E-books not news any more? [ Edited ]

[AlanNJ Inspired Bibliophile]

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patgolfneb wrote:
Of course with calculators a part of every phone, tablet, and computer I suspect the market for stand alone calculators is smaller.

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I don't know your age but when calculators first came out they were EXTREMELY expensive and somewhat limited in distribution.  As time went by their prices came down and they were actually given away with tanks of gas as a premium.  It was only later that calculator functionality showed up on multiple devices.  Keep in mind that when calculators first came out there weren't other portable devices to put the functionality on as I recall.

Obviously there is a difference between calculators and e-readers since calculators don't need anything additional to add value to them.   They are standalone devices and e-readers are useless without books or magazines to read on them.

My analogy above was from a device point of view.

[Sun_Cat]

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AlanNJ wrote:

I don't know your age but when calculators first came out they were EXTREMELY expensive and somewhat limited in distribution.

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A colleague used to keep a magazine ad for an early four-function pocket calculator on his bulletin board. I believe the vendor was Hammacher-Schlemmer and the price was $269.95. That was from the mid 60s, and already in the late 70s it was remarkable to see. Of course, now you can get one that's much smaller and much more capable for five bucks in any drugstore.

[MacMcK1957]

I still have my dad's slide rule.

My first calculator, a four-function Bowmar Brain, in 1971, cost $75.00.  Allowing for inflation, that would be about $400.00 today. 

[gobasso]

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AlanNJ wrote:

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patgolfneb wrote:
Of course with calculators a part of every phone, tablet, and computer I suspect the market for stand alone calculators is smaller.

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  As time went by their prices came down and they were actually given away with tanks of gas as a premium.

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They gave things away when you filled your tank?! Actually, to date myself, I remember the family set of plastic salad bowls we received from tanking up. Anyone else remember green stamps? Filling up those  books to get stuff?

[patgolfneb]

I remember my brother receiving a HP calculator as a present at a time when they were still quite expensive. It was about the size of a NST. I also remember owning and using slide rules in science and math classes, but remembering how to use one has dissapeared into the mists.

[BrandieC]

@gobasso:

Not only do I remember getting concert tickets with green stamps, but my mother still fills up stamp books from her grocery store in South Carolina (Piggly Wiggly, I think).  She used her stamps last year to give us an electric griddle for Christmas!

[AlanNJ Inspired Bibliophile]

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gobasso wrote:

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AlanNJ wrote:

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patgolfneb wrote:
Of course with calculators a part of every phone, tablet, and computer I suspect the market for stand alone calculators is smaller.

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  As time went by their prices came down and they were actually given away with tanks of gas as a premium.

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They gave things away when you filled your tank?! Actually, to date myself, I remember the family set of plastic salad bowls we received from tanking up. Anyone else remember green stamps? Filling up those  books to get stuff?

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I seem to remember them giving things away... It may have been that you paid a minimal price for the item after you filled your tank though.... I still remember my Father sending me to fill up the tank on our "65 Galaxie 500 when it was on dead empty, giving me $5 and telling me to make sure to bring back change.  Gas was $.22 / gallon as I recall.  That was probably around 1973.

[DeanGibson Distinguished Bibliophile]

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AlanNJ wrote:

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  Gas was $.22 / gallon as I recall.  That was probably around 1973.

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My Casio wrist watch includes a 4-function calculator.

I remember buying gasoline when it was $0.18/gallon in a "gas price war", and that included $0.09/gallon tax and a free drinking glass each fill-up, from Shell.

I still have about 30 of the glasses, which are still crystal-clear after 50 years of regular use and diswasher cleaning.

Oh, and I also have an original (from Asia) abacus, as well as a non-aluminum slide rule.

I also still have a CK722 "experimenter's" transistor, about the size of a garbonzo bean.  I also have an old GE radio with "octal" 8-pin tubes (no longer works very well).

[Ya_Ya]

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AlanNJ wrote:

 I still remember my Father sending me to fill up the tank on our "65 Galaxie 500 when it was on dead empty, giving me $5 and telling me to make sure to bring back change.  Gas was $.22 / gallon as I recall.  That was probably around 1973.

