
The Beautiful TI-108 - Hooke
https://trackchanges.postlight.com/the-beautiful-ti-108-db1944d617c9
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throwaway7645
The HP-15c scientific calculator is a work of pure genius, beauty, and art
along with its user manual. My dad has used his daily since ~1986 and demand
was high enough to do a re-run in 2012 to make a few thousand more units at
over $100 a pop. It uses RPN and can do matrices, calculus, statistics, and
run programs. It is small, lightweight, excellent buttons, and the batteries
last years. Engineers love them. No graphing, but it is amazing. TI is popular
now, but at one point, only HP could be used for real math.

~~~
iamacynic
it blew my mind that you can buy an hp-15c at best buy still. it's on the
shelf sort of by the cameras.

and before you start: when i feel like blowing 400 bucks on a time wasting and
useless game console, you bet your ass i'm going to get shafted up close and
personal whenever it tickles my fancy, i.e. at 8pm on a tuesday.

~~~
throwaway7645
Didn't know they still had the 15c at Best Buy as that was a very limited run
(yes I blew $100). Are you sure you didnt see the 12c? The 12c looks similar
and is still stupidly popular in finance/accounting (it has a lot of pre-built
business functions).

~~~
GenWintergreen
Yup, quite a few of us still use a HP-12c. I have one at my work desk and
personal desk; what an absolute beauty of a device.

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sushid
The author thinks the uglier design is lamentable, but it might have actually
been done on purpose to discourage (accidental) theft, similar to how bowling
shoes are hideous for the same reason.

When I was in school, we used the TI-84s in classes. The classroom versions we
had were these ugly yellow ones that were very easy to notice and very easy to
distinguish from the regular gray/black ones.

~~~
Yhippa
I loved programming so much in high school that I would routinely hack in TI-
BASIC on these things as much as I could. It was an excellent language to cut
your teeth on.

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derwiki
TI-BASIC and z80 assembly (TI-86) helped me get my programming fix during the
day in high school since we had no programming classes.

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Yhippa
Inverting the display of "5318008" on your seven-segment display was a rite of
passage as a teenage boy in America in the 80's.

~~~
Jun8
For examples in other languages:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calculator_spelling#Other_lang...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calculator_spelling#Other_languages)

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protomyth
Its nice, but for a programmer I loved the
[http://datamath.org/Sci/Modern/TI-34.htm](http://datamath.org/Sci/Modern/TI-34.htm)
which was also solar powered and has lasted quite a long time since its still
with me from my high school days.

~~~
mauvehaus
If you're looking for an upgrade and/or do low-level stuff, the TI-36X Solar
handles binary, hexadecimal, and octal quite nicely (though you do start
running out of digits if you're trying to convert big numbers to binary). It
also has a number of logic functions that you may or may not find useful.

Lately, I've been delighted by the equally competent fraction input/display
system. I've been doing a lot of woodworking in US customary units, and the
36X beats the pants off of any other calculator I've owned[0].

Truly, it's a well thought-out little tool. So much so that when the display
on mine pooped out, I went on eBay and found another one for 10 USD shipped.

[0] If somebody wants to recommend a dedicated builder's calculator that
handles fractional inches handily, I'm all ears, but I haven't owned one to
this point. Calculating board-feet would be a nice plus.

~~~
protomyth
I'll ask for sure but I remember the folks in the vocational program (finish
carpentry) using one they bought at Home Depot.

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cannam
A charming article. A Texas Instruments calculator (scientific, non-
programmable) was practically my best friend at school in the 1980s, though I
don't even know what model it was now. I'm not sure how to find out, as it
seems that most model numbers were reused in a long series of different cases.

I've always associated American brands with terrible ergonomics, but TI
calculators had unusually pleasing buttons and layout.

[Edit: Ah, uh, OK -- a few more minutes searching and I find "This calculator
was developed and produced in Japan... A big advantage of the Toshiba design
was the smooth and flawless keyboard." This is definitely the one, a TI-30SLR
mkII:
[http://datamath.org/Sci/Modern/TI-30SLR_2.htm](http://datamath.org/Sci/Modern/TI-30SLR_2.htm).
Oh well. But it was much nicer to use than Casios of the time and the pleasant
form carried over to the Galaxy series.]

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bambax
> _What are the top dogs you’ve met? What are the best streets in your town?
> Who are the worst people you love? What are the ten best instructional
> videos in your discipline? What are the worst colors? What are the five best
> musical instruments?_

 _top best worst best worst best_ : what's with all this obsession with
ranking??

I don't love many people but it would be impossible for me to rank them from
"best" to "worst".

I don't even know what it would mean to _rank_ musical instruments. According
to what criteria? If the best instrument is the piano, or the clarinet, can
you have an orchestra of 100 pianos? Or 100 clarinets?

And colors...? Ok maybe it's a joke and I don't get it.

The problem with ranking from "worst" to "best" is it's uni-dimensional; as
you add more axes it makes less and less sense.

It takes a very narrow mind to even ask such a question.

