Back by popular demand, the Dahle 10560 paper folder is off to a great start in 2012 by helping offices, churches, insurance offices and many others with their paper folding needs.  This folder will save you time, money and headaches.  The 10560 comes with these great features below:

• Folds up to 4,000 sheets of 20 lb bond paper per hour
• Folds in four popular folding styles (Double Parallel, Letter or C-Fold, Single, Z-Fold)
• Can fold up to 3 sheets of paper (manual feed) at a time
• Paper tray will hold up to 50 sheets of 20 lb paper
• Will fold stapled sheets of paper
• Includes desk stand and metal paper catch

Contact Mono Machines for more information.  Call us!  We love phone calls – 800-592-1306

Happy Folding!

Welcome back to the Mono Blog. Over the past few months we’ve covered several stories about the spread of interactive whiteboard use to classrooms across the nation. As teachers learn how to create value with the technology more school boards and PTAs have embraced it. Despite hearing stories about the new ways classrooms have been using the technology however, stories about their use outside of the classroom have been less common. Mike Pinzone, however, has found a new use for them: coaching hockey. Pinzone, coach and hockey directory for the Strongsville (Ohio) Youth Hockey Club, has seen just how effective an interactive whiteboard can be for breaking down game film and his players’ fundamentals. Here are some ways he’s been using the board:

From “Strongsville Youth Hockey Club uses a Smart board to teach their players” by John Bisesi with Cleveland.com:

“The Smart Board will be a timesaver for the coaches,” Gray said. “They can introduce vocabulary terms to the younger players, capture videos of games or practices ahead of time and quickly move between clips. They don’t have to use VCRs anymore.”

“The no-brainer is that you can put game tapes up on the screen,” Pinzone agreed. “But that’s only the tip of the iceberg.”

Any parent with a video camera can attend a hockey match and contribute footage that can easily be uploaded onto the club’s Smart Board. Fundamentals such as how to properly skate can be broken down on screen while coaches use markers to illustrate the proper, or improper, techniques. It appears similar to how television analysts use a telestrator during instant replays to diagram or analyze a play.

As those using interactive whiteboards continue to hone in their craft, adding further value to instruction, the technology will certainly continue to find new homes and uses. We’ll keep you updated as more stories like these come out.

interactive whiteboards

Here at Mono we don’t just know shredders, we eat, sleep and breathe them. One of things we’ve found is that most of our customers that are new to shredding, or maybe had bad luck with a previous shredder, aren’t familiar with the maintenance required to keep them running in top shape. This maintenance is both critical, and quite simple. Just as a car requires motor oil to lubricate the pistons and reduce heat build-up from friction, shredder oil is required to perform the same function on the cutting heads. Failure to keep the cutting heads properly lubricated reduces performance, shortens the life span, and in the case of Washington Hospital Center in the District of Colombia, can even start a fire. Here’s the paragraph mentioning the incident from “Nurses’ stike cost Washington Hospital Center $6 million“, by Lena H. Sun with The Washington Post:

The nurses walked off the job for a one-day strike but were locked out by the hospital from Saturday until Wednesday, when they started returning about 5 a.m., hospital spokeswoman So Young Pak said.

Except for a small fire Tuesday from a paper shredder that overheated and forced “a small number” of patients on one unit to be temporarily relocated, the return was “smooth and peaceful,” with no reports of disruption in patient care or nursing routines, she said. There was no drop in business between Friday and Wednesday, she said

 

Want to know just how easy oiling your shredder is? Take a look at the video below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Paper Shredders

Yesterday on the Mono blog we started a two part series on HIPAA and FACTA regulations regarding proper disposal of secure documents and data. Today we’ll be going over the destruction requirements of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, or FACTA. Passed by the United States Congress on November 22nd, 2003, FACTA contains seven titles, or parts. The most known of these provisions is a consumer’s ability to obtain a copy of their credit report from all three credit bureaus once every twelve months, without it being noted on the report as with other credit inquiries. Also included in the act are provisions intended to reduce the occurrence of identity theft, such as a requirement that debit and credit card numbers are truncated to the last four digits on receipts, and specific requirements for disposing of sensitive data such as credit applications at a car dealership.  In their document “Disposing of Consumer Report Information? New Rule Tells How“, the Federal Trade Commission, or FTC, defines proper disposal as:

For example, reasonable measures for disposing of consumer report information could include establishing and complying with policies to:

• burn, pulverize, or shred papers containing consumer report information so that the information cannot be read or reconstructed;
• destroy or erase electronic files or media containing consumer report information so that the information cannot be read or reconstructed;
• conduct due diligence and hire a document destruction contractor to dispose of material specifically identified as consumer report information consistent with the Rule. Due diligence could include:
  • reviewing an independent audit of a disposal company’s operations and/or its compliance with the Rule;
  • obtaining information about the disposal company from several references;
  • requiring that the disposal company be certified by a recognized trade association;
  • reviewing and evaluating the disposal company’s information security policies or procedures.

Their definition of “financial institution” is also fairly broad, and includes the following:

 

Consumer reporting companies

Lenders

Insurers

Employers

Landlords

Government agencies

Mortgage brokers

Automobile dealers

Attorneys or private investigators

Debt collectors

Individuals who obtain a credit report on prospective nannies, contractors, or tenants

Entities that maintain information in consumer reports as part of their role as service providers to other organizations covered by the Rule

 

Regardless of the role you play within these industries, it is your responsibility to properly handle sensitive consumer report information. Financial institutions can be held liable for damages caused by identity theft occurring due to a failure to follow these precautions, in additions to other fines and penalties. Proper shredding, destroying, or degaussing isn’t just recommended, it’s the law.

