Slashdot Mirror
Celebrating the HP-35 Calculator With a New Model
An anonymous reader writes "Hewlett-Packard last week announced a contest whereby HP-35 fans create and submit videos of their favorite calculator memories. HP will choose the best videos and you can win a 50-inch, high-def plasma TV. But everyone wins, because HP this summer will debut a special new calculator model. The details aren't announced, however, it's likely to be a 35th anniversary edition of some sort."
I loved RPN. It was kind of like running Linux; if someone asked to borrow my calculator, they'd freak out because they couldn't find the equals key, and I'd have to explain how to use the thing.
[100% ISO 646 Compliant]
SVM, ERGO MONSTRO.
Wouldn't it be great to see an innovative new calculator design from HP to mark the 35th anniversary rather than a re-hashed "special edition" of some classic design?
No, Bring Back the 15c!
Seriously, the 15c's features were a superset of the 11c's features, with the exception of the register allocation scheme. But they can do that however they want these days.
Get a 50g. The only downside compared to the 48 series is the lack of a large enter key. Otherwise, they have everything you have dreamed of: 75Mhz ARM9 processor, 2.5MB flash, SD slot, IR, USB, and serial comm, a CAS that is almost as good as a desktop app, and they can draw power from your computer via the USB cable. C compiler provided separately.
Hello HP;
I am among the last in a long line of engineers who have been lucky enough to be exposed to the OLD HP. The HP run by engineers, that made great test equipment, and calculators. The HP that made great calculators with excellent tactile feedback. You know, one of the only reasons to USE a dedicated calculator.
My HP48GX was purchased in the summer of 1994 before I started my electrical engineering degree. It followed me through every exam and project I have done since and proudly sits on my desk today where it continues to be used daily. I own a 48G I boughts as a spare; and happily run the emulators you have so nicely provided the ROM for, including on my very speedy Palm T3.
I also owned a great HP35, and a HP100LX that I used daily for years. All of these devices had the great, tactile response keys and indestructible construction.
So please, for the love all that is holy and good in the universe, do not make another fisher price calculator. Please make another quality business calculator, and PLEASE consider making an updated version of the best engineering calculator that ever was - the HP48GX.
..don't panic
...because every school across the country seemingly pushes TI use in school, I didn't think people used anything else. I don't see how one implies the other. What engineer would take a high school teacher's calculator recommendation at face value? Public schools use TIs because TI markets to the teachers. Ten years ago, all engineers used HPs because HP marketed to engineers and professionals. Then Carly Fiorina took over and killed the HP calculator business for a few years. But they are now back in the game and developing new models that are once again very good products. If you can be bothered to learn RPN, you will never buy TI for yourself again.Back in the day when HP still made calculators, everyone else -- TI included -- played second fiddle. HPs were the premier pocket (or belt-loop pouch) calculator from the early Seventies to the mid nineties, more capable, more durable and more desirable than TI, Casio, or any other pretender.
Too bad they abandoned the market and now only sell rebranded units from Asia. Check http://www.hpmuseum.org/ for the complete history of the HP calculator.
I am not a crackpot.
I suppose me and my loyal Ti-89 are not welcome in your HP love fest, huh!
/me storms out
I never got the RPN hang of
If my call is important, why am I talking to a recording?
The sad truth is that the world just doesn't have much use for calculators, any more. The world is too busy worrying about who the Next Top Model is.
I don't respond to AC's.
In maybe 1974 my dad, a Civil Engineer bought an HP 35C. Even though it cost a fortune (in those days), he let his 10 year old son (me) play with it. I remember being so impressed with it that it cemented my impression that HP was THE company to work for, if you were an electrical engineer.
18 years later I joined HP.
15 years after that and I'm still at HP. It's not the same place that it was in 1992, but then again what place is? I'd still rather be here than at the other computer makers, but the software and services companies are where the real action is now. Unfortunately, few of them seem to have that same "engineer's company" feel that HP did back in the day.
FWIW I don't blame Carly, though I didn't like her either. It was inevitable, with commoditization of the hardware.
A person who has spent time with an HP will run rings around someone with a TI on almost any calculations
It's been a few years, but I remember in things like physics labs where you have to do a lot of number crunching, all of my lab partners would always plug along dutifully on their TIs while I would have done the calculation twice (once and then a double check) using RPN on my 48GX. I don't use a calculator much anymore, as MATLAB tends to be quicker for the things I need to do, but whatever HP lacks in computational power, it makes up for in efficient syntax.
"Nature doesn't care how smart you are. You can still be wrong." - Richard Feynman
TI is coming out with a new calculator this fall, called the Nspire...
http://www.ti-nspire.com/tools/nspire/index.html
* 320x240 Gray Scale LCD
* CAS Functions.
* 16MB RAM
* 20MB Flash