The Blog from Mercian Labels & Security Labels International

A technical post here… this weekend we had a problem where one of the partitions on our zimbra email server reached 100% capacity, and resulted in us doing a hard restart.  As a consequence of this on restart we could not get zimbra MTA to start, the problem being that postfix thought it was already running.  The solution for anyone who finds this is  as follows, pasted to gether from some notes from “Dave”, who fixed it. “The problem was that whenever postfix is started, it runs postalias. Postalias takes files like /etc/aliases and translates them into machine-readable files.  There was an aliases.db file hanging round in /etc, owned by root. When zimbra tried to start up wuth the zimbra id, it couldn’t touch the stale file.  Unfortunately, this hung it rather than erroring out cleanly. I cleaned up the stale files, and started zimbra using root and /etc/init.d/zimbra start. That reset the necesary permissions and recreated the files.”.  I hope this helps if you are a Zimbra user that finds that same problem.

2009 chilli crop

One of the UK’s leading bloggers on open source software, Alan Lord (aka the Open Sourcerer) got me thinking some time ago about growing chilli plants.  Alan has just posted pictures of his 2009 chilli crop, and so I think its only fair that I post mine.  Not quite as impressive, but then again most of my conservatory was taken over with monster tomato plants this summer!  Next year I shall try harder – it was good fun and easy to grow chillis.  This is what they look like all preserved.

preserved chillis for winter curries

If you are intereted in preserving chillis, I’ve followed this recipie (with some additional water).

Label Expo 2009

The blogosphere appears to be without any reviews about Label Expo 2009 in Brussells, the biggest labelling show in the world. Tens of thousands of people go every 2 years, hundreds of stands, millions and millions of pounds/euros/dollars spent and not a single blogger out there reviewing it I can find (at least in english). Bizzare.

So, for anyone who didnt go and is looking for a users opinion of the show, here we go. Its bulleted for my convenience and speed.  Please quickly add your thoughts to the comments once you’ve read it – no registration needed, just type and press!

• it appeared to be a big show, as big as last time, but there was a lot more space in the halls due to halls not being filled with exhibitors, and certainly low number of attendees, certainly on the 2 days I was there.
• This was my 5th Label Expo (01,03,05,07,09) and this time 1.5 days at the show just wasnt enough to have all the quality conversations I wanted to, and I missed out on plenty of casual booth stops that I would have liked to as well .  For next time, I am going to have to stay over for 2 nights and get in 2.5 days.
• I’ve tried driving, flying and training it now, and I can confirm that without a doubt, Eurostar is the best and most convenient way to get to Label Expo from the UK (thanks to Barry D*** for that tip!)
• Exhibitors said it was busy on Wednesday and Thursday, but quieter on Friday and Saturday – indeed many exhibitor reps I wanted to speak to had gone home by Friday lunchtime!  The organisers were likened to Dick Turpin by 2 exhibitors I spoke to  – “highway robbery” was the phrase used  – apparently it isnt cheap to attend this show!
• The main new innovations I saw at the show that were genuinely new were the Holoprint printing technique from Nilpeter and the rush of digital inkjet incarnations all jumping on the Xaar 1001 bandwagon
• I saw some good products that were new to me but already established in the marketplace, mostly in connection with the security labelling part of our business as possible add ons to our Label Lock product range

• There was a small but useful Linkedin.com speed networking session on Saturday organised by Lou at the Linedin Digital Label Printing Group
• Kocker and Beck are moving into to the manufacture of rotary screen units, taking some business from the 2 existing suppliers, Stork and Gallus. Thats an interesting move – maybe rotary screen pricing will come down soon?
• “Lanbel” is a new concept in linerless labels, whereby you supply labels on a slightly offset web with each label sticking to itself.  I novel idea, but I doubt it will catch on.  Yes, it saves the liner, it just looks too unrelaible to use in a production environment

gallus granite press

• The new gallus Granite, made of slabs of granite was a novelty item to me; I just didnt get it.  Why? Why Why?  Apparently they were being sold cheap – 350k euros for a quality 8 colour press which is pretty good, but surely Gallus must be making a big big loss at those rates???
• Cold UV light for ink curing from LED lamps was new and very nice, but at £10k+ per lamp, I’ll give it a miss at the moment.  No doubt it will take over in due course – it looks very good.

