HP Argues for RPN in 1974

Hewlett-Packard put this advertisement in the 1974 issue of Scientific American magazine. At the time, HP used reverse polish notation (RPN) as an entry method on their calculators, as opposed to the more common algebraic system. RPN is more efficient and less error-prone, but it is less intuitive at the start. You can still buy RPN calculators from HP, but algebraic notation rules the market now.

Thanks to Don Shepherd for posting this at the forum at the Museum of HP Calculators.

Consumer Price Index Calculator, the HP-65 and Corvettes

This calculator determines the relative costs of items accounting for inflation, from one year to another. For example, in 1974 an HP-65 programmable scientific calculator cost $795. Today that calculator would cost $3265. This is typical of mass-produced electronic products, which typically beat inflation by a wide margin. Today, a top-of-the line graphing calculator costs about $150.

As another example, in 1963 my Dad bought a new Corvette split-window coupe in California. He went to the dealership intending to buy a station wagon for my family to move to Ohio, but I guess he got distracted. Good decision. He paid about $2500. Today that same car would cost about $16,500. Today a Z06 costs $60,000. Admittedly, cars today are safer, more powerful and efficient and have more cup holders, but they still outpace inflation dramatically.

BBC Abandons Science, Embraces Nonsense

This Register article reviews a particularly cheesy episode of BBC's science program Horizon. Ostensibly the program examines augmenting human intelligence by machine, instead it just goes daft. From the review:

Like Joy, De Garis also envisaged "fabulous machines" with capacities "trillions above the human level" that were "massively intelligent" and "God-like". (A very hard prospect to imagine when you're re-installing Windows XP).

Popular Mechanics Predictions from 1950

An article from a 1950 issue of Popular Mechanics makes an occasionally accurate but mostly funny stab at predicting life in our times. Still no flying cars.

Let your kids pay for college

This Motley Fool commentary makes the argument that it makes more financial sense to save for your health care, during retirement, than to save for your children's college education. Which has been our plan all along, in spite of the fact that people look at you like a heartless ogre when they hear about it. The author does not mention a few important aspects of the argument,though. It is not impossible, as a student, to pay for your own education, what with grants and co-op schools. Loans are right out - who wants to start work with a gigantic debt?

I think that students take the education more seriously if it's their dime. Both my wife and I paid our own way, and it wasn't that hard.