HP 35s Discontinued or Marketing trick?

[luisphysics]

I have never actually paid attention to HP site saying it only has 5 items left. Or am I just being paranoid?


http://store.hp.com/us/en/pdp/hp-35s-sci...5aa-aba--1

[Marcio]

I don't think there are plenty of them available (Amazon has 23 units only, both new and used) but no, the 35s is not discontinued.

I do however think it should be replaced with a new one (maybe smaller) with full matrix support and of course, without the 22 bugs.

Marcio

[walter b]

1+

And Luis, FYI, hp.com is known on this forum for its ... ummh ... limited reliability.

d:-/

[wojtek]

(12-16-2015 09:44 AM)Marcio Wrote:  I don't think there are plenty of them available (Amazon has 23 units only, both new and used) but no, the 35s is not discontinued.

I do however think it should be replaced with a new one (maybe smaller) with full matrix support and of course, without the 22 bugs.

Marcio

Perhaps these 22 bugs or some of them will be corrected, but of course new bugs will be implemented :-)

[Voldemar]

(12-16-2015 09:44 AM)Marcio Wrote:  I do however think it should be replaced with a new one (maybe smaller) with full matrix support and of course, without the 22 bugs.

Maybe new revision, just like Prime.

[jebem]

(12-16-2015 10:59 AM)wojtek Wrote:  Perhaps these 22 bugs or some of them will be corrected, but of course new bugs will be implemented :-)

Absolutely.
There is no such thing as a piece of software without bugs.
Bugs are basically undocumented features and are integral part of the product.
When someone claim that a product is bug free, in reality what we can say about it is that no one found a bug yet. Give it time.

And one of the great fun we collectors and users have is to find a new bug!

And if the machine allows firmware updates (not the case with the 35S), most probably new bugs will be found as a result of the previous patch fixes.
This is a normal process in the life cycle of any product, be it legacy or a modern one.

No manufacturer is doing comprehensive quality testing and control, because it would rise the production costs to a level that the product would not be competitive.
They have a schedule to design, test and go to market, and nothing will stop them.

Realistically, there are no perfect products for the simple reason it were made by humans. It is in our nature.

[Voldemar]

(12-16-2015 01:54 PM)jebem Wrote:  Realistically, there are no perfect products for the simple reason it were made by humans. It is in our nature.

There is perfect product. Absolutely bug free...
Abacus.

[toml_12953]

(12-16-2015 02:00 PM)Voldemar Wrote:  

(12-16-2015 01:54 PM)jebem Wrote:  Realistically, there are no perfect products for the simple reason it were made by humans. It is in our nature.

There is perfect product. Absolutely bug free...
Abacus.

My abacus has a bug in the SIN(x) routine. It sets an extra bead for certain values of x and clears two extra for others. :O

Tom L

[Voldemar]

(12-16-2015 02:48 PM)toml_12953 Wrote:  My abacus has a bug in the SIN(x) routine.

If a bicycle can't fly, it's not a bug.

[Gerald H]

Does anyone know of bugs in Casio Algebra FX 2.0 Plus?

[walter b]

(12-16-2015 03:06 PM)Voldemar Wrote:  If a bicycle can't fly, it's not a bug.

Another perfect product ...

d:-)

[wojtek]

(12-16-2015 02:48 PM)toml_12953 Wrote:  My abacus has a bug in the SIN(x) routine. It sets an extra bead for certain values of x and clears two extra for others. :O

Tom L

And surely if you compute twice SIN for the same x you get two different results?
Same as in 35s case :-)

[cdodds]

The zero key quit working on my 35s in December. I contacted hp and they promptly sent me a replacement. Within days I had my replacement... A 33s, oh, and it would not turn on. :-) They told me that the 35s is on back order and to put some batteries in the 33s. I had been entering the survey programs Jason Foose is publishing in American Surveyor, the 33s does not use the same one line complex numbers. :-( I love hp calculators but I'm a little peeved with hp right now.

Still waiting...

