>Many years ago when I was in my teens, I went into a store in Chinatown here in Toronto to buy a Chinese Chess set and a couple of other odds and ends. I goggled when the guy behind the counter pulled out an abacus and started playing with the beads. He got the total right and gave me the correct change, but I had to do some fast work in my head to be sure. That's the only time I've ever seen somebody actually use one of those things for real.

You haven't been to Russia. They used them everywhere last time I was there (ok, 30 years ago :). They had cash registers, but that was just because the abacus doesn't print a receipt. And they seemed to be faster than the register anyway. So they'd calculate by fast finger-bead-eye coordination, then type the total into the register and print a receipt.