Update from John Minck

 I asked John re comments on the last two posts, and he graciously replied.

Hi Chuck,

 

I was not aware that you have a blog for your book, that was many years ago.

 

Yes, I suggest a few edits. We are up to 43 HPMemoirs now. You could use two links, one to the index page for the 43 Memoirs. 

https://hpmemoryproject.org/timeline/company/memories_home.htm

 

Then another link to the home page and instruct to click on Timeline on the dashboard, which offers the HP memories plus HP People Stories plus Other HP Writings. All three are employee recalls of old times.

 

John

A few more sources for HP info

 I mentioned John Minck's work in the previous post, but I only touched on a few things

Here is the link to Mark Mislanghe's original work, still being furthered by John, plus Kenneth Kuhn and Glenn Robb.    http://hparchive.com/.    The three are described within the document; their yeoman service on behalf of HP history is outstanding.

That site is rich with materials about many products, periodicals, etc. including the following:

More interesting for many will be the 'memoirs' of many folk, which are sort of 'buried' in the main website.   Here is a link to 37 HP memoirs, plus many HP France memoirs, plus other 'outsiders'

https://www.hpmemoryproject.org/ressources/resrc_contrib_01.htm

And here is the 'main site'

https://www.hpmemoryproject.org/index.htm

For a more complete listing of the memoirs, try this

https://www.hpmemoryproject.org/timeline/company/memories_home.htm

A long hiatus--sorry

 I was quite active with this blog for a number of years, and it has garnered many viewers and comments in the fifteen years since I began it.  Nearly 300,000 views, WOW!   Granted, a big chunk of them (nearly 15%) came around the brouhaha with a disgraced and illicit Mark Hurd's denouement as CEO.  Couldn't have happened to a more fitting individual in my view.  (Whew, still vindictive?)

But HP, the "OLD HP", did not disappear just because of  Mark Hurd--it took the combined efforts of several 'leaders' -- e.g. Carly Fiorina, Leo Apotheker, even Meg Whitman-- but especially because of a shift in focus and ethics that seems almost like Greek tragedy.

And, truth be known, I moved on also to other pursuits.

Of late, though, Ive been drawn back through several events.   People, key people, and people who were my idols, have been leaving the scene.  John Doyle, for example, in mid-January this year.  John was perhaps best known for coining the term "Management by Wandering Around" but his influence was long and strong for many facets of "The Old HP".   I'll do an epistle about him directly.

Another is that belated honors, such as awards and citations, are being sought for key contributors.  Chuck Tyler picked up the cudgel for John Vaught, to be nominated for the Inventor's Hall of Fame.   Tyler rounded up sixteen supporting letters, from old-time stalwarts including Bill Terry, Dick Anderson, Byron Anderson (no relation), Dana Seccombe, Ned Barnholt, Jim Hall, Gary Gordon, and Ed Karrer among others.  Fitting, I must say--shoulda happened years ago.  And not just for Vaught--there are so many worthies that contributed to HP's long-term success.  Maybe I could grab some of these stories and give them just a bit more illumination.  

Gary Gordon, just to pick one, got the Barney Oliver award from Agilent (in one of its incarnations), and was subsequently honored with a video interview at the Computer History Museum.  Which is somewhat incongruous, given that CHM has mostly eschewed HP as a pretender in computing (so it goes when most of the early board were DEC and IBM folk, and the newcomers are mostly software folk).

Oops, grouse, grouse, grouse.

And I MUST mention the yeoman work that John Minck has continued, in furthering Mark Mislange's fabulous work after Mark's early demise.  Here's a link to John's own story  https://www.hpmemoryproject.org/timeline/john_minck/inside_hp_00.htm.  

And here's a link to the sizable collection he has curated for a decade now: https://www.hpmuseum.org/cgi-sys/cgiwrap/hpmuseum/memories.cgi

If that doesn't keep you busy for awhile, I'd be surprised

Don't hold your breath on me doing another post.  After all, this is three years since the last one.

Chuck