From: phr@telebit.com (Paul Rubin)
Subject: Re: The "high price" of the HP48!
Organization: Telebit Corporation; Sunnyvale, CA, USA
	<PHR.92Dec30222224@napa.telebit.com>
	<1992Dec31.181700.8722@doug.cae.wisc.edu>
Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1993 05:00:06 GMT

In article <1992Dec31.181700.8722@doug.cae.wisc.edu> kolstad@cae.wisc.edu (Joel Kolstad) writes:

   In article <PHR.92Dec30222224@napa.telebit.com> phr@telebit.com (Paul Rubin) writes:
   >A 48 still seems to me like a solution looking
   >for a problem.

   I can accept the fact that this is how you see the 48.  For myself and many
   others, I think, we've found appropriate problems.

I'm still waiting to hear what these problems are.

   >A 48 seems like a fun toy and I'd buy one if someone offered me one
   >cheap enough, but I feel it is a disservice to most students to
   >suggest that a real computer is not a better investment.

   You're probably going to get upset if I suggest everyone ought to own a
   computer, aren't you? :-)

I do think that everyone ought to own a computer.  But once you
own a computer, the HP48 becomes mostly redundant, which is why
I'm saying most people don't need an HP48.

   I agree that everyone should probably have _access_ to word
   processing facilities before they worry about getting a calculator.
   ...  Given the access to computers provided by the college and the
   cost differential between decent computers ($2500) and decent
   calculators ($250), I think some students would be better off
   buying a calculator first.

$2500 is far more than I spent on my computer, a 486dx/33 which runs
Linux (a full featured Unix clone) and MSDOS, and Mathematica under
MSDOS.  My previous computer was a Toshiba T1000 (great machine, btw)
which I sold for $300 including an internal modem.  Someone else
posted here recently that you can get a Powerbook 100 for $500,
which is a considerably more powerful machine than the Mac Pluses
we used to have around campus, in addition to being portable enough
to bring to school when you need it.

   P.S. -- The prices above are somewhat speculative.  "Decent"
   computers could range all the way from $1500 386SX boxes to $10000
   workstations, whereas "decent" calculators could range from $100
   TI-81's to $500 fully-outfitted HP-48's.

The computer prices you cite are way too high.  I don't think there
are any $10k single-seat workstations in the company where I work, and
we are a full blown development shop (hardware and software).  You can
quite easily get a 386sx box in the $500 range and I've scrounged
together XT and 286 machines for as little as $100.  I don't know what
a TI-81 is but I think my (now dead) HP25 was a more than powerful
enough calculator for nearly any student, and the 42S that replaced it
with is more powerful than I've ever had a need for that any
calculator could fill.  Personally I found the $10 nonprogrammable
Sharp scientific that I had for a while adequate for most purposes
though there were some times a little programmability would have been
nice.  It seems to me that the current low-end HP's in the $50 range
would fit this bill nicely.
From: akcs.ejf@hpcvbbs.cv.hp.com (Ed Fasula)
Date: Sat, 2 Jan 1993 23:40:02 GMT
Subject: Re: How do I copy ROM-libraries to a RAM-card?
Message-ID: <2b4624f1.2510.4comp.sys.hp48.1@hpcvbbs.cv.hp.com>