+2440 Elijah, this excerpt offers a basic answer to your question.
The Calculator
Some of the history about the calculator comes from Lancelot Link, who watched and documented the development of web2.0calc’s calculator; as he describes it: “...from embryonic abacus to fetal slide-rule, to baby computational engine calculator, and beyond.” “The calculator could offer atomic precision at light-year distances. ...The baby calculator could literally subtend the angle of an electron at a distance of 10^9 light-years.” If a calculator can to this, then there are always math geeks and wantabes who will test the limits of the calculator. This is no longer the case. The calculator was neutered years ago to lighten server demand and accommodate more simultaneous users. The development of this computational engine is based on Javascript also known as “web2” Hence the name, “web2.0calc”. Prior to this, direct interaction with a complex applet, such as a calculator, required the use of a Java Console to access the side channels of data, else the whole page would have to be regenerated, which included the static data.
Here’s the source:
https://web2.0calc.com/questions/we-should-really-put-this-site-on-brave-as-a-verified-website#r7 (Again, note that this post is a response to one YOUR posts.)
GA
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+2440 Hi Ron,
Old and in the way, that's what I heard them say
They used to heed the words he said, but that was yesterday
Gold will turn to gray and youth will fade away
They'll never care about you, call you old and in the way
Once I hear tell, he was happy
He had his share of friends and good times
Now, those friends have all passed on
He don't have a place called home
Looking back to a better day, feeling old and in the way
When just a boy, he left his home
Thought he'd have the world on a string
Now the years have come and gone
Through the streets he walks alone
Like the old dog gone astray, he's just old and in the way
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYETHsxAv8c
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Are you a fan of Bluegrass music, and/or Jerry Garcia?
The Jerry Garcia song, along with being (gratefully) dead, seems to describe the final path for many. I think for most it’s a self-perception: Looking back to a better day, feeling old and in the way, rather than someone saying explicitly, with a cold heart, They'll never care about you, call you old and in the way. It is my nature to say something like that, but, more likely than not, it would be in humorous jest.
A few years ago, after singing “Happy Birthday” to my mum for her 80th birthday, I gave an encore, singing, “The Old Grey Mare ...she ain't what she used to be, ...many long years ago.” My father found this quite funny; my mum chased me around house with a broom. My father also thought that was funny.
I was born very late into my family. I was a surprise package to my 51-year-old mother, and 57-year-old father. The eldest two of my siblings –my brothers had families of their own, and my sister graduated from high school. To me everyone was old, though I was not really aware of how old until I was 9, and attended my seventh funeral wake.
When I think of you, Ron, “Living History,” rather than “old” is the first thing that comes to mind. (Old is the second thing, of course.) Very few of my contemporaries –and even those who are 20-years my senior, would not likely have an instant knowledge of Gracie Allen, the shoe-pounding Nikita Khrushchev, Bosco [the chocolate] Bear; And only a few have knowledge of Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers.
I have a Bosko Bear and a 12oz jar of Bosco Milk Amplifier chocolate syrup circa 1957. These were some of the birthday presents for Ginger Maire, daughter of my great Uncle Cosmo and Aunt Peggy. Ginger Maire died five days before her eighth birthday, from complications related to leukemia. Adding to this grief, a few months later, Alexandra Rochelle died at age nine, along with her mother, in a fiery automobile crash. Alexandra was the daughter of my great Uncle Sean, Cosmo’s brother.
Thirty-one years later, I became Ginger Alexandra, the namesake of Ginger Maire and Alexandra Rochelle. My mum and pop are now the only two family members who have a living memory of Ginger and Alexandra. I’ve often speculated what their live would have been like. The era they would have grown up in is so very different than mine. As such, I’m always interested in the history and anecdotes of anyone who might have been a contemporary of Ginger and Alexandra. Add to that, that my young life was full of anachronisms...
JB (Jacob Bernoulli) is probably the oldest member on this forum. (A few years ago, I commented to JB that he is long in the tooth. He replied that he is long in the schlong, too. ...I suppose this is helpful in schlong distance relationships.)
