Technical characteristics

Number of buttons: 24 * Display: 128×33, monochrome * Symbols on the display: 4 lines of 21 symbols in each * Built -in memory: 2 MB * The maximum number of documents: 4080 * Supported format: TXT * Interface: Usb * Time Autonomous work: 4 h * Price for August 2010: 5990 rubles

The history of the calculator from the company " Micrium »Reminds the story of the game Gyromancer or groups Beatallica , which also began with a comic idea of ​​crossing various concepts, but soon they began to bring serious dividends to the creators. At first glance, you can’t suspect a catch calculator – it looks like the most ordinary “counting”. Moreover, he does not have any identification stickers that can give out a manufacturer or brand. Imagine – white nameless calculator. To discern, or rather, to feel the difference only when examining the case-at the base of the device there is a connector for a USB cable. With this Cable, the classic calculator connects to the computer and turns … into a calcider!

What else for the Calcurder?!

The authors themselves cannot decide on the positioning of their goods. The Micropome website in the description lists the “Calculator with viewing the text”, the installation program offers a more capacious term “spy calculator”, and the user guide “Calculator with the possibility of hidden data storage”. None of the formulations is universal, and therefore it is more appropriate to name the machine with a calcurider, that is, a calculator with the functions of an e -book.

The device works from the battery automatically rechargeable when connecting via Sweety Win sister sites USB. By connecting the “Counting” to the large PC Braut, you can download any text files of the format in the calculator memory .txt, and then bring them to a monochrome display with a resolution of 128×33 points; The whole screen makes four lines of the text (each in each up to 21 symbols). In the sunlight, our reader reader is completely unsuitable for reading, but here to study the screen in fluorescent lighting in the university audience – it is the most!

Such a calculator is best taken from fans of e -books, but rather among applicants and students who can use it as a cheat sheet. Before the exam, it is enough to throw several thematic Txts-books, textbooks, manuals-and then prescribe a secret combination of two buttons (we advise us to use the keys, say, a “square root” and a division sign). By turning on the calcider and by pressing the necessary buttons, you will download a list of available texts and then choose the right. Navigation is in order, it does not cause criticism-for smooth scrolling of the text, the buttons “-” and “+” are used, to cross the screens (“pages”, consisting of four lines of the text), it is necessary to press “÷” and “*”, and instant is also supported transition to the beginning or end of the document. You get used to it very quickly, the intuitiveness of the work is a big plus of the Calcurider.

Two modes of text output to the screen are supported – in the words and according to. In the first mode, the letters are very tight, and if part of the word did not fit on the line, then it will appear on the next (while the calcider can break the word anywhere). In the second mode, words cannot be tolerated at all: gaps are simply placed between them. If only two words, for example, small and large, then there will be a huge gap between them. If three average, then the gaps will be proportionally reduced. The first option is more convenient, and the second is more rational. Switching between the modes occurs according to the MRC button, which is usually needed to download the saved calculation results.

Capable of more

More from the school bench, many calculators have realized that their devices are capable of more than declared in the leadership. For the most ordinary school counters, many draws, Easterns and a variety of tricks were invented!

• Almost all company calculators Canon , With the exception of those that came out until 1981, they support the opportunity to play one of the first video games – Pong. To launch an electronic ping-pong, you need to enter the numbers 336652 on the display, and then synchronously press “+” and “-”. Management is also carried out by buttons of addition and subtraction.
• Some late Canon calculators have other secret games – Defender And Tetris. They are launched by the Ponga principle, but digital combinations are required differently: 125993 for “defender” and 153349 for “Tetris”.
• In Soviet schools, the following trick was popular: a person was handed a calculator and offered the number 678 to divide in two. On an inverted calculator, the number 339 resulted as a result of division looked like a "bee". The people around bleet and laughed at the person who got such a result.
• The Americans have more scourbled jokes – with the help of a calculator in the United States, they tell about a woman with a bust of 84 cm. She wanted to reduce her breasts to 45 cm, the doctor wrote her pills and asked her to take them twice a day. The woman drank 4 pieces at a time – if all the numbers are cunningly folded and shifted, the number 55378008 will appear on the screen – it can be read as “boobles”, that is, “left without a chest”.
• On YouTube on the request "Magnets have Memory!»You can find a trick, the creator of which claims that magnets are able to maintain data outlined on the calculator display. A person gains an eight -digit number, puts a magnet on the side of the screen, resumes a scoreboard, moves the magnet to the calculator … and the number reappears on the display. The operation is repeated with different magnets.
• Well, this trick can be done at home on a calculator of any model. Make the number 81234567 in memory, then drop it by 0, enter the number 12345678 and tell the story that the eight is the most difficult figure at this time. Then unfold the calculator side and begin to slightly beat them on any surface. While hit, imperceptibly press the memory button and download the number 81234567 introduced ahead of time. Voila! All numbers moved, and the eight rose in the first place, as if the most important!

