TE
科技回声
首页24小时热榜最新最佳问答展示工作
GitHubTwitter
首页

科技回声

基于 Next.js 构建的科技新闻平台,提供全球科技新闻和讨论内容。

GitHubTwitter

首页

首页最新最佳问答展示工作

资源链接

HackerNews API原版 HackerNewsNext.js

© 2025 科技回声. 版权所有。

What Your Old Graphing Calculator Says About Technology

59 点作者 JamesLowell将近 14 年前

23 条评论

hxa7241将近 14 年前
There is a feedback aspect that this article does not seem to get.<p>&#62; After all, the <i>material</i> hasn't changed (much), so if the calculators were good enough for us 10 or 15 years ago, they are still good enough to solve the math problems.<p>Technology <i>changes</i> the material: it changes what you think you need or want. You could almost say dialup internet was fine for viewing text web-pages -- why does it need to be faster? Broadband enabled web video -- which in turn spurred the need for broadband.<p>The calculator example looks a bit like a phone. If you took a phone from 2000 and one from 2007, they would look pretty similar. It is still a phone, is it not? We do not <i>need</i> something more, do we? And then the iPhone appeared.<p>&#62; Here's the thing. Some technologies don't change all that quickly because we don't need them to. . . . Look at cars or power plants<p>Crikey! If you wanted to hit on two of the things we <i>do</i> most need to change, and have for decades, it might well be just those.<p>The whole article disturbs me a bit, actually, because it seems dangerously full of the anti/un-creative mindset. You will never invent anything if you just look at what you have and think of justifications for why everything is pretty much fine. You create by <i>finding</i> faults and imagining what you do <i>not</i> have. Look at those two calculator pics, and think of them as representing some part of the web now and in 2021. Scary? Well that is what it <i>will</i> be unless you get irritated and make some weird unexpected new stuff!
评论 #2922654 未加载
gcv将近 14 年前
I loved the HP48 series in high school and college, and m48+ brings it to my iPhone. For the rare times I feel the need for something more powerful than the calculator built into Spotlight, and something less powerful than Clojure, I reach for it.<p>Never go into the HP50 series, though it does look nice. Probably would have started using it if I were still in school.
评论 #2921288 未加载
评论 #2921320 未加载
评论 #2922635 未加载
qaexl将近 14 年前
Want to see a non-incremental innovation for multi-touch calculators?<p>A friend of a friend wrote this: <a href="http://mathtouchapp.com/" rel="nofollow">http://mathtouchapp.com/</a> (He doesn't know I'm linking it here).<p>The app throws away the calculator metaphor and starts from scratch. Instead, the author uses the back-of-a-napkin as the metaphor.<p>You start with a blank page and add systems of equations. You can visually link variables together. You can insert values along with its unit of measurement and numeric precision. You can feed results to graphs.<p>At $10, this is cheaper than getting the Nspire if you already have an iOS device. But of course, you can't use it when taking the SAT. And it would be cool if you can export it to Wolfram's computational data format and trade formula libraries.<p>You need to actually understand the math instead of just punching the buttons. Then again, isn't that what Sal Khan's videos are for?
评论 #2922290 未加载
评论 #2922246 未加载
评论 #2922303 未加载
评论 #2924231 未加载
bluekeybox将近 14 年前
The title should really be: "What Your Old Graphing Calculator Says About Our Education System."
评论 #2921461 未加载
pnathan将近 14 年前
I don't think there's much competition, either. HP appears to have bowed out of the graphing calculator market years ago. (though a Google turns them up?)<p>Also, for high-end math wizardry, it's very easy to simply not use a calculator: Maxima [1] obseleted my calculator for tasks that weren't tests<p>I suspect as smartphones get cheaper and finish their takeover, the calculator firmware will get loaded into an in-app emulator and there they will live.<p><a href="http://maxima.sourceforge.net/" rel="nofollow">http://maxima.sourceforge.net/</a>
评论 #2921274 未加载
camiller将近 14 年前
I'll repost the comment I left on the article:<p>I used a TI-66 as an undergrad (Purdue - Computer Technology), but I graduated from college(the first time) in 1988. Was great that I could program in frequently used equations. Later as an MBA student I picked up an HP 19Bii Business Consultant Calculator for all the financial functionality.<p>They let you use a calculator on the SAT now? That is my "You kids get off my lawn" moment of the story.<p>Oh, and <a href="https://www.xkcd.com/768/" rel="nofollow">https://www.xkcd.com/768/</a>
评论 #2921992 未加载
评论 #2921912 未加载
juiceandjuice将近 14 年前
I haven't changed the batteries in 8 months. I can do math on my TI-89 Titanium without even looking at it, that's not possible with any tablet. Real buttons are worth the extra money. Depending on the complexity of the problem, there's many I'd rather use a calculator than even Maple or Mathematica, both of which would be an absolute nightmare to do on my iPhone. Also, <i>you can still program it</i>, which isn't available on anything iOS related unless you used javascript somehow (Fucking up the semi-empirical mass formula in Nuclear Physics was practically a pastime on my homework before I wrote a small basic program). Furthermore, no teacher/professor in their right mind is going to let anyone use a device capable of wireless communications on a test.
评论 #2922690 未加载
jmount将近 14 年前
