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This is probably slightly irrational, but it pains me to see how many slide rules go unsold at auction sites, and probably end up being thrown away. Admittedly,

by Pinus 3y ago

This is probably slightly irrational, but it pains me to see how many slide rules go unsold at auction sites, and probably end up being thrown away. Admittedly, most of these are school rules of which there are thirteen in a dozen, but I see a fair number of nice ones as well. The collector in me wants to buy them all, but the rational Pinus says that I already have a few, and unlike the gentleman in the article, I do not wish to fill my home with slide rules... To put a programming angle on things: Using a slide rule feels a bit like assembly-language programming on something like the Z80. Since operations can only take their input from certain places, and only leave their output at certain places, you need to try to arrange things so that any intermediate results are in a place where they can be used as input for the next step.

jacquesm 3y ago
You're lucky, you have that with slide rules. I have it with musical instruments, specifically pianos. It's been the subject of some domestic friction ;) I'm pretty sure if I would switch to slide rules that the reaction would be one of great relief.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- kjellsbells 3y ago
  You've just given me an idea for a slide rule that takes a key and provides easy visuals for the chords around that key and how to translate to another key. Eg "oh if you started on c maj bit you wanna play that in F? You're gonna need these sharps and flats my man". Might be a fun educational tool for learners.
  - jacquesm 3y ago
    Now you've done it :) I have been thinking about this and an email exchange with another HN'er about a super interesting project pretty much non-stop! Thank you though, what an outstanding idea.
pfdietz 3y ago
Antique items become valuable because most of them have been destroyed.
- dylan604 3y ago
  some subplot to this mystery could be that a collector buys them all up to artificially create the scarcity to inflate the value of the collection. kind of like the housing inventory after the '08 collapse

by Pinus 3y ago

jacquesm 3y ago

You're lucky, you have that with slide rules. I have it with musical instruments, specifically pianos. It's been the subject of some domestic friction ;) I'm pretty sure if I would switch to slide rules that the reaction would be one of great relief.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
kjellsbells 3y ago
You've just given me an idea for a slide rule that takes a key and provides easy visuals for the chords around that key and how to translate to another key. Eg "oh if you started on c maj bit you wanna play that in F? You're gonna need these sharps and flats my man". Might be a fun educational tool for learners.
- jacquesm 3y ago
  Now you've done it :) I have been thinking about this and an email exchange with another HN'er about a super interesting project pretty much non-stop! Thank you though, what an outstanding idea.

pfdietz 3y ago

Antique items become valuable because most of them have been destroyed.

dylan604 3y ago
some subplot to this mystery could be that a collector buys them all up to artificially create the scarcity to inflate the value of the collection. kind of like the housing inventory after the '08 collapse