~~~
mikestew
_what 's with all this obsession with ranking??_

It said so right in the article: you learn what you care about. Best musical
instrument? Easy, mandolin. Maybe the violin. Both are tuned in fifths, so
scale and chord patterns are transferable up and down, and across the
fretboard/fingerboard. Far better than that bastardized tuning of the guitar.
Play a melody, play rhythm (on the mandolin) if you have to, though not as
good a choice as a guitar. And don't get me started on all the keys of a
piano.

But that's what I care about in a musical instrument, mainly because I play
one. YMMV, and it likely will if you don't play anything.

~~~
bambax
You're answering the question "what instruments do you like to play the most",
which is different from "what are the 'best' instruments".

The last question implies some kind of absolute value system, not just your
own personal taste (even if you're the one making the ranking).

~~~
jdmichal
I think you're reading objectiveness into the question. If it makes you feel
better, replace "best" or "worst" with "most favorite" and "least favorite".
The essence behind the question is still there, but it removes any
interpretation of objectiveness.

However, I would argue that it also loses some impact. It removes the idea of
a person having to decide what "best" or "worst" actually means. Instead, you
would need a follow-up question of "why?" to clarify that particular point.

For instance, I would have answered French horn. That instrument can single-
handedly cut through an entire orchestra, and there is no mistaking it when
you hear it. The harpsichord would be a close runner-up. So I'm probably
looking for unique sounds that are easy to pick out of a crowd.

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nickpsecurity
A teardown of the components and why it's so reliable might be interesting.

~~~
kens
A teardown wouldn't be too interesting; it looks like the calculator is
basically just one chip inside:
[http://www.datamath.org/BASIC/LCD_Modern/JPEG_TI-108.htm](http://www.datamath.org/BASIC/LCD_Modern/JPEG_TI-108.htm)
Of course, it might be interesting to look inside the chip...

~~~
nickpsecurity
Now you're thinking what I'm thinking. :) Although, I was interested in the
PCB, too, since I figured it might be extra simple. That's a way to reduce
cost and improve reliability vs overcomplicated components used in many modern
designs. Really, really simple indeed.

~~~
kalleboo
Even a modern "advanced" calculator like this 2-line model[^] is just a blob
chip and keypad matrix. Calculators are all extremely simple until you get to
the graphing ones that have external RAM or even flash memory.

[^]
[http://datamath.org/Sci/Modern/JPEG_TI-30X-IIS_SWH2016.htm](http://datamath.org/Sci/Modern/JPEG_TI-30X-IIS_SWH2016.htm)

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agumonkey
Oh god the cute nostalgia. Shape, buttons, plastic, colors.

I sniped a Canon KS 100 desk calculator at a battery recycle bin, solar, with
large buttons too. Couldn't resist.
[http://imgur.com/a/6wWUO](http://imgur.com/a/6wWUO)

ps: I also found full on desk calculator (powered, with printout) from Triump-
Adler.. funny.

pps: HP RPN forever (twice) dup dup add

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fotbr
I just found my old TI-86, TI-89, and HP-48G+ calculators. All of which were
great, when I needed them.

What I want to find is my old TI-30X Solar. Basic, bulletproof, and does
everything I want a calculator to do without getting in it's own way. Anything
more complicated than what it will do I'm likely to use other tools anyway.

~~~
wickawic
the T-30s' two-line display is just so perfect. You can always see your last
result as you are punching in your next calculation.

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18nleung
How coincidental — I wrote a visual analysis of the TI-84 just a few weeks ago
for my AP English class:
[https://nathanapenglish.blogspot.com/2017/02/tow-20-ti-84-vi...](https://nathanapenglish.blogspot.com/2017/02/tow-20-ti-84-visual.html)

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billforsternz
How do you clear the memory? You'd think a fourth memory key is needed. Maybe
you turn it off and on. Or maybe you go MRC then M-. I think if I was
designing this I'd sacrifice the notoriously unnecessary and confusing % key.

~~~
protomyth
Hit the On key a couple of times. There is no real off unless you hold your
finger on the solar panels. It says On / C for a button to awaken it.

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techwizrd
I love my TI-84 SE and my TI-89. So much so, in fact, that I have a TI-89 on
my phone. I always get fascinated looks when I pull it out and type out a
complicated expression.

~~~
agumonkey
I often use HP 48 emulators too, with great joy.

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trey-jones
This is a great piece of writing. I will seek to emulate.

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ChuckMcM
I prefer the TI-92, the last of the 'big' calculators.

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nightski
I still have my TI-89 from high school. It wasn't quite the TI-92, but I could
still use it on most of the exams which the 92 was banned from. Love that
calculator.

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patrickg_zill
Must. not. search on eBay.

~~~
subway
eBay? They're only $9 on Amazon..

