Have you ever heard of Easter eggs? Not the chocolate kind. If you haven’t heard of those, you need to get yourself down to Hotel Chocolat quick smart, and take your piggy bank with you. (Pick us up a couple of gin truffles while you’re there, will you?)

No, the Easter eggs we’re talking about are a lot less calorific, but just as fun. They’re bits of code hidden by developers in places you wouldn’t expect, ready to provide the unsuspecting internet user with a bright spot in what might otherwise be a rather ordinary day.

Rather than leave you to find them by chance, we thought we’d round up a few of our favourites for you. Because we’re nice like that.

Anyway, start with this one…

1) Type “Easter egg (media)” into Wikipedia, and hover your mouse over the animal in the bottom right hand corner of the picture. Now click on it.

Pretty cool, right? Now try these…

2) Type Askew into Google. Try not to tilt your head.

3) Search for Loch Ness on Google Maps, then click on the plus button (just once) to zoom in slightly. Now look at the little yellow ‘Street View’ man.

4) One for the Douglas Adams fans: search for “the answer to life, the universe, and everything” on Google.

5) Type Anagram into Google. Get it??

6) Type “Super Mario Bros” into Google… now click the flashing question mark in the sidebar (make sure your computer’s volume is on!).

7) Search for directions from Buckingham Palace to Windsor Castle on Google Maps. Click the public transport button and scroll down to the last option.

8) Type “do a barrel roll” into Google.

9) For the gamers: Type “Zerg Rush” into Google. If you’re not a gamer and you want to know what Zerg Rush actually is, search “what is Zerg Rush” instead.

10) If you’ve got five minutes to kill: type Solitaire into Google. You’re welcome.

What do you think? Fun, aren’t they? We do realise this has nothing at all to do with document scanning, but it’s Easter and everyone deserves a moment to let their hair down and just be downright frivolous for a moment.

Happy Easter everyone – may the Easter Bunny be generous to you!

Document scanning is a pretty cool industry to be involved in. No, don’t laugh. Remember that post where we proved that we were basically CSIs? And our Indiana Jones moment with the ancient manuscripts?

Well, if that hasn’t convinced you, this might: in many ways, we’re just like spies. Possibly not 00 level spies. We’re not armed or anything, and we probably wouldn’t have much luck infiltrating a black tie do on a private island, winning half a million pounds at baccarat and leaving with a supermodel on our arm (although we’d give it a good go if the opportunity presented itself).

But we do have access to lots of secrets – commercially sensitive data and the like – and it wouldn’t do to let it fall into the wrong hands. We all know how data leak stories end, and our clients would not like that at all.

That’s why we’re BS7858 accredited. BS7858 is the British Standard used for checking the security and trustworthiness of individuals. Every single member of our staff has been through the official vetting process, which includes ID checking, credit checking, address checking, criminal record checking – there’s a lot of checking, basically. And each individual has to be vouched for by a suitable referee too, just to be on the safe side.

It’s not that we don’t trust them, you understand. It’s just to give our clients peace of mind that their data is being looked after by people who aren’t going to flog a USB stick of their client records to a rival firm. Our team aren’t just trustworthy, they’re trustworthy enough to have earned the BS7858 seal of approval. And just to be doubly sure, we have them DBS checked too.

Oh, and like all good spies, we’ve also signed the Official Secrets Act… but we can’t really talk about that!

If you need sensitive data scanned, stored or destroyed, arrange a meeting with our team and decide for yourself how trustworthy we are.

March is a good time to get stuff in order. After all, it’s the start of spring. So, you know, spring clean and all that. Actually, your paper archives should be in order all year round but if you’ve been looking for something to give you the push you need to get your storage organised – and you missed the ‘New Year, new start’ one – then this is as good as any.

A good storage system is the kind of thing you don’t tend to notice. Because it’s good, so you can get on with whatever it is you’re meant to be doing and not actually have to think about it all that much. That’s what it’s meant to do – support the smooth running of your business.

A bad storage system, however, will demand your attention like one of those inane charity muggers that accost you with a toothy grin and an insincere compliment before guilt-tripping you into spending a week’s grocery budget on saving a rare species of giant South American ant.

