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HP Graphing Calculator for Engineers
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The HP 50g is a bad joke. You can´t, notwithstanding Fred Valdez´ 9 19 06 claim, even hold it in your hand without it popping out on a regular basis. It is a sick compromise that is depriving the current generation of engineers of a real tool for compactness of thought. Earlier HP RPN calculators were such tools. The 50g enter key is in the wrong place (and the calculator jumps when keys are struck), there is no lastx key, no easy storage and recall ability (no, it is not easily used regardless of your obviously shallow evaluation that allows you to propose otherwise) and the x-for-y is there, but concealed. These are basic requirements that are not compensated for by any super feature that may be provided. A baseball player without arms just can´t compensate for the lack no matter how well he may run or slide into base. I have tried to allow this thing to be a replacement for my last HP 41cx for about a year and find the 50g more hateful every time I touch it. How could HP sink so low as not to have a viable RPN calculator available? (Although HP claims to have something designated the 35s, has anyone seen one in a store? No, I won´t buy again without hands-on use to determine adequacy.) During the time I´ve been confronted with this atrocity I have purchased at least two laptops and a desktop system from Costco, always choosing the Gateway (good stuff) offering over the HP and influencing others to do the same; this is exactly opposite to my lifelong loyalty to HP until now. I am a civil, and therefore only a calculator user; but I live in Palo Alto and run into other engineers of all stripes, many of us boycotting all HP products in disgust over their calculator insult. I don´t deny that it might be possible to cause this thing to perform as desired, it would just be foolish to spend that much of your life on something that has been deliberately made into a silly piece of trash by obviously unseasoned decision makers. And there is no real documentation, just a hodgepodge. And even if you could restore basic functionality you would still have to put up with the poor key layout, the inability to hold onto it, the poor display, and the other physical defects. How´s that for engineering judgment? At the risk of being redundant, but realizing that my audience is THE NEW HP, and that they may require a remedial statement of my position: The compromise of a professional grade RPN-only engineering calculator by providing for algebraic and other notations is a disaster. The availability of basic calculator functions must be supplied. The angular, textured, hand-sized dimensions of your earlier calculator cases made them usable, while the rounded, slick, oversized (to no apparent use) case of the 50g makes it unusable. The failure to angle the screen makes it difficult to see. You have only to read the 9 19 06 statement by Fred Valdez, general manager, Calculator Division, HP to know that the goofs are in charge at HP. Do you think this ´general manager, Calculator Division, HP´ ever saw the 50g? It´s unlikely or he could not make the statements he does. Is it likely that such an atrocity was actually managed? HP has to get rid of the goofs and start producing creditable products before they are seen as creditable again. The 50g has 51 keys. The 41cx had 39. If the five-across size and spacing of the top keys of the 41cx were maintained for nine rows and one of these keys were made a proper-sized enter key, there would be 44 keys. One row of six keys above this would make 50 keys. It´s likely that getting rid of the algebraic and other notation nonsense would free up at least one key. Proration of the generous row spacing of the 41cx for these ten rows of keys would allow the screen to start at a position slightly above its current location and finish within the dark logo area at the top of the 50g. If necessary the screen and top row of keys area could be widened to 6 5ths the width of the 41cx to accommodate the width of the screen and keys, while leaving the lower part able to be securely gripped. These things are so obvious, and the prototypes were certainly available, so what´s the excuse HP?
Anonymous
5/3/2008 1:01:23 AM - US
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