Category HP calculators

Video: Kalkulatorentusiastene

Geir Isene 114 Comments

Det blir vanskelig å slå gårdsdagen. Dagen da julen ble overskygget. Dagen da kalkulatorentusiastene inntok HP-kontorene på Fornebu og fikk dele sin pussige glede over gamle klenodier som selv HP hadde parkert i sin dypeste kjeller.

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Tenke seg til – jeg ble invitert av HP til å holde foredrag om et av deres gamle hjertebarn; HP-kalkulatorene.

Det er videns kjent at jeg har en mental skavank, en særegen svakhet for gamle mattemaskiner fra 70- og 80-tallet produsert nettopp av Hewlett Packard. Og i går fikk jeg muligheten til uten bygsel å legge for en dag mine følelser for maskinene som for meg representerer et vindu inn i matematikken og vitenskapens verden. Sammen med min gode venn, Arne Helme, som deler mitt mentale avvik.

Det hele ble kronet med en julaften som lignet den jeg opplevde da jeg var 12 år og fikk mitt første teleskop. Harald Andersson hadde tatt turen ned i kjelleren og hentet ut en skokk pensjonerte kunstverk for å gi dem et bedre hjem. Hos Geir og Arne. Jeg fikk tolv kalkulatorer! Inkludert en HP-70!! Arne fikk tak i en HP-70 for noen år siden og misunnelsen har ikke stått stille siden. Og der var det jommen meg en HP-25C også. Og en flott HP-27. Og en HP.10 🙂 og en ubrukt HP-34C som jeg ga til Arne. Jeg har en slik fra før, men det hadde ikke han. Et lite ras av dokumentasjon og bøker fulgte med. Og en blomst og en vinflaske. Helt sykt. Snakk om julaften! Tusen takk til Julenissen som til daglig jobber som ingeniør i HP.

hp calculators

HP er en unik bedrift med en unik historie. Og nå som de har lansert en svært avansert kalkulator med touch-skjerm i farger og heftige matematiske funksjoner, er de på rett spor igjen. Mer om HP Prime i en senere bloggpost.

Hele opplevelsen ble tatt opp på video og lagt ut på Youtube. Popkorn. Snurr film:

HP-41: CLR & STATUS

Geir Isene 34 Comments

I’ve had this simple program on my HP-41 for years, “CLR”. It clears the registers, stack and Alpha as well as setting the correct flags and time/date formats. It also checked to see if the clock had been reset (as it does when the battery runs out) and prompts for Time and Date if it has.

Meeting Garth and Joe at our "mini HHC" (the yearly HP Handheld Club is in the autumn). Great to meet with some fellow geeks and talk HP calculators. Yeay!

Meeting Garth and Joe at our “mini HHC” (the yearly HP Handheld Club is in the autumn). Great to meet with some fellow geeks and talk HP calculators. Yeay!

On my trip to the US, I met with Joseph Horn and Garth Wilson. And it was from Garth I got the idea to extend my CLR program to include a simple status line with the current week number, the current moon phase (percentage of illumination of the moon) as well as the time remaining to the next upcoming alarm, if any.

The moon going through its phases

The program is simply run by XEQ “CLR”. This clears all register, stack and Alpha as well as setting the right combinations of flags. It returns with zero in the display. If you press R/S it will prompt for “DATE^TIME” if the clock has been reset (DATE, Enter, TIME) and then display a status line: (ALARM) WEEK# MOON% – Example: “01:32 27 -35%” which shows it is 1 hour and 32 minutes till the next alarm goes off (no such number if there are no future alarms), it is week #27 and the moon is illuminated 35% and it is waning (a positive number means the phase is waxing/growing). Pressing R/S again shows the running clock (the CLOCK command). You can also access the status line (and then the clock by pressing R/S) by XEQ “STATUS” without having to clear registers, stack and Alpha first (thanks Anette).

Here’s the program listing.

Hope this is of use to someone 🙂

Report from the US Tour

Geir Isene 48 Comments

OMG! Brendan, Anette and myself did a US race in one week, with two days in New York City, one day in Phoenix/Grand Canyon and four days in Los Angeles. We met with more than 35 people in more than 20 meetings covering anything from business to Scientology, HP calculators, art and music. We had a blast!

