Sometimes, in order to prepare yourself for excellence and to make sure that you’re providing customers and stakeholders with the very best, you need to recharge and rejuvenate.
Our very own Joe of all trades took a much needed and much deserved vacation post ERP software upgrade.
Rather than bore you with the details of how our new ERP is going to allow us to serve you better and more efficiently, we thought we’d share some pictures of Joe’s trip.
Lets talk about the true cost of custom USB drives (when sourced from outside vendors).
Often I get contacted by customers looking for help loading data onto their customized USB. Drives that have been sourced from outside vendors. Some times they come direct, other times the customer has tried and failed at loading themselves.
Duplicating USB drives should be a fairly straight forward procedure with a simple fixed price.
Keyword being “Should”.
Here’s why it’s not.
Many unscrupulous brokers and vendors throwing around marketing terms like “Tier 1” Memory are selling substandard product. Customers bring in their flash drives sourced from others and I see issues.
Notice the PID = 1234?
Issues like:
Tools such as Crystal DiskMark and Chip Genius can help keep track of the worst offenders.
If a customer has already purchased the drives, often times the price they are quoted for data loading is an eye opener.
Why is Data Loading so expensive?
When we source we control for:
Quality and read/write speeds
Packaging
Controller
Format
When the above requirements aren’t managed you run the risk of:
Slowing your process
Having to spend time researching solutions
Additional manufacturing steps such as erasing and reformatting
Increased labor from package removal and disposal
In a worst case scenario you actually run the risk of burning out your USB node on your hardware. The custom USB data loading towers that we utilize are not cheap to repair or replace.
So what is the solution?
Source your drive and data load together.
For the lowest cost you’ll need to be comfortable sending your data to China. Make sure to ask your promo vendor to include the cost of data load and include freight so that you can compare apples to apples. Of course this means you have to have all your ducks in a row well ahead of your deadline as sourcing from China requires long lead times.
The better solution, the solution I am obviously in favor or is: source your drives from me. I work with suppliers both local and abroad purchasing thousands of drives every month. I know what works and what doesn’t. Plus when you add up all the costs and headaches associated with piece mailing your job together I am definitely the cheaper solution.
One of the most common inquiries I get regarding data recovery:
You may only need to meet only one of the above criteria or you may need to meet all three.
If you have more questions regarding retrieving archived data on MO Disks feel free to contact me.
GE has announced their use of a new form of additive 3D printing technology called EBM or Electron Beam Melting that can speed up the production time of printing metal components by as much as 10X over laser sintering technology.
As reported on their Tumblr they plan to use the technology to build turbine blades for jet engines:
As a result, one machine can produce eight stage 7 blades for the low pressure turbine that goes inside the GEnx jet engine in just 72 hours. “This is very competitive with casting, which is how we used to make them,” says Mauro Varetti, advanced manufacturing engineer at Avio.
Considering GE’s widespread manufacturing and R&D presence across multiple industries including Health Tech. I would expect to see this tech expand very rapidly.
With the pace of technology and the speed of innovation, perhaps the Six Million Dollar man may only be a few hundred thousand by the time he shows up on the scene.
While our little Afinia 3D Printer is pretty neat and can print a decent little prototype I can’t help but want to play with the big guns like this metal additive printer.
I’m writing this post to address the issue of running a piece of hardware, specifically a Rimage printer or disc publisher, that will not work with newer versions of Windows like 7 or 8. Typically these are printers like the Everest II, Everest III or PrismPlus. Or older embedded systems like 5100n, 5300n, 6100n, 7100n and 8100n.
Of course equipment manufacturers are using the end of XP support as a gold ticket to sell you new, expensive equipment. This can be frustrating and very costly if your current systems are performing just fine as-is.
Here’s how to keep using Windows XP while keeping your PC safe:
Have any questions about running disc duplicators or printers on XP? Contact us at 952-944-0083 x-22. Ask for Kevin.
Here is a picture of a bad packing job on a PrismPlus Autoloader that was recently sent into us for repair. The sad thing is it was done at a UPS store. Notice how the robotic arm is twisted and dented. Tough lesson learned. I doubt that a damage insurance claim will go in our customer’s favor given the negligence in packing materials used.
Tips for a successful Rimage shipping result:
Keep in mind that using any other packaging but the actual Rimage boxes and packing foam is risky.
lot of Shotgun Shell USB
One of the most exciting drives that we’ve brought to market has to be the custom promotional shotgun shell USB.
Tons of folks turn to DIY sites such as Etsy or Instructables for tips on building these. We’ve removed the mess and increased the scalability with our custom molded USB shells. Utilizing injection molding to add your logo in raised lettering we give your brand more Bang!
Lead time on these drives is around 10 business days so it’s a good idea to get the process started early. If you’d like a free digital proof or pricing on these neat little custom USB sticks please call us today.
Qumu, formally known as Rimage, sold off all of its disc publishing assets to Minneapolis based Equus Holdings for and all cash deal of $23 million. This transaction is subject to certain closing conditions like shareholder approval and buyer financing
Should be an interesting transition. We will keep you posted on how this may affect support of your current Rimage printers and duplicators.
After listening to the conference call this morning it appears Qumu is relieved to divest the disc publishing business from their operations in order to focus all their efforts on their video streaming business.
Stay tuned for updates and relevant information related to the disc publishing and digital delivery market with Techware Distribution.
Take a look at the picture of this damaged and now unusable Rimage Prism print head. Notice the damage to the gold colored area of this particular printhead. This damaged occurred when 2 or more silver lacquer discs stuck together when picked from the output bin of the Rimage robot. One of the CDs ended up getting wedged in the printhead causing the printhead to fail and the ensuing damage.
All Rimage printers are designed so only 1 disc is to be loaded into the printer at a time. When multiple discs are placed on the printer tray, damage is a real possibility. No Bueno.
Prism printheads cost over $600 just for the part (labor is additional). A very expensive price to pay for using cheaper and lesser quality CD-r and DVD-r disc media.
Call Techware @ 952-944-0083 x13 if you have experienced these types of problems as we can help you out with all of your cd/dvd printer and duplicator repair needs – specifically w/ Primera, Microboards and Rimage equipment.
It was great while it lasted, but the end of LightScribe disc technology is very near. The writing was on the wall starting over a year ago when tower duplicator manufacturers like Microboards stopped offering units with Lightscribe drives. Now Microboards is dropping their DVD version of the LightScribe product within the next 30 days. If you have a product requirement then now is the time to purchase a bunch before they are all sold out. We’re looking into other product options, but we wanted to let you know that this technology is close to being dead.
“Microboards Branded LightScribe DVD-/+R blank media – We’ve come to the end of our supply of DVD-R & DVD+R LightScribe media. We currently have about a 30-day supply left and will discontinue both skus once we have sold out (P/N’s LS-DVD-R-50Y & LS-DVD+R-50Y)”
From Wikipedia –
“Companies such as HP, Samsung, LaCie and LiteOn have discontinued or are phasing out LightScribe drives as of June 2013[5] with only LG still manufacturing drives.
As of the beginning of January 2014, LightScribe.com HP’s official LightScribe website has been removed. This has been replaced with the following message:
“Thank you for your interest in the LightScribe disc labeling technology. This website is no longer active. LightScribe software and disc utilities may be found on a number of public websites.”
Let us know if you have any questions or need to look into a buying a new CD printer.