HP Forum Archive 18

[ Return to Index | Top of Index ]

survey Message #1 Posted by reth on 11 Feb 2008, 5:49 a.m. just being curious how many of us, HP calc fans are black

Re: survey Message #2 Posted by Mad Dog ebaycalcnut on 11 Feb 2008, 8:07 a.m., in response to message #1 by reth What difference does that make? I know I have been accused of policing this forum (I was accused by one other user based on one other thread in all these years), but I really don't think this is even appropriate for this forum. Personally, I am purple.

Re: survey Message #3 Posted by Ron G. on 11 Feb 2008, 9:15 a.m., in response to message #1 by reth There are no black people, and no white people. We are all of various shades in between.

Re: survey Message #4 Posted by Jonathan Eisch on 11 Feb 2008, 10:30 a.m., in response to message #1 by reth I've been blue every since the enter key on my 49g+ broke off. -Jonathan

Re: survey Message #5 Posted by George Bailey (Bedford Falls) on 11 Feb 2008, 11:22 a.m., in response to message #4 by Jonathan Eisch Apart from any political correctness, I find it quite interesting to find out who the typical HP calculator buyer/collector might be. Judging from this forum's users' names, my guess is that 90 something percent are male. Judging from HPCC conference pictures, I guess 100% are caucasian. Many seem to be married - to very sympathetic and (HP addiction-)understanding partners. (Guessing from the professions of this forum's members, I wouldn't be surprised if near to 98.7% of the membership were atheists.)

OT (WAS:) Re: survey Message #6 Posted by Ren on 11 Feb 2008, 12:00 p.m., in response to message #5 by George Bailey (Bedford Falls) I'm a devout Catholic, (not atheist)! Ren dona nobis pacem

Re: survey Message #7 Posted by Ed Look on 11 Feb 2008, 3:50 p.m., in response to message #5 by George Bailey (Bedford Falls) Quote: ... Many seem to be married - to very sympathetic and (HP addiction-)understanding partners... Heh. Quote: (Guessing from the professions of this forum's members, I wouldn't be surprised if near to 98.7% of the membership were atheists.) I am an evangelical Christian and a New Y... uh, an American of Chinese descent. But if you deprecate my HP-34C I'll beat you over the head with one of those TIs someone might have accidentally left with me.

Let's start a political party! VOTE FOR ME!! Message #8 Posted by Mad Dog ebaycalcnut on 11 Feb 2008, 6:31 p.m., in response to message #5 by George Bailey (Bedford Falls) Well, we are touching on race and religion, let's talk politics. Maybe we form a political party called the HP Party Platform: 1) All HP Calculators are worth tax credits. 2) Surtax on TI calculators. 3) Instead of dropping bombs on places, we have planes drop TI calculators. Our enemies will be using inferior calculator technology to HP's and we will increase our intellectual edge! I am announcing my candidacy for nominee for President for the HP Party!!! I won't even try to get a certain member of this message board's vote (and you all know who I am talking about), but I hope all the rest of you vote for me!!! Edited: 11 Feb 2008, 6:33 p.m.

Re: survey Message #9 Posted by Martin Pinckney on 11 Feb 2008, 7:21 p.m., in response to message #5 by George Bailey (Bedford Falls) Quote: (Guessing from the professions of this forum's members, I wouldn't be surprised if near to 98.7% of the membership were atheists.) How did you come to THAT conclusion? Are members of some professions automatically atheists? If so, what professions might those be? Or are you just trying to be provocative? BTW, I am English-American, male, 59, married 30 years to a Scottish-American, Christian, civil engineer employed by a small consulting firm.

