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The following are some of the comments to MicroImages during the last quarter exactly as written except for the [edit] alterations in [brackets] to keep them anonymous. Obviously many more comments are received by MicroImages by voice but cannot be reproduced here verbatim as quotes. Please note that these quotations are not edited from their original form in spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc.

from a FAX from an Australian client on 13 April 1996.

"I received the ADB key in exchange for the parallel key and am pleased to report that TNTmips is now running on a Power Mac. Thank you for providing the option to exchange keys so that this was possible."

"To date all processes that I have tried, have performed as expected. I look forward to the continued refinement of the product."

[Note that this long-term client was able to switch from W95to the MacOS and immediately continue to use TNTmips.No relearning was involved to change platforms.]

from FAXes from an international representative. (usingV5.20)

FAX before ordering on 4 March 1996.

"I think that they are also wanting to see what they are into before committing to larger amounts. They have, unfortunately, been 'stung' by certain other software vendors, so I can understand their caution. AutoCAD flatly refused to give them support with certain data-import problems, leaving them 'up the creek, without a paddle'."

FAX after training on 13 April 1996.

"Just a brief note to keep you informed on developments at [a name]. Our office renovations are thankfully, almost complete so I can now devote more time to actual business matters. I have just returned from a very successful trip to [a country], where I delivered and installed [a new client's] TNTmips system. I would like to complement you and your team on a most excellent product. It was a privilege and a pleasure to represents uch a refined software package. The whole week I was there we encountered only one minor bug. The [new client] has installed Pentium 133 machines, and both myself and the people I was training were impressed with the performance and speed of all the TNT processes we worked with. It was obvious that the TNTmips code has been designed for the machines of the future, andnow that fast desktop machines have arrived, the software is able to deliver the performance that is needed for IP/GIS tasks."

"The [client] personnel were impressed with the ease of operation and user friendly interface of TNTmips, although being somewhat overwhelmed by the scope of the product. Within a day or two we were able to import or link to their existing databases and CAD files; their realization that they would not have to recapture all this data, but that their datasets were immediately available within TNTmips, providing the foundation for their GIS database, was a big plus for this client. When we were linking to a DXF file containing all the [client's] infrastructure data (8Mb), the [manager] remarked that he would be most surprised if this worked, since no other package had been able to import their CAD (other than AUTOCAD of course). After a minute or two we had the CAD imported and displayed on a georeferenced orthophoto image with exact registration. The [manager] then remarked that the money spent on the purchase of TNTmips had been fully justified with that one successful import! The pin mapping process is also a boon to them, as they can now visualize their data as they have never before been able to do, and they are able to show management in the simplest graphical terms exactly how various key environmental parameters are behaving on a monthly basis. I left there with the feeling that [the clients] believed they had found a software tool that met their requirements and would open up many new possibilities for environmental management and analysis. I know that they were very keen to get started, though somewhat apprehensive about where they were going to find the time to fully utilize the functions of TNTmips within their busy schedules!"

[The bug noted above was the need for a special coordinate system for this country which can be described and therefore used by entering its parameters in the User Defined projection system.]

from FAXes from an international representative on 12April 1996. (using V5.20)

"Several persons are working at [a client site] and they are all using MIPS [TNTmips] on Sun. They are scanning contour maps and polygon maps by themselves using an A0-size scanner and converting to vectors by MIPS. They are readily using MIPS!! Where is Erdas! Where is ArcInfo!"

[The client site has multiple ERDAS and Arc/Info units purchased before TNTmips. Follow-up FAXes to this representative have identified that the use of these products has been reduced. They can be beat in a fair head-to-head comparison by staff who want to get work done rather than protect an empire!]

from email from a Uganda client on 30 April 1996. (using V5.20)

"There is a third problem that cropped up recently: I bought printers drivers from TNTmips (level D15)about one year ago. I have been plotting [printing] map posters (up to A0) from TNTmips since then. It also happens one of our staff member is using arc/info and when she tried to plot an 11Mb of arc/info plot file, the plot [printer] (HP 650C DesignJet) displayed an error message that it was out of memory. TNTmips was able to handle even bigger files with only 4Mb of plotter [printer] memory without any problem. Plotting large files would be managed by TNTmips with the following message on the front panel of the plotter: receiving and plotting. But it would perfectly plot the file!

