WEBVTT - The HP Story: Part Three 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.920 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:08.880 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 0:00:09.000 --> 0:00:17.680 tech Stuff from how stuff dot com. Hello, and welcome 0:00:17.720 --> 0:00:19.760 to tech Stuff. My name is Chris Poulett, and I'm 0:00:19.760 --> 0:00:22.360 an editor at how stuff works dot Com. Sitting across 0:00:22.360 --> 0:00:26.520 from me, as usual, is senior writer Jonathan Strickland. Happy 0:00:26.560 --> 0:00:29.720 families are all alike. Every unhappy family is unhappy in 0:00:29.760 --> 0:00:33.360 its own way. Okay, now that was poignant. Yes, I 0:00:33.400 --> 0:00:35.800 saved that one for this part of our three part 0:00:35.920 --> 0:00:41.000 epic extravaganza on the Hewlett Packard story. Okay, and it's 0:00:41.840 --> 0:00:44.839 again if you are just joining us. A couple of 0:00:44.840 --> 0:00:47.919 guys named Dave and Bill started late on tech stuff. Uh. 0:00:48.080 --> 0:00:50.120 A couple of guys named Dave and Bill started company 0:00:50.200 --> 0:00:55.480 in a garage in Palo Alto, California for eight dollars 0:00:55.520 --> 0:00:59.160 and a drill press. Yes, no kidding, They really did that, 0:00:59.560 --> 0:01:03.400 and then basically built it up into a powerhouse of 0:01:04.080 --> 0:01:11.360 electronic electronical electrical engineering feats of master. They were very 0:01:11.360 --> 0:01:15.400 suburbian kill suburbian, Yes, I totally checked over that. Anyway, 0:01:15.440 --> 0:01:18.360 They made all sorts of really cool stuff that that 0:01:18.520 --> 0:01:21.319 helped other companies build their businesses. They made a lot 0:01:21.360 --> 0:01:28.840 of electrical engineering, measurement tools, oscillators, um frequency device, all 0:01:28.920 --> 0:01:31.040 kinds of stuff that you or I would probably never 0:01:31.120 --> 0:01:35.000 lay hands on about. Yeah. Yeah, we're talking about stuff 0:01:35.000 --> 0:01:37.480 that behind the scenes is very important, but to the 0:01:37.520 --> 0:01:43.400 consumer is mostly incomprehensible. It started in thirty nine, made 0:01:43.440 --> 0:01:47.640 its way through the forties and fifties and grew exponentially. Um. 0:01:47.800 --> 0:01:52.320 And also they began to move into other fields medical technology, 0:01:52.440 --> 0:01:55.360 computers in the sixties, Yes, and computers. And when we 0:01:55.360 --> 0:01:57.240 were talking about computers in our last episode, we were 0:01:57.240 --> 0:01:59.720 talking about how they were computers. They were there too, 0:01:59.840 --> 0:02:03.760 how people compute things. Yeah, they're talking about business, business computers, 0:02:03.800 --> 0:02:06.400 research computers, that sort of thing, not something again for 0:02:06.640 --> 0:02:09.560 the consumer. We're talking about computers that are the size 0:02:09.560 --> 0:02:15.920 of say a person's desk, not not a desktop, large calculators. 0:02:15.960 --> 0:02:20.120 But um uh. Now we're getting into the eighties. And 0:02:20.200 --> 0:02:24.079 the reason why we decided to stop our last podcast 0:02:24.160 --> 0:02:27.280 at nineteen seventy nine is because in nineteen eighty that's 0:02:27.280 --> 0:02:32.640 when HP launched its very first personal computer for for 0:02:32.720 --> 0:02:36.839 the personal computer market, right before they released a very 0:02:36.919 --> 0:02:40.400 large calculator that got called at the first personal computer, 0:02:41.480 --> 0:02:44.959 but it was a scientific calculator. It wasn't a device 0:02:45.080 --> 0:02:48.040 meant to run programs and have an operating system and 0:02:48.040 --> 0:02:49.760 all that kind of stuff. Right, it's not a computer. 0:02:49.960 --> 0:02:52.400 It is a computer, literally, but it is not a 0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:55.639 computer in what we in the twenty first century consider 0:02:55.680 --> 0:02:59.600 a computer. Um so in marketing terms, that's what they 0:02:59.600 --> 0:03:01.320 had called it. But yeah, this this is when we're 0:03:01.320 --> 0:03:06.480 getting into the time of real um of modern personal computers. 