My association with Javad Ashjaee

James Fleming, post: 368272, member: 136 wrote: Full Disclosure: My postings outside of normal work hours are often influenced by my association with Maker's Mark and/or Tito's Handmade Vodka.

Old Forester is the bourbon I prefer.

"I hung up and fed myself a slug of Old Forester to brace my nerves for the interview. As I was inhaling it I heard her steps tripping along the corridor." -Philip Marlowe in The Little Sister (1949).

dgm-pls, post: 368270, member: 2490 wrote: The rules can be found here:

https://surveyorconnect.com/help/terms

I think what Shawn has posted has been helpful opinion on a product that he is very familiar with. Its one of the many positives that come out of this website. I'm all for it. I would recommend that something be added to the signature line for those posting in this manner disclaiming any such ties to a company.

To all who are associated with a product. I think it is important that you share your knowledge and what you believe. I think you may know more about the product than the average user and that you may have more direct access to the "answer" than the end user. I would hate to see "rules" that would keep you from sharing your knowledge.

My only request is that if you have a "financial" tie or receive other "benefits" from, or access to the producer that this fact is disclosed. This does not need to be a long explanation. As suggested, a word, or two in the signature would be fair warning to most that there may be a conflict. I don't mean to imply that I think there is a conflict or that the post is "advertizing". Please continue to post; as professionals we are hungry for your knowledge and opinions.

I, for one, appreciate Shawn clarifying for us why his perspective on certain things may be different from others. Very up front.

Agree that this is similar to our standard association with our standard clientele. They do not control us, we control what we will and will not do.

leegreen, post: 368215, member: 2332 wrote:
It would be great if other vendors did chine to tells of their up coming technology. But this is a violation of the board, there fore they do not.

I would LOVE to see a "vendor's corner" where vendors did that sort of thing. (I doubt they would, but it would be cool if they did.)

How many sales people want to, or would be able to defend their process, their equipment, their ideas, etc in a public forum? Not many.

Shawn,
Thank you for donating your knowledge and training to us here on BeerLeg. As you mentioned to me the other day at the ASPS Conference, you are just showing the 'Product', answering questions, and letting the product 'sell' itself.
I know of quite a few Arkansas BeerLurkers who find your posts and friendship quite valuable.

DDSM

Shawn,
Thanks for the post, great story. I have always appreciated your posts and write ups that to me are pretty clear cut test cases. As you prognosticate, Results speak for themselves, and user can make their own decision. We are a trimble shop but I would love to be able to test others and compare especially JAVAD because it seems he has a forward thinking Brain pan. He has been creating many innovations in this industry for years and anyone in the GPS game should respect that at a minimum. Many others may be on their way out of this profession but I have 20-30 more years. I have come to realize that I don't have the time to be the guinea pig testing the next best thing but I also recognize that the next best thing is always coming and I need to keep a look out for it. Thanks for keeping us all a little more aware of what is out there.

I won't post the actual advertisement that is coming out this month. I'd like to post it because it is so funny. Some of you may have received it already in an e-Blast from American Surveyor. It's pretty out there, and next month's ad will be even crazier. Hopefully it shows that we are having a lot of fun doing what we do.

I am a connoisseur of good equipment. I have used "Behind the Times" equipment, for most of my life. I am NOT usually current on anything. OLD plumb bob. OLD pouch. OLD 1993 Dodge truck. OLD everything. I'm even getting old.

I'm a cheapskate.
I have a whole procedure for purchasing stuff. For example, google last years "Editors choice" on point and shoot cameras. Then, buy that off ebay used.

I studied the whole GPS phenomenon, and bought LEGACY E's. USED. They had wires and cables. NO Bluetooth. They STILL work.
The only thing I buy new is stuff that qualifies. (I could not find an LS USED!!) And, my wife.

Both are complex. Both are very productive. Both require maintenance.

I love my wife. (got that way before the LS) and I love my LS.

My mother in law did not endorse any of what I have said about my wife. She has not paid me a nickle for all the good I do for her daughter! Ha!

Javad did not endorse what I said about his stuff either. I am an excited, and happy user of the Javad gear. I feel sorry for Shawn. I am LESS educated than most. I have had to get help with too many things. But, I have found a product, that is good enough, (Yes, it is morphing ever few days, and getting easier to use) But, they HAVE made many changes, at my request.
Here are changes made, since I have had it, that I have asked for: (the ones I can think of):
Overwrite protection of points surveyed by the LS.
User configuration of POINTS averaging.
User configurable, ACTION PROFILES. (Others were begging for this too) This lets you go from a deep woods verified setting, to lift and tilt, and back again, real fast.
Ability to handle huge coordinate files. (This is being worked on) I think it is in the release I got this morning.
I have a million more ideas, and things I want to be made, into a computer.
I found a company that listens. And, I went crazy.

