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PID: Synchronet 3.21a-Win32 master/955e50fea Aug 09 2025 MSC 1942
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-=> Mortar M. wrote to Ed Vance <=-

 > The first calculator cost me $79.00, it was a Four Banger with a Constant
 > Key and NO Memory.

 MM> What's a "four banger"?

 Artithmetic only? Add, Subtract, Multiply, divide?

 MM> My first was a Sharp EL-5100.  I forget the price, but I think it was
 MM> around the same as yours.  Loved that thing.  It had the unique feature
 MM> of being able to (mostly) type out algebraic expressions like you would
 MM> on paper.

 I ordered a calculator after collecting box tops from some breakfast
 cereal in the late '70s. Then, slim wallet calculators became the rage
 - right about the time, albeit brief, that nylon/velcro wallets were
 "cool".

 It wasn't many years later before the first calculator watches came
 out, my parents had a friend who worked at Hewlett Packard and had one
 of their calculator watches - the LED model with a stylus.

 My black rubber Casio calculator watch had to wait until much later.

 I still have a drawer full of calculators - a couple of HP business
 models including a vintage HP 12c, a couple of HP scientifics, another
 of the CASIO Programmable calculator I used in the early '80s (bought
 off eBay last year and still on the original battery!) and a couple of
 scientific calculators. I keep a solar Casio scientific at my desk,
 mostly because I hate having to look for a calculator app on my
 desktop, and clicking buttons with a mouse feels *wrong*.


 
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