Goodbye best friend... a call to all in our industry who can hire a returning combat veteran and adopt a dog

This picture of Marines and the working dog, Yeager, honoring his fallen handler and their comrade, LCPL Abraham Tarwoe, is all you need to know about the character of US Marines or former US Marines on your payroll.  You might have to take a risk in creating a spot on the payroll in an uncertain environment where you don't know what the future is going to bring for your business growth.  No doubt, you have to survive before you can thrive as a business.  However hiring former combat veterans, especially former US Marines, is an investment in your future, and should be part of your company's people strategy plan.  You will find no one more loyal, courageous, entertaining, organizational life changing or knowledgeable to work with other than you or your immediate family members.  If you need a prepress technician, software or other administrator and can make room for one of these veterans to study what you need and bring them into your company as interns in training while they pick up the skills you need to be the new customer service rep, sales rep, driver, or other stakeholder in your business, consider hiring these returning veterans.  They are able to adapt and learn new skills, have the GI Bill to help pay for their education and just need some guidance as to what industry they should join and what fields of study to help your company and themselves to get hired in gainful employed civilian positions.  Veterans can probably handle anything life throws at them after what they've been through (Marines and other combat armed forces personnel especially), and don't need charity, but a chance, some compassion and respect for their service which is nothing like serving in the postal service or other services that wear a uniform and drive a desk in some office far from seeing any combat action or service.  If you show loyalty to them, they are more than willing and able to go the extra mile for you and your customers, and will be among the best investment in hiring people that you could ever make.  Our canine companions teach us the universal value of loyalty, it's really up to us humans to apply it to each other to make our world a little better and reward those who choose to value loyalty above other traits. 

Here's the story behind the picture released by the USMC:
Yeager, an improvised explosive device detection dog, lies in front of a battlefield cross as Staff Sgt. Derick Clark, a kennel supervisor with Headquarters and Service Company, 2nd Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment, and Chief Warrant Officer 2 Michael Dale Reeves, a kennel officer in charge with 2nd Bn., 9th Marines, observe a moment of silence in honor of Lance Cpl. Abraham Tarwoe, a dog handler and mortarman who served with 2/9, during a memorial service, April 22, 2012. Tarwoe, who became Yeager's handler in July 2011, was killed in action during a dismounted patrol in support of combat operations in Helmand province's Marjah district, April 12. Tarwoe's fellow Marines remember him for his contagious laughter and smile, and his unfaltering courage on the battlefield. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Alfred V. Lopez)  

Book Signing This Wednesday at Barnes & Noble Bowie, 6:30 p.m.

Meet Maryland Author, Raj Dwivedi, Entrepreneur and Owner of Print On Demand Network, at His Book Signing at Bowie Town Center Barnes & Noble Wed April 25th at 6:30 p.m.

Lead, follow or get out of the way! Mobile solutions will supplant web printing solutions

Easy, On-Demand Print Solutions with FedEx Office and Google Cloud Print

DALLAS, Apr 18, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- FedEx Office(R) is proud to be the first national retailer to offer small businesses, mobile professionals and on-the-go consumers the ability to transform digital files into hard copies by sending documents through Google Cloud Print(TM) to more than 1,800 FedEx Office stores nationwide. Combining FedEx Office(R) Print & Go and Google Cloud Print, customers can now access and print documents anytime, anywhere.
FedEx Office is leading the industry with innovative on-demand, mobile printing solutions. "Today more than 40 percent of our print business comes in over the web. We will continue our commitment to invest in serving the growing needs of our customers, whether it's business presentations, brochures or posters," said Anthony Norris, vice president, Product and E-commerce Marketing for FedEx Office.
With the award-winning FedEx Office Print & Go solution and Google Cloud Print, users can submit print documents from Gmail(TM) and Google Docs(TM) on their mobile device, or from the Chrome web browser for Mac, Windows, Linux, and Chrome devices. Customers can access these documents at any U.S. FedEx Office location by entering a unique retrieval code into the FedEx Office Print & Go self-service digital screens to select, preview and print. Or, customers can choose to have their print jobs produced by professionally trained team members at the full-service counter.
Launched in January 2011, FedEx Office Print & Go also allows customers to access and print documents directly from a variety of mobile devices and USB flash drives. Last year, the easy-to-use technology received the "Most Innovative New Tech-Enabled Product" award by InformationWeek.
To learn more about FedEx Office Print & Go and discover how to get started, go to www.fedex.com/printandgo .
About FedEx Office
FedEx Office, an operating company of FedEx Corp., has more than 1,900 stores and locations in the U.S., Canada, Japan, South Korea and the Middle East, providing convenient access to printing and shipping expertise with reliable service. The company's network features retail stores, centralized production centers, corporate on-site print centers, and on-site business centers at hotels, convention centers and universities. Services include copying and digital printing, professional finishing, document creation, direct mail, signs and graphics, computer rental, free Wi-Fi, corporate print solutions, packing services, FedEx Express and FedEx Ground shipping, Hold at FedEx Location and more. In addition, InformationWeek 500 recognized FedEx Office(R) Print Online and FedEx Office(R) Print & Go solutions with the 2011 Most Innovative Products award. Products, services and hours vary by location. For more information, please visit www.fedex.com/office .
About FedEx Corp.
FedEx Corp. /quotes/zigman/254280/quotes/nls/fdx FDX +0.08% provides customers and businesses worldwide with a broad portfolio of transportation, e-commerce and business services. With annual revenues of $42 billion, the company offers integrated business applications through operating companies competing collectively and managed collaboratively, under the respected FedEx brand. Consistently ranked among the world's most admired and trusted employers, FedEx inspires its more than 300,000 team members to remain "absolutely, positively" focused on safety, the highest ethical and professional standards and the needs of their customers and communities. For more information, visit news.fedex.com.
SOURCE: FedEx Office

        
        FedEx Office 
        Kim Kelley, 214-550-7431 
        kim.kelley@fedex.com 
        or 
        Ketchum Public Relations 
        Jonathan Younger, 946-935-4339 
        jonathan.younger@ketchum.com

How cool is this new Oce colorstream 10000 flex digital press?

I like this, and want one!  How about your shop?  Tired of Xerox and HP speed and flexibility (or lack of it)?  This is how print on demand should be done.  Toner based monochrome or color at 10,000 impressions per minute down to 24lb offset text weight (thickness of your typical bible printed sheet).
If you're printing billing statements or outsourcing data management services for the cost savings of not having to get into the print business, you may want to crunch your numbers again with the CFO and take a hard look at the return on investment on a solution like this vs continuing to outsource a critical function like this with the added flexibility this solution provides any organization.

How many of you want to see this in your local bookstore?

The Harvard Book Store has installed one of these machines, and I think every independent publisher and author will grant publishing rights to their local bookstores to sell and print their printed versions of ebooks.  It is also a matter of negotiating with Amazon for their vast library of books to flip the publishing industry on its very head and put the control back in the hands of independents with this technology.  Publishing ebooks is as easy as uploading a Word document for authors and publishers.  There is very little to it to justify the costs that the large 5 publishers and Apple were able to charge in their attempt to take control from Amazon's ebook portfolio.  The going rate for published content by local independent authors and publishers willing to give rights directly to their bookstores will remove the need to use an agency publishing model and put the control of sales in the hands of independent and chain bookstores.  I for one welcome the innovation and encourage independent bookstores, publishers and authors to adopt this model and machine.  I hope to see one in every bookstore and library where I can wait for a printed version of the ebook on my reader or tablet, and get a print-out of a required section from a book I need for class.  All while I have a cup of coffee and browse other book titles. 

Digital Ads Overload

Infographic on digital ad bombardment study

According to this recent study 2/3 of adults in the US and UK indicate they receive too many digital ads and promotions.  Follow the link above for the study details.

The good news is that if you recognize that most people only want ads on information that they are interested in about once a month, then you can develop your online communication and marketing strategy to reach your audience without them unsubscribing or worse tuning your message out completely.

One key finding that I take away from this information is that people do not want ads on their smartphones.  Just because they can get them there, they don't necessarily want to see them popping up as SMS texts or other ads that they did not search to find out information. 
This is crucual to our customers of comF5 mobipro product lines and touchpro product customers who have the ability to "push" notifications out to their audience about a particular special or event.  Like all things in life, moderation is the key.  The findings point to about once a month advertising being the right amount for adults. 

Check out the information in detail by following the link and digging into the study.  Interestingly enough, another study done last year by RIT found that 79% of B2B customers still found direct mail, and traditional print solutions as either highly effective or effective means to get the message out about events, or promtional advertising.  Print is far from dead, print on demand is thriving in 2012.