0:03:06.840 --> 0:03:11.160 So nineteen eight launches the HP eight five and it 0:03:11.200 --> 0:03:14.240 had input output ports that allowed it to connect to 0:03:14.360 --> 0:03:19.680 other computers and also to various electronic instruments. So uh 0:03:19.919 --> 0:03:23.919 not again not necessarily something for the average consumer, but 0:03:24.000 --> 0:03:28.200 we're slowly moving that way. Now in nineteen eight one 0:03:28.600 --> 0:03:31.800 we get yet another calculator. So I expect Mr Plette 0:03:31.880 --> 0:03:35.000 will dance around the room and squeel like a little 0:03:35.360 --> 0:03:39.360 joyful I like calculators. Apparently you do. It's the HP 0:03:39.480 --> 0:03:41.880 twelve C. It's a business calculator. Yeah, that the twelve 0:03:42.440 --> 0:03:44.800 The funny thing about the twelve C is now that 0:03:44.960 --> 0:03:49.920 this device was introduced in they still sell them. Uh 0:03:50.000 --> 0:03:53.960 They're they're tiny devices. About the sizes we would expect 0:03:53.960 --> 0:03:56.800 a pocket calculator to be now, um, but it was 0:03:56.840 --> 0:04:01.680 designed to be a financial calculator. Um. So this is 0:04:01.760 --> 0:04:06.360 kind of kind of interesting because again HP had been 0:04:06.920 --> 0:04:11.320 was started as a company that made electric electronic testing equipment. 0:04:12.000 --> 0:04:16.600 So now they are really moving like making a dedicated 0:04:16.600 --> 0:04:20.240 push into other areas of business and trying to reach 0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:23.279 out to other business customers who might want their products. 0:04:23.279 --> 0:04:26.360 Because again, if you've listened to our previous podcast on HP, 0:04:26.480 --> 0:04:31.120 you know that one of the foundation, uh parts of 0:04:31.160 --> 0:04:33.599 their philosophy is that you have to continue to grow 0:04:33.720 --> 0:04:36.960 as a business or you perish. And the best and 0:04:36.960 --> 0:04:39.440 the best part is it had a gold tone, so 0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:43.600 you knew it was good. Um. Two, they introduced HP 0:04:43.720 --> 0:04:49.839 seventy handheld computer. It's actually a mobile computing device and uh, 0:04:49.920 --> 0:04:52.960 you know, it's kind of interesting it if you look 0:04:53.000 --> 0:04:56.120 at it today. I mean, granted, it looks bulkier than 0:04:56.200 --> 0:04:58.719 what we think of as a mobile computer now, but 0:04:59.040 --> 0:05:01.640 HP really had they were ahead of their time, really, 0:05:01.680 --> 0:05:05.960 but they had really predicted the whole mobile computing UM movement. 0:05:06.120 --> 0:05:10.680 Although at this point movement see what because they're mobile 0:05:11.120 --> 0:05:14.200 but although at this point the they're much more primitive 0:05:14.240 --> 0:05:17.800 than the ones we use today. The HP seventy five C, however, 0:05:17.960 --> 0:05:20.320 even had input output drive so you can connect it 0:05:20.360 --> 0:05:24.960 to a printer or a digital cassette drive. Remember digital cassettes. 0:05:25.760 --> 0:05:30.880 These are not not like disks. You actually stored things 0:05:30.960 --> 0:05:34.760 on tape magnetically. But yeah, it was. It was ten 0:05:34.760 --> 0:05:38.599 inches long, about twenty five point four centimeters um by 0:05:38.640 --> 0:05:41.200 five inches by one inch, so it was only you know, 0:05:41.720 --> 0:05:45.440 two point five four centimeters thick. It was. It was 0:05:45.640 --> 0:05:47.560 glad I have that memorized, because that's about the only 0:05:48.000 --> 0:05:50.320 metric conversion I have memorized. It was a bit larger 0:05:50.360 --> 0:05:55.680 than uh, your typical calculator at that point, forty eight 0:05:55.800 --> 0:05:58.680 k of RAM sixteen k ram. You know. It ran 0:05:58.720 --> 0:06:02.200 basic and visit calc and and you could use it 0:06:02.200 --> 0:06:05.920 as a clock or an alarm for appointments only cost 0:06:06.000 --> 0:06:10.720 nine when Mickey's big hand is on the digital one. Anyway. 