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====== Pier4r page ======

==== Contacts ====
  * [[temporarymailname-userrpl@yahoo.it|Pier]]
  * [[wikiusers:pier4r:talk|My talk page]]
  * [[http://www.reddit.com/user/pier4r/|Reddit, I'm very active there]]
  * [[https://twitter.com/Pier4r|twitter]]
  * [[https://app.assembla.com/profile/pier4r?public=true|public repositories on assembla were I save part of my contributions]]
  * [[http://gfx47.com/games/Gladiabots/Forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=48|gladiabots forum]] A very nice logical game. I'm active there too.

==== Current status ====
  * Currently (2013-), due to my move in Berlin, i'm quite idle.
==== Current ToDo list ====
  * Do little steps, since little time is available. In particular I can pick a large enough (for my condition) collection of community posts, on MoHPC or comp.sys.hp48 or the official HP calculator forums, and then go through it in a certain order (normally from the start, or checking messages in a certain period of time) to pick interesting posts and either collecting them, or commenting them. I may start exactly from the archive 20 of MoHPC that I was checking before, I do not know where I left, but still I guess a second look would not be bad. Then from there, I will see.
    * Hmm, after a bit of reading here http://www.hpmuseum.org/cgi-sys/cgiwrap/hpmuseum/archv020.cgi , relying on the titles, It may take a long time before I get an interesting title. I'm pretty sure there are more than one in that webpage, but still, too time consuming, so for the moment I need a faster way than digging a forum. \\ A google search on specific pages may speed up things, but, well, I guess it would be better - when there is no time for mining - to use those very well known places full of interesting questions to explore with a calculator. \\ Update: those well known places, aside from project Euler, are also hard to find. I though that tests like SAT and similar would provide a lot of archives with interesting math questions to explore, since SATs are well known and old, but instead there are close to no archives of those tests. \\ Either one goes on forums or discussion places about math, like reddit /r/math, to find challenges but then one realizes that those discussion places are no better than the MoHPC, thus requiring time as well to find suitable challenges; or one is left with empty hands or challenges that are devised more for computer programs. 
    * At the end I remembered something that I used also in 2013 and it is pretty suitable to make use of the calculator. Brilliant.org. \\ After years it seems still the only one well organized site to provide those math challenges with an organization similar to "duolingo" (anyway duolingo has now many competitors, while brilliant is still having a sort of monopoly for its format). Well, after hours of searching, one solution that is nevertheless way better than nothing. And indeed, already with the explorations, that are practice tests compared to the tests of the week, one could find the calculator pretty neat to solve otherwise tedious tasks. For example one has to set systems of linear equations. So the brain has still to formalize those equations but the calculator can crunch through, and this will be useful for all the cases a similar situation applies.
    * I gave another shot to SAT practice tests asking on reddit for suggestions or archives. In short if one tries to search ''sat year math practice tests'' one does not find very old tests, but the period 2000-2016 is almost without gaps, with one year yielding more practice tests than others. \\ This is a nice source of simple but not so trivial problems together with brilliant.org . Ah, by chance I also ended up in a page collecting admission tests for one IIT institute in India (where the competition is quite high), the difference of level is quite striking. Competition always pushes things high (in the context of the competition)
    * Further update. After a while I found out that going through the messages of the new forum on the MoHPC is quite pleasant. I focus mostly on topics that are likely related to 50g, math or RPL. This aside from brilliant and other source of interesting math / programming questions.
  * The main idea with the previous point is to find interesting questions to explore with the hp 50 g , while slowly building a repository for answers. Either here, or on the new MoHPC's forum or on assembla.com repositories.
  * Moreover it is also time to use the internal flash memory. One cannot do large computations only using the ram for the program and the data. I am aware that the flash memory once worn out means that the calculator is gone or very difficult to repair, but it is also true that is there to be used. It would be even worse if the calculator would not work anymore for whatever damage, while the internal components were used a little (compared to their expected life time). So, assuming that the internal flash has a bit of wear leveling algorithms and assuming a not so reckless access to the flash memory, it is ok to start using it massively. (see chapter 26 of the user guide. In the flash you may not create directories but you can store what you want with proper naming)

==== Why do i work on "best of" indexes? ====
Because knowledge, in my opinion, should be organized, else the effort required to find a specific piece of knowledge is too huge, then it's better to rediscover it. But reinventing the wheel is a very bad way, except for didactic purposes. Like a book, a wiki article and so on, the knowledge contained on discussion forums need an organized index to be valuable.

Unfortunately the HP calculators' community has made, from my point of view, a lot of knowledge through discussions and sharing of ideas. But almost no one (AFAIK) has organized this knowledge ((Unfortunately is not the only one community that has done this, a lot of great communities don't self-organize their contributions :( )), and it's a pity. So i hope that with this wiki project (or other ones) we can fix this problem, organizing the existing discussions in a index of links. Of course an ideal wiki would not only organize the preexisting information with an index of links but it would even copy the useful information in wiki articles. But, since the free time is limited, organizing an index of links is already a great and highly valuable task, given that the there are years of discussions to analyze.

