Oct 29
Yesterday I was working with our Customer Service Rep, Carla, on a new enhancement to our system when I noticed that her optical mouse was behaving rather erratically. She said it has been doing that a lot lately, so I began investigating the problem. I checked to connection at the back of the [...] [...more]
Posted: under Anecdotes.
Tags: chaos, mouse pad, optical mouse
Yesterday I was working with our Customer Service Rep, Carla, on a new enhancement to our system when I noticed that her optical mouse was behaving rather erratically. She said it has been doing that a lot lately, so I began investigating the problem. I checked to connection at the back of the computer and it was securely plugged in. I wiggled the cord while holding the mouse still, but it made no erratic movements. It draws its power from the connection to the computer so it was not a weak battery issue.
Further manipulation of the mouse led me to notice that the problem seemed to occur when moving over certain areas on the mouse pad. I pulled the mouse pad out from under the mouse and used just the bare desk. The mouse behaved. I put the mouse back on the desk and moved the mouse across it and it still behaved. Then I noticed that I put the mouse pad in an orderly position, that is, the edge lined up parallel with the edge of the desk. But before I took it off the desk it was skewed about 20 degrees. So I put it back to a similar position, and the mouse became erratic again. I realigned the pad and the mouse behaved, skewed the pad and the problem came back.
I examined the graphic design on the pad (I had been ignoring it all along). The top two thirds contained a world atlas and the bottom had the company logo, name, and contact information of the vendor that sent the mouse pad as a promotional gift. The atlas image had the longitude and latitude grid. When the optical mouse crossed over the grid crossings it became confused by what appeared to be a sudden change in direction. So the orderly pattern on the skewed mouse pad created the disorderly response. Carla noted that the problem started after she got the new mouse pad. She has switched back to the old one.
Note to the vendor: Thanks anyway. We won’t hold it against you. It works just fine with mechanical mice. You had no way of knowing. Besides, we got a chuckle out of it.
Interestingly, the original optical mice required mouse pads with a grid pattern in order to work. Now it seems we should avoid grid patterns with modern optical mice.
Tracy Henness
Oct 20
Saturday I was involved in a discussion with a couple of friends from church regarding the price of gas. In recent weeks it has fallen significantly. I mentioned that the day before I bought E85 fuel at $1.899 per gallon. So the question was asked as to whether I actually save money [...] [...more]
Posted: under Going Green.
Tags: E85, fuel
Saturday I was involved in a discussion with a couple of friends from church regarding the price of gas. In recent weeks it has fallen significantly. I mentioned that the day before I bought E85 fuel at $1.899 per gallon. So the question was asked as to whether I actually save money using E85. One of the considerations was the cost of vehicles that can use E85. In my case I didn’t take into consideration whether or not the car was Flex-Fuel when I bought it. It was a used car that met our needs and we were able to negotiate it into our price range. We later found out it was Flex-Fuel, so for us the cost of the car was irrelevent.
So the major issue in terms of economy is the decreased milage we get with E85. On regular unleaded gasoline we get about 28mpg. With E85 we get about 24mpg. On the day I spent $1.899 regular unleaded was $2.859. Let’s do the math to find out cost per mile. 2.859/28=$0.102 and 1.899/24=$0.079 so I save about 20% on the cost of fuel when I use E85 (your milage my vary).
There are other issues to consider. It is not very often the the difference in the 2 fuels will be about 30% as it was on this day. If the price difference is significantly less it may be no cost benefit. The price varies with the availability of the raw produce whether it be corn, sorghum, switchgrass, or whatever the crop of choice is. But I would rather be supporting our US farm economy than to be sending our nation’s wealth (as it is) to nations that have little or no respect for America.
Some will argue that by using our corn for fuel we take food out of the mouths of starving children because we won’t have the surplus. But by making corn and other crops more of a commodity, fewer of our nation’s farmers will be going bankrupt. Bankrupt and former farmers produce fewer crops, thus causing the surplus to dwindle. Save the farmers, save the children of the world. Balance is the key.
God bless the farmers. God bless the scientists and engineers that can develop alternate fuel technologies. God bless the USA.