In order to overcome the plotting the large Arc/Info plot files, we upgraded the plotter memory to 32Mb. In addition, we found out that the purchased plotter from the USA came with the so called Adobe printer drivers on a floppy, but also some sort of chip processor. We installed it. Guess what happened next! TNTmips refuse to plot map! Surely I do not know what happened. The print file is still made in TNTmips (takes about an hour for my size/number of layers of my poster) and it attempts to print. This time the message is 'receiving' continuously and then plotting. However, when it starts plotting, the ink cartridge vibrates at only one position as blank paper is quickly pushed out of the plotter. TNTmips then reports then printing is over, indicating time. I am yours."

[One wonders at this point how things worked out for the ARC/INFO user after the upgrade. But, it goes without saying that we try to do it better and cheaper than ARC/INFO. This client's associate could probably have purchased a complete TNTmips software package for the price of adding this much memory to the HP printer for what HP charges for special add-on memory.]

[MicroImages' Software Support responded with advice on things to check on the setup of the printer. They were now trying to print from TNTmips via Postscript without changing the printer definition from direct print.]

email response from the same Uganda client on 2 May 1996. (usingV5.20)

"The second problem was failure to plot A0 maps using HP Deskjet 650C. This has been solved! One of our staff had changed rotation of the map to be printed (90 degree). It was because of that that no printing could be effected from TNTmips. However, after my colleague recalled that she had indeed made some changes on the printer itself, we put it back to 0 degrees and I was able to print in TNTmips."

from a FAX from an international representative on 26April 1996.

"Today I send a message to the [a University]. They are involved in the UNIGIS-courses for the German speaking countries (around 400 students). They have there a very good server with information concerning GIS. The head [a name] (I know him quite good) asked, if it is possible to copy TNTlite on there (WWW-FTP) server."

"Please inform me, if it is possible. If your answer isyes, I will send him a CD-ROM directly after getting fromyou a copy [was waiting for V5.30 to arrive]"

from a FAX response from MicroImages on 30 April 1996to the above request.

"MicroImages does not see any difficulties with the request from the [a University]. This is one of the ideas that we had in mind. Note that in order to make [it] available for all of the platforms, that [the company] can loan the University the B disk of your release materials. Note that if you provide a complete mailing address for [a name] that MicroImages will send a complete set of version 5.30(disks A and B) free of charge."

[This is how we designed the TNTlite program--anybody, anytime, anyplace, anyway.]

from a FAX from an international representative on 7May 1996.

"I received my copy of v5.3 four days ago and have been using it solidly ever since. It has some great new features."

from a FAX from an international representative on 8May 1996.

"The new TNTlite product is just what I needed out here in the flooded land of ERM [ER Mapper].I intend to have it in all the Universities in the next few weeks...the price is very attractive to them !!!"

"The feedback I am getting on ERM is that even though the image processing capabilities of ERM are good that it does not fill the total requirement. This of course is a comment made after they have purchased and really tried to put it to work. With TNTlite we are now able to offer them something they can play with without having someone breathing down their necks. I intend to supply it selectively to a number of mining companies."

from email from a South African client on 13 May 1996.

"This message has a twofold purpose. First, to send a message to the list server now that it is operating correctly and second, to inform you that the TNTMips link to AtlasGISis working very well. I am really looking forward to the HotLink between TNTMips and AtlasGIS. MicroImages well doneon the link - please keep us informed as to when we can access completed TNTMips - AtlasGIS link."

from email from the same South African client on 14 May 1996.

"Presently, I must say that I am very happy with TNTmips especially its stability, speed and functionality. The fact that MicroImages puts out a new release one a quarter is a major plus for the company, its user and the GIS industry in general. The release of TNTlite is also, I believe, a fantastic idea. [A name] is a distributor of AtlasGIS in Southern Africa and they will definitely exploit this offer of TNTlite and distribute it to many many institutions throughout the country."

"From what I can gather, MicroImages is going from strength to strength and I am pleased that our company is a major user of your products."

from a FAX from an international representative on 13May 1996.

