HHC

[David Hayden]

That was a great conference. Geoff Quickfall showed how to repair a 41 card reader. Joe Horn showed a pattern in hailstone numbers. He was so excited he was about to burst.

Namir gave several talks on interesting algorithms for solving equations numerically.

Richard Schwartz showed a really easy way to bind books and passed around some examples, including a 3" thick Prime Manual. I can't wait to give the binding process a try.

Eric Rechlin talked about his website hpcalc.org. It was interesting to see how the number of submitted programs has changed over the years.

Tim and Cyrille answered questions with Cyrille joining us via conference link from France.

HP often hands out samples of upcoming hardware under non-disclosure agreements. Tim gave everyone a shiny new HP-41CZ Limited Edition. It's brilliant how they integrated USB and high-res color display. The ARM processor and 128MB of flash memory mean there's room for every program ever written and even the beta versions of the printed manuals look AMAZING....

Okay, I'm joking about that. But it is true that part of the conference is always under a non-disclosure agreement and sometimes participants get an early look at upcoming hardware.

The door prizes were really good. Premium prizes included two Primes, two 71B's, and 15C+ (that was the beta version of the 15C-LE), a 41CV in the box with manuals, etc. etc. The door prizes are always a treat.

This year's programming contest featured the same problem that could be solved in RPL, RPN or PPL (Prime Programming Language). I always like trying to solve the problem, but to me the real fun is the days following the conference when people on this board collectively come up with solutions far better than any entry in the contest. It's a great way to learn about programming.

That's only a sample of what was at the conference this year. If you've never been to one, you should really think about attending.

Dave