Do I dare to use my 41?

[hth]

(10-24-2018 06:21 PM)berserkerbernhard Wrote:  Greetings, programs.

I finally got my 41CV working with my card reader. It's so amazing to watch it work. IT is truely a small computer system.

I dream of retirering my HP Prime and go for the 41. But what if it breaks? I can easily get a replacement Prime, but a 41 would be expensive.

What are your thoughts on this? Do you use the 41 for daily stuff?

/Bernhard, OZ9WTN, Denmark

I can understand your feeling. I had an early CV and a later CX and used the CX but was so worried that it would break. I could not imagine being without one, so I did not use it so much. This was my situation around 1995.

A few years later a bunch of NOS 41 came on market and I immediately got a backup. Totally unused (it even had the scent of a new HP), so nice, now I dared to use my beloved HP-41CX again!

That feeling did not last long however (like a couple of days). I realized that if I now used my HP-41CX and if it broke I had a backup, but then I would be in the same situation as in the first place, afraid to use the backup because it could break too.

The solution? Simple. Get a backup for the backup! So I bought one more of those NOS HP-41CXs. Now I am not afraid anymore, I will be able to use the HP-41 for the rest of my life!

A couple of years ago I took out one of the backups and started using it. I was no good having it in a drawer and I realized that I could very well have two with slightly different setups. Happy days!

So the answer is, just enjoy it and use it. But try to pick up a backup or two, you will most likely have ample time to do that while you are using your current one.

I do not really use the HP-41 daily, more like a couple of times or hours per week, so it is light use these days. Still, it is what I use when I need a calculator.