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Extracted from a FAX from Germany 9 October 2002

“[A name] is a consulting company in the field of hydrogeology and environmental protection and … But TNTmips remains our most important software besides the word processor. It is used for mapping, analysing spatial data and as well even for constructing hydrogeological cross sections. There is no day in our office without running TNTmips and there is no report leaving our office without several illustrations or diagrams produced by TNTmips.”

Extracted from email from the USA 10 October 2002

“Hi Kevin. I just wanted to take a moment to thank you and Cindy for all your technical support these past days. You both really know your product very well, and have really helped point me in the right direction in teaching all the TNTmips “Processes”.

“I can’t believe the “Zone 1” issue today! Especially since I tried to avoid that type of thing happening when setting up my ArcView shapefiles. Oh well, this kind of thing can happen in a technical world; and is almost always “something simple” and ends up causing a big headache.

“I enjoyed working with the TNTmips manual [probably means Tutorial Booklets] on some of the tutorial segments, and know that once I can apply those concepts to real world data, things will be good again in my GIS world.

“Thanks for helping maneuver me around to all the important menu checks that I need to know in checking my data and running processes. Before you know it, I’ll be up-to-speed. I’ll let you know how it goes…”

Extracted from email from the USA 3 December 2002

“One program (SGIS from AgChem…based on ArcView 8.2) does VRT maps; another one (SMS from AgLeader) does the yield mapping. An outside contractor collects the soil test (2.5 A grid basis) to drive the VRT maps using something else. Fortunately, all of the programs can export or save standard GEOtiff and shapefiles.

“You would think that I had invented georeferenced data (and it almost appears to be a miracle) when I overlaid the two sets of data on a common orthoimage I downloaded from the web. This really the kind of stuff we would do “real-time” while on the phone with a client having an import problem back in software support. It is kind of scary that there are not any higher expectations for the software being used.

“There is a real need for a program to pull all the different data together so it can be published for the agronomists, general managers, and producers. I may try to demonstrate a county-wide atlas at the annual meeting next week to generate some interest in this data publishing concept. A single county demo is the only freebee I’ll do…but I think that it will generate enough interest until we purchase some real GIS software.”

Extracted from email from the USA 16 December 2002

“This is probably the first known limit I have encountered in TNTmips.”

[This is from someone who has worked with TNTmips (and ESRI products) for at least 10 years, uses many different features, and continues to push it to its limits in terms of data set sizes and performance.]

Extracted from email from England 23 December 2003

“That’s great – sorry, should have remembered the cartoscript functionality! By the way, have been using the Spatial Data Editor recently and was very impressed (and thankful) for the ‘trace vector from reference layer’ and ‘z-value’ tools they both saved me a great deal of time.”

Extracted from email from the USA on 25 February 2003

[The following is a response to a thread on the web list (map-mac@avenza.com) discussing GIS products for Mac OS X.]

“Thanks for the information, I am currently going to get it. At the same time, and in the spirit of your plea, people should seriously look at TNTmips. It is really the only major GIS package that is well supported on the OsX platform. It is so because the president of the company is a Mac fan and against the wishes of his own programmers has continued to keep Macs in the fold. It is one hell of a combination of vector and raster GIS capabilities and is worth a serious look.”

Extracted from email from Japan on 19 March 2003

“By the way, I visited Thailand for the remote sensing ground truth last month. The engineers in Thailand and a professor of Asian Institute of Technology asked me what remote sensing and GIS software is the best. I use TNTmips, ER-MAPPER, ENVI, ERDAS, EarthView, ILWIS, SPANS, IDRIS, ArcInfo, etc. But I recommended TNTmips. Adding TNTmips is very useful, but giving some pains to the software maintenance.”

[We hope the new dual release system initiated with the release of RV6.8 will reduce the maintenance issues noted here.]