After seeing what it does.... I went public, on this forum. Because I know how much work it is to do surveying. Good surveying.
Wendell is a great moderator, forum owner. I support his stuff, because his is great. I sent an offering to him last month.
Wendell once (maybe Angel) sent me a shirt, beef jerky, and a mug. Is that a conflict of interest? Javad has not yet sent me a shirt. But, I have asked for one! Ha ha! Anyway, love the site. Love good gear. Love my old dodge truck. Love my wife.
I hope everybody gets good data, does good surveys, and gets a new ________ (Whatever you need) this year!

Best to everybody.
Nate

It is a bit of a conundrum for me because I don't want to stifle great conversation. In some ways, I try to look at it from an honor system perspective -- that if you work for someone, whether contracted or as an employee -- you would want to be careful about how you present yourself on a forum such as this where advertisements help pay for expenses. However, it doesn't always work that way. It is indeed a fine line and I try to manage it as well as I can without stifling good conversation. Plus, there are different ways of looking at it, depending on who you are and your values.

I think Shawn is an excellent writer and I enjoy reading his articles regardless of where they are posted or published. While Shawn and I aren't in regular communications, I've always thought highly of him. Sorry, Shawn, for the whole third-person thing, I'm talking to the entire audience here. 😉

I've never seen any posts from Shawn that I thought were blatant advertisements. I can see where he favors particular equipment and my assumption (ut oh, there's that word) is not because of his monetary association (or whatever you want to call it) with them, but rather because he prefers to use their equipment. I could be wrong (it's not common, but it does happen) but IMHO his posts come off as being an avid user with a passion for that company's products. The other monetary stuff came as a result of that passion -- am I wrong here?

Anyway, all that was basically just to say that I haven't yet felt like he was posting in a way to get free advertising. Those are usually painfully obvious and I remove them immediately, then direct the poster to our Terms and Advertising pages. If I am wrong about that and his actions are truly nefarious, then he is the one that has to live with himself.

Dan B. Robison, post: 368318, member: 34 wrote:
Shawn,
Thank you for donating your knowledge and training to us here on BeerLeg. As you mentioned to me the other day at the ASPS Conference, you are just showing the 'Product', answering questions, and letting the product 'sell' itself.
I know of quite a few Arkansas BeerLurkers who find your posts and friendship quite valuable.

DDSM

I swear, that fella in that picture looks just like Thor holding his hammer.

Brad Ott, post: 368333, member: 197 wrote: I swear, that fella in that picture looks just like Thor holding his hammer.

Thor got nothing on that fella.

Wendell, it is your house and I greatly respect that.

I consulted for Javad for over a year before I used his equipment in production. It was that long before the system was fully ready and I knew that I could trust it. The start of that year was when the receiver was still a pile of components on a board room table, so the progress was substantial. I never tried to convince anyone to use the system in that time, even though I was being a paid consultant. I would not do that to someone else. I know the significance of a man boldly investing his money in a tool to make a living for his family. It's a sacred thing, and really he's not investing in the tool, he's investing in what he can do with the tool, so it's also an investment in himself. It wasn't until I could see that the tool was beginning to eclipse my experiences with other systems that I started to discuss it.

Mostly I started talking about it to contradict some of the naysaying going on about RTK in general. I couldn't speak to the intricacies of all brands, but I knew this product well enough to articulate some counter points to the ignorant things being said about RTK use in surveying. I would hope that anyone with similar expertise with other systems would chime in when those opportunities arise. Allowing such ignorance to continue does damage to the profession.

I also know from my own journey that some of the rules-of-thumb we adhere to are outdated with modern equipment. I would have never guessed that post-processing could be so robust with modern receivers and processors. I don't have much experience these days with other modern systems and software. It would serve the surveying community well to have a discussion about these things from a very practical standpoint.

I'll say this, too: the equipment I support is not for everyone and I'm truly thrilled that the industry has options. When all of the buy-outs and mergers were taking place a few years ago, it looked like we'd be pigeon-holed as a profession into a limited number of choices. I'm glad that there is a Trimble, Topcon, Leica, Hemisphere, Champion, CHC, SatLab, etc. The price point continues to decline as features continue to improve. That's right where we want to be as consumers.

