manuellynch

Interesting story about how code issues can be selective in what they decide to pursue. http://www.newsday.com/news/local/nassau/n...0,1098101.story

THank you so much for your reply. Great website. Good source for future projects. I use to work at Microsemi Corp, we were the company that made and patented the CCFL inverter chips for avionics, laptop, in car navigation etc and you are right about lifetime and efficacy.

For quite awhile I heard from a lot of sign companies that Colite and others made letter types that were very desired by their customers but due to the cost of the letters it was a prohibitive technology. Axiom has developed a line of letters that it is considering introducing and I wanted to see if these type of small letters (6" and 12" high, 1/2" to 1" thick) are of interest. We have not finalized pricing yet but it would be about 1/2 of what you have seen before. Would like some feedback on interest, issues with other brands you have had, and what you would like to see.

And I am going to start posting new and good places to go for eating/out for drinks etc when people are in Las Vegas. So much to see in this town other than the strip.

The header graphic - like we discussed the other day. A section on the home page where people can vent their personal life info and get some inputs from people around the world. I like hearing about your wife's special needs kids in school, and I would like to hear more about interesting places people have been on vacation or work - similar to YYZ posts on China neon signs. So not sure how you could do this but creating a WATER COOLER or COFFEE MACHINE area where people just shoot the shit. I also need to get some good jokes. AND - a requirement that people MUST post at least 2 times within the first week they are on the board as a new member - or they get booted. The people (yes, including all the of Permlight employees) who logon with a fake alias and then just watch shouldnt be on a board that is trying to foster communication and learning. And Erik - you have to have a section on TECHNIQUES - share with people how to buy a truck so cheap!!!!

It was a compact fluorescent bulb - only 13 watts.

I think that is a great idea - I wonder if UL has a means of putting together a way of measuring this for companies so you can certify the amount. The guy that you and I met with at the show said his bulb had 1mg. WHo verifies this?

I thought the show was nothing special. I heard you were there from a booth you stopped by...PowerBox.

Almost amusing to walk a show in China and see a section for USA COMPANIES...so people can avoid them if they only want to use bottom tier products...hahaha

Did you see any of the signs in Shanghai China moving to the Sloan, GE or iLight "type" LED replacement tubingvfor neon? Also - appeared to be a growing section of Chinese vendors at LightFair in Las Vegas this past week - but not a lot of traffic at the show.

Try the Floridian push to use only Amber lighting in hotels by the water. Makes it confusing for luminaire manufacturers who are trying to make brighter whites to be given a request to focus now on Amber. Florida code restrictions are odd.

GM announced it is closing 4 truck plants and possibly discontinuing the Hummer brand http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/04/business...ml?ref=business Would like to know if people in the automotive sign making business are seeing a slow down...in some markets it just keeps growing...odd. How about banking merger signage opportunities...anyone seeing this grow? It would be mixed because of large writeoffs due to mortgage fiasco. Looking for end market feedback on where people are seeing growth and slumps. We are seeing a lot of people just interested in saving a buck or two.

So what you are saying for those in neon world looking for work is to go take classes in Chinese and move to China???

I am stopping by the EPA today to ask that exact question. But yes, CCFL has about 1/2 the mercury of CFL. I want to know what neon has comparitively.

Ahh yes, much higher CRI, dimmable, and longer lifetime. I will tell Garret today when we are at LightFair - he will like that. But - what about the mercury levels????

Cold Cathode Fluorescent uses much higher voltage and lower current to excite the mercury amalgam. CFL or Compact Fluorescent is also known as Hot Cathode Fluorescent. Higher current that "heats" the cathodes along with lower voltage is used to excite the mercury amalgam. CFL usually has rated lifetimes of 8-10K hours. CCFL typically has lifetime of 25-50K hours. I think of CCFL has an extremely energy efficient neon in that voltages are higher than CFL (usually about 1700V to strike or start lamp).

Manly??? To have another man hold you by your feet, spread eagle, from behind???? Ok Erik.

