Geezer Time
Cidu Bill on Feb 6th 2010
Maybe somebody can remember something that I can’t: I’ve had digital watches that also served as simple calculators; but have there ever been calculators that told time?
Filed in Bill Bickel, Hi and Lois, calculators, comic strips, comics, humor | 48 responses so far
src666 Feb 6th 2010 at 12:03 pm 1
Yes, I owned several. One being an HP-27S.
Elyrest Feb 6th 2010 at 12:15 pm 2
Yes, I had one back in the early 80’s. It could also be used as a timer, an alarm or a stopwatch. I loved it and showed it to everyone when I first got it. My five year old nephew called it the meep-meep machine.
turquoise cow Feb 6th 2010 at 01:23 pm 3
My boss has a calculator (okay, really an adding machine), which has a time-telling function that simply displays on the screen as long as it’s on. We also had several similar ones at my last job, though we could never get them to work properly because the calculator would get unplugged and then reset and we didn’t have the manual anywhere convenient. The date stamp function was quite useful because when we had to add the drawer up with the machine, we then had to attach the receipt in order to prove that we had proved the drawer. Afterward, we would initial the receipt and write the date and time on it. Thus, if the drawer proved at 3 pm and not at 4, we could determine that something had gone wrong between these.
I think what Hi’s talking about it something completely different, but I admit that when I first heard of the date/time stamp function, I thought it was pretty cool, since I’d never heard of a calculator doing that.
In an unrelated tangent, once you get used to using an adding machine, you can’t go back to an ordinary calculator.
Jim Feb 6th 2010 at 01:44 pm 4
I wrote a program back in the day that was a pop-up calculator & adding machine. It worked either way and had a tape that could be printed. I still use it under Win-7 as do many friends. Oh, and it has the date and time.
Singapore Bill Feb 6th 2010 at 02:08 pm 5
Maybe I’m older than Hi (though I remember reading this strip as a boy), but I recall simply being amazed by my first pocket calculator. That little machine would churn out the answer in it’s little red LED just as fast as you could bunch in the question.
Cidu Bill Feb 6th 2010 at 02:39 pm 6
Oh yeah, I remember that first calculator: My friend brought it to school — it could add, subtract, multiply and divide, all for only a little over $100 — and it disrupted classes for the entire day.
Singapore Bill Feb 6th 2010 at 03:20 pm 7
CIDU Bill, when was this? I remember mine had memory and percent function and was probably about 20 bucks Canadian in about 1973 or so (which was a good whack of money back then). I think I got it for Christmas (I had asked for it). While it was amazing, I really didn’t have anything useful to do with it. I was about 7 or 8 and didn’t have any chequebooks to balance or taxes to do. We were forbidden from using them at school, still, that 9-volt wonder served for many years in our home.
CIDU Bill Feb 6th 2010 at 03:27 pm 8
Singapore Bill, I’m thinking early 1971. Possibly late 1970. I’m basing this on my attempt to visualize the classroom I was standing in when I first saw it, and that’s not the most scientific method of pinning down a date — especially almost 40 years after the fact
Singapore Bill Feb 6th 2010 at 03:54 pm 9
CIDU Bill: What a difference a few years make. It’s interesting to note that even back then technology came down rapidly in price in a relatively short period of time. I’m pretty sure that I got mine in Christmas of 1972. It might have been Christmas 1973, but certainly no earlier than 1972 or later than 1973. I remember that I was friends with another boy who also got a calculator. We were only friends for a couple of years.
So, back to Hi. I’m not sure why he’s just not impressed that pocket calculators existed at all. Hell, I was impressed back in about 1985 when I made a my first cellphone call (a co-worker had borrowed his dad’s car and it had a cellular phone because the dad worked for NovaTel, the first cell provider in Alberta). I was suitably amazed by that. Remember when a telephone was a thing that connected to you with a wire and was connected to the wall by a wire and you used it to talk to people who were somewhere else?
Cidu Bill Feb 6th 2010 at 04:09 pm 10
Forget about phones: I just pressed “print” on a document here on my laptop, and it started printing out on a printer upstairs. I mean, is that freakin’ magic, or what!