==== Wiki editor and notepad ====
Dunno if is my pc or it is chrome/firefox (maybe it is the spell check!). But i found that the editor area is slow when there are over 10k chars. So i prefer to copy and paste from a notepad ((TED notepad, for instance.)), in the end is always plain text :) . 

Update 2017.03: the editor of the wiki got quite "fancy". Not bad but maybe a bit too much for thinclients.

Update 2017.08: One can turn off the fancy and heavy javascript clicking on the little cloud on the right bottom of the text area.

==== Personal notes after not having touched Hp calculators for a while ====
As usual, documentation helps. It hepls fellows humans or the self in the future when the self in the future does not really remember the work done in the past.

So after the n-th bad experiences let's make a checklist of things that helps to restart using the HP calculator (in particular the hp 50g).

=== windows Pc setup ===
  * Hp usb drivers: http://www.hpcalc.org/details/7168
  * Hp connectivity kit: http://www.hpcalc.org/hp49/pc/link/conn4x_english.exe

=== Finding commands, that is having manuals ===
  * Site with handy links to hp 50g user guide, quick guide, quick training guides http://commerce.hpcalc.org/50g.php
  * Hp 50g advanced user reference bookmarked: On ed2k 
<file>
  ed2k://|file|HP%2050g%20AUR%20v2%20bookm.pdf|5926761|1FA8EE9363042DCC2E7D5C0D2B719B25|h=REC6PXWNYKWP6LFDDL4PUR4BSNZCOPFN|/
  or on https://app.assembla.com/spaces/project_euler_works/documents
</file>

=== Coding ===
  * debug4x : http://www.debug4x.com/
  * or even better: notepad++ with digraphs (see AUR )and then copy things as text with the connectivity kit.

=== Capturing pictures ===
  * the "->GROB" command (see AUR)
  * Graphic viewer to save GROB in jpg http://www.hpcalc.org/details/3851 ; Even better on the command line, although producing bmp "fatty files" http://www.hpcalc.org/details/5694 , but quite quick to use on the command line.

==== Archived Todo Lists ====
In 2013 I started a nice project of going through the MoHPC forums and comp.sys.hp48 messages to extract interesting information. The task is quite big and I may restart it in the future. But as long as I have little time, better to do little steps. Of course would be easier if the entire community would participate in the task.

  * Analyze discussion board archives to link (and, if necessary copy) insightful discussions. Since on MoHPC is a huge database of great community-based content. \\ Starting from Archive 20. **Bookmark** -, check till discussion: - \\ <code>
General line of action:
- check the title of the topic, could it be interesting? 
  (i select only topics related to 49g+/50g and recent calculators that use RPN/RPL. (1) )
  - if yes, check the number of replies, usually interesting topics have more than 2-3 replies.
    - then check the content.

(1) Sorry i can do that alone, at least in few months xD. For example articles about 34s are a lot.
I hope that the wiki userbase (in particular 34s fans) will grow quickly to cover all the gaps.
</code>
  * After the MoHPC Archive 20, analyze all posts in year 2012 of comp.sys.hp48.
  * Ideally i should analyze: one MoHPC archive (until archive 10, Hp49g was sold for the first time in 2003), and one year of comp.sys.hp48 (a task that, i think, could fill my whole life if i don't focus only on 49g and following calculators made by HP. Only the 34s has an overwhelming number of interesting discussions). Waaaaaa, i just find that the 49g was released in 1999, i'm pretty done then.
    * After that: improve the organization of links on the wiki. yeah, this objective is too much harder for me alone. But i'll try!
  * I can be moved also by a topic search. In the past i have done a lot of searches that returned interesting discussions. But all those information are lost because when we do a search, we don't store the best results (what a huge waste!), we use them in that period of time and stop. Instead, from now, i'll try to store all the useful information that i'll find.
  * Oh great. There is even the [[http://h30499.www3.hp.com/t5/Calculators/bd-p/bsc-408/page/1|official calculator forum]] (i suppose that it was deleted) full of good support discussions. So let's mine even that. Ah! It has almost only discussion until 2007, so is "smaller" than MohPC and comp.sys.48, so i'll mine that first!
  * Basically this mining & organizing task is a lifelong project.

=== Done ToDo list ===
  * Analyzing archive 20, focusing on 49g and following calculators threads.
  * Analyzing discussions on comp.sys.hp48 with last post within 2012.
  * Finish the addloop benchmark updating its results
  * Analyzing discussions on HP's official forum with last post within Dec,Nov,Oct,Sept 2012.
  * Analyzed entries of the google search: "site:hpmuseum.org challenge OR contest OR competition OR riddle OR puzzle" until page 4.
  * Analyzed entries of the google search: "site:hpmuseum.org accuracy OR precision" until page 2.
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