Tracy Henness
Oct 17
I attend the Linux User’s Group which meets once a month. Once the meeting got started this month we went around the room telling how the current economy is affecting our employment status. That is, “Do you still have a job?”; “If so, is your employer hiring?”; “Are you looking for a different job?”; etc. [...] [...more]
Posted: under Economy.
Tags: Economy, niche market
I attend the Linux User’s Group which meets once a month. Once the meeting got started this month we went around the room telling how the current economy is affecting our employment status. That is, “Do you still have a job?”; “If so, is your employer hiring?”; “Are you looking for a different job?”; etc. Although I could not offer any positions, I was glad to report that our company’s business health is currently on the upswing, while many of the others are being adversely affected by this current economy.
Even though it seems that every time I mention that our main product is monochrome CRTs someone at least implies that that has to be a dying niche, there is still a need. Clinton Displays is committed to fulfilling that need as long as we can maintain a profit margin that allows us to stay in business.
Of course, we have to stay alert to any possibility of new products or processes that can help us maintain a reasonable profit margin even long after the niche market for CRTs has ceased.
We welcome suggestions not only from within the company, but from our customers, from people that just stumble across our site looking for something that may or may not be related to what we do, or even from our competitors that might be struggling to justify continuing to manufacture similar product.
Tracy Henness
Oct 06
You may have noticed that we recently redesigned our logo. This was done for several reasons.
First, Clinton Displays CRT Division transitioned its ownership to Video Display Corporation. Although we retain the Clinton name, which has been synonymous with high quality monochrome CRTs for many years, it became necessary to disolve the identification with our former [...] [...more]
Posted: under Business.
Tags: ideas, logo
You may have noticed that we recently redesigned our logo. This was done for several reasons.
First, Clinton Displays CRT Division transitioned its ownership to Video Display Corporation. Although we retain the Clinton name, which has been synonymous with high quality monochrome CRTs for many years, it became necessary to disolve the identification with our former parent company.
Secondly, the concept of changing logos was a step toward encouraging our employees and management to look beyond our past successes toward our future potential. To achieve this we held a contest among our staff and their families and friends to submit ideas for the new design. We thank all those who submitted ideas and concepts even though no one submission became the final new logo. Rather, several of the submissions were combined into the finished design. Some of the original submissions are invisible in the new logo, but each had an influence in the outcome. So it is with our future. Not every idea that is suggested to us, whether by staff, management, family, friends, customers, or any other visionary, becomes a finished product. But those ideas, when pooled together, rearranged, looked at from different angles, can inspire new technologies, innovations, and products. They can open for us new niches, and make us the best at anything we set out to do.
Thirdly, we want our customers to look at us in a whole new way. Yes, we still make the best monochrome CRTs, and intend to do so for a long time. Allow us to help you make your products better.
Oct 01
Many businesses, whether manufacturing, retail, service oriented, or just about any other type, are facing a period of transition. Some may be trying to find ways to cut costs to defray the rising cost of fuel for delivery, utilities, heath care and other benefits, increases in minimum wages, etc. Some are struggling to stay ahead [...] [...more]
Posted: under Transitions.
Tags: Transition
Many businesses, whether manufacturing, retail, service oriented, or just about any other type, are facing a period of transition. Some may be trying to find ways to cut costs to defray the rising cost of fuel for delivery, utilities, heath care and other benefits, increases in minimum wages, etc. Some are struggling to stay ahead of (or get ahead of) competition. Some may be trying to balance new and exciting technologies with the need for continued support for older legacy technologies. Some are facing new challenges of picking up new business transferred from some other company closing its facilities.
Some of these transitions are good and exciting, some are scary, but it is always good to rethink what the company or business objectives, methods, strengths and weaknesses are. Is there a better, more efficient way to do this? Can we reduce the amount of waste? Can we utilize the scrap material in other ways? Can we do the same thing, only “greener”? If we work longer hours and shorter weeks, can we save utility costs? Can we hire more personnel without having to struggle through an extended training period? Can an experiences operator train a new hire without himself/herself becoming unproductive during the training period?
There are so many possibilities, hinderances, uncertainties, variables to consider. Yet we know that God gives wisdom to the prudent.