HP-15c. Just had its 25th Birthday. Still works as well as the day I took it out of the box. If it dies, I'll have to find another line of work that doesn't require a calculator.
I'm probably going to get the digital word beating of my life, but I really like my Casio fx-991MS S-VPAM.
I knew a 77 year old still practicing VERY experienced engineer who owned a HP that was so old all of the numbers were worn off. I thought it was so funny that I took a photo... I'll post if I can find it.
BUT, funny or not, I learnt my lesson. I own six of aforementioed Casio; three open (work desk, briefcase & home desk) plus one replacement for each.
I can completely see myself fifty years from now still using one of those six, long after the others have died, and giving some kid as yet unborn 'til 2025 the word-lashing of his/her/it's lifetime over a holographic projection of an undersized portal frame... My greatest aspiration is to be the old guy at the end of the hall. Unfortunately it's a position that take a lifetime to get in! ;0)
Cheers,
YS
B.Eng (Carleton)
Working in New Zealand, thinking of my snow covered home...
HP 28s and I still have all my slide rules, two 10 inchers and a 5 inch and a couple of small things I used in high school.
I dropped my hp 28s on the tile floor and all the keys on the left hand side popped off but that was OK because if I ever inadvertently touched any one of those keys I had to go get the manaual to get myself out of it. The right hand side is intact and functions perfectly.
The slide rules; well ever now and again I get one out and throw it up on my desk just to humble myself a little bit.
My Casio is good enough for me, but the keys do stick a bit after I spilled my Coke on it. May have to invest another $20 or $30. Had a Canon which I actually preferred, but they don't seem to be making many calculators these days.
Thermal printer - that reminds me of my old TI-35 or something - programmable, program cards, and the thermal printer. I think I used it through most of college, it broke, and I remember buying a Casio with a QWERTY keyboard and I could program in Basic and calculate slope stability in seconds.
That was the cat's meow until I bought a new toy my senior year - IBM PC jr. Doubling the RAM to 128 KB and getting the second 360 KB, 5.25" floppy drive made me the envy of my soils class, setting up PC Calc (spreadsheet program) to do flow nets a breeze.
HP48G and HP35s. I've had the 48G for 12-15 years (forgot) and bought the 35s last year not long after they came out. I really like the 35s layout and keyboard feel, but I've had plenty of trouble with it missing keystrokes. Oddly enough, it seems to be working ok now, but I don't know if I have subconsciously changed how I strike it or if it's actually better. My 48G has NEVER missed a keystroke. It's inexcusable to have problems with something so basic. That makes the 35s no better than a TI with its mush "did I really push it" keys.
I had a 33s and literally threw it away a while back. Unbelievable piece of junk.
Well I still have my Canon F-800P for some 20 years now and only replaced the battery once. Its a ripper of a calculator for me but looks like I may have to upgrade to a HP 35S from what I read here.
After less than a year, certain keys on my HP 33s lost their "springy" feel. This messed me up, because I type in numbers fairly quickly, and numbers were not registering on the screen.
Just heard about the HP 35s and ordered one. I have also burned through 2 HP33s. What a terrible calculator. The seven on one of them doesnt work, and the 5 on the other works half the time. Also have HP 48g and HP 20s.
If you decide to buy the HP, please consider me if you want to give away the Canon. Do you know if they still make calculators? I haven't seen one on the shelves in ages.
