Many of you will recognize the name of Teresa Smithson. This link to a news story forwarded by Derek Graham was apparently something that he himself could not post, posssibly after Toronto Mayor Rob Ford took momentary control of the nodes of the internet passing through his city. I cannot myself say whether that is true or not, but here's the link:
Congrats to Teresa.
I remember her contributions to our conversations a few years back.
Hijack--My old eyes must not be what they used to be. When I opened the link and looked at the date line, I could have sworn it said (kill news). As it was a story from a war zone that seemed a little too prophetic for my comfort. Looking to the top of the page I discovered it was actually kiii news instead of kill news. Phew!!!
Hi Kent,
Thank you to both you and Derek for remembering me. I've been out of the mix for awhile - focused on school and making geospatial important to the project here in Afghanistan over the last 3 years. I have been very out of touch. Surveyor Connect is a new forum to me. My husband found this and sent it to me.
Hope you are well. Have a great holiday and Happy New Years.
Teresa
Teresa-
Bravo !
I was looking to messages on my BB and as I am verclempft trying to post to SC using it, I asked young Kent if he would be kind enough to post the note about your accomplishments that were picked up by a news organization that in turn is connected to Google alerts.
You obviously are living in a dangerous situation that I would not be able to work in.
Here, in our practice, I would consider a 'war zone' hacking through hawthorn thickets !
You and your family should be very proud, particularly with grad school studying as well.
I did go to the TAMUCC URL http://gisc.tamucc.edu/ but did not canvass it in total.
I did a quick search for "on line" courses but, even with an excellent interactive site, YOS was not able to fully access such a course component for review.
Any hints that won't take you away from "more important than DGG" things ?
If not too nosy ............... When are you to return ?
Cheers,
Derek
PS-
I do note Dr. Gary Jeffress a surveyor from NSW in OZ is involved at TAMUCC.
The Oz surveying group, in general, is certainly a progressive lot.
Recently, one of our NSW colleagues, Pat McNamara, who is involved in the NSW surveyors' claims for copyright in their documents, posted this as edited slightly:
Yep $2,250,000 Aussie payment for past LPI sins.
We think copyright will be worth $4-500,000 per year for surveyors plans at LPI.
LPI = Land & Property Information is the new all-encompassing Department name for the Lands Department/Registrar Generals/ Board of Surveying and Spatial Information.
Now, for the other states and the rest of the plan copying done by other government and local councils!
Roll on 2014.
A link on the matter can be seen here
.
Kent-
The "Fordification" dance purportedly came from his experience in Austin:
http://www.torontosun.com/2013/12/18/mayor-rob-ford-attributes-dancing-to-love-of-bob-marley
My Dad would put Ford's character down as a Narcissus who could not swim, and thus was all wet falling into the icy water !
Knowing you as an upstanding Austinian, I trust you'll be able to make allowances for those who take a while to thaw out.;-)
Cheers,
YOS
Hi Derek,
Interesting about the copyright thing. Courts here have recognized that copyright for maps but when we record it with the loccal government, we are providing the public access. The copyright thing would kick in if a commercial entity published a book of the plats or maps.
Yes, Dr. Jeffress hails from down under. He is the chair of the department, and has been for quite some time. Nice fellow and all of the department are wonderful. I will post a separate thread about the program so more people can get info.
I did want to say that you appear a little overdressed in your photo. My son sent me his Earth day picnic photo from Antarctica a couple of years ago and he is standing in a similar background wearing shorts and a t-shirt. But apparently it was quite warm that day - 0 celsius. He just got back from South Pole station (elev 3230m, 10600ft) where the temperatures were:
Average temp... -54.2°C / -65.6°F
Maximum temp... -27.4°C / -17.3°F on March 29
Minimum temp... -77.7°C / -107.9°F on June 7
I need to find a job in Jamaica B-)
teresa
Teresa
Teresa:
I hope that you'll post updates to the Teresa Smithson Saga. The last installment I can recall dealt with the process of deciding whether to go to Iraq as a civilian contract surveyor and the related questions of how to design a meaningful coordinate system within which to report surveys there. Presumably NAD27 was not a good choice. :>
I missed your jump to Afghanistan and everything that led up to it.
Teresa
Hi Kent,
I guess I have been out of the loop for awhile. Went to Iraq in Feb 2007, jumped to Afghanistan in Feb 2011, and am having FUN!! Love my job. As to my last dilemma, wow was that a while ago. We do everythingin UTM, keeps it simple and no one cares if the jersey barrier or building (almost all buildings are movable) is half a meter off and we get tighter than that relative in the smaller areas that the design is for. I'm not being careless, just realistic since nothing is permanent and mostly what we are putting in are shipping containers (they act as billeting, offices, and storage) and tents. I have been staying on the peripheral. I got a couple of articles in Prof Surveyor; one the end of last year (I think) regarding coordinates stirred up a fair bit of discussion. That was good.
In spite of the odds, I'm still married and we celebrated 20 years this past summer. Next time I'm home is summer for my son's wedding, but we're heading to Panama in-between now and then. By summer time I'll be looking for my next adventure since the contract here is winding down rapidly. If CH2M Hill doesn't have another gig for me I guess I will look elsewhere. I want to stay either traveling extensively or working internationally, either way doing project work. I guess I'm a vagabond at heart. So if you hear of anything... Perfect world: a company wants to hire me for research at a good salary and I get to work on a PhD while doing project work somewhere in the world:-) sigh!
Derek... the website for TAMUCC is awful. I wrote the department and told them to add the online stuff and make it easier to locate. Hopefully, they will work on that. But if you look at the curriculums, all of the graduate level (GSEN) courses are online and most of the undergraduate (GISC). They are the regular courses and the instructors teach them in a dual format - such as recording the lecture. Each one is a little different but campus and online are the same course.
http://catalog.tamucc.edu/preview_program.php?catoid=8&poid=650
http://catalog.tamucc.edu/preview_program.php?catoid=7&poid=553
http://gisc.tamucc.edu/certificates/post_bac.html
I'm glad to have time to drop in once in a while again.
Teresa Smithson and On Line Continuing Educational Links
Teresa-
Thank you for taking the time to list the links.
We have fluttering hydro right now as we've had 24 hours or so of freezing rain turning to 1.5 " of ice.
I'll certainly take a look.
Now, as to your next challenge, maybe you'd like to have a quieter venue to study (York U or Ryerson) and come to Ontario, North Aboyne Farm to be precise.
(BTW- Kent now knows not to judge all by 'Fordian Slips" ! ) 😉
Cheers,
Derek
PS-
Do you have an off Surveyor Connect E-address in order that Alexandra and I can contact you and yours ?
Your son must be a brave laddie at those temps !
Teresa
Teresa,
It's great to hear from you.
Tom