Survey posted 2000-01-22 16:00 by Andy.

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140 to 2?????
wow, We must be missing something!

no wonder I can't get a date anywhere.

lol, I know how you feel!

ya... BTW any calculator nerd girls want to go on a date?
lol
<i>can u use html in these posts?</i>
<i guess i'll find out>

nope, I'm guessing no HTML tags because of the fear of links, pics, REALLY crappy looking fonts, colors, and text, and of course, the infamous, <i>,<b>,and <ul> tags.

special [k]

And there's also the Netscape <blink> tag.

Pure evil.

And <marquee>.
I like <marquee>.

--BlueCalx

ha

We need the 2 females so far to tell us the story. If any girls read this, read through the other replies and tell us what you think on the various opinions on females and calculators so far, please. (If there are actually any females out there! Some people might have lied for laughs...)

Actually, I was one of the first 'girl' to vote. But it looks like there may be 3 real girls out there.

Now there are 5 girls. Wow. That's suprising. I though it'd level out at 4.
It's amazing how such a simple poll can generate so much discussion.
We need to get more girls into going here. Maybe that way they'll stop bugging us for our games and programs. I guess they (the 5+ girls here excluded) just find this stuff "icky." They'd rather worry about more girly things. Then again, males, and I speak of personal experience, have tended to be more technical oriented...

Don't count on it.

I don't think that it's because males have an affinity for technical material.

"'See, you are being a little paranoid here and focusing on the negative too much. It's not about how women are deficient. It's about how men are deficient. Out social deficiencies, lack of perspective, or whatever you want to call it, is what enables us to study one species of dragonfly for twenty years, or sit in front of a computer for a hundred hours a week writing code.'"

-- Neal Stephenson, "Cryptonomicon"

Yikes, I can't believe I memorized that... :)

What would be interesting to find out is how many women actually _program_ for calculators...some great computer/video games in the past have been programmed almost exclusively by women. Hmm, considering only two women have so far taken part in the survey, I doubt we'll hear from any women programmers...but if you're out there, respond!

Yeah, so I'm not female. Had to add my $.02 on this though.

How many of you are at (or went) to a school where the International Baccalaureate program was offered? I'd expect that schools with it would have a lot more technical-material-oriented people in it -- I know my school seems that way.

Then again, as my social interaction is pretty much restricted to a small group within the ranks of the Baccalaureate, my view might be skewed.

Hehehe Life???? What Life???? 2 years of IB has left me holed up at home and really screwed up in the head.
Nevermind that though all the people in my school however are only obscessed with games on their calcs and none really know how th use them

Well, I'm the *other* girl who voted. I am actually very surprised about these results...I know that math is male-dominated, from experience in competition, but I didn't think that it was this shifted... And as for why there is such a great difference, I really don't know.

Anna

do u program? or just PLAY?

Well...I use this site both for math programs and the occasional game...but I am learning to program myself. Gotta start somewhere...basic for the 83+ is where I decided to begin. I made a couple simple alg1/geom programs...but I've been a little too busy to spend much time on anything more advanced.

Anna

MATH!!!!!!!!!
How darest thou!

Math programs are the best (hear my out)! For some reason, games the certain aspect of temporary entertainment/fun. True, there are several games out there that you play constantly (I, for example, constantly play ZTetris and Insane Game--since it came out, but it will stay on my calc). But math programs seem to never end their amazement. For example, last year in Geometry (my freshman year--I very good I might add!) I made a laws of sines and cosines program that is simply awesome! (You can get it at http://www.blankware.freeservers.com) It is VERY easy to use and input numbers with many options and ALL possible ways of solving for sides and angles. The best thing, though, is the fact that it displays the work! Just like you would do on paper! I forgot all about it until two weeks ago when we picked up sines and cosines in Trigonometry (this year being my sophmore year--yet another good one so far!). When taking notes on the lesson, I started to remember how much space and simple calculations *can* be necessary for solving a triangle (escpecially when you have to use law of sines, then cosines, then back to sines!). Well, I got home and put the program on my calc for test the next day (we do two sections a day, two chapters a week, and two chapter tests a week--we are flying through the book!). Well, several problems required maybe a whole page to work...but with the program I could just input the numbers and copy the work [and solution] to the paper! Very simple! That sort-of amazed me! Think about it, what is better than something that makes life easier?!?! Games simply don't offer that factor! Well, there is my two cents worth on program types.

Matt H.

