Things You Don't See Anymore Part 3

[pocket_groover]

In high school back in the late 60s, I remember "nerds" carrying these things around. A slide rule. You don't see these anymore!

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Official "nerd" here. I still have mine. Used it all the way through college in electrical engineering until I could afford a "four banger" calculator which set me back $50 Here's a picture of the calculator:

I was really envious of the anyone that could afford one of these (first scientific calculator)

 

[Leigh Semmens]

Official "nerd" here. I still have mine. Used it all the way through college in electrical engineering until I could afford a "four banger" calculator which set me back $50 Here's a picture of the calculator:
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I was really envious of the anyone that could afford one of these (first scientific calculator)
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Ditto, all the way, Never did get a 45C. MY first computer was a 8086 processor with twin 360Kb floppies. and 256Kb RAM. I wrote programs on that for years many of which I had to take to work and plug into the 80286 machines to run.

 

[westrock]

Late 1940'S American Flyer

 

[roccobass]

 

[Stinsok]

Official "nerd" here. I still have mine. Used it all the way through college in electrical engineering until I could afford a "four banger" calculator which set me back $50 Here's a picture of the calculator:
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I remember having to buy a scientific notation calculator for a drafting class and how expensive it was back in the day. Now one pops up on my phone when I'm trying to figure out the tip for my server.

I was really envious of the anyone that could afford one of these (first scientific calculator)
View attachment 4540087

 

[roccobass]

 

[foal30]

32 year lack of playoff wins

 

[Coriolis]

Official "nerd" here. I still have mine. Used it all the way through college in electrical engineering until I could afford a "four banger" calculator which set me back $50 Here's a picture of the calculator:
View attachment 4540085

I was really envious of the anyone that could afford one of these (first scientific calculator)
View attachment 4540087

My first calculator didn’t even have a floating decimal point.

 

[tubedude]

My first calculator didn’t even have a floating decimal point.

My first calculator was a slide rule.

 

[dwm74]

My first calculator didn’t even have a floating decimal point.

Yesiree, here's my first one, a Commodore Minuteman 6, circa 1974. No floating decimal, and only the basic four functions. And for a seventh-grader at the time, that $39.99 price tag was outrageous. Thankfully I caught it on sale for $27, which was still way more than a month's allowance back then, but I wanted one so badly.

 

[12BitSlab]

My first calculator didn’t even have a floating decimal point.

Don’t feel bad. When IBM developed the 1620 and released it in 1959, IBM sold it as a scientific computer. Unfortunately, it became known as the CADET since the floating point processor never worked and BCD ops included only addition and subtraction and those were done via lookup tables. CADET stood for “Can’t Add, Doesn’t Even Try”.

 

[Indiedog]

Yesiree, here's my first one, a Commodore Minuteman 6, circa 1974. No floating decimal, and only the basic four functions. And for a seventh-grader at the time, that $39.99 price tag was outrageous. Thankfully I caught it on sale for $27, which was still way more than a month's allowance back then, but I wanted one so badly.
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I too bought the very same one! I had been able to use a few “real” versions (a Texas Instruments model) on the weekends because my father’s work allowed him to bring it home on the weekends. But I so wanted my own, so I bought the Commodore at (I think) Sears for the $40 you mentioned. It was pretty bad (the non-floating decimal) but it was MINE!! I had it up to about 15 years ago (I had taken it apart by then!)

And then I fully remember the glorious Sunday that my father took me downtown to 47th Street Photo in NYC a few years later. He bought me a $300 HP 25C Programmable (49 Steps!!) calculator. That was HUGE to me. It was as though my father finally welcomed me into his world (one of statistics and error analysis).

 

[The Owl]

Kawai Alembic bass copy

 

[roccobass]

 

[the harp unstrung]

I too bought the very same one! I had been able to use a few “real” versions (a Texas Instruments model) on the weekends because my father’s work allowed him to bring it home on the weekends. But I so wanted my own, so I bought the Commodore at (I think) Sears for the $40 you mentioned. It was pretty bad (the non-floating decimal) but it was MINE!! I had it up to about 15 years ago (I had taken it apart by then!)

And then I fully remember the glorious Sunday that my father took me downtown to 47th Street Photo in NYC a few years later. He bought me a $300 HP 25C Programmable (49 Steps!!) calculator. That was HUGE to me. It was as though my father finally welcomed me into his world (one of statistics and error analysis).

So well told, well written.

 

[the harp unstrung]

Kawai Alembic bass copy

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Day Um, dude!

 

[Indiedog]

So well told, well written.

You are very kind!!! Thank you!

And thanks for contributing SO MUCH here!

 

[roccobass]

 

[roccobass]

 

[Indiedog]

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My father had a similar Wang computer. The time he invited me to his office so he could show it to me was pretty cool. He pressed one button and it spit out a “welcome” message to me. He then showed me how long it took him to program that message (quite a bit of effort). It seemed so high-tech then, but sooooo primitive now.