And then, of course, there was yesterday’s Frazz:
Singapore Bill Feb 6th 2010 at 04:25 pm 11
Sometimes I feel cheated about the lackof jetcars and lunar hotels, but things are pretty amazin, aren’t they?
Jim Feb 6th 2010 at 04:30 pm 12
Getting more amazing even as I write this. http://www.physorg.com/news184310039.html
Charlene Feb 6th 2010 at 05:27 pm 13
I read this post earlier on my mobile phone as I was on the bus, listening to satellite radio through my wireless stereo headphones.
Charlene Feb 6th 2010 at 05:29 pm 14
On the other hand, one of my neighbours still has a hard-wired rotary phone in her house. (For the younger set, by “hard-wired” I mean that there’s no plug - the phone wires lead directly into the wall.) She won’t have it changed because she doesn’t want to repaint the wall if “they make a mess” when installing the plug.
Detcord Feb 6th 2010 at 05:49 pm 15
Cidu Bill
I saw my first scientific function calculator in 1973 in the hands of a fellow student. It cost about $100, which astounded most of us slide-rule wielders at the time. I don’t recall being shown a time function though.
I do remember a collage professor who was attempting to explain the Exponential Function in Integral Calculus. He told us to imagine he had a “magic pencil” that when he touched the “e” (on the chalkboard) it would magically turn one number into another. A fellow student then pointed out that he didn’t to “imagine” anything as he had a button labeled “ ex ” (x being in superscript) that did the magic for him. The rest of the class was spent with the professor just staring at the calculator, pressing and repressing this new “magical” button – for real. It was a Paradigm shift moment.
Cidu Bill Feb 6th 2010 at 06:04 pm 16
Okay, let’s see a show of hands: Who here learned how to use a slide rule? Who here still owns one?
*CIDU Bill raises both hands*
Detcord Feb 6th 2010 at 06:43 pm 17
Cidu Bill (16)
I’m not sure I can raise both my hands. I remember a “pop quiz” in one of my science classes that I am sure was designed for the slide-rule – and also to ensure we attended classes. Most of us whipped out our new calculators and finished the test within minutes. The professor was astounded – and had to radically change future “pop quizzes” to accommodate the new reality. I rarely throw things away, and was fond of my pocket size SR, but I doubt I could lay my hands on it now – even with an hours’ worth of search. Er…
Chakolate Feb 6th 2010 at 07:05 pm 18
heh - the slide rule is in the drawer of my desk right now. I never learned to use most of the functions (I wasn’t into logarithms back then) but I could multiply and divide on it.
Remember ‘Slipstick Libby’?
mkilby Feb 6th 2010 at 07:25 pm 19
@ Jim (4) - I would download that program if you would post a URL for it.
@ Detcord, CIDU Bill (15-17) - My high school chemistry teacher adopted two new policies with my class: we were the first year where everyone was required to own a calculator, and also the first year where he did not spend a week teaching everyone how to use a slide rule. I bought one anyway, but I never used it in class (the calculator was much easier to use, and more accurate, which is why the teacher did still have to teach us all about “significant digits”). However, I still own the slide rule, even though I doubt that I could do anything other than multiply with it, whereas that old TI calculator is gone and long forgotten.
@ Singapore & CIDU Bills (5-9) - That same chemistry teacher told us that about a decade or so earlier, he had contemplated purchasing a device that could extract a square root, and nothing else. At the time (probably early to mid 60s), the gizmo had the astonishing price tag of $2500 (more than a VW Bug). He was quite happy not to have spent the money, all the more so, as a powerful multifunction calculator could be had for under $100 in the mid 70s.
mkilby Feb 6th 2010 at 07:41 pm 20
@ Chakolate (18) - I assume you are referring to the character in Heinlein’s book “Methuselah’s Children“? I actually typed “slipstick” at one point in (19), but decided to replace it with “slide rule” before I posted.
