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Tuesday, 22 February 2011 14:35 |
Notice of price increase
It is now ten years since we last changed the price of our Fatmeter range. We have managed to do this by investing in improved designs and workflow while also working hard to keep costs down through efficiency and innovation.
In the past two years, however, the weakened global economy has led to increased costs in materials, components and business overheads. This has forced us to increase the price of our meters, spare parts, repairs and service work. The price increase will be 10% and will apply to all orders despatched on or after 1st April 2011.
We understand that this might be difficult for our customers, but let me put the increase in perspective. In the past ten years UK inflation has seen costs rise by 23%. If we had increased our prices at the rate of inflation each year then our £3,995 meters would now cost over £4,900, nearly £1,000 more than current prices.
At present our meters are still at 2001 prices. The 10% price rise, in the context of inflation, means that our meters will be at 2006 equivalent prices, and they are therefore still cheaper than they would be if we had applied a year-on-year price increase at the normal rate of inflation.
Be assured that we are only applying this price increase because it is necessary for us to continue to develop our technology and to provide the high level of service that our customers are used to.
The new retail prices for our meters will be:
| Meat Fatmeter Kits |
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MFM-1092 (standard sensor model)
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£ 4,395 |
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MFM-992 (small sensor model) |
£ 3,295 |
| Fish Fatmeter Kits |
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FFM-692 (standard sensor model) |
£ 4,395 |
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FFM-992 (small sensor model) |
£ 3,295 |
| Fish Freshness Meter Kits |
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Torrymeter |
£ 1,535 |
All prices are in GBP, excluding VAT and delivery.
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Tuesday, 01 February 2011 13:49 |
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It has come to our attention that the Data Management System software that we supply is regarded as 'highly risky' by Norton Internet Security, and that the installer program for the DMS is deleted immediately after being downloaded.
We can absolutely assure you that there is no malware or virus in our DMS package. One unpleasant aspect of the behaviour of NIS is that it does not immediately make it clear why a piece of software is being removed.
NIS has a 'feature' called SONAR, and one of the tests that SONAR seems to run is to check whether or not a given piece of software is widely used. The DMS installer, and the DMS software itself, is not widely used, at least not in terms of mainstream tools like Microsoft Word or Excel. The policy of the SONAR component is to assume that any software that it does not know must be risky, and therefore it deletes or quarantines the software.
In the case of the DMS Installer utility, SONAR chooses to simply delete the software. There is no prompt given to the user to confirm whether deletion is appropriate or not, though this may be introduced as an addition to future versions of NIS.
Distell's view on this behaviour is that it is entirely inappropriate for a piece of software like the SONAR component of NIS to take the decision away from the user on whether or not a piece of software can be considered safe. So far as we are aware, there is no over-ride or option that will cause SONAR to change its behaviour in this area, which means that it is effectively impossible to install the DMS software while NIS is running.
If you cannot avoid using NIS on the computer that you want to run the DMS, we suggest the following:
- Temporarily turn off NIS.
- Download the DMS installer (see the DMS page for information)
- Install the DMS
- Re-enable NIS
- Instruct NIS to exclude the DMS installation directory from scans. Typically this is C:\Program Files\Distell\Distell Data Management System, but this is chosen during installation.
- If, despite the above, the DMS executable (DMS.exe) is quarantined by NIS then you can instruct NIS to restore the file and to avoid checking it in the future.
We recommend, if the choice is available, to avoid using Norton Internet Security until such time as the SONAR component allows the user to decide whether a file is or is not to be treated as dangerous.
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Independent study validates Fatmeter accuracy |
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Wednesday, 24 November 2010 12:58 |
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Anyone who is interested in the Distell Fatmeter might also be interested to read a paper published by the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission (NPAFC). The paper is the product of a Fish Fatmeter evaluation study where immature chum salmon were tested with both the Fatmeter and with chemical laboratory analysis.
The study found that the Fatmeter did provide an accurate and rapid assessment of fat content in the subject fish. The paper states that the Fatmeter 'can be used as an effective tool for the rapid estimation of total lipid contents in chum salmon', and goes on to say: 'Our results demonstrate that the strong relationship between the total lipid content of half body fillet and microwave meter [Fatmeter] values. Unlike chemical analysis, microwave meter enables us to assess the total lipid content rapidly.'
The full text of the paper can be found on the NSAPC website. |
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Friday, 23 July 2010 17:23 |
We are pleased to welcome Netmar S.A. de C.V. and Interprise USA as new distributors for Distell meters in Mexico and Brazil respectively, and we look forward to a long and fruitful relationship with both organisations.
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