Driver to drive?

[Joerg]

Roberto Waltman wrote:

Allan Herriman wrote:
I lost my HP15C when some luggage was stolen at LAX. I have yet to find
anything that comes close to being a replacement.

I have been wondering for a while, if there are enough old geezers
around to justify manufacturing a (small run of) an HP'ish calculator.

The one I would like:

* HP-25 form factor, with one or two additional button rows to
accommodate more functions. Robust 'clicky' buttons.
* Two or three line RED LEDs, (not negotiable,) alphanumeric display.
Dimmable to extend battery life.
* High capacity batteries / long battery life. Separate backup battery
to preserve user programs if the main battery is depleted. (Unless
everything goes to flash memory)
* Running on an appropriate ARM processor. Downloadable firmware, of
course, so you can have a scientific version, a financial version, an
[fill the blank] engineering version, an astrological version.
* Standard USB connector for recharging and transferring data to/from
computers.

What would you add?

A geezer edition would need a medication reminder, for when to take them
thar pills in case one gets too carried away in all the calculat'n

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

 

[Joerg]

Roberto Waltman wrote:

Allan Herriman wrote:
I lost my HP15C when some luggage was stolen at LAX. I have yet to find
anything that comes close to being a replacement.

I have been wondering for a while, if there are enough old geezers
around to justify manufacturing a (small run of) an HP'ish calculator.

The one I would like:

* HP-25 form factor, with one or two additional button rows to
accommodate more functions. Robust 'clicky' buttons.
* Two or three line RED LEDs, (not negotiable,) alphanumeric display.
Dimmable to extend battery life.
* High capacity batteries / long battery life. Separate backup battery
to preserve user programs if the main battery is depleted. (Unless
everything goes to flash memory)
* Running on an appropriate ARM processor. Downloadable firmware, of
course, so you can have a scientific version, a financial version, an
[fill the blank] engineering version, an astrological version.
* Standard USB connector for recharging and transferring data to/from
computers.

What would you add?

A geezer edition would need a medication reminder, for when to take them
thar pills in case one gets too carried away in all the calculat'n

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

 

[Jim Thompson]

On Tue, 05 Feb 2013 17:21:52 -0800, Joerg <invalid@invalid.invalid>
wrote:

Roberto Waltman wrote:
Allan Herriman wrote:
I lost my HP15C when some luggage was stolen at LAX. I have yet to find
anything that comes close to being a replacement.

I have been wondering for a while, if there are enough old geezers
around to justify manufacturing a (small run of) an HP'ish calculator.

The one I would like:

* HP-25 form factor, with one or two additional button rows to
accommodate more functions. Robust 'clicky' buttons.
* Two or three line RED LEDs, (not negotiable,) alphanumeric display.
Dimmable to extend battery life.
* High capacity batteries / long battery life. Separate backup battery
to preserve user programs if the main battery is depleted. (Unless
everything goes to flash memory)
* Running on an appropriate ARM processor. Downloadable firmware, of
course, so you can have a scientific version, a financial version, an
[fill the blank] engineering version, an astrological version.
* Standard USB connector for recharging and transferring data to/from
computers.

What would you add?


A geezer edition would need a medication reminder, for when to take them
thar pills in case one gets too carried away in all the calculat'n

Such services already exist. Started with pagers, now as cell-phone
texting... "Take your xxx pill now".

My son Aaron wrote the original code, when he was barely
out-of-school, for a company called TekNow. When he left that company
they sued him to prevent competition. They lost BAD >:-}

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, CTO | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.

 

[Joerg]

Jim Thompson wrote:

On Tue, 05 Feb 2013 17:21:52 -0800, Joerg <invalid@invalid.invalid
wrote:

Roberto Waltman wrote:
Allan Herriman wrote:
I lost my HP15C when some luggage was stolen at LAX. I have yet to find
anything that comes close to being a replacement.
I have been wondering for a while, if there are enough old geezers
around to justify manufacturing a (small run of) an HP'ish calculator.

