Mono Machines Blog » Random Thoughts

Mono Machines Holiday Wishlist

hk — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 17:00:58 +0000

Office products can make great gifts this holiday season. While you shop for the perfect holiday gift on MonoMachines.com, we took some time to pick out one item we’d to have for the holidays. Here the Mono wishlist!

Kim: Dear Santa, I have been a really good girl this year and was hoping that you could bring me an extra special present. I would love to have the GoECOlife GMC120D Cross-Cut Shredder. Although it looks like R2D2, I do like the rounded design. What I really appreciate is the energy saving technology and the continuous motor. I have a big stack of shredding and would like to get it all done in one shot, without having to stop every 15 minutes to let the machine cool down. The fact that it is a Carbon Free Product, has Green Packaging, and is RoHS Compliant makes me feel good about it too.

Lisa: I think a perfect Christmas Gift would be the DestroyIt 2240 Cross-Cut Shredder; for any business person, small business owner or entrepreneur. It has a great price and shreds paper, clips and staples so you can clean up bills and private paper work. (I was actually recently recommending this to my in laws.) Easy to use, perfect throat size and only 18 lbs so any one can move it of needed. Its also quiet and has a nice bin size for easy disposal.

Tanya: My one product that I would choose from the Mono website, that I would like for the holidays, is the Cannon Safe H4 Home Guard Safe. I would want this because I love its style and need something to keep my valuables safe. I think this is just the safe for the job. It has a lot of really cool features too

Connie: The Sentry Safe X125 Security Safe is perfect to put in the closet for safe keeping of important documents or items you do not want the gremlins to get into. The shelves makes it perfect for organization. It is wide enough to fits laptops and electronics in so if you go on vacation you know your valuables are secure.

Lauren: I chose [the Sentry Safe OA3821 Water-Resistant Fire Safe] because of the reasonable price and the many options: it can be bolted down, it’s water and fire proof, and can hold smaller items that need to be kept safe like personal documents or even a hand gun if necessary.

Aaron: …Kobra Cyclone. Only thing I want right by my desk is my Cyclone. HA

Suzanne: My #1 pick for a great gift this year is the Sentry Safe DSW3930. I love that it has theft, fire and water protection. This safe will guard documents or media such as CD’s and memory sticks for up to 1 hour in the event of a fire. I checked the national average for response times for emergency personnel and it averages less than 5 minutes more than half the time and under 11 minutes the rest of the time. I would feel confident placing my valuables in this safe and I love that it has the fingerprint lock, keypad and key. Not being a big fan of combination style locks, this is my dream safe!

Krissy: If I could have anything off our Mono site I would want the Sentry Safe GB20L Guardian Fire & Water Storage Box. I am very unorganized when it comes to my important documents and it always creates unneeded stress when something comes up and I need a birth certificate or my insurance information or other important document. The GB20L is the perfect size inside and out. I love that it is fire and water resistant, it creates piece of mind. I have been good this year… I promise!

Kris: I want the MBM 93M Paper Folder because my church needs one. I like this folder because it’s easy to use, it’s fast and can accommodate most medium sized jobs. Most importantly, this is the most popular paper folder we sell to churches. They love them and don’t have any problems with them.

Isaac: I want the Destroyit AL1 Shredder because its the slickest looking shredder around!

So there you have it! The Mono Machines holiday wishlist. What’s on yours?

Tim Tebow Shredding Destroyit

kris — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 19:02:53 +0000

Tim Tebow Shredding

Tim Tebow shredding Destroyit? What the heck does that mean?

Tim Tebow does it all! You probably don’t care what Tim Tebow and a Paper Shredder have in common but let me show you anyway.

Manufacturer	DESTROYIT 2604cc DestroyIt	TIM TEBOW Mr. and Mrs. Tebow
Color	Grey	White
Security Level	3	QB – very important to protect this guy
Cut Type	cross-cut	friar tuck haircut – classic
Model Number	2604cc	Tim Tebow
Can Shred:	Credit Cards, Paper, Paper Clips, Staples	Lineman, LB’s, CB’s and safeties
Capacity (maximum)	25 sheets	Endless, keep the naysayers coming
Capacity (gal)	26	4 Quarters
Horse Power	1.0	1.0
Shred Width	3/16	about 2 feet?
Throat Size	10.25	probaby 18″ neck?
Auto Oiler	Included	Not Included
Continuous Motor	Yes	Definitely
Shred Length	1 1/2	6′ 3″
Shipping Weight	125	236
Dimensions	18.5″D x 22.5″W x 36.5″H	6’3″ H x 236 lbs
Voltage	100 – 120v (Standard)	Supernatural
Special Info	Known best for quality and craftsmanship	Born Leader / known best for Tebowing
Manufactured In	Germany	USA

Check out the Destroyit 2604cc and similar Destroyit Shredder models here. And to you Tebow fans, keep Tebowing. Congrats to Tebow and the Denver Broncos on turning around their season.