A picture tells more than a thousand words. And this time I will let the pictures do the reporting:

New York City

Times Square - New York City is like the real Bladerunner

Times Square – New York City is like the real Bladerunner

Anette & Geir kissing as part of the "making out in front of churches"-series

Anette & Geir kissing as part of the “making out in front of churches”-series

Beautiful Central Park

Beautiful Central Park

Two squirrels in the park

Two squirrels in the park

Brendan and Geir trying hard to follow the rules of the Soup Nazi

Brendan and Geir trying hard to follow the rules of the Soup Nazi

Had a late coffee with Tony Ortega. Intriguing talk with a highly intelligent man. And way too interesting to remember taking any pictures... so here's his official FB pic.

Had a late coffee with Tony Ortega. Intriguing talk with a highly intelligent man. And way too interesting to remember taking any pictures… so here’s his official FB pic.

Zana - we had an interesting chat :-)

Zana – we had an interesting chat 🙂

Meeting Victoria and her wonderful and loving family.

Meeting Victoria and her wonderful and loving family.

Meeting Dave in Little Italy talking about Life, the universe, everything.

Meeting Dave in Little Italy talking about Life, the universe, everything.

Martin the genius DJ

Martin the genius DJ

A taste of Martin’s music (he’s half of the duo CLMD):

Phoenix & the Grand Canyon

Visiting Chris (our resident blogger) and his gorgeous family. Love'em to bits.

Visiting Chris (our resident blogger) and his gorgeous family. Love’em to bits.

Chris took us to Grand Canyon... OMG!

Chris took us to Grand Canyon… OMG!

Got real close to an elk up there.

Got real close to an elk up there.

Saw the outside of Hubbard's home in Phoenix (he lived there for about a year back in the early 50's). No one answered when we rung the bell.

Saw the outside of Hubbard’s home in Phoenix (he lived there for about a year back in the early 50’s). No one answered when we rung the bell.

The almost staff-less but huge and beautiful Church of Scientology in Phoenix.

The almost staff-less but huge and beautiful Church of Scientology in Phoenix.

Los Angeles

Making out in front of Celebrity Centre International (Scientology's VIP church).

Making out in front of Celebrity Centre International (Scientology’s VIP church).

Meeting Jeff and Karen - what a wonderful, energetic and creative couple. The planning of some counter-OSA-ops was fun.

Meeting Jeff and Karen – what a wonderful, energetic and creative couple. The planning of some counter-OSA-ops was fun.

I did a series of videos at Karen’s detailing my various experiences in Scientology – from my work with OSA Int to my meeting with David Miscavige. I will do a blog post for each of these videos as the are produced and released on Karen’s channel. Karen has done lots of videos, like this one:

Attending a show on Scientology at the Silent Theater (Cine Family). Got invited by Karen and Spanky. Winged it... got on the panel and did a demo session. Awesome fun!

Attending a show on Scientology at the Silent Theater (Cine Family). Got invited by Karen and Spanky. Winged it… got on the panel and did a demo session. Awesome fun!

Here’s Tory and Mark’s video on what went down that night:

Doing a demo session with the organizer of the event, Hadrian. He was a good sport and as funny as they come. He even said he had some gain out of the two auditing questions he was asked.

Doing a demo session with the organizer of the event, Hadrian. He was a good sport and as funny as they come. He even said he had some gain out of the two auditing questions he was asked.

JD Shapiro talking about his script writing for the movie Battlefield Earth. Some interesting insight right there.

JD Shapiro talking about his script writing for the movie Battlefield Earth. Some interesting insight right there.

Meeting the lovable Tory Magoo :-)

Meeting the lovable Tory Magoo 🙂

Spanky and me in the garden behind the theater. You just gotta love that energy and compassion.

Spanky and me in the garden behind the theater. You just gotta love that energy and compassion.

The happiest place on Earth :-)

The happiest place on Earth 🙂

Doing the "Star Tour" at Disneyland.

Doing the “Star Tour” at Disneyland.

Boat trip down at the wonderful Newport Beach with Mike and Betsy. Great couple. Very interesting talk.

Boat trip down at the wonderful Newport Beach with Mike and Betsy. Great couple. Very interesting talk.

I'd take it if someone had begged me to live there.

I’d take it if someone had begged me to live there.

...especially with this pelican outside the door.

