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Last week, Sony announced they will no longer manufacture 3.5″ floppy disks, signaling the nail in the coffin for this antiquated technology.  You mean they were still making those things?  I don’t even own a computer with an “A drive” anymore.  1.44 MB of space doesn’t get you far these days.  As a matter of fact, at my rummage sale last summer, I couldn’t even sell an 8MB compact flash card.  While I don’t think this news story will ruffle anyone’s feathers, it does give us an opportunity to wander down memory lane and remember life in the “old days”…

FLASHBACK:  Summer 1993:  Our family gets a shiny new Compaq 486 PC (that’s pre-pentium, folks), to replace our well-loved Commodore 64.  Time to install Microsoft Office (some crazy new program that’s supposed to be way better than Word Perfect).  The installation package came with TWENTY-FIVE floppy disks.  Being the youngest of 6 kids, naturally it was my job to baby-sit the computer all day long, feeding it disk after disk in 20 minute intervals.  To make things interesting, the Compaq engineers thought it would be a good idea to place the eject button right next to the power button.  All went smoothly until disc 17, when I absent-mindedly pushed the wrong button.  5 hours wasted.  Thanks floppy disks!

Today, that program would fit 1000 times over on a standard blu-ray disc, and install in about 25 seconds.  Despite this perspective, I’m sure we would still complain that it wasn’t fast enough.

CNN recently published this article suggesting digital alternatives to the business card:

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/10/01/digital.business.cards/

Are we seeing the last generation of paper business cards?  Or is this just a fad?  CNN seems to suggest that the business card is yet another casualty of the conversion to all-digital media.

Each of the digital suggestions in this article have their own unique merit – the ability to record where you met someone along with their contact information, and endless customization possibilities, for example.  Certainly for someone in a fast paced, technology centered industry, any of these would make a great addition to her virtual identity.

However, I don’t see how digital business cards can render the paper version obsolete.  There’s always merit to something tangible.  I believe it creates a lasting impression where a digital substitute cannot.  It gives the feel of exclusivity – a personal invitation to contact someone again.  If I were told to simply “Google” someone, this would not make me feel special.  Anyone can find that information.  However, if you hand me your business card with 3 different contact phone numbers, I feel like you’re making that extra effort to ensure that I get a hold of you again.

Sometimes the newest, flashiest product isn’t always the best choice for every situation.  At least that’s my opinion.  Feel free to disagree

GLMT Discs: Made in the USA

I’ll just come right out and say it: this recession sucks. There’s really no way around it. How did we get to this point? Well, one could go on forever with a million different explanations (I’ll spare you my personal opinion). Instead, I prefer to focus on something more positive – the things I have control over. This includes how I spend the few precious extra dollars I have. One thing I have been more conscious of is buying local products; using the power of the free market to help those closest to me. I’ve been taking the extra moment at the store to look for the sticker that tells me where a product was made. If I see “Made in the USA,” I find myself just a little more likely to put that thing in my cart.

With that, I am proud to say that GLMT replicates discs right here in the United States. No outsourcing to China here; the machines are right here in Mequon, Wisconsin, with American workers cranking out the product. Discs go straight from the replication machine, to the printing press, to the packaging line, without ever leaving the building! We don’t slap a big “made in the USA” sticker on the back (we’d rather make sure your drive can read the data), but we want you to know that when you buy from us, you’re keeping jobs right at home.

Windowboxing… Why won’t you just fill the whole !#%^ screen?!?

Last night I sat down to watch the premiere of The Chopping Block on NBC and was surprised to see that my broadcast was being windowboxed on the screen.

What is windowboxing you ask? While I am watching this program on my 42″ LCD HDTV, there is a thick black outline around the entire image, filling up half of my screen with dead space. This phenomenon is occurring more often recently as we shift into High Definition broadcasting.

The traditional tube television displays in an aspect ratio of 4:3 (for those of you not familiar with aspect ratios, that is the relationship between the length of the image and the height of the image). Brand new High Definition televisions now have a screen that is much wider than it is high, with an aspect ratio of 16:9. Just as the devices we use to watch programming have changed their aspect ratio, the cameras used to record the programs also have changed the shape of the images they capture.

So to get a 4:3 image to display without distortion on a 16:9 screen, the image is pillarboxed: the image is centered horizontally on the screen, and black space fills the left and right sides of the screen. Inversely, to view a 16:9 image on a 4:3 screen, the image is letterboxed: centered vertically, and black space fills the top and bottom.

So what I was seeing on my screen last night, was a program that was recorded in 16:9, but then was converted to be viewed on a 4:3 screen, which was then converted to fit my 16:9 screen. Dizzy yet?

Now this would make sense to me if I was watching a station that does not broadcast in HD, but this was not the case! The program before and after filled my screen with all of their HD glory! Apparently this revolution even confuses the “experts”.

I am addicted to the digital world.

Today is a fantastic day. After work, my world will return to normalcy. The void I have lived with for the last 6 months will finally be filled. My new DirecTV service with HD/DVR will be hooked up when I get home!

In my 26 years on this planet, I have never known life before Cable TV. A proud member of “Generation Y,” I was born with a remote control in my hand. I always had cable: growing up, in my college dorm, in my first apartment, and finally in my first house.

