I don't think my employer would take to it kindly if I brought my calculator to my job as a stocker in a grocery store...besides the highest number I ever need to count to at work is oh, 5 maybe?

now um, maybe im just gullible, but is that picture of the "color program" on the ti-86 real? and if so could i get a copy?

The picture is indeed real. Unfortunately, it seems that it does not work very well on ROM versions newer than 1.4 (I tried it on my friends' calculators, which have ROM 1.6), which could be a problem. Also, it requires rather bright lighting, or it just looks like a bunch of dark grey. That being said, I could give you a copy if you want; just e-mail me.

I have also produced colot on my V200, using a method...

It's actaully pretty cool.

And it's bright...

Link to a photo :o

Do you know why it doesn't work on ROM versions over 1.4? Is it something with the hardware? If so, maybe I should get another 86 with 1.2 just to experiment. ;-)

I think it would be considered a graphics glitch. In normal usage, it probably makes the screen get slightly blurry or something, so TI would have "fixed" it so the screen looked better in 99.9999% of all cases.

I have never seen a TI-86 with ROM 1.2, so I cannot comment on its ability or lack thereof for color production.

Anyone that voted "My calculator is slowly collecting dust" should feel ashamed of themselves. If you don't use a calculator, why are you even on this site? More to the point however, it would benefit the environment much more if you were to somehow recycle your obsolete/useless calcs.

I have 1 useless calculator (I think). It is a TI-83+ ViewScreen, but the screen driver got damaged in a fall (& it still shows the garbage on the overhead projector screen thingy). :(
The easiest way to recycle them would be as paperweights, or if only the screens/screen drivers were broken, as a primitive computing cluster. :)

Well, I don't use my calculator at my job as there is little math to do. I work for a doctor in the U. of Mo. medical school and I get to perform balance and coordination tests on older adults. I do however have to lug around my old laptop to do spreadsheet work. I am taking public speaking over the summer, again, no calc needed. Well, unless you can get it to output 24-bit color @ 1280x1024 and run OpenOffice 2.0 Impress to show my slides, it's not useful in my class.

I put my calc through its paces during the year, trust me. Stats and engineering classes can make a calc sit there for a while crunching numbers.

Matrix calculations can also be taxing...especially if they involve inverses with symbolic expressions. The same for equation solving. I have never had any statistical problems take too long, but I am sure that college problems are harder than high school (though Calculus III at a community college was easier than Calculus I at my high school).

I think the difficulty of a Math class ultimately depends on the teacher...some people just don't have the gift of teaching...I had the same teacher for calc I, II, and III, then changed teachers for Diff Eq. I absolutely HATED the new teacher...I would go to my old calc teacher for help and that, I believe, is what helped me keep my 4.0 that I had at the time... Although I did learn some cool vocab in diff eq from that teacher...Now I can tell people that "I know how to solve a variable-separable differential equation using partial-fraction decomposition!" :P