Updated for 2012, a miniature, pocket-sized version of the Signwriters pricing guides. The same information as in the regular Sign Contractors Pricing Guide, the mini guide includes pricing for artwork, ...
A trip to the Mideast reveals an elemental truth.
I was somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, at midnight, enroute to Paris and then Tel Aviv, for Hewlett-Packard’s pre-Drupa press event. The flight had been peaceful, and I’d slept some, but, suddenly, a vigorous wind slammed the Boeing 767’s starboard side. The aircraft first shuddered, and then its rear section veered left, causing the flying leviathan to crab for several seconds. Fierce turbulence followed, and the jet engines’ whine subsided as our airspeed noticeably slowed.
Unexpected turbulence stresses an aircraft’s wing assembly (it temporarily amplifies the gross vehicle weight), so pilots often slow down, to reduce the active forces.
Nonetheless, my uneasy mind envisioned the dark ocean waters, seven miles below.
Take a breath and relax, I thought: this bird is built to take a bruising, and the driver knows his stuff. Besides, it receives timely maintenance by disciplined mechanics; the structure is strong, and the electric systems are flawless.
Thus assured, I extracted a magazine from the seat pocket and touched the overhead lamp switch, the white one with the light bulb icon.
It didn’t work.
Recently, Hewlett-Packard (HP) transported numerous business and technology journalists, including me, to Tel Aviv, Israel, for a pre-Drupa press tour. This couldn’t have been an easy task -- shuttling approximately 100, finicky (and questioning) business and technology journalists to a Middle Eastern country, to spend three days touring its modern manufacturing plants. In my view, HP and its PR agency pulled it off flawlessly. Lodging the group at Tel Aviv’s beachfront Hilton certainly didn’t hurt.
The event included business meetings in Tel Aviv, tours of the HP Scitex facility in Caesarea, the HP Indigo facility at Rehovot, and the HP Indigo production and ink manufacturing plant at Kriyat Gat. HP also provided a first-class, evening tour of Jerusalem’s old city.
I enjoy the Middle East and its history. I was assigned there in the military and have returned several times since.
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