there werent amny quality freebies - thank the credit crunch

• The global economic crisis is having its impact on show freebies – the best giveaway I got all show was a plastic packet of plasters from Evonik!
• There were some new high performance chemical resistant thermal transfer labelling solutions that didnt need lamination, using special ribbons and material combinations.
• Whilst there were plenty of people selling standard modular 5+ colour UV flexo presses at the show (yawn…), I think the message had got though that its the speciality machines that make the money, and that end of the market, even in combination presses, is commoditised.
• There was a sad lack of any initiative from any of the raw material substrate suppliers to address the industry wide problem of recycling of label production waste and the recycling of siliconisaed liner.  IMHO the solution to stopping the landfill of the milions of tonnes of this waste every year has to come form the big 2 suppliers (UPM RAFLATAC and AVERY DENNISON groups) and then onto the smaller coaters, Herma, Mactac, Flexcon, Manter, Smith  McLauin etc).  We cannt keep ignoring it, and it needs a concerted effort by the industry to address this.  FINAT, please lead the way – the problem isnt going away!  If one of the suppliers had launched a recycling solution for this, it would have been a complete show stopper.  As it was, the best news I saw on this front was that Calvin Frost from Channelled Resources launched a new European scheme to recycle liner .
• I dont know what happened to the PISEC 2009 move from Athens to Brusells, but it wasnt there.

Comments on the digital labelling developments

Basically there was nothing significantly new from either of the 2 main players in digital labelling (Xeikon and HP), both having put out major developments at DRUPA 2008, Xekion with its 3300 1200dpi fast solution, and HP with its high quality fast WS6000 series digital labelling presses.  There were some new partnerships developing on the software and web 2 print integration sides, but nothing new in terms of kit.  IMHO both these top end solutions are at the same level now; both have very similar quality, both have some advantages and disadvantages over the other, they are priced at different points and each have their own peculiarities, but nothing from any other digital label printer comes close to them at present.

There were lots and lots of new uv inkjet incarnations, all but 1 or 2 based on the xaar 1001 inkjet head.  Some were stand alone machines with no converting, some ran offline converting, some ran inline with full rotary converting, but none I could see ran inline with laser or semi rotary die converting.  The problem is fundamentally that they all suffer from the same problem – the resolution of the xaar 1001 head is only about 600dpi, and compared to either the HP or Xeikon at 1200dpi+, or conventional flexo or letterpress or screen or anything else, its just not as good.  I dont understand why anybody would buy a digital solution now with lots of lines in it from blocked nozzels or whatever, when you can by a xeikon or HP thats much higher quality at not much more money (HP may even give you a free one if you will use enough click charges!).

UV inkjet has a lot going for it, and I expect that it will take over the market for digital label printing at some point soon, but it wasnt LabelExpo 2009, I’m sure of that.  The advocates of full rotary inline converting for digital inkjet are misguided IMHO – I just cannt see why thats a good idea (Stork DSI 4330L, [wrong, edited out 29/9/09 ]  Rapid Machinery Squidjet etc).  Semi rotary or laser is the only way to take full advantage of digital, unless you are printing pre diecut stock (like EFI Jetrion advocate, in which you are really restricted to non bleeding images if you want any decent quality.

The Agfa/Edale digital inkjet press was unusually based on Toshiba TEC inkjet heads

The only non Xaar uv inkjet instalations I saw were from Agfa Dotrix / Edale which was not bad at all, but still not at the Xeikon/HP end of the quality scale, and I think the EFI Jetrion system has its own head system, but again its too narrow and the quality isnt there.

Xaar 1001 printhead

Of all the Xaar 1001 instalations, I thought the Durst quality was the best, but again, you have to be prepared to compromise on quality and productivity compared to Xeikon or HP.

GM had an interesting idea for an inline laser die cutting solution from Spartanics to fit into their existing converting line, but the price was just too high at the moment to launch it.  They also had a small footprint converting solution for offline digital labels, and there were many of these at the show.

There are a growing number of small desktop type short run digital labelling solutions from many different providers (eg Primeria), basically based on a reel to reel A4 laser colour printer or small inkjet system – nice but at £20k ish, and very expensive to run in anything over say 1000 labels, its only good for end users to print very small quantities of the same materials and designs in house, not industrial manufacturers.

Security Labelling

There was a real lack of anything new at the show – the cheap tamper evident materials (mostly from east Asia) I saw were rubbish, even the stand exhibitors couldn’t get many of them to work properly.

The Nilpeter Holoprint system is clever and effective

The exception was the new Holoprint technology from Nilpeter, arguably the premier brand in narrow web machinery.  Their system involves printing a 50,000dpi holographic image in register and inside a varnish with no foil, using a new printing system they have patented (read the patent here). It could be classed as a brand new printing technique, along with gravure, flexography,offset, letterpress, hotfoil, intaglio etc – really a combination of flexo and direct gravure. Very clever, impressive and cost effective to run I imagine.  I hesitate to guess how much it would cost to install though!

The Holoprint images are very good quality, unlike my photos!

Basically it works by flexo printing a UV varnish onto a web which is then embossed by a special plastic PDMS rubber shim that crucially can transmit highly focussed UV light so it is partially cured (or “set”) under the shim that embosses the hologrphic image into the varnish, which is then followed by a post cure.  Hats off to the guys who thought of that!

Conclusion

• A good show, too much “me too” in respect of traditional flexo offerings, and not enough innovation.
• Anybody who can crack 1200dpi, 20m/min+,250mm web+ narrow web UV inkjet will make a fortune.
• Belgian beer is excellent!

Leffe beer

Disclosure

I am the MD of a UK label printing company (Mercian Labels), we are are a Xeikon user, and these views are from the perspective of a label printer with interests in digital, flexo and security label printing – it is not an all encompassing independent review – if you want one, go to a journalist!)

Please now comment!

A reminder to please quickly add your thoughts to the comments once you’ve got this far – no registration needed, just type and press – opinions about anything very welcome, and unless your post is offensive I will publish it and share your views and get some debate going.

Label Lock is growing and we are now hiring

Our Label Lock security labelling product range  is really taking off, and we need an Export Sales Coordinator to help us manage this growth.  Please contact us if you are interested in this exciting role (no agencies please!).

We have been identified as one of the top 5 worldwide bloggers in labelling by the industry publication Label and Narrow Web.  Read about it here and thanks to Peter Renton for the recognition.

Low residue Label Locks used for the DfT SDoC regulations to seal vehicles carrying "known cargo"

Our low residue Label Lock tamper evident security labels have found some really interesting applications since they were launched last year, and they are now proving to be perfect for companies transporting “known cargo” to airports and needing to comply with the DfT SDoC regulations that came into force on 1 September 2009.

If you are a freight company looking to seal panel vans or other vehicles without welding on D rings for plastic pull tie seals then our large low residue Label Lock seals (available with and without counterparts) are ideal.  They come complete with special storage boxes (ideal for the cab!) and ultra secure subsurface unique numbering as standard.

Mercian Labels are recruiting for 1 role, and also offering 2 graduate internships under the new West Midlands Graduate Internships scheme.

The new position is an ‘apprentice’ type job in our factory in Cannock, learning all about our production and industry from grass roots levels.

We are also offering 2 graduate internships: in IT (open source / zimbra / PHP development) and marketing (B2B market segmentation).

Please let me know if you are interested in these roles.

Label Lock™ security labels new website

We are really pleased with the overhaul of our  Label Lock™ security labels website showcasing our premium low residue and dual layer security seals that we have designed and developed in recent years, and launched in 2008.  You can check it our here.

I was first introduced to linkedin.com in late 2008, but until recently did not consider social networking sites to be a useful business tool.  However, in respect of linkedin.com I am warming to the concept, and finding it useful.  Not radical, but useful.  It is far away more suitable for professional communication than the dreaded facebook (at which I closed my account sometime ago), and I find Twitter nothing less than trivia.

By far the most useful piece of linkedin.com are its special interest groups, covering many very specialised subjects that previously were hard to network in due purely to geography – face to face meetings cost a lot of money!  In particular some of the labelling and business groups have had some good threads in them recently, and I see this site as taking a long term position as the only social networking site for business.

If you have worked with me in labelling / security seals / business link in the West Midlands then I’d be pleased to hear from you.

When we first started to explore the possibility of moving to open source in 2007, I looked into a number of possible open source support companies and settled on working with Senokian Solutions Ltd, who have been very good for us.  Unfortunately Senokian Solutions Ltd have now ceased trading, and their entrepreneurial MD Jake Stride has moved onto other areas of open source software development with their Tactile CRM product (which I use – its good).  A new company, Senokian Internet Ltd look over our support contract but this business has recently been sold on to a highly capable web hosting company who have agreed to support us as well as they can, but do not specialise in the type of support that we will need long term.

Therefore I may be back in the market for a new supplier of open source software support.  Ideally someone UK based (Midlands would be perfect but not necessary) who knows Ubuntu, Zimbra, Postgresql and Trixbox.  I have to say that I dont know of such a company that offers this – can anyone recommend one please?  Lots of individuals I know have specific skills I can call on, but in the long term a company that aspires to offer open source support as a main part of its business would be ideal.

If you are, or know of such a business, please contact me by email or post a comment – Thank you.

The Kingdom of Mercia

Its quite common for new members of staff to ask “Why are we called Mercian Labels?”  Well to be honest I dont know the original reason why the company was named so in 1969, but as far as I can tell its because we are located firmly in the old Kingdom of Mercia, and the original founders had ambitious plans to expand further than original town of Penkridge - which we most certainly have now with clients worldwide. The Mercia region is not particularly well known, but there is a hardcore of supporters, even some fringe groups who campaign for independence for the Mercian Region, and group who have already claimed independence…. well everybody has to have a hobby.

We are also located in Cannock, an area with a long and proud manufacturing history at the northern end of an area known as the Black Country.

The new Ordnance Survey Black Country Map

Today the Ordnance Survey, the UK’s official mapping agency has recognised the area of the Black Country with a new map, something that we would say is long overdue!  Although we are not strictly within the (hotly debated) boundary of the Black Country, we are certainly associated with it, and congratulate the Black Country Chamber of Commerce for their sustained campaigning on this issue.

Thin sleeve flexo sleeve - image courtesy of Stork Prints

Mercian Labels are early adopters of technology in the label printing industry, and one area where we have been trialing new products recently is in the area of continuous sleeve technology for flexography, the mainstay printing technology for global label printing.  Sometimes these projects require us to tackle some interesting problems, and yesterday we encountered and solved one interesting problem that is bound to be encoutered by others in due course (and googleing it didnt find a solution!).

Here is our solution to the problem of how to design artwork to fit a continuous sleeve printing, a flexo printing technique that produces a continuous image that does not have a join, unlike conventional flexo printing where the plate is a sheet that obvious has a join as it is wrapped around the printing cylinder.  If you want to know more about flexography, then please read about it here.  The great advantage of continuous images for clients and brand owners is that you get a great quality images with no breaks  – a very useful benefit when producing continuous packaging.

The problem:
If you want to design a continuous sleeve then the images has to repeat exactly in the repeat of the print cylinder diameter. This is fairly easy to do when the images are just repeating around the cylinder in the direction of the cylinder, but when they go in a diagonal like many of our premier Label Lock security label text, then these are much much harder to design to match up precisely.

