Giving it away for free?

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West Coast Engineering

Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2003 9:47 am

Guest

Hi,

I give away, no strings, a really great optical design program
(Enterprise SE). Since it is free, I don't use paid advertising to
spread the knowledge of its existence around.

So does anyone have any idea how to let everyone know about it? So far
I feel like the guy who couldn't give away free warm clothes to the
freezing. :-)

www.westcoastengineering.com

Ian Stirling

Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2003 9:47 am

Guest

West Coast Engineering <westcoastengineering@westcoastengineering.com> wrote:

Quote:

Have you considered sandwich boards?
Maybe a bell too.

West Coast Engineering

Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2003 1:01 pm

Guest

Ian Stirling <root@mauve.demon.co.uk> wrote:

Quote:

West Coast Engineering <westcoastengineering@westcoastengineering.com> wrote:
Hi,

I give away, no strings, a really great optical design program
(Enterprise SE). Since it is free, I don't use paid advertising to
spread the knowledge of its existence around.

So does anyone have any idea how to let everyone know about it? So far
I feel like the guy who couldn't give away free warm clothes to the
freezing. :-)

Have you considered sandwich boards?
Maybe a bell too.
Cute Smile

Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2003 2:12 pm

Guest

"West Coast Engineering" <westcoastengineering@westcoastengineering.com>
wrote in message news:4a0qqvo322oc6nbg6nhnp82u07ha8pdav8@4ax.com...

Quote:

Just downloaded.
I'll install at work on Monday and give it a test drive.
We are in the luminaire design/manufacture business, but I've got a real
passion for optics.
We don't use lenses at present but may well do in the future.
Thanks.
JB

Detector195

Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2003 3:26 pm

Guest

West Coast Engineering <westcoastengineering@westcoastengineering.com> wrote in message news:<4a0qqvo322oc6nbg6nhnp82u07ha8pdav8@4ax.com>...

Quote:

Add the following to the <head> block of your home page:

<meta name="KeyWords" content="Free Optics Software, Optics Freeware,
etc.">

This helps the search engines by identifying terms that you consider
to be important search terms for your site. Second, get links to your
site from the major freeware portals. These two things together should
improve your visibility to the search engines.

Second suggestion (and maybe I have not looked at your package deeply
enough) is that keeping up with the GUI arms race is a losing battle,
and you might be better off spending the same amount of time creating
some really kick ass example files that run from the command line.
Idiots like me can use these files as the starting point for more
elaborate designs. Adding inline comments to your command syntax would
help make these files easier to read, e.g., make it like BASIC where
everything to the right of a particular symbol is a comment.

Here is what I am thinking about in terms of an example file. It
starts by defining a doublet lens, then requests the default merit
function, identifies variables to vary, runs a bullet-proof
optimization, and plots the results in various ways. I know you have
opinions about default merit functions and optimization, but these
serve as a useful starting point for those of us who have to get over
a lot of conceptual hurdles just to use any optics design program. A
subsequent example could always show the advantage of not using the
default merit function.

Just my thoughts. I have played with and enjoyed Roadrunner, and would
get back to it except that I am distracted by some nifty new embedded
system design tools.

Terry Orchard

Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2003 4:11 pm

Guest

Detector195 wrote:

Quote:

West Coast Engineering wrote:

I give away, no strings, a really great optical design program
(Enterprise SE). Since it is free, I don't use paid advertising to
spread the knowledge of its existence around.

So does anyone have any idea how to let everyone know about it? So far
I feel like the guy who couldn't give away free warm clothes to the
freezing. :-)

Add the following to the <head> block of your home page:

meta name="KeyWords" content="Free Optics Software, Optics Freeware,
etc."

FWIW, this recommendation is no longer correct. Most search engines,
including google, ignore the keywords meta tag, because it was abused
by many sites (especially the porn sites). Search engines index based
on the site content.

Terry

Detector195

Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2003 11:28 pm

Guest

Terry Orchard <no@email.invalid> wrote in message news:<dhmqqvkg2f3ppfc2e3b1hbrgff5e6hu0a1@4ax.com>...

Quote:

Detector195 wrote:

West Coast Engineering wrote:

I give away, no strings, a really great optical design program
(Enterprise SE). Since it is free, I don't use paid advertising to
spread the knowledge of its existence around.

So does anyone have any idea how to let everyone know about it? So far
I feel like the guy who couldn't give away free warm clothes to the
freezing. :-)

Add the following to the <head> block of your home page:

meta name="KeyWords" content="Free Optics Software, Optics Freeware,
etc."

FWIW, this recommendation is no longer correct. Most search engines,
including google, ignore the keywords meta tag, because it was abused
by many sites (especially the porn sites). Search engines index based
on the site content.

Terry

Thanks for the useful tip.

Guest

Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2003 8:37 pm

"West Coast Engineering" <westcoastengineering@westcoastengineering.com>
wrote in message news:4a0qqvo322oc6nbg6nhnp82u07ha8pdav8@4ax.com...

Quote:

Have you tried e-mailing the Electro-Optic departments at the various
universities? Univeristy of Arizona, Rochester, University of Dayton, etc.?
At UD, Oslo LT is being used but other options are always nice.

Elliot Burke

Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2003 11:54 pm

Guest

Hand out disks at OSA and SPIE meetings?
They might throw you out for that unless you registered as an exhibitor. An
amusing position: having to pay money to give something away.

Maybe if you gave a poster paper they'd let you pass them out as coasters.

A previous poster's idea of excellent sample files is a good one.

They used to call it "OOB" (out of box) experience: the first few seconds of
trying something should be very rewarding.
Show me what your program can do, then I'll learn the commands.

Another way of getting people to use your program would be to make it do
things your competition doesn't:
a report mode with AI would be great.
One of the design codes someone mentioned a few days ago had an interface to
POVRay for rendering; that was a great idea
Outputs to spreadsheets are useful too.

regards-
Elliot

"West Coast Engineering" <westcoastengineering@westcoastengineering.com>
wrote in message news:4a0qqvo322oc6nbg6nhnp82u07ha8pdav8@4ax.com...

Quote:

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