appendage calculation device
I generally make it a rule not to blog items that have already appeared on bOINGbOING. In fact, it seems like the main reason I check that blog these days is to know what not to blog, since I assume both of my readers read the site. But a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, and I’ll make an exception for what bOINGbOING calls a “feature on the history of calculator watches.”
Although this blog post does a great job of digging some images of old and obscure calculator watches, I’m not sure if it quite qualifies as a feature or a history. I wonder if the Hewlett-Packard HP-01 watch used Reverse-Polish Notation1 and I wonder about the number of units shipped and the adoption rate of calculator watches once they became mainstream in the 1980s. I’m sure my graduate studies in the history of technology2 has raised my expectations of what a history should be. Like many histories of technology, the post ignores the downside of an adoption curve, when a technology falls out of vogue, so it doesn’t answer the question of when calculator watches became an ironic fashion statement, rather than a functional technology. Of course, maybe I’m largely alone in thinking calculator watches are ironic; perhaps only a Radio-TV-Film student could rock this sweet wristwatch.
1. Back in high school, when I was having a crazy love affair with my HP 48SX, I thought “Reverse-Polish Notation” was an ethnic slur, but Wikipedia informs me that there is actually something called “Polish Notation” and RPN systems like the ones used on HP calculators reverse the order of the operands and operators. Thank you Wikipedia!
2. I’ll remind skeptical readers that communication media like radio, television, and film are indeed technologies, and much of my coursework has dealt with their technological histories.
