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Hello to all the forum users.
HPs have become my passion since a few years; as my job has nothing to do with calcs
(unfortunately!), to follow the forum and its very interesting and instructive threads
I have to "steal" every single moment of the day when I'm free from my job
(and those moments, believe me, are becoming rarer ad rarer...).
My curiosity: are some of you so lucky that their job keeps them dealing with calcs,
or you have to find your time for the forum and for your passion as well?
If the latter applies, have you got any tip or ploy to match job and hobby?
Thanks for your feedbacks.
Cheers.
Giancarlo
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Posts: 294
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I daily use calcs teaching Chemistry and Statistics...
:-)
Edited: 11 May 2006, 4:46 p.m.
Posts: 2,448
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I engineer floating structures all day, and sometimes a calculator is handy for that :-)
Posts: 260
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Joined: Jan 1970
By finding free time whenever I can, I am currently an accountant but going for my Masters Degree in Math.
I have been an HP user since 2000 and now I almost use the HP calcs exclusively.
Posts: 122
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I am a medical physicist and rotate my HP calcs in / out of rotation at work. I usually just do exponentials, inverse-square calcs., statistics, and date arithmetic, in addition to some basic trig calcs. I find the 12C and 41CX the best calculators for my job.
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I check my son's math homework every day...he's not allowed to use a calc, but I can. 8)
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I make a point of not using my calculator when I check homework...to encourage the littler shaver in developing his "internal" calculator.
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Hi;
I second Raul Lion: I'm a teacher, mainly numerical issues. Also, I (regularly) teach either students, professionals or other teachers how to use the HP12C. I intend going further and try teaching users of the other HP models... Hope to find interested people.
Cheers.
Luiz (Brazil)
Edited: 12 May 2006, 1:22 a.m.
Posts: 464
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The Hp-81 has replaced the Hp-97 at my working desk:
and I use one different calculator every day, rotating through my set.
But when things are getting serious, I rely on my favorite one:
This way, passion is everywhere!
Etienne
(Proud bean-counter)
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I am *sooooo* jealous. Last fall I narrowly missed getting an HP-81, and now despair of ever having another chance.
If anyone has an extra HP-81 (or HP-46, HP 9805A, HP 9821, HP 9830, or HP 9831), I've got an HP-46 I'd be happy to offer in trade.
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One or two HP-81's show up on Ebay every year... be patient. Also, make sure you are away on vacation when they do show up... I'll bid for you ;-)
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I'm a civil engineer, and I use calculators all days, both in office and at home, in Montebelluna (TV), Italy.
My passion can so be hidden at office (if my boss sees me looking at and using a calculator, he certainly will think I'm getting values for AutoCAD drawings!).
The problem comes up at home, where I want to do the same: my wife is "strangely" smarter than my boss and she cannot be tricked. There is ALWAYS something more urgent to do than "wasting time with that stuff".
But passion remains.
-- Antonio
Edited: 12 May 2006, 10:51 a.m.
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Quote:
The problem comes up at home, where I want to do the same: my wife is "strangely" smarter than my boss and she cannot be tricked. There is ALWAYS something more urgent to do than "wasting time with that stuff".
Eh eh eh :-) My wife had her own perspective about how I used to throw away money in buying old, used, calculators. Now the fever is down a little (after all I've got almost everything I wanted to) and she is happier now... She only expresses some kind of interest when a new toy gets delivered just to say: Hey, this looks different from the other ones! or, more frequently, Why are you always buying the same one?My secret is to keep my possessions buried inside some closets, boxes, etc. Just out of the way, you see... Greetings,
Massimo
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There is a similar tactic among collectors of old farm
tractors. They "never park all the tractors in a row!"
That makes it too easy for their wife to count them.
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That is the basic tactic. I have several, well hidden, storage spaces, including in another house, at my parent's, and at work.
I am thinking of digging a little in the garden.
Another technique is to never count them all. This is called 'plausible deniability'. When one asks me how many calculators I have, I always quote the same (not completely accurate... :-) number.
Never handle calculators in front of wife. This means you have to sleep less, unfortunately, or take a day off without telling her. You could marry a collector, but this may have its drawbacks too ("No, this is MY HP35 !!".
Have the calculators you purchase be delivered at a friend's home.
Convince the children that soldering is fun and when caught with the soldering iron, put the fault on them (I do this !).
Refrain from putting publicly to shame other collectors of stupid things (like coins, stamps, books...). I agree that they are insane, lower life forms, but only **us** calculator collectors actually know this !
Just joking. Hem.
