JakeSparkleChicken

TLDR; Stick with the CG50 unless you find the new UI compelling

Released about six months ago, I finally picked up a Casio fx-CG100. Physically, it is a very pretty device, and the buttons feel great. I was excited to benchmark it and put it through my torture tests, but was pretty shocked by the results. It is actually a touch slower than the CG50 on all of my benchmarks, and uses the exact same algorithms as the CG50. That means that the gains in precision that we've seen with the fx-991CW do not carry over to the new flagship graphing calculator.

The UI has some welcome improvements, especially if you do a lot of linear algebra. On the main calculate page, defining vectors and matricies are only one button press away instead of digging through menus. I personally find the Catalog and Tools method of accessing functions to be a more intuitive method than the F-buttons, but your mileage may vary.

The biggest difference between the CG100 and the CG50 is that the CG100 lacks the ability to install additional programs. That means no khiCAS, and you're stuck with only what comes preinstalled. If I wasn't a collector/enthusiast, I'd strongly recommend giving this particular calculator a hard pass. As it is, exploring the unique UI and enjoying the physical attributes of the calculator make it worth it to me, and I'm happy to have it in my arsenal.

The last three pens that I picked up were Nahvalurs, including a couple of big, chunky Nautili. I love the heft of those pens, and when I first pulled this M205 out of the box I was shocked by how tiny and light it is. At first I would have described it as feeling insubstantial, but after spending a few hours with it, I'd have to say that it is a delicate pen. Not fragile, but delicate. It is such a lovely writer!

I have it inked up with Anderillium Roseate Spoonbill Pink.

I have a couple of Lamy 2000s, one inked with Diamine Wild Strawberry and the other one with Sailor Manyo Yamabuki. It takes me a couple of months to write them dry, after which I give them a good cleaning and ink them back up again.

The Diamine Wild Strawberry has been fine, but about a month into my latest fill of the Sailor Manyo Yamabuki it started coming out as a distinctly dark brown. I took the nib and feeder out to give it a scrubbing, and there was a build up of residue on the nib that took some scrubbing to get off. The ink behaved fine for the rest of the day, but has already started to darken again after about 72 hours.

Should I dump what's left in the reservoir? Try a different ink? Or is this normal for Yamabuki?

This is the calculator that my father bought for his senior year of high school in 1974. He showed it to me when I was four and I remember being amazed that a little box could add and subtract, captivated by the tiny red numbers. It was a few months later that he brought home our first computer, a Texas Instruments TI-99/4A, and I was again smitten. So much of the trajectory of my life can be traced back to those two objects.

When I opened the unit up I was not too terribly surprised to see a set of four AA batteries from the late 80's still installed, but I was very lucky that they hadn't leaked. I popped a new set in and it powered on with no issues. I played with it for a moment, the first time I had ever pushed the buttons on it, and placed it in the closet. I know it will be the perfect phylactery when I become a lich.

Originally posted by @HootinNHollerin@lemmy.world to !science_memes@mander.xyz

I just got an email from Casio Education saying that the next graphing calculator is coming next summer, and that prototypes will be shown off at the National Council of Teachers of Match Expo. I'm in the Chicago area, but tickets for non-members are way outside of my discretionary budget. If anybody is going, you'll have to fill us in!

The TI-nspire CX CAS was my first calculator with in integrated CAS, and it was a revelation! I was amazed that a handheld calculator could do symbolic logic, even though the technology goes back to the late '90s. I just never knew that it was a thing. The UI and software for the CX is almost identical to the CX II, though the CX II is more than twice as fast. The touchpad in the middle of the directional button was also improved quite a bit on the CX II. I still use this guy quite a bit, just because it is a special calculator to me. The CAS is not as full-featured as that on either the HP Prime or the Casio fx-CG500, but still powerful as hell. The CX also does not have the third-party support that the TI-89 Titanium has, but is many times faster than it and has the benefit of using a UI that was designed for its form factor.

The pen is an Asvine V200 Titanium M.

Sorry the angle is a little funky, but this is one of my two workhorses, the Casio BN-20. This guy gets used almost every day, and is my primary source of truth for my calendar and contacts. It was released in 1998 and has 2 MB of user memory. The spreadsheet function is pretty rudimentary, and the only function that I don't have a lot of experience with. The expense function is the best expense tool I've ever seen on an electronic organizer. I run Xubuntu on modern hardware and can sync the data using Casio PC Sync through Wine and with a USB to serial converter.

I've had this guy for about a 18 months and it is one of my favorites. It is slower than the HP Prime and the TI-nspire CX II CAS, but still blows the TI-89 Titanium out of the water as far as speed goes. The huge touchscreen gives it a unique UI that is easier to navigate than the TIs. I've found that this is the best of my collection for linear algebra, and it is the easiest of my CAS calculators to use.