This all changed about 6 months ago. Like many other Americans, Nate and I re-evaluated our budget, trying to find ways to save a few bucks here and there. We canceled the land line (only telemarketers call that anyways), combined cell phone services, and even switched to generic soda. Right around this time our contract with Dish Network was expiring, and we thought, “do we really need to spend $85/mo on television when we can just watch the networks for free?” We bit the bullet. We canceled. The Dark Age began.

It wasn’t so bad at first. I re-discovered PBS. My new favorite shows became American Scientific Frontiers and Cook’s Country. If nothing was on, I’d actually turn off the TV and move on to other things – take a bike ride, weed the garden, play PS3, rent a Blu-Ray. A new world had opened up.

Then winter set in. A horrible, awful winter. Over 35 inches of snow in December alone! Now, it’s the cold snap that seems to last forever. For the last 2 months, leaving the house has been unbearable! When you are cooped up inside for so long, there are only so many ways you can pass the time. The Locals just don’t cut it anymore. I don’t think I can ever watch another episode of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? or Judge Judy.

But what do I miss most about life before the Dark Age? DVR. I’ve wasted far too much time watching commercials. Now that American Idol is back on, I can’t bear to actually waste 2 hours of my valuable evening time watching it. With a DVR, I can watch an entire episode in 35 minutes, not miss any of the action, and get on with my life.

Oh modern technology, how I have missed you. I promise never to leave you again. I’ll just have to find something else to sacrifice…

Disc Design Tips: When to add a Spot Color

Here in the GLMT prepress department, one of the most common questions we are asked is when to design in spot colors versus process color. So, I thought I would take a moment to explain the difference and how to apply them in your CD and DVD designs.

When you print something on your desktop inkjet printer at home, you are printing in process colors (CMYK). The printer is taking 4 different ink colors (cyan, magenta, yellow and black), and spraying little dots of each in various patterns that when viewed by the human eye appears to be all the colors of the rainbow. Our screen and offset presses run on the same principle. An image can be split up into these 4 different colors and each is laid onto the disc one at a time, resulting in the appearance of a nearly infinite amount of colors. Process colors work fantastic for photographic images. They are able to capture all the subtle differences in tones, shadows, and highlights.

Unlike your inkjet printer at home, we have the option of using spot colors in our printing process. I like to compare using spot colors to picking out wall paint colors at a hardware store. There are swatch libraries of hundreds of colors that look exactly the same in the sample book as when printed on the final product. Instead of using little dots of 4 different colors to simulate a color, the ink is pre-mixed to the desired color before being put into the press. Here at GLMT, we use the Pantone Solid Coated Library, which is an industry standard throughout the world.

There are a few different guidelines for when to incorporate spot colors into a design. First, is there something very specific that you want to match? Many corporations depend on specific colors for their identity. Spot colors print consistently across the board. If a customer asks for a “deep blue” it’s hard to know what their definition of deep blue is, but if they say “Pantone 286″, I know exactly what they mean and can deliver what they expect.

Another time to use spot colors is if the design includes large areas of a single solid color. While 4 color process can produce a huge range of colors, it is very difficult to get these colors to print consistently, especially in the screen printing process. Microscopic variables such as wear on a screen, pressure on a squeegee, surface fluctuations on a disc, and even humidity levels can change how the little dots of color interact with one another. When printing with a spot color, only one screen and one ink is used for each color, reducing any potential variations.

Hopefully this short lesson has cleared up some of the confusion out there about the differences between these printing methods. Please remember that we are always here to answer any questions you may have so we can get you the best looking disc possible.

The First Installment in a new collection…

About a month ago, while watching TV one evening, I saw a commercial for Disney’s release of “Sleeping Beauty” digitally restored on Blu-ray Disc. Like any young girl growing up, I idolized Aurora, Ariel, Belle, and all the Disney Princesses. I had to mention, “Hey, maybe it’s time to start a collection of Disney animated movies on Blu-ray.”

According to Disney’s website, they don’t take big jumps in technology lightly:
“‘Sleeping Beauty’ will be the first animated Platinum title available on Blu-ray Disc. This release will mark a major milestone for Blue-ray, as Platinum titles are only released on a new format after it has proven to be technologically sound and popular with customers.”

Much to my surprise, my boyfriend actually remembered my musings that evening, and on my birthday appeared the brand new Sleeping Beauty Blu-ray Disc! Within minutes the wrapper was crumpled on the ground and the new title was in the Playstation 3. The quality of the restoration is breathtaking! It maintains the integrity of the classic Disney animation, and enhances it to a whole new level with the bright colors and crisp lines. It was even better than I had remembered.

Aside from the greatness of the movie itself, the new format adds so much more to the entire experience. Like DVD, there are plenty of special features such as deleted scenes and new songs, but BD takes it a step further. If your Blu-ray player is hooked up to the internet, you can access the Disney BD-Live Network where you can chat online with friends while watching the movie. There’s also lots interactive games to play, and the capability to download new features at any time.

I can’t wait for my niece to come over so we can check it all out together. Next on the list: Pinocchio (March 2009)