Northprint

Well, Northprint is just next week. We haven't exhibited at Harrogate for a few years, and I'm rather looking forward to it. That makes the third trade fair this year - Jaume Casals hosted Printsum at Grafispag in Barcelona in March - we're getting to be quite international!

One of the things we'll be trying out will be a new projector screen for demonstrations. It's a bit innovative (and rather unconventional), as it's basically just an oval of fabric held out by a flexible spring steel band. When you first see it unpacked it's a bit startling - a small carry case unpacks practically by itself to this enormous great screen.

What concerned us far more, though, was how on earth to get it back into the case. Here is this enormous almost rigid object, but how on earth can it be folded up? After all you can't fold a steel band! In the end we did it - took us about an hour to figure it out, but it's really quite simple when you have the knack of it.

Once again I'm forced back to an analogy with software - as in any discipline there can be a learning curve, but when things fall into place, their simplicity can pay amazing dividends.  I could even extend the metaphor further and talk about flexibility, lightness (it only weighs about a kilo) etc. but I think you get my drift!

Anyway I look forward to meeting some of you at Northprint next week. Otherwise, stay in touch.

Warm regards

Richard Fergusson

Barmecide Feast

I came across an unusual expression the other day. A Barmecide feast. I actually had to look it up. It refers to a tale from Arabian Nights where a beggar is entertained by a rich man (Barmecide) who promised him a feast, but instead put a series of imaginary dishes before him. It means something that doesn’t live up to expectations.

I sometimes wonder if software doesn’t sometimes feel a little bit like that. In a complex world like printing, management software has to walk a fine divide between being so simple that it doesn’t satisfy your need, or so complex that you can’t make it work, which is no less disappointing.
I think what makes it worse is that whatever system you pick, there has to be a certain amount of input from you, which can seem a bit daunting. So you hover on the brink, unwilling to commit yourself, and thereby get more frustrated.

If you look at the original Arabian Nights story, though, you’ll see that in the end, after pretending to eat the imaginary meal, the beggar finally does receive not only a real feast but a further twenty years’ unstinted hospitality.

So in software terms, we could translate the moral into ‘take the plunge and it will pay dividends in the end’.

It's interesting how relevant old stories can be – even in the 21st century.

Warm regards

Richard Fergusson

Happy new year, world!

Last Wednesday my nephew came to dinner with his Thai girlfriend, who is over here on a 10 day visit, and despite a bit of a language barrier - her English isn't that brilliant and we only got as far as French at school - we had a good time. She's a bookkeeper by profession or maybe an accountant (we didn't manage to track down the precise UK equivalent). Basically she manages the day-to-day accounts for a company in Bangkok.

Talking to her I suddenly realized how despite the wars and political rows the whole world is basically on a convergence path. Bookkeeping is bookkeeping the world over, and so, I guess are printing, print estimating and management.

Can you imagine the differences between the UK and Thailand back in the 19th century? I can't help thinking of 'The King and I', though I understand that most Thai people regard it as an insultingly inaccurate portrayal of their revered king, Mongkut. Yet even then the convergence had started. His son Chulalongkorn sent his son to be educated in the UK at Sandhurst and Oxford. While looking him up I found this wonderful picture of Chulalongkorn and (presumably) all of his sons (must have had quite a busy life!) going to the British Museum in 1902. Note the Eton jackets!



Anyway what I'm getting round to saying is that we have been amazed, since the launch of our new web-site, about how far flung are the people who now download and use our Printpak software. Apart from the UK and Ireland, just a quick look at the last 6 weeks' downloaders reveals a list containing (in random order) South Africa, America, Greece, Egypt, Nigeria, Israel, India, Finland, Singapore, Bahrain, Angola and Pakistan - there are plenty more but I got bored looking!

The thing is that all of you are joined in a common understanding of the printing industry, and how it operates, in worries about the economic downturn, in concern about whether they are working efficiently, about whether to take that job at a loss because it might lead to a worth-while contract, or whether to let some poor other sap take the risk. While 150 years ago maybe some of the concepts might have been there, I can't help feeling that today we are much closer to each other.

And yet despite this, or perhaps because of it, some people want to blow other people up? Its a mad world, my masters!

Have a happy and prosperous New Year.

Richard Fergusson