WIRED; It's Past Time for You To Ditch That Fancy Scientific Calculator

[Garth Wilson]

The author seems to be unaware of programmability in calculators. His ping pong ball example could have been done just as easily in a calculator program, even having it prompt for inputs, and it's a calculator you've been familiar with for decades, much more stable than any modern consumer electronics.

Then there's his meters-to-feet example. Is typing "google.com<Enter>sqrt(4.55) meters in feet" and waiting for the pages to load really any easier than typing "4.55 Enter 39.37 * 36 / 3 *"? The 39.37" per meter is well ingrained in my mind; but if it weren't, and this were a conversion I needed sometimes, I'd have it as a short program assigned to a key, then it would be "4.55 ■ <key>" like I have for a few other conversions. You can't trust anyone who thinks Google is the only search engine, or even the best one.