0:06:11.360 --> 0:06:15.640 So in nineteen two they also HP introduced within the 0:06:15.680 --> 0:06:19.400 company itself, an electronic mail system where you could send 0:06:19.480 --> 0:06:26.279 messages to other HP employees. So oh and yeah, no, 0:06:26.440 --> 0:06:31.599 that's right. Okay, I was like, what but the electronic 0:06:31.640 --> 0:06:34.400 mail was all internal, It wasn't this wasn't something Whearing 0:06:34.560 --> 0:06:38.960 an HP pioneered email. Email actually had existed for a 0:06:39.000 --> 0:06:42.800 little while and other research facilities, but this was It 0:06:42.839 --> 0:06:45.440 was a pretty big move for a company to do that. Now. Granted, 0:06:45.760 --> 0:06:48.800 HP at this point is a very large company that's 0:06:48.920 --> 0:06:52.880 continued to expands, got more than fifty employees, so it 0:06:52.960 --> 0:06:57.080 was very important that they developed a way to communicate 0:06:57.160 --> 0:07:00.880 between different departments and within departments because it's getting too 0:07:00.960 --> 0:07:04.960 large to just rely on paper all the time. Yeah, 0:07:05.160 --> 0:07:07.839 and frankly, it's inconvenient to staple notes to people's foreheads 0:07:07.839 --> 0:07:10.800 as they walk by. Yeah. I have had many people 0:07:10.800 --> 0:07:13.400 talk to me about my habit of doing that now, 0:07:13.520 --> 0:07:15.200 and I'm just pointing it out. In AP two, they 0:07:15.200 --> 0:07:19.640 also introduced the HP nine thousand, Ah, the HP nine thousands. 0:07:19.720 --> 0:07:23.600 It was a main frame computer, but a desktop main frame. 0:07:23.640 --> 0:07:27.120 Now when what when you hear the term mainframe computer, 0:07:27.600 --> 0:07:30.920 what you're supposed to think about is a computer that's 0:07:30.960 --> 0:07:33.760 so large it fills up an entire room. Yeah, I 0:07:33.800 --> 0:07:39.080 think of specifically of the digital vacts yeah vas. Yeah, 0:07:39.120 --> 0:07:43.040 so you're talking about these enormous computing machines that uh 0:07:43.400 --> 0:07:46.000 that you know, you'd open up a door and you're 0:07:46.040 --> 0:07:48.520 looking at a computer. That's pretty much what these things 0:07:48.560 --> 0:07:51.760 look like. Now. The HP nine thousand was a departure 0:07:51.800 --> 0:07:55.760 from that. It was a computer that had mainframe capabilities, 0:07:55.920 --> 0:07:58.000 one that was just as powerful to say, a supercomputer 0:07:58.080 --> 0:08:01.520 from the nineteen sixties, but it could it on a desktop. Now, 0:08:01.560 --> 0:08:06.360 this is a really good illustration of a an observation 0:08:06.440 --> 0:08:11.720 made by um Uh, an Intel co founder. We're of 0:08:11.760 --> 0:08:15.240 course referring to Moore's law here, and Moore's law is 0:08:15.280 --> 0:08:17.640 really an observation. If you've listened to our podcast, you've 0:08:17.680 --> 0:08:22.559 heard us talk about it a number of times quote 0:08:22.600 --> 0:08:26.280 unquote law. But the observation essentially is that about every 0:08:26.320 --> 0:08:29.880 two years or so, and the time changes depending upon 0:08:29.880 --> 0:08:32.320 when you look at this law, about every two years, 0:08:32.600 --> 0:08:36.200 the number of discrete elements that can be fit upon 0:08:36.400 --> 0:08:42.160 a square inch of silicon waffer Uh doubles. So what 0:08:42.280 --> 0:08:45.160 that means to the layman is that the number of 0:08:45.160 --> 0:08:49.280 transistors on a microprocessor tends to double every two years, 0:08:49.320 --> 0:08:52.520 which means that you can cram more transistors onto the 0:08:52.600 --> 0:08:55.839 same space as you could two years ago, and thus 0:08:56.240 --> 0:09:01.160 devices can get smaller while maintaining a level of power. 0:09:01.600 --> 0:09:04.640 So by two it was possible to build a machine 0:09:04.960 --> 0:09:06.640 that fit on a desktop that would have the same 0:09:06.679 --> 0:09:10.720 amount of power as in nineteen sixties super computer super 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:12.600 which is you know, that's a pretty big deal. Now. 0:09:12.640 --> 0:09:15.760 Of course, today the computers that you run out and 0:09:15.800 --> 0:09:18.800 buy in the store have more power to them than 0:09:18.960 --> 0:09:22.000 some of those supercomputers did back in the nineteen sixties. 