Ultimate Geek Fu

It was the sort of conversation that only True Geeks can have. A bunch of engineers, standing around in the break room, drinking coffee and engaging in what can only be described as one-downmanship:

"My first calculator cost me seventy-five bucks and couldn't do anything more complex than square roots." "Oh, yeah? Well my first calculator cost me a week's salary and could only add, subtract, multiply, and divide." "Oh geez, you kids were so lucky. My first calculator was so slow, you could input a problem, go out to lunch, and be back before it finished." "Oh yeah? Well my first calculator..."

Actually, my first calculator was a slide-rule. I fished it out of the back of the desk drawer the other day and was mildly surprised to find that I still remembered how to use it to multiply and divide, although I couldn't remember how to do anything else.

Anyway, that's my story. What's your story about:

"My First Calculator"

Let the arguments begin.

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ULTIMAGE GEEK FU runs every Wednesday. Have a question that's just bugging the heck out of you about Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate, Battlestar Gallactica, Farscape, Firefly, Fringe, Heroes, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Smallville, The X-Files, X-Men, The Man From Atlantis, or pretty much any other SF-flavored media property? Send it to slushpile@thefridaychallenge.com with the subject line, "Geek Fu," and we'll stuff it in the queue.