When your paper archives are improperly stored, files can go missing, get destroyed, or wind up in the wrong hands (not ideal if the information you’re storing is sensitive). No one needs that kind of stress in their lives. So while giving your storage a health check probably isn’t high on your list of fun ways to spend your time, it’s really worth thinking about in order to save guaranteed hassle and potential disaster.

And it doesn’t have to take long. Just ask yourselves these questions…

How long does it take you to find things?

Your time is valuable. If you’re spending more of it than you have to trying to dig out the quote you sent that big client last quarter, or wading through endless sales reports to get hold of the one you need for that big presentation, your storage system needs a rethink.

How often do you need to find things?

Endless archive boxes stacked high on top of one another are all very well* if you don’t need to get to their contents outside of an audit inspection. But try and use a system like that on a daily basis and someone is going to end up signed off work with a bad back. (*Actually they’re not – that’s just dangerous.)

Who knows how to find things?

Ah, Bernard – such a useful chap. Knows the archives like the back of his hand. Only Bernard’s on holiday / off sick / decided to move to Thailand and live in a shack on the beach. Now what? Relying on one person who understands your storage system is very dangerous indeed.

Once you’ve found what you want, does it get put back properly?

No one likes filing – except maybe Bernard, but he’s off in Thailand. But a document storage system is only as good as the people who use it, and if even one person has one lazy day, you could end up losing something vital.

How easy is it to access your storage?

We’ve seen some storage rooms that are harder to get into (and out of) than a Crystal Maze-style locked room mystery. A dodgy loft that can only be accessed by ladder, or a tiny room piled high with unstable archive boxes, is a health and safety issue just waiting to happen.

How safe is your storage?

From thieves, fire, flood, nuclear attack, alien invasion. As we mentioned in our recent blog post on data security, more than 60% of companies never recover from a major loss of data. Then there’s the potential problem of rats, mice, birds and even wasps, who like nothing better than to use strips of conveniently boxed up paper to make their homes.

What are the conditions like?

Another danger to your stored paper archives is moisture. A damp basement is really not a great place to store anything made of paper. Lighting is another factor. While you want to ensure there’s enough light for you to access your records without the need of a flashlight, some printed materials can degrade with the wrong type of light, especially anything printed on thermal paper.

So, the solution? You could reorganise your paper archives on site. You could get someone (us, we mean us) to store it for you in a 24-7 monitored, security protected, climate controlled environment with trackable barcoded boxes and an on-demand delivery system. Or best yet, create a digital archive that you can access at the touch of a button, before destroying or storing the originals (we can do that too, by the way – the digital stuff, and the secure destruction).

Want someone to provide you with a free assessment of your current storage systems and paper archives? Give us a call and we’ll help you protect your documents properly.

We are delighted to announce our top three suppliers for 2016. Each of these superb companies have gone the extra mile in providing exceptional service to us and have greatly assisted us to grow and maintain our market leading position.
If your business is looking for these types of service we can thoroughly reccomend:

Our sincere thanks to all three of you for making a real difference in our business and we look forward to working with you in 2017. We also take this opportunity to thank our other suppliers and partners that we worked with last year – we appreciate your support too.

Mince pies. Carol singers. Absolute bedlam on the high street. It can only mean one thing – Christmas is approaching. And fast! But don’t let the thought of all the presents you haven’t bought yet depress you. There’s one thing everybody loves about the run up to the Big Day, and that’s the annual Scan Film or Store Christmas quiz.

This year, we’ve taken our inspiration from the silver screen and put together a list of quotes from 10 of our favourite Christmas films, along with a few trivia hints to help you identify them (and give you something to talk about at the office Christmas party). Get all the film titles right and you’ll be in with a chance to win a bottle of champagne and a box of mince pies to help you celebrate / cope with the in-laws / tick another item off the present list.

So, do you think you’re up for the challenge?

Ready, steady, quiz!

What are the titles of these 10 popular Christmas films?

1) “We elves like to stick to the four main food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corns and syrup.”

The star of this 2003 movie had to eat so many sweet products during filming that he ended up getting headaches from the sugar.

2) “Look, Daddy. Teacher says, every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings.”

