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TI Calculators Play Movies

ipapusha writes "TI Calculator enthusiasts rejoice. A few weeks ago, Dan Englender released a new flash application usb8x. Usb8x is a driver that interfaces with the On-the-Go USB port in the TI-84 Plus and TI-84 Plus Silver Edition. It is designed to be used by other programmers to create drivers for a variety of USB peripherals, including a keyboard and mouse. Already, ticalc.org's own Michael Vincent has interfaced his Lexar JumpDrive to play The Matrix's famous lobby scene. (mirror) ."

21 of 227 comments (clear)

  1. Obg. by deutschemonte · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yeah, but does it run linux?

    *Dodges Tomato*

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  2. I must be old. by GreatBunzinni · · Score: 5, Funny

    I must be old. I remember the time where calculators were used to do calculations and even plotting a nice graphic of a function.

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    1. Re:I must be old. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      You are old. Nowadays you can play violent video games on them which leads to you being violent. So I guess you could say that nowadays, using calculators leads to violence.

    2. Re:I must be old. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      *gasp*

      Then we must BAN MATH IN SCHOOLS!

      Won't somebody THINK OF THE CHILDREN!?!?!?

    3. Re:I must be old. by navyjeff · · Score: 2, Funny

      I must be old. I remember the time where calculators were used to do calculations and even plotting a nice graphic of a function.

      I must be ancient. I remember a time when calculators were used to do calculations and graphs were done point-by-point on graph paper. It's much harder to fudge a calculator graph.

      Of course, I had a calculator that was so old that it had red LEDs for the display. Occasionally I had to smack it against the table to make the display work properly. My friends called it "Slappy". Who needs violent games when you have a calculator like that?

    4. Re:I must be old. by freitasm · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yes... Calculators are Weapons of Math Instruction.

  3. almost obligatory... by heeeraldo · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'd ask if it'd run OSX86, but there's way too many buttons. Maybe if it had a scroll ball, though.

  4. needs color by Romancer · · Score: 3, Funny

    so what calculating functions would need color graphics? like the code editing software that automatically colors tags and modules, could there be a benifit to a color display in high end calculator. Aside from playing movies that is. :)

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    1. Re:needs color by blueadept1 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Why do you need colour if all you're going to do is watch porn on your calculator.

      My god the ultimate nerd activity. I am a GENIUS!

  5. In other news by superpulpsicle · · Score: 5, Funny

    Student was expelled from school when he accidentally played loud porn in a classroom during an exam.

  6. Master Plan by cmdrTacyo · · Score: 1, Funny

    1) Make calculators
    2) Make calculators that play movies
    3) ???
    4) ???
    5) Profit

  7. my EYES!!! by John.P.Jones · · Score: 5, Funny

    It looks more like the Matrix than the Matrix...

  8. What a pity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    that this was one on a TI. It would have been much cooler on a HP. Still a nice hack though.

    I don't want to start a holy war here, but what is the deal with you TI fanatics? I've been sitting here at my freelance gig in front of my calculator (a TI-89) for about 20 minutes now while it attempts to invert a 7 by 7 matrix. 20 minutes. At home, on my HP48 running at 4 Mhz, which by all standards should be a lot slower than this TI, the same operation would take about 2 minutes. If that.

    In addition, during this matrix inversion, The calculator will not work. It has ground to a halt. Even BBEdit Lite is straining to keep up as I type this.

    I won't bore you with the laundry list of other problems that I've encountered while working on various TI calculators, but suffice it to say there have been many, not the least of which is I've never seen a TI that has run faster than its HP counterpart, despite the TI's faster chip architecture. My Casio FX-100 runs faster than this 12 Mhz machine at times. From a productivity standpoint, I don't get how people can claim that the TI is a superior machine.

    TI addicts, flame me if you'd like, but I'd rather hear some intelligent reasons why anyone would choose to use TI calculators over other faster, cheaper, more stable systems.

  9. AWSOME by Quick+Sick+Nick · · Score: 4, Funny

    *Throws out DVD Player and Laptop*

    I don't need these anymore! I've got my TI-84!

  10. Hmmm. by BitwizeGHC · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'm not sure if this particular "matrix function" is going to be smiled upon by college linear algebra professors...

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  11. Behind the scenes of Slashdot. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    CmdrTaco: You know, we haven't had the chance to use that great 'Blue and Red Pill' icon for the Matrix section in a while. I really miss that. They were good movies, and while some might argue that they don't deserve their own section and icon, I believe they are truly a geek phenomenon.

    ScuttleMonkey: Hey, why don't we post this story about using calculators to play movies. Some guy played The Matrix on his TI, it's just the excuse we need. Now everyone who visits the homepage will see the icon and think 'Wow, something about The Matrix! I am interested in that story.'

    CmdrTaco: You know, that's just crazy enough to work. Well done ScuttleMonkey, when you get home tonight there'll be another storey on your parents' house. You can finally move out of the basement. Now, all we need is some news on The Hobbit movie and the One True Ring will shine on the homepage for all to see!

    Disclaimer: Post written under influence of a few Pub Quiz beers.

    - HM

  12. Preview version by SuperBanana · · Score: 5, Funny

    For those of you tuning in on your TI calculators:

    N=NEO
    G=GUY
    T=TRIN

    Act One:

    N          G
    |-R ~~~~~~*X  <- Bullet time
    /\         /\

    Act Two:

    |---Nice shot.
    |

    T
    B  <----- N
    /\         |
              /\
               |---"Whoa. Nice Latex"

    Act Three:

    >-Z
      |---- "Whoa.  Nice punch"

    Could've done it in 3 lines of RPN, incidentally.

  13. It's nice and all but... by ThePatrioticFuck · · Score: 2, Funny

    Does it come with 5.1 Dolby Surround? :)

  14. Re:Just Because You Can by ScrewMaster · · Score: 2, Funny

    Yes. Because, otherwise why would dogs lick their ... oh, never mind.

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  15. Yawn... by daVinci1980 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Who cares? It's playing at ~1/3 full framerate and is barely recognizable.

    This was almost interesting, but then I noticed that there was a strange pattern in the wood in my desk and I got distracted.

    What were we talking about again?

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  16. iCal Rumour by @madeus · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'd ask if it'd run OSX86, but there's way too many buttons.

    I hear there is a rumour Apple are thinking of releasing their own calculator to help spur iBook sales in schools.

    The iCalc has the same number of buttons as a TI-84, but as consession to asthetics, they arn't marked but are instead all a single unified service in a 'brushed metal' finish. Thankfully, contrary to some initial concerns that were expressed, this turns out not much of a problem because it's been intentionally optimised to perform and output the result of a single operation operation (6 x 7), additional operations having been removed so as to avoid confusing novice users.[1]

    [1] Though further rumours abound this is in no small part due to the sourcing of Intel for the core chip design and that unresolvable heat disspation problems cropped up when attempting more complex operations. In fact, internal testers have reported that after extended usage, they have noted rounding errors in the units they have received (resulting in the system displaying a result for the calculation of 41.999 (recurring)).