Sweet! The HP-45.

That one up there is the HP-41. It has the Math and Home Management Packs, and the Quad Memory. I had an HP-25 too.

I spent many an evening drylabbing with that thing. Just me, a cup of coffee, and my HP calculator. :love:

I had a National Semiconductor RPN scientific calculator when I was at Ohio State in '76-77. The REAL techie guys had the programmable HPs with the card-strip readers... Don't ask me which model because I have no freaking idea. I still have my National, and the Wife still has her HP-something or other RPN as well.. Us geeks gotta stick together!!!

H-P guy here, too, I use the 48G for work, got my first in 1994. Always wanted a 41CV but never had the money for one. Lots of programming packs for it when I worked off shore in well logging. My quick use pocket calculator is an older 32S programmable, picked it up in 88 for work. RPN has always worked well for me, I've been told it was because my brain works backwards, as well. The newest 49 and 50 models look sweet but mt 48 is just fine, maybe a 48GX so I could use some of the program packs, I need a new post cable to interface with my laptop, though.

However when I feel really nerdy, my collection of slide rules in waiting for me. I should look into a K&E tattoo, perhaps, my Deci-Lon would look great as the pattern for some ink.

Bill

K+E ... that's what you got if you had the money to buy it.

My Dad gave me this little free sample slide rule when I was in 4th grade, and my older brother taught me to use it. Made by TDK ... all of about 6 inches long. It was made from bamboo and had a magnifying cursor and was pretty much as accurate as the full sized ones. I used it all the way into college until they started permitting scientific calculators. Still have it too!

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=373668

I really loved that HP-41. You could play all kinds of synthetic programming tricks with it, dynamically reallocate memory ... all sorts of stuff. I even used it to do a finals project to simulate a non linear control system in my master's program. Somewhere (I have to find it), I've got the card reader and even that optical pen.

Slide rules are a passion for me, we studied them thoroughly in HS physics before we started the class work in my Jr. year. My 18th birthday gift from my dad was a nice K&E engineers rule, unfortunately it was stolen from my locker. I have 20+ rules in my collection, some were my maternal grandfather's rules, he taught physics and mathematics for the Georgia university system. I was lucky enough to get some rare rules in eBay, with the K&E manuals, a few years back. I understand that a few people are using rules to teach again.

Your 41 was a grail calculator for me when I worked in well engineering, off-shore, never got to get one though. They fetch a hefty price at the auction sites now.

Bill

Anyone been around long enough to remember these? Although I started out using the slide rule in high school, my father used the Curta.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=373804

OMG ... that is sooo cool! Its kinda like a cross between a fishing reel and an 8 speed hub!

You had me noodling all over the web for information about it:

The CURTA Calculator Page

Check out the pawn stars video vignette ... it answered some important questions:

1. "I want one! How much is it?" (~$1000)
2. Why: Austrian inventor ... working on it saved his life in a Nazi concentration camp.

Thanks for the info! Did you ever use one?

I haven't used a Curta although my dad did try and teach me. It's kind of like a sliderule - not exactly intuitive. My dad has several Curta's, kind of like the calculators I have kicking around. Don't think I kept the HP45, probably still have a 25c, and a bunch of others. My wife uses an 11c for doing our personal finances. Speaking of the 25c's, they were nearly indestructible. I have to say, the current generation of HP's are built cheap with lousy keypads. Historically HP's have had nice tactile keys that the fingers could dance across ... it's sounds nerdy just writing this. Not so much the recent versions, in fact I'd go so far to say that I "hate" my 35S. The nice keypads are probably why I like my Blackberry (Bold 9900). I won't be switching to a touch screen anytime soon, including the BB Z10.

The Curta is interesting, looks similar to some of the cylindrical rules that show up on auctions from time to time. I had a physics instructor that carried a circular rule in his shirt pocket, his version of the classic nerd pocket protector, I suppose.

Agreed about the quality of the newer H-P calculators, since the brown or black bodies went away they are not the same. My wife is addicted to her 12B Business Calc., do not remove it from her office under any circumstances.

