50g group photo

Yahoo Groups archive

50g

Archive for 50g.

Index last updated: 2026-03-30 00:59 UTC

Message

Re: [50g] Re: what happed?

2011-05-02 by Nancy Von Essen

When I purchased my first HP-50G, I quickly learned to put it in RPN mode.  And put in a memory chip.  I was able to program it to keep all my info on my investments and to graph them.  That ended when I ran out of memory for file names.  I should have archived some of the data.  But, just imagine, there I was walking around with my financial data in my pocket.  Showed it to my financial advisor.  Pocket, not a lap top.  All in RPN, too.  Could enter new stocks, delete others, automatically generate file names on a daily basis, display graphs of individual stock performance.
  Today, I do not need to do this.  Desktop computer does this.  But, I can't carry it around with me.  Still have an HP-55 and numerous others including a -16C.  Sold the -41's.  One to a guy who lost his in a concrete pour, the other who put his on a car roof and drove off with it still up there, but not when he stopped,  
  Anybody doing hexadecimal?  -16C is good at it.
 
  Get that -50G out again, put it in RPN mode and start using it.  It's so versatile, it's unbelievable.
 
Ed Von Essen 
 
 
 

From: Greg <gnroberts71@...>
To: 50g@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sunday, May 1, 2011 12:52 PM
Subject: [50g] Re: what happed?

 
I got my first calculator back in 1975 - and I think it was a TI. I swapped it out for an HP25. Since then I've had several HP calculators including the 41C, a 15 and my current one - the 32SII. I picked up a 50g after it came out but frankly don't use it.

Counter-intuitive to use after having all the experiences with the other HP's. Someone definitely screwed the pooch during D&D - obviously neither an engineer or a power user had any input.

you don't mess with success

--- In 50g@yahoogroups.com, "Brian Denley" <b.denley@...> wrote:
>
> In the engineering community, HP always dominated throughout the 70s, 80s
> and 90s, even with the steeper price. The quality of those calculators was
> outstanding.
> Brian
> KB1VBF
> http://home.comcast.net/~b.denley/index.html
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jennifer Usher" <jennisuzan@...>
> To: <50g@yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Thursday, April 28, 2011 7:04 PM
> Subject: Re: [50g] what happed?
>
>
> Years ago, around 1986 to be exact, one of my college professors said that
> TI had won the interface war, that algebraic was more popular than RPN.
> But, I pointed out at the time that people were still willing to pay
> considerably more for an HP than a TI. No longer quite as true...but that
> the time, TI had nothing that could touch the HP.
>
> Jennifer
>
> On Apr 24, 2011, at 5:40 PM, Alan Golightly wrote:
>
> >
> > IMO the HP50g is a very powerful calculator. But extremely user
> > unfriendly. My favorite is still my HP15C; simple, yet powerful.
> > I think TI cornered the academic market; too bad so many people missing
> > out on RPN. It would be nice if HP put some effort into their calculators
> > and do what Joe said to improve the HP50g to modern standards.
> >
> > From: Brian Denley <b.denley@...>
> > To: 50g@yahoogroups.com
> > Sent: Sunday, April 24, 2011 12:34 PM
> > Subject: Re: [50g] what happed?
> >
> >
> > Joe:
> > Also the OS is still the same as the one in my HP-28S from 1986! Brilliant
> > for it's day but HP should have continued and developed a MathCad type GUI
> > with a PC application sync (may be to Mathcad). I think students and
> > professionals migth have adopted it as a standard. Way too late now!
> > Brian
> > http://home.comcast.net/~b.denley/index.html
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Joseph Colannino" <joecolannino@...>
> > To: <50g@yahoogroups.com>
> > Sent: Sunday, April 24, 2011 12:24 AM
> > Subject: Re: [50g] what happed?
> >
> > > The problem with the 50G was the change in the position of the enter
> > > key.
> > > HP blew it with the change and underestimated customer resistance to it.
> > > Microsoft committed the same faux pas when it rearranged the Excel user
> > > interface. For the same reason, the qwerty keyboard remains popular
> > > despite
> > > its shortcomings. This lesson has been repeated so often that you would
> > > think HP would have figured it out. But it didn't, and the 50G has
> > > declined
> > > in popularity because of it.
> > >
> > > Joe
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>



Attachments