Calculators :

I just love a good well designed calculator, and have collected quite a few. The only calculators that are any good in my opinion are Casio and Hewlett Packard. Casio have set the standard in low cost functional direct algebraic calculators, and HP of course have their feature packed, elegant, and classic Reverse Polish Notation calculators.

Check out the HP Calculator Museum.

• Casio FX-61F
  This is the calculator of choice for electronics work. If you a lot of electronics math then you are doing yourself a disservice without one of these!. The best thing about the 61F is the PARALLEL function key, it just makes your life so much easier. The impedance keys are also worth their weight in gold when you have to do a lot of repetitive impedance calculations.
  Seperate Dec/Hex/Bin/Oct keys make base conversion easy.
• Tandy EC-4031
  Most Tandy calculators are rebadged Casio's, and this one is similar to the FX-100S. A really nice basic scientific calculator for general use. Supurbly designed, with only a single LSI chip mounted directly onto a membrane along with the keys and LCD.
• Casio CFX-400 Calculator Watch
  This is an absolute classic!. A complete scientific calculator with base conversion in a very compact fully functional watch. I wore one of these for almost ten years before the band support broke off. I've never been the same without it. It had a 16 key membrane type keypad with four functions per key that looked like it wouldn't last 6 months, but I got ten years solid use out of it, and it still works!. My fingers are just small enough to allow me to operate each key without using a finger nail!.
  One of the best examples of engineering I have ever seen. I have since sold this to a collector.
• HP 28S
  This classic calculator with 32KB of stack space and direct algebraic or reverse polish notation was the best calculator in the world back in 1986. Everything is treated as an object, and you can manipulate real numbers, complex numbers, binary numbers, strings, vectors, and matrices with equal ease. The Solver, Algebra, and Graph functions were radical inovations in their day, and even today, the 28S is only purpassed by the upgraded HP48 series.
  The dual folding keyboard is also a masterpiece
• HP 42S
  This is the upgraded model to the classic HP41C series. Less functionality than the 28S, but in a much smaller package. HP's top of the range standard RPN calculator.
• Check out my E²CALC Engineering Calculator program.

Computers :

• HP200LX
  The best DOS palmtop on the market bar none!. Picked it up for next to nothing from cash convertors in Adelaide
• Tandy 1000
  The Tandy 1000 had such an impact on my life that I run a Webring dedicated to it!
• Tandy 1100FD
  This was a nice little XT notebook that was around before the term notebook was even coined. It had MS-DOS and Deskmate software (with spell checker) built into ROM, and used a lead acid battery. I customised it with an additional internal lead acid battery without making any modifications. I sold this many years ago, but still have the technical reference manual for it.
• Tandy PC-8 Pocket Computer
  A classic pocket computer with 2KB of RAM and inbuilt BASIC.
• IBM L40sx
  A 20Mhz 386sx mono laptop with what is quite simply the best keyboard ever made on a laptop or desktop!. Only has 2MB of RAM, but is still really useful for long periods of typing due to the supurb keyboard. Also has an IIT math co-processor, which were supurb 80-bit co-pro's that were miles ahead of Intel in their day. The only thing wrong with this beauty was the screen, which isn't exactly the best I have seen.
• Daewoo CPC7400S Notebook
  20MB of RAM, STN colour VGA screen, 540MB HD, and 14k4 PCMCIA modem.
  A supurb tiny notebook with the smallest mains power adapter available at that time.
  
• Compaq Prosignia 320
  My current machine - 196MB, DVD & burner, 17" monitor, ZIP drive, and a 16MB nVida card. I'll never buy a no-name backyardy again!
• Standard Clone Desktop
  A 486DX4/120 with 1.2GB hard drive, 16MB of RAM, and 2x CD-ROM.
  This originally started out as a 386sx-20 with 2MB of RAM, but has been slowly upgraded over the years.
• NEC APC4
  A really bad machine that could barely call itself a PC clone. Sold it many years ago for double what I paid for it - a sucker born every minute :->
• Dick Smith CAT Computer
  A really flaky Apple 2 clone, but really fun to play with. Needed an Apple emulator cartridge to make it more "compatible", done to overcome copyright problems when selling the main machine - Ah, the good'ol days...

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