ESRI User Conference July 2009

I'm at the ESRI User Conference in San Diego this week. I'm helping Jean-Yves Lauture with the Geneq booth. The primary product that we are promoting is the SXBlue II GPS unit. Jean-Yves is the design engineer who developed the SXBlue. His knowledge of this GPS unit is phenomenal. He is also very good at selling it; because he knows so much about the SXBlue and the competition.

Jean-Yves was asked what the next really big breakthrough will be in GPS. His answer... the new satellites with the L5 code. The L5 code will allow us to get 15 centimeter accuracy with the SXBlue and WAAS. Unfortunately, it will be 4 or 5 years before enough L5 satellites are in orbit.

The ESRI User Conference is down in attendance about 30% this year. There are still 10,000 people here, so we have been very busy. Last night I went to a dinner sponsored by Laser Technology. It was a grand event and a lot of fun. The president of Laser Technology, David Williams, was there as was most of the senior management. What a great bunch of people!

Last week's trivia question: What rhymes with the words "Month" and "Purple"? Answer: Nothing. No normal word rhymes with either one.

All for now!

Jon Aschenbach

BIA Log Scaling/Timber Cruising Conference

Hi Everyone. I'm in Lincoln City at the BIA Log Scaling/Timber Cruising Conference. It's a great group of scalers and timber cruisers from all over the Northwest and Alaska. Attendance is down, but enthusiasm is up! Everyone is committed to learning as much as they can over this 3 day meeting.

Chamile, a master log scaler from the USFS gave a great presentation on the difference between board foot log rules and Cubic Feet. She did a great job of showing how bad board foot rules like Scribner, Doyle, 1/4 inch are and how good Cubic feet is. Guess what the USFS uses? Scribner. They were going to switch to Cubic and local industry people complained so much they went back to Scribner. Too bad because cubic feet is so much better.

Next week, I will be at the ESRI User Conference in San Diego. This conference has several thousand attendees. I'm helping with the Geneq Booth, promoting the SXBlue II GPS unit.

Trivia Question.... What real words rhyme with the word Month? With the word Purple? Answer next week.

Have fun!

Jon Aschenbach

Rugged Ready - a New Group on YouTube

I just posted 6 videos on YouTube. Here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/user/RuggedReady

The videos cover the MobileMapper 6, SXBlue II GPS Unit, Nomad Pocket PC, Recon Pocket PC, and the TruPulse 360B laser rangefinder.

I've been wanting to make some how-to videos on a variety of forestry equipment. My son just graduated from OSU in Mechanical Engineering and he has been helping me with the video production. All of the videos will be listed under the RuggedReady Group on YouTube.

My goal is the have 20 or more videos on a variety of subjects and equipment.

Take a look and let me know what you think.

Jon
jon@resourcesupplyllc.com

Oregon SAF Meeting at 7 Feathers Casino

I'm exhibiting at the 7 Feathers Casino in Canyonville, Oregon. It's the Oregon SAF meeting which has about 150 attendees. The Forest Products industry is in the dumps with log prices being very low. Still, everyone that I have talked to is pretty up-beat about the future.

Some consultants have told me that log prices are so low, it would cost more to deliver logs to the mill than the mill was paying. Timberland owners who can wait to harvest are better off holding off until log prices go up again.

The picture to the left is Lori Rasor and me at the Oregon SAF exhibit hall. Lori is the editor of the Western Forester magazine. She does a great job, publishing a magazine full of useful content.

No... I haven't spent a nickel gambling. About 10 years ago, I stopped in at 7 Feathers and put a dollar in a slot machine. I won two bucks and immediately cashed out. I can honestly say that I am ahead in my gambling at 7 Feathers. I plan to keep it that way.

Have fun!

Jon

Jon Aschenbach at the Intertribal Timber Council Meeting

I'm in Lewiston, Idaho at the Intertribal Timber Council meeting. There are over 325 participants attending, from a variety of tribes across the US. Everyone is upbeat and seem to be enthusiastic about the timber industry, even with a crummy economy.

This group is well known in the forest products industry as one that manages a huge amount of timberland. They are especially good at working together for the common good of all tribal forestry programs.

Yesterday, instead of going on the Forestry Tour that is a normal part of the conference, I opted to play hooky and I went turkey hunting with a friend of mine. I carried a camera, so all turkeys were certainly safe from me. We saw some of the most amazing country in Southeast Washington/Northeast Oregon that I have seen in a long time. We met a cowboy who manages a ranch of a few thousand acres. It is some of the most rugged cattle grazing country in the US. The cattle never get any hormones, antibiotics, or anything else to compromise the quality of the meat. It is sold as organic, range free beef and it certainly lives up to that quality. If anyone in the Oregon/Washington area wants to buy a quarter or half a beef, the price is very reasonable. Email me if you want info. I don't make a dime on the sale, it's just to help a very deserving cowboy who lives the life a lot of us dream about. He puts 3,000 miles a year on horses, in country that is steeper than steep.

Next week, I'll be at the Oregon SAF meeting at 7 Feathers casino in southern Oregon. I'll report back on the latest developments for the Oregon Forest Products industry. The CEO of Roseburg Forest Products will give the keynote address.

ArcPad 8.0 has officially released

ESRI has officially released ArcPad 8.0. It is available on the ESRI website at www.esri.com Just click on Mobile Mapping and ArcPad. The evaluation version is about 105 megabytes in size if you want to download it.

So what's different between 8.0 and the previous version 7.1.1? The opening screen is totally different, and I think much improved. You can easily switch between the different various tool bars. This capability reduces the amount of area taken away from the view area for shape files and imagery. There is also a little tool icon that combines zoom in, zoom out, pan, and zoom to extents. It barely takes up any room and really makes it fast to activate any of those four features.

The really big difference between 7.1.1 and 8.0 is price. The new 8.0 includes a mandatory maintenance and support fee, bringing the price up a bit. It is still a bargain with all of ArcPad's capability.

I'll report more on ArcPad 8.0 as I get more experience with working with it. So far, it looks very, very good.

Jon - www.resourcesupplyllc.com email: jon@resourcesupplyllc.com

Magellan Professional to Use Ashtech Name

Hi Everyone,

I'm in Las Vegas at a Magellan Professional Dealer training. Magellan has just announced that they will be going back to their original Ashtech name. This is the result of Magellan selling off the Magellan consumer line. All of the dealers are very pleased with the announcement.

One of the agenda items for today's training is the ProFlex 500 GPS system by Magellan Professional. It's a great dual frequency GPS system capable of centimeter accuracy. It is even capable of better than centimeter accuracy in some situations.

The picture is of me holding the ProFlex 500 with Joe Sass, one of the senior support specialists for Magellan Professional.

So far, I haven't spent a single quarter gambling. I'm having way too much fun learning about Magellan GPS equipment. More information will follow.

Jon