Visit the Mono Machines website for more information on paper shredders.

Go Green with your Shredder for Easter

james — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 23:53:09 +0000

With Easter just a week away, it seemed appropriate to take a break from discussing identity theft and identity security related legislation for something a little more light-hearted. If you’ll be making up some Easter baskets this week, why not further embrace the thoughts of spring and renewal by going green with your basket… using your shredder! Here’s a tip from Stacey Irwin from Green Earth News:

From “Eco-Friendly Easter Ideas!”

Here are some ways to make the holiday an eco-friendly Easter:

Use paper grass – Skip the neon green plastic and choose a decorative paper grass including the unbleached natural kind. OR put that paper shredder to a festive use and turn newspapers and old tax returns into a crinkly basket filling.

Paper Shredders

How Facebook has Become a Tool for Identity Thieves

james — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 01:22:29 +0000

As social networking was growing exponentially there were countless news reports about the risk for identity theft associated with these sites. While it does occur, most of us don’t know enough about how con-artists target users on sites like Facebook to fully protect ourselves. You wouldn’t dream of putting even part of your social security number publicly on your profile, but you probably don’t know how far a criminal can get with just some of the basic info that’s probably already visible to the public.

From “How your Facebook profile can lead to identity theft” from Action News 5 in Cincinnati:

Your social security number isn’t completely random. The first three numbers are determined by where you were born. So if you list your hometown on Facebook, most identity thieves already have a head start.

The second group of numbers is called a group number, and it is based on when and where your parents applied for your security number.

The third set of numbers is typically some kind of sequential pattern. Because those are not random, it’s something that a computer would easily guess.

Do you have your hometown and birth date on your profile? Most likely the answer is yes, so at the very least you should change your privacy settings to block all information from anyone that is not your friend.

Also, think of the security questions and answers that you have for your secured accounts. What’s your favorite color? Who was your favorite teacher? What street did you grow up on? Most people don’t think twice before sharing any of these, and having most of your social security number along with the answers to those questions can go a long way.

Hot New Tech… And it’s Made out of Paper!

james — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 22:59:41 +0000

You may not be familiar with exactly what an accelerometer is, but you are definitely aware of some of the technologies they are used in. They are used to measure the proper acceleration of a given item, or how fast it speeds up or slows down. It was the advent of microscale accelerometers in the 1990s that brought about widespread use of airbags in cars. The tiny devices were able to measure when the vehicle was slowing down too abruptly, thus causing the airbag to deploy. They are also used in your Wii remote or your iPhone for sense motion games, are typically made out of silicon, and cost a few dollars each. Researchers at Harvard, however, recently developed a new accelerometer that is made of paper. Using tools as simple as a paper cutter and a painting knife, they were able to paint a conductive carbon/silver compound onto pieces of paper about twice the size of a dime. These new devices will cost only a few cents each. Though they are not sensitive enough to replace the traditional silicon units entirely, the extremely low cost is expected to bring about new ways accelerometers can be used in products and in research. Here’s a selection from a write-up on the new product, and the process used to create it:

From Paper Accelerometer Could Mean Disposable Devices, by Prachi Patel on IEEE Spectrum:

Paper-based MEMS force sensors are appealing because of their low cost, says Kevin Dowling, vice president for research and development at mc10, a flexible-electronics start-up in Cambridge, Mass. What is truly exciting, he says, is “if you can make such sensors on paper, you can make them on stretchable, biocompatible substrates like silicone, and then you can mimic the properties of skin.” These low-cost tactile sensors made on silicone could be used at the tips of laparoscopic instruments for surgeons so they could get a better feel of the tissue they touch, Dowling says.

The paper sensor, which is a bit larger than a dime (or a 2-euro-cent coin), is a cantilever cut out from thick chromatography paper, which is normally used for chemistry experiments. At the base of the cantilever is a U-shaped piece of carbon and silver contact pads. The researchers screen-print the carbon and silver contact pads on the cantilever’s base using graphite and silver inks and stencils cut out of vinyl film.

A force applied to the cantilever bends it and stresses the carbon piece, changing its resistance. In piezoresistive silicon sensors, the resistance change is typically measured using an electrical circuit called a Wheatstone bridge, which is fabricated on a chip along with the MEMS device. The Harvard researchers constructed their bridge circuit on the paper by simply gluing resistors at appropriate locations and then connecting them into the circuit using silver ink.