Extracted from email from the USA on 31 March 2003

“A couple of quick comments can be provided now relative to your question. My sense at this time is that MicroImages has done a superb job of accepting our requirements and implementing them. I was also particularly pleased with our interaction during our recent visit to Lincoln, and thank you for your prompt attention to our customer’s list of concerns. But while I’m personally gratified that we should be queried on the readiness of v6.8 for distribution, I’m hesitant to play a part in this major business decision, since I believe it is for MicroImages to determine. Beyond that, I would like to complete the action I left with my staff the week before last, and I will commit to providing a more formal response by Wednesday COB [Close Of Business] this week.”

Extracted from email from Slovenia on 1 April 2003

[This user group is a Slovenian National Park and has been using a TNTmips unit for several years.]

“Thank you for sending us printed materials and Cd of version 6.7. I am highly satisfied with your products.

“Besides, I would like to inform you about location of [our] national park – please see attached map…”

[Turns out that this park is located on the splash screen everyone sees while any TNT product is starting up in Windows.]

Email from the USA on 18 April 2003

[This is from a system engineer of a contractor who is testing TNTmips floating licenses for use in a U.S. Government Agency.]

“Good Afternoon

“I wanted to take this opportunity to personally thank you for your continued support. Working on [a US Government project] I have dealt with many vendors of many different products. So far MicroImages is my personal favorite. The people I speak with are kind, knowledgeable and always professional. When I do have difficulty with a MicroImages product, I know it won’t be long before it gets resolved. The technical support staff always goes the extra mile and are willing to work with me in real-time, which is appreciated more than I can express in words.

“Cindy’s patient, kind demeanor and genuine concern for my success with your products should be an example to be followed industry wide. Ron’s intimate and detailed understanding of all is a TNT testament to the quality you provide. And I really do enjoy talking to Terry at 6:00 am (EST). He helps out to the best of his ability. I have not found another vendor who is able to field questions that early in the morning.

“I know that this and $1.00 can get you a soda from the vending machine, but I just couldn’t let this go. It is rare that I run across a group of folks that take such ownership and responsibility for what they do. And I truly appreciate it.

“Thanks again.”

Extracted from email from Australia on 9 April 2003

“That worked perfectly! Thanks a million. I love it when the answers are simple.

“Hope you guys are all well. We have the start of cooler weather here now following the fires of January-February. It’s rained a bit so the drought is basically over in our region although other areas in the state still suffer. We didn’t lose a single tree in the fires, but other folks weren’t so lucky. In Canberra (the nations capital, 2.5 hours away) the forestry company there lost 80% of its trees, so they are basically out of business… And they need a big lake to put their burnt logs into so they can be salvaged before they rot and stain on the forest floor. Unfortunately there isn’t one handy that they are allowed to use. What’s worse is they lost all their spatial data in the fires! They had a set of CDs in each building in their complex, but they all burnt down to the ground. Shows you how important off-site backup is, I guess. They are a semi-government, semi-private organization so I think they still have jobs…”

Extracted from email from the USA on 3 April 2003

[From a geology professor using a loan of a professional TNTmips floating license in exchange for beta testing the Mac OS X version. His 30 student Mac OS X stations are using the equivalent TNTlite.]

“I think you guys have given me a quote before, but I can’t find it. I am still running the ‘loaner’ TNTmips dongle (expires in May) but find we may not be able to do without TNTmips once the license expires. I am going to try to go to the chair and dean and get some money for a single full license for TNTmips (running on OS X like our current version). What is the educational cost for such a license? Thanks.”

Extracted from international email on 2 September 2002

“I have read the MicroImages MEMO dealer with 6.7 release: kudos to your society, TNT is more and more a wonderful product.”