The one I would like:

* HP-25 form factor, with one or two additional button rows to
accommodate more functions. Robust 'clicky' buttons.
* Two or three line RED LEDs, (not negotiable,) alphanumeric display.
Dimmable to extend battery life.
* High capacity batteries / long battery life. Separate backup battery
to preserve user programs if the main battery is depleted. (Unless
everything goes to flash memory)
* Running on an appropriate ARM processor. Downloadable firmware, of
course, so you can have a scientific version, a financial version, an
[fill the blank] engineering version, an astrological version.
* Standard USB connector for recharging and transferring data to/from
computers.

What would you add?

A geezer edition would need a medication reminder, for when to take them
thar pills in case one gets too carried away in all the calculat'n

Such services already exist. Started with pagers, now as cell-phone
texting... "Take your xxx pill now".

Goes much further these days. Pill box has RF gizmo in lid, sends notice
to other gizmo in kitchen when gramps takes his meds, kitchen gizmo
sends that to a web server -> Kids or caregivers are alerted when gramps
didn't take the meds.

My son Aaron wrote the original code, when he was barely
out-of-school, for a company called TekNow. When he left that company
they sued him to prevent competition. They lost BAD >:-}

Thou shalt not mess with the wrong people. A local district board
learned that the hard way, from yours truly.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

 

[Tim Wescott]

On Tue, 05 Feb 2013 18:08:29 -0700, Jim Thompson wrote:

On Tue, 05 Feb 2013 20:03:37 -0500, krw@attt.bizz wrote:

On Tue, 05 Feb 2013 17:58:01 -0500, Roberto Waltman
usenet@rwaltman.com> wrote:

Allan Herriman wrote:
I lost my HP15C when some luggage was stolen at LAX. I have yet to
find anything that comes close to being a replacement.

I have been wondering for a while, if there are enough old geezers
around to justify manufacturing a (small run of) an HP'ish calculator.

The one I would like:

* HP-25 form factor, with one or two additional button rows to
accommodate more functions. Robust 'clicky' buttons.
* Two or three line RED LEDs, (not negotiable,) alphanumeric display.
Dimmable to extend battery life.
* High capacity batteries / long battery life. Separate backup battery
to preserve user programs if the main battery is depleted. (Unless
everything goes to flash memory)
* Running on an appropriate ARM processor. Downloadable firmware, of
course, so you can have a scientific version, a financial version, an
[fill the blank] engineering version, an astrological version.
* Standard USB connector for recharging and transferring data to/from
computers.

It's called a "smart phone".

What would you add?

I'm of the old school that believes phones are for talking, not surfing.
What I'd like to find is a basic phone that can do inductive charging.

...Jim Thompson

Wouldn't a phone that can do deductive charging be better?

--
Tim Wescott
Control system and signal processing consulting
www.wescottdesign.com

 

[Greegor]

JT > I'm of the old school that believes phones are for talking, not
surfing.
JT >  What I'd like to find is a basic phone that can do inductive
charging.

TW > Wouldn't a phone that can do deductive charging be better?

I was thinking telepathic, to overcome people who forget to charge
them.

 

[Jasen Betts]

On 2013-02-06, Jamie <jamie_ka1lpa_not_valid_after_ka1lpa_@charter.net> wrote:

Ian Field wrote:



"Tim Williams" <tmoranwms@charter.net> wrote in message
news:keku69$6s1$1@dont-email.me...

AFAIK, pyroelectric sensors are a "single pixel" sort of thing, so
they don't know if the scene is moving, only if the average IR
changes. Which it does when someone comes into view or jumps out of
the shadows,


If you mean PIR motion detectors, they usually have twin element
pyrometers (thin film thermistor) a motion of a IR source (person) is
"grated" to produce a gross change from one element to the other - this
is done in various ways such as Freznel type lenses (special IR
transparent material) and faceted surface reflecting reflectors.

That's strange that you would call them thermistors?

AIUI they are closer to capacitor than resistor, the device does sense
its own temperature though, they detect remote temperature by
black-body radiation changing the temperature of the sensor.

TO me a thermistor

is a slow reacting device? But yet we have an application where we use a
basic pyroelectric 3 wire detector for detecting vibration of small
conductor as it exits from an induction heater. This vibration can get
up to around 1khz or more when the wire snaps for what ever reason.

