Author: mjstrand

  • Here’s to the passing of a bar code influencer

    Today I learned that Alan Haberman passed away at age 81. In 1973, Alan was instrumental to selecting those infamous black and white stripes to be used for retail products to be marked. As we all know, today it is involved with nearly every aspect of modern life, providing a means for people to buy…

  • Server company changes are not all that fun..

    We just went through a server upgrade for our primary web server at www.strandvision.com. Our previous server was on-line for over 5 years and it looks like the company went out of business (although the server ran perfectly). Since we were not able to get support tickets handled at all, we spent the week transitioning…

  • People need complete solutions, not just pieces

    Over the past several weeks, I am continually reminded that people look for complete solutions, not just a piece of a solution. There are a few innovators out there who will take pieces from lots of places to save money or to get something done. It appears that most people want the total solution. We…

  • Follow through is important!

    For the past several years, I have been amazed at how many companies do not follow through with customers. There are some that do a great job and others that do not even return a prospect’s call for information (mine). We firmly believe in (and have seen the benefit of) being responsive to customers in…

  • What is legal for digital signage news feeds?

    There are millions if not billions of RSS feeds on the Internet. Most are no updated often, but some are. There are many consolidators of feeds as well (search engines being the biggest consolidators). The lesser updated feeds will almost always “love” it if you display their feed to the public (with a reference to…

  • Opportunities and change

    Have you ever wondered how often opportunities have been waiting for you? I have been on my new job (taking over Amy’s job of sales) for a week now. During that time, several opportunities have shown themselves. I have almost completed a new licensed content deal (should be announced in a week or two). I…

  • Change causes change…

    I am reminded often of all the change that the world is going through. Change can be seen in everything from the economy to the oil spill to kids growing up to growing older ourselves. Some would have us believe that change is bad. Others would say that change is good. I guess I feel…

  • Mistakes do have a silver lining…

    Have you ever messed up in a way that embarrassed you or cost your company money to get it solved? It seems that I do it at least once a month, and sometimes multiple times per day! Although swallowing my pride, taking ownership of the mistake and doing what is right to resolve the situation…

  • Life’s obstacles can help you grow

    Have you ever noticed that life sometimes throws you curves that you don’t necessarily like? Those times seem to be the twists and turns that are much like the path that a raindrop takes when it falls from a storm. The big difference is that a raindrop will usually follow the lowest path – and…

  • Linux is powerful!

    We have just announced our preconfigured Linux player devices for our digital signage system. This project took several months to develop because of the intricacies of Linux and the complexity of our system behind the scenes. I have dabbled with Linux for over 10 years with SAMBA file servers, and it seems that each time…