Get ready to laugh!  On the Funny-Bone Scale of 1 to 10, the
following 1977 article is a 10!

Keep in mind that the old HP calculators had very little memory, and
all kinds of tricks had to be used to pack all your data into the
few available registers.  The program referred to here used a method
called "Jake's Flags" which stores each datum as a single *bit*
(which, by the way, is how the HP48 stores its flags too) and
therefore could pack a lot of data into very little memory.

Enjoy this glimpse into The Way Things Were...

-Joe-

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FREQUENCY
by HP-65 User's Club Member #1507

"65 Notes", V4 N8 P7 (October 1977)

  As my wife and I sat in our living room one fall evening, the kids
all in bed, the conversation somehow evolved around to a discussion
of the frequency of the marital relationship in our household.  As
the conversation progressed, it became quite apparent to me, that my
wife was under the *false* impression that it was much more frequent
than I *knew* it to be.  I finally suggested, as a solution to this
disagreement, that we "buy a calendar for our bedroom wall and
circle all days on which activity occured."  My wife, being a little
perturbed by now, stated very sarcastically, "Isn't there a way you
can put that in your calculator?"  That statement only shows some of
her animosity toward her main competition for my time and affection,
namely my HP-67 pocket calculator.

  After thinking about what she'd said for a day or so, it occurred
to me that it really wasn't a bad idea.  After all what a great
opportunity to demonstrate to her how useful the HP-67 was in
solving common household problems.

  Researching my back issues of "65 Notes", I found Jake Jacobs (99)
article on "Storing 33 Flags in One Register" (V3N9P11).  Oh!  Just
what I needed!  With a little work, the following program resulted.
I call it "Frequency".

  Enter a date (mm.dd) on which activity occured and push "A" to
enter it into the calculator memory.  If you make a mistake
entering, enter the same date (mm.dd) and hit "B" to erase it.  To
see the activity for any given date, enter the date (mm.dd), push
"C" and receive a "yes" or "no" answer.  To get the complete listing
of the activity for a given month, just enter the month number and
hit "D".  Enter a date (mm.dd) and hit "E" to get the last prior
date on which activity occured, (it can take approximately three
minutes to search twelve months if no activity is recorded).  The
program is carefully written to take up only one side of one
magnetic card, so the program can be on one side and the record of
one year's "activity" can be stored on the other side of the same
card.  [Note: each side of a mag card only held 112 bytes! -jkh-]

  My wife was, needless to say, thrilled to see such a unique
solution to such a difficult problem.  Although she's never actually
said it, I do get the feeling that on one of her more trying days,
she'd like to not only say "no" but add "and you can stick *that* in
your calculator."

  I sent a copy of this story to Lou Cargile, Jr. (753) as I thought
he might get a kick out of it.  He answered with, and I quote,
"Could the program be expanded to make it possible to rate each
entry on a scale of 1 to 10 so as to keep a log of quality as well
as quantity?  I guess this would quickly require two 67's at each
bedside -- disagreements will arise -- but think of the potential
market."

  An excellent suggestion I thought, but since I haven't had the
time to explore that possibility, I leave that challenge up to the
membership.

  A footnote to this story: I hate to admit that I didn't discover
this glitch in the program through actual use, but as I was checking
out the program for publication, I found that when you try to record
activity for all thirty one days of the month, the entry of the
thirty-first day bombs the record of activity stored for the first,
eleventh, and twenty-first.  Realizing the devastating effect this
constraint places on the "marital relationship", once again I
contacted that HP Wizard of Wizards, Lou Cargile, Jr. and here is
his authoritative evaluation of the situation, and again I quote: "I
think the calculator's handling of 31 days of consecutive 'activity'
in one month is probably jealousy, pure and simple.  Do you suppose
the calculator, like a mistress, is willing to share you, but just
run up 31 days without one day of undivided attention and this
occurs?"

  Enough said -- elsewhere in this issue you will find my program
titled, "FREQUENCY".

Author's name withheld at wife's request (1507)