RichardB Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 Superior Systems 178 West Street Sheffield S1 4ET Telephone 0742 755005 (just in case you feel a need to ring up and order yourself some old, overpriced electronic-tat). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveH Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 Superior Systems 178 West Street Sheffield S1 4ET Telephone 0742 755005 (just in case you feel a need to ring up and order yourself some old, overpriced electronic-tat). The 0742, rather than 0114 telephone number dates this as much as the computers on offer. Were they overpriced, or very competitatively priced for their time? Is it "electronic old tat" or is "classic vintage computer equipment" which is now quite collectable and was top stuff at the time it came out? Really it just shows how much computers have developed, and how much a mass market can cause prices to fall over the last 30 years or so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardB Posted April 11, 2012 Author Share Posted April 11, 2012 This ad from Personal Computer World, August 1982. Consider how much a Commodore calculator cost in the mid-70's... The 0742, rather than 0114 telephone number dates this as much as the computers on offer. Were they overpriced, or very competitatively priced for their time? Is it "electronic old tat" or is "classic vintage computer equipment" which is now quite collectable and was top stuff at the time it came out? Really it just shows how much computers have developed, and how much a mass market can cause prices to fall over the last 30 years or so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveH Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 This ad from Personal Computer World, August 1982. Consider how much a Commodore calculator cost in the mid-70's... Calculators came out in the early 1970's and at first were very expensive, £50 or more, a lot of money in 1971, for a calculator with only the 4 basic mathematical functions (+,-,x,/) and using the Polish (post operative) system of imputting problems. It was so expensive that many of us science and mathematics students stuck with slide rules and 4 or 5 figure logarithms for quite a few years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edmund Posted April 13, 2012 Share Posted April 13, 2012 In 1978 I was in my first full time job at Sheffield University Dept of Chemical Engineering & Fuel Technology, as a very poorly paid trainee technician. Because of the 'trainee' bit, they forced me to start an HND Mechanical Engineering course at the Poly. On attending, I found I was required to buy a scientific calculator. On visiting Boots I found that it would cost me an entire weeks wages. This was bad news as I normally spent my entire wages with other enterprises (Stones, Wards). I never finished the HND but I suppose the part completed course paid for itself as when I was interviewed for a job on the PO Telephones in 79, the interviewer was apparently a mathetician, and was duly impressed when he asked me to differentiate log x and I did it without hesitation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardB Posted April 13, 2012 Author Share Posted April 13, 2012 As a non-maths person differentiating log x sounds like an embarrassing medical condition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveH Posted April 13, 2012 Share Posted April 13, 2012 I never finished the HND but I suppose the part completed course paid for itself as when I was interviewed for a job on the PO Telephones in 79, the interviewer was apparently a mathetician, and was duly impressed when he asked me to differentiate log x and I did it without hesitation. As a non-maths person differentiating log x sounds like an embarrassing medical condition. Do you mean the differential of log x (a logarithm to a specified base (a), but usually base 10, ie log(a) x) OR do you mean the differential of ln x (a natural logarithm having the exponential number (Eulers number) as its base) Or can you do both? For Richards benefit, the differential of ln x is easier. Anyway, Richard claims to be well up on physics, - is that possible without a good foundation in mathematics? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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