0:09:22.240 --> 0:09:25.079 You know, you could buy a netbook that has more 0:09:25.120 --> 0:09:28.640 power than some of those supercomputers. But but you know, 0:09:28.720 --> 0:09:33.199 this was this was a good illustration of that that 0:09:33.200 --> 0:09:36.560 that observation. You can buy a smartphone. Yeah, it's kind 0:09:36.600 --> 0:09:38.720 of crazy. But that's the thing about Moore's law, right, 0:09:38.760 --> 0:09:41.640 I mean, it's exponential growth. So if if More's law 0:09:41.679 --> 0:09:44.160 were not correct, then we wouldn't be able to do 0:09:44.240 --> 0:09:46.880 those things. But it's so far held out to be true, 0:09:47.200 --> 0:09:50.640 although of course, every single year that passes someone predicts 0:09:50.640 --> 0:09:52.360 will be the final year for Moore's law to be 0:09:52.360 --> 0:09:54.440 able to hold true, because we keep thinking we're going 0:09:54.480 --> 0:09:57.360 to run into some sort of fundamental obstacle that will 0:09:57.360 --> 0:10:01.160 prevent us from continuing, and yet engineers figure out a 0:10:01.160 --> 0:10:04.679 way around it because they're crafty that and because they 0:10:04.720 --> 0:10:08.000 want I think, haven't we established that they generally want 0:10:08.040 --> 0:10:10.760 to try to. It's a self fulfilling prophecy when you 0:10:11.080 --> 0:10:13.120 try to make it work, right, Yeah, it becomes one 0:10:13.120 --> 0:10:17.280 of those things where you know, engineers in general and 0:10:17.559 --> 0:10:21.360 even companies in particular, will dedicate a lot of resources 0:10:21.400 --> 0:10:24.079 to keep it going because you never I don't think 0:10:24.120 --> 0:10:28.000 anyone wants to reach the point where they say, we've 0:10:28.000 --> 0:10:30.960 reached the end of of what Moore's Law has predicted. 0:10:31.000 --> 0:10:35.160 We cannot we cannot continue at that pace. It doesn't 0:10:35.200 --> 0:10:37.920 necessarily mean when Moore's Law does come to an end, 0:10:37.960 --> 0:10:40.480 whenever that may be, it doesn't necessarily mean that we 0:10:40.679 --> 0:10:45.800 that progress will stop. It may just slow down significantly. Anyway, 0:10:45.960 --> 0:10:50.880 we got way off track there. They introduced the HP 0:10:51.040 --> 0:10:55.720 one fifty touch screen computer. Yes, which you know, if 0:10:55.760 --> 0:11:00.200 you think about it, the touch screen PC. Yeah, and 0:11:00.360 --> 0:11:02.880 we're still talking about I mean, think about this. HP 0:11:03.080 --> 0:11:08.439 is has managed to launch a mobile device much earlier 0:11:08.440 --> 0:11:11.240 than mobile computing takes off. They launched this touch screen 0:11:11.320 --> 0:11:14.400 computer way before we start seeing a lot of these 0:11:14.440 --> 0:11:17.439 touch screen interfaces come out, really ahead of its time. 0:11:18.440 --> 0:11:21.120 The the HP one also had a keyboard, so it 0:11:21.160 --> 0:11:24.840 wasn't exclusively touch screen, but you could select items on 0:11:24.880 --> 0:11:28.680 the screen by touching them, so again kind of predicting 0:11:28.960 --> 0:11:34.079 the craze. Now granted almost three decades too early, but 0:11:34.080 --> 0:11:39.480 but it's still pretty impressive. And oh you uh, you 0:11:39.480 --> 0:11:43.920 didn't mention one thing about Mr Hewlett, Which are you 0:11:43.960 --> 0:11:46.199 going with the awards? Yes, I did not. I did 0:11:46.200 --> 0:11:48.720 not include the awards. I didn't well, we don't have 0:11:48.800 --> 0:11:52.600 as many as uh in our Texas Instruments podcast. But 0:11:52.880 --> 0:11:56.720 he did get the National Medal of Science. But you 0:11:56.800 --> 0:12:02.600 were going to mention the big ants actually two of them, 0:12:02.640 --> 0:12:08.040 both coming from the the Graphic Recording Division. Yeah. Um, specifically, 0:12:08.080 --> 0:12:12.080 I was going to talk about the thermal ink jet printer. Uh, 0:12:12.120 --> 0:12:16.320 that's that's the year that HP introduced that idea. And um, 0:12:16.600 --> 0:12:18.560 I guess that's where the name think