"Congratulation by the idea of TNTlite. I think other systems like IDRISI, free license of ArcInfo andErdas will disappear. TNTlite is already installed in the [a national university]. Other schools of the university are very interested to use TNTlite. The [geography department] have big plans to teach geographic information system in some of courses using TNTlite. TNTmips will be very popular between the future professionals and increase the growing potential."

"I think TNTlite have a big advantage over free license of ArcInfo or Erdas for the university. The first point is TNTlite is FREE. No limitations in the number of users. A whole class have use it and continue use TNTlite at home. The limitation of raster size and vector polygons number is enough for docent purpose and TNTlite is very easy to use, no need complicated command to use like ArcInfo. The license of ArcInfo have an hi cost, because only expert users can use, ArcInfo PC is very limited and is not useful tools for teach purposes."

"[The representative] are preparing [national] data set to use with TNTlite. The idea is sow the power of TNTmips and use the data set for training purposes. I order to Terry 60 TNTlite to distribute between interested people."

from a FAX from international representative on 16 May1996.

"I have a good feeling about TNTlite and it is amazingly easy to 'sell'! People don't hesitate to spend [US$25]for the two CD's - i.e. a split second decision! The good thing is that people are really buying and learning TNTmips. Now just a matter of waiting until people are convinced they shouldbut the full version for their work. It will be interesting tonote the lead time for people who purchase TNTlite and then decide they need TNTmips."

"From our point of view TNTlite could not have been released at a more opportune time."

from a FAX from an international representative on 16May 1996.

"The TNTlite product is a coup! My partner and I have been discussing our vision of GIS, and GIS training for a while now, and reading our notes in the release MEMO, regarding your philosophy and approach to GIS (Geomatics!I agree) and its future place in the workplace and home, was like a summation of our own goals, and visions of where GIS is headed (or should be headed). I have no doubt that the TNTlite product is going to be a major success story, and will mark the real turning point in the history of desktop mapping systems. Once again, your competitors are going to have to 'play follow my leader', but I'm not sure if they can in this case."

from a FAX from an Australian client on 17 May 1996.

"[A company name] purchased TNTmips from [a Dealer], and I'm pleased to say we are most impressed with your product. The fact that we have been using the software since March without cause to contact your Technical Support service also compliments your documentation."

from a FAX from an international representative on 17May 1996.

"We have been using V5.30 at least 12 hours per day since it arrived and are pleased with the new features and stability. We have made good use of the thematic styling facilities since they appeared in the beta release. Is it my imagination or is version 5.3 faster than version 5.2 and the5.3 beta?"

[MicroImages has no explanation for apparent speed increase.]

from a FAX from a Kazakhstan client on 18 May 1996.

"First let me say how pleased I am with version 5.3of TNTmips. It is becoming a very powerful system for our purposes. I was particularly pleased to find geological fill patterns. Are geological symbol and line patterns in the pipe line?"

[Unfortunately such standard symbols are not yet available and require additional software development.]

from a FAX from an international representative on 18May 1996.

"TNTmips v5.3 is working pretty well. Thank you for a magnificent software system."

"I used Arc/Info during three years before I changed to TNTmips and I wouldn't change back to Arc/Info in any case!"

from email from Spain on 20 May 1996.

"Last week I received the CD-ROM with TNTlite as well as some documentation about your products. The package is really nice. I installed it into my Power Mac at 90 Mhz and it is running fine. I also return to MicroImages the registration card. I plan to use the program for some weeks to exercise myself and to make plans for upgrade to the full version. Many thanks for your kindness."

from email from a South African client on 31 May 1996.

"Please let [a name] know I have designed a course using MicroImages comprehensive documentation and we are successfully using TNTlite to train all of our GIS staff on TNTmips now. TNTlite is a fantastic idea and I am sure that it will help leverage TNTmips much further into the GIS market where it deserves to be."

from a FAX from an international representative on 8June 1996.

"I was asked to visit the [an organization] which has a TNTmips. [They] bought a TNTmips to bring IPS software with his Windows 95 laptop to take to [a country]. His boss is [a name] and Chief of the Remote Sensing Lab. This lab is a big ERDAS site in [this country] using four or five license."

