Other hobby

[Guest Phizzle99GST]

when the time is there I like to hunt, fish, paintball, eat sleep and drink football and play BF4... do those qualify as "hobbies" or "activities"

[Jonnin]

Had (if memory serves) one of the early TI sr40 and got good use-

 

 

Then got a TI 57 or a programmable awful similar. Had a lot of fun writing programs to solve electronic problems. That was after graduation, couldn't use the school mainframe and miniputers, and it was before ordinary people could afford puters, the micro not having quite been invented yet.

 

 

The various later years TI 30 and 35 models were classic medium duty ergonomics and usability. Then got a palm tungsten pda with a powerone graph third party program, a very fine graphic calc program, easier faster use than classic scientific calculators. That powerone fella still writes nice calculator apps, but no longer sells that full blown excellent graphing calculator, no fullblown app versions for iphone, android or winphone, of my old palm tungsten program.

 

That palm program wasn't strictly programmable but had a great solver feature, successive approximation method where you could enter a system of equations in algebraic notation and then numerically solve for any symbol in the equation, solve for elements that would drive you crazy trying to solve algebraically. Real easy and straightforward.

 

Have tried various matlab-like calc programs for android, but haven't seen anything truly excellent. One would think that somebody could write the most killer scientific calc + matlab features on a modern phone or pad, but haven't seen anything in that niche that is real slick. They all look rather rough, hard to use and potentially buggy.

 

Got a TI nspire cx a couple of years ago that seems pretty nice, but haven't nerded out on it enough to climb the learning curve. Doing much complicated seems rather slow and inconvenient though guess it would improve with practice. Too many functions hidden deep inside menus. If one doesn't use the nspire regularly then it is too easy to forget where to find all the features buried in there. Pick up the calculator and spend too much time trying to remember how to use it, rather than actually getting answers.

 

Of course I have to be different.  I still use, and love, my HP-11C.   I thankfully have a NIB spare should the original (used since about 1989) ever die.  I have the GX or something like that (I forget exact model number) that has infra-red communications, 3-d graphs and could play chess, but that thing was hard to use and if I need that much horsepower I will use the computer.   The 11 is all I really need, its programmable for simple things.  And, it sneaked in under the radar when the school banned "programmable supercomputer calculators" (which is how I got the GX cheap..)  as it did not  LOOK like the offending models... :) 

[jhc77]

I'll add. Used to collect Scotty Cameron putters until I got shown the door in a rather large layoff back in early 2009. Having my son at daycare part time with a traveling wife and now a 4 month old I'm pretty much a stay at home dad.

From the left

2006 Circa 62, No 3. Grip in original plastic. Has never seen a golf course.

2006 Circa 62, No 1, Sales Sample with leather grip. One of 100 made. Has never seen a golf course either.

2001/02 ProPlatinum Newport 2, current flat stick

On the right, just a cheap Ping that a roll fairly well.

Middle top in the bag with the brown headcover, the ever elusive 2008 Button Back Newport 2, 1 of 4000

Missing from the older picture I also have a fine example of the Titleist Bullseye with the original graphite shaft.

Various headcovers tossed in also that I have picked up.

Edited April 15, 2014 by JHC77