jet comes from. 0:12:18.920 --> 0:12:22.319 Think jet comes from thermal ink jet. And this was 0:12:22.360 --> 0:12:25.560 a new way of printing. Now, the major kind of 0:12:25.559 --> 0:12:28.680 printer that was on the market before this was a 0:12:28.720 --> 0:12:35.040 dot matrix printer. Those things were loud, very loud. When 0:12:35.080 --> 0:12:37.480 that when they were printing you, you pretty much couldn't 0:12:37.480 --> 0:12:40.000 hear yourself think. You had to sort of train yourself 0:12:40.040 --> 0:12:45.679 to ignore the root noises. Um, as well as the 0:12:45.679 --> 0:12:48.480 crunchy noises of the paper getting caught up in spokes 0:12:48.480 --> 0:12:51.920 and things. It was not always pleasant. That's all right. 0:12:51.960 --> 0:12:57.280 I had a daisy wheel even better. Whack whack, black Whackum. 0:12:57.320 --> 0:13:00.839 So they do have. Earlier in the podcast we were 0:13:00.840 --> 0:13:08.079 talking about, how about how HP has descriptions and photos 0:13:08.200 --> 0:13:12.200 of these items on their history part of their website. Um, 0:13:12.240 --> 0:13:14.680 it's interesting they have a they have a sound sample 0:13:14.720 --> 0:13:19.040 of the think jet, and it's funny because the literature 0:13:19.320 --> 0:13:22.640 surrounding it talks about how much quieter it is. It's 0:13:22.640 --> 0:13:29.000 not what you would call quiet swissbur quiet. It's quieter er. Yeah, 0:13:29.200 --> 0:13:32.040 it's not as loud. How about that? So, yeah, that 0:13:32.120 --> 0:13:34.360 was a big deal, you said, You said too. Was 0:13:34.400 --> 0:13:36.079 there a second part to that that you wanted to 0:13:36.120 --> 0:13:40.240 talk about? That? That's all I jotted down. Oh well yeah, 0:13:40.240 --> 0:13:43.880 there was another big printing advance right about the same time, 0:13:45.559 --> 0:13:50.400 the laser jet. Oh, the laser jet. Yes, I didn't 0:13:50.400 --> 0:13:53.199 have that down. Yeah, the laser I think jet and 0:13:53.280 --> 0:13:58.559 laser jet were both both came out in the same year. Um. Now, 0:13:58.880 --> 0:14:01.480 the thing jet was thing that you might would be 0:14:01.559 --> 0:14:05.480 obviously well maybe not obviously, but a less expensive um device. 0:14:05.559 --> 0:14:09.400 But the laser jet uh started in three thousand, five 0:14:09.480 --> 0:14:14.160 hundred dollars, and it was a completely different kind of printing. 0:14:14.200 --> 0:14:16.640 I mean, this was now talk about quiet. This is 0:14:16.640 --> 0:14:20.080 gonna be a lot quieter than that ink jet printer. Um. 0:14:20.120 --> 0:14:22.880 And this is also the point where uh, you know, 0:14:23.360 --> 0:14:28.400 computers are becoming more common sites in offices and and 0:14:28.400 --> 0:14:31.720 and they will be in homes uh in very very 0:14:31.760 --> 0:14:35.040 short period of time. Is also the same year that 0:14:35.080 --> 0:14:38.440 the mac uh, well, the Macintosh, I should say, the 0:14:38.520 --> 0:14:41.200 Macintosh computer premiered in nineteen eight four, and we had 0:14:41.240 --> 0:14:44.000 the IBM PC. Yeah, IBMPC had been out for a while, 0:14:44.040 --> 0:14:46.720 and of course you know Apple had some computers help 0:14:46.880 --> 0:14:49.360 for a few years before the Macintosh, and even the 0:14:49.400 --> 0:14:52.360 Commodore sixty four, which debuted in nineteen eight two. So 0:14:53.240 --> 0:14:56.800 the personal computer is starting to gain ground, yep. And 0:14:56.880 --> 0:14:59.720 so you know you might have a think jet and 0:14:59.800 --> 0:15:02.600 a in a home because it's a less expensive printer. 