Musings and comments about our common interest
If you read my last week's blog, I had forgotten at the office my HP15c Limited Edition. Together with the HP17bII+, they are my everyday calculators. And, until the European shipment arrives in late January 2012, I have no chances of getting it back!
Thanks God it was there! It seems that calculators are not attractive items for burglars anymore...
On another note, I received a message from a Chinese company where it asked us about our announcement in T3 magazine (the gadget specialists). What ???
It appears that it had a link to our site in a monthly list of desirable gadgets. A low punch calling HP "the touchpad makers"...
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HP-12C 30th anniversary calculator
The TouchPad makers serve up this limited edition number cruncher. a programmable, retro gem that HP claims has been an office essential for finance and business folk for years.
Price:€100
Link: thecalculatorstore.com
On Friday I forgot my HP15c LE at work. I hope to find it back on Monday morning.
So I had to make do with an HP12c anniversary when I went out for shopping, trying to keep count of the money spend on purchases. As I had been using a program before, and I wanted to keep the data used, I did not want to use the first 4 registers.
So I entered 99 € STO 5 (first purchase) and 29,95 STO + 5 and bang! Error 4 appears on screen! I try with other register: STO+6: Error 4!!
Neither recall arithmetic was working with any register
I was desperate! was my program using too many registers? No: 17 registers left.
Was there a bug in the system? I had to wait until yeterday night to try with another original HP12c (US made 1985): it did not work either. Well: at least I dod not have a defective sample.
I had then to go to the manual and check about register arithmetic. Gosh! I found there that a) register arithmetic just work with registers up to 4; and b) there is not recall arithmetic.
While the 12c is a very stylish calculator, and is very appropriated for every day business work (the three percentage keys are very much used in any kind of analysis, and very well placed), it has several points that make prefer the HP15c for every day work (and the 17bII+ for pure, desktop business work)
We have received confirmation from HP that there will not be that "early" shipment of HP15c for Europe, and that the only HP15c will arrive by the second half of January.
As I have been using a sample for the last 2 months, I can tell you it is a pity.
The other day I opened my pristine, original, 1985 hp15c and surprised myself preferring the key feel of the new one. Maybe due to ageing, the keys in the old one are "mushier", although still very precise and comfortable.
For those customers that ordered an hp12c anniversary and told me to wait until the hp15c arrives to ship them together, we offer to send to the 12c Anniversary and we will deliver the HP15c with free shipment when it arrives. Please contact us by email to sales@thecalculatorstore.com
Once tested the new "European" HP12c Anniversary, it shows as well the 2008-7-2 firmware date - therefore, no changes.
Serial number CNA13206QS - therefore, produced in the Kinpo factory. Excellent key quality. The pouch is again slightly thicker than the plain HP12c version, but not as thick (or nice to the touch) as the one in the HP15c Limited Edition reissue (which is the best since the eighties!). It is, anyway, excellent in all counts.
You know my fondness of the HP17bII in all its different models. The last one, while not purely an HP, has the best HP keyboard around, a much better screen than the original HP17BII and a nice aspect that can be presented in any business meeting.
With the same body, and nice, professional colour scheme, you can find as well the HP35s, a successor of the ugly HP33s, that sports the same very nice keyboard and a 2-line alphanumeric screen. Here you have a picture of it:
The HP35s shows the first wide ENTER key in several years, and we can only hope it returns back to the graphical calculators again.
I entered the HP35 with some aprehension, after reading some negative reviews. I have to say that it appears to be an excellent calculator. Despite my limited time with it, it is clearly better than the 33s (not too difficult), and much better than the lower current offerings. Still, it does not hold a candle to the HP42s in sheer power, or to the 15c (my current favourite in its latest LE version) in ease of use and elegance of design.
Let's focus instead in what it does have that the 42s hasn't:
I need to delve deeper in this calculator: the programming paradigm, the use of variables and memory, the huge number of possible registers, etc. At first sight, it seems intenresting for a student, but does not have the same professional appeal of an HP42s or the newer HP15c LE. As it is now 1h22 i9n the morning, let's leave this for another day.
We have finally received this afternoon the shipment of HP12c Anniversary in the warehouse. We will begin shipping on Monday the pending orders to our customers. All of them should have received it by the end of the week. We hope you enjoy them!
If you remember the discussion about different keyboards of ARM HP12c, the Anniversary belongs to the "good" ones.
Now we're just waiting for the HP15c Limited Edition!
Do you remember when old HP product manuals came with "operational limits" notices? I have seen several that stated operating maximum and minimum temperatures, as well as storage temperatures; I seem to recall that there were operating maximum altitude on some of the products as well.
These notices were inherited from the time where HP was the world's best measuring instrument producer - and you needed to know if the measure had been taken within the right operating bracket - but that's not the case anymore.
At least you can make tests for yourself. The HP15c LE works well at -5ºC (23 ºF), at 3.571 m (11.716 ft) of altitude, on Jungfraujoch Sphinx observatory:
The view from Jungfraujoch, in mid-Switzerland, is amazing - you see miles and miles of glaziers, and several 4k+ peaks. You can see as well possible falls of more than 2000 m when you stop with the train in the north face of the Eiger peak - since 1935, at least 64 climbers have died trying to climb it. No wonder I took the picture firmly grabbing the calculator!
We have finally found a good, reliable source for the HP50g Blue. We have been able to lower the price to the level of the HP50g black - 119,99 €, VAT included (without VAT for overseas shipments)
Apparently, this model is good as well for some view diseases - see Deuteranopia and HP50g
It can be shipped to the US as well, of course!
The wp34s is back!
Finally we received the overlays of the current approved design and we are ready to update the firmware of brand new HP30b s into the most powerful RPN calculator ever - with permision from the mighty HP42s
Eric's newer overlays are better than the previous, initial batch. You can choose between coloured shift keys or white; and you can choose as well between both division signs: / and the two dots with a dash in the middle. All are in the overlay for you, the user to choose.
There has been significant evolution since we updated the first calculators - now you can do matrix operations with them as well.
If you remember our previous post, we were talking about the different keyboards in HP12c's of late. Seems that it is due to products from different factories - the big % sign coming from the Invertec factory and the small % coming from Kinpo.
Here you see the codes on the back of the unit: IN04 and KN05.
Now, all the new 12cs I am receiving belong to the "big %" type...except the new HP12c Anniversary (due in Europe from next week on!)
(By the way, the HP15c Limited Edition comes as well from the same factory, and you should expect the same quality - I can attest it!)