Mercian Labels - business, open source & security label printing

It seems that although “Open Source” isn’t exactly a new term or idea, the area in which it is used is beginning to spread. Not only do we have abundances of newly created open source software, but it seems even musical bands are beginning to take open source to a newer level; or at least pushing the idea further.

The latest band to take advantage of open source is Radiohead, who have cleverly created their new action promo film using “advanced visualisation techniques to produce an assembly of computer renderings in real time”. Basically meaning the film can be produced and implemented taking real world and real time images/actions and producing a computer generated rendering of that action from the data.

To go one step further, Radiohead have released this project to anyone who wants it, meaning the whole project is open source! Sounds good to me!

Not only that, they have; with effort from Google, released the data using the “Creative Commons Licence” which seems a step in the right direction for anyone in the game, thus allowing people to create their own videos and visualisations the same way they have.

This isn’t the first time promo videos have been created with open source in mind, but its one step further for the open source community. More steps in this direction will I think soon change a lot of things people take for granted, and open source may begin taking an aspect of other areas, we already have open source software, open source promo videos, open source cars, so what’s next? The future is looking good!

I think there will soon be a debate between bands releasing open source video promos against bands trying to stop people illegally downloading music, perhaps a fine line! But that’s a different story.

More info can be found here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jul/17/opensource.google

I posted a blog thread a few days ago about our reservations about RFID as a practical techology at this point in time, and today it appears as if there is another serious flaw in the use of RFID in labelling.

The BBC are reporting that the encryption used in one of the biggest RFID rollouts in the UK has been hacked, that of the London Tube Oyster card scheme.

One of the exciting possibilities of RFID in security labelling is to hold secure information on a challenge-respond basis, and its cases such as this that severly dent the reputatrion of RFID as a reliable technology.

The obvious question to me is, why did they use such a weak encrytion system?  Surely something along the lines of 128 bit public key encryption could be used that takes an awful lot of processing time to crack.

I dont think we have heard the last of this, and demonstrates a fundamental weakness of RFID in labelling.  If you can remotely reprogramme an “encrypted” chip, you can change the price, destination or whatever ona an item wihtout anyone knowing. Watch this space.

Apart from a couple of small SEO applications that only run on windos, the biggest problem I have come across when using linux in the past year for day to day business use is the lack of a WYSIWYG webapge editor.  At the moment I’m still remote desktop’ing onto our old windows server where we have dreamweaver installed.  I can code in html, but to be honest a split screen webpage editor is a fantastic tool, and until today I hadnt found one for linux.

I have previously posted on this issue, but got nowhere.  Bluefish installs and works fine but is not a split screen WYSIWYG webpage editor.  I couldn’t get NVU to install and I didnt like quanta.

However, today I found , http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=842808&page=1 which linked to a great application called KompoZer, which does what I want, a WYSIWYG webpage editor.

I’ve tried it out and it seems fine to me, again, thank you to the community who wrote this very useful application.

I keep up to date by using the BBC website for news, but very occasionally they miss somethig that I think is pretty interesting, like this story from The Times and others.

Apparantly the “encrypted” link between banks and cash machines, that is based on Microsoft windows platforms has been hacked, PIN numbers stolen, cloned cards made and money then withdrawn from ATMs.

Scary.  So much for secure CHIP and PIN.  Fortunately this was in the USA, and has been hushed up as far as I can see, but I’ll be watching my bank statements even more closely in future!

The BBC are reporting that Computer systems generate up to 20% of all carbon produced by government, and that the UK government is going to have a carbon neutral IT system within 4 years. I wonder if they have considered cutting their electricity usage by using open source?

I noted sometime ago from Alan Lord (when writing our corporate social responsibility statement) that Linux is alleged to use less power than conventional Windows platforms. I am very out of touch with current thinking on this issue, but just thought I’d flag this up.

We believe that it was in 1952 when the first ever barcode label was produced, however it was not until the 1980s that barcode labels became popular to the public. When they were first produced they were only really used for one reason and that was for identifying railroad cars. This was a while ago though and since then barcode labels have become increasingly popular and technology has become so much greater. Being able to track and identify the movement of items error free, it is no real surprise that barcode labels have become largely popular.

RFID labels have been much touted as the way forward, and will replace barcode labels in due course.

