I Feel The Earth Move Under My Feet

Yeah, it's been awhile since my last posting. I've been spending huge amounts of time, planning and developing my new business.

But it all takes time. Branding identity (see new logo above). Refining the niches that will be my target clients. Developing value promises. Brainstorming products. Creating content. Determining revenue streams and cost structures. Envisioning the web presence and acquiring necessary domain names. Looking into joint ventures and cross-promotions.

"So," you say, "this must be an absolutely awful time to start-up a new company. Correct?"

Nope. On the contrary, this might be the best time in a long time to start a new operation. The happenings of the last six months have been like an earthquake, moving the tectonic plates, as it were, creating major new rifts. The walls are tumbling down, and so the barriers to entry into the marketplace are falling, too.

So I'm in a very confident and assured place, right now. I'm no fool -- things won't be peachy keen for awhile yet.

But I see clear opportunities that transcend current market conditions. Stay tuned. You'll be seeing significant changes here in the weeks to come, and I'll be offering services and products that provide true value. And if you just can't wait that long to find out what's up, give me a call.
Posted by Joel Preston at 10:56 AM 

Global Positioning System - Importance in Civil Enigineering

Object:
This System provides us with accurate horizontal and vertical measurements and gives us the position of observer in terms of Latitude and Longitude.

Advantages:

1. This system is fast replacing with conventional methods of surveying like Triangulation, Traversing etc.
2. It no longer requires the inter-visibility of station points. The conventional techniques are still required for detail surveying.
3. The horizontal and vertical control can easily be established with the help of GPS.

Instruments:
This system basically requires the receiver which is setup at the point of observation. The second part of the equipment is no of satellites which are 18, launched into 6 different orbits.Each orbit have three satellites with 120º interval. The height of satellite is about 20,000 km with orbiting vilocity of 11hr 58min.
The GPS is controlled from an airforce base in Callifornia (USA).



Procedure:
The GPS position is achieved by the precise measurement of the distance between the satellite and the receiver at an instant of time.
For a three dimensional measurements three or four satellites will be needed depending upon the quality of receiving equipment. It requires highely accurate clocks both in the transmitter and in the receiver to measure the precise distance between them.

Applications:

1. This system gives us the accurate geographic position required for land surveying.
2. It is used for navigation purposes in Aircraft,Ships,Submarines etc.
3. It is now exceedingly used to locate the enemy targets and subsequently hitting them by GPS information guided missiles.
4. For public use simpler version are available for locating the vehicles, the individuals and the parties, in hicking and mountaineering expeditions and other number of applications.

What a Surveyor Does

A surveyor travels to the property and analyzes it with respect to it's surroundings. Most of the time, he will use equipment to measure the distances of various objects on the property, research the county courthouse for legal descriptions and recorded drawings of the property, interprets the data, and draws a sketch of the property on a sheet of paper. While geometry and trigonometry are important knowledge for a surveyor, he also must be fluent in the local laws and court rulings concerning property transactions and rights.

The survey that the surveyor produces, while highly accurate, is considered as an approximation of the property's boundary and it's topography in the court system. A surveyor does not grant land, only the courts can grant land to an individual, but the surveyor's knowledge of the property is used by the courts in determining the property's boundary.

The Art of Surveying

According to Wilhelm Schmidt in an article printed in Professional Surveying Magazine, surveying is an art because it is a process of making something while using instruments. The surveyor's instruments are his mathematical knowledge of geometry and trigonometry along with the electronic measuring devices, chains, and compasses to produce a survey of the property. A surveyor learns the mathematical principles under the sterilized, textbook world of a university and then apply his knowledge to the real world where nothing corresponds to the standard "rules" learned in school.