This 70-year-old film may be a firm favourite, but two of its writers called the finished work “horrid” and refused to watch it when it was released.

3) “Blast this Christmas music. It’s joyful and triumphant.”

The prosthetic make up worn by this film’s star took around eight hours to apply and was so uncomfortable that he needed counselling from an expert in torture-resistance techniques.

4) “No! No! I want an official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle!”

This story is partly based on a book called In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash, a collection of short stories written by Jean Shepherd for Playboy magazine in the 1960s.

5) “You’re skipping Christmas! Isn’t that against the law?”

This film won the Young Artist Award for ‘best family feature film’ in 2005, but was also nominated for ‘worst film’ in the Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Awards.

6) “Now I have a machine gun. Ho ho ho.”

The all American hero of this popular action film, set at an office Christmas party, was actually born in Germany in 1955 – unlike many of the actors playing the movie’s German terrorists.

7) “I gotta tell you, Santa, there’s something about this place that doesn’t seem quite… kosher.”

The central theme of this Christmas film was inspired by the retail hysteria over the Cabbage Patch Dolls during the 1980s.

8) “A sequel. That’s it. We’ll bring it out on March 25 and we’ll call it… Christmas 2!”

The role of BZ in this film was offered to Harrison Ford, Burt Reynolds, Dustin Hoffman and Johnny Carson, before finally being accepted by John Lithgow.

9) “If I could work my will, every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas’ on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart!”

Released in 2009 and featuring the voice of Jim Carrey, this was the first Disney animated movie to release in IMAX 3D – and Carrey’s first film with Disney.

10) “Okay, this is extremely important. Will you please tell Santa that instead of presents this year, I just want my family back?”

This family film took $17,081,997 in its opening weekend in 1990 and stayed at the number one spot for 12 weeks, and in the top ten until June the following year.

How to enter

It’s really very easy. Just SCAN through these FILM clues, then STORE your answers in email format (see what we did there?) and send it to info@scan-film-store.co.uk. Remember, we’re looking for the film titles please! All entries with 10 correct answers will be put into a hat (by which we mean random number generator) and the winner chosen at random on 15th December 2016. You’ll receive your prize by 23rd December 2016, ready for the big day. Good luck!

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Minimalism. It’s a big thing right now. People are decluttering left, right and centre. Stuff, it seems, is no longer cool.

Just ask The Minimalists, Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus. Joshua was leading an outwardly successful but ultimately unfulfilling life as a corporate executive when he discovered that what he needed was not more but less.

He soon converted best mate Ryan to his way of thinking. Ryan took a pretty drastic approach to his conversion. He packed up literally all his belongings as if he were moving house, draping dust sheets over big items like furniture. The deal was this: each day he would unpack or uncover only that which he genuinely needed. At the end of 21 days he would throw the rest away.

All of it.

Just let that sink in for a moment.

Crazy, right? But the pair now have 4 million people regularly reading their blog, and they’ve been featured everywhere from the New York Times to the Wall Street Journal.

Japanese decluttering expert Marie Kondo takes a slightly different approach in her book The life-changing magic of tidying up. Although the first two thirds is likewise dedicated to divesting oneself of earthly possessions, her rather charming method involves keeping only those things which ‘spark joy’.

It’s all very inspiring, but not necessarily as easy to apply to an office setting as it is at home. After all, while toner cartridges and A4 envelopes don’t spark huge amounts of joy in most people, they’re pretty essential in the workplace.

What you can do, however, is get rid of some of that excess paperwork. Those musty smelling box files full of forms and letters and reports that haven’t seen the light of day since perms were in fashion are neither joyful nor essential, and are in fact costing you rather a lot of money in rent.

If you’re worried you might need them one day, get them scanned or at least store the originals offsite to create a more Zen-like atmosphere in your own office.

Ideally though, chuck them. Actually don’t chuck them, get them securely destroyed (you don’t want confidential information showing up in the papers or on a competitor’s desk, do you?).

We can help with all of the above, so get in touch today and we can chat about the best options for your business.

Just don’t expect us to help you clear out the kitchen fridge. We don’t do mouldy sandwiches.