I would think a thermistor device would be a little slow for this
wouldn't you?

if you could make it thin enough it would work.

--
⚂⚃ 100% natural

--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: news@netfront.net ---

 

[Greegor]

My son Aaron wrote the original code, when he was barely
out-of-school, for a company called TekNow.  When he left that company
they sued him to prevent competition.  They lost BAD >:-}

Thou shalt not mess with the wrong people. A local district board
learned that the hard way, from yours truly.

Local district board? What did you get them for Joerg?

 

[josephkk]

On Tue, 05 Feb 2013 10:49:55 -0500, Uncle Steve <stevet810@gmail.com>
wrote:

On Mon, Feb 04, 2013 at 07:46:54PM -0800, josephkk wrote:
On Sun, 03 Feb 2013 09:39:39 -0500, Uncle Steve <stevet810@gmail.com
wrote:

On Sat, Feb 02, 2013 at 08:48:41PM -0500, Bob Engelhardt wrote:
On 2/2/2013 11:09 AM, Uncle Steve wrote:
When I've properly broken in my new drivers I'll make a youtube video
so you can hear the results for yourself....

No emoticon, so I assume that he's serious. In which case, even though
I know nothing about what he's talking about, I do know that he is full
of shit. Youtube ... gimme a break!!! Bob

It was a joke, but several people were bound to mistake it for a
serious proposition.

Perhaps I will make a youtube video and see what people say.


Regards,

Uncle Steve

If only you would take your sig to heart.

?=/

I think I have a reasonably thorough apprehension of the text I quote
in my .sig. What do you think I am missing?


Regards,

Uncle Steve

Since you did ask, the first sentence more than the second. It is real
hard though, i fail near as often as i succeed.

?-)

 

[josephkk]

On Tue, 05 Feb 2013 11:44:42 -0500, Uncle Steve <stevet810@gmail.com>
wrote:

On Mon, Feb 04, 2013 at 08:37:16PM -0800, josephkk wrote:
On Sun, 03 Feb 2013 10:43:06 -0500, Uncle Steve <stevet810@gmail.com
wrote:


there have been speakers with dual coils where one was used for feed
back, afair it
had problems with varying coupling between the coils

The most interesting one and probably the one that works the best, was
a piezo disc
glued to the center dome measuring acceleration to do a full PID
regulator, reducing
distortion and setting the response

That's crazy. But the best way would probably be laser
interferometry with a tiny mirror glued to the driver. Not sure what
you'd use as a sensor.

I can see it now. Someone will jam a Raspberry PI in their speakers
and run the correcting factor back to the amp over Gigahertz Ethernet


Bawg, i do detest the Gbit/s Ethernet being used way stupidly as a panacea
buzz word. Does nobody understand that Ethernet has uncontrolled latency?
Packets may arrive out of order? For snot sake if you want to ship
digitized audio (or video for that matter) data fast with controlled
latency and guaranteed in order reception use D1 or any of several SMPTE
Standard protocols.

[still boiling mad]

I'm not quite sure why you are so upset. I was merely temporizing,
and I think most people here understand the difference between
high-speed interconnects and broadcast-oriented transports like
Ethernet in the context of actually building something to move bits
around.


Regards,

Uncle Steve

Word salad and worse. You are misusing "high speed interconnects",
"broadcast-oriented transports" and "Ethernet" horribly.

High speed interconnects normally refers to physical connectors and
connection systems, which may or may not include a protocol, and may or
may not include timing constraints.

Broadcast-oriented transports include C-band satellites (microwave
carriers FM modulated by the composite {audio and video} NTSC television
signal); D1, many other latency controlled SMPTE standards transports.

Ethernet is all about data transport in an unreliable network, it includes
reliable and unreliable transmission protocols. Pretenses of real time as
well as streaming protocols were added later creating confusion about what
Ethernet really is.

HTH

?-)

 

[josephkk]

On Sun, 03 Feb 2013 11:35:02 -0500, Uncle Steve <stevet810@gmail.com>
wrote:

I recognize the value of expensive electronics, but I think there is a
cost threshold after which the money spent is wasted. Difficult to
say what that threshold is, but it is certainly not more than $5000
per component. I do not have the most sophisticated ear in the world
and my threshold is probably somewhat lower. My budget is of course
much less.


Regards,

Uncle Steve

The threshold is nearer us $500 per component, sometimes below. Special
technologies can create some rare exceptions, e.g. laser turntables,
microscopic video turntables. For the rest, it gets nearly immeasurably
close to the best by $300, then some feature wars, but past $500 even that
is running out of gas.

?-)

 

[JW]

On 05 Feb 2013 21:46:43 GMT Allan Herriman <allanherriman@hotmail.com>
wrote in Message id:
<51117dc2$0$29879$c3e8da3$5496439d@news.astraweb.com>:

I lost my HP15C when some luggage was stolen at LAX. I have yet to find
anything that comes close to being a replacement.

There's one for $245 (Yikes!) BIN on Ebay, and a few with bids around
$100.

 

[Michael A. Terrell]

josephkk wrote:

On Tue, 05 Feb 2013 11:44:42 -0500, Uncle Steve <stevet810@gmail.com
wrote:

On Mon, Feb 04, 2013 at 08:37:16PM -0800, josephkk wrote:
On Sun, 03 Feb 2013 10:43:06 -0500, Uncle Steve <stevet810@gmail.com
wrote:


there have been speakers with dual coils where one was used for feed
back, afair it
had problems with varying coupling between the coils

The most interesting one and probably the one that works the best, was
a piezo disc
glued to the center dome measuring acceleration to do a full PID
regulator, reducing
distortion and setting the response

That's crazy. But the best way would probably be laser
interferometry with a tiny mirror glued to the driver. Not sure what
you'd use as a sensor.

I can see it now. Someone will jam a Raspberry PI in their speakers
and run the correcting factor back to the amp over Gigahertz Ethernet


Bawg, i do detest the Gbit/s Ethernet being used way stupidly as a panacea
buzz word. Does nobody understand that Ethernet has uncontrolled latency?
Packets may arrive out of order? For snot sake if you want to ship
digitized audio (or video for that matter) data fast with controlled
latency and guaranteed in order reception use D1 or any of several SMPTE
Standard protocols.

[still boiling mad]

I'm not quite sure why you are so upset. I was merely temporizing,
and I think most people here understand the difference between
high-speed interconnects and broadcast-oriented transports like
Ethernet in the context of actually building something to move bits
around.


Regards,

Uncle Steve

Word salad and worse. You are misusing "high speed interconnects",
"broadcast-oriented transports" and "Ethernet" horribly.

High speed interconnects normally refers to physical connectors and
connection systems, which may or may not include a protocol, and may or
may not include timing constraints.

Broadcast-oriented transports include C-band satellites (microwave
carriers FM modulated by the composite {audio and video} NTSC television
signal); D1, many other latency controlled SMPTE standards transports.

Ethernet is all about data transport in an unreliable network, it includes
reliable and unreliable transmission protocols. Pretenses of real time as
well as streaming protocols were added later creating confusion about what
Ethernet really is.

From some recent research, it looks liks TV broadcast is still 75 Ohm
coax in the studio. Some Tektronix waveform monitors have both NTSC
Analog & SDI Digital loopthrough inputs (1730 series). That allowed
stations to continue to use the same equipment as they converted to
digital. I recently picked up two 1730 for $20 each for my home shop.

 

[Joerg]

Greegor wrote:

My son Aaron wrote the original code, when he was barely
out-of-school, for a company called TekNow. When he left that company
they sued him to prevent competition. They lost BAD >:-}

Thou shalt not mess with the wrong people. A local district board
learned that the hard way, from yours truly.

Local district board? What did you get them for Joerg?

They wanted to get us to remove all our big trees for airport purposes
and pay all of this out of our pocket. Same for dozens of others. Long
story short, I made it rather clear to them that the law was not on
their side. After they still threatened us this was followed by some
ugly press exposure and dozens of us showing up at the meetings. You
could literally see the sweat running off their foreheads. I am a
friendly and forgiving guy (and became that way to them again after they
waved the white flag) but I can become very nasty if someone wants to
have me or innocent others over the barrel. They learned that very quickly.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

 

[Jim Thompson]

On Wed, 06 Feb 2013 07:59:01 -0800, Joerg <invalid@invalid.invalid>
wrote:

Greegor wrote:
My son Aaron wrote the original code, when he was barely
out-of-school, for a company called TekNow. When he left that company
they sued him to prevent competition. They lost BAD >:-}

Thou shalt not mess with the wrong people. A local district board
learned that the hard way, from yours truly.

