Back then, HP calculators were seen as expensive and pretty much reserved to wealthy people. Regular people stuck to TI. And for that reasons, HP calculators were rarely seen in classrooms.

And when they were seen, nobody knew how to use them (I was often asked to lend mine and when they saw it was an HP, they said "oh you have one of these weird ones,never mind").

and before you start: when i feel like blowing 400 bucks on a time wasting and useless game console, you bet your ass i'm going to get shafted up close and personal whenever it tickles my fancy, i.e. at 8pm on a tuesday.

that means last tuesday at 8pm i said to myself, "i want a playstation". and best buy allows people to indulge in that kind of behavior (the reason i was there, and the reason i saw the calculator).

It was probably the 12c, the financial model, that has been continuously in production since the 80s. Unfortunately, it's much less useful for engineers than the scientific 15c.

I have a recently made 35s sitting on my desk, but I'm really itching to replace with a SwissMicros DM-15L

`HP-48G. The G is for Gangster.`

When I was in school, we used the TI-84s in classes. The classroom versions we had were these ugly yellow ones that were very easy to notice and very easy to distinguish from the regular gray/black ones.

Typing code using calculator buttons was pretty tedious.

Then I got my HP graphing calculator in university and lesser (non-RPN) calculators have now been ruined for me.

Lately, I've been delighted by the equally competent fraction input/display system. I've been doing a lot of woodworking in US customary units, and the 36X beats the pants off of any other calculator I've owned[0].

Truly, it's a well thought-out little tool. So much so that when the display on mine pooped out, I went on eBay and found another one for 10 USD shipped.

[0] If somebody wants to recommend a dedicated builder's calculator that handles fractional inches handily, I'm all ears, but I haven't owned one to this point. Calculating board-feet would be a nice plus.

[edit: forgot about entering fractions directly - pretty good for a solar powered calculator]

All we need is someone to add bluetooth and let you send your clipboard over to it :).

I've always associated American brands with terrible ergonomics, but TI calculators had unusually pleasing buttons and layout.

[Edit: Ah, uh, OK -- a few more minutes searching and I find "This calculator was developed and produced in Japan... A big advantage of the Toshiba design was the smooth and flawless keyboard." This is definitely the one, a TI-30SLR mkII: http://datamath.org/Sci/Modern/TI-30SLR_2.htm. Oh well. But it was much nicer to use than Casios of the time and the pleasant form carried over to the Galaxy series.]

top best worst best worst best: what's with all this obsession with ranking??

I don't love many people but it would be impossible for me to rank them from "best" to "worst".

I don't even know what it would mean to rank musical instruments. According to what criteria? If the best instrument is the piano, or the clarinet, can you have an orchestra of 100 pianos? Or 100 clarinets?

And colors...? Ok maybe it's a joke and I don't get it.

The problem with ranking from "worst" to "best" is it's uni-dimensional; as you add more axes it makes less and less sense.

It takes a very narrow mind to even ask such a question.

It said so right in the article: you learn what you care about. Best musical instrument? Easy, mandolin. Maybe the violin. Both are tuned in fifths, so scale and chord patterns are transferable up and down, and across the fretboard/fingerboard. Far better than that bastardized tuning of the guitar. Play a melody, play rhythm (on the mandolin) if you have to, though not as good a choice as a guitar. And don't get me started on all the keys of a piano.

But that's what I care about in a musical instrument, mainly because I play one. YMMV, and it likely will if you don't play anything.

Have you come across the Jankó keyboard? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jank%C3%B3_keyboard

The last question implies some kind of absolute value system, not just your own personal taste (even if you're the one making the ranking).

However, I would argue that it also loses some impact. It removes the idea of a person having to decide what "best" or "worst" actually means. Instead, you would need a follow-up question of "why?" to clarify that particular point.

For instance, I would have answered French horn. That instrument can single-handedly cut through an entire orchestra, and there is no mistaking it when you hear it. The harpsichord would be a close runner-up. So I'm probably looking for unique sounds that are easy to pick out of a crowd.

The best instrument is the one I like to play the most, duh. Yeah, "that's just my opinion, man". Which was kinda the point.

I don't know what else to tell you. You ask "what the obsession with ranking" was, I gave you the answer straight from the article. Is it "best" for you? Probably not. Again, duh, that's not what the answer said.

[^] http://datamath.org/Sci/Modern/JPEG_TI-30X-IIS_SWH2016.htm

I sniped a Canon KS 100 desk calculator at a battery recycle bin, solar, with large buttons too. Couldn't resist. http://imgur.com/a/6wWUO

ps: I also found full on desk calculator (powered, with printout) from Triump-Adler.. funny.

pps: HP RPN forever (twice) dup dup add

What I want to find is my old TI-30X Solar. Basic, bulletproof, and does everything I want a calculator to do without getting in it's own way. Anything more complicated than what it will do I'm likely to use other tools anyway.

Was very sad when a classmate stole it from me.