Here is another “behind the scenes” post of the happenings here at PaperCut. Last Wednesday was National Ride To Work Day. This is an initiative of our local bicycle association to raise awareness and get more people riding to work around the country. Tom, Matt and myself already regularly ride to work (at least on the sunny days!) and we decided to put the invitation out to all to join us. Priyanka took up the challenge even though she has not ridden a bike in many years.

Here are some pictures of the day. Tom, Priyanka and myself met in Glen Iris and did the 30 minute ride along the Gardiner’s Creek trail through to our office in Mount Waverley. I’m sure Priyanka now has a good appreciation of the word “Mount” in Mount Waverley after tackling the climb for the first time!

Matt, Priyanka, Chris and Tom after the morning ride

Priyanka and Tom climbing the “mountain”!

Hope you all find the behind the scenes look interesting, and yes, we don’t just work on printer log software all the time!

While using our print management system is an obvious paper saving tool, here are some other handy ideas to reduce your impact on the environment and save paper.

1. Print duplex or two to a page- Print on both sides of the page or print two pages to a single side (also called N-Up printing). Combine both of these to print four pages on only one piece of paper! Not only save paper but also take longer to reach your print quota!
2. Use PDF and go digital- Send business documents by e-mail in PDF format rather than printing and then faxing/mailing them. You no longer need to print, sign and send. Use an electronic signature and email documents that require a signature. While you’re at it, consider an FAX-to-email gateway so your inbound faxes arrive in your inbox.
3. Use an electronic diary- Install a program on your laptop or computer and record all appointments and diary entries electronically. Google Calendar is our program of choice.
4. Send e-cards- Save money and save the planet. Personalised season’s greetings can be sent quickly and easily by email. Save on stamps, cards and envelopes. Note: Some may thing you’re “cheap” doing this so make it known that your driver is not cost savings but the environment!
5. Use a whiteboard- Forget sticky notes and note pads. Use a white board to record all those quick and temporary notes.
6. Electronic memo’s and bulletins- Communicate in the office electronically. Invitations, instructions and important notices can be sent via email or viewed daily on an updatable document on your intranet.
7. Be selective- Print only what you need to print. Cut and paste relevant information from longer documents and print only when and what you absolutely need to.
8. Proof work on screen- some people prefer to print documents for proofing as it’s difficult and taxing to do so on the screen. Be kind to your eyes and simply enlarge the text temporarily while you proof.
9. Promote awareness- place signs around your office or study encouraging these and other paper saving ideas. (Laminate them so you don’t have to reprint them!) Gentle and polite reminders are all you need.
10. Recycle, recycle, recycle- have recycle bins in prominent places so people remember to use them, use the back of old documents as scrap paper etc. Lead by example and watch others follow!

Did you know, that today, 10% of the world’s population, including Western Europe and North America, are responsible for over half of the world´s paper consumption, more than six times the world average. Paper consumption in Europe alone has increased six-fold since 1950. Some 10,000 sheets of paper are used each year by your average office worker in western industrialized countries. (information and more tips published by the WWF)

OK. It’s been a frustrating month for me (and all the prospective Novell testers). I’ve been in regular correspondence with Dean Giles at Novell with very little progress. The frustrating thing is that we have a copy (under NDA) of the “new iPrint”, fully working and running fine in here. However due to internal politics on the Novell side it has not been possible to make this publicly available to others (i.e. our test sites) because of an NDA. Instead we’ve had to wait until OES2 SP1 was publicly available. It finally looks like there is some light at the end of the tunnel. I receive an email from Novell letting me know that SP1 is not in a public (non private) beta period. Yet to see any post on their website but I’m sure it’s only a day or so away. Finally it looks like we can start official testing and we’ll all have a proper print management solution on iPrint!

Please check out this page for more information on the PaperCut Novell OES Linux testing program, download information, etc. I assume the OES 2 SP1 download will be located here when live. Fingers cross the train will be rolling again soon.

Update: The word from Novell, “The beta has been approved by the core team, but may take a day or two to get posted.”

A big hello to the world and PaperCut’s customers. As a new developer on the PaperCut team I am excited to be part of the new directions in which development of PaperCut’s Print Management Software is progressing. So many things to sort out on the first day! Where is the coffee? Where is the stationery supply cabinet? And where are the umlauts and accents on the keyboard?

Wait a minute, umlauts? That’s correct, I am looking forward to catering especially to our German- and French-speaking customers’ concerns. So please hold for these important messages:

Guten Tag! Ich freue mich, unseren deutschsprechenden Kunden als direkter Ansprechpartner im Team von PaperCut zur Verfügung zu stehen.    

Bonjour à nos clients français et francophones. N’hésitez pas de me contacter avec vos besoins et soucis. 

Stay tuned to this frequency for more news from myself in the upcoming weeks.