March 11, 2008
- GPS Makes Everyone a Surveyor
That's the claim made by John Boney, a retired engineer and city councilman in Butler Alabama, who surveyed a cemetery in Butler after the city was quoted a price of $30000 by a licensed Land Surveyor. Boney, who is not a professional surveyor received a letter of reprimand from the Alabama State Board of Licensure for Professional Engineers and land Surveyors. He made the statement that::
"PVC pipe made everyone a plumber," he said. (…)
January 19, 2008
- Proposals and Invoices and Your Professional Image
Nothing looks worse than a hand scrawled proposal written on a piece of notebook paper and mailed to a client in anticipation of winning over a prospective client. Not much better, but certainly more acceptable is a typed up form outlining the work with the charges and a total amount due. (…)
October 11, 2007
- A Good Time to Call a Land Surveyor
KLSA News is reporting that Habitat or Humanity has apparently built a house on the wrong lot in Shreveport, LA. According to the City Attorney, lots 40 and 41 were sold to Habitat for Humanity and someone else owned Lot 42. However, according to claims by the owner of Lot 42, Habitat for Humanity built on two properties instead of two lots, which caused the mix-up. The complete story can be found on the KLSA website
I don't quite follow the logic, but I suspect she is indicating that perhaps Lots 40 and 41 were under common, leading Habitat for Humanity to believe that the combined lots were all in Lot 40, then assuming that the adjacent lot was Lot 41. (…)
July 23, 2007
- Planetarium Program Useful to Land Surveyors
Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your computer. (…)
July 14, 2007
- The Challenge of Surveying in Ohio
Surveying in Ohio is unlike surveying in any other State of the Union. As John E. (…)
June 2, 2007
- Employee Non-Compete Contracts
Many employers use a non-compete contract to restrict or limit employees and former employees from working for a competitor, or from divulging trade secrets or other proprietary data. (…)
May 6, 2007
- Website Revisions and Additions
If you haven't been around Land Surveyors Notebook for awhile you may not be aware of some of the new things on the website. If you have been a regular visitor you have probably already noticed some of the changes which hopefully make this a more valuable tool for your use..
Many additional references have been added to the links page, including some links to patents of some interesting survey related inventions. (…)
April 29, 2007
- Free Survey and Engineering Courses at MIT
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has complete on line access of their entire curriculum with some 1550 courses ready for download and use. (…)
November 6, 2006
- Deadline for the Surveyor's CEU Cruise
Yes, the deadline is near. In fact it is today. (…)
September 6, 2006
- Continuing Education Cruise - Revisited
Previously, I wrote about taking a Western Caribbean cruise aboard the Carnival Glory in order to get my continuing education credits for my 2008 license renewal as a Registered Land Surveyor in Indiana. (…)
September 1, 2006
- Survey Fees - Hourly Rate or Value
In a discussion with one of my peers the other day, we came upon the topic of cut rate surveyors. We agreed that some will always do the work for less. (…)
June 20, 2006
- Procrastination and Continuing Education
If you have been a reader of this site, you probably know some of my views on continuing education. Indiana's policy was very restrictive. (…)
April 29, 2006
- Surveyors and Continuing Education
We all must have a certain amount of continuing education in order to renew our licenses to practice. (…)
February 14, 2006
- Got Graph Paper?
Have you ever had need for a sheet of graph paper to plot a rough sketch for field work? (…)
February 13, 2006
- Easements Destroyed by Merger
At the local chapter meeting of Professional Surveyors and Mappers, a local attorney spoke on easements and how they are created and how they are destroyed. (…)
February 3, 2006
- Review of 2006 ALTA Survey Standards
As I mentioned in a post on January 21, new ALTA standards became effective on January 01, 2006. To see all articles written about ALTA, click on ALTA in the Categories area in the left column. (…)
January 27, 2006
- Eminent Domain Problems?
There is controversy regarding the traing of private lands by governmental agencies, only to turn the lands over to other private interests to develop in a manner "benefitting the public good". (…)
January 26, 2006
- Land Surveyor Safety
My last post showed the blurred image of a survey instrument as seen from the window of a speeding passing bus. (…)
January 21, 2006
- New ALTA Standards
The ALTA/ACSM Minimum Standard Detail Requirements have been revised. The new standards became effective on January 1, 2006. The links below were taken from the ACSM website. (…)
January 18, 2006
- Becoming Known in the Community
Land Surveyors are relatively unknown outside a small circle of clients and business associates. The community as a whole knows nothing about a land surveyor, or exactly what he does. (…)