Extracted from international email on 3 October 2002

“… TNT has the largest market share in [our nation]. I had just sold [a number] more modules to [an] Agency. So our total sales will be [a number] this month. The closest competitor is Intergraph which sold Geomedia and ENVI to other departments. I had estimated [a number] Geomedia and [a number] ENVI packages have been sold. The main difference between [dealer’s name] and Intergraph is we give training free of charge and consultancy is always available for our client. TNTMips do both Raster and Vector GIS plus digital cartography where Intergraph cannot compete with us. The other ERDAS, ESRI Arc Info / Arc view are going nowhere in sales because they cannot compete with our technology. …”

Extracted from international email on 16 October 2002

“… We now have 12 schools trialing TNTlite and have entered into discussion with them about data and atlases. [A name], a recent lead via your office is an excellent exponent at this stage and is becoming a useful link for our establishment in education. Several Universities are also trialing TNTlite at the moment and I have good feedback from them so far. The macintosh support is proving an important advantage there. …”

Extracted from international email on 24 October 2002

“I have just received this paper from one of the students using TNTlite down here. I thought it might interest you as it is a good practical application of Earth Sciences using TNTlite to good effect. The user, [a name] is a great guy and a very enthusiastic user who has been using TNTlite for some time – his lead came from your office. He is happy for anybody to see it – I believe it is to be published soon – and make comments or suggestions of what else he might do, if anyone wants to.”

Extracted from international email on 4 December 2002

“Once again the response from the MI team is what we have come to expect from an organization who is centered around its clients – we on the sharp end have little clue to the complexity of unraveling millions of lines of code and figuring out how each bit relates to the next, so often just get frustrated ‘cos some nitty bitty thing don’t work. At the end of the day, as [MicroImages Motto] has always maintained – “all software has errors, it’s how we fix them [together] that counts” – very strong food for thought when put into the context of how others battle to get help from their software vendors after have been sold something, without having been told that you are at the mercy of their development team (“tough if it doesn’t work – wait for the next release, where can we line our pockets again”). The user base really needs to know that this is one of the strongest aspects of the MI product range (apart from the integrated nature and the cost and the ….. – see our website for a better expose of the virtues of mips!). They also need to realize that when they buy a TNTmips product that they become part of a family and as such, should communicate issues openly so that the problems do not fester.”

Extracted from international email from Europe on 24 January 2003

“[Our company] has been shortlisted for 3D project of the old town using TNT. If you remember I had done a TNT demo that included a 3D surface and building modelling of the cathedral section of town last November – they were really impressed. …

“[A name] who has been with us since the beginning of November, is really loving GIS and has such fast-learning capabilities that starting next week, she will be solely on TNT. …”

Extracted from international email on 26 January 2003

“I am also really impressed at the way MicroImages strives at helping & keeping its clients informed of the progress being made. CONGRATULATIONS to a super team effort and also good quality work delivered.”

Extracted from international email on 6 February 2003

“[A name] has now had a chance to play with [Dr. Randy Smith’s multispectral devegetation SML] script on an Aster image. The result is nothing short of spectacular – utterly unbelievable – amazing – I am sure that [he] will chat more about the technical aspects in another email, but [also] seems to sharpen the image considerably and shows up the lithology and structure unbelievably well. Clearly, this is something we can really use to garner additional work with our client base – this Aster stuff is real neat (hence my previous requests re: Aster….). So well done Randy – this is fantastic stuff.”

[The SML script is available from microimages.com and is designed to remove the effect of light vegetation cover from multispectral images such as Aster or Landsat with the appropriate spectral bands. A color plate illustrating its application on a Landsat image of Nevada can be viewed at microimages.com.]

