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my addiction
Posted by Ron Ross on 28 Mar 2001, 5:25 p.m.
My first Hp was a replacement for a Ti-55. It was my third Ti in as many years. The keyboards just did not last. I was an electrical engineering major just finishing up my sophomore year. I was drooling over three possible candidates, the Hp11c, Hp15c or the Hp41c. Well I was considering the 41 but the 15c came with matrix capabilities to solves linear eq. The 41 would need additional memory and/or software to get the features I would get with a 15c and still cost another $100 of my $$. (The Hp11c wasn’t really in the competition, but it was more in my budget)
I ordered the 15c from an electronics outlet and also purchased the advanced users manual also. I waited anxiously for my calculator. I was a student just squeaking by with my wife and I both full time students and we both subsisted off our part-time jobs and student loans. It was a big purchase when I could have just as easily bought a $20. Scientific. This calculator was going to cost us a whole months rent.
Years later my wife gets a job with an electronics firm by the name of, you guessed it, HP. She brings in her Casio to crunch some #’s and a manager suggests that she just requisition a calculator from suppplies rather than show off her fancy programmable (I suspect there was some sarcasm in his advice). She came home and asked if she could borrow mine. "Of course,,,,,NOT!!", I said. But we could buy her a new one, and she then stated she would receive a 40-50% discount and I might want to buy a new calculator myself. She wanted me to review the specs and pick something out as close in capability and use as her Casio. I chose an Hp27s for her and a 42s and 48s for myself. There really was no reason for me to buy either since my 15c still worked fine and was enough for me. (however a Ford pinto gets from a-z, and so does a Porsche, ie. 15c vs 42s , though this isn’t fair comparison, a 15c has much more class than a Ford pinto.)
Thus was born my Hp addiction and it has since expanded to other calculators as well. No, my collection isn’t nearly as great as some, but it is certainly larger than most. I am missing over half of the LED’s made by Hp, but alas the market has skyrocketed on old Hp calculators and I add one every so often. Such is life.
I now use a 48g, but only because I don’t want to risk my 42s or 15c at work. My wife lost one 27s, promptly replaced it and wished she’d bought a spare. She is hooked on the 27. She used a 19B for a physics course (only because of the faster key input for eq solver) but dumped it back into my collection after the course. The 27s was just better.
Edited: 11 Sept 2006, 5:12 p.m.
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