Looking For copy of ca. 1997 TDS ad for Survey Pro with GPS

Hi everyone,

I'm sorry I haven't posted anything in this forum in a long time. I used to post frequently, mainly on RTK and localization. Some of you might know that I am currently doing research in geophysics using GPS at the University of Nevada, Reno (http://geodesy.unr.edu/), and since we exclusively use post-processing (point positioning at millimeter level precision - see the website or ask me for details!), I am not currently using RTK.

During the late 1990's I was consulting at Tripod Data Systems and helped them extend Survey Pro to support GPS RTK and, in general, with geodetic software. Sometime during that period we introduced Survey Pro for GPS ("GPS You Can U.S.E."). Eric Hall and I appeared in a full-page ad that was published in POB and Professional Surveyor as well as in company brochures. In the photo we are sanding in a grassy field (near the old TDS location) with Mary's Peak in the background. I am holding the range pole, am using a Husky, and have one of the big old orange Ashtech backpacks on my back. I am standing with my back to the camera because I wasn't pretty enough for the ad. (I am even less pretty now.)

I would be grateful to someone who would scan the image and send me a copy. You can find my email address in my rpls.com profile or on the web page given above (look for my name near the bottom left of the page).

Thanks again, and maybe I'll see some of you at CLSA/NALS in Reno in March.

Jay "tesseral" Goldfarb

Jay- do you know what specific issue? My "survey mag library" is in boxes prior to 2010. I can search faster if I know the specific issue(s) and don't have to turn pages in every copy.
MLB 

Update:
I just went through the 1997 POB/PS issues. I looked at a few '96 & '98 (for extra credit). Unfortunately, I could not locate the photo you describe. The TDS ads from the period mostly feature a picture of the FORESIGHT demo CD, or a fit looking woman with long, dark hair holding a pole with a GPS receiver on top. Are you sure about your publication dates?

MIke,

If it[s the Foresight ad with Eric and me sitting at a computer, that came out later, so the ad I'm looking for would be in an earlier issue.

Jay

Mike,

I just checked and the product was introduced in Baltimore in 1996, so the ad probably is from summer or later that year. Here's a link to Marc Cheves' summary:

http://www.profsurv.com/magazine/article.aspx?i=60

Jay

Jay- I think I have it! POB, July, 1996. Emailing it now.
MLB

This is (I think) the ad Jay references. It appeared in the July, 1996 Issue of POB. One of the things I noticed perusing the issue was the GIS Column by George Korte. "Analyzing Data With GIS". This was a full five years before I entered the print arena. In fact it was my first year as Asssistant GIS Coordinator. But POB had been covering GIS since 1991. In 1991 my work group wasn't even calling it GIS yet. A look back can be revealing. This particular piece, "the Seventeenth in the Series", describes how a private timber company was using GIS. It seems strange to me that many still believe this is "new technology".

Michael,

What is your understanding of what was the first "GIS"? I'm interested to see what vesions of the history are out there.

These things often become altered over time. From 1983 onward I was taught that the "NAVSTAR" in the full name for GPS was an acronym for Navigation Satellite Timing and Ranging, but, in a series appearing in GPS World a few years ago, one of the original GPS system designers said that originally NAVSTAR was not an acronym at all. I recently encountered the same phenomenon in a talk by one of the seismologists here. She said that "CHIRP" is an acronym for "Compressed High-Intensity Radar Pulse", and, in fact, that acronym is common in sonar literature. Ironically, as far as I can tell, the word does not appear as an acronym in the radar and general signal processing literature, where the phrase "chirp signal" simply describes a type of signal (swept frequency) that is useful in radar and sonar applications.

Jay

First GIS?  I know you asked Binge, but it being an open forum, I'd vote for ma' bell's phone book..

Don,

That's not a bad answer given how broadly the term has been defined. If we go with that definition I might point to the first cadastres in ancient times.

For the purposes of this discussion, I am fishing for the first modern computer-based system or the first use of the term Geographic Information System.

Jay

I used to bring a phone book into my GIS For Surveyors workshops to assure participants that they already knew a lot more than they thought about GIS. Many GIS references like to use the "Domesday Book" as the original GIS. But there are yet older historical references. Even I am not old enough to know for sure. But I believe delivering newspapers was probably my first GIS job.

The GIS here was first named RUIS (Regional Urban Information System). It took almost seven years to construct into anything useful. The lack of a GUI (Graphical User Interface) held up development. Originally you just got tractor feed "green sheets" of printed data. You could re-order various sorts.

Here is a generalized link.
MLB
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographic_information_system

I think Wikipedia has it right. This is extracted from the article

"The year 1960 saw the development of the world's first true operational GIS in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada by the federal Department of Forestry and Rural Development. Developed by Dr. Roger Tomlinson, it was called the Canada Geographic Information System (CGIS)"