Re: survey Message #10 Posted by George Bailey (Bedford Falls) on 12 Feb 2008, 12:57 a.m., in response to message #9 by Martin Pinckney Quote: How did you come to THAT conclusion? Are members of some professions automatically atheists? If so, what professions might those be? Or are you just trying to be provocative? I assumed that most of the members of this forums have professions related to sciences like physics, chemistry, biology and engineering. I took that number from Richard Dawkins' book "The God Delusion", that states (among other sources) that an overwhelming number of these scientists are atheists. It was not meant provocative, merely citing the facts: A >>>study <<< by Larson and Witham (Nature, 1998) found that only 7% of the members of th US National Academy of Sciences believed in a personal god. The rest were atheists. And NO, I'm not telling about my own beliefs, gender, race or whatever, because I know where it takes any group. This is the reason why I posted those 'informed guesses' that anyone could've made. They're about the whole group and not about individuals. Noone is singled out! Edited: 12 Feb 2008, 1:18 p.m. after one or more responses were posted

Re: survey (OT) Message #11 Posted by Ed Look on 12 Feb 2008, 12:36 p.m., in response to message #10 by George Bailey (Bedford Falls) I apologize in advance, as I know this has nothing to do with calculators, vintage or otherwise, HP or otherwise... and OT here does not refer to the Old Testament. It may be true that a large proportion of scientists are not believers in any faith. However, Western society appears to be so inclined these days, so it may just be a reflection of the greater society of which we are a part. And, Richard Dawkins may be just a little... colored... in his pronouncements; he has had nothing nice to say about anything remotely smacking of religion. On the forums of a major newspaper once, I identified myself as both a Christian and a scientist (not one of those whose beliefs are labeled by both terms) and one person, a self-professed atheist (fairly activistic guy, I guess) took me to task and insisted I prove that I am a scientist or I'd have to publicly apologize and stop saying so. I broke personal taboos and referenced him to a site that proved my membership in a professional organization before he quit that particular challenge. My point: it seems to be a facile assumption that if someone studies science, he cannot hold a faith... and this seems to be the direction Dawkins comes from, right at us.

Re: survey (OT) Message #12 Posted by George Bailey (Bedford Falls) on 12 Feb 2008, 12:45 p.m., in response to message #11 by Ed Look These are not Dawkins' numbers but from the study he and I cited. It's a study that was first conducted in 1914, when Dawkins was not around yet. Back then, the number of non-believers was lower (70% if I remember right). It rose over the years and sequels of the study to 93% very recently. (see my post above and its link for reference). Edited: 12 Feb 2008, 1:19 p.m.

Re: survey (OT) Message #13 Posted by Palmer O. Hanson, Jr. on 12 Feb 2008, 10:07 p.m., in response to message #11 by Ed Look Quote: My point: it seems to be a facile assumption that if someone studies science, he cannot hold a faith... and this seems to be the direction Dawkins comes from, right at us. I contend that atheism is no more and no less than another faith system. Atheism even has it's own mystery as in Quote: Where, oh where, is Madalyn Murray O'Hair.

Re: survey Message #14 Posted by Richard Garner on 11 Feb 2008, 11:54 a.m., in response to message #1 by reth I'm not black, but I will start your survey. I am Caucasian American (how silly does that sound). I am 44 years old. I am currently single. I am a Free Thinker I work as an Engineering/GIS Technician for the City of Texarkana Arkansas. I was introduced to HP Calculator by a foreign exchange student in High School. I bought my first HP (41CX) my 2nd year in college 1983-1984. I currently own 41CX, 42S, 48GX, 33S, 35S, and 28S The calculator that I use the most is the 42S. I hope this has been helpful. Edited: 11 Feb 2008, 12:52 p.m.

Re: survey Message #15 Posted by Gerson W. Barbosa on 11 Feb 2008, 7:44 p.m., in response to message #1 by reth I'm human (homo sapiens sapiens), like everybody here :-)

Re: survey Message #16 Posted by Stefan Vorkoetter on 11 Feb 2008, 9:42 p.m., in response to message #15 by Gerson W. Barbosa Quote: I'm human (homo sapiens sapiens), like everybody here :-) Not sure you can take that for granted: http://www.unc.edu/depts/jomc/academics/dri/idog.html Stefan

Is Archie back at work? Message #17 Posted by Palmer O. Hanson, Jr. on 11 Feb 2008, 9:51 p.m., in response to message #15 by Gerson W. Barbosa Quote: I'm human (homo sapiens sapiens), like everybody here :-) How many of us are old enough to remember Don Marquis and a cockroach named archie?

