Kyle Rankin @kyle@librem.one

The biggest challenge with filing expense reports is deciding which ⁨#antique⁩ adding machine in my collection to use to add up receipts. Today's winner is an RC Allen model 75. ⁨#vintagecomputers⁩

Here's a bonus video of what happens when you divide by zero on an electro-mechanical calculator. #infiniteloop

My Marchant Silent Speed is all cleaned up and ready to go with the rest of my collection! #antique #calculator

Here's another view of the same operation from the back so you can see more of the gears move.

It's worth mentioning that this is doing long division via repeated subtraction completely mechanically, just using the electric motor to power the gears. If you watch closely you can see it detect underflows, increment, and then shift right to the next digit.

Success! A little cleaning and lubrication freed up the stuck registers enough to do long division. Here's the Marchant Silent Speed approximating Pi. #antique #calculator

The Marchant Silent Speed ⁨#antique⁩ ⁨#calculator⁩ restoration begins! Here's hoping this is as far as I have to take it apart today.

Anyone interested in mechanical engineering should definitely check out the *analog* carry mechanism in these Marchant calculators that relies on planetary gears. These Marchants are arguably the high water mark for electromechanical calculator engineering.

Check out the latest addition to my ⁨#antique⁩ ⁨#calculator⁩ collection! This is a Marchant "Silent Speed" 8D from 1940, a fast electromechanical analog calculator that can even infinite loop if you divide by zero. I'll be refurbishing it this weekend to make it fully functional.

I'm glad that articles like this by Tatum Hunter that walk you through how to opt out of cellular carrier tracking exist, but I'm sad they are necessary. This is exactly why we created the AweSIM service. #privacy https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/08/01/cell-carrier-privacy-settings/

I did many #Librem5 convergence demos with my #Nexdock360 at #scale19x. It's so fun to watch the moment when people *get* convergence after seeing me drag a known Linux desktop app between screens and have it morph based on screen size.

I wrote about the "smartphoneification" of cars last year on the @purism blog: #privacy https://puri.sm/posts/locked-in-a-remote-control-car/

If you wanted to know why I'm thankful I don't need to replace my car, and if I did, it wouldn't be with a modern one, here's why: #privacy #bigdata https://themarkup.org/the-breakdown/2022/07/27/who-is-collecting-data-from-your-car

This has the side-effect of reminding me how to use each of these calculators, as they all have different methods to perform basic arithmetic, none of which are intuitive.

#Antique #calculators typically degrade through lack of use. Oil/grease gets stiff, dust/dirt takes over. My solution is repeat the simple calculations I usually perform in my head or on my computer on one (or more) of my calculators to exercise them.

Who would have thought that a thermal exhaust port could be so risky?

The ⁨#scale19x⁩ memory that will stick with me most is when an unopened soda can left in front of the projector exhaust vent exploded in the middle of my talk like a gunshot, shooting a geyser of soda in the air. I'm going to get so much mileage out of that story.