What Is It With Me & C.E.O.’s?

Ok, so at Solidworks World I received the unique distinction of having one of my blog posts mentioned in what was a bit of an uncomfortable situation at the press dinner by Solidworks C.E.O. Jeff Ray. About a week later I'm attending the Pacific Design Show, and have a conversation with Alibre C.E.O. Greg Milliken about some comments he made about Solidworks. Well today I guess Greg finally caught wind of that post I made and is adding his comment saying it was a dishonest fabricated story. Now while arguing on the internet still baffles me to this day, I might as well go ahead and 'answer' his comment.

Greg,

I am somewhat surprised that your memory of our conversation we had at the Pac Design show is so fuzzy in such a short time. I afforded you the benefit of being 100% honest with you up front of who I was. I could have just as easily walked away and wrote a one sided account of our interaction, and I also could have pretended to be some unassuming CAD user like the guy you were dishonest with. What I originally wrote about in regards to our conversation was 100% accurate. If I am fabricating the whole story, then I guess your business card you gave me after telling the other guy you were fresh out, is not actually sitting on my desk still, I must have fabricated it too.

P.S.

Thanks for checking out the blog!

Comments

[Js]

That guy is nothing but a self centered egocentric idiot. He has no real idea of what he is talking about taking any advice from him on anything is just a bad decision period. He is far from an expert he does not have any real experience. You can not play with something for a few days them become an expert. He only wants attention so he opens his mouth as much as he can as often as he can to get it. I don't even know if he has a real job I think he just plays on the internet all day posting as often as he can to get more attention.Oh yea don't ever diss agree with him on anything he knows it all he is a legend in his own mind but there is something wrong with his mind. It is like taking advice from a 5 year old I am surprised has not threatened to hold his breath till someone buys him a pony

[Stanley P Kachowski]

Jon Banquer is just misunderstood and unappreciated. Jon Banquer spends countless hours downloading and reviewing software
for professionals and novices alike. Sure, sometimes Jon Banquer is a little off and a little harsh with reviews, but Jon Banquer gives a honest opinion. And as we all know, many times an honest opinion is not what common professionals or publishers want to hear. We should give Jon Banquer the benefit of the doubt. Jon Banquer efforts to help others make a informed, clear minded decision is needed before investing large capital into systems that might not work. Without Jon Banquer, we could be lost in a sea of software that claims to save the day. Product development, production and phenomenology; Jon Banquer could single-handedly reverse America's trend to send manufacturing to China and software development to India. Jon Banquer brings those products back, where they belong, and secure our economy, our country, our way of life. Jon Banquer is like George Washington leading us to victory across the Delaware. yaknow...someday Jon Banquer will be honored with a bronze statue in his hometown and hometowns across the nation. Children will ask; 'Who is Jon Banquer?' And the answer may be different, but the meaning will have the same creed: "The voice of the flame prophesied that it would act three times: once to bring death, once to bring life, and once to bring power". These words will live on and be one with the name: Jon Banquer.

CC

[Stanley P. Kachowski]

I don't think Jon has a 'wild' psychological disorder, I believe it's a normal psychological disorder called 'look at me'.
He sits at home all day with nothing to do but watch the 'Price is Right' and make conflicting comments about different CAD/CAM systems. He does have a job, he's the guy who pushes the broom around in the Murphy Canyon Walmart. Notice Jon never says a thing about Ideas, because there's no demo for download.

CC

[Haywood Jablowme]

I actually used to think JB knew what he as talking about, until he started babbling about products that I actually own.

That's when I finally realized he's got some wild psychological disorder.

[jbtech]

"http://tinyurl.com/4ovouv

Jon Banquer
San Diego, CA"

[
Alibre is smart enough to use ACIS rather than Parasolid as
they want to offer a complete solution rather try and marry
surfacing routines to Parasolid.

With ACIS it's all done inside the kernel rather than outside
of it.

You might want to take note of what Autodesk, think3, VX,
etc. have had to say about trying to create surfacing
routines outside of a kernel. It obviously doesn't work
very well. You might also want to review the threads in this
newsgroup for proof of how poorly it works in SolidWorks.