He’ll be 80-years-old later this year. He’s about seven years older than Ginger Maire. So, he would be like an older brother to Ginger and Alexandra. JB has shared several anecdotes of his high school life. Two of his anecdotes are on this forum:
https://web2.0calc.com/questions/the-search-function-really-sucks
https://web2.0calc.com/questions/topic-of-the-day_8
Another of his anecdotes, from grade 10, illustrates social regression, when his high school became a testing ground for introducing high-functioning retarded students into mainstream high school curriculum. The students attended special classes and some standard academic classes, if the students could potentially learn.
This didn’t go well. Within six weeks of the start of the school year, dozens of mainstream students (of both sexes) were mocking the quirky behaviors of the retarded students, and they would often continue imitating this behavior even when there were no retarded students around to mock. The retarded students started retaliating by throwing feces at their antagonists. They would literally shit into their hand and throw it at their mocking antagonists.
Rather than stopping the mockery, the mainstream students imitated this behavior too. Despite (sporadic) disciplinary intervention by the school’s administration this culminated into a food and shit fight in the school cafeteria, a few weeks later. Some of the students had saved their feces for this purpose. When the shit started to fly, all but the most aggressive students ran for the exits, but enough remained to turn the cafeteria into a literal sewer.
I LMAO for ten minutes after reading JB’s anecdote. This would be like going to school with monkeys and (genetically UNenhanced) apes. There were more than a few of them who attended my schools, but I don’t recall anyone literally throwing poo. It seems this progressive idea caused regression.
JB is from Minnesota, where poo throwing (and ass-freezing) perspectives are the norm.
Ron, do you have any anecdotes you’d like to share?
If so, we would have a southern perspective; from Texas, I presume (based on your writing style and syntax).
School days, school days, dear old Golden Rule days...
GA 
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+2440
Elijah wrote: We Should Really put this site on Brave as a 'Verified' Website
i tried reaching out to Admin awhile back to get this site verified because i would love to see it lose the ads and still make revenue.
There is no such thing as losing the ads and generating ad revenue.
Brave is a Chromium based web browser that gives its users an option to view ads for payment in BAT cryptocurrency, while visiting certain, verified websites. The ads are specific to and viewable only in the Brave browser on a separate tab. Other ads (if any), such as Google ads are suppressed –though there is an option to allow them, if desired.
While an interesting concept, this is not likely to work for a calculator site, especially this one, where the average user opens the page for 1 minute and 58 seconds to do a few calculations and then leaves.
EP Wrote: I do not see any ads anywhere on the site.....is that because I have an ad blocker or what? DO ads show up when you are SUBMITTING a question only?
If you have a lot of 'points' do ads go away?
The Forum part of web2.0calc.com never had any ads except for the occasional spam, and Nauseated’s humorous sponsorships:
https://web2.0calc.com/questions/hey-my-frndz#r4
https://web2.0calc.com/questions/f-this-site#r3
The calculator page has ads. Until about four years ago, the calculator page was ad-free if the user was logged on. This is no longer the case unless the user purchases a membership or has sufficient points for free “plus” service, which is currently 1000 points.
The six-Euro per year membership or the point based free “plus” service allows for ad-free use of the calculator, while logged on. No more eye-catching, flashing, blinking obnoxious ads like Spank the Monkey, Shag the Skunk, or Pork the Pig. Six Euros is a very reasonable price to escape this vexing annoyance –and the free plus version is better; however, I find it a nuisance to log on for a few calculations. So I activate an ad blocker when using the calculator as a guest. Usually I allow the ads to load then activate the ad block and refresh the page. Then the ads for cross-species mating games disappear.
The ad blockers worked until Herr Mossow integrated anti-ad-blocking code. This jack-in-the-box code popped up a genie –in this case a djinn, in the form of a donut-eating rent-a-cop, saying, access is verboten with ad block software enabled. The well-written code resisted attempts to circumvent it. Ironically, by blocking Google’s tracking cookies, the ads would not load without the cookie, so there was no need for an ad blocker, and the donut-eating rent-a-cop, djinn stayed in his bottle.