Standardized tests also help maintain a niche for Standardized calculators.
评论 #2921423 未加载
评论 #2921489 未加载
anigbrowl将近 14 年前
Meanwhile, over in Europe: <a href="http://www.geogebra.org/cms/" rel="nofollow">http://www.geogebra.org/cms/</a><p>Geogebra is open source and funded with EU grants. They're about to launch version 4, I think, but I don't care because v5 has been in stable beta for the last 6 months.
评论 #2921901 未加载
brudgers将近 14 年前
That's nothing. The HP12C is thirty years old and still lists for $70.<p>In other words, it was cutting edge in 1981 along with the original IBM PC.<p>[<a href="http://www.amazon.com/HP-12c-Financial-Calculator-12C/dp/B00000JBLH/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&#38;qid=1314214865&#38;sr=8-4" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/HP-12c-Financial-Calculator-12C/dp/B00...</a>]<p>[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP-10C_series#HP-12C" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP-10C_series#HP-12C</a>]
eluberoff将近 14 年前
Repost of my comment on the atlantic article:<p>The fault lies with the college board. A useful standardized test would either: * not require a calculator at all, testing understanding instead of computation or * allow access to real world tools-- including free ones like <a href="http://wolframalpha.com" rel="nofollow">http://wolframalpha.com</a> and <a href="http://desmos.com/calculator" rel="nofollow">http://desmos.com/calculator</a> (full disclosure-- I helped build the latter)<p>How much time is wasted teaching the unnecessary skills of how to use an antiquated, expensive device merely because tests require it? We should be teaching our students which resources are available, which to use in which situations, and how to plug in the gaps between them
ChuckMcM将近 14 年前
People find it amazing that an analog oscilloscope from 1985 sells for $200 on the used market. Or that a milling machine from 1965 sells for $1,200. Tools, certainly solid tools, derive their value from their ability to meet the need, and once silicon density intersected with the needs of high school math they reached 'equilibrium.' From that point on, a solid calculator has an intrinsic value. What is more its pretty clear that the value is higher than the cost of manufacturing it, so building solid calculators is nearly always going to have some 'profit' associated with it.<p>Personally the TI-92+ was the pinnacle, it was basically a Sun-2 workstation with Macsyma installed in a handheld unit. I've still got mine :-)
评论 #2922176 未加载
评论 #2922393 未加载
评论 #2922470 未加载
joev将近 14 年前
TI calculators were toys for children. Real Engineers use HP!<p>Lots of good memories with my HP-48G, until it got stolen just before I graduated.
评论 #2921393 未加载
jpadkins将近 14 年前
I think it says more about the state of high school math. technology meets the needs of the market, and this market hasn't changed much in 10 years.
modeless将近 14 年前
It says "Get a powerful oligopoly to essentially require your product and say goodbye to competition! Cut R&#38;D and cruise down easy street."
abyssknight将近 14 年前
I still have my TI-83+ from my highschool days. Honestly, I couldn't survive without it. When I have to do hard core matrix algebra or graphing, and I need to be in front of my book, I can't use the PC or tablet -- it just doesn't fit in the zone. The physical nature of the calculator, the portability, and tactile feedback are all necessary.<p>Also, the TI-83+ takes a beating. ;)
pwg将近 14 年前
Come back to teenagedom in 1985. You listened to the FM radio, because CD's hadn't been invented yet. You made calls on a landline, and yes, it was called "the phone". You didn't have a beeper. You didn't have "the internet" (it had been invented, but you had not heard of it yet). Instead, you had local dial up BBS's on a 1200 bps modem (if you were very lucky) or on a 300 bps modem (typical). You most likely had an Atari 2600 as your "game system" (that is, if you had a "game system" at all). And your calculator of choice was the HP-15C.<p>Well, maybe most didn't have a HP-15C, but that was the calculator I had. Still have it actually, and it still works as well today as it did then.
评论 #2930006 未加载
vvpan将近 14 年前
While I am geeky, I always felt that the graphing calculators did not contribute much to my math classes. And neither were they a significant gateway into technology - few people went beyond the simplest functionality.
评论 #2921921 未加载
libraryatnight将近 14 年前
I used my TI-83 for quasi-cheating (it was loaded with extra info and formulas in notes) and playing mario or tetris. It served me well.
jal278将近 14 年前
Other people must be thinking this as well, but it seems likely/obvious that the graphing calculator will go extinct, replaced by an app on a touchscreen device (not an emulated ti-82, but a <i>better</i> more intuitive graphing calc). Sounds like a pretty promising start-up. That the TI-82 is still $70 is unbelievable.
评论 #2921427 未加载
评论 #2921410 未加载
评论 #2921411 未加载
curt将近 14 年前
Have a 14 year old TI-89, that I still use to this day. It's small, simple, quick, and have all the functions and symbols I use under the custom menu. Amazing their haven't been any screen and function improvements (built in programs).
Goladus将近 14 年前
All I would change about my graphing calculator is speed and perhaps a brighter, higher-resolution screen.
daimyoyo将近 14 年前
I miss my old Ti-89. it really was the best graphics calculator I ever used.