Never before, in the history of surveying

I had an odd morning that got me thinking about all this technology. First off I stopped by my local bank (free donuts on Saturdays) and had to wait longer than I wanted because all the tellers' printers weren't behaving. After that I ran into a signal light that went to "red recall" and was flashing red in all directions. Stopped by the super market and was held up in line at the cashier because the credit card reader wasn't working right. Finally made it home without seeing Michael Douglas with a duffle-bag full of weapons.

Just had thoughts about how almost every aspect of our lives is tied to some foul-evil digital mess somewhere. Nobody thinks about it when everything works, but it's crazy when it all comes crashing down.

Was just thinking I may need a weekend off the grid in the woods out at the Cash Family Enclave for mental health reasons. I hope I remember to take the Sears Roebuck catalogue with me....

For sure... I'm gonna be taking a bit more time off.

paden cash, post: 430159, member: 20 wrote: Was just thinking I may need a weekend off the grid in the woods out at the Cash Family Enclave for mental health reasons. I hope I remember to take the Sears Roebuck catalogue with me....

Don't mean to brag but, I started my holiday weekend off with two legs full of chigger bites ... So I got that going for me. 😀

paden cash, post: 430159, member: 20 wrote: Finally made it home without seeing Michael Douglas with a duffle-bag full of weapons.

Good reference.
Who else remembers that scene?

paden cash, post: 430159, member: 20 wrote: I hope I remember to take the Sears Roebuck catalogue with me...

To hell with the Sears Roebuck catalog, "REAL" surveyors use poison ivy. Much softer but may, in rare instances, cause a minor irritation.;)

Finding a Sears Roebuck catalog is about like going to the Ringling Brothers Circus so I would advise giving the poison ivy a try.:p:p:p:p:p:D

Holy Cow, post: 430188, member: 50 wrote: Finding a Sears Roebuck catalog

That's true HC, all gone now. The brassiere section was a a pubescent boys dream, until we "confiscated" PLAYBOY magazines. 😉

We can now make mistakes faster than ever and to sixteen decimal places!

I often lament the dependence now built into our society. When I was born mid 20th century a disruption in fuel, electric powre, or communications would have been a major inconvenience but life would have gone on to recover.

Enough people raised much of their own food. Few went to the grocery store more than once a week and most had some reserves. Some farmers still did some of their work with horses.

Now I have my doubts we could weather a week without one of those utilities without reverting to barbarism.

Loss of the GPS satellite network alone would cascade inti loss of many other services due to reliance on it for timing.

http://fox13now.com/2014/08/01/facebook-goes-down-for-30-minutes-911-calls-pour-in/

Had to waste an extra five minutes in a checkout line earlier today because some bozo had to pay with plastic and there appeared to be a problem with the plastic. After 147 failed attempts he ran out to his vehicle and came back with a different piece of plastic. That one worked. He could not just reach in his pocket and pay the less than $10 total. I was number eight in a line that should never have more than about three people in it, including the one being checked out.

The nearby restaurant in the big city of less than 80 population (80 not 800 or 8000 or 80,000) has fancy ticketing now that must be read by a scanner when you go to pay for your meal. It involves their inventory. It has nothing to do with the payment process. Maybe it helps figure out how to divvy up the tip money. That unit was fouled up one day and they about went bonkers.

Bill93, post: 430206, member: 87 wrote: ..Now I have my doubts we could weather a week without one of those utilities without reverting to barbarism..

I read somewhere most metropolitan food retail centers actually keep less than a 7 day supply on the shelves. Hungry and scared people don't act like happy and well fed people.

I learned in the big ice storm we had in 2009 to keep plenty of cash on hand and in your pocket. Power here was off 21 days, for a few days you couldn't buy anything unless you had cash. Whenever I'm in the office and go to lunch with those guys, we have to be careful about going anywhere that doesn't take plastic. Some of them never have any cash on them.

eddycreek, post: 430213, member: 501 wrote: I learned in the big ice storm we had in 2009 to keep plenty of cash on hand and in your pocket. Power here was off 21 days, for a few days you couldn't buy anything unless you had cash. Whenever I'm in the office and go to lunch with those guys, we have to be careful about going anywhere that doesn't take plastic. Some of them never have any cash on them.

We went a week in the dark in 2007 due to an ice storm. It wasn't too bad an adjustment really. I keep an old 13" B&W TV rigged up to batteries (and a digital converter nowadays) to keep track of the news and weather. A Coleman stove makes good coffee, always has.

I found out you go to bed earlier when there's no power...;)

paden cash, post: 430159, member: 20 wrote: Was just thinking I may need a weekend off the grid in the woods out at the Cash Family Enclave for mental health reasons. I hope I remember to take the Sears Roebuck catalogue with me....

Okay, so does that mean that you don't have the latest release of [name your favorite GNSS manufacturer] butt-wiping guidance software? If the privy is under canopy, what sort of repeatability would you expect?

paden cash, post: 430210, member: 20 wrote: I read somewhere most metropolitan food retail centers actually keep less than a 7 day supply on the shelves. Hungry and scared people don't act like happy and well fed people.

As an increasingly reluctant resident of a metropolitan area, this statistic doesn't scare me much, based upon my personal empirical evidence of what constitutes a grown man these days...

Holy Cow, post: 430208, member: 50 wrote: Had to waste an extra five minutes in a checkout line earlier today because some bozo had to pay with plastic and there appeared to be a problem with the plastic. After 147 failed attempts he ran out to his vehicle and came back with a different piece of plastic. That one worked. He could not just reach in his pocket and pay the less than $10 total. I was number eight in a line that should never have more than about three people in it, including the one being checked out.

The nearby restaurant in the big city of less than 80 population (80 not 800 or 8000 or 80,000) has fancy ticketing now that must be read by a scanner when you go to pay for your meal. It involves their inventory. It has nothing to do with the payment process. Maybe it helps figure out how to divvy up the tip money. That unit was fouled up one day and they about went bonkers.

Tell me about it aarrrgh!

I pay cash for gasoline and always seem to get stuck behind some joker paying with plastic for candy bar, bag of chips, and coke, $3.68, gas station computers are slooooooooow.

Now get off my lawn.

Dave Lindell, post: 430195, member: 55 wrote: We can now make mistakes faster than ever and to sixteen decimal places!

The company I worked for, with extensive computing power, delivered a map of a large portion of the lower Mississippi flood plane, to USACE in UTM zone 10.

Never before in the history of surveying has 16 digit precision been so wrong, rejected in one minute's time. When it hit the fan I looked at it and said "6,000,000 m easting? OMG".

So all that technology made them dumber. They produce maps and do not know how they're made.

Kent McMillan, post: 430238, member: 3 wrote: Okay, so does that mean that you don't have the latest release of [name your favorite GNSS manufacturer] butt-wiping guidance software? If the privy is under canopy, what sort of repeatability would you expect?

My "reception" and repeatability under canopy has been pretty good my whole life. Generally my 'ellipse of error' has been about the size of the neck of a pop bottle.

However there has been times (due to atmospheric disturbances such as the lunch buffet at Pancho's) that I couldn't have hit a #10 washtub if I was standing in it...

PS - I may brag about a Sears Roebuck catalogue, but I'm really a big sissy when it comes to 'paperwork'. I prefer the pricey "software". Too many years as a government employee will sour a person against bargain-basket low bidder "John Wayne" toilet paper.