Ninety-Seven Percent of Calculator's 450+ Functions Never Used

Atlanta, Ga – Neal Bellows voiced shock this week upon learning that a calculator that he has used for the past five years has at least 425 functions that he has never used or even knew existed.  Neal used the Hewlett-Packard 19BII business calculator for two years in undergraduate school, another two years while getting an MBA, and for the past year in his job as an investment banker.  Commenting on his surprise upon learning of the calculator's functionality Neal said, "Sure I knew it had a lot of buttons, and I have pressed all of them at one time or another -- but damn - more than 450 functions!" 

It was a newly hired employee that first informed Neal of the additional capabilities of the HP-19BII.  "This new guy was hired, and he mentioned that he had a 19BII - and that it could do anything.  I told him I liked it, but that I had lost the box and manual shortly after getting it as a Christmas present."  Neal's new coworker brought in his copy of the manual so Neal could copy it.  "Shit that thing was like an encyclopedia - and right on the cover it said 450+ functions - I always knew that shift-key and funny markings had to be for something."

Since spending over an hour photo-copying the manual after work, Neal has worked his way through about ten pages of the manual in an effort to maximize his use of the calculator.  Neal estimates that at the rate he is going, he will become proficient in about fifty of the calculator's functions in about six months.