Local district board? What did you get them for Joerg?


They wanted to get us to remove all our big trees for airport purposes
and pay all of this out of our pocket. Same for dozens of others. Long
story short, I made it rather clear to them that the law was not on
their side. After they still threatened us this was followed by some
ugly press exposure and dozens of us showing up at the meetings. You
could literally see the sweat running off their foreheads. I am a
friendly and forgiving guy (and became that way to them again after they
waved the white flag) but I can become very nasty if someone wants to
have me or innocent others over the barrel. They learned that very quickly.

Sounds like my situation where I complained to the homeowners'
association that a tree on the "mountain preserve" needed trimming...

They announced that they were simply going to cut it down.

I allowed as how it was an owl habitat (it really is, you've all seen
the pictures), and I notified the Sierra Club, SPCA, and every
newspaper and TV station in town.

The homeowners' association sent out a crew of Mexican's who came to
my door and said they were to ask me _exactly_ how I wished the tree
to be trimmed >:-}

The only actual contact I had from the homeowners' association was an
E-mail from the manager, complaining that I had called him a "cretin"
in my letter-to-the-editor ;-)

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, CTO | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.

 

[Ian Field]

"Jamie" <jamie_ka1lpa_not_valid_after_ka1lpa_@charter.net> wrote in message
news:j_gQs.69570$H5.27293@newsfe28.iad...

Ian Field wrote:



"Tim Williams" <tmoranwms@charter.net> wrote in message
news:keku69$6s1$1@dont-email.me...

AFAIK, pyroelectric sensors are a "single pixel" sort of thing, so they
don't know if the scene is moving, only if the average IR changes.
Which it does when someone comes into view or jumps out of the shadows,


If you mean PIR motion detectors, they usually have twin element
pyrometers (thin film thermistor) a motion of a IR source (person) is
"grated" to produce a gross change from one element to the other - this
is done in various ways such as Freznel type lenses (special IR
transparent material) and faceted surface reflecting reflectors.

That's strange that you would call them thermistors? TO me a thermistor
is a slow reacting device?

I have some continuity/voltage checkers with a thin film PTC in series with
an inverse parallel pair of high efficiency LEDs (2mA rating) - the series
PTC thermistor can react fast enough to protect the LEDs from application to
voltages upto 450V.

 

[John Fields]

On Tue, 5 Feb 2013 21:53:57 -0000, "Ian Field"
<gangprobing.alien@ntlworld.com> wrote:

"Tim Williams" <tmoranwms@charter.net> wrote in message
news:keku69$6s1$1@dont-email.me...
AFAIK, pyroelectric sensors are a "single pixel" sort of thing, so they
don't know if the scene is moving, only if the average IR changes. Which
it does when someone comes into view or jumps out of the shadows,

If you mean PIR motion detectors, they usually have twin element pyrometers
(thin film thermistor)

---
The sensor elements aren't thermistors, which are made from sintered
metal oxides (NTC) or a doped polycrystalline ceramic (PTC).

They're made from gallium nitride, cesium nitrate, polyvinyl
fluorides, derivatives of phenylpyridine, or cobalt phthalocyanine.

Moreover, thermistors exhibit a static change in resistance with a
change in temperature, while PIR elements generate a charge when
abruptly heated or cooled below their ambient temperature.
---

a motion of a IR source (person) is "grated" to
produce a gross change from one element to the other - this is done in
various ways such as Freznel type lenses (special IR transparent material)

---
"Fresnel" lens, and they're available in many more materials than just
IR transmitting.

--
JF

 

[John Fields]

On Wed, 6 Feb 2013 16:42:04 -0000, "Ian Field"
<gangprobing.alien@ntlworld.com> wrote:

"Jamie" <jamie_ka1lpa_not_valid_after_ka1lpa_@charter.net> wrote in message
news:j_gQs.69570$H5.27293@newsfe28.iad...
Ian Field wrote:



"Tim Williams" <tmoranwms@charter.net> wrote in message
news:keku69$6s1$1@dont-email.me...

