The end of the school year is always fun for us here at Disc, Inc., because we get a new crop of clients passing through our doors.  Parents and teachers spend painstaking hours putting together photo CD’s and video DVD’s of the year’s events and bring them to us for printing and duplication.  It gives us the opportunity to share in the fun and excitement of year-end.  Each year brings a new batch of schools with a fresh round of ideas.  We are always impressed with the time and care that goes into each project.  What a great way to share lasting memories with your students!

Of course, the end of the school year also brings the beginning of summer, so as we watch the students say goodbye to their friends and classmates, we say hello to summer fun and festivities.  Memorial Day is nearly upon us, with 4th of July following closely on its heels.  Yes, summer is drawing near and somehow, even though most of our school days are long behind us, we still feel the pull of excitement.  Who’s going on vacation? Where? When? So jealous! Take pictures!

This year, it also brings a small pang of sadness, as this will be my last blog for Disc, Inc.   I have enjoyed writing it over the last couple of years, sharing my thoughts, ideas (and occasional rants), and appreciate all who have read, commented and followed along.  This summer brings a new opportunity for me, so as the school year draws to a close, so does my time here.

I bid farewell to all my friends, colleagues, clients and readers.  Thank you for your time, your business and your friendship.  I hope you will continue to read this blog, as I’m sure whomever steps in will have a wonderfully fresh perspective and new insights to share with us all.

Enjoy your summer!

Nicole

For those of you who ain’t from around here, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is one big deal.  It kicks off with the trailriders moseying into town on their horses – some even pulling covered wagons.  Then there’s the bbq cook-off, carnival and the big event itself.  Musical acts ranging from Kid Rock to John Legend to Blake Shelton to Train perfom and draw huge crowds.  This year’s Go Tejano Day broke attendance records with over 74,500 audience members.  Yep, we like things big here in Texas.

Not to be outdone, SXSW kicked off in Austin this week.  For those of us old enough to remember when it was just a little independent music festival, it’s amazing to see how it’s grown.  The techies here at Disc, Inc. are especially interested in the interactive festivities.  New toys. New ideas.  Lots of fun.  Next year, we’re gonna go! (Then again, we say that every year…)

Amidst all the fun and frenzy of these two big Texas-sized parties, the energy world is furiously preparing for OTC 2012 back here in Houston.  The Offshore Technology Conference is the trade show to beat all trade shows with over 70,000 attendees.  The booths and displays are phenomenal, often with life size models towering over the showroom floor. It is truly a sight to behold, and we tip our cowboy hats to all of the engineers, designers, marketers, sales and communications staff (plus a whole slew of others we didn’t name) who pull it off each year.

If you’re not from Texas, but have come down to enjoy one of these spectacular events, welcome!  For the rest of you… stop partying and go back to work! OTC is only six weeks away and we know you’re not done prepping!  We do stand ready to help, though, so when you’ve realized you forgot to order those flash drives or catalog CD’s for the big event, give Disc, Inc. a call. We’ll help you knock that off the list.

The 46th Super Bowl is around the corner. The entertainment industry’s award season is up and running. There are hundreds of television stations with nothing to watch.  The Republican primaries are getting heated.  Gas prices are predicted to soar to unprecendented levels. Technology giants are fending off accustations of inhumane manufacturing conditions.  Online privacy and piracy are making headlines.

Hmmmm… All this made us a bit nostalgic for our early days, so we thought we’d flashback to the 80′s to see what was happening the year Disc, Inc. was born.

The Year:  1982

The Big Game: San Francisco takes Cincinnati
The Movies:  E.T., Tootsie, Gandhi, Poltergeist
The Album:  Thriller (really, did anything else released that year matter?)
On TV: Magnum PI, Dynasty, Knight Rider (shouldn’t we all have talking cars by now?)
The President:  Ronald Reagan
Gas: $0.91/Gallon
Technology:  The first CD player is sold in Japan.  TIME Magazine’s “Man of the Year” is The Computer.

Ahhh, yes, 1982.   Some things haven’t changed.  San Francisco came CLOSE to reaching the Super Bowl this year.  We still love movies starring Drew Barrymore trying to save creatures (Big Miracle, anyone?).  If MJ was still around, he’d probably be back on the charts.  Instead of Magnum and his fancy car, we have The Mentalist and his fancy clothes.  Dynasty has become Desperate and Ronnie, well… we won’t go there.