Extracted from international email on 17 March 2003

“… Last week we prepared the nice presentation using TNTmips (& powerpoint) for the present to the prime minister [a name] & deputy prime minister [a name] & finance minister [a name] & deputy finance minister [a name] and many member so the board of [a national agricultural bank] on the P.M.’s visiting the [bank’s] central office by Monday 10th March 2003. We have FTP the zip files of the powerpoint file and some pictures during the P.M.’s visiting at the [bank’s] MIS operation room to MI web site at …”

Extracted from an international reseller FAX on 25 March 2003

“Two days ago, director of [a name] province has called me up at 9 pm to ask about prices of TNTmips. He started to talk by saying ….-OK we understand that the standard software of the Ministry of Agriculture [at national level] is TNTmips… It means that, everybody in Ministry of Agriculture and in the province directorates, know that they have to purchase a GIS system, and they know that it is obvious that they are going to get the technical support from [a name] province [already using TNTmips in detail], and they have to buy the same system as [that province]. Now at this point, to send a full folder to all provinces will greatly help us to introduce ourselves to them as a system provider of [that province].

“I am also trying to teach them that TNTmips is the name of the GIS. That is true. I am traveling so much these provinces for making demos. At these demos I don’t explain what is GIS? but, What is TNTmips? and how to use them in agriculture. I don’t know if somebody can call this disinformation [I’d call it good marketing] but I do it and will keep introducing TNTmips as the NAME of the SYSTEM that they should use. There is no need to tell them, that TNT is one of the competitive software in, so called, GIS market, especially if they haven’t heard about GIS before.”

Extracted from an international email on 25 March 2003

[The following is a partial response to a recent question from MicroImages to this reseller regarding their ability to duplicate in TNTmips 6.6 fancy poster-like map plates they had originally prepared in MapInfo before becoming a MicroImages Reseller. They reported the issues they encountered as they proceeded and MicroImages added various new features to address these issues – primarily dealing with style and label management.]

“It is interesting that you should mention [a name], as that is something [we] are trying to get back to work on. It has taken a back-seat while we completed some other pressing jobs, but is a project we are keen to progress with TNTmips. Whilst we had a little trouble reproducing most features, and in fact improving a number, there were a few details we still needed more work on [using TNTmips 6.6]. MapInfo has several handy features that go with having less spatial integrity, like being able to place labels and accessory features in positions of choice with no associated feature classes and so on. While features like that are good for mapmaking speed, they are no good for data integrity and map accuracy, which are areas of particular importance to us. While we can use CAD layers [assumed to mean in TNTmips] to achieve the same results [as MapInfo], we are looking for ways in TNTmips to achieve the same aesthetics without compromising data quality. Unfortunately, time pressures stopped us from proceeding much more with it in recent weeks. Interestingly, the stoppage may be very timely, given that the new graphic placement and style editing features of 6.8 would appear to provide exactly what we are looking for. We would very much like to bring this dataset along and show you through our workings to date.” [This reseller is coming to Lincoln for some advanced training and consulting on other topics.]

Extracted from an international email on 28 March 2003

“Thank you and thank Microimages. It’s a good thing to participate to the building of a software.”

Extracted from an international email on 28 March 2003

“[A farm corporation] are a very widespread company staffed by people who are terrific farmers. As is quite common, they are no great IT people or systems developers and as such have always leant on us for advice and direction. They do tend to make small steps and have a cautious approach (hence the atlas first I guess), but also know the power of good systems and the need for their data to be arranged spatially. So at this stage they are a clean slate. They have no real IT infrastructure, no website, no databases and just simple accounting systems. The long term aim is of course to reach a point where they have a completely integrated system with corporate database structures and remote locations connected via WAN etc. We are in a position to manage this whole process for them and we plan of course to center everything on the TNT products. Again I envisage that a TNTmips/TNTserver based system will be the key there. I created a ‘system vision’ document for them some time ago which we have since agreed upon as our medium to long term plan. Effectively it involves recreating the [another project] model for them, with modification of some important operational parameters and without the legacy systems they [the other project] have had to deal with.”

Extracted from an international email on 1 April 2003

[comment regarding a single seat floating license TNTmips key at a University]

“[A Professor] told [us] that this key is now experiencing a huge demand on the [campus], such that he would now like to expand this to a 4-seat floating system (additional 3 seats).”

An international email on 11 April 2003

[Response to a question to this dealer with regard to how a major university is progressing with a TNT Special Academic License purchased 2 years ago. They have been using this license for 2 years and many students are downloading TNTlite from this University.]

