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From: Albert Graef on 21 Jan 2008 20:43
parisse(a)domain.invalid wrote:
> I do believe that the asus eee pc (which should be available
> next Wednesday here in France) should fullfill most of these
> expectations for 299 euros, not that expensive when compared
> to a HP50G or a TI Nspire (I've been told that the linux
> xcas version runs on it out of the box as will probably
> many other linux scientific softwares). It will most probably
> be followed by other hardware constructors with
> similar models.

Indeed. Given the success that the eee already had, others will soon
follow suit and the prices will drop further. As soon as the price tag
hits that of high-end calcs, the latter will be a tough sell indeed. The
only real advantage that a calc offers is the dedicated keyboard, but
that advantage dwindles if most of the functions are only accessible
though menus anyway. Of course, calcs will still be useful in school,
but you don't really need a calc with 2300+ functions there.

> The only drawback I see is the battery life

Well, there's the small screen (a new version with a 8" or 9" screen
with 1024x600 resolution is apparently in the works, though), and the
meager 4-8 gigs of solid state harddisk (of course, you can always add a
USB drive or SD card to fix that).

I think I'm going to get one when it arrives here in Germany (by the end
of January, hopefully). I like that this thingie runs Linux out of the
box, so there's no hardware incompatibilities. Of course, gcc et al can
be installed on board, so you can compile your own software and choose
from thousands of nice and free open source programs. Or you can just
install Ubuntu or Fedora on it and enjoy their much more complete
package repositories.

--
Dr. Albert Gr"af
Dept. of Music-Informatics, University of Mainz, Germany
Email: Dr.Graef(a)t-online.de, ag(a)muwiinfa.geschichte.uni-mainz.de
WWW: http://www.musikinformatik.uni-mainz.de/ag
From: Albert Graef on 22 Jan 2008 04:30
Albert Graef wrote:
> The only real advantage that a calc offers is the dedicated keyboard

And of course having a nice package integrating numeric capabilities
with a CAS and an extensive collection of solvers for various areas.
That's still something the 50g has going for it. But I suppose that you
can just run emu48 (via wine) on the eee to get that.

--
Dr. Albert Gr"af
Dept. of Music-Informatics, University of Mainz, Germany
Email: Dr.Graef(a)t-online.de, ag(a)muwiinfa.geschichte.uni-mainz.de
WWW: http://www.musikinformatik.uni-mainz.de/ag
From: parisse on 22 Jan 2008 13:34
>
> And of course having a nice package integrating numeric capabilities
> with a CAS and an extensive collection of solvers for various areas.
> That's still something the 50g has going for it. But I suppose that you
> can just run emu48 (via wine) on the eee to get that.
>

Why not run Xcas for CAS and maybe scilab for numerics or R
for statistics?
From: rdgoogle on 22 Jan 2008 15:58
On Jan 20, 6:04 am, h_p_48 <h_p...(a)yahoo.com> wrote:
> 4 years, a long time in the tech industrie...
> We've seen big changes in technology.  A phone is no longer a phone,
> look at any 2004  model versus the new iPhone now.  Or the "Free your
> Phone" project of OpenMoko (http://www.openmoko.org/). But a HP
> calculator is still a HP calculator.  Ok, the HP 50g has an ok
> keyboard now.....But no wow effect.  Have we missed an opportunity
> with the Qonos project?  What do you expect for the future?

I think that the scientific, programmable, pocket calculator as we
know it is a dinosaur -- a very useful dinosaur, and one that we
com.sys.hp48'ers still saddle up and ride around on every day, but the
calculator's day has come and gone.

Well, maybe the *HP* calculator's day. HP surrendered the calculator
market to TI the day that Carly announced HP was dropping its
calculator product line because it was "no longer profitable". Her
judgement was ill-advised and factually wrong. It also ignored the
massive amounts of goodwill generated by the presence of HP calcs in
secondary schools and in universities -- and the purchases of large-
dollar HP equipment based on that goodwill. But she was the boss, and
she said it, and the gang in Corvallis had no choice but to find other
things to do.

But anyway, HP's reputation in the calculator market, in spite of two
(or three) heroic efforts to revive it, has never regained even a
shadow of its former stature. HP has failed to displace TI in the
secondary schools -- failed to even make a dent in the colossus! --
and as a result, when those students move on to university, they don't
even consider buying an HP. At the university level, HP has tried to
be too much like TI, in an effort to win new converts, and as a result
their offerings have been not enough like HP.

(The lone exception to all of this is the HP12C. This Little Engine
That Could has outlasted all of its intended replacements AND all of
its competitors. HP have wisely continued to improve it on the inside
while leaving the outside just the way it is. They added a few
features, but not so many as to spoil it. All of the successful
bankers and real estate agents in my little town have a 12C on their
desks, and they use them regularly.)

But enough about HP vs. TI. Let's talk about calculators in general.
For simple math, most people today use either their cellphones or
their PDAs -- and the lucky ones use their iPhones. For more
complicated math, the kind of hardcore programming we used to joyfully
inflict upon our HP48 calcs, most people now use laptop PCs with a
wide selection of free or commercial software. For games, the PSP and
its genre have taken over from the HP48, and dev kits are available
for them. All the profitable market niches once filled by our high-
powered HP calcs have been filled by something else.

All that's left to us is the fun of playing with old things. I still
have my 41C, 42S, 48SX, 48GX, and 49G. And I bought a 35S. How could
I resist?

To me, a programmable scientific calculator is still a useful tool,
but I recognize that it's obsolete, and that most other people don't
consider it as useful as I do.

--
Regards
Ray
From: Albert Graef on 22 Jan 2008 17:19
parisse(a)domain.invalid wrote:
> Why not run Xcas for CAS and maybe scilab for numerics or R
> for statistics?

Yes, sure. Lacks seemless integration of the different tools, though, so
calculators are still handy for some things. On a PC I tend to use my
own Q for simple calculations, discrete math stuff and scripting, and
Octave if I need matrix calculations. I don't often use a CAS, actually,
but xcas looks nice, I'm looking forward to install that on my eee when
I have it. In fact I've been thinking about interfacing Q and xcas (Q
already has an interface to Octave), but I never seem to find the time...

--
Dr. Albert Gr"af
Dept. of Music-Informatics, University of Mainz, Germany
Email: Dr.Graef(a)t-online.de, ag(a)muwiinfa.geschichte.uni-mainz.de
WWW: http://www.musikinformatik.uni-mainz.de/ag
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