I've Thought It Over. Measurement is Alive

[E_Page]

Not that I'm disagreeing with Mike Pallamary's premise about surveyors promoting themselves as professional expert measurers, but I would put the reason differently...

Measurement is not dead. It is very much alive. It's everywhere. It's active. It's promiscuous... it'll now get down with anybody and everybody, sharing it's precisions and accuracies that it used to share only with us surveyors. We've been cuckolded people!

A week or two ago, I posted in the "Measurement is Dead" thread about hearing a Big Box Hardware ad on the radio about a handheld EDM available to the masses.

Well, this past Sunday, I was at one of the Big Box Hardware stores in my little burg in the foothills getting materials for my daughter to play interior decorator (she's going to paint her room - should be interesting to see what else gets painted), and remembered that ad.

Long story shortened a bit, for $150, I am now the owner (not sure if "proud" or "scared" is the appropriate adjective) of a Bosch GLR225 Laser Distance Measurer. (See attached photos).

It's just a bit smaller than a pack of cigarettes, has an effective range of 230', and has a fairly impressive array of measurement functions. It reports distances to a precision of 1/16 in, so has nearly 5 times the range and twice the precision of the unit they're advertising on the radio. Don't know why they don't advertise their best, but whatever. It can even be mounted to the same tripod as a Brunton Pocket Transit, so the backyard surveyor can turn angles, remove his "transit" and mount the "EDM" and measure distances (anyone else having flashbacks to the early 80s, Beetle or HP3800?).

I haven't figured out just what all I'll use this thing for. I have a few home improvement projects in mind, inclulding replacing most of our 2000+/- sf of decks, some other landscaping projects and such. I'll probably use it as a rangefinder while bowhunting, and may even use it as a laser pointer the next time I give a presentation - maybe on how measurement is leaving us out in the cold.

In my early days of surveying, I thought measurement was ours, exclusively, forever and ever. We were beyond going steady, or even betrothed. Surveyors and measurement were wedded to each other. We cared for her, kept the rust off the chain, held her gently with just the right tension, housed her in expensive electronics, wrote down the data she gave us as if it were poetry to be cherished forever. In short, we treated her like a new groom should treat his bride, with great care and pride, as no other could. We were hers and she was ours.

But now, I've come to realize that this is just another one way relationship with a faithless lover. We need measurement, but measurement is very clearly showing that she does not need us.

Maybe if we still wrote down her data in books we keep forever, she might still be ours.

[TTaylor]

Evan, just like you, I have, and will work tirelessly for our profession in California. (BTW, my water under bridge comment on a previous thread was directed at you and Dave, two people I respect and consider valued colleagues).

As you may know, I worked a long time as the chair of the CLSA legislative committee to get through the legislature (and CELSOC at the time) a provision in our LSACT to basically address measurement and the land surveyor.

We, through a lot of effort, got approved the revision to the LSACT that added 8726 (n) as a protected task.

Everybody today can make a map and make measurements. The claim of an accuracy on maps and measured survey data is legally protected for the Land Surveyor.

8726. A person, including any person employed by the state or by a
city, county, or city and county within the state, practices land
surveying within the meaning of this chapter who, either in a public
or private capacity, does or offers to do any one or more of the
following:
(a) Locates, relocates, establishes, reestablishes, or retraces
the alignment or elevation for any of the fixed works embraced within
the practice of civil engineering, as described in Section 6731.
(b) Determines the configuration or contour of the earth's
surface, or the position of fixed objects above, on, or below the
surface of the earth by applying the principles of mathematics or
photogrammetry.
(c) Locates, relocates, establishes, reestablishes, or retraces
any property line or boundary of any parcel of land, right-of-way,
easement, or alignment of those lines or boundaries.
(d) Makes any survey for the subdivision or resubdivision of any
tract of land. For the purposes of this subdivision, the term
"subdivision" or "resubdivision" shall be defined to include, but not
be limited to, the definition in the Subdivision Map Act (Division 2
(commencing with Section 66410) of Title 7 of the Government Code)
or the Subdivided Lands Law (Chapter 1 (commencing with Section
11000) of Part 2 of Division 4 of this code).
(e) By the use of the principles of land surveying determines the
position for any monument or reference point which marks a property
line, boundary, or corner, or sets, resets, or replaces any monument
or reference point.
(f) Geodetic or cadastral surveying. As used in this chapter,
geodetic surveying means performing surveys, in which account is
taken of the figure and size of the earth to determine or
predetermine the horizontal or vertical positions of fixed objects
thereon or related thereto, geodetic control points, monuments, or
stations for use in the practice of land surveying or for stating the
position of fixed objects, geodetic control points, monuments, or
stations by California Coordinate System coordinates.
(g) Determines the information shown or to be shown on any map or
document prepared or furnished in connection with any one or more of
the functions described in subdivisions (a), (b), (c), (d), (e), and
(f).
(h) Indicates, in any capacity or in any manner, by the use of the
title "land surveyor" or by any other title or by any other
representation that he or she practices or offers to practice land
surveying in any of its branches.
(i) Procures or offers to procure land surveying work for himself,
herself, or others.
(j) Manages, or conducts as manager, proprietor, or agent, any
place of business from which land surveying work is solicited,
performed, or practiced.
(k) Coordinates the work of professional, technical, or special
consultants in connection with the activities authorized by this
chapter.
(l) Determines the information shown or to be shown within the
description of any deed, trust deed, or other title document prepared
for the purpose of describing the limit of real property in
connection with any one or more of the functions described in
subdivisions (a) to (f), inclusive.
(m) Creates, prepares, or modifies electronic or computerized data
in the performance of the activities described in subdivisions (a),
(b), (c), (d), (e), (f), (k), and (l).
(n) Renders a statement regarding the accuracy of maps or measured
survey data.

[Anthony Maffia]

Evan,

That thing rocks. I used it (or an earlier $99 model) 4 summers ago to do an interior as-built of a multi-story building for a condo conversion. Sweet. Using it in a second story hallway and with a pocket tape though open windows, I measured the length of a 150' long building to within an inch of the edm measurements from the streets.

[Proud7191]

I bought a Leica model 10 years ago to measure remote offset distances from the rod when one man surveying. It was too difficult to see the red laser dot in direct sunlight so it got moved to my garage where I use it occasionally. It mainly sits on the shelve, but heck, the man who dies with the most tools wins! Good day, Jp

[LS_8750]

You are right Evan, surveyors know how to measure like chefs know how to chop onions.

Seems everybody wants to jump into the hypothetical that everybody in the world knows how to chop an onion like a chef.. Wish I did.

[Steve Martin]

...just another one way relationship with a faithless lover.

A sad state of affairs

[Dave Karoly, PLS]

Henry Frankenstein: Look! It's moving. It's alive. It's alive... It's alive, it's moving, it's alive, it's alive, it's alive, it's alive, IT'S ALIVE!
Victor Moritz: Henry - In the name of God!
Henry Frankenstein: Oh, in the name of God! Now I know what it feels like to be God!

http://youtu.be/xos2MnVxe-c

http://youtu.be/bPmVhyHBRAM

[marchenko]

the statement is suffixed by "long live measurement", as in the King is dead but replaced by a new King...

[LS 4722]

Not that I'm disagreeing with Mike Pallamary's premise about surveyors promoting themselves as professional expert measurers

Just heard it (among other silly statements) from horn tooters on chat boards, but in the real world, never heard it and probably never will.

"Give a man a fish and you will have fed his body, but give a man a soapbox and he will provide a horn"

[LS_8750]

Who is the monkey and who is the engineer?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GmYfjlr0GFA