Calculators on desktops (was Re: Octal)

[aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk]

 --- Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> wrote: 
> On Thu, 31 Aug 2006 aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk wrot
e:
> > Yeah, but it's often hidden.
> 
> Not by default.
> If it has been hidden, it is because somebody
> explicitly and deliberately
> was trying to keep you away from it.
> Without user intervention Win2K installations will
> have it in accessories.
> 

I had another search for "calculator" today
to find out what directory it was stored
in.
In the same directory I also found a Paint
program and one other program, which I
can understand why they would hide them
from us.
But we work in a lab and do calculations on
a *daily* basis. Most of them are done by
the computers (special program made by
Scibertec), but some calc's we do manually.


>> snip <<

> 
> > Now whenever I need it and it's not listed
> > under applications (we move about alot in the
> > lab and use diff computers each week), I just
> > do a quick filesearch, dump it on the desktop
> > and on the main drop-up (?) menu that appears
> > when you click on the Start button, incase
> > I have a screen full of windows.
> > Now almost everyone uses it (largely because
> > calc's are so hard to find in the lab).
> WHY BOTHER??
> Go to Start/Run and type Calc.

Didn't know you could do that.

> or
> Go to the command line, and type Calc.
> 

Not sure we have permission [1] to go into the
CLI mode, and perhaps we might get suspicious
looks if we did.


> > The "scientific" mode includes binary, octal,
> > hex and decimal, aswell as proper maths
> > functions.
> 
> Yes, but it refuses to do anything but integers in
> anything other than
> decimal!
> 
> 3.0h/2.0h gives 1.8h, NOT 1.0
> 11 binary/10 binary is 1.1 binary, NOT 1
> 3.14159decimal is NOT 3h.
> 

No offense intended, but are you sure it's not
set up for no decimal places, or perhaps
it's just MS's programmers being lazy? :)

I have never seen a hex number with a 
decimal point anyway... do they exist and/or
serve a purpose, or was it just a demonstrate
your point?


[1] We don't have permission to alter the
computers time, as it's part of a very large
network.
Certain drives (eg. drive M: ) are also locked
away (not even displayed on "My Computer").


Regards,
Andrew B
aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk