NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/comp/sys/hp48/6604

Text File | 1993-01-01 | 3.4 KB | 72 lines

Newsgroups: comp.sys.hp48
Path: sparky!uunet!nntp.telebit.com!phr
From: [e-mail] (Paul Rubin)
Subject: Re: The "high price" of the HP48!
In-Reply-To: [e-mail]'s message of 31 Dec 92 18:16:59 CST
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Sender: [e-mail]
Nntp-Posting-Host: napa
Organization: Telebit Corporation; Sunnyvale, CA, USA
References: <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
    <[e-mail]>
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Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1993 05:00:06 GMT
Lines: 56

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Joel Kolstad) writes:

   In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Paul Rubin) writes:
   >A 48 still seems to me like a solution looking
   >for a problem.

   I can accept the fact that this is how you see the 48.  For myself and many
   others, I think, we've found appropriate problems.

I'm still waiting to hear what these problems are.

   >A 48 seems like a fun toy and I'd buy one if someone offered me one
   >cheap enough, but I feel it is a disservice to most students to
   >suggest that a real computer is not a better investment.

   You're probably going to get upset if I suggest everyone ought to own a
   computer, aren't you? :-)

I do think that everyone ought to own a computer.  But once you
own a computer, the HP48 becomes mostly redundant, which is why
I'm saying most people don't need an HP48.

   I agree that everyone should probably have _access_ to word
   processing facilities before they worry about getting a calculator.
   ...  Given the access to computers provided by the college and the
   cost differential between decent computers ($2500) and decent
   calculators ($250), I think some students would be better off
   buying a calculator first.

$2500 is far more than I spent on my computer, a 486dx/33 which runs
Linux (a full featured Unix clone) and MSDOS, and Mathematica under
MSDOS.  My previous computer was a Toshiba T1000 (great machine, btw)
which I sold for $300 including an internal modem.  Someone else
posted here recently that you can get a Powerbook 100 for $500,
which is a considerably more powerful machine than the Mac Pluses
we used to have around campus, in addition to being portable enough
to bring to school when you need it.

   P.S. -- The prices above are somewhat speculative.  "Decent"
   computers could range all the way from $1500 386SX boxes to $10000
   workstations, whereas "decent" calculators could range from $100
   TI-81's to $500 fully-outfitted HP-48's.

The computer prices you cite are way too high.  I don't think there
are any $10k single-seat workstations in the company where I work, and
we are a full blown development shop (hardware and software).  You can
quite easily get a 386sx box in the $500 range and I've scrounged
together XT and 286 machines for as little as $100.  I don't know what
a TI-81 is but I think my (now dead) HP25 was a more than powerful
enough calculator for nearly any student, and the 42S that replaced it
with is more powerful than I've ever had a need for that any
calculator could fill.  Personally I found the $10 nonprogrammable
Sharp scientific that I had for a while adequate for most purposes
though there were some times a little programmability would have been
nice.  It seems to me that the current low-end HP's in the $50 range
would fit this bill nicely.