From very early on, I felt bad about preventing Herr Mossow from collecting ad revenue for his wondrous calculator (it’s actually a computational engine). This was a simple fix. I wrote a script to hide the ads by deleting the display coding in the browser. It’s very easy to do. The Google code for ads does not regenerate in web2.0calc unless the browser page is reloaded. From Google’s POV the ads are served and viewed. I used this for desktop and notebook computers. I lacked the skills (and the time to learn) to code this for smart phones and similar devises.
In addition, I coded scripts to open several virtualized independent browsers, overriding the unique device identifiers, which connect to web2.0calc.com using unique profiles. Most of the profiles are created on the fly for a single use.
In a separate coded program, Sixteen profiles are curated hypothetical samples of demographic cross-sections of education level and income, further divided by male and female sexes (no transgender or whoiswhatit pushmepullmes). These profiles visit dozens of ad supported websites a month and the ads presented to the pseudo-human profiles are categorized and tabulated. Only four of the profiles visit web2.0calc. The scripts operate on one or more antiquated desktop computers that function normally, just slow by modern standards.
The virtualized browsers connect at random intervals for two to 18 minutes, and slowly increase the user count from 8% to 35%, based on statistical use patterns for time of day, day of week, season and seasonal holidays. The program selects IP connections based on the weighted average toward the geographic time zones where higher activity occurs.
The scripts simulate human (and subhuman) activity from across the US, Europe, and Asia using the calculator. Google’s Adsence detects activity on the page (scrolling, mouse movement, and key presses. It doesn’t record the individual keys, only that a key is pressed). This activity indicates exposure time for the advertisement. The script also clicks on one of the three ads 1.2% to 1.4% of the time, and clickes on the forum’s main question page 3% to 4% of the time.
Approximately 68% of the revenue Google collects for Adsence ads is paid to host site operators, with a mean payout of about 16.5 cents per ad served. Other, non-AdSence, ads pay at a lower rate. I do not know how much revenue this script has generated for web2.0calc over the years, but I’ m sure it’s many dozens of multiples of the six Euros per year fee.
I truly enjoy slightly augmenting the revenue of a worthy site like web2.0calc and screwing Google out of a few bucks –that is ...spanking their monkey.
At the bottom of most forum pages, a counter displays the current number of users. This is further divided into online users (members) and guests (users not logged on). Accessing the calculator or any forum page will increment this counter. For guest users, 30-150 seconds of inactivity will decrement the counter by one. This timeout delay jumps to 12 to 25 minutes for members that are logged on (the users avatar also disappears). The length of time varies, and shortens when there is heavier demand on the server. The member’s avatar remains for 120 to 150 seconds after the member logs off.
Activity that sends data to the server, such as a calculation, or clicking a link returns the user to active and again increments the counter. The counts vary by plus or minus three (3), but never less than zero (0). The action of checking the count requires accessing a page and increments the counter by one (1), so the count should never be less than one; although I have seen the counter at zero (0) several times. This is rare but occurs on or near major holidays, when schools and universities are on break, and sometimes on weekends between the hours of 05:00 and 07:00 GMT.
The highest counts of (normal) user connections I’ve recorded are 112 and 106. To measure how high my antiquated computer could increase user session counts, I modified the scrip, with cookies off, and minimum resource usage so the calculator page would load faster, and keep web2.0calc’s server load to a minimum. The counts maxed out at about 82. The counts dropped in proportion to the number of real users on line, and precipitously, if more normal users were using the calculator. The server disconnects from idle users much faster when server demand is high. A second computer or more powerful computer could probably push this up to 140 or more if there were only a few real users on line.
In the past three years, the typical high range is 25 to 35 with 68 as a typical outlier. (The 112 and 106 counts are exceptional outliers and the only time I've seen the counts over 100). Typical logged on members is zero (0) to 12, with 18 to 25 as exceptional outliers. The highest logged on member count I’ve recorded is 58 to 62, with an additional 36 as guests. Peak counts are usually weekdays between 13:00 and 15:00 GMT. Counts increase up to 3.5 times normal –with counts of 80 or more during mid April. This corresponds to the approach of the U.S. tax day. So, it’s probably the procrastinators attempting to finish their taxes.
Recent monthly traffic counts peak at about 640,000*, with a mean use time of 118 seconds. About 71.1% of the visitors “bounce,” that is they only access the main calculator page and leave. This is normal for a calculator site, where the user does a few calculations and leaves.