"It seems that they had tried to conduct an image processing demo using ERDAS Imagine NT (I do not know if they bought it or it was loaned to them) for a visiting dignitary. The machine they were using was a Pentium Pro (200 Mhz) using our national version of Windows NT. Though Imagine was installed on the machine, they were told by the ERDAS dealer that the reason it would not work was that Imagine did not support the new video display board (they said it was an MGA or something). So [the client] called me suddenly the day before and asked if I could do a demo using their TNTmips. [The client] was not very familiar with TNTmips and so the objective of my visit was to make the installation and do some demo."

"Installation of TNTmips was so easy. ERDASImage is using the same Sentinel parallel key so I did not need to install a driver. I just ran SETUP_NT which installed TNTmips. Then I imported the ERDAS LAN file (5 band) and DISPLAY2Ded it. They asked to do the unsupervised classification first, so I did and showed the result, DISPLAY2Ded the original raster and the classification result by opening two windows separately and geographically locked them together, just like ERDAS. Then I did a supervised classification (Max likelihood), and before that I showed them how to make training data using FEATURE MAP. The seemed impressed for the easy operation of TNTmips, then I did the classification and showed the results. Then they asked how to attach ground control points using a reference map so I showed them GEOREFERENCE. They said this operation was easier than ERDAS. We have heard this same input from [another client]. They had forgotten how to do this same georeferencing in ERDAS three days after they had put in a lot of effort learning it. They seemed satisfied and gave TNTlite to the visitor who said he would attempt to find the money to buy TNTmips."

from a posting to TNTtalk from an international representative on 8 June 1996.

"we use TNTmips at least 12 hours a day seven days a week and in three weeks we will officially become resellers [dealers] for MicroImages."

from a FAX from an international representative on 12June 1996.

"I have also just heard that a [technical school] group in [Australia] have chosen TNTlite over an ERMapper special deal for their Cartography, GIS and Remote Sensing courses. Hopefully this will be the first of many."

from email from a TNTlite recipient on 13 June 1996.

"I was very impressed to receive the packet with TNTlite as a marketing tool. Very well done. I like the idea of full functionality with a 512 x 512 and I believe 7-bit limit. Excellent for training and introducing the technology! And the CD was appreciated (I will look for a portable CD to hook up to my Power Mac 7100/66 here at work so I can load it."

"I am supervisor for [a major oil company's] significant remote sensing effort - based out of [a state] but serving our business units worldwide. We have lottsa hardware and software, but I have always been intrigued by your operation. [A name] gives you very high marks. I know nothing about you but read your TNTlite literature cover-to-cover."

"I visited and gave demo/lectures/lead discussions at over 15 universities across the USA the past several months as an American Association of Petroleum Geologist (AAPG) Lecturer. The topic was practically using remote sensing and associated technologies (CAD, GPS, GIS, and DEM's) for geological and environmental applications. I was using a PC laptop with PCI's Handler and ArcView demos. My message was that now was the time to use PC's and friendly software to get into remote sensing."

"At the time of the tour I did not have access to TNT products. Since then I have taught a course at a GSA conference and most recently at the National AAPG conference. I maybe teaching a course at the National GSA in Salt Lake City in '97. I have written a course book and use georeferenced LandsatTM, scanned topo & geologic maps, and DEM's of the Salton Sea area ( a large overview about 2000 x 2000 and a smaller version 1024 x 1024 - all are georeferenced in PCI format). I am interested in reducing the size of my digital data to fit TNTlite's requirements. The TM data are older than 10 years so there is no copyright on them - free to give away to inspire students, faculty, and small businesspeople - much like your philosophy! And the TNTlite software is free. Looks like a winner to me!"

"I feel quite frustrated that most of the students cannot interact with the digital data I am willing to leave with them because they cannot afford the software with the necessary functionality. I leave it with the schools for loading on their UNIX client-server set-ups, but that is very restrictive and not very constructive for the students. I hope TNTlite supports georeferencing so when roaming the imagery sees Lat/Long or UTM coordinates instead of irrelevant line/sample #...?..."

"For image processing, I am most familiar with PCI, ER-Mapper,. ERDAS, and ENVI (we still run bankrupt Terra-Mar software (Microimages) on a beefed-up 486...it does an excellent job with colors!). We use Microstation &AutoCAD for vector work. And we use ArcInfo & MapInfo for GIS. However, it may be that for my teaching and intro work, TNT products are the best solution for me...maybe there is even a place in the company for the TNT products if we figured out how to use it!"