Avoiding cramps

On the front side of the device, just like according to GOST, there are 24 basic buttons. The calculator of such a sample is allowed on entrance exams to universities, on state exams and even the exam in some subjects. In a welcoming document, it is written to the user that “our“ best in the world ”system of education continues to exhibit requirements that are more inherent in a computer than a person”. This implies a conclusion that is more like an advertising slogan: they say, our invention gives you freedom from someone, just pumps a set of formulas and go to take the exam.

It turns out that the invention is still aimed at students as the main consumers of cheat sheets. For a student wallet, the price of a gadget is quite affordable: 6,000 rubles for an electronic assistant with a limit of 2 million loaded characters. The total restriction on the size of the pumped files is 2 MB, and the restriction on the number of TXT documents is 4080 pieces. To completely score the memory of the device txt-shkami, you will have to try very.

It is pleasant that most of the formulas are recognized as standard symbols by the principle of “if only the“ notebook ”read them” (and he reads the encoding of Yunikod, ANSI, UTF-8 or Unicode Big Endian). Instead of unrecognized symbols, squares are displayed. In addition, the calcider, even with a sharp shutdown or soft AC subscription, remembers where the file was closed, so you can return to the unfinished spur at any time.

A detailed user guide is supplied with the calculator, where the driver installation for different versions of Windows, USB-shnur and mini-disk with a special espionage program is spaced. It is this program that allows you to set a secret combination of two buttons that activate the “forbidden” mode. She also knows how to form a list of files, rename them and completely cleanse the memory of all documents. Without the program, throw files into the counting, unfortunately, it will not work.

The duration of the device, according to the manufacturer, is at least 4 hours. However, we were not able to determine the exact time of continuous work with a completely charged battery – although the calcider has worked on the test for about four and a half hours, this result cannot be called objective, because the battery life changes depending on the intensity of the load. Say, the student on the exam scrols the written text more slowly and more often turns off the device, and the person who reads the book in bed leafs through the “pages” faster and is forced to constantly put pressure on the scrolling button. By the way, the calculator has a function of auto shutdown in case of downtime: if you do not turn to the calculation for more than five minutes, it turns off and saves the battery.

* * *

To be honest, the teacher on the exam is able to notice too arrogant cheating from the calculator, and the Slot for the USB cable will increase the number of inconvenient issues to the owner of such electronic accounts. But for some time, while this Russian know-how remains a novelty in the technology market, it will be a good help in the difficult case of passing exams-those, of course, who waved his hand to snatch.

As a result, our situation is the same as with codes in games: Calcurder is a personal business of everyone. There is nothing shameful in writing off, because a person receives knowledge in the first place for himself. Whether to cunning in exams with equipment for 6000 rubles, use the old -style spurs, implant the headphone with Bluetooth support in the ear or remain honest with your educational institution – you decide.

Pros:

• One of the few similar devices on the market
• An acceptable price
• can be carried out without any problems for the exam
• Intuitive scrolling of the text

Cons:

• You are cheating first of all not a school or a university, but yourself
• Soon the trick with the calculator will be repented
• Without a special program, not to fill the calculator files

The editors thanks

For the equipment provided by the Microprom ( www.Microprom.ru).