The amount of mercury in products seems to be something customers are oddly "consumed" with these days. If we were to take a 4 foot long tube of white neon vs same length T8 fluorescent vs same length CCFL...what is the mercury loading difference? Would like some first hand experience/knowledge and a discussion on this. And PLEASE - no discussion of LED on this thread. Personally I am much more interested how CCFL and neon can sometimes be misunderstood versus fluorescent. And as we have all agreed on several previous threads - every light source has a sweet spot/or best application.

And then the old fashion way - ring the door bell.

Had a conversation with some friends over the weekend about how ineffective communication is today at times and how many ways we have to get a hold of someone. The winner in our pack had 18 ways to get a hold of him: 1) Office phone 2) Personal Mobile phone 3) Work mobile phone 4) Home phone 5) personal email 6) work email 7) secret yahoo email 8) another gmail account 9) an eFAX account 10) a fax machine 11) a SKYPE Instant Message account 12) a Yahoo Instant Message account 13) a user membership on a business message board 14) a user membership on an adult message board 15) a user membership on a sport message board 16) you could mail him at his office 17) you could mail him at his home 18) you could mail him to his personal PO box And what we laughed about is that you can never reach the guy. So are all these communication portals making it easier to get a hold of people or making it easier for us to hide from contact? Would like to hear if anyone has over 18 ways to get a hold of them - I thought this was crazy. I had 8 ways.

We wanted to get some input from people on this board on an issue. Axiom today has an active program of notifying over 2000 people that sign up for our SMS Text notify program about new deals, upcoming products, and tricks/tips on how to cut cost. It is free - sign up at: http://www.axiompowercorp.com/tt/ Here is the input we wanted to get: 1) Is email becoming like snail mail of old and promotional advertisements and offers sent by email are overlooked or ignored? 2) Does old fashion snail mail product information get buried in the stacks on your desk and not ever seen? 3) Do people still read sign magazines to learn about new products? And then 4) Do you think it effective to receive text messages once a month from a service that gave you a quick snap shot of new products, tricks/tips, etc? What if we got the Sign Syndicate news snapshots via SMS text message?

We suppose we have a very odd perspective on UL. We see them as tremendous value. In fact just yesterday a company that makes decorative lighting for a restaurant chain said that his customer was pushing him to get each fixture UL listed and it would cost him a fortune. I suggested him to contact Jim Richards at UL and get some alternative means of meeting his customer's needs. He did and he did get a way to cut cost dramatically. We have found that you just have to figure out how to use the increase in fees to the best of your ability. Had a discussion with them yesterday and together with a National Home Builder we came up with a way of reducing our manufacturing cost yet another 30-40%. Just our approach - but then again some ex-Permlight employee may jump on the board under an anonymous alias and blast me again.

Erik - the rage for venture capitalists and companies interested in acquiring other companies are organizations that rely on viral marketing systems in the form of forums and message boards as you have created here. Me and several others are a huge fan of your site and will support you in any way to keep this moving and growing. I would also suggest in the Premium section that Department of Energy reports could be available. These are reports that are not to be used by companies for marketing/sales purposes but contain tons of information about certain vendor products. The DOE just completed an analysis of one of AXIOM's product and included in the report is that our product "is the benchmark for others to try and meet" You could have a section in the Premium section that not only makes people pay for access to the service but furthermore has rules that they can be terminated and banned from the section for sharing information posted there to other boards, etc. If interesed Erik I can send you extensive information on Viral Marketing systems that eventually do make money and are growing faster than anyone expected.

Here in Las Vegas there are a lot interesting house calls that can be arranged for the numbers you mentioned...hahaha.

We did an analysis and found that with the new UL charges to do site surveys and periodic reviews of manufacturing plants in China was climbing dramatically. We found that building products in the USA would be ultimately lower cost if you factor these costs in. In a conversation with Jim Richards from UL recently he explained a lot of the above - I asked him to post a detailed reply to all on this subject. FYI - cost to UL Recognize a power supply device has gone up almost 200% as well. Very high.