[TASP]

'Assuming' all the parts were manufactured to print, Charles Babbage's difference engine might be 'perfected'.

Jaccard looms too ?

[Brian D]

The TeX core is a large software project which has so few bugs found lately that they only update it every X years, with X increasing by one each time. The next update is to be sometime around 2020!

Slightly interesting is the first few paragraphs here, regarding the author's philosophy:
http://tug.org/TUGboat/tb35-1/tb109knut.pdf

Too bad HP and others don't have similar goals.

[Katie Wasserman]

(03-09-2016 02:25 PM)Brian D Wrote:  The TeX core is a large software project which has so few bugs found lately that they only update it every X years, with X increasing by one each time. The next update is to be sometime around 2020!

Slightly interesting is the first few paragraphs here, regarding the author's philosophy:
http://tug.org/TUGboat/tb35-1/tb109knut.pdf

Too bad HP and others don't have similar goals.

This is certainly nice, but how many projects can have one of the top minds in computer science dedicate much of their life to creating and supporting a project. Not only that but TeX has not expanded much in recent years so it hasn't had the opportunity to introduce new bugs.

There are some other projects that have similar goals and similar track records (GAWK for example), but these too tend to be mostly one person, life-long dedicated, semi-static projects.

HP as a company seems to reorganize itself every few years, it's hard to imagine how any project can survive long in that environment. The 12C is a miracle!

[jebem]

(03-09-2016 07:08 AM)cdodds Wrote:  The zero key quit working on my 35s in December.

If I may ask:
- Did the key failed to register with no apparent reason, but still worked mechanically as usual?
- Did you used your 35S heavily for less than a year (to be under warranty)?
- Did you tried to replace the batteries (I know, it doesn't make sense at all, but I have seen other machines starting to work normally after a "full hardware reset".

I have been reading a few issues with failing to register keys on the 35S, even with light usage, despite others here reporting no key issues even under heavy usage.

I confess that I'm not using my two 35S on a daily basis (don't needed it), but I'm curious about the usage cases resulting in such failures.

[Brian D]

(03-09-2016 03:01 PM)Katie Wasserman Wrote:  one of the top minds in computer science dedicate much of their life

It seems that it was much of his life for about ten years, but these days is just a few days per X years.

And the guys who made the classic HP calculators were no slackers, either.

I guess it would be comparable to having the source code available, and have someone revisit the code and bug list every X years. Except that, in the case of calculators, hardware chip availability is an issue in the long run, although perhaps occasional support could still be thrown at models which cannot be manufactured any more.

[cdodds]

(03-09-2016 05:03 PM)jebem Wrote:  

(03-09-2016 07:08 AM)cdodds Wrote:  The zero key quit working on my 35s in December.

If I may ask:
- Did the key failed to register with no apparent reason, but still worked mechanically as usual?
- Did you used your 35S heavily for less than a year (to be under warranty)?
- Did you tried to replace the batteries (I know, it doesn't make sense at all, but I have seen other machines starting to work normally after a "full hardware reset".

I have been reading a few issues with failing to register keys on the 35S, even with light usage, despite others here reporting no key issues even under heavy usage.

I confess that I'm not using my two 35S on a daily basis (don't needed it), but I'm curious about the usage cases resulting in such failures.

I bought it in November, used ia little over a month. It got to where the 0 key would only register about 50% of the time. Was in the process off entering Jason Foose's survey programs. Not heavily used at all.

I have two other 35s I use at work and no problems with them, one is very heavily used, it even got painted when it feel out off my shirt pocket one day.

[d b]

(03-11-2016 03:57 AM)cdodds Wrote:  it even got painted when it feel out off my shirt pocket one day.

cd;
In about '87 I was driving a pipe windmilling a double jack and my pocket tape fell off my belt and bounced over near the pipe. I was looking at the tape and next swing..... you guessed it. I bet there's a smart phone belt case somewhere that fit's a 35.
Never painted my 41 but I did drop it onto concrete once and had to learn to solder.