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...when you cannot remember where you buried that darn calc you KNOW you put right THERE (oh wait, or was it here?). ;-)
Greetings, Massimo
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I mostly use my Calculator - first HP41CV, then HP41CX then wonderful HP41Y Turbo by W&W Software Gmbh until it went down some 3 years ago, then now HP41X/Y/Z by HrastProgrammmer running on HP48GX - for two main uses
1 - Celestial Navigation ( one of my hobbies )
2 - and also frequent computations for regular flights on DC10-30 CARGO Aircraft.
Lots of fun with this HP41X/Y/Z on HP48GX. I do not use any HP41 any more just HP48GX.
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I have multiple passions, the first one being my family. The HP41 comes after that, probably even after my (inline and ice) skating.
I really do not know how I find the time, but I prefer not to lie down on the couch to watch television, just selected programs.
I am a user of the HP machines I own, but mailnly for fun. My job is Project Management and Account Management, so I could probably survive with an MBA type machine to add numbers, but that is not enough fun for me.
Meindert
Posts: 1,368
Threads: 212
Joined: Dec 2006
Thanks to this forum and related websites, I have in recent weeks rediscovered my HP calculators. Even though I was never a great programmer in my youth, nor do I need this computational power professionally, I do have a lot of fun. With my discovery of emulators, and the speed the comes with them, my interest has exploded.
I make time for this little passion in two ways:
1. I sleep less, to my wife's chagrin, but as my enthusiasm settles this will get better.
2. I bought a new and very good pda and keep my emulators on them--I us Free42, Power48, and (less frequently) P41CX. This way I can debug code in meetings at work and folks think I am intently taking notes!!!!
This is no place to get really mushy, but I have to tell you when I laid down several hundred dollars I couldn't afford for an HP41CV in 1984, I thought I was on the outer limits of nerddom. It was a consuming hobby, but a solitary one.
Two decades later, thanks to the pervasive WWW and getting that calc out of mothballs, I have learned there is an active community out there that shares this same interest.
As my wife puts it, I have found my people. Bless you ;)
Les
Posts: 302
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Joined: Aug 2007
I split my time between amateur photography and running OpenRPN as far as passions go (we'll leave my mate out of this). I sacrifice sleep for both, I believe it is essential to take an hour or two a day to do what you enjoy no matter what. It keeps one sane.
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Quote:
My curiosity: are some of you so lucky that their job keeps them dealing with calcs,
or you have to find your time for the forum and for your passion as well?
If the latter applies, have you got any tip or ploy to match job and hobby?
My job is computer programming -- and unlike the engineering-type work that many MoHPC regulars seem to do, programming hardly ever calls for the use of nifty calcs, apart from the occasional hex<->dec conversions.
But, I will never forget that I got started learning the art of programming on HP calculators, back in the day when computers were too expensive, and programmable calculators were the only way that many of us could scratch their itch...
I don't find time to do calculator-type stuff; I just take the time. But, I guess I should mention that I am single and childless; if that were to change, the calculator stuff would probably take the back seat. It's not about ploys, it's about priorities!
- Thomas
Posts: 1,755
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Hi, Giancarlo:
Giancarlo posted:
"My curiosity: are some of you so lucky that their job keeps them dealing with calcs,
or you have to find your time for the forum and for your passion as well?"
I never have to use actual, physical calculators in mi job, HP or other brands, and the only HP "calculator" I very occasionally use while at work is Emu71, an HP-71B emulator for Windows, and then only to compute some simple expression by using its algebraically-oriented BASIC command line, and that only because it's much faster and convenient than doing it any other way.
As for non-work related use, my article-writing and challenge-posting activities do need a sizable amount of free time, which I can only allocate at late nigh, as right now which happens to be 4:05 AM here in Spain. This I can do because I sleep extremely little, just 4 hours a day, each and every day except weekends when I indulge in perhaps 5 hours sleep. This has been so for the last 30 years, and it gives me at least 4 undisturbed, absolutely free hours every day to dedicate to my many hobbies, while MJ, my wife, and Laura, my daughter, are soundly asleep.
If I could never sleep I would be happy, but alas, that's physically impossible as yet.
Best regards from V.
Edited: 13 May 2006, 10:09 p.m.
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Greetings fellow Calc users,
Am a Mechanical engineer working in Aerospace. I use Pro/E Wildfire 3D CAD modeling software for all my work. Sometimes i use any one of my Calculators (HP 15C, HP 35, SHARP PC1250A, Radio SHACK TRS-80 PC-3, HP28S, TI AOS SR50, TI-SR50A or TI 59) Favorite being the SHARP pocket computer for any on the spot computations i need solved. Be it home or work.
Warmest regards to all
Andy
Babyboomer RPN/AOS power user
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