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Reverse Polish Notation English makes me want to day-drink.

Chuckaluphagus wrote:

Reverse Polish Notation English makes me want to day-drink.

This is my HP-12C. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
My HP-12C is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life.
Without me, my HP-12C is useless. Without my HP-12C, I am useless.
I must run my HP-12C true. I must calculate straighter than my enemy who is trying to kill me.
I must break him before he breaks me.

[/apologies to the USMC]

I've had one of these grafted to my right hand since 1988 or so. They come with entry into the financial/banking world . The really old ones, the ones that use the 357/LR44 3-stack of button batteries, are the best. Can be dropped from just about any height and survive, and the old ones run for at least 10 years on a set of silver-oxide batteries. If I should ever decide to be buried (instead of cremated), some future archaeologist will someday dig me up and find one. It might still work.

I probably wouldn't have made it through a Physics degree without my TI-89 but that's a whole other story. And none of that "Titanium" business. The OG. (of course most people my age probably think the TI-83/Plus was "the OG")


In sum -- calculators are good.

My calculator in college was a Ti-58C

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TI-59_/_TI-58

Ti-92 for me. Yeah, I was that guy.

And holy crap, there's one on ebay for $20. I shouldn't be surprised, but wow

Captain Ned wrote:

Chuckaluphagus wrote:

Reverse Polish Notation English makes me want to day-drink.

This is my HP-12C. There are many like it, but this one is mine.

Yes, but imagine if you had to review and edit sentences that were purportedly written in English, but had been run through some linguistic sadist's RPN algorithm.

The whisky, it calls to me ...

Redocbew wrote:

Ti-92 for me. Yeah, I was that guy.

And holy crap, there's one on ebay for $20. I shouldn't be surprised, but wow

lol a TI-92. Honestly never saw one of those all through my college years (and that's A LOT of Math/Engineering/Physics classes).

I was definitely an outlier with the 89. Almost everyone had the 83+.

DancinJack wrote:

Redocbew wrote:

Ti-92 for me. Yeah, I was that guy.
Honestly never saw one of those all through my college years (and that's A LOT of Math/Engineering/Physics classes).
I was definitely an outlier with the 89. Almost everyone had the 83+.

I transferred from from a small college to a university engineering college in the mid-nineties. At the time I was using a scientific TI but the engineering students all recommended HP calculators due to the RPN logic for faster number crunching using the stack lists. It was strange at first but after while noticed I was more efficient inputting using RPN.

I used this one mostly through my undergraduate classes:
http://www.hpmuseum.org/gallery/hp28sann.jpg

Then later this one in graduate school and still use it at work:
http://www.hpmuseum.org/gallery/hp48gx.jpg

I still have nostalgia for Texas Instruments since as a kid I learned math on the Lil' Professor:
http://www.datamath.org/Edu/ZOOM_Professor_76.htm

Yes, once you learn to think in RPN it is actually faster, since it requires fewer keystrokes.

Captain Ned wrote:

This is my HP-12C. I've had one of these grafted to my right hand since 1988 or so. The really old ones, the ones that use the 357/LR44 3-stack of button batteries, are the best. Can be dropped from just about any height and survive, and the old ones run for at least 10 years on a set of silver-oxide batteries.

I used the HP-15C scientific version throughout college. It still works flawlessly after more than three decades. At work, I switched to an HP-42S, which I liked even better. It also works flawlessly after almost three decades. However, in the past five years, I have mostly been relying on a smartphone app that mimics the HP-42S. I no longer carry a calculator to meetings or out into the process.

RPN calculators are significantly more efficient than algebraic calculators, since they require fewer keystrokes and you don't have to worry about mismatched parentheses.

JustAnEngineer wrote:

RPN calculators are significantly more efficient than algebraic calculators, since they require fewer keystrokes and you don't have to worry about mismatched parentheses.

