RICHMOND, Virginia (AP) -- Texas Instruments is replacing thousands of calculators issued to students in Virginia after a sixth-grader discovered that pressing a certain two keys converts decimals into fractions.

That would have given students an unfair advantage on Virginia's standardized tests, which require youngsters to know how to make such conversions with pencil and paper.

At the request of the state education department two years ago, Texas Instruments had disabled the decimal-to-fraction key and left it blank on calculators intended for middle school students.

But in January, Dakota Brown, a 12-year-old at Carver Middle School in suburban Richmond's Chesterfield County, figured out that by pressing two other keys on his state-approved TI-30 Xa SE VA, he could change decimals into fractions anyway.

"His fellow students were so proud of him and congratulatory. They thought it was really, really cool. They didn't call him a nerd or anything," said Michael Bolling, a school official in Chesterfield County. The county had more than 11,000 of the calculators recalled.

If he would have been my class mate he'd be hanging by a wedgy from the highest tree in the school ground ;-)

Doesn't anyone do long division anymore? :lol:

that went out with the mounted police... oh wait a minute..

I wonder if he discovered it typing "55378008"?

I actually had to think about that for a moment :lol:






Christ that shows how long it's been since I was at school :(

that went out with the mounted police... oh wait a minute.. [/b][/quote]
If you were ever involved in a riot or , say, a football related crowd violence scenario , you would FEAR mopunted police.

They use there horses as battering rams , small tanks...

They fuck you up. Bad.

No shit, cops on horses are scary as hell!!

I actually had to think about that for a moment :lol:






Christ that shows how long it's been since I was at school :([/b][/quote]



7734! :P

5304


but seriously... that was my best kept secret in school.. having the calculator that could do all that shit for me :D

I don't think we were allowed to use a calculator in school.

Shit, we did'nt have calculators when I was in school...

oops! I'm showing my age. :P

If you were ever involved in a riot or , say, a football related crowd violence scenario , you would FEAR mopunted police.

They use there horses as battering rams , small tanks...

They fuck you up. Bad. [/b][/quote]
Here in the states they wear riot gear, and pepper spray your ass down.

I've seen some pretty nice home videos of it.