Just after I finished talking with Art Fong, my colleague Barbara Waugh introduced me to another distinguished HP retiree - Zvonko Fazarinc.

Dr. Fazarinc emigrated from Yugoslavia and started working at HP Labs in 1965. He remembers clearly the impact that Dave Packard and Bill Hewlett’s management style had on Labs - which they used to visit every morning when arriving at work.

Listen to the podcast to hear some amazing stories - such as the time he tried to convince Dave Packard that he found more socialism in action with the HP Way than back home in Yugoslavia!

 

 Zvonko Fazarinc - HP Retiree [5:03m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

One of the unexpected delights in the HP Labs event in Palo Alto today was the opportunity to meet many of the retired employees who were invited to attend.

It was a great honor to talk with Art Fong. He was recruited to the company back in 1946 by Bill Hewlett over a home-cooked spaghetti dinner. He was one of the first 100 employees at what is now a 172,000 person company.

He shared some stories of his years at HP and how inventions he created helped change history. His opinion of the research being done today? “Real cool!”

To hear Art discuss unique moments in HP history, click on the podcast icon below.

 

 HP retireee Art Fong [5:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

E Pluribus Unum - Out of One, Many
HP Labs Pluribus - Out of Many projectors, One super-screen

Super-bright, large-scale, and very high-resolution digital projectors are indispensable tools of modern communication. They help CEOs wow audiences of analysts. They make rock concerts intimate. They turn computer gaming into a spectator sport. And they can make digital cinema an instant reality.

They are also very expensive. Prices for high-end projectors run into tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars, which keeps these devices from being widely used.

HP Labs’ Nelson Chang and Niranjan Damera-Venkata had a hunch they could make a much cheaper projection system by combining the outputs of several smaller projectors to create a single, high-quality image. They work in the Multimedia Interaction and Understanding Lab in Palo Alto on a project code-named Pluribus.

Seeing Pluribus in action, it’s easy to be overwhelmed by the huge, crystal-clear picture it creates. Hook a 16-foot screen up to a game of Madden NFL Football, for example, and the players are life-size - putting you front row and center at the same scale as the real thing.
Although Pluribus looks great, its true appeal lies in the cost savings it offers anyone in the business of projecting large images. How so? For example, Pluribus can combine ten off-the-shelf projectors costing $1,000 each to project an image as bright and sharp as that created by a single high-grade projector costing $100,000.

Once this technology reaches your local Best Buy it will cause the prices of what is possible with high-end home theatre to be reset to a new price-point. You’ll just have to be patient. Hear Nelson and Niranjan discuss their work in the podcast.

 

 Pluribus - Video Projection on Steroids [4:02m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Bernardo Huberman is one of only four Senior Fellows at HP Labs - the most distinguished technologists in the company. He runs the Social Computing Lab. His research focus is on the behavior of millions of people using the internet and how this can be analyzed and predicted. He is recognized around the world as an authority on how people communicate and collaborate on the Internet. His lab has recently developed Cloudprint, which lets you store documents in the cloud so you can retrieve and print them on any printer using a mobile phone.

One amusing way of illustrating his research in everyday terms is the choices people make when they place bets. Using the patters of behavior that the bookmakers need to understand to make a living, he looks at predictions we can make in corporate purchasing departments and other business settings.

To hear Bernardo’s remarks click on the podcast icon below.

 

 Bernardo Huberman - Social Computing [3:54m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I blogged on Chandrakant’s work measuring lifetime energy use last December. He runs the Sustainable IT Lab at HP.

In this podcast, he expands on the issues he’s researching on least use of energy, the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics and using Joule’s as a measurement of energy consumption.

In our discussion, Chandrakant refers to the following sketch he created to show ‘cradle-to-cradle’ energy use.

 

 Chandrakant Patel - Sustainable IT [6:25m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Stan Williams is one of the four Senior Fellows at HP Labs - the most distinguished technologists in the company. He runs the Information and Quantum Systems Lab and his research focus is on what is called CeNSE - the Central Nervous System for the Earth.

Stan is looking over the horizon to developments in nanotechnology - the control of matter on the atomic and molecular scale, where dimensions are measured in nanometers. One nanometer is one billionth of a meter - way smaller than the proverbial width of an ant’s leg. In fact, the comparative size of a nanometer to a meter is the same as that of a marble to the size of the earth. Or another way of putting it: a nanometer is the amount a man’s beard grows in the time it takes him to raise the razor to his face!

I asked Stan to describe his research interests in the terms that my Mum could understand. Click on the podcast icon below to hear what Stan says about his research. It could revolutionize human interaction with the earth as profoundly as the Internet has revolutionized personal and business interactions. Hear him describe a possible future world where trillions of nanoscale sensors and actuators are embedded in the environment, monitoring every breath we take, every move we make. And how concerns for our privacy in this world are addressed.

