RedTitan Posts

Xerox™ DJDE/Metacode conversion

Here at RedTitan we have seen an increase in requests for information on our Xerox™ DJDE/Metacode converter. With Covid-19 playing havoc with printing sites do you need to outsource your mainframe data printing requirements or just convert the output meant for a Xerox™ centralised electronic printer to an electronic document in PDF or other format.

If Yes then we have the solution. 

The RedTitan DataStream Converter LCDS will convert files designed for Xerox™ printers into either PDF, Postscript, PCL or AFP.

See http://www.redtitan.co.uk/datastream-converter-lcds/ for further details.

COVID-19: Supporting our customers.

We want to reassure our customers that we are here to help them during this time. All RedTitan staff have relocated to their homes and are working remotely, we anticipate there will be minimal disruption to our normal business activities, however if you have tried to contact us either by phone or email and did not get a response within 1 business day please try again.

We have a range of products geared to solving problems. If you need a solution to your printing issues, convert printed output to an electronic document or data mining from an existing electronic document then please see our website or contact us for more information and a non-pressured conversation with a technical person.

We hope all our customers follow the advice of their respective governments in order to keep everyone as safe as possible.

Email help@redtitan.com if you have any questions or require technical support.

A Virtual Printer for Electronic medical records

RedTitan provides the “glue” that transforms electronic documents and helps migrate legacy printer data to electronic medical record formats so it was no surprise to get a call from Zeiss with a interesting challenge. Some of the equipment made for the ophthalmology industry could not produce an electronic document, all it could do was print!

Surely a software upgrade and perhaps a TCP/IP hardware interface
would be good enough?
No – you don’t understand – If we change anything it has to go back
through the very expensive TYPE APPROVAL procedure.

It turns out that the world is full of “black box” devices in medical and industrial applications that can only print. Sometimes the law or security prohibits any attachment to a network. (nobody wants a “virus” on an ophthalmic lance) – The concept of Virtual Printer hardware was born.

Virtual printer

The principle is easy enough. Build a small piece of hardware that just looks like the same old printer to the “black box”. A powerful microprocessor handles the printer interface – we used a MICROCHIP PIC 16 device. Data is collected on a USB connection to a PC controlled using an FTDI package. The device gets its power from the USB interface avoiding the need for a special power supply.

Of course data collection is only half the story. Processing the collected printer data is the work of RedTitan EscapeE. You can even recover data straight off the printed page for re-processing, filing or even patient identification.

Now, six years on, many thousand of these devices have been rolled out in data capture applications. The chances are that, the next time you take an eye test, you will find the RedTitan Printt2PC box doing its job in the back of a Zeiss Humphrey Field Analyser.

Today RedTitan offer various models of the Print2PC system – Parellel Port, USB Port, Serial Port and Network attached printers, taking care of everything from Pacemaker Programmers through to Blood Analysis controllers. There is even a bowling alley on an island in northern Germany that owes its scoring system to Print2PC.

USB Virtual Printer

Internet Printing Protocol

To complement our range of print capture solutions we now offer IPP (Internet Printing Protocol) alongside our hardware and software solutions enabling the capture of Parallel, USB and serial port output as well as TCP/IP attached printers using IPP, LPR or streamed port. If you cannot change your “type approved” or “blackbox” hardware then The RedTitan Virtual Printer provides a safe replacement for the printer that will create both a printed record and an electronic document.

Please see the RedTitanVirtual Printer for details of the hardware solutions and EscapeE for details of the conversion solutions

Email help@redtitan.com for further information of call us in one of our offices, details can be found here

Impact of BREXIT on business communications

The RedTitan office in the UK views BREXIT (UK leaves the EU in March 2019) with the same concerns as much of British business: more paperwork, more administration and more costs – but it’s an ill wind …

Every document (printed or electronic) that cites an EU law (say) will need redrafting and guess who is very good at that. RedTitan software can make a few tweaks (or a major overhaul) without having to re-hire those offshore contractors

The scope of the change is still not clear (the politicians still don’t have a plan) but the rumours aren’t good. There was plenty of time to plan for fixing the millennium bug (and that was a very simple concept). This time the impact and the rules are a little more vague and the reaction of British business is everything from “it will be all right on the night” to sneaking a few HQ staff off to Amsterdam. As always, it is the nimble that will avoid the worst of the shock and those equipped with RedTitan document transform software will be able to react fast to new legislation.

