Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ti-84 Evo

education.ti.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 503 posts

Re: Ti-84 Evo

#121

Post by echoangle »

aaronbrethorst wrote: post #60
LeCompteSftware wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But you can't divorce that from computing technology in general. A TI-83 used a z80 in 2000 and was priced at 1990's z80 rates, it was already gouging even back then! Now 26 years later the TI-84 uses an ez80 (or something something similar), which was introduced in 2001. TI has always gouged their captive market. It is just increasingly ridiculous when those students also have smartphones. FWIW I think these graphin…

Shrug. The SAT and ACT don't let you use an iPhone on their exams. $160 is what the market will bear. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, it just is, and perhaps there's a market for a much cheaper competitor to beat TI here.

Is it a free market? Can students choose any calculator they want as long as it’s certified for their tests or is it mandated by the school?

Re: Ti-84 Evo

#123

Post by eunos »

I have no idea how on earth a scientific calculator costs almost as much as a cheap android phone. Do they use oled and snapdragon soc these days? Back in my school days a 20$ Casio seems more than enough.

Re: Ti-84 Evo

#124

Post by randyburden »

I learned to program on a TI-83 and later bought a TI-84+ with the cable that allowed me to transfer my apps and games between my device and other students devices. I have fond memories of hand typing into a TI-83 BASIC for hours using code I found online at the local library - games like Drug Wars and other similar choose this or that console based games. I would later get a USB cable that allowed me to download apps and games onto my device. Good times. Decades later and I'm still programming.

Re: Ti-84 Evo

#125

Post by rangestransform »

vvpan wrote: post #38

We had to buy those calculators for highschool and it was a waste of money, felt like somebody must be paying somebody off to have thousands of students buy a device that they will certainly never have to use (and is of little educational value).

I got an HP50g from Craigslist in high school that

- was cheaper than a TI

- had a primitive CAS system

- teachers had no idea how to put it into test mode

It carried me through AP calc BC, I would’ve gotten <4 off of my own knowledge alone

Re: Ti-84 Evo

#126

Post by levocardia »

vvpan wrote: post #38

We had to buy those calculators for highschool and it was a waste of money, felt like somebody must be paying somebody off to have thousands of students buy a device that they will certainly never have to use (and is of little educational value).

Agreed, it's insane to me that in an era of Google Colab (et al) schools still require students to shell out >$100 for one of these. I'm sure there is some backroom arrangement with schools of some kind.

Re: Ti-84 Evo

#127

Post by Arainach »

levocardia wrote: post #126
vvpan wrote: post #38

We had to buy those calculators for highschool and it was a waste of money, felt like somebody must be paying somebody off to have thousands of students buy a device that they will certainly never have to use (and is of little educational value).

Agreed, it's insane to me that in an era of Google Colab (et al) schools still require students to shell out >$100 for one of these. I'm sure there is some backroom arrangement with schools of some kind.

A lack of functionality is the point. You don't want a full CAS or Internet search results available, or many students will just take the easy route and not learn anything.

Neither teachers nor school districts have the time or resources to audit every new tool someone wants to use, or to help students figure out how to use their preferred tool to do something - find something that works and just use that

Re: Ti-84 Evo

#128

Post by aaronbrethorst »

LeCompteSftware wrote: post #115
aaronbrethorst wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shrug. The SAT and ACT don't let you use an iPhone on their exams. $160 is what the market will bear. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, it just is, and perhaps there's a market for a much cheaper competitor to beat TI here.

> $160 is what the market will bear. You previously acknowledged it's a "very captive market" that you "would've expected Texas Instruments to try gouging" :) "$160 is what the very captive market will bear until the state-sanctioned gouging backfires" is a less compelling argument. "Shrug" is kind of gross. Seems like you're being reflexively cynical. Edit: to be clear the problem here is really local school boards…

Seems like you're being reflexively cynical

There are plenty of things in the world for me to spend my limited supply of outrage on. Calculator pricing doesn't make it into the top 100.

Re: Ti-84 Evo

#129

Post by dadoum »

billforsternz wrote: post #114
smlacy wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

156 MHz!!!!

Surprisingly high or surprisingly low?

I don't know either what they meant, but for comparison NumWorks calculators are clocked at 216 MHz (100 MHz for the older models, and 550 MHz for some of the latest ones, but not everywhere), so it doesn't look that much out of the ordinary, maybe a little underpowered from my experience with the first NumWorks but eh idk it's a calculator and unlike the first NumWorks they don't try to do CAS.

Re: Ti-84 Evo

#130

Post by golem14 »

balls187 wrote: post #79

The comments on this are fascinating . Although, I was waiting for someone to chime in with "HP is better cuz RPN." 2 dinners out for a family of four would cover the cost of this calculator. If my kid's school required this for math, I wouldn't bat an eye at purchasing one. I needed a Ti-83 for school in 1996-1998. If you couldn't afford one, the school would loan you one for the semester. Band instruments were the…

> I was waiting for someone to chime in with "HP is better cuz RPN."

Well, it is ;) The Swiss Micros clones are pretty awesome:

https://www.swissmicros.com/product/dm41x

Post reply on HN