Deceitful Sales Messages-

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Foxofjapan
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Deceitful Sales Messages-

Post by Foxofjapan »

Is there anybody out there who is angry about the fake sales messages announcing a one day sale of Nisus products:
On December 23rd we are going to sell the full version of Nisus Writer Express for $30 and Nisus Writer Pro for $49.
One thing I expect from software makers is honesty, and this is pure crap. Great way to start off the holiday weekend--thanks Nisus.
exegete77
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Re: Deceitful Sales Messages-

Post by exegete77 »

Not sure what you are talking about. I received an email announcing the sale today.

In my dealings with Nisus since 1993, I have never found them to be deceitful, rather very helpful, upfront, and knowledgeable. Oh that other software companies lived to this standard!
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xiamenese
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Re: Deceitful Sales Messages-

Post by xiamenese »

I think FoxofJapan is making an easy to understand mistake. I too, in China, received the mail on the 24th, but of course we are probably about 16 hours ahead of Nisus. The date in question is the date in California, presumably, not the date in Japan or China ... so we in East Asia, or our friends in the Antipodes, etc. need to read 23rd as meaning most of the 24th where we are. Midnight to Midnight on 23rd December 2011, Eastern Standard Time!

I have no reason to buy, but wish everyone a happy solstice festival of whatever kind they celebrate.

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Re: Deceitful Sales Messages-

Post by rmark »

I'm sorry that FoxofJapan is disappointed in us. The line in the newsletter he quotes is followed two lines later with this (emphasis mine):
This Festivus sale will last for 1 day: December 23rd from 12:00 AM PST to 11:59 PM PST.
That's Pacific Standard Time (a few hours later than Eastern time as xiamenese (Mark) writes.
Of course, by now it's all over. But I still want to set the record straight.
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xiamenese
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Re: Deceitful Sales Messages-

Post by xiamenese »

rmark wrote:I'm sorry that FoxofJapan is disappointed in us. The line in the newsletter he quotes is followed two lines later with this (emphasis mine):
This Festivus sale will last for 1 day: December 23rd from 12:00 AM PST to 11:59 PM PST.
That's Pacific Standard Time (a few hours later than Eastern time as xiamenese (Mark) writes.
Of course, by now it's all over. But I still want to set the record straight.
My fault rmark! Sorry, I was thinking of where you are, but with being a mere Brit in China, I get confused with the names of your time zones ... it's bad enough just trying to keep track of what time it is back in the UK!!

:-)

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exegete77
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Re: Deceitful Sales Messages-

Post by exegete77 »

Mark, as much as I travel, I would just as soon adopt the Zulu time method (we did in the military). Much easier, everyone understands everyone else, and never any confusion about time.
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Re: Deceitful Sales Messages-

Post by rmark »

Zulu time method
Intriguing. Please tell us more. Or is that too far off topic?
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Re: Deceitful Sales Messages-

Post by ninjagame »

rmark wrote:
Zulu time method
Intriguing. Please tell us more. Or is that too far off topic?
Actually, Zulu time is more or less the same as UTC which the forum uses. So, no secrets here. However, when I was in the military (and in Germany it's the same as, I think, in other NATO countries), we used "Zulu time" regardless of local time in order to avoid confusion about time zones when communicating, say, with British or U.S. military. As far as I know, Zulu time is also being used in aviation.
Hope that helps.

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exegete77
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Re: Deceitful Sales Messages-

Post by exegete77 »

That is correct, ninjagame. When I served in the US Navy (I went in 39 years ago!) and "sailed the world" (sort of) we always used zulu time for work with NATO and SEATO countries. That way we always were synched on the exact same time, no time zone confusion. Even though I left the active duty Navy in 1982, I still revert back to using that terminology. And I always put time in the 24 hour format, so that there is never any confusion about AM or PM.

So, I live in Pacific time zone, which is currently -8 from Greenwich Meantime (GMT). Current time here is 00:19 (just past midnight). Zulu time is 08:19. No matter where you are in the world, Zulu time is 08:19.
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Re: Deceitful Sales Messages-

Post by xiamenese »

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, the whole world is not militarised. People here simply wouldn't understand; and my wife in the UK and I in China get confused, not over GMT, but whether it is British Summer Time or not — our time changes on a different day from the rest of Europe, of course! — and then there is father-in-law in New Zealand, whose Summer Time dates are different from ours, though how they compare with Europe, I have no idea.

To have to remember that PST is Zulu -8 is simply another confusion ... CST -16 works just as well.

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Re: Deceitful Sales Messages-

Post by exegete77 »

One more thought. The advantage of Zulu time: it is never affected by changes such as Daylight Savings time (a couple states in US do not make that change, and it changes every few years on start and stop dates). With Zulu, it is constant throughout the world. It takes a little getting used to it, but once a person does, it takes away all those questions and puzzles: Is It +8 or -8? Is it Daylight Savings Time or not? How many time zones are we separated?

Even in a small church body, we are constantly having problems with the four time zones. I teach seminary classes via video conferencing. Two of us at the National level are former military and would just as soon use Zulu time to simplify.

8) :D
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Re: Deceitful Sales Messages-

Post by rmark »

Write On!
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exegete77
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Re: Deceitful Sales Messages-

Post by exegete77 »

Interesting. The unfortunate thing about Swatch is that it provides something foreign to the current concept of time markers. Zulu retains the traditional hour/minute/second concept but standardizes for the entire world. I can’t imagine Swatch being adapted much outside a specific scientific community. With Zulu there really is nothing “new” to learn.

Maybe because I am an old codger ... let everyone else learn something new :D
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Re: Deceitful Sales Messages-

Post by ninjagame »

rmark, exegete77 -

Now you've put a bug into my ear...
Why didn't I know of this earlier?! The more I read about it, the more intriguing I find the concept of "beat time". I've downloaded a "beat" app to my iPhone and now I'm looking for the same thing for my MacBook.
Actually, I don't think that the "@beat" or "decimal time" concept is so far off the Zulu time concept. You're right about one thing, exegete77: It surely revolutionizes the concept of time measuring. It's unfamiliar on first glance. It requires familiarization. It might seem arbitrary. But isn't the hour/minute/second concept just as arbitrary as the "decimal time" concept? At second glance, it would be much easier to handle since decimal computations are much easier to do by mental arithmetic than hour/minute/second computations.
Now, imagine this concept with a clock counter set to, say, the time at the International Date Line. It would be the same thing as Zulu. It would need some getting used to but...
...but now I'm getting carried away. I'll incorporate the concept in my new science fiction novel.

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greenmorpher
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Re: Deceitful Sales Messages-

Post by greenmorpher »

Good grief -- just call it Greenwich Mean Time -- GMT -- the whole world knows it as that and has used it for hundreds of years. This US militaristic relabelling is nonsense. Zulu time indeed.

As for summer time in NZ vs summer time in UK -- the difference is 6 months.

For sales, Nisus must have their customers segmented by country -- or st least have country as a field in the database. Sort the countries into time zones (the Mac can help!!!) then do 24 hour sales that roll around the world. You just schedule the emails to go out at appropriate times. You can do that with Maxbulk Mailer which costs about $50.

Cheers, geoff

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