Schmidt believes that the artistic part of surveying lies in the surveyor's decisions in choosing the equipment, mathematical principles, past surveys, and legal descriptions to achieve a high degree of accuracy while making sense out the chaos of life. A surveyor must deal with monuments located in the wrong place or destroyed. He must make decisions based on unreadable plats or recorded legal descriptions with typographical or mathematical errors while basing his survey on a fence line that may or may not of moved since the last survey of the property in the early 1900's. Surveying is very much an art based on the interpretation of historical fact.

Global Positioning Satellites (GPS):

                       GPS (Global Positioning Satellites) is quickly becoming one of the more frequently used surveying instruments today. With GPS, a surveyor can cover more ground in less time than more conventional methods. However, there are risks associated with GPS if not used correctly.

Gamba and Associates, like most surveyors who use global positioning satellites, rely primarily on differential GPS for our GPS surveying needs. Differential GPS uses a base receiver at a known and previously checked control point, often a government monument, and a roaming receiver or rover. The base receiver and rover record concurrent satellite data which is used to determine the rover's position relative to the base. The base and the rover are connected via a radio modem allowing instant access to location information at the rover.

GPS accuracy is dependent on numerous factors including tree canopy, number of satellites available to the receiver, and ionosphere and sun spot activity, but the average accuracy of differential GPS is 1 cm (0.394 inches) plus 1 ppm for horizontal measurements and 2 cm (0.787 inches) plus 1 ppm for vertical measurements. It should be noted that these accuracies are only achieved with survey level differential GPS units and not a common hand held unit purchased at the store. The documentation accompanying the hand held unit should address the accuracies of that particular unit.

          As mentioned above, GPS surveying has to be used correctly and is sometimes limited in it's application. Since GPS surveying relies on the ability to use satellites, one must be able to "see" enough of the sky to collect data from a minimum of four satellites at the same time. Areas with dense overhead vegetation (i.e. trees) or with steep adjacent hillsides, all of which block the view of the sky, often are not suitable areas for GPS surveying and other techniques must be utilized.

Prydniprovs’ka State Academy of Civil Engineering and Architecture

Central & Eastern
European Directory On-Line
Prydniprovs’ka State Academy of
Civil Engineering and Architecture 

Rector	Professor Vladimir I. Bolshakov
Address	24 a, Chernyshevsky Street, Dnepropetrovsk, 49600, Ukraine
Tel. No.	+380 562 471688
Fax No.	+380 562 471688
E-mail address	dik@pgasa.dp.ua
Name of contact person	Prof. Boris Dikarev Vice-Rector of PSACEA
Programmes	Architecture Ecology "Automation and Computer Integrating Technologies Engineering Mechanics Construction Economy Management
Type of courses	Full-time and part-time
Length of courses	Bachelor of Arts - four years Bachelor of Science - four years Engineer of speciality - five years (one year after Bachelor Degree) Master of Arts - six years (two years after Bachelor Degree) Master of Science - six years (two years after Bachelor Degree)
Date of commencement	1 September
Class size	25 students
Accommodation	Available
Fees	Overseas students: 1,500 USD per year
Financial assistance	Available for National students
Admission requirements	The Standard for admission to degree program at PSACEA is the successful completion of Secondary School Diploma The overall average must be at least 60 %. In addition applicants will be required to pass entrance examinations specified by the faculty. Admissions to the first year as well as advanced standing placement at the PSACEA of students who are neither Ukrainian Citizens nor permanent residents is carrying only on the contract base. Foreign students must obtain a Ukrainian Entry Visa and Student Authorisation from Ukrainian embassy or consulate outside of Ukraine. It is not possible to change from "visitor" to "student" status from within Ukraine. For getting Student Authorisation applicants must take an invitation for admission at the Academy. Applicants whose first language is not Ukrainian or Russian must take the preparatory course before enrolled on the first course of degree program. For French-speaking students training in French is available. They can enter the first course of degree program without certificate of preparatory graduation.
Student profile	• Ratio of national/ overseas students: 100/6 • Ratio men/ women: 2,7/1,7 • Age range: 17-25

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