Paper Shredders

Digital Data Destruction

Hearing the word vintage brings up images of trendy “retro” items being sold at small, often overpriced boutiques in the hippest parts of town. From clothing and jewelry, to records and even now cassette tapes, this trend for appreciating the leftover remnants of simpler times has been growing for years. What is generally not imagined, however, is vintage print shop machines. As the generation that first made “retro” popular starts to get married and have children, demand has popped up for authentic vintage feel invitations, announcements, and other printed items. When Nancy Hill and Beverly Wolfe found a listing on Craigslist from a long-time print shop closing its doors, they knew they had hit the jackpot. The machines, including a letterpress and a paper cutter, dating back as far as 1922, were the backbone for their new business Hazel and Violet INK.

Here is selection from “Hazel and Violet INK’s Vintage Printing and Modern Inspiration“, by Carrie Wheeler with the Phoenix New Times Blogs:

The women’s work flow is pretty close to how it was done a hundred years ago; they feed each page, by hand, into their 1922 Chandler & Price letterpress they affectionately call “Beauty.”

Most of their work has a decidedly vintage feel, after all, most of their equipment comes from the 1920s, 30s, 40s and 50s. “We have stuff from later years,” says Hill, “we’re just not as excited about it.” They have cases and cases of type in different sizes and fonts, plus some hard-to-find wooden type. At one point, they had so much extra type that they unloaded a bunch to the ASU print shop.

Paper Cutters

Here is an excerpt from “SMART boards super for special needs children,” from the Brownsville Herald:

And they loved the interaction. Sometimes, while answering, a child would put extra graphics on the pictures. “Frank” loved to draw faces on the screen, especially when some of the PowerPoint stories on the Internet were placed on the board. The teacher could easily freeze a screen and talk about the picture.

The children also enjoyed the variety of fun “games” available on News 2 You, including matching, ABC order, weather, tic-tac-toe, and number mazes, to name a few.

The teacher could always count on up-to-date issues on the program, like Black History Month, new stamp issuances, upcoming popular movies, elections and environmental concerns. Plus, she had plenty of other software programs on the Hatch computer SMART Board combination and the Internet to keep the children engaged.

Fortunately, SMART Boards have been integrated into many preschool programs around the country. Studies show remarkable gains in reading and math skills for children preparing to enter Kindergarten.

Initially developed for preschool interactive learning, the technology has proven to be a powerful learning tool for children with disabilities. They are no longer for preschool children alone. The Internet has thousands of applications for children at all grade and skill levels. Plus, direct interaction with the SMART Board improves academics and communication for children with autism.

 

This is really just the beginning of the transition into lesson plans that are interactive to this degree. So far early research is showing improved test scores and teachers are noting improved participation and excitement from the students. As long as creative teachers continue to use new technologies to add value to their lessons, these trends should continue. I look forward to seeing what education will look like in ten, twenty, or fifty years.

Interactive Whiteboards

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.

Some people think I have perform 1337 h4x to break into your data, but all I need is a flashlight, a phone, and for you to get a little lazy. Step one, pick my mark. Let’s say I’ve picked you. Step two, go through your garbage. I’m not looking for obvious things like credit-card numbers. All I need is one of those hundreds of credit-card offers you get in the mail all the time. An old utility bill is also really useful.

I fill out the credit-card form in your name, and mail it off with your own return address. Then, all I have to do is drop a post-card at the post-office telling them to route your mail to another house I’m keeping my eye on. Hell, to keep suspicions down, I might even re-deliver the useless stuff back to your house. Aren’t I nice? What do I do with the utility bill? All most libraries need is a copy of a utility bill that states you live in the county, and suddenly I have a form of ID. Crazy.

While the device is pretty cool, it doesn’t shred paper down to a very secure size, for that you need an actual paper shredder.

Personal Shredders

As the crisis with the unions heated up in Wisconsin, many of us took a close look at the arguments and contentions of each side, regardless of where you fall on the issue or your personal politics. In reading over some of the union rules and regulations in question, I came across several that had never crossed my mind when pondering exactly what these rules may be. Here is one of rules in debate that I found particularly interesting:

“From Another day in the shout-ocracy”, by Patrick McIlheran of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel”

‘’The Employer shall provide bulletin boards at locations mutually agreed upon for use by the local Unions to enable employees of the bargaining unit to see notices posted thereon. Such mutual agreement shall be arrived at locally. The normal size of new bulletin boards will be eight (8) square feet. The Employer will maintain bulletin boards provided under prior negotiated collective bargaining agreements and they need not conform to the normal size. In the event any new bulletin boards are mutually agreed upon, the Employer shall pay fifty percent (50%) and the Union shall pay fifty percent (50%) of the cost of such new boards.’”

Bulletin Boards

From “Spring Forward with a Clean – and Secure – Home office”

1. Begin with the basics: Sort through the piles of paperwork on your desk and in your office drawers. Place them into two categories: “save” and “shred.”

2. Proper storage: Organize the “save” pile into labeled folders and be sure to put anything confidential into a fire-proof lock box. The “shred” pile should be properly disposed of with a Cross-Cut shredder, such as a Fellowes P-12C. Cross-Cut technology is an important feature for a shredder because it provides high security, destroying confidential information into unidentifiable pieces. Equally important are enhanced safety features, such as Fellowes’ SafeSense technology, which shuts the machine down when hands come too close to the paper opening.

Personal Shredders

Safes