For those in the label printing, prepress or reprographic industry looking to solve this problem, here is our solution:

Decide the following:

1. For each individual image to be repeated around the sleeve the approximate width and height you wish it to be including gaps
2. the angle of the text across the plate
3. the repeat size of the printing cylinder
4. the width of the printing cylinder

For an example calculation
1 – about 40mm by 6.7mm image size for a 30mm image with a 10mm horizontal gap, and a 3mm image with a 3.7mm vertical gap
2 – 45 degrees
3 – 304.8mm for a 12 inch repeat

Steps:
1 Calculate the repeat length into which you have to fit the images

To do this use Pythagoras’ theorem http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagorean_theorem

where for a 45 degree angle a=b (but if the angle is not 45 degrees see later as this step wont work)
so that a or b are the same
a=b=square root of [(304.8*304.8)/2]
so that a or b (the same) are 215.5261469mm

OR IF THE ANGLE IS NOT 45 DEGREES

If you want to do an angle that is not 45 degrees, then the Pythagoras’ theorem method wont work as a is not equal to b, but  I would expect the following to work (but not tried…)
Repeat length  = COS angle* repeat length of the cylinder
eg
Repeat length  = COS 45* 304.8 = 215.526 etc as above

2) work out how many EXACT repeats you can get into the repeat length

• label width…..     215.5261469 / 40mm = 5.388 repeats, not exact therefore use judgment to decide on either 5 or 6 repeats per repeat length.  I would pick 5 here, so that the EXACT repeat of the image width is not 40mm, but is 215.5261469/5 = 43.10522938mm
• label height…..     215.5261469 / 6.7mm =32.16808163 repeats, not exact therefore use judgment to decide on either 32 or 33 repeats per repeat length.  I would pick 32 here, so that the EXACT repeat of the image width is not 6.7mm, but is 215.5261469/32 = 6.735192091mm

3) layout the artwork in straight lines to be about double the size of the actual plate you need with image size and spacing as calculated in step 2

4) Rotate the grouped image to the angle you wish, usually 45 degrees

5) add a horizontal box of 304.8 x 250mm, the size of the print cylinder

6) Crop to the rectangle, and add further images at a different angle ALONG the web fitting the images into a 304.8m repeat as usual using the same method as in step 2 but for 304.8mm repeat

7) dispro  (if requested by the plate maker) and you are finished

This script from Dan at Zomgee is excellent, and allows you to compile your own XPI firefox addon in under 2 minutes (using nothing more than a basic text editor and your mailserver domain name) that makes all mailto: links open up in Zimbra, not evolution of similar.  Its easy and works for me using Zimbra client on an ubuntu 9.04 linux machine with Firefox 3.0.12.  Nice work Dan.

The concept of taking older and redundant windows PCs, triageing them, clean installing linux and passing the machines onto good homes is an excellent one, and cuts out an awful lot of legal problems.  Its being done in the USA and I wonder when it will happen in the uk?

If anyone knows if and when this is going to happen, please let me know and we have a bunch of old machnes we can contribute from our factory in Cannock. Come to think of it, if anyone local to Cannock wants a PC with Linux installed, let me know your circumstances and reasons and I’ll see what we can do.

PRESS RELEASE
28 July 2009
Cannock, Staffordshire, UK

Adrian Steele, MD of Mercian Labels is one of only 700 directors to achieve the IoD’s chartered director status from a membership of 45,000.

Dr Adrian Steele, Managing Director of Cannock based Mercian Labels is the latest director to join the elite group of individuals who have achieved the Institute of Director’s Chartered Director status.

Adrian is now one of only 700 directors to become a Chartered Director in the UK out of the Institutes membership of over 45,000.

He achieved Chartered Director status after completing the IoD’s certificate and diploma in company direction in 2007 and successfully completing the rigorous professional review interviews.

Adrian said: “Running a business in today’s fast changing climate is extremely challenging. I need to ensure that I fully understood the legal and financial responsibilities that come with being a director. For me it’s about becoming a business professional.”

“The certificate and diploma in company direction provided the expert knowledge and guidance needed to run a company efficiently and profitably. Perhaps the most useful element for me was understanding how to prepare a robust strategy and techniques to understand the market place.”

“I have no doubt that the IoD’s training has contributed considerably to the ongoing success of Mercian Labels.”

Jean Pousson, Programme Director for the IoD in the West Midlands said:

“As a Chartered Director Adrian will be able to demonstrate to shareholders, stakeholders, clients and customers that his organisation is professional and successful.”

“Directors who complete the IoD’s qualifications in company direction are extremely well placed to appreciate all aspects of effective business leadership and sound corporate governance.”

Mercian Labels is the UK’s leading manufacturer of short run customised labels and produces the world’s best known security labelling brand, Label Lock.

Adrian has also been invited to become a Fellow of the Institute of Directors.

As a founder member of the British Short Run Labelling Association, we have been been supporting the new UK labelling event through our network in the past year since I first came to hear of it late last year.  The Label Event 2010 is not competition to Label Expo, the definative labelling show held every 2 years, but a commercially driven seminar day with an exciting agenda for all those involved in the UK labelling industry.  I hope that plenty of suppliers will support the event, as in this climate there are very, very few occasions for the instustry to come together, and this is an excellent concept for a new event.  I for one will make sure I will be there.

Some years ago I travelled around countries in southern Africa, and was struck by the unrealised potential of the local economies as they didnt have any decent web access to compete with the Indian sub continent and China.  Well yesterday a major milestone was acheived with the commisioning of the Seacom undersea cable.  Its a small but important step to empowering the local economies of east africa, and I hope that some good new businesses can startup and flourish with this new infrastructure.

At Mercian Labels we have benefited hugely from open source software, but unfortunately it is rare that we actually get a chance to help out anyone from the community back.  However, this week it has been a pleasure to host Josh Holland, who has been here hacking us with a new VPN connection on our ubuntu server and the technical stuff needed to integrate Zimbra email into our own CRM. Josh found us online whilst looking for an open source sys admin role for a weeks work experience.

This is Josh’s write up of his experiences this week.

“I am a 16 year old 6th Former taking A levels in Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Chemistry, and have been doing work experience on the Mercian Labels computer system for the past week.

I have set up a VPN to allow access to the network when offsite, and written (most of) an extension to the bespoke CMS that extracts all the emails to and from a certain address from the Zimbra groupware server and displays them. I have learnt the syntax of iptables, got to know my way around Zimbra and found out a lot about networking.

Would I have been able to do this without open source and the community around it? I doubt it, because the freedom to download, use and redistribute it allows people like me to try things out without having to spend a fortune on something. For example, I can run my own server on £80 per year with no setup costs because all the software is free. If I didn’t have a server, I would not have got the skills I used this week and would use in a real job, becuase Windows Server (say) costs a fortune and keeps people like me from being able to teach themselves.

Also, the community is a fantastic asset. When I hit a snag in setting up of OpenVPN, I was able to turn to the openvpn-users mailing list and get it working like a charm. Almost every major open source project has support mailing lists populated by volunteers, ready to help anyone who has a problem.

Getting all this for free is fantastic, and something that is very hard to find anywhere else. Open source systems have opened the world of IT for me; they have allowed me to teach myself the skills to work in a whole new sector of employment.”

Thanks to Josh for his hard work this week.  We have really benefited from his expertise, and hope that he does well in whatever career path he takes.  It has been a pleasure Josh!

Only a couple of months ago the Royal Mail issued what it claimed to be a ‘tamper proof’ stamp to cut down on the illegal reuse of stamps in the UK.  Yesterday a houseguest showed me how these stamps can be removed with ease, using absolutely no equipment at all.

It is that easy, and the stamp labels are hardly ‘tamper proof’.  Contrast that with our own Dual Layer Label Lock product, that really is a security label in a class of its own.  The label separates into 2 dry peel labels if you try to remove it and cannt be reapplied.

We spend a lot of time attacking our own security labels using a variety of complex techniques, and there are very, very few that are undefeatable.  Royal Mail’s ‘tamper proof’ stamp using outdated security cut technology is not one of them.

The blogosphere has been awash today with the news that Google are launching their own operating system.  Of course its easy to say I told you so, but I can confess to putting Chris DeBona, Google’s Open Source Manager on the spot at Lugradio live 2007 Q&As as to when Google would release its own Linux Distro, as strategically it didnt seem sensible for them not to do so.  I didnt believe his reply then that they had no plans to! Anyway, its based on the Linux Kernel, open source, and hopefully using Debian in some way – the Universe is excellent.

I really like my Dell netbook running ubuntu netbook remix, and it will take a lot to get me to move to Chrome OS.  I dont use Google’s Chrome browser as I am suspicious of the data privacy, and qute frankly unless Chrome OS is much, much, better than Ubuntu, then my reply is simply no thank you.  Google is a fantastic business and dare I say it, a free service to the planet’s online community, but if its working towards running my OS, browser, search experience, email and office files, then thats a monopoly I would rather do without.

Every 2 years the global label industry descend on Brussells for the biggest labelling show in the Calendar, Label Expo. It is a “must visit” show for anyone seriously involved in labelling, and I will be there on Friday 25th September and Saturday 26th September this year.

Please contact me if you are also going and fancy meeting up to discuss anything; I’d be happy to meet clients, suppliers or anyone who just fancies a chat over a Belgian beer!

We are recruiting a new member to our team and they have asked for a blackberry as their email device of choice, something we have never used before in house.  Having looked into this, it seems like a real can of worms.

What I would expect is that there is an easy way of connecting a zimbra server to a blackberry device using a protocol similar to IMAP or the nokia exchange server that I use on my E90 (works with Zimbra fine), but no, you have to have a separate windows box running a piece of blackberry middleware software that only connects to MSSQL type software, to which a special zimbra add on connects to .

What a faff, and I’m not doing this.  Blackberry have just lost a sale becasue the dont support Zimbra.  If you agree, consider signing this petition to ask RIM to natively support Zimbra.

In the meantime, I’m going to get a smartphone that does support zimbra like the HTC or nokia E90 we current use.

We have been longstanding customers of Nildram broadband, and recently upgraded one of our lines to the latest generation of high upload speed line offering upto 16mb down / 2.5mb up using annex m. Anyone considering this service may be interested in these results:
EXISTING NETGEAR DG834 v4 ROUTER (allegedly not annex m compatible but still works fine with 5.01.09 firmware):
connection speed 14.64 mb down / 1.17mb up
3 x speedtest.net results:
1) 10.61 / 0.62
2) 10.80 / 0.65
3) 11.24 / 0.73

NEW THOMSON ROUTER FROM NILDRAM:
connection speed 14.34 down / 1.14 up
3 x speedtest.net results:
1) 9.85 / 0.7
2) 8.59 / 0.55
3) 10.45 / 0.72

As you can see the new router Nildram claim that we need is slightly slower, but in any case is nowhere near the 16.00 / 2.5 claimed for the new service. I  wish I did the same test before they “upgraded” the line, but from memory it was about 8mb down / 0.5 up – certainly not a lot different.

Conclusion: – dont buy a new modem if you want this service, as its not worth it.

I love this image from Peter Renton’s Blog, originally the “How to Be Happy in Business” Venn diagram by Bud Caddell (available for distribution under Creative Commons License 2.0).

It just sums up what you need to do in small businesses to be successful and happy.

I am a huge fan of the firefox update scanner as previously blogged, in that it saves me a lot of time (and hurts when its not there!).  Recently I’ve discovered that you can backup and restore or transfer the websites you are monitoring with ease in a remarkably simple way that I coudnt find anywhere on the web.

All your websites being scanned are stored in your bookmarks, so if you backup all your bookmarks using the bookmark manager in firefox, it will save them all.  you can then import them onto the new machine (in my case my new netbook) once you have installed the plugin on the new machine.  And hey presto, you are monitoring the same websites on the new machine.  If you really want mobility, email the exported bookmarks file to your web email account, and you can install it on any machine anywhere at any time that has firefox.

We recently recruited a dedicated website designer to develop our websites, and he has done a cracking job with our main user website www.selfadhesivelabels.com .

www.selfadhesivelabels.com

The site has improved navigation, aesthetics, images, content and overall is a lot cleaner than our previous site, and we are really pleased with it. There has been a lot of clever work involved in this site, but as this is an open forum and I know our competitors watch this blog, I cannt cover them here! However, if any customers have comments on it, please feel free to leave your feedback below.

dell mini 9 running ubuntu netbook remix

I have recently taken delivery of a Dell Mini 9 that came preinstalled with Ubuntu 8.04 LTS.  I’ve upgraded the operating system to the latest Ubuntu 9.04 Netbook remix to make it boot faster and so its consistent with my laptop.  Pictured above is it with the charger and the bag I also bought from Dell.

Overall I’m really pleased with it, it small, light, the battery lasts for hours (like 4 hours+) and ideal as a netbook.  The downside is the keyboard can be difficult to type on as the keys are just so close together and I must have fat fingers!

It boots in 42 seconds from cold, and come out of suspend by opening the lid in 5 seconds flat (I kid you not). I have connected it as a 3G modem over bluetooth to my Nokia E90 by using the hack previoulsy published for my laptop so I can use it on wifi and 3G anywhere where there is a signal.

And it was only £199 inc vat -  a bargain.  I would recommend this as a really goog value netbook solution, and as always with Ubuntu, it just works.

I was contacted by the publishers of this new book recently and offered a copy for review of a new book written to support users of Trixbox such as us. Well I’ve read through it, and this is my opinion.

I have never really gone looking for a book such as this, as in most circumstances when we need support I look on google or call our IT support company.  In this respect I dont know what the competition is for a Trixbox support book, but I get the impression that this is a ‘first’.

Overall, I really liked the book, as it uses plain language that a non sys admin can understand to explain what Trixbox is, what it isnt , and how to install, configure and trouble shoot it.  There are simple explanation of lots of functions that I have learnt about the hard way in here, and having read the book, I wish that I had done so before configuring it myself, as it would have saved lots of time, probably about 10 hours of iterative learning.  In this respect, for £28 its very good value. When you put this in the context of the cost of a traditional small business phone system at £5K-£20K – its amazing value as trixbox is of course free and open source.

There are some problems that you just wont solve by using this book and non experienced sys admin.  The major IP network range problem we had that nearly destroyed our migration is not even mentioned in the book .

So, my advice is to buy this book to learn if Trixbox is for you, or if you want to learn how to configure a working system.  Its not going to solve all your installation problems like that mentoned above or instaling ISDN cards, but its a start. It will be a very useful reference for us moving forward – I’m now off to try the direct fax to PDF feature I didnt even know existed now that I’ve read the book!

Its available from here.

Disclosure: I’ve been given a free copy of the book to review and keep, but am under no other pressure or commercial interest in respect of this book.

Gor anyone that didnt know about this new development, there is a great post on the new Microsoft Office SP2 supporting open document formats here.

Netbooks have become increasingly poplar over the past year, and it has become apparent over the past few weeks that having a ‘pool’ one would be very useful for the business for a few reasons:

• Rich (our IT manager) can take it when he is away from home in case he needs remote access ‘in case of emergency’
• I can use it when travelling on business and holiday to work more efficiently than I can do on my Nokia e90, particularly on the train.
• My co-diretor can use it when overseas or on client visits.

My criteria are:

• it must be a small and light netbook type device
• it must have 3g support, as in many places there just isnt wifi
• it must run ubuntu, preferably the ubuntu UNR version designed for netbooks

I’ve really struggled to fit this brief, as there sem to be so few netbooks with 3g.  The Acer Aspire One A110-A 3G seems possible, but it does not ship with ubuntu and seems quote dear.  There is a Asus Eee PC 3.5g modem listed on its website, but I cannt see anywhere to buy it.

The idea of a small, SSD drive netbook device just for mobile use is quite attractive, but it must come with 3g to make it viable for me.  Can anybody recommend such a device?