Morris Keesan Feb 6th 2010 at 07:48 pm 21
I think it was in my high school chemistry class, in 1968, that I learned to use a slide rule. I own several, most of which belonged to my father, who was a mechanical engineer (civilian employee of the US Navy). I have a paper half-sliderule in my wallet right now (it’s actually a log-scale printed on one edge of a card, and requires a piece of paper to mark intermediate results on so that you can use the card as both halves of the sliderule. Like Chakolate, I only ever learned to use the two basic scales on the slide rule, to multiply and divide.
In college, in 1970-71, we had a big programmable calculator, made by Wang Instruments, that was about the size of a large desk. Later, working for the Massachusetts tax department, I used a large mechanical calculator, that did multiplication by repeated additions, and division by repeated subtractions; for a large calculation, we would push the “enter” button (or its equivalent), and wait while the drums and cogs chugged along for about a minute. When mine broke, and while waiting for a replacement, I went to a local drugstore and got a cheap $5 sliderule, which was faster than doing arithmetic by hand, and close enough for determining whether results were within the range of reasonability (we didn’t bother billing or refunding taxpayers for amounts less than $5).
One of Isaac Asimov’s confessed failures of predictive ability was putting an enormous amount of effort into his book “An Easy Introduction to the Slide Rule”, initially published in 1965, which became obsolete for the general public within 10 years. (There’s an eBay listing right now for a paperback reprint edition of this book, not even the first edition or the first printing of the reprint edition, for which the seller is asking $75!!!).
Blinky the Wonder Wombat Feb 6th 2010 at 08:29 pm 22
Before I started college n the fall of 1977, I was not sure that my engineering professors would allow the use of calculators, so i spent the summre learning how to use a slide rule. When I got to school, however, I found that there use was not baned, so I put away the slide rule, never to be used again.
My slide rule wasn’t a traditional slide rule- it was a series of disks. Much more compact and easy to fit into a shirt pocket.
Chuck Feb 6th 2010 at 09:21 pm 23
Anyone have a Babbage difference engine?
Yeah, neither do I.
Chakolate Feb 6th 2010 at 09:46 pm 24
@mkilby (20) Yeah, that’s the one.
I haven’t read that book in decades - maybe it’s time to dig it out again.
Elyrest Feb 6th 2010 at 11:16 pm 25
I learned how to use a slide rule in high school and I still have it. Of course, I don’t remember how to use it anymore, but I take it out now and then and look at it. I get a lot more use out an abacus that I used in grade school that is actually quite handy in the kitchen.
Frank the curmudgeon Feb 7th 2010 at 01:17 am 26
Had a pocket calculator with a clock and stop watch fuctions around ‘78.
Lola Feb 7th 2010 at 01:17 am 27
Not only do I still have a slide rule but I’ve got one that’s almost 4 feet long that was used to teach students. BTW I’m sending this from my droid in LAX airport. Used it two days ago to find our location while hiking on Oahu and then earlier today to reroute our trip home through Laguardia because Dulles is closed. I LOVE my toys!
Keera Feb 7th 2010 at 03:21 am 28
Jim #12, I totally agree! That is some nifty stuff!
As for the slide rule, I can honestly say I have never used or touched one. I have seen only pictures of the contraption. OTOH, I learned all my math without calculators so although it is easier to punch stuff into one, I can still do figuring on paper, and often do.
Back to the comic: It is so fascinating to read or hear about what the past thought would be the future, and just as fascinating to see what we actually came up with. Considering how people behave in traffic nowadays, though, I’m glad we don’t have personal mini-copters.
Molly J Feb 7th 2010 at 03:51 am 29
Hell, I’m still amazed by the fact that I can pick up a piece of plastic, punch in some numbers, and without even meaning to I can talk to some guy in India.
Chuck Feb 7th 2010 at 04:54 am 30
Keera, I think most people can do it on paper. The problem is when you ask someone to do it in his or her head. Especially when you try to change what money you’re handing the cashier after they’ve already completed the transaction the register. It’s not that the kid can’t subtract. There’s just a certain degree of panic that hits you when you are unexpectedly called upon to do math in your head, especially if there is a line and you’re the only register open.
Why yes. Yes this had happened to me, but when I’m the one paying I can calculate my change quite easily.