Which brings us to the fun part.  For those of you who are too young to remember 1982, can you even imagine that the computer, that little (and getting smaller and smaller) machine that sits on your desk or your lap or in your hands, was such a tremendous advance that it was actually named Man of the Year?  Or that the CD player that you fondly remembered as a child was only introduced to the market 30 years ago?  Online privacy? Digital piracy?  Whatever does that mean????

Yes, technology has changed dramatically since the year Disc, Inc. was born and this is probably the first of a few posts that will have us flashing back as we get closer to our 30th birthday in October.  Until then, know we’ll be here for all of your CD, DVD, USB, recovery and conversion needs.  And as technology continues to evolve, so will we.  Keep your eyes out for the unveiling of our online delivery system for digital distribution coming soon.

CD’s sing, are you listening?
In the back, discs are printing
It’s a beautiful sight
We can help you tonight
Working  in a Disc, Inc. Wonderland

 Gone away is the old year
Here to stay is the new year
We’ll dupe some new songs
As we go along
Working in a Disc, Inc. Wonderland

 On the iPhone, we can play some StopPoint
And pretend we’ve reached another round
You’ll say are you closed yet?
We’ll say, no man – and we recover data
Right here in town

Later on, we’ll be mired
‘Cause we know, your project’s dire
To face unafraid
The plans you have made
Time to call the Disc, Inc. Wonderland

Happy Holidays from Disc, Inc.!

Disc, Inc. will be closed from December 26th-December 30th*
so our employees can relax and enjoy the season.
We reopen for business on Monday, January 2nd,
to start the New Year off in full swing.

*If you need urgent assistance during this time,
please call the office at 713-864-7845 and
 dial extension 121. We will return your
call as soon as possible.

See you in 2012!

]]> http://blog.discinc.com/2011/12/12/disc-inc-wonderland-holiday-schedule/feed/ 0 discinc http://blog.discinc.com/2011/11/22/323/ http://blog.discinc.com/2011/11/22/323/#comments Tue, 22 Nov 2011 22:44:23 +0000 discinc http://blog.discinc.com/?p=323 ]]> Thanksgiving! Say what? How did that get here already? Sure, Black Friday has been the topic of all commercials and many news stories, and I bought my plane tickets to see the family many weeks ago, but still.  I’m not ready for the holidays.  As soon as Thanksgiving arrives, Christmas will be on its heels.  Then New Year’s. Then it’s 2012!  How did we get so far into 21st century and what on earth have I been doing for the last 12 years???

But I digress…Thanksgiving is the topic at hand and there are a lot of things we are thankful for here at Disc, Inc. First and foremost, that there IS a Disc, Inc.  29 years and holding.  While the last few years have certainly been a recessionary roller coaster, we’re still alive and kicking.  Which brings us to #2 – our clients.  Our clients rock!  Many of them have been with us for more than two decades, and even though our businesses may have taken different directions over the years, they know they can depend on us when the need arises.  We love it when someone we haven’t worked with in years calls in need of a programming or conversion project.  Or when they refer a friend or colleague for data recovery or duplication.  THANK YOU! Many of those clients are also vendors, whom we are also thankful for.  We have high expectations of our vendors and the ones that continue to come through for us and outperform remain on the top of our go-to list.

On a more personal note, I would like to thank our employees.  Through good times and bad, the Disc, Inc. staff pitches in, works together and does what it takes to get the job done.  It may be crickets on Monday or weeds on Wednesday, but they roll with the changes and for that, I will be giving a special note of thanks this year.

And as a special thanks to our readers, we’re passing on a little holiday treat this year.  On Wednesday, 11/23 – Thursday, 11/24, our new game StopPoint will be available for free on the App Store.  Play, enjoy and tell your friends.  It’s a great way to pass the time while standing in those long holiday travel or shopping lines.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  Tell us, what are you thankful for this year?

Yes, the first app from Disc, Inc. has hit the market.  Notice we said first?  That’s because number two is already in the works.  Well, actually, number two started as number one.  While designing it, our programmer had a flash of brilliance, and StopPoint was born.  So we detoured a bit and decided to launch it first.  After all, this one’s a fun game and the holidays are upon us.  Sure, it would make a great gift for your kid, niece, nephew, grandchild, paperboy, friend, sibling, co-worker (I could go on, but I’m sure you get the “good for all ages” hint by now), but it’s also great for holiday WAITING.  Thanksgiving is just around the corner and you know what that means – “Tis the season to be waiting, fa la la la la, la la la la….”.  Waiting in line at the mall. Waiting for your plane at the airport.  Waiting for your car to get a clean bill of health before embarking on your holiday journey. Sitting in the car, while ON that holiday journey. (Unless you’re driving. Please don’t play while you’re driving. You scare us when you do that.)