“Regarding your question about how this Uni is doing with TNTmips. Very well, I would say. It has practically taken the lead among GIS/DIP-packages utilized in Geography Department with some students showing symptoms of a serious SML-addiction. You might have realized from the regular reports and requests to Cindy. The general questions are covered by ourselves though. In addition to the courses on introduction to RS and GIS we are planning to set up a course on advanced GIS/DIP practices in autumn.”

Extracted from an international email on 1 April 2003

“What can I say, I really want to thank you for your SML – it all looks so simple and so obvious. For me your example is at least as useful as a torch in a dark subway tube, if you know what I mean. And it shows me that you really know how to play with all these SML functions of which most are still totally cryptic to me, each for its own, and their efficient combination.”

Extracted from an international email on 23 April 2003

[from a reseller who has downloaded TNTmips RV6.8 in advance of its shipment on CD with this MEMO]

“Yesterday, I downloaded ver.68 and now I testing with hatch pattern export. It’s working. I’m happy and make me many helpful. Thank you all MicroImages people. I think, I would do my project very smoothly.”

Extracted from an international email on 24 April 2003

[from a reseller who has downloaded TNTmips RV6.8 in advance of its shipment on CD with this MEMO]

“My “Power Users” have been running this for a week or so and it’s behaving itself nicely so I’ll roll it out to all our staff when the CDs hit the streets.”

Extracted from email from the USA 11 February 2003

[from a beginning user]

“You have a very powerful program! I’ve been able to read in grid and tiff files, overlay them, georeference them, and then go into 3D view and animate and save a movie…”

From Other Parties

Email from South Africa dated 20 September 2002

[comment on the TNTlite download form]

“GIS As ESRI is completely incompetent, I will have to use TNTlite to export to line shapefiles.”

[On the web page where TNTlite is downloaded is a list of its size limitations and the notice that it does not support export. This is so that TNTlite is not used to solve problems in other vendors’ software.]

Email from South Africa dated 20 September 2002

[comment on the TNTlite download form from another party in the same company]

“process TNTlite files on site for export to ArcView.”

[On the web page where TNTlite is downloaded is a list of its size limitations and the notice that it does not support export. This is so that TNTlite is not used to solve problems in other vendors’ software.]

Email from Canada dated 23 August 2002

[comments on the TNTlite download form]

“I have completed a basis GIS course and TNTlite was recommended as a self-learning package.”

Question posted on a public GIS discussion list on 8 September 2002

“Does anybody out there have any experience with a GIS package called TNTmips? Are you running it on a Macintosh? How do you feel it compares to ArcView? Thank for any info, guys.”

First response to question from a TNTmips user no date

“I can speak personally to TNTmips on Mac OS X as I use it and find to be excellent. It is a truly full featured GIS that handles both raster and vector GIS data. It also handles GPS data too. I have never seen a geospatial program that imports and exports for many file formats.

“TNTmips is essentially ArcView with Spatial Analyst, 3D Analyst and Image Analyst extensions. It also has the same features as ArcInfo and ERDAS software. So, while the full version may appear to be expensive, it really is a good deal compared to buying ArcView and/or ERDAS and the extensions. Also the tech support is excellent as is the documentation. TNTmips has been in development for about 16 years I believe so it is very feature rich. It has a learning curve, but there is very little geospatially it cannot do if you take the time to master it.

“The president of the company is a Mac advocate and has kept this program alive on the Mac platform. The OS X version is very good. TNTmips operates in an X-windows type environment which gives you a user interface that takes some getting used to, but there is a program called OroborOSX that allows X-windows programs to look and behave very much like native Aqua applications. So using this, the interface experience is not too bad.

“There is a free version of this TNTmips called TNTlite that you can download and try out. It is a large download. If you prefer, you can pay a small fee and have TNTlite CD’s mailed to you. All the documentation is available online in the form of PDF files.

