On 27 November 2015 at 16:02, alan c <aecl...@candt.waitrose.com> wrote: > On 26/11/15 14:46, Simon Greenwood wrote: >> On 26 November 2015 at 14:31, Alan Lord <alansli...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >>> On 26/11/15 14:03, Alan Pope wrote: >>> >>>> >>>> I remember my brother getting music magazines with promo plastic >>>> records on the front :) >>>> >>> >>> lol - *I* remember getting those bendy 45s on the front of magazines... >>> >>> ​ >> Me too - I still have a few in my singles case​. Getting a record player >> set up is scheduled for some time next year... >> >> ​s​/ >> > > LOL LOL > My first job needed a slide rule use a LOT... One day I needed to calc > a large number of square roots. Went to a special large room > (cupboard) with only a table chair and a 10-digit nixie tube display > mans powered calculator. Later on that day I went back to the shop > floor where we made valves. (Valves are glass things like old light > bulbs, only they had lots of stuff inside and lots of plug in > connecting pins). Said hello to the glass blowers, and skirted around > the mercury vacuum pumps, to get to my desk... > > Ah! Those were the days! #computing > > NB a slide rule is a special little stick with markings along it. Good > for lots of uses including I suppose building the pyramids.
Have you still got yours Alan? I have mine. A classy Thornton's plastic model. My brother had a wooden one, mine was much smoother in operation, most superior. If you only need three digits precision it can be almost as fast as a calculator and it forces you to think what the numbers mean in a way you don't with a calculator. Much easier to make a stupid mistake on a calculator and never notice as you don't get an intuitive feel for the numbers in the same way. Colin -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/