Hahaha! Good article. I didnt know much about this I.R thing, but I want ONE!

The IR can be found at sami.ticalc.org/irlink/e_intro.html. (Use the URL above). They're nice little things to have.

--Joey

I want more than one, because it's probably that I'll end up breaking a couple ;)

--BlueCalx

Err, probably == probable. Stupid me.

--BlueCalx part 2

not to mention that its useless unless someone in the room has one too thus u need to outfit somebody with one...

in reference to the part about teachers wising up and clearing the calcs the teachers at my school already do that and it is done at certain accademic meets... not that i cheat or anything i just dont want my memory cleared so i thought that making a quick little interactive prog that let the teach "clear" the calcs mem might work. it was easy to do with just the basic getky and the teachs nvr suspected anything also a 'side on that gameboy thing(if one is brought to class the student is sent to the office..) well i was playin' one in class and all the teach did was ask, in front of the class mind you, what game i was playin'. since i nvr needed to pay attention anyways she could care less...

Yeah, that has happened to me in the past (clearing mem.) , but only during tests, however the teacher didn't want anyone playing gams at all, and I don't mind that but I do, on the other hand, mind if the calculators were cleared everytime one stepped within the bounds of the classroom. (That would perturb me to the point of game resignation because i would be fed up with having to load a game up every day, or then stop bringing my graphing calc to class [ which is prohibated in my Trig class] ).

And the thing about the SAT prog. . . . .they say it will raise your score above 600?
_If you ask me that is awfully low, wouldn't you say?_ When I was in seventh grade I took the SAT's from John Hopkins University in Baltimore (wow it was computarized, no filling in bubbles!) , and ended with a score of 640, and even without any prospect of what the SAT's would be like.

Dost anyone agree with me?

yeah, i sort of agree

basicly, the more naive you are about the test, the more test preps help.

still, i think its disgusting that those two guys who sell programs for the 83s were even mentioned with the likes of ticalc.org.

I definitely agree with you. 600 is a very low number and if you are able to run a calculator AND operate the program, you should have atleast an IQ of 600. I scored 890 in 6th grade and that was with no studying/preparation and no idea what the test would be like.

You probably didn't mean to say IQ of 600, right? You mean a SAT score of 600 I think.

Oh, and how did you get an 890 if the math test is out of 800 points :) Unless you mean 890 composite...

--BlueCalx

i hope that he is just misreming cause 8900composite youd have to intentional miss probs....

Actually, 890 composite is a decent score for a sixth grader. The national average for normal juniors who take the SAT is 1050.

--BlueCalx

Sorry everyone...big typo (I make a lot of stupid typos and stuff when I'm typing). I meant SAT composite of 890. I'm shooting to score a 1400 next year.

By the way, I had a 530 on the math section (360 on english...haha)

I am appalled at the "enterprise" that these teens are trying to pull off. I've taken the SAT twice so far, and my best score was the first time I ever took it, 720 (i'm hoping to get higher next time). I used my trusty 86, but for nothing more than computational functions that I could just have easily used any calculator for. There aren't complex enough equations on the SAT that require such applications, especially what seem to be just, as was said before, dumbed down versions of TI's own Equation Solver which I already have on my 86. And then to _charge_ for the programs? That's ridiculous. I guarantee that you could find equivalents to each of the programs that they have written. And this "guarantee" seems shady to me. What will they do if you don't raise your scores, pay for you to take it again? *sigh* The only sad part is, they will probably find takers who will pay for it......

I think the NY Times should just mind their own bisness. They're making us sound like the scum on bottom of your shoe, like the press does to all people who know more that those s*** reporters, just because we have assembly programs on our calcs. They could at least give the other side of the story. Assembly makes more citical thinkers. Personally, my experence with assembly has made me structure my thoughts more effeciently, and did help me with my grades.

Actually, I found it to be pretty good... Notice that the article ends with a *teacher* saying that she thought the calculators were a good influence. I got some negative vibes about the SAT thing, but I think overall it was positive...

Yeah I felt the same way sorta.

I saw the article start out with the two guys selling BASIC programs. That was mildly annoying. But then the article went on to bring up the "students vs. teachers" thing where students use their calculators as gameboys in disguise, and how they were playing games like Pacman, etc. This really got to me because they didn't give any credit (at least I didn't see it) to assembly programmers. Although they didn't mention any games specifically by name, they could have at least referenced the assembly programmers as a whole. I mean where do they think these programs come from? All they say is that students can download gameboy-like games for their calculators. As if TI or Nintendo makes them.

I was happy to see Sami got credit in the article for his infrared work, however.

Anyway the first half of the article bugged me, but yeah the second half made up for it.

I frowned upon the first part (which most people read, then skip the rest); 99.9% of the TI community contains freeware programs, most of which are open source. It leads people to become misinformed about us and what most program authors stand for. Shame, too...

--BlueCalx

A requirment for my major that I am fulfilling now is a class on programming the Motorola 68000 chip in assembly language. Kind of ironic that they are inferring that assembly is bad for in school when school is teaching assembly for the chip that is in the TI-89 and TI-92(+). I think that sounds right Long day at work, so if it doesn't, use your imagination. :-)

Hey guess what the kids that are selling the programs have an account on ticalc.org

are you suggesting that some flames are in order?

nick

no im just mentioning it

It's a free country :)

--BlueCalx

But their program isnt

It's free, but hey, a little peer pressure couldn't hurt ;)