WJC
Well-known member
On the Carson ads I have seen, they don't bother to tell customers what the solution consists of. I wonder why that is???
Good advertising need not be accurate or meaningful. It needs only to be believed. :cat:
Bill
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- Thread starter NDhunter
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On the Carson ads I have seen, they don't bother to tell customers what the solution consists of. I wonder why that is???
Good advertising need not be accurate or meaningful. It needs only to be believed. :cat:
Bill
WJC
Well-known member
Hey, it IS homemade. I did the whole thing myself. Thanks for liking it, anyway. :cat:
Bill
PIER PAOLO
Well-known member
WJC
Well-known member
At the risk of being misunderstood—again—I will proceed:
Of course, it works, Pier. But, are you saying that about a bazillion other special permutations of ... the 1933 Windex formula do not work? I didn’t say it doesn’t work, or that you can’t spend your life being happy with it. Or even SHOULD NOT. NOT AT ALL! I’m just saying that the stuff stored under the kitchen sinks and in the cupboards of the world will work just as well without all the extraneous verbiage which adds to the cost and “mystique” of the product. Chatting on the Internet doesn’t have a lasting affect. I am hanging a 45-year career as an optical technician on my comments found on pages 53-58 of my book. And if a PhD from the Optical Sciences Center says different? Well, I guess until he has repaired and collimated a few thousand binoculars for happy customers, I will have to stand my ground. Being bullheaded, I have a proclivity for that.
But, if you like the Carson stuff ... “Don’t worry; be happy.” :cat:
Bill
PS The Windex S. C. Johnson is now advertising as the "original" formula ... isn't—at least according to my research.
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Bill,
You remind me of an experience many years ago. I have to start by admitting to having a PhD in chemistry. I'm not bragging, it's just a fact I need to share for this story to make sense. When I moved to California many years ago, I moved into a house with a swimming pool. There was a pool guy who worked the neighborhood, and I asked him what sort of measurements he made and how often he adjusted the pool. He shrugged and said he added chlorine at regular intervals and acid when it was needed.
I figured I understood the pool chemistry better than this kid and I saw an opportunity to save money. So I fired him, bought a test kit and some chemicals from the Leslie Pool store, and went to work. Long story short, in one month the pool was green, the PhD was beaten, and the kid with practical experience was back on the job.
Alan
"In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But in practice, there is." --Yogi Berra
oldfortyfive
Well-known member
Reminds me of when I sat down with my father-in-law (also a PhD) for his first time on a word processor. He said it wasn't necessary to run the spell checker.......it caught 4 words in three paragraphs :t:
WJC
Well-known member
As many of my friends have PhDs as not. After 10+ years of college, however, I don’t even have a Master’s that would allow me to teach in a community college. With age creeping up my spine, a teaching gig would be a good thing—I’ve grown so fond of eating.
Bill
“Nobody ever goes to that restaurant anymore; it’s always too crowded.”—Yogi Berra
WJC
Well-known member
So, you’re the one! ‘Just kidding; it’s doing well. I have to laugh, though. I’ve been told that a couple of guys on CN have said although it was a good read, they “didn’t learn anything new.” Let me see: there are new concepts and statements in there that have probably never been in print, as well as the largest treatise on binocular collimation EVER offered to the consumer, and they already knew all of that!?
I am such a dummy. I thought I was doing my bino packin’ neighbor a favor. I should have saved all my wasted time and heartaches and waited for one of them to write their book. But then, thinking has never been my strong suit! :cat:
Bill
PS Where ya been?
Steve C
Well-known member
No it was not me...this time
I have been dealing with what seems to be an endless string of 14 hour days. If there were three of me we'd all be worn out. :eek!: Finally cooled off into the upper 50's from the 90's and we have some rain. May have finally put out some blasted fires so maybe I can see if the sky is still blue or not. There are a bunch burning in Crater Lake and the Wilderness just south from there that are not being fought. They will burn until winter puts them out.
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WJC
Well-known member
No it was not me...this time
I have been dealing with what seems to be an endless string of 14 hour days. If there were three of me we'd all be worn out. :eek!: Finally cooled off into the upper 50's from the 90's and we have some rain. May have finally put out some blasted fires so maybe I can see if the sky is still blue or not. There are a bunch burning in Crater Lake and the Wilderness just south from there that are not being fought. They will burn until winter puts them out.
Two weeks ago, sweat would drip from the brim of my cap. Saturday, I cut the grass wearing a coat. :cat:
PIER PAOLO
Well-known member
I will take a good book over wasting time searching for stuff on the internet any day!:king:
And the print quality of Bill's book is fine with me.:t:
Bob
PIER PAOLO
Well-known member
Holger Merlitz
Well-known member
Dear Pier,
Please regard yourself lucky if - in fact - you know essentially everything mentioned in Bill's book! Most people are not in such a comfortable position, and they still have a lot of things left to learn. Use your knowledge, and help other people understanding things, just as Bill has done.
