If I am correct you are Ryan Mohr who works for jimmy, Ralph, and mike of Aku Shaper as a web designer-programmer.
Yeah, that’s correct. I’ve been working with Jimmy on the aps3000/akushaper website since early last year.
Was this before or after Miki was told that Jimmy and Mike was building a new machine and would no longer be able to work with Miki? I seem to distinctly remember Mike still building APS3000 machines for Miki well into this year.
As for this thread being here or there, given the stir it got, I think it was just where it was supposed to be. Threads die mighty fast in the industry section.
Was this before or after Miki was told that Jimmy and Mike was building a new machine and would no longer be able to work with Miki?
I began working with Jimmy last April, well before any of this began this past February. The aps3000 website I built only became the aku shaper site this past month when Jimmy/Mike were forced to go separate ways and distance themselves from Miki. The name change was never meant to imply “Hey look! We are a totally new company that has nothing to do with APS3000!”, but more to prevent confusion in the long run by not having two separate APS3000s. “Wait… so if I buy an APS3000 machine I use the Shape3D software? And if I buy an aku shaper machine I use the APS3000 software?”. That’s the situation we were trying to avoid by renaming both the machine and the software to Aku Shaper. Not sure I understand the point of the question though.
Maybe you can answer my questions then…"my questions are serious from my point of view and im sure by meanshapes post there are others who have these concerns too.
i use the APS3000 software every day and try to have 40+ boards a week cut via the APS3000 machines in tweed heads, my family and my employees family all rely of this weekly occurence. what does the future hold for the current software we use? will akushaper create compatible files that the current cutting machines at tweed use. should i keep blocking software updates so that my current status quo is not comprimzed? i have a new computer coming soon, do i download akushaper on it and will files i create on it open on my older aps3000 computer? can you make clear the future for us software users as we havent had an email like you said the machine owners recieved."
Either way, this never should have been a discussion on Swaylocks (at least not one outside of the industry talk forum), but that is what Miki has made it and unfortunately will likely be the place it will continue until the dust settles.
I have never met you, Ryan, but based on our email conversation until now I have respected you as a clever, quick thinking young man. But I must say, your comments of late do not give you that credit. You say I started this here? Wrong, I only used Swaylocks to tell the surfing world something fishy was going on and not to use my normal email address any more but my web mail address. You know very well that my mail account has been tampered with and it now has even been shut down. Then, soon after, Jimmy started the story and trust me, I have every right to defend the strange claims he made. Just go back to page one and you will see.
Losos:
Hell, it’s bad enough Miki was calling the current prospective machine buyers on a daily basis to overwhelm them with his “I’m the victim here” side of the story.
How come you make a statement like this? How could you even know this or verify this? It’s utter nonsense, Ryan. In the future make sure you know what you say and do not just bubble what you are told.
I am also a little bit confused about your comments about the APS3000 and its difference to "other " CNC or surfboard shaping machines and value for eventual patents. When I Google for losos/ lososCNC/ losos surfboard cutter and so on I find you and your name in CNC forums discussing possible cutters to use for surfboards. I can also see that you did not find anything that satisfied you. Then, last year April you saw the APS3000 for the first time in action on Oahu. You wrote me an email right away and it started:
“You’re a genius Miki”. I take that as a compliment and as a fact that my machine is very different to others.
Do not become a flag in the wind, stay true to yourself.
Sorry feraldave, I thought Jimmy had answered your question already. With Aku Shaper, we will be adding to the functionality of the aps3000 software, not removing from it (take a look at the video tutorials to see a few of the new ones we’re rolling out like the board manager, rocker tweak, and zoom/pan functions – http://aps3000.com/software.php?p=tutorials. The file format will always be compatible with the older aps3000 machines, so no worries there. For those that don’t trust the new software, you’re free to follow the instructions given earlier in the thread for preventing updates. You just do so at the loss of any new features aku shaper rolls out.
The aps3000 opened up the surfboard shaping market to near 100% finishes. When I was brainstorming on my mini-machine, the cutter was the most challenging part to me. When I saw the vertical disc cutter, I was hit with a dumbfounded “why didn’t I think of that?”. But, just because I had not thought of it or seen it done before does not mean that it hasn’t been done before outside of the surfboard shaping industry. If a vertical cutter like the one in the aps3000 has never been used in the cnc industry before, then you’ve got a solid patent application on your hands. If it has been used before, then it was intelligent to use it for surfboards but by no means patentable.
I did and still do think you are a genius Miki. Being a genius however implies nothing of integrity and for that I can only rely on what I’ve heard, since the extent to which we truly know each other is limited to email. Jimmy I know very well from working with him on a daily basis, and trust whole heartedly to always be honest with me.
I can only rely on what I’ve heard, since the extent to which we truly know each other is limited to email. Jimmy I know very well from working with him on a daily basis, and trust whole heartedly to always be honest with me.
I know exactly how you feel here Losos. I was in the same boat as you, although I did not work with Miki on a reguar basis as you do with Jimmy, but I do take Miki to be honest with me. It is nice to hear that you are wanting to stay respected for you opinions as well, now I don’t feel so alone. I too expressed my own opinions based on what I knew or had heard and because of that, people went out of their way to shut me up which is why I am sitting in the background just watching what happens now. I agree though, I was too harsh with my words.
