The OP just asked about cleaning lenses It seems that
no one knows the difference between clean glass
and dirty glass

I suppose porous is a bit too broad to describe the surface of
glass? The correct term is hydrophilic link

The surface of glass when greatly magnified looks more
like Sterling board.

Kenko now have filters with an Ultra Smooth Surface link

Ultra Smooth Surface - Nano Glass Technology

Our Nano Glass Technology creates an ultra smooth surface
from the finest particles of glass, making it stain and
scratch resistant without any effect to the image.

This should stay a lot cleaner... so just leave a UV(0) filter
on you lens all the time to keep the front element clean.
It doesn't degrade picture quality and can actually improve
landscapes.

I can't see any point in taking this thread any further it's
already slightly off topic

Glass is made from the same material used in sandpaper
If it was a solid you wouldn't be able to see through it!

Lenses have been ground and polished using methods that will
leave slight grooves and break off minute pieces of glass.

I'm off to drink some 'Codswallop' anyway

The surface of glass is porous and you can tell that from a new
lens, the cloth actually squeaks when you first wipe it across
within weeks muck from the air starts to fill the pores in and
any attempts to clean it with a soft cloth compacts more muck
than it removes. The best cleaner would probably be a gel that
sets and then brings all the muck out of the pores when you
pull it off. Most glass cleaners simply apply a polish on top
of what's already there.

I'm not familiar with the technology, but I would imagine
that Pilkingtons self cleaning glass is very basically glass
in which they have sealed the pores and applied a smooth
coating.

I take it that you've never bought a lens off Rocky

They don't remove anything. Cotton seems better I still have some 25 year old Selvyt cloths
(washed many times) and resort to them when microfibre doesn't work.
link

Selvyt have been around for quite some time link

It's only when you take apart completely and then put
back together a 6 element lens that you realize that
your glass cleaning technique is extremely lacking

Well he's been selling it for a few years now and considering that his main business is expensive lens conversions/repairs it's highly unlikely that he would bother selling small quantities of lens cleaner that he probably makes less than a fiver on if it wasn't good. You can see from the feedback that he doesn't sell much, but all the buyers rate it highly One feedback comment was:
"Awesome stuff. Crystal clear glass. I won't use anything else now."

I'll know shortly anyway. Just about everything I've tried doesn't clean old lenses properly. If you cool the lens down and breath on it you can see that there is still something on it.

I might buy a pair of these gloves as well. It's almost impossible to put a lens back together without getting fingerprints or dust on it. link

I've never used it before, but it supposed to be the best..
ROR... I've just ordered some from Eddie Houston on ebay
and I don't think he'd recommend anything that wasn't
as good as he says it is £15.19 delivered link

I hate it when you go in for a single pint of milk and
they say "Do you need some help with your packing!"

I also hate Special Offers that aren't programmed into the till
resulting in being overcharged. It's happened to me four times
at Tescos... the last time was a week ago. I only wanted a pack of
Multi-Vitamins, but the offer was buy three and get the cheapest one
free on all Vitamins and Minerals, so I got three different makes.
I didn't notice until I got home that they had charged for all
three

I was there again on Monday and kicked up a bit of a fuss and
was given something like double the overcharge back. There's
no excuse though that offer has been on for ages

iPlayer is just the BBC player for a PC I don't think it's anything to do with Apple..... the Beeb were originally using Real Player so I assume it's based on that.

It plays OK on my PC and I haven't got any Apple stuff on it apart from Quicktime Alternative which will only play older QT stuff. The BBC player will even play on a Windows 98SE machine and no Apple stuff works on that

Most of the complaints he got were that he WOULDN'T post
any of HIS photos, but heavily criticised other peoples etc

I don't fancy damaging another £6 screwdriver on it
and I've just done TWO mid grey exposure tests at all apertures and they vary and the two tests aren't the same.
I might reluctantly just chop off the aperture lever and
use it as a pre-set