For RedTitan in the UK the “brexit bonus” came early.

If you don’t have RedTitan software you don’t really own your business communications.

viking_luddite

Capture print hardware – The virtual printer.

RedTitan make software to convert and transform document formats but migration from printed paper to electronic formats is complicated by legacy hardware and security issues. Easy for networked devices but RedTitan handle the difficult cases by using hardware to emulate the printer! We have two main models

We also make a Serial port capture packaged solution based on Raspberry PI hardware. This device has all the advantages of LAN or WIFI connection in a small footprint. Call or email for details help@redtitan.com

It all about trust

Hide your stuff under the mattress and you are vulnerable to a small population of burglars and  the occasional catastrophe. Hide your files on the cloud and you become a target to the world! The advice is always – don’t leave important files in “plain” on public servers. The question is, how do you publish a file to a select few without having to trust server password security or complex programs. ZIP and PDF get close but it’s difficult to operate.

RedWrap is a novel approach. Take an HTML file, encrypt using BLOWFISH and publish as HTML that can only be viewed if you know the password. There are several advantages to browser based decryption.

  • The password never gets as far as the public server
  • The code can be audited by the great and good (it is there in plain JavaScript)
  • Readers don’t need to install anything
  • It defeats browser caching.
  • You can add hints or preview information as you see fit

Try a couple of demos

How does it work password demo123$&

Where do I get it? password demo2

 

 

Capture all printout

Confused about the RedTitan print capture options?

If you want to create electronic documents (like PDF) instead of printing and you cannot change the driver options see our Print2PC hardware. It will capture the print sent to USB or PARALLEL PORT connected printers. Google “virtual printer hardware”

If you just want to publish a virtual network printer ask about our INTERNET PRINTING PROTOCOL (IPP) solutions. IPP works with LINUX, MAC, IOS, WINDOWS and ANDROID.

If you want to carry on printing to paper on a Windows PC but create a PDF from everything that is printed, our new “CAPTURE EVERTHING” port monitor will do the job. Capture everything you print without interfering with your usual routine!

Our print transform software EscapeE will integrate all your captured documents with your existing workflow – convert, transform, index, publish – contact help@redtitan.com

 

 

Google strikes over SOPA

It looks like 2012 is going to be a great year for the internet and a poor year for government. If the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) gets into law, then being caught infringing copyright could leave you cut off from the internet.

The proposed bill is so wide ranging that there is considerable opposition from many of the web big hitters with rumours that Google, Facebook and Twitter will stage a temporary brownout in protest. Continue reading “Google strikes over SOPA”

QRCODE and TRANSPROMO

It’s as bad as watching your father dancing at a party. Suddenly your boss discovers Facebook and this months marketing budget gets blown on an advertising column mixed in with interesting stuff about getting a “flatter tummy”. He looks hurt with your comment – “maybe not the right demographic”.

Trying to leverage the “next big thing” to get your message across has never been easy. For example, over the last five years we have all got used to the idea of “Trans promotional Marketing”. “TRANSPROMO” is the simple concept that a marketing message is added to a document that your customer is likely to re-read and keep (like an invoice or a statement). TRANSPROMO has much more impact than any other direct mail. We all cherish and re-read our bills don’t we? Well the market share of the smart phone and a fancy QRCODE 2D barcode might just make your TRANSPROMO communication twice as effective! Continue reading “QRCODE and TRANSPROMO”