Dear #FreeSoftware developers...

[fausto@writing.exchange]

@rsabourin @RuiSeabra @pluralistic I remember those from my 1960s survey crew days. *Never divide by zero!*

[targetdrone@mastodon.social]

@rsabourin @RuiSeabra @pluralistic We had an antique one at home in 1970. (My mom rescued it from her office at work when they were cleaning out the attic.) The thing weighed about 40 pounds.

Not exactly a pocket calculator. Which (in hindsight) was probably one of its better attributes.

[perspective@c.im]

@rsabourin @RuiSeabra @pluralistic

Not to date myself, but I used the cash register version of this adding machine at my first job! Thanks for posting!

[rsabourin@pdx.social]

@Perspective I certainly remember the big, motor driven cash registers with rows of buttons on the front.

[rupertreynolds@hachyderm.io]

@rsabourin @RuiSeabra @pluralistic This is smaller, but it won't boot Linux, so what's the point?

[rsabourin@pdx.social]

@RupertReynolds The pinnacle of mechanical computer design IMHO. But does it run Crysis?

[quadrivial@beige.party]

@RupertReynolds @rsabourin @RuiSeabra @pluralistic I bet it runs DOOM though

[alterelefant@mastodontech.de]

@quadrivial
It would need the help of a human operator.
@RupertReynolds @rsabourin @RuiSeabra @pluralistic

[tth@pleroma.interhacker.space]

@RupertReynolds@hachyderm.io @rsabourin@pdx.social @RuiSeabra@mastodon.social @pluralistic@mamot.fr Can you run Doom on it ?

[bweller@mstdn.social]

@rsabourin @RuiSeabra @pluralistic

[chuckthewriter@mstdn.social]

@rsabourin @RuiSeabra @pluralistic

At this rate, I'm ready to go find a Chinese abacus.

[blort@social.tchncs.de]

@RupertReynolds @rsabourin @RuiSeabra @pluralistic

Pretty sure I saw a video of it running Doom.

[knapjack@snac.gruntle.cc]

@RupertReynolds@hachyderm.io But will play Doom, yeah?

[chaos95@mastodon.gamedev.place]

@rsabourin @RuiSeabra @pluralistic yay! My typewriter collection is worthwhile after all!

[mcrocker@indieweb.social]

@RupertReynolds @rsabourin @RuiSeabra @pluralistic I own one of these Curta Calculators. The same model. I drag it out from time to time, when I need to do simple calculations.

The square root algorithm is enough of a PITA that I only used it once after learning it.

[rupertreynolds@hachyderm.io]

@mcrocker @rsabourin @RuiSeabra @pluralistic I never tried square root. That was bad enough on my first electronic calculator, which only had +-*/ and a memory register.

I like the way that if I subtracted one time too many, I could go into reverse and 'undo' the mistake

[jupiter@mastodon.gamedev.place]

@RupertReynolds @rsabourin @RuiSeabra @pluralistic
Yeah I've seen a lot of exploits for this one, with physical access any user can access and execute calc.exe

[wolfinpdx@pdx.social]

@RupertReynolds @rsabourin @RuiSeabra @pluralistic

Do not threaten William Gibson with a good time.

[redundantbloke@mastodon.me.uk]

@RupertReynolds @rsabourin @RuiSeabra @pluralistic @GreatDismal
Oh my. One of my favourite novels, Pattern Recognition had these as a side plot point and I always thought these were an invention… is this a derivation from the book or do these really exist and have done so prior to the 21st century?
And can I buy a Buzz Ricksens flight jacket as well?

[di4na@hachyderm.io]

@redundantbloke @RupertReynolds @rsabourin @RuiSeabra @pluralistic @GreatDismal they exist. There are even 2 version. Be aware, they are pretty expensive second hand and are pretty hard to reproduce at this scale