@circuitguy / you need to be asked - inituative to whom? I have taught both contexts and my students have gotten both, but a new paradigm takes habituation time. My teaching context is computer architectures in the '60s and '70s. And then there's people who think Lisp is the best programming language.

Hello khalling,
I once had a favorite scientific calculator. In fact, I just checked my desk drawer and still have it. It is a Sharp model EL-509A. It hasn't worked in years, but for some reason I haven't thrown it away. Before I had CNC machines and CAD-CAM computer systems it was an amazing time saver for me since I did so much trigonometry. Well I remember the beginning of the end for it. I had it sitting on top of a lathe I was running and it got knocked off the headstock and landed on the spinning chuck. It danced repeatedly into the sky with every rotating chuck jaw for what seemed like an eternity, but I'm sure was only a few seconds. It was beat up, still worked, but was never the same. It had rubber buttons and a reliable touch. They no longer made it and the replacement has had plastic buttons and just didn't have the same feel. It is true that "they just don't make 'em like they used to."
Regards,
O.A.

As a kid I felt self conscious using my calculator. Not because I thought people would judge me, but because I thought it was judging me.

I'm struck by how much HP dominates these memories. But that was the HP of the founders, not HP of today. Then, excellence. Today, Excel.

The basic problem with school today is that it does not start the day after labor day, it starts around the 10th of August. Run for governor on that platform and you will win by a landslide.