HP Forum Archive 02

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HP users'library management Message #1 Posted by Jos on 10 Apr 2000, 3:44 a.m. Some info I found in an E-bay add (Item #302723338) mentions the take over of the users' lib by another company. Maybe I missed it but I thought we were looking for the remains of the lib ? If recovered we might persuade Dave to take action and also come up with a distribution scheme. Or am I chasing old news which was already known for years.... Some info given in the add: "Solve and Integrate PO Box 1928 Corvallis, OR 97339 503-754-1207 "The Users' Library was established in 1974 by Hewlett-Packard company to provide users of its calculators with easily available and useful programs. It has since grown to be a collection of over 4000 user-contributed programs for the HP-41C, HP-41CV, HP-41CX, HP-71B, HP-75C, HP-75D - and over 400 programs for the Series 80 computers. In addition, we have acquired the HP67/97 Library, which contains over 4000 programs and programs and manual sets for the 9807 Integral Personal Computer (IPC)." "In February of 1988, Solve and Integrate took over management of the Users' Library. Our president, John Loux, worked at Hewlett-Packard for over 5 years, spending 3 years in the Users' Library. Though we are not affiliated with Hewlet-Packard, we hope to provide the same fine service as well as provide new products and services in the future."

Re: HP users'library management Message #2 Posted by Bill Duncan on 10 Apr 2000, 9:57 a.m., in response to message #1 by Jos The item in question: http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=302723338 There's a phone number there. Anyone care to follow it up? It sure would be nice to find the missing library finally.

Re: HP users'library management Message #3 Posted by William L. Drylie on 10 Apr 2000, 11:16 a.m., in response to message #1 by Jos Dear Jos: I've posted this earlier, but here goes again. When Solve and Integrate went out of business they returned the Users Library to Hewlett Packard. Shortly before the calculator support went to Colorado from Oregon, I was talking to a support agent and I lamented that I could no longer get programs for my hp 67 and 71B from the users Library. He commented that they had the Users Library, and what did I want with it. I said that I wanted several programs. He said Why don't I write a letter to Hewlett Packard stating that I would be the custodian of the Library, and that I would manage it. Be advised this was several pallets worth of material, and one each of every machine that there were programs for. Alas I did not have the space, or time to manage the Library so I declined. Now, I have the space and time, but now, no one at HP seems to know the whereabouts of the Users Library. It seems to have vanished when support moved to Colorado. I believe it is still at at HP, if you can find the right person who knows where it is. The same people at support are no longer there. I have a catalog like the one on e-bay, but that's all it is, a catalog listing from the now out of business Solve & Integrate. Good luck, I hope you find the library. Cheers, Bill

Re: HP users'library management Message #4 Posted by Dan M on 10 Apr 2000, 11:44 a.m., in response to message #1 by Jos Last summer, there were several people (including myself) who gave a good run at trying to find the lost library. This topic did have a brief informal discussion during the HP Users Conference in Vancouver, WA last August. To the best of my memory, it was last known to be in a storage locker in Sweet Home, Oregon (east of Corvallis, 20-30 miles) in the late 80's. John Loux was moving out of the state, and could not take it with him. At that time, Richard Nelson -- here, I may be putting words in his mouth for him, hope he will correct me if I'm wrong -- made an effort to organize people and trucks and space (all from California) to go up and get it all. This effort never materialized, and sad to think, we believe that it all ended up in a landfill somewhere. There's more to the story than that, but it always seems to end up with the same sad fate: The Library in the landfill. If someone can find a happier ending to this saga, please, please do so!

Re: HP users'library management Message #5 Posted by William L. Drylie on 10 Apr 2000, 2:22 p.m., in response to message #4 by Dan M Dear Dan M. I was just heartsick after reading your post. I hope that the library is not in a landfill somewhere. I feel extremely guilty for not attempting to obtain the library from hp when I had the chance. My apologies to everyone!!

Re: HP users'library management Message #6 Posted by Joe on 10 Apr 2000, 5:36 p.m., in response to message #5 by William L. Drylie Hi, I was the one that initaited the effort to track down the HP User's LIBRARYS. Dan is quite right, to the best that we have been able to determine, the LIBRARYS were left in a storage locker with John Loux moved away from Oregon. No one seems to know for sure what happened to them after that but it's a almost a certainty that they were trashed by the storage company after John stopped paying for the storage locker. If someone can track down John we may be able to find out for certain but for now we've reached a dead end. I was told that John moved to Montana. I don't know nay more than that. The reason that I say LIBRARYS is becuase I know John had possesion of the HP 41, 71, 75, 65, 67 and 85 librarys. He may have had others as well. The only good thing that I found out was that when HP closed the European library was that one of the guys in the HPCC group saved the HP 41 portion and still has it in the attic of his home. The European library was a completely separate library and had a different set of programs. Joe Rigdon

Re: HP users'library management - Rebuilding the library ? Message #7 Posted by Reinhard Hawel on 10 Apr 2000, 8:08 p.m., in response to message #6 by Joe Hi friends - how about the bottom-up way finding the library ? We could try rebuilding the lost library with the things you, yes I mean you all, guys, have at home. I'd guess it could be possible to scan some parts of it, when somebody keeps a list of the parts we need and the parts which are ready. I live in Europe, so I fear, I don't can contribute any parts to the library (I don't even knew, the library was different for Europe and the U.S) Just my 2 cents.

Re: HP users'library management - Rebuilding the library ? Message #8 Posted by Dave Hicks on 10 Apr 2000, 9:47 p.m., in response to message #7 by Reinhard Hawel I'd be happy to publish anything you can convert to HTML in the software library here. (There have been very few submissions lately and I'm hoping to have some free time this summer.) For pure unOCR'd scans, I could add them to any future CDs.

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