Comments on: Podcast: Interview with David Cochran on the how of creating the first scientific calculator

By: GKannappan

GKannappan — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:13:30 +0000

It is interesting. It was a great achievement in those days. As a matter of fact, I was one of the first to buy this caculator and the first one released by HP.
Howevever, if you talk to people who created wonderful innovations recently, it will be more interesting.

By: Frank Muschalle

Frank Muschalle — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 23:07:16 +0000

I was travelling on a train when I listened to your interview podcast. Very interesting “news” from the past. E.g. that it were times without budgets when such great innovation was born.
I couldn’t help to lough out loudly when David Cochran told the story with the calculator fitting to the boss’ desk )
Phil, please do more such interviews. We can learn a lot..

By: Matt Park

Matt Park — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 16:19:54 +0000

great podcast. Please do moren interviews like this with innovators. This on has several gems. Resizing the desk drawer, creating the mock-up to encourage progress, and one man championing his vision.

By: Chris Woodruff

Chris Woodruff — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:01:34 +0000

Great interview! I really enjoyed hearing the great stories that pass on lessons about how to innovation and think differently. Looking forward to the next interviews. Keep them going.
I wish I still had my HP-28S and HP-48SX. I loved working with them in school. They were so much fun.

By: Patrick Richard

Patrick Richard — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 01:05:22 +0000

I’ve listened to each episode from No 1 on and I must say that I really enjoy the “historical” ones.
I guess I’m an antique (or some type of engineer geek) too because I actually used an HP35 back then. I also used HP41C/CV and HP67s over the year. I still have an HP34C and an HP71B.

By: Lotro powerleveling

Lotro powerleveling — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 04:21:37 +0000

I am glad to talk with you and you give me great help! Thanks for that,I am wonderring if I can contact you via email when I meet problems.

By: Dan Swain

Dan Swain — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 05:55:56 +0000

I really enjoyed the interview Phil, and I hope you’ll do more like it. It’s impossible to hear too many success stories.

By: Alison Chaiken

Alison Chaiken — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 04:33:54 +0000

I tremendously enjoyed listening to the interview both for its historical content and for the broader lessons that can be extracted about what conditions make a product development effort successful. I’d love to hear Phil interview more engineers who have worked on landmark products of the past. My only frustration with the interview was not having any background information about David Cochran. I’m surprised that Phil did not ask David how many years he’d be at HP before the 35, what projects he had worked on previously, which school he’d gone to, etc. The anecdote about how Hewlett essentially designed the calculator from the outside in and the story of Wozniak’s tenure at HP were the best segments.
I sent the podcast link to a staff member at the Computer History Museum, as the curators will want to include the interview in their audio collection. The Museum has often had evening lectures featuring the founders of Grid Computing, the founders of Compaq, the Fairchildren and so forth, and the Cochran interview will fit in well with those recordings.

By: Barry

Barry — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 20:46:27 +0000

I loved this interview, and look forward to more like it. Hearing the comments straight from the mouth of the innvator gives a fresh perspective. Thanks!

By: Dennis McDonald

Dennis McDonald — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 01:22:37 +0000

Here's my commentary on this podcast: http://www.ddmcd.com/pocket.html

By: Dennis McDonald

Dennis McDonald — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:44:34 +0000

I really enjoyed his comments about “benches” and the impacts of proximity on working and innoavation.

By: Jim Vanides

Jim Vanides — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 07:05:52 +0000

Great podcast! Can’t wait for the next one…
FYI – Another HP calculator innovation: Rather than silkscreening numbers on the keys (which can be worn off), HP manufacturing engineers created a way a dual-color injection mold process so the numbers could be molded into the key. I’m not sure in which calculator this first appeared, but it was a another first!