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

[Paul Dale]

(08-09-2017 10:44 AM)Thomas Radtke Wrote:  As long as people try convincing you to leave some piece of technology [in favour of something more modern or mainstream, i.e., something *they* use], you can be sure you have something superior in your hands.

Not quite:

• Who wants an abacus for their computations? Fast, simple and consistent results. Very tactile too.
• What about pieces of strings with knots in them? Fantastic for remembering debts owed and measuring distances across an angle. A little fiddly at times.
• Might I fancy you in a state of the art slide rule? Not only can it calculate with a couple of significant digits but it can be used to create straight lines for geometrical problems. And they were adequate to get men to the moon and (more surprisingly) back home again. You'll have to remember the scale factor but that's good for your mind.
• A computer? We don't get many requests for those. Large and cumbersome input. Menus and dialogues hiding the functions. Sure they are fast and sometimes accurate but they require too much skill to use effectively.
  

To me a device I can hold in my hand or use on my desk that allows easy and reliable entry of problems and which displays its answer quickly still has a place at my work and even at my hobby desk. That's why I've got a HP 45 permanently on my desk -- it handles most problems perfectly & in glorious RED LEDs too.

Pauli