Our experience, for what it is worth, is that RFID is expensive, prone to errors, and only really gives 2 advantages over barcodes: Speedy contactless reading (if RFID labels do read in your environment, as many dont if they are close to metal or water), and extremely high volume data storage (compared to 2D barcodes).

I’d be really interested in hearing from existing RFID label users with their expereinces.  There seems to be a lot of hype, and very little actual purchasing and successful rollouts of RFID labels.

If you have a different take on this situation, please post here.  We are actively looking at RFID labels, particularly in security labelling, but as far as we can see, barcodes are still a very good solution at the present time.

If you are a really small volume user of labels, you may be wondering if it is best to have your own A4 sheet label printer at home to print labels, or pay for a professional to print their labels for them. At Mercian Labels , we have want what is best for you.

If you are happy with a very limited range of paper labels, and do ultra small runs lengths, then its probably cheaper for you to print your own labels.  This is fairly easy for black and white labels on paper rectangles, but gets a significantly more cumbersome when you want photographs, non standard shapes, or anything but permanent adhesives.

When you needs grow such that:

• you are using higher volumes
• you are getting significant wastage
• you want a non standard adhesive or shape
• you need variable information
• you want better image quality

then the time has come to talk to us at Mercian Labels.  We have no minimum order quantities, and our label solutions are quick and cost effective.  When you’ve outgrown the desktop printer, or your time is better spent doing other things, come and talk to us!

Many of our customers enquire about what adhesives could or should their labels use. There is never a straight forward answer to this question, as there is a wide selection of adhesives, and it all depends on what use the label is going to be put to. This is because all adhesives are formulated for different reasons and they all have individual jobs to do.

If a customer needed labels for items of food, then food grade labels are essential. They are used on fruits such as apples, plums, bananas and many more, as they do not leave any unwanted residue onto the fruit as easy feel they are a lot more hygienic, and any residue left is edible and harmless.

If a customer wanted a more secure label then tyre tack labels are probably the best. They are applied onto tyres and are extra sticky so they are not as likely to peel off. There are also frost fix adhesive labels which have a service temperature of -40 Celsius which makes them very suitable to sticking onto items which are to be frozen.

There are many other types of adhesives to suit what the customer needs, including hard hat label adhesives which are usually used on hard hats which builders wear. These labels are stuck onto the hats for the workers own safety and do not damage or corode the plastic of the hard hat, potentially damaging its structural integrity and strength.

Whatever your specialist adhesive label application, we are likely to have a potential solution to hand - give give us a call.

At Mercian Labels our customers constantly design their own custom personalised labels, which allows them to create their own designs before we print them. You may want to design your own labels for many different reasons, whether it is a one off design to mark a specific event, or for company use in marketing a wider product range. When customers design these labels the best thing to do is to get them printed professionally to get the best possible quality.

We find that there are so many different events to attend now that benefit from custom labels.  Some people may create and design labels for certain events such as weddings, where they can stick labels onto anything to give their wedding a more personalised look (I went to one last weekend in fact that did this!). Other events for which people may decide to design labels for are parties, as this would also give a party a more personalised look.

If someone has made their own bath products, or brewed their own beer, they would more than likely want their own custom personalised labels to promote their products. With your products having their own labels, customers are more likely to purchase, as they have a more professional look.

The possibilities, especially with digitally produced labels, are only limited by your imagination!

Asset identification labels are useful for so many different organisations, and here at Mercian Labels we have many people contact us asking for such labels. Asset labels have so many different uses, but they are commonly used to help organisations track their assets and deter theft of their property.  One common area of confusion we find with asset labels is what the best material to use for asset labels.

The variety of end use applications for  makes the correct material selection very important, as the surfaces vary considerably, from smooth glass cabinets to painted metal computer cases. The identification labels usually contain the asset number and other variable data such as a barcode and serial number. It is important that the labels are resistant to abrasion and solvents which are used in the environment.

A key feature of asset labels is that they are difficult to remove, to deter theft.  We consequently usually specify a top quality semi gloss white ultra destructible vinyl. Ultra destructible vinyl fragments into tiny pieces (which is called the “eggshell effect”) if anyone attempted to remove the label. This makes for a secure asset label that can be customised easily in small runs, and not only identifies the product, but deters theft as well.