Alibre tells me that they will make use of the surfacing
routines in ACIS in Alibre 8.0 due in the second quarter
of next year.
] - Nov 12 2003 - jon banquer

Jon,
You should probably research your facts a little better, as the one
about Parasolid not supporting surfaces is untrue. As you probably are
aware, UG uses the Parasolid kernel and has some of the best surfacing in
the industry and is unmatched by anything except for IDEAS and Catia in this
area (none of them use ACIS, and two of them use Parasolid). I have also
includes a link to a UGS PLMsolutions web page for Parasolid that states
that it does indeed have native support for surfaces.

http://www.eds.com/products/plm/parasolid/extreme.shtml
]

[
You might also want to see if Alibre will talk with you.
The seem like very nice people to me. Always responsive
to anything I ask for.

Naturally, Alibre uses the ACIS kernel and they plan on
making Alibre a seamless, unified, hybrid modeler in the second
quarter of next year.
] - Nov 17 2003 by jon banquer

"Ever looked at Alibre for $500 ???" - Jan 24 2003 by jon_banquer

[
Since Alibre is based on ACIS, (something that Frank Carboneheads pal Timmy
Markoski insists is an inferior kernel... some of us know better. ;>)) all you
folks at Alibre need to do is implement the ACIS Advanced Surfacing Husk.
Vola.... unified, seamless, hybrid modeling.
] - Oct 17 2002 by jon_banquer

[
In the mean time, other products like Alibre are going to have a much better
shot at
gaining market share because their products were never conceived like SolidWorks
was...
] - Jan 24 2003 by jon_banquer

[
Consider the FACT that the person posting this uses Rhino for machine design
rather than a program like Alibre or Solidworks that is really designed for
machine design.
] - Jan 19 2003 by jon_banquer

[
Spent $4000 for SolidWorks yet without checking out what $500
Alibre can do ??? Did spending the $4000 for SolidWorks make you feel better
about yourself ???
] - Jan 18 2003 by jon_banquer

"Alibre represents MUCH BETTER VALUE" - Jan 17 2003 by jon_banquer

"Alibre represent good value." - Jan 15 2003 by jon_banquer

"Alibre represents much better value for many" - Jan 15 2003 by jon_banquer

"Alibre is a much better choice for job shops" - Dec 10 2002 by jon_banquer

"Global Shape Modeling capabilities in products like Ashlar-Vellum Cobalt,
Alibre" - Dec 5 2002 by jon_banquer

"I would switch in a fucking heartbeat to Alibre, despite owning and using
SolidWorks for years." - Nov 11 2002 by jon_banquer

"Just looking at some of the technology that Alibre has licensed is
impressive. So is their modern UI." - Nov 14 2002 by jon_banquer

"Jon Baker would be much better off learning Alibre." - Nov 11 2002 by
jon_banquer

"I would try $500 Alibre." - Nov 8 2002 by jon_banquer

[Jon Banquer]

http://tinyurl.com/4ovouv

Jon Banquer
San Diego, CA

[Greg Milliken]

Mike,

Thanks for being 100% honest with me at the show; I hope that is a benefit you afford to everyone with whom you speak. I did hand out quite a few cards, and I am glad you stopped by our booth.

Unfortunately, I did just catch wind of your post but I am calling you on it anyway. In spite of a claim to the contrary, you did basically walk away and write a one-sided account of our interaction. Maybe you were not purposely dishonest, and it certainly is possible you believe what you wrote is 100% accurate, but it simply isn’t. Putting up a picture of my business card doesn’t change that fact.

I am not sure if it is because you were upset about the popcorn bags, or just angry that Alibre would aggressively compete with SolidWorks, but you clearly didn’t listen to what was said. You heard what you wanted to hear, or what you were predisposed to hear. Maybe you heard me speaking about one of the various products that tout their direct editing approach versus parametric modelers and were so focused on the popcorn bag that you “heard” SolidWorks instead. By the way, Alibre Design offers a really nice suite of direct editing tools as well; we think direct editing is a feature, not a product.

For the record, it benefits Alibre to compare our product to other parametric modelers like SolidWorks, Inventor and Pro/ENGINEER. We always point out that we use similar parametric modeling techniques; it’s not something we hide -- ever. This sort of comparison is all over our web site and in our press releases. It is so commonplace that it’s a bit silly to be stating it again here, but for your benefit and that of others who may follow your blog, I am doing so.

While I understand you may see this as an argument, I don’t see it as such. For me, it’s just an opportunity to help provide clarity where it is lacking, and the Internet is a great medium for it. I also wouldn’t be too concerned about what’s up with you and CEOs; I put little stock in titles, and I am sure anyone, CEO or not, would take the opportunity to respond to you given similar circumstances.