Sliding Nostalgia

[celticgeek]

For all of the old timers who remember these:

http://www.thinkgeek.com/cubegoodies/toys/791a/

Not only could I use them, I taught classes on how to use them - that's how old I am!

[Roxoff]

Yeah, but you cant play Doom on it...

[Odd_Bloke]

Yeah, but you cant play Doom on it...

Then go out and kill real people! That's what we did when we were young... :P


Disclaimer: I'm 17.

[dylunio]

Ah, nice to see they still sell stonage stuff over at thinkgeek

[carlosponti]

those were once the badges of engineers once you saw one on a fellows belt you knew immediatly they were in engineering...well according to this guy who taught history and had a degree in engineering.

[celticgeek]

Absolutely they were the badge of an enginner. And I used then in my engineering positions until the advent of electronic calculators (1973 - the famous HP35), which I also carried in a case strapped to my belt.

[LondoJowo]

I'm not proficient with the slide rule but I know some older engineers who can calculate compressor or steam turbine efficency as fast if not faster than a person entering the figures in a calculator

[techieMoe]

Perhaps this is kind of one of those "sundial vs wristwatch" or "star charts vs GPS modules" kind of things? We give up a some amount of ability or knowledge for the convenience of a newer technology? Or am I just getting way to philosophical about a neat old techie gadget? Haha.

[rhiannon]

My god! I used those things in college science classes about a million years ago. I think I still have one stuck away in the attic.

Only thinkgeek could have found warehouses full of them.

Jeez, a lot of old memories surrounding slipsticks.

I'm not sure this is a sundial versus watches thing, I think its just that celtic geek found some nostalgia for us old fogies.

[celticgeek]

Damn straight, rhiannon, just some nostalgia. I had figured that they were extinct, but sure enough, thinkgeek found some.

I must admit that I had not thought about slide rules (or slipsticks, a name which I also had not thought about for a long time) for a long long time.