Hi Steven,
Thanks for your reply.
Your website has some interesting insights observation into the landscapes
of your area - just like a reading landscape lecture in a way. Sounds like a
beautiful place to live. The Osage Cuestas sounds like a few landforms in my
own area - minus the glaciation - last glacial in Australia yielded about
50km2 only - and that was in the alpine areas. Cool name though - I use it
from now on. My affinity with the name is also related to my liking for the
Osage Orange (Maclura pomifera) - especially its wonderful timber - bright
yellow/orange and amazingly tensile. I have established this one on a few
clients farms. Near my home town there is a road called Tannery Lane that is
lined with 120+ yo Osage Oranges as living fences (back when farmers had the
sense to do so and not the barbed wire). These still exist and are a
reliable source of both vegetative material and craft wood for local wood
turners.
On your question: just today the course I am teaching here in Viet Nam we
dealt with Low-Tech Survey equipment, techniques etc. We also discussed the
role of technology and related purchase decisions back to the issues of
appropriate technology, ease of use, reliability, robustness.
durability/design life, etc. When we talked about palm-based computers I was
not exactly complimentary: whilst they can be very useful, their reliability
in field conditions (at least the "affordable" consumable models) comes into
serious question - my recommendation was for the purchase selection of
equipment that met those criteria. So at this stage palm computers don't.
However so I don't come across as a luddite, which clearly I am not, I see
the potential value of such devices. They promise much and the linking of
the gps and palm device is a classic as you have a great little processor
and flash RAM so they are very capable machines. The screens are great too.
I checked out the software you mentioned - it looks good - especially if you
are working in the Natural Resource Mgt field. ArcPad is the industry
benchmark for this type of palm-based software (as distinct from this easier
to use free/shareware) and is very capable indeed. The holy grail of the
handheld device is the combined and durable GPS, CellPhone, Computer,
Internet Browsable, blee blee blee bla bla bla - the "perfect assistant" -
this is now a emerging reality so where do we go from here? Which relates
somewhat to Tim's comments on the changing world of cartography and the
question of what is next?
I agree with Tim that its sister products ArcView and ArcInfo are GIS
benchmarks though my problem with them for use in PC design is their poor
graphical ability and their relative lack of easy of use compared to
MapInfo. The ESRI products from my experience are like AutoCAD: you need a
reasonable amount of training to use them effectively. With MapInfo: a
couple of hour session is all that I have needed to get people (as most
recently experienced here in VN) geographically registering a raster (eg
Aerial Photo, Scanned Topo Map) image, digitising and doing basic design
work. MapInfo's interface (particularly its graphical commands) is similar
to many simple graphic's software - even something like MS Paint - which my
3 year old son can use....
You can fall into the trap (speaking from experience) of spending too much
time on the desktop playing "masters of the universe" with GIS/CAD packages
- better to spend time trying to sequester carbon, produce some yields and
get some margin. Do what you need to do then get onto the physical work.
Tim also discussed the differing surveying devices he uses: I agree
wholeheartedly with him - though would add that there are plenty of
second-hand total stations out there for less than $AUD5-8000 - which is
getting into the ball-park for the full-time professional - that said I
won't be getting one as for mine it is more time effective to simply hire a
surveyor and assistant for about AUD$50-$90/hr - especially when they can
survey most 10-40 ha farms (depending on topography) in about a day or two
with another few hours at the desktop processing the information. Current
surveyor I use in Oz charges about $70/hr and he has a superfast one man
total station that can cover a lot of area in a short space of time.
I have not personally contracted a photogrammetrist though any time I have
used a government topo map I have by default used one. From costly
experience though I am wary: seriously ground truth. Most topo maps are
still made with this technology - only usually with 3D glasses and a
computer screen - wild stuff to see - had a sneak in a defence mapping
facility a few years ago now (before it became top secret) and this stuff is
pretty wild - pity though that it is used for those purposes and not for the
job at hand - a great case of "Imagine". The stuff I saw blew me away -
images (satellite and aerial) that made you feel like you were hovering
horizontally about a metre from the ground in 3D - pisses me off though that
its used for merely snooping.
At today's class here in Dong Xoai we finished using a Transit Level. My
experience with these great little instruments is quite limited (combined
with my mild dislexia and poor mental arithmetic) - everyone got a handle of
them after an hour of class description and then a couple of hours of field
use. This Japanese model had a very neat tripod and could all fit into a
school-size back pack - so was extremely portable.
As an aside we had a couple of well appreciated and hotly contested
exercises today: both had Bia (beer) as prizes (donated by yours truly) and
involved groups guessing positions of contours and also nominating the
relief between two nominated points. Turned an otherwise mundain activity
into a bit of fun.
My last contribution relates to the use of video game software in PC. I have
had a small play and if I was of my kid's generation then I would perhaps be
better equipped to get into it. Software like World Construction Set is
truly amazing and is used by the likes of Golf Course designers to do their
stuff and amazingly represent their concepts and detail plans. Not hard to
imagine how this type of software could be used in PC design - especially
since you can do time modelling. If any of you have a look you will see what
I mean - you can even fly that helicopter through your design that you've
always dreamed about - but never would as an energy conscious PCist. Again
the question is? Romantic over analysis and unnecessary time at the desktop
- my thinking is yes.
Cheers,
Yours and Growing,
Darren Doherty