To the person who left that message on my phone last Wednesday without leaving a name or return number, thanks for that, my girlfriend and her kids heard it. Call again so we can meet in person, I am ready.
Jimmy, I sent you an e-mail via , I hope you got it.
I too expressed my own opinions based on what I knew or had heard
It’s not known from my posts, but I originally was more in support of Miki’s side than Jimmy’s when I first found out about the split. The split was sprung on me and appeared to have a negative impact in another business I’m vested in. The reasons I was in support of Miki were not much different than the reasons others have already used to support Miki’s side within this thread.
I stayed out of the discussion on swaylocks until I had made up my mind as to who’s side I supported, and even then only chimed in with a few patent issue clarifications at first. Clearly from my more recent posts I chose to support Jimmy & Mike’s side. The reason? A number of people that have worked very close with Miki have issues with him and the way he runs a business (whether or not it is “according to the rules and regulations of the Australian tax office”). Others are suing him. With the exception of Midget, Miki’s strongest supporters are those that do not live nearby and have only had limited face-to-face contact with him (many times in the form of a few days spent while installing a machine). I found nothing of the kind to tarnish Jimmy or Mike’s reputations as honest business men. Call me naive, call me an idealist, but I’ll choose honesty over legal claims every time. Miki’s got a bad reputation (deserved or not) of strong-arming his way through business. Jimmy and Mike don’t.
The past is the past. I dont think anyone really cares about: He said, she said, he did, I do!
It is what will happen now that determines reputations. Perfectly good people can make decisions that can ruin their rep as well as a prisoner can become a preacher… ( It does not take Nostradamus to figure it out the outcome of this )
Everyone has their own views and experiance. That’s what this forum has always been about:
" A open source of public information from which each individual forms an opinion/ learns from the experiance of others ".
Your points are taken and heard. But really I think it more important to hear from Jimmy himself.
It’s not known from my posts, but I originally was more in support of Miki’s side than Jimmy’s when I first found out about the split.
SNIP
The reasons I was in support of Miki were not much different than the reasons others have already used to support Miki’s side within this thread.
SNIP
Clearly from my more recent posts I chose to support Jimmy & Mike’s side. The reason? A number of people that have worked very close with Miki have issues with him and the way he runs a business (whether or not it is “according to the rules and regulations of the Australian tax office”). SNIP
Even if it were true, is that a reason to steal someone else’s idea (the machine) and call it their own? As if it were their brainchild. Something about this picture is very disturbing
Hey Miki, you are around the corner from my shed, have you made enough money now, you *******. Has Warren dealt with you enough, or has the greed of you shaping machine ***** managed to ***** up on all of you. You ****** and all the rest of you mass produced ******, that confused yourselves with Gordon Merchant or Doug Warbrick, get some giant morgages, put yourselves in the spar and ****** drown and don’t get on any site and whinge about your finances, you had no right having anything to do with surfing, yours sincerely, John Harris.
Hey has anyone figured out what these guys have to do with this story. seemed like this post went by and knowone was curious why all these surf moguls all of the sudden popped up. do they own machines or is this just an example.
natas
The aps3000 opened up the surfboard shaping market to near 100% finishes. When I was brainstorming on my mini-machine, the cutter was the most challenging part to me. When I saw the vertical disc cutter, I was hit with a dumbfounded “why didn’t I think of that?”. But, just because I had not thought of it or seen it done before does not mean that it hasn’t been done before outside of the surfboard shaping industry. If a vertical cutter like the one in the aps3000 has never been used in the cnc industry before, then you’ve got a solid patent application on your hands. If it has been used before, then it was intelligent to use it for surfboards but by no means patentable.
Similar cutters known as side and face cutters are used in CNC. But if you have a look at them you will understand that these are not efficent for cutting foam at this rate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:MillSideAndFaceCutter.jpg(got one sitting on my desk, looking exactly the same) Miki’s cutter is way better optimized for cutting foam than this thing. Secondly and more importantly, the use of a circular cutter makes it soo easy to optimize the cutting path and give better results on the rails. That’s really the clever part. When I started thinking about making a machine for cutting surfboards, first thing I thought was the cut has to be perpendicular to the surface of the board to get perfect accuracy(otherwise you get problems with the offsets of the cutter). That would imply a 5 axis machine. With the disc you have a virtual extra axis, you get really close to perpendicular cuts especially on the rails where it counts the most. And the math for offseting the cuts are really simple. Pure genius.
I think it’s kind of funny with the pics of the prototype akushaper on the APS3000 website with five APS3000 machines in the background.
Good luck to Jimmy, Ralph, Ryan, Mike and Miki. You are all going to need it.
Are you f’'king kidding Natas, you bring up somrthing I wrote, whilst drunk, you read the next post and the one after that and that, now what’s your go? I’ve said more than enough, as for do these guys deserve a comment, you’re a smartarse and I would’nt be suprised if you’re not who you say you are, I doubt shaping machines have effected you or your family, I’m cool , I’m way findable if you want to stir shit, H.