Quick Look: Electromagnetic Paper Erasing System

james — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 22:01:26 +0000

It’s no secret that tree’s aren’t a renewable resource. After centuries of using wood and paper without giving thought to how long those supplies might last, we’ve finally come to terms with the fact that all possible steps must be taken to ensure they’re around for generations to come. Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. That’s been the mantra for cutting back on everything that would normally wind up in a dump. For paper, reduction is certainly the first step. Many of the emails I receive on a daily basis now include a note like “please do not print out this email unless absolutely necessary,” and modern technologies have allowed for much of how we had previously used paper to be accomplished digitally. Paper recycling in common, if not generally standard in most office now. The one step that has mostly evaded us in reducing our paper usage has been “Reuse.” Many offices now reuse their printed-on-one-side-only papers to make notepads instead of purchasing brand new ones, but true re-use of the entire sheet has not been possible. That is until the invention of the Electromagnetic Erasing System. This unit uses a chemical and electromagnetic pulses to completely break down and wash away the ink on the paper, allowing for reuse. This won’t change, however, the need for your office shredder, as it is not known if the process can be “undone.” Sensitive documents still need to be destroyed, but this machine offers a great solution for reusing non-sensitive documents and thereby saving paper. Here’s an except from a review of the unit by Edwin Kee of ubergizmo.com:

“Nothing’s impossible in this day and age, but designer Mohsin Saleh’s innovative contraption will definitely offer another alternative when it comes to paper recycling. Basically, it works by relying on an electromagnetic erasing system to rub out all color pigments from a paper sheet. Will this concept ever be realized? One thing’s for sure though, if the process can be reversed, then a paper shredder would still be a staple requirement in offices and homes.”

Small Office Shredders

Large Office Shredders

Strange Days in Shredding: Superbowl Edition

james — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 00:24:15 +0000

With the Superbowl just around the corner, who’s thinking about shredders? Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, that’s who. Ravenstahl, at a city-wide pep rally today used one of the city’s giant industrial shredders to symbolically shred their opponent, the Green Bay Packers.

From “Mayor risks ‘bad karma’ by shredding cheese” by Joe Smydo with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette”

To lusty cheers, a wooden replica of a cheese wedge was put through a city public-works shredder today…

“The cheese is shredded,” Mr. Ravenstahl announced after the shredder jerked, quaked and belched what looked like thousands of splinters into the back of a dump truck. “Go Steelers!”

Regardless of your football allegiances, shredding stuff can be a lot of fun – and even pump up a crowd of rowdy Steelers fans.

Industrial Shredders

Locomotive Powered Shredder?!

james — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 23:39:16 +0000

We all get pretty excited about shredders here at Mono, but if this thing ever gets fired up I’ll be on the next flight to Maine to stare and drool. You never know, maybe it’ll catch on and diesel locomotive engines will just become another shredder accessory.

1/19/2011

Full story at Foster’s Daily Democrat

Berwick Iron and Metal is seeking a conditional use permit to operate a diesel locomotive engine-powered metal shredder at its 106 Route 236 facility. The shredder has been on the site since last year, but hasn’t been operated due to the lack of the local permit.

Residents have raised concerns since summer 2010 about noise, pollution and increased traffic due to a shredder at Berwick Iron and Metal, which is located in a residential area zoned for commercial industrial use.

I definitely understand the concerns of noise and pollution, but with locomotive horsepower in 1000s, this thing HAS to be a beast! It can probably shred even our biggest industrial shredders, like this other car shredding behemoth.

Pencils out of Paper

isaac — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 18:59:55 +0000

Check out this cool concept Idea that takes a sheet of paper, some graphite and some glue to make you pencils. I think this would be great for each school classroom to have!

9/15/2010 Yanko Design

That this lovely machine does is that it converts all those useless memos on your table to something useful: A Pencil! Paper goes in from one end and come out shaped like a sexy writing tool! Sexy enough an idea to bag a Liteon Award as well!

The Best and Worst about Android Froyo: Shredding the Competition with World Cup Offering…Sort of

kris — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 13:14:37 +0000

Verizon and Froyo are shredding the other service providers by allowing the users to watch the 2010 South Africa World Cup on their cell phones…well sort of.

The Best and Worst of Android Froyo:

The Best thing about Froyo is I can watch the World Cup from my Motorola Droid!

The Worst* thing about Froyo is I can’t watch the World Cup from my Motorola Droid!

Verizon really missed the boat on the Froyo release…doesn’t it make sense to release Froyo on Droid so millions can watch the most popular sport in the world from your cell phone? Millions and millions could have enjoyed the World Cup from their cell phone. Talk about missing out on some great press by Verizon.

Hey, maybe Froyo will be out in the near future…who knows…the World Cup has 3 weeks left so there is still time Verizon! Get on it!