{"id":3043,"date":"2002-08-19T15:18:23","date_gmt":"2002-08-19T20:18:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=3043"},"modified":"2002-08-19T15:18:23","modified_gmt":"2002-08-19T20:18:23","slug":"calculated_gamb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/08\/19\/calculated_gamb.html","title":{"rendered":"Calculated gamble"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why do the folks at Zones <\/a>think that sending me a calculator through the mail will actually make me more likely to buy anything from them?<\/p>\n

I mean, it’s a very nice calculator — rubberized, textured edge, cool little spring-powered cover that flips around to be a stand, trendy translucent blue case. It does have a battery, which is an annoyance in calculators these days, and it was made in China, so probably is the product of some cheerless prison workhouse, but, then, what isn’t these days?<\/p>\n

But, really — I have eleventy zillion calculators, and I know I can pick up another one just as good at the check-out line of any of a dozen stores for $5, and there’s a frelling free <\/i>one on my PC, not to mention my Palm … so, who really cares?<\/p>\n

Of course, these are the guys who still think I’m the local IT manager, and who mispell the name of my company, so perhaps judgment is not their strong suit. Which does not make me any more likely, btw, to use their company, even if I were still in that arm of the biz.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why do the folks at Zones think that sending me a calculator through the mail will actually make me more likely to buy anything from them? I mean, it’s a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-potpourri"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":48538,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/26\/the-aesthetics-of-adding-machines.html","url_meta":{"origin":3043,"position":0},"title":"The Aesthetics of Adding Machines","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 26-Nov-14 4:30am","format":false,"excerpt":"In some way, these are more marvelous than modern calculators and the like. The latter are just magic devices that have circuits and solder and chips, black boxes of our microprocessing gods. Analog adding machines and mechanical calculators, on the other hand, are marvels of complexity on a macro level.I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2678,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/05\/18\/fun_for_your_fr.html","url_meta":{"origin":3043,"position":1},"title":"Fun for your friends down in Accounting","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 18-May-02 9:24am","format":false,"excerpt":"Folks who sit there pounding on calculators all day lead a dull and dreary life. No longer. (Via Blogatelle)...","rel":"","context":"In "Potpourri"","block_context":{"text":"Potpourri","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/potpourri"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4812,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/12\/30\/the_write_stuff.html","url_meta":{"origin":3043,"position":2},"title":"The Write Stuff","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 30-Dec-03 11:03am","format":false,"excerpt":"So, is there still a need to teach cursive handwriting? Based on this story, the question is up in the air. Kids today are more fluent on keyboards, and national...","rel":"","context":"In "School Daze"","block_context":{"text":"School Daze","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/school-daze"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":38497,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/08\/17\/wow-looking-at-math-calculato.html","url_meta":{"origin":3043,"position":3},"title":"Wow. Looking at math calculato…","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 17-Aug-13 9:44am","format":false,"excerpt":"Wow. Looking at math calculators is like falling down the laptop rabbit hole. Lots of models, hard to figure out differences, even just TI.","rel":"","context":"In "~Tweets"","block_context":{"text":"~Tweets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/tweets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":214,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/05\/28\/super_geek_supe.html","url_meta":{"origin":3043,"position":4},"title":"Super-Geek, Super-Geek","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 28-May-03 7:28am","format":false,"excerpt":"On the Geek Test, I score 48.71795% - a Super Geek. (Frankly, I thought there were too many calculator questions, too few gaming and comic book questions. But there's no...","rel":"","context":"In "Personality Tests"","block_context":{"text":"Personality Tests","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/personal\/personality-tests"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":39431,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/31\/button-batteries-bad-for-babies.html","url_meta":{"origin":3043,"position":5},"title":"Button Batteries Bad for Babies","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 31-Oct-13 1:15pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Okay, that was stretching the alliteration a bit, but let me say it more simply:Button (coin, watch, hearing aid) batteries are dangerous for kids to swallow -- not just as throat obstructions, but because the batteries actually circuit across saliva and can cause serious, even lethal, internal burns. \u00a0Even apparently\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3043\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}