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by blauditore 15 days ago
Same here (actually had a voyage 200, but same same I guess). It's actually quite insulting that TI kept (and keeps?) selling waaay outdated hardware at horrendous prices. It's the SAP/Oracle business model applied to school hardware.
2 comments
duskwuff 15 days ago
> Same here (actually had a voyage 200, but same same I guess).

Not the same, actually! Unlike the TI-83/84 series, the TI-89, -92, and Voyage-200 all used a 68000 CPU, with a completely different (and much better) operating system.

I wrote a web-based emulator for the Voyage-200 a few years ago: https://woofle.net/v200/

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blauditore 12 days ago
Ah yeah, we all had either TI-89 or v200. Still was already 20-year-old tech at the time we bought it for the price of a mid-range modern phone. It really should have cost a fraction of that.
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II2II 15 days ago
While I agree on bit about horrible prices, the TI calculators are well suited to their intended task[1] so I will object to the outdated hardware part. Stability is a good thing in the context of classrooms. Why should schools be spending money on replacement hardware, software, and textbooks when the curriculum itself is fundamentally unchanged?[2]

[1] Except the screens on the older models were truly horrible, from a brightness and contrast perspective.

[2] From my recollection, the calculators interfaced with hardware and software from other vendors. Then, of course, there was the vendor lock-in provided by textbook publishers.

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Zardoz84 14 days ago
I found a funny irony that in the country of free market, a calculator model was enforced nation wide in the schools. Here, in Spain, the teacher would only ask to the kids to get a calculator. They never ask for a concrete model or brand. Perhaps, they will only go ask to not get a programmeble calculator.

I agree that you not need to have more powerful calculator. A cheap Casio or HP calculator it's enough for the 99% of time. I keep using my old Casio from my formative years. It's in an interesting calc. Powerful enough to write formulas and complex calculations, but can't store formulas or programs. Just in the nice spot that allowed it to be used in exams.

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