The Calculator Review

31 December 2019

Calculator Review: Sharp Elsi Mate EL-8036

In the last possible moment, I decided to do one last calculator review for the decade. I wish I had something of value to say about the past ten years but the last three have just been kind of gross. Feel free to tell me how great the economy is in the comments.

Sharp Elsi Mate EL-8036.

Project 90s PC Part One: The Computer

Calculatober was a huge success but I need a break from calculators for a while. Instead, I'm going to be focusing on vintage computers and electronics again because there's so much to be done with them.

At the bottom of this post I'll discuss the other projects I've been working on that haven't been updated in a while.

I am very excited to introduce my newest old computer. I've been wanting to work on a late 1990s PC for a long time, and I finally found one that will make for a fun project. There were a few arbitrary requirements that the PC had to fulfill for me to buy it:

It had to be beige.
It had to be able to at least boot to the BIOS.
It needed to be built no later than 1999.
It needed to have room for expansions.
Most vitally and importantly, it absolutely had to have a turbo button.

So here's what I ended up buying.

It's so beautiful. This is clearly a computer that needs some love. Definitely some retr0brighting and front bay covers at the very least. But this is just the front. Let's take a look at the other parts.

Calculatober Day 31: The Aroma of Chocolate Deluxe Calculator

This is it. The final day of Calculatober. I can't believe it's here. And it's Halloween. So I needed to review a Halloween-themed calculator. I'm just now realizing black cats are a great Halloween symbol but I did not include my cat in this review at all.