So, we can’t help you with the waiting. StopPoint can help you kill the time WHILE waiting, though.  It’s fun. It’s fast. Just when you think you have it beat, the pointer speeds up and you want to play until you beat that stop button into submission! Stop! STOP! STOP! (Sorry. I feel better now.)

Did I mention that it’s suitable for all ages?  So if you have an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, check it out while we keep hammering away at the next one.  Download StopPoint by Disc, Inc. now. We’d love to hear your comments or see pictures of your highest round. (So far none of us have made it past 30.)  If you have questions about the game or suggestions on how we can improve it, visit our support page.

Happy playing!

StopPoint from Disc,Inc.

Co-owner/VP of Production – David Carter (22 years): One morning, I got to work around 7am as usual.  A short time later, an employee called and said they’d had an accident and would be late.  A few minutes later, another called and said they were still out of town and wouldn’t make it in.  Next it was a car that broke down on the way to work.  Then someone who had to take care of an important matter at the courthouse. And another. And another… By 8am, every employee had called in – leaving me alone in the office.  About the time I was getting really irritable on the phone with our VP of Sales, everyone came in the back door laughing and yelling “April Fools”!  They had all gotten together for breakfast and called in one by one.  I was so mad that everyone had called in on the same day that the date had never occurred to me.

Production Assistant – Mandy Galaviz (7 years):  Float trip!  The whole company went to New Braunfels one weekend for fun.  We formed a chain as we were floating down the river and someone said “Whatever you do, DON’T break the line!”.  Sure enough…we went down a chute and I broke the line then got stuck spinning around in circles until Armando came and pulled me out.  Of course he left me there for a while first!

Sales/Marketing Manager – Nicole Harbour (4 years):   I was always told that David and Armando liked to play jokes on people, but it was really hard to get them back.  Armando was the king of messing with the gullible without ever cracking a smile, so I was determined to get him.  He had scheduled his birthday off for a big family event one year, and the day before he was supposed to be out, I got a call from a client about a huge duplication, print, assembly and fulfillment project that had to go out in a very short time frame.  While David and I were discussing logistics, we decided our chance to get Armando had finally come.  We told him we had committed to the client’s deadline and he was going to have to work on his birthday in order to help get the project out.  We were sorry, but there was absolutely no other way.  Managing to look both stern and apologetic at the same time, we had him convinced he was going to have to miss the celebration.  We had him moping around for an hour before we finally let him off the hook.  (Luckily he hadn’t called his wife yet or we would have all been in trouble!)

Ahh…memories!  There’s nothing quite like torturing those you work with, right? Stay tuned for more or share your own stories of office fun and pranks.  You might give us some good ideas….

Thanks again for 29 great years!  Be sure and check out our anniversary specials for great savings as chug along towards 30.

Co-owner/VP of Production – David Carter (22 years): We registered the discinc.com domain in May of 1995.  In that same year, Windows 95 with Internet Explorer 1.0 was released and the optical storage medium known as the DVD was announced.

Production Assistant – Mandy Galaviz (7 years): One day I was extremely busy and hadn’t left the office all day.  While I was working, David and Armando went outside and wrapped my entire car in shrink wrap! When it was time to go home, I couldn’t open the door.

Project Manager/CSR – Jacqulyn Carter (4 years):  When I was about six, I would come to work with my dad in the summer and help with scan projects.  Scanning was soooo boring that I would fall asleep after starting the machine.  I’d just lay my head back and pass out, using my jacket as a blanket.  Everyone thought it was so cute!

Sales/Marketing Manager – Nicole Harbour (4 years):  I had an account manager walk up to me one day with a very confused look on her face, holding a 5.25″ floppy disk in her hands.  A client had come in requesting a conversion to CD and the account rep had absolutely no idea what it was.  I felt very old at that moment.

Co-owner/President – Carrie Carter (3 1/2 years): I had been around Disc, Inc. for years, but when I became President of the company in 2008, I had no idea there were people still using 3.5″ diskettes! And they continue to this day.

Office Manager – Vicki Cook (1 year): When I started with Disc, Inc., I was not exactly current with techology.  I had no idea that ebooks even existed.  Knowing you can go online and download them to your reader or tablet is great! No more driving to the bookstore or library for books!  Of course, now my husband tells me I’m getting too technological for him.