“All in all, I would say TNTmips is a great geospatial package and it runs natively on the Mac in OS X! It is very much on the level and then some above ESRI products.

“That's my 2 cents.”

Second response to question from a TNTmips user dated 24 January 2003

[This very experienced user of all kinds of Mac GIS and remote sensing software notes that he would be teaching a remote sensing course using TNTlite exclusively on 21 new Macs. When asked how he felt TNTlite on the Mac OS X compared with the ArcGIS et.al. on Windows his immediate response was “TNTlite is the only GIS on the Mac”]

“I totally support what [he] has said about TNTmips. It is incredibly powerful and is the only major GIS software package I know of where both vector and raster GIS is so nicely melded. Also, as he said, the owner is a major Mac supporter and has been for many years. The more Mac people who use TNTmips the better so far as I am concerned.”

Question posted on a public GIS discussion list

“How does TNTmips compare with GRASS?”

Response to question from a TNTmips user

“I’ve used GRASS some. It has a pretty big learning curve, especially if you are not UNIX savvy. It is just not terribly intuitive. However, Jeshua Lacock’s company OpenOSX.com is working on putting a more user friendly interface on it for the Mac OS X. I know that GRASS 5 was just released and I am not sure what sort of changes it has, but I think it still takes some time to learn. TNTmips also has a learning curve, but I don’t think it is as big as GRASS. TNTmips is a very “deep” program with lots of capabilities. The manual is quite large, but the tutorial how-to manuals are smaller and easy to get through and will give you a good overall feel for how to use TNTmips. The interface works, but again, it is X-windows which is not very Mac like. However, with OroborOSX installed, this gives the X-window environment a more Aquafied Mac OS X like appearance and behavior. It works quite well.

“One very nice feature is the way it handles project files. It stores all the files you will need for a project into one Project file (good-bye dealing with shapefiles all over the place!). You can then copy this Project file to a disk and move it to another machine with TNTmips and away you go. The project is all in one place. Also, TNTmips is supported on Mac OS X, Windows and Unix, so it plays nicely with just about any IT set-up.

“MicroImages makes a nice free application called TNTatlas which allows you to publish data on the internet or removable media for others to look, query and examine. However, the basic data cannot be changed by the user. This is useful for giving out data to clients or prospective clients. GRASS does not have this.

“Also GRASS is mostly a GIS. It has some vector capabilities, but they are not as robust as TNTmips. MicroImages went through quite a bit of work to bring vector capabilities into the program. TNTmips started life purely as a remote sensing, image analysis package that is now morphed into a full GIS. So, I think with TNTmips you will get better vector features and capabilities, plus TNTmips should be able to do all the raster work that GRASS does and possibly even more (not familiar with all GRASS can do, so not sure about this). Also, TNTmips now has some nice cartographic features built into where GRASS has just about none as far as I know (again, not sure about this). Finally, with GRASS if you have a problem, you will need to try to work it out on your own, or rely on some of the GRASS lists on the internet to try to fix the problem. Usually the list can help you, but it may take some time. With TNTmips you get some very good technical support.

“These are just some general comments about it. There may be others who know more about GRASS (i.e. Jeshua).”

Extracted from email from a MicroImages Italian dealer on 24 January 2003

“Now another consideration. Here in Italy it seems that, with the appearance of the Mac OS X, the macintosh operation system has a sort of renaissance. Many old Mac users which were a bit disoriented have now found their way out again. In addition, they can now say that they work with a professional kernael which means that all of the old charges against the Macintosh (a system for unable people and things like that) now have no sense any more. I see that in several organizations LANs are managed by Linux instead of Microsoft Windows, and Mac Os X computers are used for a good intra-computer integration between user friendly interfaces and robust command shells. Well personally I won’t excluse to purchase a Macintosh in the future. …”

Statement posted on a list 1 November 2002 from a major U.S. library