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."

Comments

Don't you have anything better to do?

[Anonymous Coward]

Seriously.

Re:Don't you have anything better to do?

[gknoy]

You have an interesting question there. I don't consciously imagine punching in a phone number, but as I do it my muscle memory helps me know when I've done it wrong. (Thanks for the link to Anki, also.) However, I almost never need to type in phone numbers on a computer, and it sounds like the only reason you do is so that you can use the memory aid tools. Do you do a lot of work with calculators? The way I type in numbers on a phone is normally with my thumbs, rather than my fingers, so it's (for me) a very different mental task than keying in on a keyboard. I don't think I'd have much overlap between the memory of typing numbers on my phone versus typing them on a keyboard.

A sibling commenter mentioned that they are terrible at remembering phone numbers. I am too -- that's why I use a tool to remember them for me. Why do you find yourself caring whether you have it in your head versus in the phone's memory?

Re:Don't you have anything better to do?

[gcalvin]

Who memorizes phone numbers anymore? Twenty years ago, I probably knew 100 phone numbers, and now I know maybe 10. My phone knows the numbers of the people I call, not me.

The calculator layout is much more important in terms of spatial memory than the phone layout. Data entry operators and spreadsheet power users have been using the 10-key format for many decades. If you need to make a change, make it on the phone, not on the calculator.

Re:Don't you have anything better to do?

[BluBrick]

Y'know, it seems to me that you have entirely over-engineered your solution. You've remapped your keyboard in X and switched the keycaps around. You've physically rewired your calculator and re-labelled the keytops. And now you're on the hunt for rare devices that breach established convention. Because you want every keypad you use to work like a telephone keypad. Why? Because you use a phone to practice entering non-phone numbers.

Dude, UR doin' it wrong! That's like trying to write by holding a pencil still and moving the paper underneath it - it works, but there's an easier way. Decide how you will use the number you want to remember. If it's a phone number you are trying to remember, you should use a phone keypad to commit it to muscle memory. If it's a number that you will rarely, if ever have to enter into a phone, use a computer keypad or calculator to do the same, or if you have a smartphone, fire up your calculator app of choice and use that instead.

Of course, if you have a smartphone, you'll realise that most phone numbers aren't worth expending effort to remember, because your phone will do it for you. If a phone number is worth remembering, it's worth keeping in your phone's memory.

I'd rather have a phone with 789 at the top...

[Anonymous Coward]

...given that I use keyboards more frequently than telephone number pads.

Get a smart phone

[steveha]

Get an Android smart phone and write some custom Android software.

Either customize a scientific calculator program to match the phone dialing keypad, or write your own phone dialing software with a calculator keypad.

Plus there is the option of calling your friends from your address book and not even dialing the phone, or using Google Voice Search and just saying the digits.

I don't know what to tell you about lock keypads, public phone keypads, and the like. Just avoid them I guess? (Where I work, I can't use a bathroom without using a phone-style keypad.)

I agree with you that the incompatibility is annoying. I never bothered to do anything about it; I just adapt. But if you want to make your own custom solution, that doesn't seem sillier to me than the people who insist on using Dvorak keyboards or whatever.

steveha

Nope.

[Aladrin]

You don't dial a phone with the same fingers you punch a calculator with. At least, not if you're a touch-typist. And if you aren't, why would you worry about this in the first place?

I learned the 10-key calculator in middle school and have never, ever had a problem with the fact that some keypads are upside-down from the standard 10-key layout.

This is seriously a non-issue in every regard.

Re:Really??

[rolfwind]

While I don't enjoy it, I switch between my own home dvorak and qwerty at clients multiple times a week. It look a lot to get used to... but I did with a lot of stumbles on the way. I can understand the frustration, I guess, but I'd just stick with the calculator numpad. Dialing phone numbers is largely on the way out, isn't it?

Wrong question for geeks

[Okian Warrior]

This is the wrong question to ask geeks. They have no muscle or spatial memory, and don't care whether anyone else does.

Or haven't you noticed?

Across all of your free/OSS software:

1) What keys do you type to search for text?
2) What keys do you type to activate File->Save?
2a) Is File->Save greyed out if there are no changes?
3) When you hit shift-ctrl-end-del, does this take out the trailing CR/LF or not?
4) Where are the preferences - under "File", "Help", "Document", "Edit", "Tools"?
5) Are the preferences called "preferences", "options", "settings"?
6) Using the debugger - which F keys activate step-in/step-out/step-over?
7) When you click in a text box, does it insert the cursor or select the entire line?

Geeks care not one whit about compatibility. They make their interfaces by what "seems" right at the time, with no regard for the greater universe of programs in the world.

Good luck with your answer. Maybe you can create your own calculator online.

OCD Much?

[thechemic]

So if it "destroys muscle- and spatial- memory" as you say, that means that everytime you wanted to use your phone you would have to sit down in a chair, find a horizontal flat surface to lay your phone on and then dial with 3 fingers? Or do you do it the other way around? Everytime you want to use a numeric keypad on a keyboard you have to pick up the keyboard off the desk and double-thumb the numbers in? I have GOT to see this in action!

Re:OCD goes wrong?

[rwa2]

Wow, submitter is doing it wrong. It has got to be *much* easier to change phone dialpads than computer/calculator dialpads.

• speed dial
• smartphones have software dial pads (there must be an app for that, or hack the build in dial pad in the ROM)
• smartphones can copy & paste phone numbers
• google voice can connect your call from the PC, etc, so you never have to dial
• OCR of a picture of a written phone number & autodial (pretty sure there's an app or three for that as well)

The random public phone you encounter would be slow, but how often does that happen? I mean, maybe a little more often than when you're forced to use someone else's calculator (like, say, during an engineering exam?) but still...