Your First Handheld?

[guzmanrt]

Had generic calculators growing up as a kid. The first one where I specifically recall the brand was one of the TI 30 models when I was in high school in the early to mid 80s. If my memory is correct, it was the TI-30 solar; I remember the key colors and configuration. Other students in high school had similar models I think. TI was generally the brand for students. I don't remember anybody with an HP, but there may have been a few with Casio. Some of the students at my school discovered a weird thing you could do with one of those early TI's. I don't remember the exact model, but I remember for sure it was one of the models with an LCD display; if you pushed 3 buttons simultaneously, the upper left, lower left, and lower right keys (not sure of the exact keys though) and it wasn't the off button, it put the calculator into this weird mode where nothing worked at all, the screen just went blank. You had to turn the calculator off and then back on again to resume using it. I don't know which one of my friends discovered this, but during lunch period we would show other kids the trick. OK, now time for all of you to try this with all the early 80's TI's and see which one it was; who knows, maybe others did this.