I recall the day it came! Teeny mag cards (same as in 71 or were those larger?) Hmmm I might.. have a one or two about - mention if you want me to try to find. I think it had a Lunar Lander game, too. :-)

Leaving it on the desk running - as it looked for primes: think one was ~1 x 10E10 + 3? 4? People would come by, ask - how's it doing? But I believe the HP-35, the world's first scientific calculator, is the one which belongs in a glass case in the Library of Congress..

Yes that HP bears no remote resemblance to the current Billy-mold Pee Cee commodity hawkers of '02. HP == repackagers of tank-cars full of ink in 20\ufffd plastic pods to rip-off at $30, as long as the sheep will pay that.

As the US leaves the "commodity work" of science, techno - to overseas lo bidders, can [that Stupid Name] 'Agilent' long survive? making $30K digital scopes which are blind most of the sample-time, calculating. So who can afford $30-50K, except a few Corps trying to sell an even more expensive ink-jet refill (type thing), next?

My Hp 105A Quartz Oscillator (sec. time std., checked with a Rb std. periodically) has been ON here, for last 3+ years, probably 10 before that. It's crystal has aged to point of a predictable drift rate; improving on factory spec. I think.. this was still in HP catalog for $11K a few years ago, a vast sum even incl. inflation - compared to orig. pricing.

There's not One Item in Agilent catalog I could remotely afford to buy (well, maybe a spare probe clip).

Tektronix dismantled their world-class CRT-fab and much else, years ago - so they are basically in the digital-scope 'virtually-data' field too, while real engineers lovingly protect their 25+ yo fast scopes, for which there are NO replacements. (Save one Japanese Kikusui? 550 MHz scope using an image tube similar to Tek's now discontinued technology of yore - if that is still available)

So it ain't just HP - - it's the USA that has become Babbitt. A nation of marketing droids, from top to bottom.


Ashton