Slashdot Mirror
Ask Slashdot: Calculators With 1-2-3 Number Pads?
dotancohen writes "Although the telephone has the 1-2-3 key on the top row, most calculators and keyboards have 7-8-9 on the top row. Switching between the two destroys muscle- and spatial- memory. Do any slashdotters use a scientific calculator with 1-2-3 on the top row? I've already scraped and resoldered my Casio fx-82 calculator to have 1-2-3 on the top, and remapped the numpad in Kubuntu, but if there exist any calculators like this already on the market, I'd buy two."
Really? It's that hard to switch between number pads on calculators and phones? That's what you're posting to slashdot?
Have you considered getting out more often?
Although the telephone has a rotary dial for dialing numbers, most calculators and keyboards have button pads. Switching between the two destroys muscle- and spatial- memory, as well as ability to use commas. Do any slashdoters use a scientific calculator with a rotary dial on it? I've already scraped and resoldered my Casio fx-9000 calculator to have a rotor, and plugged a USB rotor phone into Gentoo, but if there exists any calculators like this already on the market, I'd buy three.
F***ing Google it. Seriously - is this what Ask Slashdot's become?
You've clearly never looked at a photo of a girl on MySpace or a dating website. Phones are always held in front of bathroom mirrors, so it all works out.
MSIE: The world's most standards-complaint web browser.
I rarely call people on my calculator.
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
For non-fixed telephones, you hold the handset in one hand and touch the keys with the other hand. And of course you use three fingers. Seriously, you dial a telephone with your thumb? Do you type with your toes, too?
I learned to tell time at a much younger age then I learned how to use a phone or a calculator. And so I learned that numbers are arranged in a circle, with 1 just to the right of the top most point, 3 straight across to the right, 6 at the bottom, and 9 to the left.
Clearly the correct layout for a numeric keypad should reflect this!
Using mod 10 (or, looking at the last digit), the correct layout to match clocks would look something like this:
X 2 X
9 X 3
X 6 X
with the extra key going on the bottom somewhere. Filling in the corner numbers, rounding down, it should look like this:
0 2 1
9 X 3
7 6 4
The middle of a clock often has a couple of circles on an axle - one for the hour hand and one for the minute hand, so it probably makes sense to put the number 8 in the middle (which also has two circles). This leaves 5 for the extra key, and a final configuration of:
0 2 1
9 8 3
7 6 4
- 5 -
Does anybody know where I can get calculators and phones that match this obviously superior design?
-D. Vorak