Author: Shane

The TI-83 Graphing Calculator

/ Shane / 3 Comments

Ah, the old graphing calculator. Remember this beauty?

Is there anybody who didn’t use one of these in math class? I don’t remember how it came up, but I was feeling nostalgic for calculators. It’s kind of funny to think that these pillars of our childhood are a thing of the past. Who bothers with a dedicated calculator anymore? I mean, your average phone can do everything this big clunky beast could do and then some, while also providing a million other, more complicated functionality (even just the ability to make phone calls, to name the most basic).

I started wondering if they still had graphing calculators, since probably everybody in high school has smartphones by now anyway. What version number are they up to? How ridiculously cheap are they now?

Imagine my shock when I discovered that, not only is the TI-83 still the graphing calculator of choice, it actually costs MORE now than when I was in school ($150, on sale for $90!). How in god’s name can they get away with charging roughly the same as for an iPhone? The calculator has 32 kb of Ram and a 6 mhz processor. No phone, no wifi, no camera. No color touch screen for that matter. They actually use this picture in their sales brochure:

So what gives? They’ve been churning these things out for 20 years; they can’t cost more than a couple of bucks to make at this point. How can they get away with this?

Apparently I’m not the first one to notice. Just scanning the first few comments:

Where does TI even find suppliers that make components this out of date? Actually, maybe that’s why this thing is so expensive. The components are so old that scarcity is a big problem.

and

So then I downloaded a FREE graphing calculator app on my outdated Android phone. And it’s friggin marvelous: instantaneous, intuitive, will do a 3d graph of x=sin(y) (3x faster than the ti does sin(x)) that rotates in full color with ability to pan and zoom on the touchscreen.

…

This makes my (dated!) phone exactly 88 times as fast with 6000 times the memory. … Then I could zoom out 10 times, take a screenshot, and email it to you, just because I can (in 30 seconds).

Come on, school districts. This is ridiculous. Wake up and don’t put up with this extortion. They weren’t that great back when I was in school (although you could play some wicked head-to-head Tetris in class if you had the little cord).

Quote Monday minces words

/ Shane / 1 Comment

Evie: “…and I’ll sing the whole song once I’m ready for bed. Sounds good?”
Me: “Sounds…inevitable.”
Evie: “Sounds incredible?”
Sara: “Yeah, that’s what he said.”

Ollie: “I probably know where my teachers live.”
Me: “Oh yeah? Where?”
Ollie: “…”
Ollie: “I said probably.”

Ollie has a few “Ollie-isms” that I find quite amusing. These are not one-time mis-speakings, these are things he consistently says over the course of months:

“Grandpa and Grandpa” – meaning Grandma and Grandpa. For example, “What time are Grandpa and Grandpa going to get here?”
“Pack-pack” – meaning backpack.
“Hooza-hoop” – also known as a hula hoop

Belgium

/ Shane / 2 Comments

I spent last week in the charming city of Leuven, Belgium. I must admit that I didn’t know anything about Leuven before going there, but I was pleasantly surprised at what a nice, walkable, European university town it was. There was lots of shopping, cobblestone streets, good food, and surprisingly good architecture.

November 001

The trip certainly started off well. The plane was as close to empty as I’ve seen in years. An overnight flight is never great, but this was about as great as it can get, and I had a row to myself. I was able to lay down across 3 seats and get almost 3 hours of sleep.

Belgium is not a place that I ever really aspired to visit. I really couldn’t list anything that I’ve “always wanted to do” in Belgium. Whenever I’m in a place, I always like to eat the food of that place, but I wasn’t even sure what the food of Belgium was. However, four things kept coming up: Beer, french fries (or “Belgian fries” as they call them in France), chocolate, and mussels (as opposed to the Muscles from Brussels, which is something else entirely).

Well, check, check, check, and check (alas, no JCVD sightings).

November 003

I want to specifically address beer.

We all have a friend who is “that guy”: he’s always up on the latest micro-brews, always talking about beer, trying to get you to try this beer or that beer, even brews his own beer. Probably you know quite a few of those guys. I’m telling you now, that guy has nothing on Belgians.

Beer is absolutely a way of life over there. A bar with less than 30 beers is wasting everybody’s time. Each beer is served in a different specialty glass specific to that beer, designed to highlight its unique qualities. They literally make pilgrimages to remote monasteries for a chance to buy a case of rare, Monk-produced beer.

In other words, they take it pretty serious.

I, on the other hand, hate beer. Hate it. Yet every time I searched for variations on “what to do in Belgium”, beer was always at the top of the list (Stella Artois is specifically brewed in Leuven). Even when I started searching for “what to do in Belgium if you don’t like beer”, it mostly returned results that basically said, “Well, come on, there’s thousands of beers, how can you say you don’t like beer?” or “10 best beers for people who don’t like beer!”

So, as they say, when in Rome. I do like to try the food of the place.

I never would have believed it if I hadn’t tasted it with my own mouth, but damn if they don’t have tasty beer over there! I really enjoyed Leffe Brune (much better from the tap than from a bottle).

November 004The work meetings went great, and overall it was a really nice little trip. Unfortunately, with the travel and time change, etc., 2 days of work necessitate a 5 day trip. And even then, I essentially had no time to really explore the city, much less Brussels or any of the other surrounding areas. It certainly would have been a lot more fun to have Sara and the kids with me (probably more fun for them too, especially Sara), but we managed to get by with a couple of one-way video chats (I had a camera, they didn’t). Maybe we’ll have another chance sometime!

Quote Monday prepares for Christmas

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Sara: “Ollie, what would you like for Christmas?”
Ollie: “A pan. A real pan, for cooking.”
Sara: “Well, what kind of pan?”
Ollie: “A bubble gum pan.”
Sara: “What’s a bubble gum pan?”
Ollie: “So I could make bubble gum for Evie when she wants some.”
Sara: “Okay. Well, what else do you want?”
Ollie: “A popcorn popper, so I can teach my kids how to make popcorn.”
Sara: “Anything else?”
Ollie: “Leaves. So I can save them and they don’t all die.”
Sara: “Anything else?”
Ollie: “A piano.”

Is that not the CUTEST CHRISTMAS LIST of all time? So his priorities, in order, are 1) his sister, 2) passing on traditions to his future kids, 3) mother nature, and 4) himself.

Evie: “Momma said to remind you that you can talk and make dinner at the same time.”