Other security label materials can be used, but often do not give as permanent a mark as ultra destructible vinyls.

Such security labels are our speciality - please give us a call if you are looking for such products.

Well we did a full dry run last Friday with the new PHP driven labels CRM system (yet to be named - any ideas?) and it didnt go as well as we hoped.  So much so that we have a list of bugs to work on before its good enough to go “live”, hopefully next weekend.

Patience is a vurtue as they say, but I’m just so keen to see the new system up and running and give us some more reliability.  Anyway, there is another week of bug fixing, and we try again next weekend.

Open source migrations take time, I knew it, and now we are proving it ourselves!

The BIG migration of our mission critical MIS system from MS Access to POSTGRES PHP is due to happen this weekend.  OK, its taken 18 months, not 6 months to write, but I’m sure it will be worth it.

Duplicate dry run on Friday, so watch this space…

Yesterday we just completed a change of business bankers.  This is not an activity to be undertaken lightly, but given that Mercian Labels has doubled in size in recent years and moved into the “commercial” banking sector of £1M-£25M turnover businesses we had really outgrown our previous banking arranagment.

For those company owners and company directors watching this blog, I thought I’d put down a few “lessons to self”:

1. when a business relationship dosnt work well for both parties, mutual respect and trust falls apart pretty quickly, and everyone reaches for the contractual terms and conditions.  If you need to move banks, do it swiftly and amicably, and accept that there will be some pain.
2. You will be surprised at how easy banking can be when you move to a forward thinking bank with a real grasp of IT - its so much easier to with with a company when you have similar cultural outlooks.
3. Bankers, in common with other business service professionals (I’m thinking lawyers!) sometimes regard themselves as above any questions, negotiation or discussion - their word is final and beyond reproach.  Well, in my opinion, its not - everyone should be professional and be prepare to explain and justify their professional decisions.  Disaffected bankers dont like it when you legitimately question or challenge issues, but it is worth it - on this occasion a careful check of the numbers saved us a very significant sum.

I’m not going to mention names here as that would be unprofessional, but in future I will check the small print of professional contracts even more carefully than I do now!

Jake over at Senokian ran an auction for his emergency cat5 dog lead as reported on The Register

I won it.  One of the most bizzare purchases I’ve ever made, but all proceeds went to a good cause and we were pleased to support Jake and battle Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

Anybody have anything else weird to sell us??

At Mercian Labels we have a variety of different label printing techniques, these include printing digital, hotfoil, thermal and flexographic labels. The different label printing options can result in confusion by our customers to what way would be best to print their labels. There is no right or wrong answer to this question as each label printing method has its own benefits.

For customers who have many different designs of labels but also has a tight budget, then digital label printing would more than likely be most suitable for them. Our digital label printers can print short runs of “process” colour labels, incorporating photographic images to be printed. Customers who choose to have their labels printed digitally have the benefit of not having to pay expensive block charges, and are able to have photographic type images on their labels without having to pay any extra costs.

Some people may choose to have their labels printed on hotfoil, as this allows people to have excellent quality labels with up to 6 spot colours. Hotfoil labels are excellent for brands who want to advertise their products it a cost effective way. With these labels you can have your own design, logo and text professionally printed onto papers, synthetics or transparent or clear materials with low origination charges. Customers also benefit greatly by the fact that they can have special size/shape requirements for their labels and do not have to pay hundreds of pounds for a cutter, which can occur if the label is very small or unusually shaped.

Thermal transfer printing may be the best option for some people who want barcode labels. Usually we produce either large or very small text barcodes, with simple logos, consecutively numbered labels. They are mainly used for industrial labelling applications such as tracking. The main benefit in getting Mercian Labels to print you barcode labels is that it is no longer in your hand as we will be doing all the hard work.

Flexographic label printing is another great method, though there are more limitations. Flexographic printing is mainly used for larger productions with simpler designs and colour combinations with up to 4 colours without special effects. The main benefits of flexographic label printing is that it is a economical printing method used for larger print runs as larger and faster machines are used. This printing method is usually chosen for industrial applications.

Letterpress and gravure label printing are still around, but more often used for specialist applications now.

If you want some free advice on what label printing method is best for your idea - drop us a line. Our advice is free, and we dont bite!