On Thu, 31 Oct 1996 09:16:26 -0800, Hal Finney wrote:
properties than regular logarithms, but I thought this bit of history would spark some memories in old-timers and give a new perspective for younger people.
It's kind of funny how quickly they dropped out of usage. I'm probably one of the estimated 7 people under the age of 30 who actually know how to use one. (Long story - it involves a couple months in a math class w/o a decent calculator) I was in an Algebra class taught by 'Father Time' - interesting facial expression when he first noticed my 'calculator' (similar to the one he got when I blurted out the [correct] answer to a problem he'd been explaining while I was reading a book and ignoring him - in retrospect, RAH was more educational). We had to take some sort of state math test and I had just gotten my new programable graphing calculator a week or two before (more lost sleep - with a little creativity and a boring class you can get some interesting code on those thingies) but for some reason I decided to bring both calculator (the allowability of which was highly suspect) and sliderule. The proctor saw me and had a major fit -- over the sliderule! Yeap, in the state of California they don't let algebra students use a sliderule to 'cheat' on the assessment test. They do, however, allow you to use a modern graphing calculator with programs and an equation solver (Did I mention the optional IR link?). The same thing goes on with SATs and especially SAT-IIs. Some higher-end calculators, esp. HPs, have plugin cartridges which automate much of the basic work in chemistry, physics, etc. I never saw anyone who used such things even get asked about it. Do we even need social engineering with people this stupid? # Chris Adams <adamsc@io-online.com> | http://www.io-online.com/adamsc/adamsc.htp # <cadams@acucobol.com> | send mail with subject "send PGPKEY" "That's our advantage at Microsoft; we set the standards and we can change them." --- Karen Hargrove, Microsoft (quoted in the Feb 1993 Unix Review editorial)