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