Posted on 11/14/2018 4:10:12 PM PST by Rummyfan
Were living in an age of unprecedented technology. Its not the future that our elders promised to us when we were kids I mean, where are the flying cars? but technology has made our lives exponentially easier.
Take the smartphone for example. What used to take a computer, a Walkman, an atlas, and more now fits in the palm of your hand. In fact, the advent of the smartphone has rendered obsolete some things that we used for years.
Heres a list of ten things that our smartphones have replaced. Its not an exhaustive list by any means, but I think youll get an idea of what revolutionary technology our phones have become. Enjoy!
10. Landlines and payphones
9. Flashlights
8. Calculators
...
(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
I remember buying it because all of the controllers and the VPs would have them in monthly P&L reviews. They would play those things like they were musical instruments. I felt like one of the boys when I finally got it.
I worked in the electronics department of my college bookstore when I was in college. Sold tons of HP 12Cs. The most common problem that students would come back to ask about was how to change the decimal separator from a comma to a decimal point (if I remember right for some reason out of the box it was set to default to comma). It took all of one second to hold down the decimal key, change it back, and leave them feeling foolish for not having read the manual (no one ever did).
Also had a homeless guy who would come in and browse once in a while. One time he showed me the HP-41C he said he had found in the trash (never knew if that was true), along with a slew of program cartridges and other accessories for it. Funny thing was, he knew all about it and knew how to use it. If I remember right, he said he had once been an engineer, before whatever happened (likely alcohol) that drove him to the streets. The 41C was an amazing device; it was like the Swiss Army knife of calculators.
RPN forever! I still use my HP-15C every day, and dread the day it dies.
I used mine to calculate the stopping distances for subway trains. I wrote a program to do it. It was slick.
That Reverse Polish Notation and the 4-variable stack was all I needed.
Despite the opinions of some luddites:
Landlines/payphones: I can order parts on the job and on the fly
Flashlights: Works well inside of mechanical compartments
Calculators: Great for running through and crunching job related data quickly
Timers: Good for when I’m performing pressure and leakdown tests
Guitar tuners: I don’t use such
Cameras: I use to take pics of parts, labels, placards, et cetera
Photos: Refer to previous job related pics
Alarm clocks: For timing out when things need to be done
Maps/GPS: When stuff is broken 60 miles away and I have to stop at places to get parts between here and there quickly
Address books: Storing new supplier contacts, et cetera
Except maybe for those 15 woofers.
I would definitely disagree with the flashlight as well. While my smartphone flashlight is certainly useful if I drop my keys or something, I’m certainly not going to use it while crawling around in the muck under the house working on a pipe.
Conversation.
I still have my HP 45.
Could use a new battery, though...
You're a geek.
I find RPN soothing (or at least better!) too...
I think it was 78 or 9, this was his personal one. he had several IBMs at work, i remember a 286 and 386... he wrote code for system 36 from IBM as well...
We would have laughed and told them to get serious, maybe in 500 years something like that would exist, but certainly not in our lifetimes.
Yeah, not sure how many watts per channel a cell phone is able to pump out.
Freegards
I even taught classes to mortgage and real estate employees on how to use the 12C.
I still use it to this day. Old habits are hard to break.
I have, and use, all of those things except an address book. (Unless my MS Outlook 2003 “Contacts” tab counts as an address book.)
I have an alarm bladder.
It never fails me!
“I was very surprised to see a bank of pay phones while walking in Manhattan last week.”
—
They are used by people who make obscene or threatening calls.
.
Are you saying RPN is without equal?
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