AFAIK, pyroelectric sensors are a "single pixel" sort of thing, so they
don't know if the scene is moving, only if the average IR changes.
Which it does when someone comes into view or jumps out of the shadows,


If you mean PIR motion detectors, they usually have twin element
pyrometers (thin film thermistor) a motion of a IR source (person) is
"grated" to produce a gross change from one element to the other - this
is done in various ways such as Freznel type lenses (special IR
transparent material) and faceted surface reflecting reflectors.

That's strange that you would call them thermistors? TO me a thermistor
is a slow reacting device?

I have some continuity/voltage checkers with a thin film PTC in series with
an inverse parallel pair of high efficiency LEDs (2mA rating) - the series
PTC thermistor can react fast enough to protect the LEDs from application to
voltages upto 450V.

---
Apples and oranges.

--
JF

 

On Tue, 05 Feb 2013 18:21:04 -0700, Jim Thompson
<To-Email-Use-The-Envelope-Icon@On-My-Web-Site.com> wrote:

On Tue, 05 Feb 2013 20:16:13 -0500, krw@attt.bizz wrote:

On Tue, 05 Feb 2013 18:08:29 -0700, Jim Thompson
To-Email-Use-The-Envelope-Icon@On-My-Web-Site.com> wrote:

On Tue, 05 Feb 2013 20:03:37 -0500, krw@attt.bizz wrote:

On Tue, 05 Feb 2013 17:58:01 -0500, Roberto Waltman
usenet@rwaltman.com> wrote:

Allan Herriman wrote:
I lost my HP15C when some luggage was stolen at LAX. I have yet to find
anything that comes close to being a replacement.

I have been wondering for a while, if there are enough old geezers
around to justify manufacturing a (small run of) an HP'ish calculator.

The one I would like:

* HP-25 form factor, with one or two additional button rows to
accommodate more functions. Robust 'clicky' buttons.
* Two or three line RED LEDs, (not negotiable,) alphanumeric display.
Dimmable to extend battery life.
* High capacity batteries / long battery life. Separate backup battery
to preserve user programs if the main battery is depleted. (Unless
everything goes to flash memory)
* Running on an appropriate ARM processor. Downloadable firmware, of
course, so you can have a scientific version, a financial version, an
[fill the blank] engineering version, an astrological version.
* Standard USB connector for recharging and transferring data to/from
computers.

It's called a "smart phone".

What would you add?

I'm of the old school that believes phones are for talking, not
surfing. What I'd like to find is a basic phone that can do inductive
charging.

What's the matter Thompson? Killfiles broken? ...or are you lying
again.

I grant an annual amnesty period... to see if anyone has mellowed.
You're barely passing so far ;-)

Mostly I now just killfile profound assholes... like Larkin.

I can add you back in, if you like >:-}

You needn't do me any favors. You're not worth it.

 

On Tue, 05 Feb 2013 17:21:52 -0800, Joerg <invalid@invalid.invalid>
wrote:

Roberto Waltman wrote:
Allan Herriman wrote:
I lost my HP15C when some luggage was stolen at LAX. I have yet to find
anything that comes close to being a replacement.

I have been wondering for a while, if there are enough old geezers
around to justify manufacturing a (small run of) an HP'ish calculator.

The one I would like:

* HP-25 form factor, with one or two additional button rows to
accommodate more functions. Robust 'clicky' buttons.
* Two or three line RED LEDs, (not negotiable,) alphanumeric display.
Dimmable to extend battery life.
* High capacity batteries / long battery life. Separate backup battery
to preserve user programs if the main battery is depleted. (Unless
everything goes to flash memory)
* Running on an appropriate ARM processor. Downloadable firmware, of
course, so you can have a scientific version, a financial version, an
[fill the blank] engineering version, an astrological version.
* Standard USB connector for recharging and transferring data to/from
computers.

What would you add?


A geezer edition would need a medication reminder, for when to take them
thar pills in case one gets too carried away in all the calculat'n

There's an app for that. ;-)