Keera Feb 7th 2010 at 05:07 am 31
Chuck, they probably can do it on paper, but I’ve seen quite a few people spend a lot of time looking for a calculator rather than use the paper that’s right in front of them. I grew up with an engineer grandfather who left his calculations on the margins of our newspaper, which is why I am comfortable with that method, but most folks my age and younger entered the work force after the pocket calculator became ubiquitous.
Christine Feb 7th 2010 at 09:50 am 32
The Bomar Brain came out when I was in grade school (http://www.askdrmason.com/gallery/American-History/IMG_3712). It did not tell time as far as I remember, but it was pretty cool. I was one of the “smart kids”, so one of the “smart-aleck” kids started calling me Bomar. I pretended to hate it but secretly I thought it was pretty cool…. We all learned to use a slide rule, but even then the teachers let on that they would soon be obsolete.
Nicole Feb 7th 2010 at 10:45 am 33
Louis C.K. has this to say about our appreciation of modern technology
http://www.tikaro.com/2009/03/youre-sitting-in-a-chair-in-th.html
Rammy M Feb 7th 2010 at 12:58 pm 34
My personal story
When I was young I thought when I (grow up and) have money I would want to own a juke box.
I never imagined that when I did, it would fit in my pocket!!!
(and I would use it mostly for audiobooks)
Whenever I think about it (which I do) I am amazed and thankful.
Yeah, there’s cooler stuff out there (iPhones, etc) that I don’t have (yet?)
but there’s a difference between “look what’s possible now” (in general) and “I’ve dreamed of this day!”
(and yes, I have a slide rule somewhere)
Jim Feb 7th 2010 at 12:59 pm 35
@mkilby I’ll be happy to send you a copy of that calculator but I don’t have any place you can download it from. It’s probably not cool to share email addresses here so . . .
mkilby Feb 7th 2010 at 05:54 pm 36
@ Jim (35) & CC: CIDU Bill - The easiest solution would be for CIDU Bill to forward my address to you in a private e-mail. If this works, then many thanks to you both. If not, no worries. I was just interested to see another piece of solidly built technology that still runs, despite the best efforts of the marketplace to force us all to upgrade everything every 18 months.
Other than my slide rule (whose only reason for its continued existence is nostalgia), I own several technological dinosaurs that are still performing admirably, and doing real work: 1) a Palm Vx (still my primary PDA, in part because it will go for weeks without needing a recharge); 2) a legal (!) copy of Personal Editor II (has a number of quirky abilities with ASCII text that neither Notepad nor Word can duplicate); 3) OS/2 Warp (kept primarily so that I can use PM-Mail as an e-mail archiver).
I have nothing against cutting edge technology, as long as it works, but I refuse to dump a working solution for one that doesn’t.
FeelinOld Feb 7th 2010 at 06:33 pm 37
mkilby: Hear Hear, if it aint broke dont fix it.
Of course some changes are good, when I started programming we worked in assembler or for higher end things cobol and I still remember dealing with punch cards (Number your @#$! cards (or at least use a felt marker across the top of the deck))
My phone has way more power than the behemoth I first programmed for, I remember when one of our clients got their first 30 MB (yes that’s MegaBytes) hard drive, man we’d NEVER run out of room, a few years later it was an awe inspiring 1GB drive for only $20K, and now the phone that fits in your pocket has 32GB.
Amazing, Star Trek wasn’t that far off with there cute little square chips for storing data….
Chakolate Feb 7th 2010 at 07:48 pm 38
@Keera, (31)
You’re right that a lot of people have trouble doing even simple math without a calculator. I’m a math tutor (as you know!) and I sometimes have to physically remove the calculator from my student’s hand and force him/her to try a problem without it. It can be so much faster if they just think about it for a second, but they’re so used to reaching for the calculator that they don’t realize it’s easier without.
And on that, if anyone knows good little games to play with kids to encourage mental math, I’d love to hear them. For example, I have one game where we roll about 5 dice (3 cubes, 2 dodecs) and try to hit a preset number by using basic operations on the dice. More games like that would be very welcome.