…especially with this pelican outside the door.

Jason the Writer and Video Producer with Brendan looking over Newport Beach.

Jason the Writer and Video Producer with Brendan looking over Newport Beach.

Tom and Anette on Venice Beach. Tom's a cool chap.

Tom and Anette on Venice Beach. Tom’s a cool chap.

Meeting Garth and Joe at our "mini HHC" (the yearly HP Handheld Club is in the autumn). Great to meet with some fellow geeks and talk HP calculators. Yeay!

Meeting Garth and Joe at our “mini HHC” (the yearly HP Handheld Club is in the autumn). Great to meet with some fellow geeks and talk HP calculators. Yeay!

Talking Incas and her upcoming book and TV series with Theresa. Fascinating stories!

Talking Incas and her upcoming book and TV series with Theresa. Fascinating stories!

At Aida and Dave's. The powerhouse Mexican served authentic food from her home country - all made from scratch. Oh yummy.

At Aida and Dave’s. The powerhouse Mexican served authentic food from her home country – all made from scratch. Oh yummy.

The view from Aida's is not bad... not bad at all...

The view from Aida’s is not bad… not bad at all…

Jason the Writer invited us to the Magic Castle with a really fun show :-)

Jason the Writer invited us to the Magic Castle with a really fun show 🙂

Spent hours with Jason - but with him and us being so much into the conversations, we forgot all about taking pictures together with him and his family...

Spent hours with Jason – but with him and us being so much into the conversations, we forgot all about taking pictures together with him and his family…

...but Anette did take a picture of me kissing one of Jason's bunnies...

…but Anette did take a picture of me kissing one of Jason’s bunnies…

...and his duck. After which Angie took us on a Black Widow safari around their house. That woman's got balls of steel.

…and his duck. After which Angie took us on a Black Widow safari around their house. That woman’s got balls of steel.

Flying home

Flying home

There are so many pictures we didn’t take in all our awe and rush. It was a week we will never forget. And with people we will have many years ahead with great friendship and lots of fun. Next time we’ll go to…

The perfect match: HP-41 and your telescope

Geir Isene 20 Comments

Got a neat little program for you: SCOPE.

The abstract from the page:

“This program calculates values for telescopes and oculars. You start the program, add a telescope and then as many oculars as you want. You can then view several values for the telescope as well as the details for each ocular when used with this telescope. You can also save the data set (telescope and oculars) to an XM file or retrieve a file saved earlier. You may add new oculars as needed to a retrieved file and save it anew.”

Before you start jumping with joy, take it for a ride and tell me what you think. Miss anything in there? Want it to do some other things? Like make a cup of coffee for you? Just slip me a note and will see what I can do.

Status March 2013

Geir Isene 24 Comments

When I write about HP-41 calculators, the guys over at HP Forum reads it but few comment on the post (they do plenty of commenting in the forum). When I write about my realizations in philosophy or physics, many different people read it and interesting discussions ensue. When I write about my positive experiences in Scientology, some people read it and there are some comments (less than 200 comments on a blog post is not much here). When I write something critical about Scientology, the place goes ballistic.

I don’t much care how many reads what or how many comments. This blog is an act of selfishness. I enjoy writing. It helps me sort my thoughts and views. I invite others to comment and reading other’s viewpoints helps me improve my views. But it is interesting to see what gets traction, and since I have a few years of statistics, I’d like to share a few points.

December was the most active month ever, both in number of views and number of readers (some 15000 views and a couple of thousand readers). January beat December. February was another high, and March will beat February by a good margin.

Reflecting on the recent months, I see that when I post often, there is more action (duh!). And when I sort out my own earlier “brainwashing” (accepted data without thorough inspection), lively discussions ensue. These posts generate more comments on Scientology than on any other blog on the Net (with more than 1700 comments on one post). It seems that criticizing Scientology generates lots of emotions that results in action (posting of comments). Maybe because it triggers bad experiences or because it challenges beliefs? Or are there other reasons?

I will try out a different topic soon and see how that fares. Stay tuned.


(Hugh at Gapingvoid.com)

Feel free to ask

Geir Isene 545 Comments

q

When the traffic gets high, when posts get more than 500 or even a 1000 comments, I am bound to miss questions from my readers.