Yup... they seem pretty alien until your brain has internalized that algebraic-to-RPN compiler though! I can definitely see how the UI of HP's calculators was originally designed by engineers, for engineers.

just brew it! wrote:

JustAnEngineer wrote:

RPN calculators are significantly more efficient than algebraic calculators, since they require fewer keystrokes and you don't have to worry about mismatched parentheses.

Yup... they seem pretty alien until your brain has internalized that algebraic-to-RPN compiler though! I can definitely see how the UI of HP's calculators was originally designed by engineers, for engineers.

Back when HP cared about engineering.

In a sort-of-related vein, git is the RPN of source code management systems. It seemed pretty alien to me at first, but it is very powerful. Designed for managing large distributed development projects, by the person who manages one of the larger (and most widely used) Open Source projects.

IMO in terms of overall impact on how software gets developed, git will have a bigger and longer lasting effect than the Linux kernel.

Redocbew wrote:

Ti-92 for me. Yeah, I was that guy.

And holy crap, there's one on ebay for $20. I shouldn't be surprised, but wow

I had to have one of these for my Calculus I class back in Nineteen Hundred and Ninety Six. I've forgotten almost everything from that class, but I got a C and it kept me from having to take a math class in the Modern Era, which is nice.

All my HS math/science and then college engineering coursework was done on my ti-83 (non-plus). Worked like a champ. Anything more complicated like linear algebra we might use matlab/octave for on the computer.

DancinJack wrote:

Redocbew wrote:

Ti-92 for me. Yeah, I was that guy.

And holy crap, there's one on ebay for $20. I shouldn't be surprised, but wow

lol a TI-92. Honestly never saw one of those all through my college years (and that's A LOT of Math/Engineering/Physics classes).

I was definitely an outlier with the 89. Almost everyone had the 83+.

TI-89 Titanium for college here (EE, started mid '00s). Was definitely worth it having to deal with complex numbers, converting in and out of phasors.

If we weren't doing math on a calculator, the school provided (sold) the engineering laptops and software we needed for everything else. Matlab, Maple, CAD, etc. Anything that a class needed had to run on 4-5 years worth of laptops so we could integrate things right in. Was pretty neat, but served a good purpose when we had to do exams or labs on our own machines.

derFunkenstein wrote:

I had to have one of these for my Calculus I class back in Nineteen Hundred and Ninety Six.

I think we've stumbled upon a dating method for future archaeologists. Estimate the age of the geek by the calculator they used in college.

Redocbew wrote:

derFunkenstein wrote:

I had to have one of these for my Calculus I class back in Nineteen Hundred and Ninety Six.

I think we've stumbled upon a dating method for future archaeologists. Estimate the age of the geek by the calculator they used in college.

The generation before mine used slide rules. I was pretty much right on the cusp of the switchover to calculators. One of my high school math teachers still had a giant (like 5 foot long) slide rule hanging in the front of the classroom for instructional purposes.

superjawes wrote:

TI-89 Titanium for college here (EE, started mid '00s). Was definitely worth it having to deal with complex numbers, converting in and out of phasors.

If we weren't doing math on a calculator, the school provided (sold) the engineering laptops and software we needed for everything else. Matlab, Maple, CAD, etc. Anything that a class needed had to run on 4-5 years worth of laptops so we could integrate things right in. Was pretty neat, but served a good purpose when we had to do exams or labs on our own machines.

Pretty similar to my experience. Though we rarely, if ever, were REQUIRED to do things on our own machines. The EE/CoE/CS labs were open 24 hours (thank goodness) and they had plenty of machines to use for coding. Honestly though, most of our programming tests were on paper, and then we did projects that took a predetermined amount of time and had to be turned on in some date.

God. Matlab and Maple were almost literally the only programs I used for two years.

We had discounts through Dell or Apple if we wanted to buy a machine through the Uni but I had a pretty good desktop and laptop at home and just used lab machines otherwise.

just brew it! wrote:

Redocbew wrote:

derFunkenstein wrote:

I had to have one of these for my Calculus I class back in Nineteen Hundred and Ninety Six.

