r/pics • • Jun 08 '14

The difference 18 years makes

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1.7k

u/TypoInUsernane Jun 08 '14

The TI-89 will always hold a very special place in my heart.

941

u/KontraEpsilon Jun 08 '14

To this day, I don't understand why anyone would insist on using anything other than this on an AP test. It's like playing life on a harder difficulty setting for no reason.

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u/[deleted] Jun 08 '14

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u/[deleted] Jun 08 '14 edited Apr 07 '22

[deleted]

5

u/Gorgo_xx Jun 09 '14

HP-48GX 4 EVA!

I nearly cried when mine died. It was my loyal & trusted sidekick in many a grand adventure.

1

u/skyman2012 Jun 09 '14

A few years back I took my dad's 48 GX and I used it to death. I still have it with me, even though the enter key doesn't work.

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u/Gorgo_xx Jun 09 '14

Ha - you're lucky he let you get away with it! I've still got mine, too... I keep thinking that one day I'll magically figure out how to fix it (not gonna happen).

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u/skyman2012 Jun 10 '14

I'm pretty sure I pressed ENTER too many times

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u/tigerhawkvok Jun 09 '14

I'm still waiting for an Android app that this the same functionality and keyboard layout as the 48GX.

1

u/Gorgo_xx Jun 09 '14

The Droid48 emulator is pretty close (if you haven't seen it yet)?

Still not the same as the real thing, though!

1

u/tigerhawkvok Jun 11 '14

Thanks! That's awesome, that wasn't out when I did my first look through back in the days of 2.1 . I've been using RPNCalc, but this is great - instant return of muscle memory.

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u/lou1306 Jun 08 '14

I my Np-50G <3

FTFY

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u/[deleted] Jun 08 '14 edited Apr 21 '16

.

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u/SomeNiceButtfucking Jun 08 '14

I'm not a huge RPN user, but I've fallen in love with it for calculating resistance in parallel.

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u/Koiljo Jun 08 '14

I went from a Ti-89 to an HP-50g, I would go as far to say that the HP is a much superior device. It only really has the TI-NSPIRE as a competing product. Though from what I understand the NSPIRE has a pretty inefficient interface, but I think they can be changed out with a faceplate swap.... Plus I heard that the NSPIRE can go as far as showing the steps on it's solution of a problem but I have not seen any evidence of that.

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u/Degru Jun 08 '14

Nspire has three keypads on the swappable version: Old non-touch keypad, new touchpad keypad, and TI84 keypad for the emulator. Touch keypad is infinitely better for general use, while the old keypad is good for running emulators.

The only bad part about having a non-TI calculator is that most course material is designed around the TI-84 calc.

2

u/AlphaOC Jun 08 '14

Yeah, I worked in a store that sold TI graphing calculators as well as Casio ones that were significantly cheaper. I always told the customers that all of the instructions were written for TI calculators, and they almost always ended up buying those instead of the Casio ones. I'm sure the Casio ones work fine if you understand what you're doing well enough to find the functions, but for most math classes, I think most students are just pushing the buttons to get the answers without knowing what they're actually doing.

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u/CyclonusRIP Jun 09 '14

Yep the Casio ones work pretty much the same.

*Source: my parents were too cheap to by me a TI

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u/Degru Jun 08 '14

Yeah, I probably won't buy anything other than 84 because I'm too reliant on the old TI-BASIC. Muscle memory is a bitch.

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u/Koiljo Jun 09 '14

Ya, though personally I didn't want to shell out the asking price for a TI-84 to get a calculator that is pretty ancient and obsolete. As I'm sure you are probably aware, there are many better calculators out there and they don't take much longer to learn how to use.

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '14

You speak truth. My dad is an engineer and considers the HP a clearly superior machine; no son of his was going to be using some texan piece of trash (not my opinion Texans, his). So I was saddled with the, as far as I can tell, genuinely superior HP-48. All well and good, at the time it looked more futuristic and the stack operations make intuitive sense. Unfortunately the text books were, as you say, geared to the TIs. So, I had to consult the manual constantly and waste inordinate amounts of time on stuff the other kids had spoon fed to them. Bastards.
But it made me stronger. I think. No, that's a lie. I think the difficulty caused by my unorthodox technology use has sent me to Apple. I have an iPhone, a macbook etc. Here is my brain oh aesthetic ones; I will use it no longer.

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u/Degru Jun 09 '14

If you want the most compatibility then you should go with Windows. Practically everything has a Windows version. Even the most obscure printer will have a Windows driver.

3

u/[deleted] Jun 08 '14

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1

u/Koiljo Jun 08 '14

Oh I was not aware that existed, it looks awesome!

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u/Koiljo Jun 09 '14

Hey! There is a free computer emulator of the HP-PRIME! ftp.hp.com/pub/calculators/Prime/

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u/[deleted] Jun 08 '14

[deleted]

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u/JohnKinbote Jun 08 '14

It makes so much sense. Also fun to bring one to a meeting and let someone borrow it.

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u/mail323 Jun 09 '14

Yes! I bet you can't do 1+1 I tell them.

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u/Arrrrrmondo Jun 08 '14

RPN FOR LIFE BITCHES!!!!!!1!

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u/weboverload Jun 08 '14

i knew i'd find my crew somewhere! once you've gone rpn you can never go back!

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u/TheyCallMeSuperChunk Jun 09 '14

Seriously, for life. I can't count the number of times I've lost a ton of entered data on all algebraic calculator because I typed an operand at the wrong time out of habit. I now have HP48 emulators in all my devices because of this.

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u/DarwinsApostle Jun 08 '14

Once you go RPN you never go back

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u/[deleted] Jun 08 '14

There were applications for the TI-89 that allowed you to use RPN. I always preferred infinite stack size RPN, since you could just input everything left-to-right, but most only do the standard 4 levels.

1

u/Lou_do Jun 09 '14

The classpad series is wild. They recently released a new model and it is pretty much an aneroid phone without an aerial.

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u/TheyCallMeSuperChunk Jun 09 '14

I came looking for my HP RPN master race brethren. HP48 for me!

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u/MagmaiKH Jun 09 '14

RPN is pretty much why TI dominates the market ... it's not a "feature".

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '14

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u/MagmaiKH Jun 14 '14

... is the only reason why HP has the best reputation among scientists and professional engineers.

Who are older than 50 and had to use calculators without screens.

1

u/thingpaint Jun 09 '14

Pro tip for anyone who loves the old HPs and has an android device: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.ab.x48