Bill

That's part of it, isn't it? The keys had a quality tactile feel and moved as if they were rotated about an axis instead of just floating around. It sounds like such a trivial thing, but when you use it so much every day, you really appreciate the difference. I'm as cheap as the next guy, but some luxuries are actually worth the cost.

I'm with you on the HP-25 being rugged. Get this. The morning after I bought it (I think it was about $200, which was a princely sum for me at the time), I proudly showed it off to one of my professors. He immediately dropped it on hard cement! And not by accident. He had apparently read about how it was made to take impacts much greater than that, and wanted to demonstrate it to me. :eek:

I had a circular slide rule too, but for some reason, never really liked them. I also had a Spirule ... one of those specialized little tools for analyzing closed loop dynamic systems.

The enigmatic Spirule

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=374040

Nerds of a feather! :thumb:

So our cat wakes up Easter Sunday deathly ill. His fur all mottled up, meowing piteously, and clearly in some kind of pain.

$1,000 worth of blood tests, X-rays, examinations, and overnight stays at the petspital and we still have no idea what was the source of the problem. Every test had the same result: Normal.

They pretty much wrote him off. At 14 years old, he's already bucking the odds for an outdoor cat.

We never did figure it out. But when he looked a little better, we took him home (better to die there than at the vet and in the company of dozens of yapping dogs), and managed to force feed him (always a lot of fun with a cat) to health. Poor sucker was emaciated.

It took 14 years, but the stupid little sucker has wiggled his way under my skin.

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c2...ps7352276d.jpg

Where am I? How did I get here? Must have stepped into a teleporter.

You should have taken the left turn at Cucamonga.

Bill

You do know that that's a LOT of bike parts?! ;)

Browsing I stumbled on your post, Brings back memories of him bringing a box of the first ones for us to play with before they were put on sale. Four function, square root and memory as I recall. We loved them. But, unfortunately RPN, never really caught on and technology rapidly advanced plus more and more students were barely functionaly literate. So, they went away to niche uses.

I didn't realize slavery was still accepted in the US. I assume your "...All for no pay." means no compensation of any kind.

As a volunteer helping the company make money certainly you can walk out at any time. So it is hard to take cries of abuse too seriously.

No mod has said anything about slavery of being forced to accept the duties, no compensation means just that, no pay or special treatment, access, etc. It is simply that some want to help out with having the site. All the complaints aside, without moderators or administrators this place wouldn't be more than chaos, no organization of the forums or help when things go wrong. Think what you will about moderators or administrators, I know from experience all the crap you take in the position, very well. Yes, a moderator can walk at any time, many have over the years. I resigned a senior moderator position at a dirt bike BB, I helped to found, after many years because the crap and hard time participants can give you. I was asked to be a moderator here last year, I politely declined because of what I see in replies like the above. No thanks, too many have a warped sense of how this place would be if it was not moderated or controlled, dream on...

Bill

You misunderstand sir. It wasn't the duties or the difficulty of the duties that motivated my post. I understand being a moderator in any environment, web or real life, is a challenge. I have done similar jobs over the years and have a keen understanding of what is involved.

When a person, like in this case with SBW, pleads for sympathy due to "abuse" reality needs to step in. . It is when SBW claims some special privilege and empathy for being a volunteer that motivates my post. If, in fact SBW is not compensated in any way, not just money, and chooses to contribute to the profits of the owners of this site that is SBW's decision. But don't complain or seek some kind of pseudo-sainthood for it. If SBW, or anyone else, doesn't want to do the job, or is unhappy, or feels put upon, they should do what you did; exit and refuse to do it again.

Those kinds of whining excuse statements have become fairly routine recently. When questions are raised about the compensation and their relationship silence reigns. Even if paid employees, which in the main we assume they are, they have every right to leave a noxious environment and go elsewhere. People do it every day.



I also understand BF is not the same collegial place it was when you and a few others met online. Now it is a business, nothing more and nothing less. Still I appreciate it being here and am willing to trade my participation for their income and their paying the bills and making a good profit of mine and other's participation.