"I would like to receive a copy of TNTatlas...Prototype2. It is of my backyard out here and may be very convincing! We give a lot of tours to government & industry people from around the world."

"Thanks for listening. Keep up the good work. I am on the road for a couple of weeks, but hope to see a package or some note from you on my desk when I get back."

from an Internet GIS newsgroup posting from Sweden on18 June 1996.

"A recent posting to this list promoted the TNTmips, as an alternative to MapInfo or the software from ESRI."

"This looked promising, and they even offered a lite/demoversion available for download."

"But beware - they must be joking - I found that the downloadable executable for my Win3.x system amounted to 62 MB !! (sample data was 10-20 MB !!). Now, who would expect it possible to perform such a download without time-outs!"

"I'd never make it, in spite of a reasonably fast leased line to the Internet."

[First, in no way has MicroImages ever claimed that TNTlite was some kind of trivial demo program. Our passouts and web site are pretty clear on what it is. Second, this individual's slow and unreliable Internet access (regardless of what he says) is a problem of his local service provider and his organization, certainly not MicroImages. Inability to reliably download large items via Internet does not make TNTlite any less free or useful. Those with high speed access to the Internet, such as universities and related, are downloading routinely. Anyway, the following was the response to this from someone else.]

[However, we do listen, so this posting did cause MicroImages to implement the piece-by-piece downloading procedures noted earlier.]

from an Internet response from Tasmania posted on 18 June 1996.

"They will supply it on CD-ROM for basically the cost of freight, and registration gets you one free upgrade, i.e. saves you the cost of another lot of freight! Its a pretty good deal, especially since all your friends/students can then copy the CD-ROM legally for nix."

[Obviously, this party can read and understand. MicroImages has no TNT professional products installed in Tasmania. Neither this party nor his organization are clients of MicroImages. MicroImages also has no previous contact with them and did not supply them directly with the TNTlite CD which they must have obtained via a dealer.]

from an Internet GIS newsgroup posting from Texas on18 June 1996.

"Well, I sure hope you guys are for real. I am an AtlasGISuser and a fairly dedicated one at that. When I saw a message placed on [a name's] list I was intrigued enough to give you guys my credit card number and order TNTlite. It sounds like a great product and look forward to trying it out."

from email from a South African client on 19 June 1996.

"Dear [a name]"

"Thought I would give you some information on TNTmips as a user of both of it and AtlasGIS. We are presently working with the people at MicroImages to get a 'hotlink' between AtlasGIS and TNTmips. The import routine works like a dream and once in TNTmips, there are no end of things that can be done in TNTmips. Types of things that can be successfully done in TNTmips include routing, Voronoi regions, full vector editing (splining, thinning, sliver polygons, etc.) and many more functions. In fact, TNTmips seems to have taken a couple of pages out of Atlas's book."

"The end result is that AtlasGIS has a 'big brother' which gives a lot more functionality. In my opinion, the combination of AtlasGIS's user-friendliness in the desktop environment and TNTmips in the full GIS/CAD/raster environment is a world beater and is only something that Arc-Info/ERDAS/Arc-Cad/ArcView users can dream about. On the other hand, as a user I could be 'biased'. Nevertheless, I thought you might be interested to hear from someone who is a user of both systems."

"Cheers"

from email from a professor from Spain on the dates noted.

on 20 June 1996

"I am a professor of geography in the [a University]. I am very interested in TNT for Windows NT. Please, send me more information about this GIS software, (Pricelist please) and his integration with remote sensing software (ENVI, ERDAS Imagine, EASI-PCI, ERMAPPER....)."

[This individual seems acquainted with and experienced with the use of a number of commercial image processing packages.]

on 20 June 1996

[Later in the day this professor discovered the order form on the home page at microimages.com and filled out and emailed an order for TNTlite. He supplied a credit card number for$50 and requested that it be sent via air express.]

on 21 June 1996

[A TNTlite kit and the standard collection of promotional materials for the TNT professional products were shipped out from MicroImages.]

on 23 or 24 June 1996

[These materials should have arrived in Spain.]

on 26 June 1996

"I am very interested, and very surprised with the power of the product too. Before I want to make some questions: [Some questions about the features to purchase followed.]"

