HP Solve calculator newsletter
#1

Forgive me if someone has already posted a link to these monthly pdf newsletters: HP Solve (December has some HHC2008 photos).


Thanks HP.




Matt


Edited: 9 Dec 2008, 6:34 p.m.

#2

If you want an example of something that HP is doing RIGHT, and a direction they're heading that's really spot on, it's the new Solve newsletter. Each issue has surpassed my expectations, and they aren't just useless marketing fluff; they are substantive and interesting issues. I'm really enjoying each one.

GREAT JOB HP!

Thanks,
bruce

Edited: 10 Dec 2008, 12:49 a.m.

#3

Hi, Matt --

Long time no post!

Thanks for the link; I'd forgotten about the HP Solve newsletters. They don't measure up to the old Hewlett-Packard Journal, but the time, effort, and budget funds expended are not even remotely comparable.

This headline from the December 2008 issue was a bit startling:


Technical corner: Sinus, Cosine and Tangent

To find the Sin, Cos and Tan of a number, some heavy trigonometric
algorithms are needed. Make it easy with your HP calculator and these step-by-step instructions.


"Sinus"? Sure, "Sin" and "Cos" are sinusoidal, but...

And why are "heavy trigonometric algorithms" and "step-by-step instructions" necessary? Wouldn't a single keystroke provide the desired answers?

As it turns out, the three-page article describes the CORDIC algorithm. Maybe this time it'll make sense to me, as published references and Eric Smith's thoughtful summary of almost two years ago haven't quite done the trick...

"Coronate rotation" and "Cartesian plan" slipped through proofreading in the article. ;-)

A recap of HHC 2008 with group photo is in the same issue.

-- KS

Edited: 10 Dec 2008, 3:05 a.m.

#4

Quote:
A recap of HHC 2008 with group photo is in the same issue.

And the photo showed mainly guys. One of the reasons why I wouldn't attend... ;-) Are there no female math teachers anymore?

#5

There are plenty of female math teachers. None of them are HP calculator geeks, however.

#6

Quote:
And the photo showed mainly guys.

Mainly? I see only ONE gal in the picture.

At least from the other pictures we know what Cyrille and Gene look like. Anyone care to provide a legend to the group picture?

#7

Quote:
"Sinus"? Sure, "Sin" and "Cos" are sinusoidal, but...

That bothered me as well. I have never seen a textbook use the Latin sinus for Sine, why start now?
#8

Some translation problem maybe? ;-)
sinus is french for sine

Edited: 10 Dec 2008, 10:41 a.m.

#9

German, Dutch Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Bahasa Indonesia as well as several other languages use sinus for sine. Probably the author speaks one of those...

Edited: 10 Dec 2008, 11:18 a.m.

#10

I believe George meant to write manly guys. ;-)

Quote:
Anyone care to provide a legend to the group picture?

If someone gave the go-ahead (because most are in the FBI Witness Protection Program ;-), I think I could match-up about 90% of the names on Joe's list, with the HP Source photo.




Matt (bottom row, third from left).

#11

The names are here.

#12

Thanks Don, I wasn't aware of Richard's report (nice and thorough, as usual).
Matt

#13

hello,

Quote:
German, Dutch Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Bahasa Indonesia as well as several other languages use sinus for sine. Probably the author speaks one of those...

whoa, how insightful of you:-)

Next time, why don't you, people of hpMuseum right an article in french for a change!

regards, cyrille

#14

hello

Quote:
"Sinus"? Sure, "Sin" and "Cos" are sinusoidal, but...

And why are "heavy trigonometric algorithms" and "step-by-step instructions" necessary? Wouldn't a single keystroke provide the desired answers?


Because the whole point of the articles is to try to explain what happen when you press that ONE key :-)

Quote:
As it turns out, the three-page article describes the CORDIC algorithm. Maybe this time it'll make sense to me, as published references and Eric Smith's thoughtful summary of almost two years ago haven't quite done the trick...

