Comments on: Calculator Round Up

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 00:14:00 +0000

I graduated high school in 1977, and the final couple of years of high school all the math geeks started getting calculators, which they proudly wore in holsters on their belts, like guns. I was always terrible at math, and wanted one badly, but they were well over a hundred bucks for the simple four function one as described in the article. My brother, two years younger, was one of those geeks, and I remember him getting one for Christmas sometime in that era. So the mid to late 70s was the era of the switch from slide rules (I never really knew anybody who used one) to calculators. By 1979 (the date in the article) it was clear that calculators were here to stay.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 08:03:00 +0000

I already know how many pockets I’ve got…

By: Kenneth Warren

Kenneth Warren — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 07:25:00 +0000

I remember my headmaster/maths teacher bringing one in when they first came out, it was amazing as 10 year old kid to see one. I begged parents for one and mt Dad, being a sailor was able to get one from the far east. What was even better was what happened when you put it next to the radio and it picked up the low frequency clock cycles. As it was an early model there were flaws, dividing by zero put it into a loop which clocked part of the display and produced the most wonderful sounds on the radio. That was my first introduction to circuit bending and hacking