HP Forum Archive 16

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HP-65 brochures and Keynotes Message #1 Posted by t.knight on 4 Aug 2006, 4:15 p.m. Hi, I found this site by Googling. My father was an HP-65 fanatic - he bought his Aug 13, 1974 (I have the receipt- $842.70 with tax)). I was going to put his old calculator (card reader doesn't work) on eBay (he passed away a few years back). I noticed that he has a lot of old brochures and Keynotes (7 issues) in good condition in his files. Is this something I should put on eBay or will no one be interested? They are all in mint condition. The brochures are: May 1974 Hewlett Packard Journal which has several articles on the HP-65 HP Pocket Calculator Buying Guide Spring 1975 Brochure - HP proudly introduces the super-powerful HP-65 (12 pages) Brochure- HP presents a quantum leap in calculator technology - the HP-65 (12 pages). and a little 2 page thing that advertises the 35,45,65,80 Thanks. I remember how much he loved these things.

Re: HP-65 brochures and Keynotes Message #2 Posted by Trent Moseley on 4 Aug 2006, 10:51 p.m., in response to message #1 by t.knight I gave all my Keynotes and advertising brochures to Dave Hicks and the Museum. tm

Re: HP-65 brochures and Keynotes Message #3 Posted by Namir on 5 Aug 2006, 2:38 a.m., in response to message #1 by t.knight t, I hope you can imagine how revolutionary calculators like the HP-65 and HP-67 were in their time. This was the era where using computers meant working either with punch cards or (for the more priviledged) using terminals at the computer center. The advent of programmable computing devices presented for the first time personal devices that an individual can use at home and/or work. This was a significant step of being empowered, despite the fact that the programmable calculators had limited memory by today's standards. Namir

Re: HP-65 brochures and Keynotes Message #4 Posted by Frank Boehm on 5 Aug 2006, 9:50 a.m., in response to message #3 by Namir Compucorp offered "personal computing" already in 1972 (sci functions, programmable, external tape drive, battery operated) - although probably only affordable to gov / edu (priced at a couple of k USD, ouch). This doesn't lessen the importance of the HP65 though - the first all-in-one design which is probably still "good enough" for almost every calculator user today.

HP-65 brochures and Keynotes Message #5 Posted by tashina on 5 Aug 2006, 11:57 a.m., in response to message #3 by Namir "I hope you can imagine how revolutionary calculators like the HP-65 and HP-67 were in their time." I definitely know how much it meant to my father. He had spent the previous 15 years or so in the wind tunnel at General Dynamics in San Diego writing programs on punch cards. The idea that he could write his own programs at home on the computer was amazing to him. He was the most frugal man you can imagine and I'm sure he thought long and hard before purchasing the HP-65. Here are a few programs he has handwritten in the file: 1. Find date of easter in any year 2. Linear curve fit 3. Day of the week given the date 4. Factoring a number into prime numbers 5. Root of polynomial by Newton Raphson 6. Evaluate polynomial to 8th degree 7. Manipulate phasors 8. Compressible Flow functions He later bought a Timex Sinclair and spent days programming it and going to user group meetings. Around the time I bought my first PC clone my father started developing dementia and never did learn to program anything newer than the Timex. Even when he moved into the nursing home that he did not come out of, he asked me if I was keeping his Timex and HP-65 safe. I was.

Re: HP-65 brochures and Keynotes Message #6 Posted by Namir on 5 Aug 2006, 1:05 p.m., in response to message #5 by tashina Sorry to hear that your father had dimention. My mother had it and it's a terrible way to see the personality of one's parent slip away. In as much I love handheld calculators, I realize that programs like Excel are the new calculators. The ability to display numbers on a "grid" or table is wonderful. I program in VBA (and yes use classes to create advanced programs) and use macros. Matlab is another cool application. There are others like Mathematica, Maple, and so on Namir

Re: HP-65 brochures and Keynotes Message #7 Posted by Chan Tran on 5 Aug 2006, 1:58 p.m., in response to message #6 by Namir to directly answer your question. Yes those brochures do have values. I don't know how much but they do have some values. I am sure most of us here would also want to have those.

Re: HP-65 brochures and Keynotes Message #8 Posted by Steve Borowsky on 5 Aug 2006, 2:18 p.m., in response to message #5 by tashina Your father sounds like a great guy tashina. For all the advantages modern technology offers us living in the current generation, none of us will likely ever experience the same kind of thrill your father did in seeing the very dawn of personal computing. It was a special time that can only happen once, and it was only for people like your father to experience.

I must have been spoiled rotten Message #9 Posted by Palmer O. Hanson, Jr. on 5 Aug 2006, 9:06 p.m., in response to message #3 by Namir I am beginning to realize how good I had it back in those days. My employer Honeywell had put together a DDP-516 network (the HCN) based in Minneapolis but accessible through telephone lines anywhere. I had access to any of several terminals in my building. The system offered an extended BASIC with double precision calculations, matrix operations, columnar printouts of tables and an extensive library of canned programs. In an anticipation of the internet I could also communicate with individuals at other divisions. The system was slow but it offered a feature which allowed a user to set up an execution file at the terminal such that the tasks could then be performed without further attention at the terminal. At times I would have several terminals running my solutions at the same time. Because of all that capability I was simply not impressed with the capabilities of the early machines such as the HP-35 and HP-65. In addition many of the early hand-helds simply "walked out the door" and we were required to keep our handhelds in their security cradles yielding comnplete destruction of the portability feature. The TI-59 was the first hand-held which offered enough power to convince me to move some of my programs from the HCN. But, then I got my Radio Shack Model 100 ...

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