During the golden age 2014 – 2016), when the forum was well more social, 60 to 70 users online were common, with about 35 to 40% logged-on as members during the peak afternoon hours of the U.S. school days. While most were U.S. school students, many European students logged on during their early evening to join in. This social dynamic was truly a wonder to observe. It was during this time I recorded the 58 to 62 logged on members. In 2015 -2016 the monthly traffic averaged about 39500 visits*, with a mean use time of 122 seconds, and a bounce rate of 72.3%. [*source: semrush.com/analytics/traffic/]
EP wrote: ......Since the site seems to be slowly dying.....no one can sign up for accounts any longer....I am quite suprised ANY advertisers would be interested.
With web2.0calc’s 62% increase in traffic in the past 6 years and the current 640,000 visitors per month the advertisers are happy –at least they would be if their ads were delivered. So, the site is not dying –at least not in a conventional sense. The forum is morphing into a homework cheating site for morons and, lately, retards. There is nothing new about this descent into the maelstrom of stupid: here’s a post from 2018 delineating the problems and descent into the moron and submoron level:
https://web2.0calc.com/questions/should-you-consider-anything-before-you-answer-a-question#r17
This post https://web2.0calc.com/questions/half-donuts_1. This third-grade question outlines the entrenched half-brain imbecile group. These brain-dead elementary questions (usually percentage questions) are asked by remediated senior high school students.
The next stop is on the signpost up ahead: The Idiot Zone: “whats 1 + 1?”
Such questions are asked on here, but they originate mostly from sarcastic trolls. But if the descent into stupid continues, it’s only a matter of time before someone seriously wants an answer. And if they get an answer more will come...
A major descent into The Idiot Zone occurred when schools closed during the pandemic. The remediated senior high school students no longer had convenient access to their teachers and teacher assistants to do their homework for them. Most telling are the questions that do not come from a question bank. These questions are atrociously written in moron (poor sentence structure, punctuation, and verb agreement) by teachers who aren’t qualified to teach above the brain-dead level, which is why they are ‘teaching’ idiots in the first-place.
Submitted for your education and disapproval, Web2.0calc’s Math Forum, formally one of the repositories of knowledge for the bright and brilliant-minded, and also the drab and undistinguished, dusty-minded dolts who have propensity for falling into uncovered manholes while reading math solutions on their phones; now, a forum cluttered with suppositories waiting for the bone-heads, who set all educational topics back 3000 years as their brain dies decades before death claims the rest of them. Why suppositories? Because shoving it up their ass is the only way to get the knowledge into them. Of course, as soon as they take a shit, they lose that knowledge, but a copy remains on their homework.
The morons and idiots move on as they age-out of school, and a new group moves in, and so the cycle begins again. Even so, as the schools slowly return to normal the percentage of submoron students should decrease.
Also, it should be noted, along with the dolts are the exceptional students, whose well-honed skills are significantly above grade level. Some of them stay around for awhile before moving on.
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The Calculator
Some of the history about the calculator comes from Lancelot Link, who watched and documented the development of web2.0calc’s calculator; as he describes it: “...from embryonic abacus to fetal slide-rule, to baby computational engine calculator, and beyond.” “The calculator could offer atomic precision at light-year distances. ...The baby calculator could literally subtend the angle of an electron at a distance of 10^9 light-years.” If a calculator can to this, then there are always math geeks and wantabes who will test the limits of the calculator. This is no longer the case. The calculator was neutered years ago to lighten server demand and accommodate more simultaneous users. The development of this computational engine is based on Javascript also known as “web2” Hence the name, “web2.0calc”. Prior to this, direct interaction with a complex applet, such as a calculator, required the use of a Java Console to access the side channels of data, else the whole page would have to be regenerated, which included the static data.
As for the present state of the Calculator: It’s somewhat new and continuously improved and error corrected. For years, Andree Massow (AM) has periodically updated and corrected errant code in the calculator and the forum’s OS and relational data bases, which may have caused the errors in the first place. Several improvements are noted in the past 10 to 12 months. True to form, Herr Massow rarely announces improvements to or restorations of faulty functions for the calculator (or the forum).