0:15:03.120 --> 0:15:05.240 Still a lot of dot Matrix and Daisy Wheel out there, 0:15:05.240 --> 0:15:07.880 but laser chat was what you might see in an office, 0:15:08.160 --> 0:15:11.400 and uh, talk about a popular product. Of course, the 0:15:11.440 --> 0:15:15.600 line still exists today. Um. It was uh in eight 0:15:15.720 --> 0:15:18.560 four two, I believe that's when HP made Fortunes list 0:15:18.640 --> 0:15:21.560 of the hundred Best Companies to Work for, number seven 0:15:21.560 --> 0:15:25.080 on that list. So it's another indication that HP took 0:15:25.640 --> 0:15:29.600 taking care of its employees very seriously. Do you have 0:15:29.640 --> 0:15:32.200 anything for eighty seven, because my next thing is, oh, well, 0:15:32.240 --> 0:15:35.760 I had had eighty six when HP introduced the RISK 0:15:37.120 --> 0:15:42.040 architecture Reduced Instruction Set computing, which is, it's a it's 0:15:42.080 --> 0:15:46.680 a type of architecture for micro processor for many computers. UM, 0:15:46.840 --> 0:15:52.960 it's typically less expensive than other architectures. It's also, according 0:15:53.000 --> 0:15:58.920 to many people, a better UH way of computing than SISK, 0:15:59.120 --> 0:16:04.720 which is it's it's counterpart. But um, that's a that 0:16:04.800 --> 0:16:09.840 goes back to the power PC versus Intel days. When 0:16:09.880 --> 0:16:11.840 you can hear that you can get so much, you 0:16:11.840 --> 0:16:16.520 can get some some debate going upon. It's funny because 0:16:16.560 --> 0:16:19.920 when you when you bring this up to computer engineers 0:16:19.920 --> 0:16:24.120 and computer scientists, you can get to some pretty crazy 0:16:24.200 --> 0:16:30.400 debates on the various benefits and um and problems with 0:16:30.520 --> 0:16:34.040 various kinds of architecture. Most of us just say, I 0:16:34.080 --> 0:16:36.320 just want my computer to go fast and do things 0:16:36.640 --> 0:16:40.400 I don't I don't care how it does that. Oh 0:16:40.480 --> 0:16:44.840 and we didn't talk about the integral computer they were 0:16:44.840 --> 0:16:47.080 released in all in one. I didn't find it very 0:16:47.080 --> 0:16:52.720 integral on the podcast, and it anyway, it's also rather heavy. Yeah. 0:16:53.760 --> 0:16:56.440 They also came out with a number of different UH 0:16:56.480 --> 0:16:59.800 scientific calculators, like the HP eight teen C and thirty 0:16:59.840 --> 0:17:03.320 two S eight nine. I gave up on the calculators. 0:17:03.360 --> 0:17:05.359 There's a lot of them. I couldn't I couldn't keep up, 0:17:05.640 --> 0:17:08.359 but it was it was a lucrative line of business 0:17:08.440 --> 0:17:11.399 for me. And in eight seven they began their hardware 0:17:11.440 --> 0:17:14.720 recycling program, which is again ahead of its time. Yeah. 0:17:14.720 --> 0:17:17.080 One of those things again about HP. If you've listened 0:17:17.080 --> 0:17:19.240 to the previous podcast, HP wanting to be a good 0:17:19.280 --> 0:17:24.800 corporate citizen, so trying to do responsible things and not uh, 0:17:24.840 --> 0:17:29.080 you know, not contribute too much to pollution and other problems. 0:17:29.119 --> 0:17:31.400 In fact, there are a lot of initiatives that HP 0:17:31.560 --> 0:17:36.840 launched that help make it a at least put it 0:17:36.880 --> 0:17:39.520 in light of as a company that is UH is 0:17:39.520 --> 0:17:43.600 concerned about the environment, including things like tracking greenhouse gases 0:17:43.680 --> 0:17:47.480 that that happened later on UH. Oh, I'm sorry, you've 0:17:47.480 --> 0:17:50.680 got a point here, just a small point that Jonathan 0:17:50.720 --> 0:17:52.520 thought was long dead and you might have to if 0:17:52.520 --> 0:17:56.440 you listen to the parts one and two. UM. In 0:17:56.440 --> 0:17:59.440 in the first part we talked about the birthplace of HP. 0:17:59.680 --> 0:18:04.800 That UM after UH Mr Hewlett and Mr Packard moved 0:18:04.800 --> 0:18:07.359 out of the house where the garage was, they left 0:18:07.400 --> 0:18:10.919 it to other owners and tenants over the years, but 0:18:12.800 --> 0:18:17.480 HP decided that, uh the garage was significant UM and 0:18:17.520 --> 0:18:20.960 probably I think because of something that you mentioned before too. 0:18:21.480 --> 0:18:25.520 Other companies looked to HP as a leader and they started, 0:18:25.840 --> 0:18:29.359 I think the the mythos of the whole uh starting 0:18:29.359 --> 0:18:31.440 a tech company in your garage thing. I mean, it's 0:18:31.440 --> 0:18:35.080 been done by others, Apple and Google, you mentioned Microsoft, 0:18:35.280 --> 0:18:38.359 Origin Games started out of a garage well, and and 0:18:38.440 --> 0:18:41.400 many other businesses have too. But I think HP decided 0:18:41.600 --> 0:18:44.080 at that point that, look, other people have done this 0:18:44.160 --> 0:18:46.760 so much that we want to we want to keep 0:18:46.800 --> 0:18:50.159 track of this. So they decided to have the that 0:18:50.280 --> 0:18:54.080 the garage would be on the list of historic landmarks. 