Pascal's Triangle & The Digitization of the Office - 1/3/2014

2014

In the Beginning -

The workplace has been evolving since the beginning of time. We've moved from farms to churches to castles, to high-rise office buildings and mega-cities. As communication shifted from handwritten documents to print to electronic, so too, did the office and the way we conduct day-to-day business.

Some consider the process started sometime in the 90s - while others imagine true digitization kicked off with the advent of the IPad. 

My observations and research reveal the shift has been occurring since the late 1600s starting with a device invented and built by an 18-year-old, French kid. The mechanism performed addition, subtraction, and multiplication through the manipulation of gears and dials. The teen was helping his father calculate bigger numbers when performing French tax accounting. 

Who is The World's Best Managed Print Services...in the World

I love the phrase, "It ain't bragging if its true..." - my high school football coach used it often.

I've noticed a trend over the past few months in our little niche: Robo-Boasting.

Self-promotion is great.  I get that and if you're proud of your MpS, I say get that story out there.  But don't do it through a robotic channel.

Bragging -

So many software, OEMs, dealers, toner pirates, distributors, consultants and analysts either claim to be or report to know the best Managed Print Services something-or-other.  The twitter-feed is chock-full of MPS robo-brags and self-promotion, it is blinding.  Observed from the outside it looks like one huge Love-fest. (I was going to use 'circle-jerk' but that might seem offensive)

Toner For Tablets - March, 2012 "The New #iPad Will Kill Printed Documents"

Originally posted, March 4, 2012

"One of the iPad's biggest competitors has been paper," said Nick Bilton, a tech columnist at The New York Times, "and now this is better than paper."

So many books and so little printing-

I was somewhat dismayed to learn Britannica is no longer going to print its encyclopedia.

I was a bit vexed when I read that printed,  pulp-erotica isn't as hot as it once was.

My confusion cleared upon discovering the hottest thing on  E*Readers is ladies' romance/erotica - women and their dirty little Nook's. This makes perfect sense; nobody can tell what you're reading while sucking a caramel macchiato, head down on a Kindle.  Poor Fabio.

Even Conde Nest is moving out of print and into the online subscription business.