This is currently my freshman year in high school, and i am taking calculus. You may think that once alg 2 and precalc are over, you won't need to know all of that other stuff. REMEMBER EVERYTHING YOU LEARN IN ALG 2 AND PRECALC. IT WILL COME BACK TO HAUNT YOU IN CALCULUS.

hey man - instead of making programs to do your work for you, do the work.
i can appreciate not wanting to do the work, but i am surrounded by people who don't have many basic math skills cause they use their calc's.
most math things can be done by hand without too much work. there are a few exceptions, but these only occur for a short period of time, so by the time you make the program, you don't need it.
ie - i made a chem prog by entering all this data on the elements, atomic number, etc, and then made it balance, do percent stuff, all sorts of shit, and then i didn't need it, because i had learned how to do chem and i could do it - it's the same with math!
with practice, you can do it easily on your own.

But remember, POWER TO THE NON-MEMORIZERS!!!

besides i have a ti-92+ you dont need any programs... its ll built in HA

I run exclusively math programs on my calculator. I don't like games anymore... too little educational value :-)

And don't go lynching one-third of our female userbase just because she likes using math programs :P

--BlueCalx

What do you mean little educational value? Don't you ever have fun?

Yes, but said fun rarely involves calculator games. :)

--BlueCalx

What? You mean spending your friday nights playing FDown Forever is NOT your idea of a good time? Wow, you're missing out on all the fun! Get a life.

Note: the above was sarcastic. I just didn't want to ruin it with fake HTML quotes.

Yeah, that's my idea of a perfect night.

Mine too.

Personally, I think a perfect night only comes from the repeated "Illegal Instruction" crashes appearing. Either that, or "Privilege Violation" There's nothing else like it.

FDown? Nah.
Watching the LCD flash insanely whilst possessing nary a clue what you did to effect that is cool. That or trying to get it to spit out "ROM FAIL".

uh-huh. i darest thou to make these good fellows a better math program than that which is wrought by the hand of me! Mathxcel it was called...got deleted for lack of calcualtor space and no graphlink...so many wasted hours... :(

i acsept your challenge i plan to make math progs for algebra in basic(just to start them and make sure they work i normlay hate basic) then transfer them to asm
btw

How about you make a spell checker. HA its a Joke!

The imballance doesn't have as much to do with math as it does to NERDOM. A far larger percentage of us males are nerds. How many women have you heard of sitting in front of a computer, hacking apperently meaningless code for hours on end? Very few, if any.

Women should be proud of the fact that, in general, they don't waste hours on end screwing with their calculators. Like someone else said earlier, girls tend to have lives.

I was going to be quite, and *try* to be humble (somewhat)...but all this reference to "nerds" makes me sick. Just because you are interested in technology doesn't mean you are a nerd. Yes, you may be interested in it AND be the nerd who sits in the front of the class, wear thick glasses, tight pants, etc. BUT, programming calculators (or playing them) may simply be a hobby, just like a sport can be, or fishing. SO, just because you are interested in different things doesn't you are a nerd! Plain and simple! I enjoy programming a lot (enough to make it my profession when I'm out of high school and college) but am far from a "nerd". Yes, I understand you all may be joking, but it gets old (the saying: you are beating a dead horse...or: shooting a dead dog). Well, yet again I have breached the given terms of following the topic (but I think surveys have a lot more bends, no?), so I'll stop.

Matt H.

Calculator Game Playing...The Next Generation Sport? I would be the best in the school. My 89 and I would kick everyone else's ass. I can see it now, kids paying 5,10, maybe even 20 dollars just to see me play a game. All of them watching my skills on a giant projection screen via the link cable or something like that. It would soon be a national phenomenon

Yeah but why stop there, get on pay per veiw and get the entire country to watch you!

That was truly amusing! lol

Matt H.

I'm proud to be called a "nerd!" I also myself enjoy programming calculators (horrible at ASM) ... before I lost my 83 :( I also enjoy programming computers in C/C++ and using those scripting languages...too much to where it is hurting my grades. :/ I think it is great when a girl is a code hacker; especially if she is good looking ;)

Okay...but I'm not you. I simply abhor being seen through the filter of calculators, computers, and computer programming.

Matt H.

I agree entirely. Liking calculators does NOT make you a nerd. I know this because for ten years I have been a really cool guy who wears sun glasses and a leather jacket and I got all of the girls. Just last week I bought a TI-89, and I'm not the least bit different. I started sitting in the front of the class and got buck teeth and talked with a funny voice and slicked my hair back, but that's it. I think that that's a small price to pay for having a calculator that talks to you.