0:18:54.080 --> 0:18:58.359 So they actually started pursuing landmark status and in the 0:18:58.400 --> 0:19:01.560 Palo al To Historic Resource His board named the garage 0:19:02.240 --> 0:19:04.760 a city landmark. Yeah. We'll get into more of that 0:19:04.800 --> 0:19:07.280 in a little bit, YEA, because I've got eighty eight 0:19:07.359 --> 0:19:10.879 and the next part of that story happens in eighty nine. Yea, 0:19:11.119 --> 0:19:14.399 in eighty seven, California did the same. I have it, 0:19:14.560 --> 0:19:18.879 I have California naming it a California Historical Landmark in nine. Okay, 0:19:19.560 --> 0:19:24.800 my timeline said August. See it's sometimes sometimes you run 0:19:24.840 --> 0:19:29.160 into little differences and along these timelines. But yeah, it's 0:19:28.840 --> 0:19:32.800 it's actually now a national landmark. Yes, originally it was 0:19:33.000 --> 0:19:36.560 Palo Alto, then California now national. Uh. Yeah, this little 0:19:36.560 --> 0:19:39.560 bit shack where HB started and you can see it 0:19:39.560 --> 0:19:43.800 on Google Maps if you'd like. Yeah, we HP launched 0:19:43.800 --> 0:19:47.520 the desk Jet printer series, which was its first mass 0:19:47.640 --> 0:19:51.560 market ink jet. So um, they've started to bring the 0:19:51.600 --> 0:19:54.280 costs of manufactured down so they can bring down the 0:19:54.320 --> 0:19:57.919 cost of the actual units and start selling them to 0:19:57.920 --> 0:20:01.480 to uh to consumers because before it was you know, 0:20:01.640 --> 0:20:05.320 kind of like the early adopters who were getting hold 0:20:05.359 --> 0:20:09.600 of these early think jet printers. But it wasn't until 0:20:09.680 --> 0:20:12.040 we the desk Jet series that started to fall into 0:20:12.080 --> 0:20:14.760 the range of the average consumer because you know, early 0:20:14.760 --> 0:20:18.400 adopters tend to have a lot more money to play 0:20:18.440 --> 0:20:22.840 with because it's expensive to be an early adopter. Um 0:20:22.880 --> 0:20:26.600 and at this point in the company is doing quite well. 0:20:26.680 --> 0:20:29.320 The revenues are now at nine point eight billion and 0:20:29.359 --> 0:20:33.480 they have more than eighty seven thousand employees. That's kind 0:20:33.480 --> 0:20:37.800 of large. Yeah, so you've got the historical landmark thing 0:20:37.800 --> 0:20:40.160 happening either in eight seven or eighty nine, or perhaps both, 0:20:40.200 --> 0:20:44.720 because you know, well I got my information from HP timelines, 0:20:44.840 --> 0:20:46.960 so they have it listed as both. I would I 0:20:47.000 --> 0:20:49.080 would think that eighty nine is is it? Because I 0:20:49.119 --> 0:20:53.040 had it on that one? So interesting? And so they 0:20:53.040 --> 0:20:55.840 did get a plaque in eighty nine that that declared 0:20:56.040 --> 0:21:00.720 the garage the birthplace of Silicon Valley. There is a 0:21:00.800 --> 0:21:04.600 monument there with a sandstone rock in the front yard. Um, 0:21:04.640 --> 0:21:07.640 and uh, just well we can get to that later. 0:21:07.680 --> 0:21:09.680 But they they you can actually go by and see 0:21:09.720 --> 0:21:12.680 the plaque. It is there at the at the place 0:21:12.760 --> 0:21:16.840 you can't go into the garage. I can imagine just 0:21:17.160 --> 0:21:19.680 these people constantly coming out of that house yelling, get 0:21:19.720 --> 0:21:22.200 off my lawn, you nerds. That'll come up later, Okay. 0:21:22.240 --> 0:21:27.879 So in uh, the desk Chet, yeah, which was a 0:21:27.960 --> 0:21:31.440 color printer, so this is the early days for color 0:21:31.480 --> 0:21:34.320 printers for the consumer market. Um. They also created the 0:21:34.520 --> 0:21:39.000 HP l X, which was a palm top PC I 0:21:39.040 --> 0:21:42.920 love how these these terms get bandied