News from Swissmicros!

[Jake Schwartz]

(12-15-2016 11:46 PM)tadd Wrote:  I still have my HP32C and have been using that for long enough that I don't remember buying it.

Reading this forum got me interested in having an HP16C back. My HP32C has no HEX key, it's multiple key-presses to move from DEC to HEX and I go back and forth quite frequently. Also the HP16C has boolean calculation and masking which the HP32C cannot do.


Tadd

Do you mean the HP32S? There was a 32E and a 32S, but never a 32C. And of course, there was a 33C and a 34C.

Jake

[tadd]

(12-16-2016 09:20 PM)Jake Schwartz Wrote:  

(12-15-2016 11:46 PM)tadd Wrote:  I still have my HP32C and have been using that for long enough that I don't remember buying it.

Do you mean the HP32S?

Jake, you are correct. The HP32S is my 'current' calculator.

I went through a succession starting with the HP25 in 1976, I sold or gave away the HP25 when I got my HP41C in 1980, I sold the HP41C (needed the money) and shortly after bought an HP32E in 1982, HP16C in 1986 maybe? At that point I was given some old calculators. I had accumulated my brothers' TI calculators that they bought for college and high school and had a goodly collection of those, and then an HP35 at a garage sale. I had about a dozen calculators including a TI51, TI56, TI58, HP29C, when a bad thing happened. I moved from a house into an apartment where I couldn't unpack for a couple of years, things were in storage buildings and whatnot. This was in 2002 through 2005. When I finally did unpack I discovered that the entire collection of calculators had gone. I haven't seen them since. I have no idea where they went. All I had left was my HP32S. I don't even remember when I bought that one. I'm pretty sure it was not a used calculator.

At one time I could literally program my HP25 behind my back. I was pretty good with the HP41C but never fell in love with it. One of the adorable things about the HP25, HP29C, HP32E was that they were simple enough to master. The HP25 had an additional (not so) adorable feature that it lost everything when the power failed or was switched off. I got so good at the HP25 because in the few years before getting the HP41 i had to keep reloading programs. Some of the basics, Quadratic, Law-of-Cosins, Mastermind, Bearcat 101 programmer, etc.. needed to be programmed so frequently that I could use the calculator blindfolded.

Once I discovered Macintosh computers (for utility) and programming of microprocessors, for fun and employment, the calculators started getting stale. Back before I got the HP41C I was really desperate for I/O. I was strangled by the fact that the HP25 couldn't DO anything. I found the KIM-1 computer which was almost a calculator but it had I/O. That led to my career where I write programs for small micros for a living. I have been doing that continuously now for 35 years. All because of the that HP25?? Maybe.