I recently upgraded the OS on my Nokia 770 internet tablet. Afterwards I looked around for new applications to run on it and found this.

These days just about every electronic device anywhere has some sort of calculator. However, my first electronic calculator was a Hewlett-Packard HP-21, which I bought about 30 years ago. I became hooked on RPN notation and to this day find the usual algebraic notation calculators rather awkward. I still have an HP calculator, but I don’t regularly carry it these days. With my cell phone, my Nokia 770, and my employer’s Blackberry (all of which have calculators) I have enough electronics on me already.

RPN calculator emulators are widely available these days (I am not alone in my nostalgia). What I like about this one is that it makes the Nokia actually look like an old HP:

I find this quite comforting.

I suppose I am dating myself horribly by this post. However, it could have been worse: I did not discuss my slide rules.