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It Still Works As Good As The Day I Bought It

Posted by Steve Simpkin on 2 Apr 2000, 10:14 p.m.

I probably should have written sooner. I have been visiting MoHPC several times a week for a long time now. I particularly love reading about all the details of HP calculator internals and development insights.

I think most people today don't care about how most of the things they use work. Its just another appliance to do a task. That's why Hewlett Packard, of all companies, felt justified in leaving out the programming section of the 48G manual. I wrote and used literally hundreds of calculator programs to do useful work (and some play). True most of these have been small programs but that's why a programmable calculator is so useful. You can write small programs quickly and easily to automate small tasks.

A case in point, in a past job I had to create a table of elevations and compass headings to aim a portable satellite dish to the Galaxy II satellite from about 200 latitude/longitude locations across north America. I obtained the required formulas from a library book, programmed my HP25, plugged it into AC power and away I went. At the time I didn't have access to a computer with a printer. The "company" computer filled a LARGE room, used punch cards and no one, including the manufacturer, knew how to write new programs for it. The latitude/longitude locations were given as arbitrary values that I would have had to enter anyway. The HP25 did the job in a fraction of the time and effort any other method would have required. HP product do "fill real needs, and provide lasting value".

Enough of my preaching.

My first exposure to a HP calculator was in a large department store in Halifax, Nova Scotia Canada in the summer of 1975. I found a large brochure for a HP25. I must have read that brochure hundreds of times before it wore out. I finally saved enough money to buy a HP-25 in 1977 for my 16th birthday. I used that calculator for over ten years. I always wanted a HP41C but my HP25 worked so well and did everything I needed that I couldn't justify spending so much money on a 41 when they came out. I used my HP25 though high school, college, and two years of work.

I bought a HP-11C when my HP-25 started to malfunction in 1987. I had recently converted it to to AA battery operation and thought I had broken it. I started a new job in 87 (still working there) designing 911 communication equipment. A co-worker was an HP calculator nut of sorts and had a 41CX and a HP-28C. When the HP-28S came out he bought one and sold me the HP28C. I bought the HP-28S (and sold my 28C) when he bought a HP-48SX. In 1991 I bought a HP-48SX and sold the HP-28S. I can't say I use my HP25 much anymore but it still works as good as the day I bought it. I've always loved calculators in particular HPs.

Well a month or so ago I discover that same HP25 brochure on you site that I discovered in 1975. What a flood of happy memories it brought back!

Thank you for creating and maintaining my favorite web site.

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