Clancy . . . overflow . . . the best bits . . . funnies
Certainly the delegates gathering for the start of this weeks's Challenge of Change Printing Conference at the Wairakei Resort appear a fairly satisfied bunch, even if the Australians came and burgled the opening golf tournament.
The conference is organised by Printing Industries of New Zealand and the serious work kicks off on Thursday morning with a line-up of local and international experts, including Andy Tribute and Trish Witkowski. Keep an eye out for next week's report.
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Say Hi again to Mike DiCosola, the US colour guru from Chromaticity, who is coming back to Sydney to do another round of three day intensive courses on colour management. This time he's backed up by our own Dave Crowther who opened the company's Australian office.
The three-day courses are restricted to a maximum of 16 students, with two students per computer. Each teaching computer has a Monaco Optix monitor calibrator and both Gretag and X-Rite spectrophotometers are provided. ICC profiling is taught using both Gretag ProfileMaker and Monaco Profiler Gold.
Location is Rhodes, near the Olympic complex in Sydney. Candidates include prepress managers, designers, and production managers in advertising agencies, pressroom personnel, packaging graphics personnel, publishers and brand managers. For more info Phone (02) 9743 5394 or email info@chromaticity.com.au
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The Xeikon comeback continues to gather momentum. Not since Lazarus rubbed his eyes has there been such a revival. Hot on the heels of record sales numbers (60 presses) after drupa is the news that RR Donnelley, the US printing giant and original Xeikon customer ten years ago has bought another two presses. The company already operates seven Xeikons; four in the Netherlands and three in the USA. The two additional Xeikon 5000's will be installed at their new plant in Hungary, which will be operational in December of this year.
Warren Davey of Xeikon Australia reports he has a new Xeikon 500 machine installed in Sydney and a second sale in Melbourne of a new 320 coming up.
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What is claimed to be the fastest metal platesetter in the world was launched by XantŽ at this week's Chicago's Graph Expo. The Impressia is an A3 portrait platesetter that is supposed to be produce processless 340mmx505mm plates capable of over 25,000 impressions.
Aimed at the quick print market it sounds very useful but so far there does not appear to be a local distributor. Stay tuned.
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And finally . . . here's another blonde joke from Astrid, who because she is . . . ah, fair, allows us to be politically incorrect.
A blind man enters a Ladies Bar by mistake. He finds his way to a barstool
and orders a drink. After sitting there for a while, he yells to the
bartender, "Hey, you wanna hear a blonde joke?"
The bar immediately falls absolutely quiet. In a very deep, husky voice, the
woman next to him says, "Before you tell that joke, sir, I think it is just
fair - given that you are blind - that you should know five things:
One - The bartender is a blonde girl.
Two - The bouncer is a blonde girl.
Three - I'm a six-foot tall, 220 lb. blonde woman with a black belt in karate.
Four -The woman sitting next to me is blonde and is a professional weight
lifter.
Five - The lady to your right is a blonde and is a professional wrestler.
"Now think about it seriously, Mister. Do you still want to tell that joke?"
The blind man thinks for a second, shakes his head and declares, "Nah . . . Not
if I'm gonna have to explain it five times."