about. Yeah, yeah, 0:21:43.080 --> 0:21:46.240 I love that every single product is well, not every 0:21:46.240 --> 0:21:49.920 single most of the products are HP. Couple of numbers, 0:21:50.520 --> 0:21:54.000 a couple of letters. Yeah, still so confusing. Like if 0:21:54.040 --> 0:21:55.760 you if you started rattling them off to me at 0:21:55.760 --> 0:21:58.240 this point, even though we've just talked about them, I'd 0:21:58.240 --> 0:22:02.399 be like, Um, is that a calculator? No, silly, that 0:22:02.480 --> 0:22:08.919 was an awful leader. John Young retires. Now if you 0:22:09.000 --> 0:22:11.120 were listening to our last podcast, you would have heard 0:22:11.119 --> 0:22:15.800 about John Young becoming the president and CEO of HP. Uh. 0:22:15.840 --> 0:22:19.000 So he retires, and a man named Lou Platt becomes 0:22:19.040 --> 0:22:24.119 the new president and CEO. UH, and then in Packard 0:22:24.359 --> 0:22:29.080 finally retires. Hewlett had retired several years earlier, but Packard 0:22:29.080 --> 0:22:33.479 retires ninety three as chairman. So Platt then becomes the 0:22:33.560 --> 0:22:36.040 new chairman. So he's the president, CEO, and chairman of 0:22:36.040 --> 0:22:38.920 the board. Now this is when that becomes sort of 0:22:39.400 --> 0:22:42.360 common for the leader of HP. From that point forward, 0:22:42.760 --> 0:22:44.719 you start to see a lot of the HP leaders 0:22:45.320 --> 0:22:49.479 assume all three of those roles. So, um, now we 0:22:49.520 --> 0:22:51.760 finally have it where both of the founders have stepped 0:22:51.800 --> 0:22:57.639 back from the company UH and then the company introduces 0:22:57.760 --> 0:23:02.679 the Omnibook three hundred Done. Done. It was a portable computer. 0:23:02.800 --> 0:23:06.520 Weighed three pounds, not that heavy really, um and kind 0:23:06.520 --> 0:23:10.800 of a predecessor for the laptops that we'd see later on. 0:23:10.880 --> 0:23:13.399 I mean I had a folding form factor just like 0:23:13.440 --> 0:23:16.560 a laptop dead uh and you know not you know, 0:23:16.600 --> 0:23:19.360 almost like a predecessor to netbooks in a way. Yeah, 0:23:19.720 --> 0:23:23.199 because again it was supposed to be extremely portable. I 0:23:23.200 --> 0:23:26.560 would like to point something out here. Um, at this point, 0:23:26.600 --> 0:23:28.920 I would argue that HP still sees itself as a 0:23:29.000 --> 0:23:36.040 business to business company. They're making products for primarily for businesses. Um. Yeah, 0:23:36.080 --> 0:23:38.040 they do have their eyes on the consumer. They're selling 0:23:38.040 --> 0:23:41.560 products to consumers, but I think they still sort of uh, 0:23:41.760 --> 0:23:44.600 they're making a lot of these products for people who 0:23:44.760 --> 0:23:48.840 are using their stuff in companies. Uh. And that's that's 0:23:49.040 --> 0:23:51.560 a wise move on their part because that's a lucrative 0:23:51.600 --> 0:23:54.720 market for them. Um. But they will they will be 0:23:54.720 --> 0:23:56.600 branching out in the near future. I just wanted to 0:23:56.600 --> 0:24:00.600 point that out. Um. They did begin work on sixty 0:24:00.600 --> 0:24:07.080 four bit microprocessor architecture with Intel. Yeah. Yeah, so they 0:24:07.160 --> 0:24:11.159 partner with Intel to work on this. Uh, this architecture 0:24:11.200 --> 0:24:14.399 design for sixty four bit microprocessors. If you listen to 0:24:14.400 --> 0:24:16.879 our thirty two bit versus sixty four bit podcast and 0:24:16.880 --> 0:24:19.880 you know more about that. If you haven't, will wait, 0:24:21.119 --> 0:24:26.080 welcome back. The HP then produces the world's brightest led 0:24:26.880 --> 0:24:30.080 for no reason. No, that's not that's not true. Well, 0:24:30.119 --> 0:24:33.119 remember we talked about HP Labs UM, and that was 0:24:33.160 --> 0:24:37.760 a division of the company created decades before to come 0:24:37.840 --> 0:24:42.240 up with new and innovative uses of technology. So I 0:24:42.240 --> 0:24:43.800 think that was that had a lot to do it. 0:24:43.840 --> 0:24:49.040 But they found UM applications in a number of things 0:24:49.040 --> 0:24:52.919