If I was obsessing about them making money on this forum, I guess it would bother me. I wouldn't take this as a paid job, and it's not really intense enough work to be a paid job. As a mod, I don't really care if they make money off of my efforts. I try to take my share of unpleasant moderating jobs, but on rare occasions I don't feel like it and they aren't paying me so I don't. All of the mods are people that participated on the forum for quite a while and were active. So they like the forum enough to help. That's all the pay that it really takes. The downside is I go onto other forums and see spam, report it and it doesn't go away and it drives me absolutely nuts

I scan all of the forum at the top level to see if there is a problem and then go read the forums I like. I know that people don't like their threads moved, but the whining that goes on in 50+ when it happens is like a kindergarten class that missed its nappytime.

Hey you mods: thank you. Thank you very much.

Maybe a couple of suggestions.

Just like BillyD does with the addiction thread, you might lock this one and start over from time to time, to keep it fresh. The concept is fine, but use a nonalkeehol name for it. It respects the members who are in recovery. I'd suggest Miscellany but, hey, I'm not a mod. Whatever you name it is über cool. Just no alkeehol.

When I get frustrated in these forums these days, I get off the forums and read a book. I've read five or six books this year. Seems like a better use of what time I have left.

just some thoughts.

You're welcome. :)

The reason we start over each month with Addiction is because the database started having problems with really big threads; a new thread every month keeps the size in check.

This thread doesn't have the same traffic as Addiction, but we could still start over every 3-4 months if people want to keep things fresh. And dudelsack, if you want to take the lead in choosing a new name for the thread, feel free. Start a poll, ask for suggestions, whatever you want to do to get a new name. Just let us know what the final decision is.

If the moderators quit every time they received a profanity-filled ranting PM from someone having a meltdown, or had to clean up a thread gone awry with insults and arguing (and then deal with the angry people who had their posts deleted), or had to take care of someone's late-night X-rated drunk postings, the forum wouldn't be able to keep up with the turnover rate.

I like this forum, which is why I volunteer. I didn't get paid as a moderator and I don't get paid as an admin, so I don't know where the idea that we are paid is coming from. I knew the moderating job was dangerous when I took it, so I'm not looking for sympathy. But I do agree with Siu's comment that not everyone realizes how much stuff the moderators have to deal with behind the scenes, and how exasperating it can get dealing with it on a constant basis. I see that as venting frustration, not a whining excuse or asking for sainthood; we get frustrated just like everyone else and sometimes we need to let it out.

We try to make BF a nice, fun forum to participate in. Some people like the way we do it and some people don't, but you can't please everyone.

If members focused on providing and enjoying some of the great content at Bikeforums, these discussions would not be needed.

This has gotten a bit off track. Let's get back to the facts that prompted my posts:
-The moderator claimed being an unpaid volunteer as an excuse. Sounded like whining and job dissatisfaction. This whole tack was initiated by the moderator and elicited the response the moderator should have expected.
-I pointed out that no one is a slave, especially a volunteer, and is free to leave at any time. Inherently there is conflict and controversy in a job like being moderator of this forum. If it rises to the point a moderator thinks of it as abuse it is time to leave, paid or unpaid.
-So, it was a moderator who raised the employee and pay status. I merely pointed out that pay status has no bearing on the need for quality performance and anyone is free to leave at any time.

As for "pay". I have done a lot of volunteer work over the years. Some of it was very much like being a moderator here. Under the labor laws of every state in which I have any knowledge being an unpaid person working for a for profit corporation does not comply with the law. So, I am left with a couple possibilities. One, you are using the word pay to mean cash/money and are being compensated for your work in some other legal way. Two, your company is in violation of the labor laws. Or, you folks know this and are setting yourselves up, as many others have done, for a big payday suit when you move on.

None of this has anything to do with how much I, or anyone else, enjoys Bike Forums. I know your company is attempting to make money of our posts and conversations. I have no problem with that. In fact I appreciate that someone else is paying for our entertainment and exchanges.

I'm a mod and got "semi-flamed" a while back for something I posted in the Road Cycling forum (nothing controversial). After several replies from one member I could see where the thread was headed. So rather than butt heads I deleted my posts before things got out of hand. Quite often we have to walk a fine line just to keep the peace around here. :o