[Charente]

Interesting thread @zilch0md ... I just wish we could obtain this transformer in Europe ... I haven't seen in 230v format and could do with it !!

 

[johnjen]

my 1st 4 banger (2nd row down. 3rd from the left)
https://hiveminer.com/tags/1973,calculator/recent
The craig handheld, $400 new in the early 1970's

I took it apart, it was crammed full of ttl chips on 2 double sided boards.

JJ

 

[quimbo]

I used to spell go lehigh

It could spell things upside down. Mostly variations on the word HELL. That pretty much described engineering school, too.

 

[flargosa]

Has anybody compared the Vidar to the Ragnarok speaker out? Anyone done some early comparisons/review on the Vidar yet?

 

[DSNORD]

Here's a pic of my first calculator. The HP-25. It was programmable. Note - no equals button...it used a 4-place register to store numbers then compute going down.
The Purdue freshmen had them strapped to their belts like engineer wanna-be gun slingers.

Reverse Polish Notation. Man does that flood back the memories!

One of my best friends and I would blast through our homework then borrow this calculator from our AP Calculus teacher to play with for the rest of study hall. We were mesmerized with what it could do. I had the first calculator in the school, but hers was by far the best. She started the first Comp Sci class in the county and was our advisor at the State Fair. Her protégés took 3 Firsts and a Second there. She was the about the coolest and smartest teacher I ever had. Unfortunately, I took a wrong turn and went into Medicine instead. I was this close to starting Microsoft but Billy G beat me to it....

 

[rmoody]

Here's a pic of my first calculator. The HP-25. It was programmable. Note - no equals button...it used a 4-place register to store numbers then compute going down.
The Purdue freshmen had them strapped to their belts like engineer wanna-be gun slingers.

Reminds me of the TI calculator that my Dad gave me in the 8th grade. That thing was huge! Had the same type of display.

Later I had a physics teacher who would let us use any calculator we wanted, but if we wanted his help when we had issues, it had better be an HP. That was in Tupleo, MS we had to go to Starkville, MS (MS State) to get one. I still have it. Still works. Still bad ass. I've had 3 HP calculators, still have 2. Last stint through school I would carry the HP for physics and EE classes and a TI for calculus. If I had the funds I would remake the HPs with a faster CPU, more memory and better graphics. They had the best buttons and RPN beats the pants off any other method. The built in formulas were just amazing, the odd thing, you still actually had to UNDERSTAND the formulas and HOW to use them.

 

[yonson]

Can it spell BOOB?

Or BOOBLESS

 

[kstuart]

Here's a pic of my first calculator. The HP-25. It was programmable. Note - no equals button...it used a 4-place register to store numbers then compute going down.
The Purdue freshmen had them strapped to their belts like engineer wanna-be gun slingers.

I was about to mention the HP-25. In September 1972 (IIRC), I was a freshman in college and one of the other freshmen went out and bought the HP-25 when it was first available (similar to Apple Store fans buying iphones on the first day). I seem to remember $400 or $500 was the price. As far as we knew, that was the first pocket calculator, but I've never bothered to check on wikipedia.

It's interesting that so many Schiit fans were involved with early computers. (I thought that Schiit was supposed to appeal to the younger demographic that only use headphones?)

I have early computing stories that usually beat most of them - despite the fact that I've never been terribly interested in computers - I was always obsessed with music and audio instead.

For example, in 1971, my high school joined a special program whereby teletype terminals were installed that networked with a big computer at Dartmouth. As a result, I learned "Basic" language and this was the foundation of my software engineering career. At the same time, a high school in the Seattle area joined the same program, and some guy named Bill Gates also learned Basic and computing for the first time.

I transferred to Stanford in 1974 and became close friends with a guy simply because he played the piano so well in the dorm lobby. He introduced me to a couple of his friends, one of whom ("John") was a member of the Homebrew Computer Club and John was a close friend of Wozniak and Jobs (neither of whom I ever met, even though I remained friends with John for years - because we both like electronic music). Another friend of the pianist worked at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center. That Xerox guy took me on a late night tour - where I saw the first mouse and Graphics OS - months before either Jobs or Gates. But unlike those guys, It never occurred to me to "borrow" anyone else's innovation - I guess I don't have a head for business. Instead, I was much more enthralled with another toy at Xerox - a piano keyboard that was connected to a computer and sounded exactly like a pipe organ! Amazing! Probably the first ever digital keyboard...

... and... my Bifrost Gen 5 USB board just shipped, so I have a project for tomorrow afternoon...

 

[DrJam]

Reverse Polish Notation. Man does that flood back the memories!

One of my best friends and I would blast through our homework then borrow this calculator from our AP Calculus teacher to play with for the rest of study hall. We were mesmerized with what it could do. I had the first calculator in the school, but hers was by far the best. She started the first Comp Sci class in the county and was our advisor at the State Fair. Her protégés took 3 Firsts and a Second there. She was the about the coolest and smartest teacher I ever had. Unfortunately, I took a wrong turn and went into Medicine instead. I was this close to starting Microsoft but Billy G beat me to it....

Memories? RPN is still current for me. I still have trouble using a calculator that has an "=" sign. Even balancing my checkbook takes forever: I hit $50 then "-" and it doesn't subtract! Well ****, now I have to start over... Got my HP-11C back in high school after my dad explained to me how his HP worked (on what I'm pretty sure was an HP-25.) It made complex calculations much easier to do, and that way of thinking really helped when later I learned assembly language push and pop. Unfortunately that 11C recently died so now I have an RPN on my phone.
(Related sidebar: I still use vi for all text editing.)

 

[HotChile]

As a middle aged engineer, trust me, RPN is still around. I've owned a -28S, -48S, -32SII, -33, and -35S. All RPN. Only the -33 was a POS. Use the -35S as my primary these days, right combination of features, right key feel, and speed.

 

[winders]

The HP-25 came out in early 1975...

 

[mbyrnes]

Long day. Finally with my father's help, I mounted my Vizio P75-C1, tossed out my old TV stand, and went with a short and long one from IKEA. My new Schiit came yesterday, and I just finished getting it all setup. Saga, Vidar, Eitr and the Mimby I already owned (Mani is waiting in its box, it needs a dancing partner that plugs into it).

Really no listening impressions yet, but I'm beyond excited to let the Saga burn in a few days before doing any. All TV audio will be played through the Schiit 2 channel system. They'll get a ton of playing time, as I'm disabled, with a lot of 4K HDR content either through disc, Xbox One S, PS4 Pro, Nintendo Switch, FiOS TV, Netflix and Amazon Movies, or music through my PC (excited to get Eitr listening time).

There was a really good change going from the Class D amps in my old Pioneer SC-72 to a more vintage Marantz SR8500 I picked up from my father recently (we traded AVRs). While the Marantz is a nice unit, I'm expecting the Schiit rack to best it easily.

I'm heading down the shore until Sunday night, so I'm sad I can't play with my new toys. Next week is going to be some serious fun though. I'm actually more excited about coming back from vacation!

I'll definitely give my thoughts on the combo. I'm running 4 ohm Vienna Acoustics Mozart Grands that I've owned for several years. I know them very well, and they've been in a few systems through those years. Hoping more people start reporting back in their Vidar amps.

 

[wink]

Can it spell BOOB?

701177345 spells shelloil on a calculator

 

[cskippy]

Not quite 71077345 spells shelloil : p

 

[HumanFly]

I never tried to spell BOOB.
Can you instruct me?

8008, but your 8 needs to be squarish