I realize that in posting this picture, I'm really dating myself. However, above is my indispensable HP 12C Financial Calculator. I've had this for over 15 years. As you can tell, it's been heavily used. It's been dropped, banged around briefcases and the like. If you look really closely at the lower right hand corner, you'll notice that one of my gods thought it was a chew toy for a very brief time.
However, all the keys still work. And frankly, I couldn't live without it; it's a bit of a safety blanket.
I'll be back on Monday; NDD will post the weekly numbers on Saturday.
Have a safe and happy weekend.
4 comments:
Amen! Great post. Back in the day when calculators were first making their way into mass market, no sooner did you buy one and a new generation was out with more functions. However, when I saw the HP 12 C I thought: this is the last calculator. Only a computer could out perform it. I can’t remember how much I paid for it, but it was a very hefty amount at the time. Well, I have been proven right as my experience and your note indicates. There has yet to be a better calculator brought to market for finance calculations.
More generally, there is an economic lesson here. The concept of designed and built in obsolescence vs. high quality longevity. Is our economy predicated on ‘low quality’ ‘short life’ product cycles and what are the implications of that for the long run?
More recently, I bought the first i-Pad. I love it. But, when I tried to take advantage of my local public library’s e-book rental, I found I could not down load the App because I didn’t have the ‘latest’ operating system. In less than a year Apple had ‘down-graded’ my machine. That’s Apple’s history. I bought the first Mac. Loved it! But, I could not keep up with their constant up-grading. So I switched to PC even though I considered it inferior.
Apple has done well with ‘built in obsolescence’ and what happened to Hewlett-Packard? Interesting?
Best
Tom
I recently went from my 12C (bought around 1992) to a 12C Platinum as the original's keys were becoming "loose" and I wasn't able to punch in numbers as well as I used to. I'm hoping that by the time I retire that my now-3-year-old daughter will be able to take over the Platinum and use it for another 10-20 years before she needs a new calculator (although, with apps being the way they are, a new physical calculator may be a thing of the past - like pagers - by then).
I've had my HP 11C (for engineer types) for 30+ years. I've used my HP 41C fancy technical calculator every day for about 23 years. I think in reverse polish.
LOL. One of your gods? Freudian slip or typo? Yep, still use my HP 12C and am even have a great 12C app on my (RPN Calc) Android phone. Enjoy the weekend.
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