P Ford, very off topic.

[wobs]

We live in a generation of parents who tend describe their offspring's job as "does something with computers".

BTW, I had a Texas Instruments TI99/4A. Had cartridges as well as tape software, and I got the UK's highest score on Parsec on it. Playing around with programming was limited.

 

[Flyfisher]

I'll call your TI-99 and raise you a TI-58 programmable calculator.
http://www.vintagecalculators.com/html/texas_insturments_ti_58.html

Vastly expensive for a calculator but my employer at the time had one and programs could be stored on magnetic cards.
I wrote a lunar lander program for it, though the user interface was somewhat limited. :lol:

 

[Feltwell]

I wrote a lunar lander program for it, though the user interface was somewhat limited. :lol:

Just you & Buzz Aldrin was it? :wink:

My father had one of those early mains powered LED desktop calculators, but it was in Arabic - both the keys and the display if I remember rightly. Confused the hell out of anyone else in his office who tried to use it!

 

[Flyfisher]

Sadly, I flunked astronaut school and they sent some American chappie to hold Buzz's hand instead. Or was it because I was only 12 at the time? :wink:

 

[wobs]

I'll call your TI-99 and raise you a TI-58 programmable calculator.
http://www.vintagecalculators.com/html/texas_insturments_ti_58.html

Vastly expensive for a calculator but my employer at the time had one and programs could be stored on magnetic cards.
I wrote a lunar lander program for it, though the user interface was somewhat limited. :lol:

During my degree in the 90s, we had to buy a £85 progammable calculator as the maths lessons were designed around them. It was a TI-85.

I still have it for work. We found a load of software that you could download onto it for free, including Tetrus, connect4, and some periodic table thing. Very useful.

What can be really useful is the unit convertor, although only if you are aware that the US has some funny ideas about units. (And that its possible to get a negative kelvin result!).

 

[middi]

I had a "commodore 64", I even started to enjoy the " basic" slow motion speed of programming with it . As soon as I realised that it was useless in trying to chisel out mortices with it I passed it on to my ( then very young) children. It kept them quiet and me earning a living.
They now earn a living " doing something with computers" and my brain is too clogged up with saw dust to understand what they are actually doing with it.

Middi