Nicole Feb 7th 2010 at 08:30 pm 39
Chakolate #38
Some people have trouble doing simple math WITH a calculator. I was at a dance a few years ago, and they had set up a small cafeteria, sandwiches and the like. My partner and I grabbed a sandwich each, a can of soda and maybe a cookie. Ringing people out was a 17 year old … with a calculator. After she took three tries at adding up our purchases with the calculator, I finally held up each item asking how much each was, adding the cost in my head. When I told her the total she looked as though I had just made an elephant appear. I find this story frightening.
Chakolate Feb 7th 2010 at 08:43 pm 40
Nicole - you’re absolutely right. A couple of years ago a math professor and I went to the campus coffee shop, and the electronic cash register conked out just as we reached it. He and I both did the adding in our heads, including the tax, and told her what the amount was, and she just kept trying to push buttons. She finally called over the manager, who got paper and pencil and struggled with it for a while, and finally decided to believe us, since he couldn’t figure it out properly.
5th grade math. It’s 5th grade math, people. ARGH!
FeelinOld Feb 8th 2010 at 11:16 am 41
Chakolate #38
Occasionally however you do get a surprise, I was in a small store a while ago when a teenage girl who appeared to fit the typical stereotype (Sullen, pierced etc.) took over at the till when the power failed and proceeded to check people out hand writing receipts and never even seemed to slow down when she put in the totals and tax (admittedly our tax is a pretty easy 5%) when she got to me I’d already done the math in my head for the 11 items I had and she was bang on in a fraction of the time. I think we actually got through faster then we normally would have because people couldn’t use their fricken debit cards…
Of course that brings up another sore point, whatever happened to counting change back. So what if the machine told you the change was 11.47, that doesn’t mean the handful of bills and coins you just dumped on me is actually 11.47. (This wasn’t the case above, she did count back my change)
Jim Feb 8th 2010 at 12:34 pm 42
@mkilby (36) - That would work (to have CIDU Bill send me your email address, then I’ll send you the program. Since we haven’t heard from CIDI Bill yet maybe there’s a “contact me” button around here somewhere . . . there it is. Gee, it goes to FAQ’s and “Don’t’s” and I don’t see how to contact him. Over to you mkilby, hope you’re smarter than me.
Jim Feb 8th 2010 at 12:38 pm 43
We bought six bottles of wine at the supermarket recently to get a 10% discount. We put the wine at the front of everything so the total would be easy to get and the cashier appreciated that and reached for a printed table so he could get the discount amount. It took him a while to find it too.
I used to program an IBM 1401 that had 4 tape drives, no disk at all and 8,000 6-bit BCD characters (not bytes) of core memory. Real core memory too. Big honkin’ donuts that you could see by opening the cover.
Nicole Feb 8th 2010 at 01:17 pm 44
Jim #42/ mkilby #36
A very simple solution to your dillema would be for mkilby to set up a throw away address on gmail/hotmail or any of the other free email providers. mkilby posts the email address, Jim sends the file to the throw away address. mkilby downloads the file and deletes the throw away address. Voila
Chakolate Feb 8th 2010 at 01:59 pm 45
FeelinOld #41 - Wonderful! Whenever I see that, it just gives me a warm feeling for the rest of the week.
Jim Feb 8th 2010 at 03:56 pm 46
@Nicole #44 — Thanks Nicole, that would work but CIDU Bill has solved the problem. mkilby, I’m on the case.
Jeff S. Feb 9th 2010 at 12:00 am 47
I remember those $100 calculators. I took mine apart and lost some of the springs that went under the buttons (which made an electrical connection and made the calculator WORK). My parents were not pleased at all.
mkilby Feb 9th 2010 at 08:23 am 48
@ Everyone (1-47) … For those of you who have been following the saga, the CIDU Wizard waved his magic wand, and we all lived happily every after. Jim’s program is (or was) a nifty little gadget, although the awkwardness of launching a DOS box would make it difficult to use on a regular basis for a current system (I tested it on my archival OS/2 system, since Jim already indicated that Windows would handle it without problems).