Re: survey (Challenge for all of you) Message #18 Posted by Etienne Victoria on 12 Feb 2008, 2:20 a.m., in response to message #1 by reth A quick challenge for all of you: - I'm black. - I have red eyes, sometimes blinking. - I speak reverse polish but have no Enter key. - I have no log/ln key but can compute both log(x) & ln(x) in 4 simple steps. Who am I ? Cheers Etienne

Re: survey (Challenge for all of you) Message #19 Posted by George Bailey (Bedford Falls) on 12 Feb 2008, 2:52 a.m., in response to message #18 by Etienne Victoria Quote: - I speak reverse polish... WOW, you mean you can understand this? Quote: .iklops abizdeis anwolg eincebo eis icseim eizdg ,)aniloD awomezrK( ASU w iinrofilaK w otlA olaP w ) uzarag w ylanyzcaz erotk ,mrif adnegel alatswop uzarag oget i hcin do( uzarag ...w adrakcaP aevaD i attelweH amailliW drofnatS utetysrewinu wotnewlosba zezrp ukor 9391 uinzcyts w anozolaz alatsoz amriF

Re: survey (Challenge for all of you) Message #20 Posted by Gerson W. Barbosa on 12 Feb 2008, 6:08 a.m., in response to message #19 by George Bailey (Bedford Falls) Quote: WOW, you mean you can understand this? Reversing back might make things easier: "Firma zostala zalozona w styczniu 1939 roku przez absolwentow uniwersytetu Stanford Williama Hewletta i Davea Packarda w... garazu (od nich i tego garazu powstala legenda firm, ktore zaczynaly w garazu ) w Palo Alto w Kalifornii w USA (Krzemowa Dolina), gdzie miesci sie obecnie glowna siedziba spolki." Despite my middle name (Washiski, which should be correctly spelled as Wasicki) I just know half a dozen Polish words, but it's easy to see the text is about the HP company (1939, Stanford, garage, etc.) Gerson.

Re: survey (Challenge for all of you) Message #21 Posted by George Bailey (Bedford Falls) on 12 Feb 2008, 6:34 a.m., in response to message #20 by Gerson W. Barbosa Gerson, of course you're right. So you can read RPN, too! And have no ENTER key! ;-) BTW, I have zero command of Polish. I just took it from the Polish wikipedia article about HP. I hope you forgive me mutilating the original Polish text by taking out all the specific Polish characters - they would not come out ok in the forum software...

Re: survey (Challenge for all of you) Message #22 Posted by Gerson W. Barbosa on 12 Feb 2008, 4:05 a.m., in response to message #18 by Etienne Victoria Hi, Etienne! The HP-80, I guess. Cheers, Gerson.

Re: survey (Challenge Congrat)ulations! Message #23 Posted by Etienne Victoria on 12 Feb 2008, 3:11 p.m., in response to message #22 by Gerson W. Barbosa Hi Gerson! Congratulations!!! and yes it is black :-) [picture from the MoHPC] Cheers from France!! Etienne

Re: survey Message #24 Posted by John Nguyen on 15 Feb 2008, 10:50 p.m., in response to message #1 by reth We were all black if you trace our ancestry far back enough. I am a recovering Catholic. John

Re: survey Message #25 Posted by reth on 16 Feb 2008, 1:14 a.m., in response to message #24 by John Nguyen Far back enough so they were no HP calculators around, I guess? :>) reth

Re: survey Message #26 Posted by Walter B on 16 Feb 2008, 3:43 p.m., in response to message #25 by reth Not even an abacus!

Re: survey Message #27 Posted by Gerson W. Barbosa on 16 Feb 2008, 6:22 p.m., in response to message #26 by Walter B There were bones they could engrave (prime?) numbers on though :-) http://everyschool.org/u/logan/culturalmath/afmathematicians.htm Edited: 16 Feb 2008, 6:25 p.m.

[ Return to Index | Top of Index ]

Go back to the main exhibit hall