I'm also truly thankful for Surveyor Connect for the service it provides to the Surveying Community at large. In about 1998, I started reading and soon posting to Mark Deal's site. My moniker was ShawnPCTx. I was only a party-chief at the time. I knew nothing about GPS and only a little about surveying in general. Because of the excellent contributions of the many participants, many of whom were employees of manufacturers, as well as scientists and knowledgeable users, I am what I am today.

Shawn it was all great except where you mentioned "light beer" !

So what I see is just a full disclosure and we are all guilty of talking about equipment we like and procedures we have been paid to perform by clients I don't see an foul here.

• Thanks you for all of your replies, reviews, testing (THALES receivers and "post"), and assistance to the survey community over the years. Your commentary has greatly enhanced this board and is prime reason many of use participate.

• So wouldn't we all like it if manufactures of our equipment listened to what we have been telling them or actually solicited our opinions and advise. Shawn has actually found a smart CEO that realizes there is much to be gained from listening to his clients.

Keep up the consulting and reporting back to us here Shawn, it has all gone into improving the state of GNSS equipment and software, we all win.

Shawn,

I'm glad we got all that on the table, and out of the way. Now we can get back to posting as usual.

it is hard to imagine what else can be put here for absolutely no advertisement of Javad :-P, jut kidding, sorry about that, what do I know about advertisement - I am from former Soviet Union.

Thanks Shawn. I have posted many years ago on the old RPLS.com and Beerleg about my many decades of knowing and working directly with Javad, and my great appreciation of the man. My association started right when first GPS windows came and we went into the first commercial GPS receivers. In fact, although a long great story without time to retell here, I was part of the team that did the first ever kinematic survey, with code that came from Javad as he thought he had a way to put a reciever in motion then static. It was with an Ashtech LXII single frequency receiver with 4 SVs in view.... totally astounding when we were thinking 1 hour static sessions were magic. Its interesting you say he likes surveyors, I never thought of it in that light, but you are right. IMHO, he is one of the most brilliant electrical engineers, and nobody knows GPS like he does. Heck of a wonderful person too. I have no connection with his firm, and cannot promote or hold out any opinion on any gear, but in general, my opinion is that all of the GPS precise positioning equipment and techniques we use today, across the board, has been influenced by him. My personal 2 cents worth. I hope I have chance to see him again.

pencerules, post: 368281, member: 709 wrote: I must say that this, along with a few other posts, does in my opinion constitute advertising. I understand that you are trying to share your experiences with everyone and you truly believe in the quality of the product but this does not change the fact that you receive compensation from JAVAD.

This is primarily a decision for the owner of the board. However, Shawn seems to create a lot of comments, which tends to indicate that people are reading, processing, perhaps even learning from his comments. Probably even contributes to traffic.

I do not regard his comments to be spam.

Sometimes enthusiastic, yes.

Sean,
Thanks for your time and openness. I think the discussion has been healthy.

Sorry - I actually was sarcastic in my previous comment, I really want to believe this is not a sponsored story or not a promoted post, I hope it is not, but it is obvious to everyone that it is extremely close to it. If this is honest story - sorry for doubting.

This is interesting link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_network_advertising
Types of Advertising
Popular social media sites, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, offer different ways to advertise brands. Facebook gives advertisers options such as promoted posts, sponsored stories, page post ads, Facebook object (like) ads, and external website (standard) ads. To advertise on Twitter there are promoter tweets, trends, and promoted accounts that show up on users newsfeeds. For advertising on YouTube there are branded channels, promoted videos, an in video advertising.[2]
In July 2015, during their Q2 earnings call, Facebook revealed that it achieved $2.9B in mobile revenue, amounting to over 76% of its overall quarterly revenue. [3] A large portion of this revenue was from app install ads, of which developers buy on a Cost per Install basis.

In this business, knowledge is power. If we are getting "Sponsored Knowledge" from the top down, that's advertising. If we are getting USER information, from other users, that is what this board is for.
Such as:
DON'T go to windows 10.
How to use various aspects of ACAD, and Carlson flavors of the same.
Developing technologies. If it is NON sponsored, and done by a user, who is helping another end user, then that's good.
The difference is you will get NEGATIVE feedback as well as POSITIVE, from an end user.
Gotta go.
N