Cheers,
Holger
PIER PAOLO
Well-known member
Of course I will do it, Holger. For free, as you and Henry Link, and Gjis an others do every day. But this is a different story: the book is not a free post, I have paid for it.
It has been reccomended and described as:" opus magnus on binoculars", "very enjoyable", "authoritative".
In my opinion it is not true.
WJC
Well-known member
Hi Pier:
First, let me point out that your snippet was incomplete. The very next sentence said:
“Let me see: there are new concepts and statements in there that have probably never been in print, as well as the largest treatise on binocular collimation EVER offered to the consumer, and they already knew all of that!?”
And, by your recent comment, it would appear YOU knew all of that, as well. If you did, why have you been keeping us in the dark? It was less than two weeks from my revealing the concept of “conditional alignment,”—usually unconsidered by optical PhDs—to the folks at the College of Optical Sciences at UA, that I was invited by the SPIE to lecture on the subject in 2012. And you already knew that? And how important it was to know?
Secondly, regarding the quality of YOUR copy of the book, you can return it for a replacement. AS SOON as I got a copy to sign that was inferior, I posted comment # 38, which starts with:
mayday, mayday, and continues in part with: AT LEAST 1/3 OF THE GRAPHICS ARE SO OVER-SATURATED WITH BLACK INK, THEY CANNOT ILLUSTRATE WHAT THEY NEED TO ILLUSTRATE!!!
Tell me, Pier, how could I have been more up front concerning that, as well? Possibly I am wrong, but I get the impression you are upset because in didn’t fall to my knees over the wonders of your Carson cleaning solution and that nothing I could say or do would erase the horrors of pointing out the realities of that matter. So, if your aim is to ignore many previously unspoken truths, ignore plain and immediate warnings over some of the copies printed that YOU might sound the alarm to others, or overlook the printer’s return policy so you might have something to be snarky about, please feel free to do so.
Not liking a book is a reality that all authors must face. For you not liking the book, I am truly sorry. I only take exception to your leaving the path of an honest and thorough representation of the facts.
And, if now, for setting the record straight, you must esteem me to be your enemy, I’m afraid you’re in error ... again.
And having just read the above comment, I would like to add that if you were to ask those mentioned, you would find that I have spent several hundred hours over the last 15 years doing exactly that, sitting up at all hours of the night—with a workday looming—to accurately answer a question that had been fowled up by some optical wannabe seeking adoration from a given forum. I have cannibalized my binoculars to send a part to a member in need in a foreign country. I have given way new binoculars, still in the box, to aid another. But, you don’t know any of that because you seem to be one of those people who comes to a forum “with guns blazing.” There is a very good reason why we are born with TWO ears but only ONE mouth.
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jan van daalen
Well-known member
Bill,
You'll never find a job anywhere as a salesman if you keep treating a "not amused" customer the way you do in your genuine Bill shoot from the hip style8-P.
I bought 5 copies of your book (one for my collection and 4 for sale in the shop) and found them worth every euro. 99.9% of the readers learn from the content. The lucky 0.1% not. Lucky because they allready have the knowledge
Let us treat everybody with equel respect and the customer has his right to be disappointed.
Jan
WJC
Well-known member
Bill,
You'll never find a job anywhere as a salesman if you keep treating a "not amused" customer the way you do in your genuine Bill shoot from the hip style8-P.
I bought 5 copies of your book (one for my collection and 4 for sale in the shop) and found them worth every euro. 99.9% of the readers learn from the content. The lucky 0.1% not. Lucky because they allready have the knowledge
Let us treat everybody with equel respect and the customer has his right to be disappointed.
Jan
‘Morning Jan:
Please understand I know the customer has the right to be disappointed—and would expect nothing else—and clearly point this out in my Post. That was never in contention with me—only an honest representation.
Somewhere around 2004 or 2005 a fellow was traveling from Helena, Montana to see his sister in Red Bank or Redding, California, and stopped by Captain’s to buy a couple of binoculars. I queried him about why the stopover in Seattle, since it was a few hundred miles out of his way. His response was humbling. In his best out-west accent, he said:
“If I’m gonna spend this much on a couple of binoculars, I wanna talk to somebody who knows what the hell he’s talking about.”
Two Swarovskis out the door (and no one was EVER on commission in my shop). When people learn you know your craft—and that you don’t bend the truth for anyone—they come AND they come again. On the back of my book, Alan Hale of Celestron said:
“...Bill is not out to protect brands and factories when they continually mislead consumers about their products. Instead, he tells it like it is — straight and honest — even when manufacturers get upset when they hear the truth.”
Alan knows first hand, because it was sometimes Celestron that was taking my heat for standing by some OEM, as I stood firm on behalf of the consumer.
Do what is right and let the consequence follow.
By the way, with practice one can get pretty accurate shooting from the hip.
And thanks for buying some of my books. If I ever get over to see Harrie, I'll be sure to stop by to see you, too. Seven languages? No wonder that thing in his head is having a hard time. Still, he is a VERY lucky man. :cat:
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