The Programming Rules from HP’s Garage
By Andrew Binstock, September 18, 2012
The garage where Bill Hewlett and David Packard founded HP had its own core set of rules. They apply equally to programming.
The garage in Palo Alto where HP was born was the workplace of only two employees, the founders. Yet, to keep their core beliefs front and center as they tinkered and toiled, they posted a sign that articulated the guiding principles they shared:
- Believe you can change the world.
- Work quickly, keep the tools unlocked, work whenever.
- Know when to work alone and when to work together.
- Share tools, ideas. Trust your colleagues.
- No Politics. No bureaucracy. (These are ridiculous in a garage.)
- The customer defines a job well done.
- Radical ideas are not bad ideas.
- Invent different ways of working.
- Make a contribution every day. If it doesn’t contribute, it doesn’t leave the garage.
- Believe that together we can do anything.
- Invent.
Succinct and to the point, the overarching core beliefs were to work together, invent useful things, and let the customer be the final arbiter. These principles are just as applicable today for start-ups as they are for established companies.
HP one of the best consumer products in their days – Classics, Woodstocks, Spices, Nuts,
Voyagers, and Pioneers calculators sated in their manuals until 1980:
“The success and prosperity of our company will be assured only if we offer our customers
superior products that fill real needs and provide lasting value, and that are supported by a
wide variety of useful services, both before and after sales.”
Statement of Corporate Objectives.
Hewlett-Packard
Uhhh…
digitxp (Homepage) – January 31, 2008 – 7:42pm
What? I have no idea what you are looking for. Can you show me some of the non-portable ones?
Insert original signature here with Greasemonkey Script.
Wake-on-LAN
abnormal – January 31, 2008 – 7:56pm
Wikipedia has an article with some suggested apps.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wake-on-LAN
Sorry we always call it Wake on ping *fixed*
Success is in the Details.
IH WOL
John T. Haller
(Homepage) – January 31, 2008 – 8:13pm
IH WOL should do the trick for you. It’s open source, free, and stores its list of computers in the same directory as the EXE. Grab it from here:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ih-wol/
Install it locally and grab the IH WOL.exe file from C:Program FilesShayganihwol. Nice and easy. On your drive, create a folder within the PortableApps folder called IHWOL and drop that EXE in it. Next time you start or if you click Options – Refresh, the PortableApps.com Menu will show an IH Wake On Lan icon.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you’re awesome!
Great
abnormal – January 31, 2008 – 9:09pm
Thanks John! It works portably under windows and also in wine on Ubuntu gutsy.
Success is in the Details.
Hmm
Ryan McCue
(Homepage) – February 1, 2008 – 4:50am
i can has launcher?
“If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the precipitate.”
???
Simeon
– February 1, 2008 – 5:57am
What happened to your english?
“What about Love?” – “Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate.” – Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
It died.
Ryan McCue
(Homepage) – February 1, 2008 – 7:08pm
It died when I visited i can has cheezburger.
“If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the precipitate.”
Ohh
Simeon
– February 1, 2008 – 7:10pm
Sincere condolences
“What about Love?” – “Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate.” – Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate