Archive for December, 2012

Or, more accurately, what 160,000 pounds of industrial printer ink looks like on a 500-foot stretch of road outside Boston after being dumped from a tractor trailer and slightly enhanced with an iOS photo app for color brightness.

Continue reading “What 160,000 Pounds of Industrial Printer Ink Looks Like” »

But it ain’t all that hard either:

The push for greener initiatives in the workplace has certainly gained steam through the years.  Companies like Starbucks began offering two slots (one for compost and another for recycling) for customers to dispose of their latte and baguette wrapper.  Then there’s tennis shoe companies like Brooks unveiling fully biodegradable shoes (the BioMoGo), that once placed in a properly encapsulated landfill, will naturally degrade in 20 years, as opposed to the 1,000 years it takes for a traditional shoe.

Other major industries such as Dell have significantly reduced their carbon footprint with their products, by crafting laptops and desktops that use 25 percent less energy.  Truth is, whether it’s offering more eco-friendly products or charting a course for patrons and employees to recycle, the green awareness is there.

Greener Ideal joins the rising chorus of online voices producing a mountain of digital literature intended to help businesses of all sizes green their operations. Take a minute to read the whole post, but of course we’re particularly concerned with one of their “little things” suggestions:

Buy up remanufactured ink and toner cartridges and have a separate box or bin to store used cartridges in the copy room.

This is a really, really simple way to green your office and your company. Seriously. Get a bin, (preferably of recycled material itself), and put it in the copy room. Or get a bunch of little bins and put them under the desk. When your ink or toner cartridges are spent, throw ‘em in the bins! When you’ve got more than 8, fill out this form and we’ll send a label to your office and recycle them for free.

Kermit may have had a fleeting problem with being green. But the rest of us have no excuse.

Ink Technologies

***

BONUS! For the truly committed, check out and recreate this recycled ink cartridge chandelier! Via Inhabitat.com:

Several years worth?

It’s not surprising, then, that the 17-person company is still using Windows XP, Microsoft’s popular but aging operating system. But they’re not sticking with XP because they don’t want to buy new hardware or software. Rather, the company is sitting on a stockpile of printer supplies — toner, drum units, and the like — for seven Konica Minolta Magicolor 2200 color lasers. Standardizing on a single printer enabled Veripic to purchase large volumes of supplies at discount.

This is as much an “aging operating system” post as it is an ink & toner post. Trying to stay on top of the “newest” in software is hard enough for individuals and sole proprietors; doing so with 17 employees and as many desktops is infinitely harder. That’s not to mention “big business”, defined as institutions with 10,000 or more PC’s, whose migration to an OS other than XP may never happen.

But this is ultimately a tale of cost savings for small business, at its heart, and the choices SMB’s have to make regarding just how much supply to buy when deals come around. VeriPic, the SMB on display in Information Week’s article, loaded up on Konica-Minolta Magicolor 2200 Toner Cartridges because buying in large bulk offered the best discount. They did so ostensibly without regard to any particular future need to upgrade their hardware or OS. It’s a choice that has worked out for VeriPic…so far.

Of course, choices like these are affected by countless other factors, including client base and needs, access to capital, network compatibility and even, ahem, factory cleanliness. No two SMB’s are identical nor are their printing or OS needs.

Here at Ink Technologies we recognize that fact and it’s part of the reason we have Konica-Minolta Magicolor 2200 Toner Cartridges, for SMB’s like VeriPic that have to make hard choices like these. Whether your SMB needs to be cutting-edge or whether your model calls for stockpiling ink and toner, we’re here to take care of you.

So which are you? A tortoise or a hare?

How do you get the most use out of your toner cartridge? How are they made, and what happens to them when they run out of toner? You use them every day for printing, but there’s a lot you may not know about these handy, important devices. In The Life Cycle of a Toner Cartridge infographic learn how toner cartridges are created and function, tips for getting the most value and quality from them, and how refurbishing them saves you money and helps the environment.

Share this infographic!

<br /> <a href=" http://www.inktechnologies.com/blog/life-cycle-of-a-toner-cartridge/"><br /> <img title="Life Cycle of a Toner Cartridge Infographic" src="http://www.inktechnologies.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/The-Life-Cycle-of-a-Toner-Cartridge.jpg" alt="Life Cycle of a Toner Cartridge Infographic" /></a><br /> <a href=”http://www.inktechnologies.com/blog/life-cycle-of-a-toner-cartridge/” title=”Life Cycle of a Toner Cartridge”><br /> by InkTechnologies.com<br /> </a><br />

And when we say “crank out” we mean, collectively between the 12 geniuses heralded in the Equities release, 1,550 patents. Yes. One thousand, five hundred and fifty patents from 12 guys or an average of 130 each. Have you produced 1,550 of anything?

But the cool thing is that a bunch of these patents involve ink in some ingenious way! And here we thought that everything that could be invented regarding ink has already been invented.

That’s why they’re inventors for Xerox.

These new contrivances include:

• “a user adaptable ink status conveyance system”
• “solid ink delivery”
• “ink delivery system modeling”
• “ink melt performance optimization”
• “a radiation-curable gel ink composition with reduced liquid separation”
• “UV curable gel ink”

(via Equities.com)

Uh…ok. We totally know what each of those things are.

Xerox:

“We are innovating every day to create new services and technology for our customers,” said Sophie Vandebroek , Xerox chief technology officer and president of the Xerox Innovation Group . “Thinking outside the box and exploring the unknown are catalysts that drive innovation and motivate us to continually create new ways to help our customers succeed.”

We’re guessing that developing “a radiation-curable gel ink composition with reduced liquid separation” isn’t a pure stroke of genius; it’s a laborious, difficult process from conception to development to execution and ultimately, production. Thomas Edison’s famous mantra that “Genius is one per cent inspiration, ninety-nine per cent perspiration” is alive and well in Xerox’s invention lab.

Can’t help but admire these guys. Here at Ink Technologies we do our very best to make our customer’s experience the most rewarding it can be, and we’ve got more in the pipeline. While it may not be a “UV curable gel ink“, we hope our customer service innovations make the ink-buying part of your life painless, less expensive and maybe, a little bit enjoyable.

The  release of Instagram’s new privacy policy today threw users into a veritable tizzy, with thousands of instagrammers taking to Twitter to voice their outrage.

Apparently, Instagram was listening:

Faced with a loud and angry backlash from some of its most active users, photo-sharing app Instagram backtracked Tuesday on new language that appeared to give the company ownership of their images.

“The language we proposed … raised question about whether your photos can be part of an advertisement,” Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom wrote in a blog post. “We do not have plans for anything like this and because of that we’re going to remove the language that raised the question.”

The Twitter-Facebook-Instagram increasingly hostile love triangle continues to intrigue social media junkies and light up the digital switchboards with reactions ranging from the reasonable and measured, to unhinged and absurd.

Real quickly as background, Facebook bought Instagram in September for a cool billion. Recently Instagram turned off support for Twitter, causing photos shared from the photo app to disappear from Twitter feeds, or more accurately from Twitter’s new “card” feature.

Yesterday we learned that Twitter had offered to buy Instagram for $500 million in March, 3 months before Mark Zuckerberg pulled the trigger after a healthy bowl of Cheerios (seriously). Then earlier today Instagram released their new privacy policy, insinuating that users profiles, pictures and data could all be used in advertisements without their knowledge or consent, which touched off the fierce reaction on Twitter. Then finally, a few hours ago, Instagram backed off that policy with the statement above.

Your move Google.

We do have one question though, not entirely divorced from this issue; do you anticipate a new social media bubble burst, in light of the endless infighting amongst social media’s biggest players, or is this a good thing for the future profitability of their businesses?

We haven’t read the book yet, so this post is really a review of a book review, but the topic is intriguing and we wanted you to know about it:

Among the many things I learned from Philip Hensher’s lively new book, “The Missing Ink: The Lost Art of Handwriting,” is the extent to which the teaching of handwriting was intended to enhance moral development.

Nineteenth century America was dominated by copperplate, an ornate style – you can see it in the Coca-Cola logo – promoted with missionary zeal by Platt Rogers Spencer. More practical, business-friendly models eventually won out, but handwriting is still widely seen as an indicator of one’s character.

The reviewer, Gregory Leon Miller at the San Francisco Chronicle, begins by acknowledging that he “can’t write proper cursive” and that he’s “forgotten how several of the letters are meant to look.” We hadn’t thought about this before but…we have to acknowledge that we’re not 100% sure how they’re all supposed to look either.

Is that bad?

We did a post the other day hoping to encourage readers to give handmade gifts a chance this holiday, so in a way we’re on par with the lamentations of Mr. Hensher, while we can’t speak directly to the history of handwriting and its cultural or historical significance.

But we do have to ask, could you pen a letter to a loved one or a colleague completely, in perfect cursive?

Of the DIY variety, that is. We’re not going to pontificate on commercialism or anything like that, it’s not our style.

But we do want to introduce you to a few ideas we thought were pretty cool for making a new kind of memory this year. It requires a little bit of elbow grease and some thought…but that’s kind of how we think gift giving should be.

Gifts for Relatives: Sharing Love Far and Wide!

Do you have an extended family you’d love to give gifts to without breaking the bank?

Show how much you care by whipping up a batch of print-at-home Christmas calendars!

Gifts for Her: Show Her Your Thoughtful Side.

You might hear women say, “I don’t care how much he spends, I just want him to put some thought into what he gets for
me!”

This might be true for the woman you’re wooing this holiday season, but she certainly won’t appreciate how long you spent wracking your brain for gift ideas if
the end result is a gas station gift card.

Gifts for Kids: Get Crafty with the Meaning of Christmas.

You might be hard pressed to find children willing to forego the whiz and bang of traditional electronic presents and brandname toys in favor of something simpler
and more meaningful. However, if you do manage to get your brood on-board, the positive effects of handmade gifts will be powerful and long-lasting.

Take a look for more DIY gift ideas for Him, for the Folks and for people you only sorta know, but like anyway!

The iPod, Kindle Fire or other “insert whatever is insanely popular at the moment here” thing you get for yours this year is cool, we’re not debating that.

But we can say with some certainty that taking a minute or two to create something, with your own hands from your own thoughts for someone you love, is infinitely better.

Eventually they’ll wind up disposing of the new 7″ tablet. Your handmade gift will be on the family table for generations to come.

You’ll do 100 years in the clink…think again.

No, we’re not kidding:

A former mailroom worker at the Philadelphia Water Department is facing federal charges in what authorities call a million-dollar scam involving printer ink and toner cartridges.

Prosecutors said Wednesday that since 2006, 61-year-old Calvin Duncan used city funds to place more than $1.3 million in excess orders for ink and toner. Investigators said Duncan had the loot shipped to an Arkansas printer supply company that paid him $545,000.

via The Seattle Times

Wow. There are several parts of this story that intrigue us. First of all, he was running this scam for 6 years and nobody seemed to notice until now. Secondly, it kind of speaks volumes about how $1.3 million can be simply billed to the City of Philadelphia’s credit card without anyone there noticing. Yikes.

But for us, it’s the actions of Laser Cartridge Plus Inc., the Arkansas company alleged to have bought the ill-gotten ink and toner, that are the heart of this story. What were they thinking? It will be interesting to see if they play the “ignorance” card in this situation.

What do you think? Can LCP reasonably claim that they didn’t know the ink and toner here was stolen?

If you’re looking for prices on ink and toner that are almost too good to be true, Ink Technologies will take care of you.

We’re so happy you asked! Let us tell you ’cause there’s a bunch!

1.  Expanded Same-Day Shipping! Ink Technologies has increased our cutoff time for same day shipping from 2:30PM to 3:30PM, EST.

We operate on the credo that we “Save You Money With Every Print.” This concept isn’t simply a tagline for us, it’s a way of life.

We are constantly looking for ways to increase value for our customers. Giving you an extra hour, every day, to get your products out the door the same day is just one of those ways.

2.  Reduced free shipping! We have permanently reduced our free ground shipping threshold from $75 to $50!

Get more…for less. Just like that!

3.  Reviews and Ratings! We’ve implemented the ability for you to rate our products and write reviews!

This one is almost as much for us as it is for you. We want to hear what you have to say about our products and services! How was your experience with Ink Technologies? Were your products delivered on time? Did they work like they’re supposed to?

Whatever’s on your mind, we want to know!

4.  Paypal! Ink Technologies now accepts PayPal, at checkout, for all customers, US and International!

Convenience is a good thing. Your experience with Ink Technologies should be friendly and convenient, across the board. Now you can pay with PayPal, if that’s more convenient for you!