February 2008

The Harris Offset Press Submarine

Back when digital printing was just a gleam in an MIT professor's eye, I worked as a college student on Harris 57" Offset presses. These printed folding cartons for packaging (like diaper or spark plug packages). It was a pretty good job for the summer, except for the rotating shifts that messed with your sleep. I was a press helper on large 5 and 6 color presses that seemed to me quite similar to a submarine, with the tight spaces, catwalks, and crew. These were large machines with lots of lubrication points, gearings, and places to injure you. The presses were about the length of a tractor-trailer truck, with columns of offset rollers demanding you keep them filled with inks and shellac as thousands of sheets were run through.

There was the Captain (Pressman) and First Mate (Assistant Pressman) and crew (Press helpers). The Feeder was a skilled job (like a sonar man or chief officer) who made sure that cut sheets kept feeding into the press as long as it was running. I was at the bottom of the totem pole, doing the dirtiest jobs. Despite this, I liked that the building was air-conditioned (to help stabilize the paper) and long runs of paper allowed snacking around the delivery end. Every so often you would have to remove the printed sheets (each job had a limit to the number of sheets that could be stacked) that sat on a pallet. Two elevators with two pallets were switched between to accomplish this. A mechanical lever was pulled to divert printed sheets to the backup pallet as one lowered the primary to the floor (and trucked it away) and placed a new empty pallet on the rising elevator. Timing was everything. No controls were digital and eye/hand coordination was key to successful operation.

A good crew could keep the press humming as new sheets were fed in at the back (the feeder used pneumatic "swords" to separate the paper sheets on an ascending lift and then tuck in a new stack of paper below it) while press helpers fed ink into the ink troughs and removed printed material at proper intervals. The pressman and assistant would pull sheets every so often for quality control and make adjustments in the alignments and colors. In fact, "make ready" is the name for the time spent on setting up the press (installing the plates, setting the feeds and other mechanicals) before running the job.

I am looking for pictures to include in these descriptions as I also have worked on web presses (rotogravure) with less fond memories. I will be adding some other posts about printing as an analog process. It is interesting that the Harris Company has now divested itself from any printing presses and is devoted to electronics for government and industry.

The Hubris of Tech Support

The sketch that Saturday Night Live (SNL) ran several times starring Jimmy Fallon made a connection with many office workers due to its true portrayal of "Nick Burns: Your Company's Computer Guy." The running joke was that befuddled workers were treated with disdain by Nick Burns (Fallon) at each turn. He was dressed "uber geeky" with pagers and cell phones as he swaggered through the office set expecting all the end-users to be ignorant. Their simple (and possibly ill informed) questions were met with derision and mocking. It was another obstacle that everyday people had to overcome to get their work accomplished.

Why was this a popular and memorable sketch? I attribute it to what the ancient Greeks labeled as "Hubris." After it was first described to me in college Classics class (or maybe high school English), I could easily identify with the concept. Hubris is the danger of being (in Hoosier parlance-- I'm from Indiana) "too big for your britches." Indeed, the Greeks felt that mortals that acted too mighty would be struck down by the Gods for not knowing their place (by Nemesis, the God of Retribution). Too many of technology's end-users have been subjected to the hubristic technician as they feel victimized by the tools they are forced to use. They hope, after their computer guy treats them poorly, that the tech Gods will mete out justice as well.

Conflicting tendencies of helping behavior and competition, along with a healthy dose of repetitive boredom and social awkwardness tend to move tech support staff into cultural isolation. It often is up to the the tech support person to defend the technology they support to the end user, even as they are also victimized by their inability to change much of the implementation. So the mix of these factors often results in an attitude of defensive bravado that is corrosive to the organization.

What is the answer? In my mind there must be a continual program by tech management to orient the tech staff in the organization's core tasks (the mission). The tech staff must also socially interact with the staff they support in a way that associates the tech staff with success and fun rather than always problem solving. Most importantly, tech support must honestly address issues that prove difficult to solve by support. Admit that you don't know everything (but will find out). This means engendering a cooperative atmosphere in the workplace so that (although there might never be a strong bridge) there is a bridge to the general organization that allows trust to form. The end-users must trust that the tech staff is making their best effort to reduce the obstacles in their way. In this way Hubris on the tech side can be reduced because everyone involved is working towards the same goals.

Comments on Zimbra Collaboration Suite

Recent experiences with Zimbra Collaboration Suite implementation have been relatively good. The quality of the experience certainly depends on the host provider (if that's how it is served to the the user community). Our first hosting company decided they really didn't want to do Zimbra and we got that sense even before they admitted it. You need to check the ability of the host to give you 24/7 response on trouble tickets and make appropriate upgrades without cutting off your staff. So far the 01.com service has been up to par and pricing is somewhat better than other hosts considered. There are drop-in appliances from other providers that are fairly reasonable if your organization is 100+ users (that justifies the licensing) and you then get full server command (I investigated SMedia). Otherwise your domain admin does most of what you will ever need.

When you consider the backup tapes, spam concerns, licensing, equipment costs, etc., the offsite hosting of mail becomes attractive. Something on the order of $5-$7 per user per month can be obtained, with storage rates that vary. Zimbra is also offering a archiving and search capability for any Sarbanes-Oxley compliance issues. Of course with the new client that might be avoided by the smart IT Manager who can arrange proper backups at the local machine. Most clients you may use with the service can archive in one way or another.

I am looking forward to the use of the Zimbra desktop client that will give offline use of the mail and provide the desktop experience that many users like. Of course you can always hook IMAP up to Apple Mail or Outlook and work from there, but the integration of their own client will be of great interest. For Macintosh users, a fully qualified desktop will avoid the clumsy use of iCal AND Apple mail. Things still seem stuck in Beta versions for the past year, so it would be nice to get a "gold" version installed for once.

Teh recent upgrade to version web client version 5 seems worthwhile.

Here's what Zimbra folks say are the newest features:

New features in ZCS 5.0 include:

* Native e-mail, contacts, calendar, and task synchronization from Zimbra to Outlook 2007

* Access Zimbra on all BlackBerry handsets, J2ME enabled devices, or any mobile web browser, including the Apple iPhone

* Zimbra Tasks monitor start and due dates, priority, progress, and percent complete of tasks

* Built directly into ZCS, Web-based Instant Messaging supports multiple conversations and group chats

* Conveniently store any file from an e-mail in Zimbra Briefcase instead of as an e-mail attachment; easily share Briefcase folders with others

* Work online or offline with Zimbra Desktop, the AJAX experience for Zimbra users and users of existing POP and IMAP e-mail servers

* Share inboxes and e-mail folders with others, including the ability to provide read- only-access or allow others to completely manage

* Fifteen fully certified languages ship within ZCS for end-users to choose

And they will be constantly trying to tie in Yahoo! services as well (since they just were purchased by Yahoo!). The Microsoft purchase would, I think, put the effort of platform independence in jeopardy. MS can't seem to leave well enough alone, but they should think before messing with what is winning online (can you say Google?) because they are obviously driving down the wrong online highway at present.