models because they don't require external illumination. Handy if light in your lab needs to be at a minimum. I don't suppose this LCD screen is backlit? Red would be best, as it doesn't spoil your "night" vision.
Comments that need moderation
Slashbots mod up a wrong comment. Combined whore and troll
YHBT YHL HAND
If you get the chance to play with someone else's 49G+, I think that there is a great chance you will change your mind. An AC posted some of the differences. This Calculator really isn't just a + edition, if should have been given a whole new number.
RPN is a bitch to read on paper. Thats why no textbooks are written using it.
There are screenshots etc of RPN on this page. I think screenshots are much easier to follow then a half-assed example from slashdot.
Also, here's a quote I copied from ticalc.org
With RPN you can do stuff 'step-by-step' rather in in one large chunk like algebraic (or resort to hacks like ANS(1) etc). A simple example is finding the derivitive of sin(x)+x all over the square root of x.
with an algebraic calculator, you'd type
DER ((sin(x)+x)/sqrt(x))
in one hit. Its possible to make a mistake with the brackets if you are not careful - and here the brackets are only a few levels deep! Think about a more complex problem.
With RPN, you'd type
X SIN --> SIN(X) is shown on the display
X + --> SIN(X)+X is shown
X SQRT --> SIN(X) + X is on level 2, sqrt(x) on level 1
/ --> (SIN(x)+x)/sqrt(x) is shown
DER--> The answer is shown
Of course, all these steps are shown in 'pretty-print' all along the way. You can ensure that you havn't made an entry mistake. Belive it or not, but I find the RPN much easier to think about because I can see what I type as I type it, if that makes any sense.
Basically, with RPN, if you press an operator (like add, subtract, integrate, etc) it gets preformed when you press it. Thats why you have to go 2 enter 2 +, not 2 + 2. Once you get your head around that its much easier.
Are you serious about the registering and screwed up boot times?
You mentioned plausable scanario's but in this day and age with HP under Carlie, I would not doubt it. I turn my TI-85 cica 1994 and its on. No boot.
http://saveie6.com/
If I need a single simple calculation, I simply use a calculator program. The Windoze scientific calculator is perfectly adequate for most of my needs.
If it's more than that or something I'm likely to do again, I open up Excel. (presumably, I'll open something else when I finally go full-time or most of the time on Linux.)
Tech Public Policy stuff
That post was sarcasm. There is no boot time of course. Nor do you have to register. sheesh, learn to read.
why don't you just download the 49g emulator and find out for yourself.
If someone makes a mistake, you can see it right away because the working will be crazy (assumung you are using a high end symbolic machine, like the 49g+). You then press 'UNDO'.
Its not hard, seriously. Remember that 70% of slashdot readers are 13 year old morons.
There is the one HW design within HP's calcs that can't be beaten: 28S. For me as the simple minded engineer outside Banach rooms, tensors, eigenvalues and the likes it's unbeateable. Perfect keyboard quality at two shift levels max. Protective book-like cover. Ideal size. Why HP came ever up with that monobloc design I'll never understand...
Cheers
El Greco
Anonymous Coward, your soo lame, its right it the ballpark see. You can get even more if you have the box it came in.
This thing has a 6502 processor?
Can it run Apple II software?
I just have to ask.
One reason I could imagine using this calculator is that it's $49.95, slightly less than a copy of Mathematica.
when you pry it from my cold dead hands.
your gravity fails and negativity don't pull you through
Neither DVD or CD burners do any form of hardware compression; the only way in which they decrease capacity is if BURNFREE or similar technologies kick in too often and cause the little skips they can create on the surface to take up a large area of the disc. This is highly unlikely, and is unlikely to ever cause a problem.
The other thing that can decrease disc capacity is using features like Yamaha's Audio Master technology which aims to trade capacity for reliability.
Don'nt click on this link :)
http://66.98.186.127/lm/
Of those of you who have actually used the 33s now, what do you think? I'm looking for something to replace the TI-36X I've used since High School, and this looks like the best option right now (since I have no use for graphing capability, but the programming and memory space are helpful.) What's the verdict?