"Coronate rotation" and "Cartesian plan" slipped through proofreading in the article. ;-)


Actually, it's a little bit more than just a description of cordic, it also deals with how to implement it in a 10 based system. usualy cordic is implemented in a 2 base system, and things change quite a bit... and so do the optimisations...

as for the smelling mistakes... well, sheet happen :-)

cyrille

#15

Quote:

whoa, how insightful of you:-)


cyrille, are you the author of this interesting article? I couldn't figure that out from the newsletter alone. So, yes my remark was very insightful ;-)
Thank you for it, I found it very interesting and fun to read.

Quote:

Next time, why don't you, people of hpMuseum right an article in french for a change!


Calm down, I wasn't trying to diminish the value of your article. In fact I was astonished to read that Americans don't ever use the words sinus or cosinus in their textbooks. My goal was to point out to them that it's a very common term in so many languages, including my own native tongue which is not English.

#16

Quote:
including my own native tongue which is not English

Which then?

-- Antonio

#17

hello,

Quote:
Calm down, I wasn't trying to diminish the value of your article. In fact I was astonished to read that Americans don't ever use the words sinus or cosinus in their textbooks. My goal was to point out to them that it's a very common term in so many languages, including my own native tongue which is not English.

sorry, I should have put a smiley instead of the '!' at the end... I was not getting 'excited', but talking tongue in cheek...

cyrille

#18

cyrille,

I thought so. No harm done! :-)

Thanks again for your article!

Regards,
George Bailey

P.S. Why is it that the articles are never signed? I would love to know who did the hard work writing them.


Edited: 11 Dec 2008, 11:53 a.m.

#19

Quote:
German, Dutch Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Bahasa Indonesia as well as several other languages use sinus for sine.

You can revert your statement: Very few languages on this planet use sine for sinus ;)
#20

and remember that they are called "sini" and "kosini"! >:-(

#21

Quote:
they are called "sini" and "kosini"! >:-(

Why being angry? I see, you were forced to use Latin plural for a word starting with "k" ;-/
#22

right! :-)

#23

Hi, Cyrille --

OK, thank you again for your article, which I will take time to study.

The "smelling mistakes" [sic] do demonstrate the value of review and proofreading, by a native-speaker peer or tech writer if possible...

I noticed that you had an article regarding square root in an earlier edition of the newsletter. I assume that you might have consulted three similar articles from Hewlett-Packard Journal in the 1970's.


For the benefit of Forum readers: one of these is available from HP's website, and all three of them are available on the MoHPC CD/DVD set:

Algorithms and Accuracy in the HP-35 (June 1972): -- CD/DVD file 72JUN35.PDF
http://www.hpl.hp.com/hpjournal/72jun/jun72a2.pdf

Personal Calculator Algorithms I: Square Roots (May 1977) -- CD/DVD file 77MAYAL1.PDF

Personal Calculator Algorithms II: Trigonometric Functions (June 1977) -- CD/DVD file 77JUNAL2.PDF

Note: All other Journals available on-line are from the 1990's. Navigate back to the "hpjournal" directory to find them.

-- KS





Edited: 12 Dec 2008, 3:34 a.m.

#24

Quote:
Note: All other Journals available on-line are from the 1990's. Navigate back to the "hpjournal" directory to find them.

-- KS


All HP Journal issues back to 1949 are available on line as searchable PDF files: hp journal - online issues. They were digitized by the HP Journal staff prior to the demise of the magazine.

Here are the direct links to the issues including the Personal Calculator Algorithms articles (the articles are not available for separate download):


Edited: 12 Dec 2008, 6:41 a.m.

#25

Didier --

Thank you for setting the record straight, and pointing out that link under the same directory. This issue actually had been discussed previously in the Forum, but I forgot about the complete collection. (In fact, I had downloaded one of these Journals a year ago.)

Unlike these Journal scans on the HP website, the scans of the same material in the MoHPC CD-ROM set or DVD-ROM v6.00 set are specifically of calculator articles, are not in color, and are not text-searchable. However, they are much easier to read on the screen.

-- KS

Edited: 13 Dec 2008, 2:56 p.m.



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