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Wow.  And I feel old when I talk about remembering gas at $1.00/gallon (in 1993) when I was a freshman in college.  

[ProfReader]

I'm fifty seven years old and can't remember nothing.

[ManuelGarcia]

I still have my 10" slide rule.
I also remember my father stopping for gas and telling the attendant $5 or fill up which ever came first.  Most of the time it was the the fill up.
Even when I went to college in the early 70s and money was tight, I could scrap up a couple of buck for gas which would get me any where I wanted to go.

[DeanGibson Distinguished Bibliophile]

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ManuelGarcia wrote:

I still have my 10" slide rule.
I also remember my father stopping for gas and telling the attendant $5 or fill up which ever came first.  Most of the time it was the the fill up.
Even when I went to college in the early 70s and money was tight, I could scrap up a couple of buck for gas which would get me any where I wanted to go.

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Oh, and 13 MPG was "good gas mileage".

[keriflur]

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Ya_Ya wrote:

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AlanNJ wrote:

 I still remember my Father sending me to fill up the tank on our "65 Galaxie 500 when it was on dead empty, giving me $5 and telling me to make sure to bring back change.  Gas was $.22 / gallon as I recall.  That was probably around 1973.

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Wow.  And I feel old when I talk about remembering gas at $1.00/gallon (in 1993) when I was a freshman in college.  

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LOL, I remember when it went over a dollar the first time (I was in high school and had just gotten my license), and it was big drama.  Everyone was complaining about how expensive it was.

The idea of gas being so cheap that you could fill a tank on $5 seems so bizarre to me.

[AlanNJ Inspired Bibliophile]

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Ya_Ya wrote:

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AlanNJ wrote:

 I still remember my Father sending me to fill up the tank on our "65 Galaxie 500 when it was on dead empty, giving me $5 and telling me to make sure to bring back change.  Gas was $.22 / gallon as I recall.  That was probably around 1973.

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Wow.  And I feel old when I talk about remembering gas at $1.00/gallon (in 1993) when I was a freshman in college.  

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What a difference 20 years makes!  

[frantastk]

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keriflur wrote:

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Ya_Ya wrote:

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AlanNJ wrote:

 I still remember my Father sending me to fill up the tank on our "65 Galaxie 500 when it was on dead empty, giving me $5 and telling me to make sure to bring back change.  Gas was $.22 / gallon as I recall.  That was probably around 1973.

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Wow.  And I feel old when I talk about remembering gas at $1.00/gallon (in 1993) when I was a freshman in college.  

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LOL, I remember when it went over a dollar the first time (I was in high school and had just gotten my license), and it was big drama.  Everyone was complaining about how expensive it was.

The idea of gas being so cheap that you could fill a tank on $5 seems so bizarre to me.

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I remember once when I was a freshman in college and my gas tank was on dead empty, but I was also dead broke so I pulled into a Hess station and scrounged in my ashtray (where I kept my spare change) for $2.20 in dimes to put gas in my car. The guy in the little glass booth laughed hysterically at me when I handed him my handful of change. I would be out of luck with today's gas prices. That same $2.20 today wouldn't have gotten me home (I lived way out in the country).

[gobasso]

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ProfReader wrote:

I'm fifty seven years old and can't remember nothing.

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You remembered you're fifty seven years old.

[kamas716]

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gobasso wrote:

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ProfReader wrote:

I'm fifty seven years old and can't remember nothing.

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You remembered you're fifty seven years old.

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OR, he was eating a steak and just took the number off the sauce bottle.

[MacMcK1957]

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kamas716 wrote:

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gobasso wrote:

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ProfReader wrote:

I'm fifty seven years old and can't remember nothing.

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You remembered you're fifty seven years old.

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OR, he was eating a steak and just took the number off the sauce bottle.

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So he'd be a lot younger if he just went to Baskin-Robbins?

[keriflur]

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MacMcK1957 wrote:

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kamas716 wrote:

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gobasso wrote:

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ProfReader wrote:

I'm fifty seven years old and can't remember nothing.

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You remembered you're fifty seven years old.

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OR, he was eating a steak and just took the number off the sauce bottle.

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So he'd be a lot younger if he just went to Baskin-Robbins?

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He'd be really young at 7-eleven.