In 2011, for a few months, there was a link that allowed for live viewing of what users were typing in the calculator. In the very early days, the forum associated with the calculator was a calculator help forum. The questions were oriented toward how to use the calculator. This morphed into questions for how to solve math equations. AM discontinued the old forum and created a new math forum orientated toward solving math equations and related problems.
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Partial list of improvements and fixes in recent years
Equation solver
Alan noted here https://web2.0calc.com/questions/web2-0calc-solve-function-working-again that the equation solver was functioning again after more than a year of not working or not working consistently. However, for another two months, only the single and two variable solvers worked, and they often did not work for nonlinear equations –returning either an error message or a wrong solution. They all seem to work now, and have for the past 10 months.
Here’s one set of simultaneous of equations I used to test the equation solver before betting my GPA and time on its accuracy.
solve(2v+w+x+y+z=4, v+2w+x+y+z=5, v+w+2x+y+z=6, v+w+x+2y+z=7, v+w+x+y+2z=8)
Graphing Function Calculator
The graphing function calculator, which for years was cumbersome to use, is new and improved –it easier to use with the auto centering, and now has sharable linking. These improvements via error corrections occurred in periodic sessions over the past five (5) years.
Here’s a timeline for the improvements. The dates are approximate.
2015 August 29, Changed graph access link-button title from “Create Graph” to “Draw Graph”
Improvement to display range (centering) parameters for non trig functions.
2017 Oct 21, Herr Massow adds code for unique, numeric shareable links, generating PNG images on demand. Prior to this, the user entered a descriptive name in the Title Bar and the graph was saved using the name; similar to how a question is saved on the forum. I do not know what the first title is, or if it still exists.
The image is not stored on the server, only the graph parameters. When called, the graph is recreated using the stored original parameters and an image is created on-the-fly.
After the image page loads, the URL in the address bar looks like this:
https://web2.0calc.com/graph?options=%7B%22r%22%3A%5B%22sin%28x%29%22%5D%2C%22trig%22%3A%22deg%22%2C%22b%22%3A%5B-360.0%2C360.0%2C-2.0%2C2.0%5D%2C%22w%22%3A1076%2C%22h%22%3A318%2C%22c%22%3A0.019934371%7D
Changing these parameters will change the graph image.
If you want the graph in interactive form, select the Draw Graph icon on the calculator, a new tab will open with graphing calculator loaded with the default graph.
Default graph page: https://web2.0calc.com/graphs/6752250d5d39/
Replace the 48 bit hex number with the number in the link.
Prior to the 48 bit hex number the graphs were saved sequentially, starting with # 1
Here’s an image of the first graph saved by Andree Massow.
https://web2.0calc.com/img/graphs/1.png. Of course, its graph number 1.
The calculator comes of age... The predecessor to the Draw Graph generator was the Sketch function, which was preceded by the Plot function.
2017 November 25 AM adds clipboard. I often use a text or note file as a clipboard scratch pad. About 1/3 of everything I’ve entered into the calculator are in text files dating back to 2013. The calculator’s clipboard is useful when using the calculator on a phone or tablet.
2019 March 23 moved the Draw Graph icon next to the clipboard icon, removed the title, giving consistency to the icons. Hovering the mouse pointer over the icon pops up a text box with the title.
The graphing calculator is primitive compared to Desmos and Geogebra, but it does complete the scientific calculator, and it was online and worked long before Desmos and Geogebra were on line.
Math Formula Input
In the past few weeks or so, AM activated the Math Formula Input. This function changes ascii input to a form similar to that of latex. This occurs on the fly as the data is typed. It’s quite cool.
The display above the calculator still presents the typed formal-math. The calculator can process an input of up to 2048 bytes of data; although to read the display requires full magnification of the screen.
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The Calculator is Herr Massow’s child, though it’s sometimes wayward, I doubt very much he’s ready to disown it anytime soon. The forum is his grandchild. In the early days the grandchild brought in all types of multicultural party animals. There are not many parties anymore, but there are still many animals. Even so, the forum is family, so it’s not likely to go anywhere anytime soon. I hope not, anyway. 
GA
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