I think we've stumbled upon a dating method for future archaeologists. Estimate the age of the geek by the calculator they used in college.

The generation before mine used slide rules. I was pretty much right on the cusp of the switchover to calculators. One of my high school math teachers still had a giant (like 5 foot long) slide rule hanging in the front of the classroom for instructional purposes.

well, carbon dating is still pretty reliable for those old dinosaurs.

derFunkenstein wrote:

just brew it! wrote:

Redocbew wrote:

I think we've stumbled upon a dating method for future archaeologists. Estimate the age of the geek by the calculator they used in college.

The generation before mine used slide rules. I was pretty much right on the cusp of the switchover to calculators. One of my high school math teachers still had a giant (like 5 foot long) slide rule hanging in the front of the classroom for instructional purposes.

well, carbon dating is still pretty reliable for those old dinosaurs.

Carbon dating might be the best way. I put up with scientific calculators in my uni days. Although the real nerds in my engineering days were the ones with hp calculators that did reverse Polish notation. They were just wierd.

One of the few things I truly hate in this world are people who set their car alarms when they'll be nowhere near the car if it goes off. I'm sure I'm one of like 50+ people who weren't able to really sleep because of some jackhole doing so. The freaking thing is still going off as I type

SecretMaster wrote:

One of the few things I truly hate in this world are people who set their car alarms when they'll be nowhere near the car if it goes off. I'm sure I'm one of like 50+ people who weren't able to really sleep because of some jackhole doing so. The freaking thing is still going off as I type

In my early 20s, I lived on a city block with one of those car alarms. My roommate and I seriously looked into the legality of building and using a HERF gun. We didn't, but more out of concern that we'd do harm along the line of fire.

So this weekend is spring in Ottawa. Time to pack up the snowblower, get the bikes out and switch out the winter tyres on the cars for the summers.

Last Monday, everything was under an inch or two of ice after a lot of freezing rain with the temperature hovering around 0C. This Monday is forecast to be sunny and +18C. Spring is a 2 week season somewhere in 2 months and it is late this year!

notfred wrote:

So this weekend is spring in Ottawa. Time to pack up the snowblower, get the bikes out and switch out the winter tyres on the cars for the summers.

Since my winters don't have enough tread for another winter, I'll just run them through the summer until they quit.

just brew it! wrote:

The generation before mine used slide rules. I was pretty much right on the cusp of the switchover to calculators. One of my high school math teachers still had a giant (like 5 foot long) slide rule hanging in the front of the classroom for instructional purposes.

In my EET classes at Purdue all but one or two students used slide rules. I carried a six inch one in a pocket clip case stuffed into my right front jeans pocket. I also had a full size one in a hard case with a snap clip you could hook on a belt loop, but it was to much of a pain to drag around.

OK, another session of "what is it"? This object is about 5 miles from my house. It's clearly a helicopter, my challenge is for someone to tell me make/model. I took the liberty of erasing the non-country part of the tailcode to make Googling more difficult.



Apologies for the image quality, it's a cropped long-range shot from my cellphone taken about an hour ago.

Coaxial rotors like that immediately make me think Russian and those giant engine pods on the side look unique. A bit of Googling gives HA as Hungary on the registration, and Kamov as the main Russian coaxial helicopter manufacturer.

I think it's a Kamov KA-26 'Hoodlum', which was in use by the Hungarian Air Force and also apparently is often used for crop dusting on grape farms in Hungary. I'm unsure what the back pod is, passenger or medevac look more likely than crop dusting.

I concur with notfred's analysis.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhRTKku6fso

And you're both correct:

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Untitled ... 26/1761604

What a Kamov Ka-26 is doing sitting in a field in Milton, VT (it's a "lawn ornament" for a helicopter service company) is beyond me. Been there for a good 10 years at least.