HP-25 is much more beautiful! Message #16 Posted by Michael Meyer on 14 Jan 2004, 8:29 p.m., in response to message #15 by Michel Beaulieu
HOW can you ask if the 25 is more beautiful than a TI?
I had a patient's daughter once come into my office. She was physically one of the most attractive women I'd ever seen, but the minute she opened her mouth, she became one of the ugliest people I'd ever met.
The HP-25 is one of the most beautiful devices ever made... brilliant engineering, modular, tougher than nails, and more powerful than it appears. But its beauty is amplified by how it works, not just how it looks.
Clearly, I'm biased, and part of its beauty is related to it being from my past. But I will also argue that there are machines from the past with no true equal: I can still add faster on an HP-25 than a modern "cheap" calculator that has no real keyboard. And nothing is quite like an HP-67. or 71b. or 19c.......
There was an article in the business section of our paper last week about how the HP-12C is the oldest electronic device at the annual electronics show, and how it still sells well.
There are faster, more powerful calculators, but there's still more beauty (to ME for MY purposes) in a classic. (But I'd rather drive a restored classic car than a modern, look-alike generic. Alas, that will have to wait).
Enough said. The HP classics are beautiful on so many levels. Doesn't mean most people can appreciate them... but we'll see which ones of the modern calcs end up being collected in 30 years!!
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