HP Calculator Applications in the Workplace

[SEasterling]

This is my first post on the "new" forum since I was absent from the old forum for several years. I followed it closely even though I didn't post that frequently. My first HP was the 28S in 1989, and I quickly filled nearly all the memory with programs and used it extensively throughout college as it replaced my Casio FX-7000g (and other Casio scientific). I loved programming it and using RPL. I've kept my 28S in mint condition with all available manuals and books for it. About a decade ago, I began my HP collection and amassed about thirty different models in excellet to new condition and their storage case upgrades, books and battery packs, from the 35 to the 49G+. (I even bought and framed the big HP Calculator poster in my man cave!) At one time, I even carried my 97 to work each day and used it at my workstation, as well as many of the older LED models. I have since thinned the herd to keep only my favorite models, and the ones I have primarily continued to add to the "collection" are the graphing models. Some notables I retain are new-old-stock 32SII and 48GX with most cards available and nearly all books, etc. in new condition so as to preserve the pinnacle of calculator products from HP. Notables that I let go that I just didn't like as much were mint (NOS) condition HP41CV & CX, 27S, and 42S, as well as a mint 55. (I never could get used to the 41-series display!) I daily use Pioneers and Voyagers for profession and home use. To me, RPN is not just a method, but rather how a person ought to think and approach math, and should be the natural process for solving most problems. (I'll never understand why others insist on algebraic mode.)

Academically, I had many uses for the calculators, but professionally, every time I find the need to use my HP calc beyond the basic use as a scientific calculator, I always end up using the PC for many reasons. I am not a coder or computer engineer, math or science teacher, nor do I write programs out of fun (used to out of necessity), but rather a clinical medical physicist that simply appreciates a quality-made RPN (yeah, made the switch from RPL to RPN) calculator for scientific calculations. So I'm wondering what some of you are using your HP for in a non-academic environment that goes beyond basic scientific calculations (besides civil engineering). This would also give me a good idea of how the calculator has survived over time.

As a side note, I recall in college we were encouraged to use Mathematica to solve systems of equations in my PDE class and calculators were not even up to the task for that. (Can the Prime challenge Mathematica now for the academic crowd?)

Thanks for your patience reading this lengthy introduction post, and all comments are appreciated. And for those of you that work earnestly improving late model HPs, writing programs, fixing the older models, and developing the WP34S,... thank you!!