17 Sep
2015
17 Sep
'15
11:14 a.m.
On 09/17/2015 10:51 AM, tony duell wrote:
As a total thread-drift, I have in my hand a machine
that anyone
would class as a a programmable calculator. It looks like a
calcualtor, it has key-per-function operation (that is, a 'SIN' key,
etc). And yet...
Back in the day, a friend who worked for Lockheed on a top-secret
government project faced a problem. Posessions were searched upon
reporting to the site and upon exit. Things such as cameras, notebooks
and tape recorders were confiscated. He essentially had to do his work
in a screened vault.
So he began bringing his HP 41C to work with him. As calculators
weren't on the proscribed list, not an eyebrow was raised. It was only
logical that an engineer needed a calculator. So he smuggled his data
in and out using the memory of the 41C.
--Chuck