Shameless Plug for John's Packages

Tue Mar 27 18:18:59 PDT 2007

Top post for John . . .

Great writeup (rightup!), Mark !!!

John Esak should be declared and annointed as "THE filePro
PERSON of the CENTURIES".

He's done more to promote (and teach) filePro than the owners
of the product ever have.

I first met John in person at a TCBUG (Tandy Computer Business 
Users Group) convention in Fort Worth, TX.  He was wearing some
telescopic spectacles made by an optometrist in Philadelphia,
whom I knew from my managing a retail optical business.

Next, we became better acquainted by being fellow Sysops on
CompuServe Forums dealing with filePro and SCO Xenix/UNIX.

Then John published THE GURU magazine (for which I wrote a
number of articles), and also, later, THE filePro COOKBOOK.
During that time he also hosted two conferences in Virginia,
near his then home, promoting and teaching filePro (among
other things - one of which was shell programmingm which I
taught ... in spite of Bill Campbell's disruption).  

At one of those conferences I got to meet Dave Rogger (sp?),
Ken Brody, and Laura Weathers (now Laura Brody), the top three
programmers at filePro at the time.  Dave left, Laura married
Ken, and that's where we are now.

I nominate:

  John Esak as the "THE filePro PERSON of the CENTURIES".

Bob

In-Reply-To: <20070327163107.A28554 at iglou.com>

Mark Luljak wrote (on Tue, Mar 27, 2007 at 04:31:07PM -0400):

| Hi Folks,
| 
| Just writing to rather shamelessly plug John's work (work being in both
| senses of the word, product and effort).  
| 
| I know a lot of you have gotten the Survivor Series and the GL package but
| I'm sure there are some that haven't that could benefit from either or
| both, and some that got it that don't realise just what a bargain they got.
| 
| I've personally seen the quality work that John does, and I truly believe
| his experience, instruction, and presentation quality is top notch.
| 
| What makes it so incredible is how accessible he's made it for this
| community.  I knew firsthand from some of the projects I've done how much
| work goes into each one, so I already thought it was a steal and twenty
| halves.  (Yes, 11 steals!)
| 
| But...  I was just researching what going rates for video production of
| this type actually run on the common market.  A check of a well-respected
| video production house in a community I just got into lists the following
| in their fee schedule:  "3-5 minute tutorial video chapter $1,400 - $1,800"
| 
| That's 3-5 minutes for $1400-1800, folks.  Granted, that's production
| costs, not retail value when you resell it.  But when you consider the
| rather limited market John's product is targetted to, and the sheer
| -enormity- of both the quantity and quality that he put together and the
| production time involved for each segment...  Well, John, I'll return the
| favour you've done me a few times and say you should be charging way more
| than you are!  You're giving away the homeworld, man!
| 
| Anyone that's been sitting on the fence over cost, realise this is an
| absolute rock-bottom steal of a price he's offering--and for high-quality
| instruction that you're -not- going to get anywhere else.  You learn from
| the best at a fraction of what you'd pay to learn far less anywhere else.
| I believed it all along, and my opinion has only multiplied by a factor of
| several times after doing some research.
| 
| And I know John and his belief in quality and attention to detail.  I truly
| believe that (especially from what I've seen) you're getting top-shelf,
| high quality material.  He just won't let it out the door if he knows
| there's a problem, and he'll bend over backwards to make it right if there
| is, by some wild fluke, even a tiny problem.  The man has overnighted
| replacements based on a mislabeled disc, if memory serves.  I don't know
| many people that do business that way--I surely wish more did!
| 
| It is just -amazing- what this man is doing for this community.  Anyone
| not taking him up on his offers is only shortchanging themselves.  I can't
| help but think that after looking at market prices and especially now
| knowing what's all involved in the production process.  When I used to
| work in stage lighting, I gained an immense respect for the amount of work
| that goes into stage productions, both theatrical and your garden variety
| concert light shows.  Same thing here after having immersed myself in video
| production for even a short time.
| 
| John surely didn't ask for this plug, and surely doesn't need my help.  His
| work speaks for itself.  But he's a great guy, he steadfastly believes
| in true quality, and he can provide insight into things that nobody else
| would even come close to; so by every qualification in my own philosophy,
| he deserves a lot of praise just for doing -everything- right--and then
| offering it to the community for such a fraction of what would be a
| reasonable ROI that it's practically free by comparison.  You can't do
| anything but respect that, and I surely do.
| 
| To say nothing of the time involved in doing his GL package and his bundle
| price.  Dear Lord, that is an INCREDIBLE deal.  Code you can rip wholly
| or in part, learn from and/or use, plus you get the videos!  I don't even
| want to contemplate the amount of time, work, and love and dedication you
| put in on spec, John, but you have my sincere admiration for finishing that
| project and releasing it.
| 
| And John, all I can say is that I think you deserve a lot more than a
| public nod of recognition.  You've always given a lot in this community,
| but sitting back and -seriously- looking at the amount of time you've
| sat back alone and produced this quality work and then made it that
| accessible to everyone, it's just immensely humbling and awe-inspiring.
| Hats off to you, and I wish that I had your spirit of generosity, because
| it really is a phenomenal spirit of giving!  Which is just like you, but
| still...deserves recognition in my opinion.  When people do something I
| feel is wrong or subpar, I'm the first to bitch strenuously.  When people
| do something right--I feel they deserve equal measure of praise.  And this
| would be a lot of that praise right here... :) I could go on for several
| hundred more screens, but you get the idea...can't sing the praises loud
| enough.
| 
| This community has it -really- good with John doing things like this...way
| better than most of it probably realises.  Most communities never see this
| level of dedication and selfless giving on the whole, let alone from a
| single individual.  I hope people fully appreciate the effort and avail
| themselves of the opportunities offered!
| 
| With much respect,
| 
| mark->
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-- 
Bob Stockler +-+ bob at trebor.iglou.com +-+ http://members.iglou.com/trebor