In Soviet Russia, the Calculator ... oh, never mind!

October 8, 2005 9:56 AM

Soviet Calculators
posted by anastasiav (16 comments total)

In Soviet Russia calculators find square root with you!
posted by Jikido at 10:02 AM on October 8, 2005

(this is good.)
posted by Kwantsar at 10:05 AM on October 8, 2005

Boing-Boing-Filter.
posted by 327.ca at 10:07 AM on October 8, 2005

Ooooh, good post. Don't know if the server's gonna make it though... maybe a cached link would help a bit.
posted by Galvatron at 10:09 AM on October 8, 2005

MetaFilter: START SURF HERE
posted by Venadium at 10:23 AM on October 8, 2005

Fun Fact: The Soviets had really big pockets.
posted by drezdn at 10:45 AM on October 8, 2005

[this is good]

not everyone reads or even does boing-boing
posted by Rumple at 10:47 AM on October 8, 2005

[this is great]
posted by teferi at 10:57 AM on October 8, 2005

Of course the batteries fit in the suitcase (Longer joke #5).

These calculators are truly mezmerizing.
posted by PHINC at 11:05 AM on October 8, 2005

I can't believe they made a calculator where you interact with an 8088 in assembly.
posted by cytherea at 11:29 AM on October 8, 2005

I'm sitting here with my big, clunky wind-up Vostok watch (purchased on eBay), looking at these calculators thinking "nobody did Big, Clunky and Functional like the Soviets". Cool stuff.
posted by tommasz at 1:25 PM on October 8, 2005

Excellent! But I think "Russian calculators" would be a better name for the site, since they start with the Odhner-Hill machines, made well before the Revolution. (You can see some nice pictures here, dated from 1874 on, and a brief biographical article about V.T. Odhner in Russian, with a picture, here.)
posted by languagehat at 2:25 PM on October 8, 2005

Slide rules.

The MILSPEC approved, battlefield tested numerical manipulation solution, since 1949. Because ballistics demands the right number, at the right time.
posted by paulsc at 6:47 PM on October 8, 2005

This is exactly the kind of post I've come to expect from anastasiav - and it's why I have her posts page bookmarked. Thanks so much, av!
posted by louigi at 8:03 AM on October 9, 2005

I love the invitation to "sing my guestbook".
After half a bottle of vodka, I think I would.
posted by MinPin at 2:12 PM on October 9, 2005

Also from BoingBoing, Soviet/Eastern European/Russian home computers.
posted by Ogre Lawless at 12:41 PM on October 10, 2005