 

 Stan Williams - nanotechnology [6:32m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Another in an occasional series of interviews with members of the National Speakers Association, Northern California Pro-Track class of 2008.

Candace Campbell is a speaker with many talents.

A child model and actress since age nine, a stand-up comedienne since ‘93 when she jumped off the therapists’ couch and grabbed a mic, Candy’s presentations are both witty and inspirational.

She started her own business, Peripatetic Productions, in 1995 in order to produce her first of two one-woman shows, and is a member of ASCAP (singers and composers union) and AFTRA (television/radio artists union).

She spent 20 years as a Neonatal Intensive Care nurse and has produced an award-winning documentary film on the psychosocial impact of having a micropremature baby, which has been seen in educational venues in most English speaking countries. She is a writer for TV and film. Her latest project, a novel based on her screenplay, Walking Point, was inspired by some of her own experiences caring for veterans suffering with PTSD during the ’70’s. She is also working on two non-fiction books (one for parents, one for siblings) to accompany her documentary on premature babies.

Candy speaks on many topics, but each of her presentations contains a common denominator: keeping personal standards high and intact in a world which tempts us to abandon scruples for the brass ring.

Speech topics include: Management Without Manipulation; Portraits of a Pariah : Navigating Society As A Single Mom; Premature Birth: Facts and Fiction; PTSD:The Gift That Keeps on Giving.

I interviewed Candy about her background and plans for the future. To hear what she has to say, click on the podcast icon below.

 

 Interview: Candace Campbell [6:47m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

A theme of last weekend’s National Speakers Association convention in San Francisco was the emergence of Social Media as a tool for entrepreneurs and freelance professionals.

I ran out of time at the event to meet with two NSA members who taught a well-attended workshop on Hidden Gems of the Internet. As I mentioned in my last podcast, these two Social Media Teachers shared a ton of useful information about the many tools available to build an independent business online.

I caught up with Michael and Sheryl on the phone and asked them to give their reading of the acceptance of these tools, what the opportunity is, and what obstacles there are to wider acceptance of Social Media.

In our conversation they reference a number of resources:

• Zoominfo.com a business information search engine
• Google Alerts - for email updates of the latest search results
• Pewinternet.org reports on the impact of the internet
• Poynter.org for up-to-date online ideas
• Goldencompass.com Michael & Sheryl’s home page
• HiddenBusinessTreasures.com their blog about using the Internet to grow your business
• HiddenSpeakerTreasures.com Internet search tips for speakers.

To hear their insights on Social Media and much more, click on the podcast icon below.

 

 Interview: Michael Benidt & Sheryl Kay [11:36m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

You never know who you’ll meet at a National Speakers Association conference. I was lucky to run into an amazing entrepreneur, blogger, podcaster and social media superstar: Jeanette Fisher, the social media queen.

Jeanette has a multitude of websites - over 100 in all. These, plus her active participation in social networks such as Twitter and Facebook have raised her visibility such that she is the number one listing when you simply search ‘Jeanette’ on MSN.

She has multiple areas of expertize, including that of being the foremost authority on Interior Design Psychology & Home Staging as America’s “Dream Home” Maker. She’s the author of 21 books.

I took the opportunity to ask Jeanette how she started in the area of social media and what advice she would have for someone who wants to take the first steps.

To hear what she shared with me, click on the podcast icon below.

 

 Interview: Jeanette Fisher [3:24m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Shel Holtz is a social media guru - a recognized authority on how people can thrive in the midst of the current information explosion by using a dynamic ‘cloud’ of services to promote themselves and built a reputation online.

He’s the author of How to Do Everything with Podcasting, Blogging for Business, Corporate Conversations and many other books. He gave a workshop on the opening day of the National Speakers Association Winter Workshop in San Francisco today.

Shel’s blog is a model of Web 2.0 convergence in a world of seamless mobility where vehicles for communicating to a social network are converging rapidly. He cross-references his blog postings to Flickr, Digg, Twitter, de.licio.us, LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, Skype, Technorati and Utterz. OK? Got that? Well, if you aren’t familiar with all these vehicles take a look at the bottom of the left column on his blog where you’ll see them in a ‘widget’ window - meaning if you like what you see you can even host all of Shel’s feeds on your own blog or web page. The one social media tool I had never heard of before is Utterz. Shel likes it’s flexibility. It allows posts from your mobile phone or online in voice, video, pictures and text, to your blog page.

I took the opportunity to indulge in the recursive thrill of doing a podcast interview with a leading podcaster about podcasting. To hear what Shel has to say, click on the icon below.

 

 Interview: Shel Holtz [3:36m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download