HP Forum Archive 20

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HP Calculators in 2025, As Predicted In 1978 Message #1 Posted by hpnut on 5 Feb 2012, 7:25 a.m. Hi all, I came across this blog entry http://blog.geekpress.com/2012/02/hp-calculators-in-2025-as-predicted-in.html from the picture, nice to know that big ENTER key is available in HP calculators in 2025, also a yellow shift key :-) the calculator has a laughable 1 gigabyte memory

Re: HP Calculators in 2025, As Predicted In 1978 Message #2 Posted by Lode on 5 Feb 2012, 7:57 a.m., in response to message #1 by hpnut Cool! Its memory and screen specs are way below today's standard, but its AI seems pretty good, and probably its battery life too :) And about rocket travel... At leasst in the 70's people still dared to dream :( Edited: 5 Feb 2012, 8:03 a.m.

Re: HP Calculators in 2025, As Predicted In 1978 Message #3 Posted by Jake Schwartz on 5 Feb 2012, 4:05 p.m., in response to message #1 by hpnut The blog talks about the "HP Calculator Journal" in 1978, when we know that it actually was the "Hewlett-Packard Personal Calculator Digest", volume 5, dated 1979. There were eight issues of this promotional publication, starting in 1976 and going up to 1981. Jake

Re: HP Calculators in 2025, As Predicted In 1978 Message #4 Posted by Kees Bouw on 5 Feb 2012, 4:14 p.m., in response to message #3 by Jake Schwartz Thank you very much for the nice picture, Jake. Would it be possible to scan the actual article also? These magazines are not easy to get, and I would like to save this article for future reference :-) (a short while later) I have found it on the Museum DVD, but volume 5 is only in B/W. A colour scan would look much better... Edited: 5 Feb 2012, 4:22 p.m.

Re: HP Calculators in 2025, As Predicted In 1978 Message #5 Posted by Jake Schwartz on 5 Feb 2012, 10:06 p.m., in response to message #4 by Kees Bouw Quote: Would it be possible to scan the actual article also? A colour scan would look much better... Here you go: beep.pdf

Re: HP Calculators in 2025, As Predicted In 1978 Message #6 Posted by Ethan Conner on 5 Feb 2012, 11:19 p.m., in response to message #5 by Jake Schwartz I like the reference to world wide web, wi-fi and AR (augmented reality) navigation. Also the horror of leaving a device or data behind. I enjoyed it.

Re: HP Calculators in 2025, As Predicted In 1978 Message #7 Posted by Keith Midson on 6 Feb 2012, 12:20 a.m., in response to message #6 by Ethan Conner Very interesting! One of my staff found this article as well - scary how true it all is (a bit of the calculator topic, but the future as seen 100 years ago). Future 100 years ago Cheers, Keith

Re: HP Calculators in 2025, As Predicted In 1978 Message #8 Posted by Eric Smith on 6 Feb 2012, 1:32 a.m., in response to message #7 by Keith Midson If you want scarily prescient science fiction predictions from a hundred years ago, it's hard to top the short story The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster. A free eBook (with minor OCR errors) can be found at ManyBooks.net. We haven't quite yet reached the society depicted in the story, though we must be getting close, given how accurate this news video from the Onion seems.

Re: HP Calculators in 2025, As Predicted In 1978 Message #9 Posted by Mark Scheuern on 6 Feb 2012, 6:37 a.m., in response to message #8 by Eric Smith A fun read. Substitute "iPhone" for "HP Calculator" and it's not very far off. I noticed the cover picture says 2050 but the story takes place in 2025.

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