Account Representative – Adrian Alvarez (6 months):  Before I started working here, I had no idea there was a difference between duplication and replication.  I always thought if you needed a copy of a CD or DVD, you burned one.  Little did I know that replication is this whole complex manufacturing process. 

On behalf of the Disc, Inc. staff, we’d like to thank you all for helping us create these memories and many more! We’ve seen a lot of changes since 1982 and we’re looking forward to what the future brings.  Stay tuned for more musings and let us know what changes have impressed you in the past (gulp) 3 decades.

First up – storage.  We all use flash drives as portable file delivery systems or interim backup devices at one time or another (notice we said INTERIM backup devices, please do not rely on them as your only backup).  What size do you use the most? 2GB, 4GB, 8GB?  Well, just wait.  Someday you’ll be able to backup your whole family’s files to one 2TB USB 3.0 drive from Transcend.  Yes, that’s 2 TERABYTES or roughly 2,000 Gigabytes of data!  No word yet on when or if it will actually become available, but we’re still pretty impressed. All that storage in one tiny place.

Not satisfied with traditional storage options, the iTwin combines the functionality of a USB with the access of the cloud.  Plug either end of this into your USB port and it installs the appropriate software on your PC (Mac version also available).  Copy what you want to the drive, then remove the outer half.  Plug that half into another computer, and as long as both computers are online, you’ll have full access to those files.  Pretty nifty.

Want more? How about the beauty of Sync? Microsoft and Ford/Lincoln/Mercury rolled this out a few years ago in some of their models.  In addition to other features, Sync offers USB slots for plugging in your drive, iPhone, iPod, etc.  How cool is that? Now, not having personally  used it, we can only marvel at the continued advancement in the marriage of the automotive and technology industries, but here’s a great blog on the subject from ZDNet.

Not enough?  How about GOLD?!  Yes, if you have the means, you can actually order a 4GB gold flash drive.  We’re not sure why you would (we’d lose it the first time it was used), but hey, if bling is your thing…

See? Flash drives can be fun! (Admit it, you doubted the title at first…)  We even hear a rumor that Apple is reconsidering USB 3.0 support for their products.  So when you’re ready to join in the flash drive fun, give Disc, Inc. a call at 800.580.DISC or visit us online.  We don’t sell real gold, but we do offer a wide variety of USB styles (including a new imitation gold – ask your account rep about it).

Have a unique use for flash drives or other technology fun? Tell us! We’d love to hear about it.

Take eBooks for example. Popularized by Amazon with their introduction of the Kindle, eBooks seem simple enough.  You buy a tablet or eReader. You buy an eBook. You download eBook to eReader. Select. Purchase. Consume.  After all, eBooks and readers are essentially the same, right?

 Wrong. Most eReaders on the market accept books in ePub format, making it easy for authors and publishers to distribute their titles to multiple vendors.  Kindles, however, have always required the Mobi format, setting themselves apart from the pack. Word on the publishing street is that Amazon is going to start accepting ePub soon, though, getting us one step closer to a standardized format. (Source: The Bookseller.com &  Good E Reader Blog)

Great news! Amazon wants to play nice with publishers and content developers!

But what about Apple? Their decision to prevent apps from directing users to other sites for purchase may prevent iPad and iPhone users from taking that extra step, thus limiting the sale of eBooks from outside sources.  Is it about money since utilizing  Apple’s  in-app payment systems gives them 30% of sales? (Source: CNN Money)  Or is it about limiting their
competition by making it easier for consumers to purchase and download books from iBooks than from other sources?  (So yes, it’s about money…)

To recap: Amazon is trying to play nice while Apple is making life more difficult.  Hmmm… Win one, lose one, right?

At least the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) is working  to release EPUB 3 as the standard for the distribution of digital content. (Source: BookBusiness) With enhanced features designed to take full advantage of the multi-functional tablets and readers, maybe EPUB 3 will be the stabilizing factor the industry needs.  As long as everyone learns to play nice, that is.

Whatever happens, Disc, Inc. will stay mired in the ePub trenches to make sure we bring you the latest and greatest options for your next project.

 Breaking news 8/10/11:  Publishers Weekly  notes that Amazon’s Kindle Cloud Reader will bypass Apple’s crack down on the use of outside links, thus eliminating Apple’s 30% cut of sales from Apps. They also report that a class action lawsuit was filed today in California stating that Apple joined forces with major publishers to fix prices on eBooks in an attempt to rally against Amazon’s $9.99 eBook pricing.

May the Wars continue…

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