I want to answer your questions, and to ensure you are not left without an answer, I propose you ask any questions you may have to me as comments to this blog post.

Just add your question as a comment here and I will get back to you with an answer. Ask anything – from my views on life, IT, Scientology, my favorite HP calculator, music, art, preferences in any part of life or whatever else you may have on your mind. Do not hold back. I am not shy.

This post is not an arena for long discussions – or I may again miss some questions buried in long threads. Interesting topics may instead earn separate blog posts.

A bunch of rules for happy living

Geir Isene 146 Comments
  1. Get up in the morning
  2. if you feel like it.
  3. Get enough sleep.
  4. Sleep with the right person.
  5. Eat
  6. drink
  7. but not too much of either.
  8. Don’t get drunk all the time.
  9. Play
  10. but not only with yourself.
  11. Laugh your ass off
  12. often
  13. Go bat-shit crazy
  14. now and then
  15. or often.
  16. Challenge the status quo.
  17. Challenge yourself.
  18. Drop the arrogance.
  19. Care.
  20. Get enough sex
  21. but not all the time.
  22. Eat chocolate.
  23. Get a telescope.
  24. Get an HP-41 calculator.
  25. Play with it.
  26. Listen to music.
  27. Get carried away.
  28. Exercise your free will.
  29. Be a rebel.
  30. Make trouble.
  31. Avoid permanent damage.
  32. Swim naked.
  33. Tumble in the snow.
  34. Tell wild fairy tales to the kids.
  35. Lose yourself in their games.
  36. Cry during movies.
  37. Love
  38. lots.
  39. Feel
  40. a lot.
  41. And disregard rules.
  42. Make your own understanding of Life, the Universe and Everything

Amazing person: Anette Iren Johansen

Geir Isene 35 Comments

Warm and with lots of empathy. Tough as a nail. And the smartest woman I’ve met.

Anette Iren Johansen is remarkably issueless, rational and perceptive. She is able to view situations and people from funny, interesting and enlightening angles. Outside the box. Challenging the status quo. Creative and skillful. Fluent in many languages, plays several musical instruments, knows how to juggle, skate, dance, a master chef, mastering natural sciences… you name it. A nerd in disguise. Whatever tickles her fancy she becomes really good at.

If you have followed my latest blog posts, you may think I hold these views of Anette because I am in love. But no, I am in love because of these qualities she possesses.

anetteiren0

Ever since I left the Church of Scientology (CoS) three years ago, my interest in that organization has been waning to the point where I couldn’t care a toss about that organization.

Having learned about the horrors that my girlfriend has experienced, it makes it easy to become passionate about removing the Church of Scientology from the face of the earth. OSA; duck for cover.

I got it from CoS circles that I am now labeled “the greatest threat to Scientology in the whole of Europe”. OSA should reserve that position for another with far more knowledge and proof of the crimes of the Church than myself. Intimidating the powergirl may not be thy wisest move.

The future is bright, bold and adventurous. People will be inspired and helped, You will learn to know Anette as the powergirl she is.

Bill & David’s garage rules

Geir Isene 6 Comments

Most readers of my blog knows about my passion for HP calculators. But you may not know the reasons why. First of all it’s about exploring new mathematics. Secondly, the old programmable calculators offer the most easily accessible environment for programming – the calculators are small and with a push of a button, you can start programming away. Thirdly, it’s the sturdy design and craftsmanship and the constant innovation that used to be the hallmark of HP. The very essence of Old Hewlett Packard is captured in the rules that Bill Hewlett and David Packard put up on the wall in the their first office space – a garage:

  • Believe you can change the world.
  • Work quickly, keep the tools unlocked, work whenever.
  • Know when to work alone and when to work together.
  • Share tools, ideas. Trust your colleagues.
  • No Politics. No bureaucracy. (These are ridiculous in a garage.)
  • The customer defines a job well done.
  • Radical ideas are not bad ideas.
  • Invent different ways of working.
  • Make a contribution every day. If it doesn’t contribute, it doesn’t leave the garage.
  • Believe that together we can do anything.
  • Invent.

That mindset formed the foundation of what came to be one of the most successful technology companies.

These days, we find tech businesses more focused on focus than innovation. More focused on regulating people than encouraging them. And more driven by profit than their heart.

One day I will implement this mind set in an modern technology company. I will keep you posted.

hp