[It is not the above statement that is significant here, but the circumstances which surround it.]

on 27 June 1996

[the professor requested a pro forma for a professional TNTmips via email, and it was prepared and FAXed.]

on 27 June 1996

[MicroImages mailed all of 4000 TNTlite fliers and TNT professional product fliers around the world (mostly in the U.S.) to a special purchased mailing list of Geography Professors who are involved in some fashion with GIS.]

on 9 July 1996

[This professor purchased a TNTmips system for his Department use and to support his students' use of TNTlite by returning the signed pro forma. This transaction follows the model MicroImages would like to use with the TNT products. Students and teachers can use it as freely as possible. However, some academic locations may subsequently choose to purchase a TNT professional product to support their students' activities in the form of geo-data preparation, larger graduate research projects, etc.]

from a FAX from a German client on 8 July 1996.

"First of all I would like to thank for [a name's] support in April. The program works and I have managed to print brilliant large maps (0.50m x 1.40m) on the HP650c. I like and really need the possibility and functions of TNTmips, especially the proper import of AutoCAD and ARCdata (better experiences than I had with ARCView). Our current main tasks are environmental assessment, e.g. for road planning. We are using the software on a hardware as follows: a Pentium166 with 32 MB RAM with a 21" and 17" monitor, each supported by a MB ELSA Winner graphic card. The program is run from the hard disk, data are stored on the NOVELL net server. We use a CALcomp DBII size A1 digitizer and a combined mouse and digitizer driver."

[Continues on in the next paragraph to outline a current problem.]

from an email from a student on 10 July 1996.

"I just spent all night downloading TNTlite for my Mac ó 68030 w/FPU. The download has been successfully de-binhexed and expanded."

[Continues on with question on installation, how many downloads are being made every day.]

from an email from an Australian client on 18 July 1996.

"My partner [a name] and myself, have a small geological consulting operation in [a state]."

"We have been using TNTmips for a little over a year now, and find it is very useful software."

"Most of the work that we have been using TNT for involves the use of very large data sets, some being in excess of 500Mb."

"As you can imagine, some computing processes on datasets of this size can take quite a considerable time to compute even on a high end Pentium PC."

"My question to you is ... How much would it cost us for you to supply us with a very basic Hardware key to run TNT processes on a separate machine? This Key would not need to allow any printing or scanning devices, etc."

"We have three high end Pentium machines all containing at least 64Mb of RAM and 6Gb of SCSI disk space running Windows 95."

"Ideally we would like to be able to utilize all of these machines for the processing stages of our data."

"I have tried Multitasking on a single machine however this does not seem to give me any overall speed gain and I feel that the only way that I am going to be able to finish these tasks quicker is to utilize the other two machines that are available to me."

"I am sure that one day soon true parallel processing on a single machine will be possible. But until then I am forced to make this request for additional hardware key or keys and hope that the cost will not be too great."

[This is a good illustration of the benefits to clients of MicroImages' pricing structure. This client can purchase two additional basic keys with a resolution just high enough to provide a decent windows interface (e.g. D30, D35, or D40). However, in the base price these keys will also provide every available GIS and image analysis process--no options needed! If they were using a competitor's product, they would have to pay for a long list of occasionally used modules to triplicate the analysis functionality of their first unit. But, this client can simply use their available two additional computers with two additional base keys to triple their throughput at less than the cost of their original D60 based system. As they recognize, all peripheral activity, such as printing and scanning, can be done with the existing base key.]

Abbreviations.

For simplicity, the following abbreviations were used in this MEMO.

W31 = Microsoft Windows 3.1 or 3.11.

NT or NT4 = Microsoft NT 3.1, 3.5,or 4.0 (3.1 is error prone and thus the TNT products require the use of 3.5 and its subsequent patches).

W95 = Microsoft Windows 95.

Mac = Apple Macintosh using the 68xxx Motorola processor and MacOS 6.x or 7.x.

PMac or Power Mac = Apple Macintosh using the 60x Motorola PowerPC processor and MacOS 7.x.

MI/X = MicroImages' X server for Mac and PC microcomputer platform and operating system.