All the news that's fit to print and then again, maybe some that's not!!!
September 24, 2011
So in addition to consulting, I am also a partner in other business where we create all types of imprintable items. Most of what we do involves sublimation but we are branching out into other areas. Currently, we are looking into solutions that will allow us to transfer image to 100% cotton clothing without a breakdown of materials. We thought we had a solution and then were told that it only lasted for 8-10 washings. This is completely unacceptable. How can we make a shirt for someone and then have the image degrade so quickly? This would hurt our business and we will not be moving forward with the product. This is part of the reason we test everything we intend to distribute prior to attempting sales.
Missed a bullet on this one!
September 3, 2011
The sizes of external mass storage are getting larger and the prices are dropping. Currently on the market, one can purchase a 25 pack of 25GB 4x Blu-ray discs for less than $23.00. That’s like $0.04 per gigabyte, a ridiculously inexpensive amount. I remember when 1GB hard drives first became common place. I ran over to Fry’s and gladly plopped down my $100 for one of those beauties. Just last year I paid less than $100 for a 1TB drive that I use as an external backup. I remember when Iomega came out with the Zip Drive and the prices we were paying for 100MB of storage but thinking how cool we were because it was much bigger than a floppy.
It seems like the next big jump will be from 50GB Blu-ray to 100GB. The discs are available, just hard to come by in quantity. It appears that the starting price will be $40.00 per disc and will initially only work in the Pioneer BDR-206MBK drive and compatibles. I can’t wait to see what’s next.
August 20, 2011
I learned some interesting information about Ricoh gel printers that suggests that this really might not be the best design concept. Ricoh has a series of inkjet gel based printers that were supposed to revolutionize the industry. They are heavy duty, have designs geared towards office use, and can be networked. The one flaw I see is that once filled with ink, it is not recommended that the printer be moved. WHAT???
Ok, I get the heavy-duty part but why a $900 inkjet printer over a color laser? It seems that Ricoh is selling customers on the large format size as a major plus, at least for the GX7000 (11x17). I’m not totally convinced, however. This lack of mobility concerns me, especially as printers are moved around various work places all the time. The warning in the instructions specifically states, “Do not move the printer!” This is a little scary from a tech standpoint.
August 17, 2011
I thought it might be fun to occasionally comment about something that caught my eye. Topics can run the gamut from Tech news to curious news of the day. I thought to use this first blog entry to comment on the size of Blu-ray media. These discs now top out at 100 GB in size. I am amazed! I remember purchasing our first 100 GB hard drive 15-20 years ago and thinking, “Who could use this much capacity?” Who knew!!!