What will be your primary computing devices over the next three to five years?The status quo is to outfit the organization with the next generation of desktops or laptops and the latest version of Microsoft Windows or perhaps a Windows Mobile OS. Every year, a larger percentage of user computing devices depreciate and are replaced with one of a few selected system configurations, depending on the organization's financial and support model. Finance divisions will always debate with senior management about the depreciation term, which can force IT support to shorten the duration between upgrades for devices in use across an
PHOTO COURTESY OF INTELLIGENT TRENCH As head of public-realm city planning, Martin Whittles manages 20,000 street openings a year for Westminster, U.K. To reduce the number of openings, the London-area municipality is investing in a web-based system that allows utilities to work together to build a digital map that pinpoints specific belowground assets.“One of our biggest problems is congestion of public works and unnecessary damage to the streets by repeatedly opening the same patch of ground,” says Whittles. “At least 20% of the openings the utilities are making are exploratory.”To avoid this redundant work, Whittles is adopting Intelligent Trench for
Physics problem or engineering challenge? Wireless networking company LightSquared argues that, with some technical engineering work, its $14-billion plan to expand wireless broad-band to millions of consumers can work without disrupting the majority of the industry's global positioning systems.But on Sept. 8, during a hearing in the House, major U.S. government agencies that rely on GPS disagreed, calling the company's plan a major physics problem that essentially would create too much signal noise in spectrum bands adjacent to sensitive GPS networks, causing widespread disruption.For example, the U.S. Geological Survey's David Applegate told the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology
Related Links: Tablets Take Off in Construction Q&A: State of the Slate Technology adoption in the construction industry is growing, especially with field management software and tablet computers that are helping firms control costs and manage risk on job sites.But for some firms, technology pain points can turn into sunk costs with no demonstrable return on investment, construction executives agreed during a conference sponsored by field management software firm Vela Systems. How to manage ROI in what can be a thicket of adoption complexity such as user training, tech support, and data security?“You have to communicate your overall plan and
Related Links: Tablets Take Off in Construction Nine Noteworthy Apps for Construction Pros Will tablets stick around on the jobsite? ENR Midwest Bureau Chief Tudor Van Hampton recently caught up with Houston Neal, a construction IT expert from Software Advice, about his take on the state of “the slate.” NEALQ: Are tablets tools or toys?A: Tools, especially in the field. Salespeople are using them out in the field, not only to retrieve prospect information from their CRM system but also for presentations. They can be used to scroll through slides or demo a website or software. I've heard of homebuilders
Drywall Calculator Jeremy Breaux Price: 99¢Platforms: iPhoneThis app makes relatively simple calculations even simpler. To figure out how many sheets of drywall will be necessary for a given room, all the user has to do is input the height and perimeter of the walls and the length and width of the ceiling. The tool can exclude some areas of the room and allow for slope. The app gives total drywall area in square feet and tallies the number of 4-ft-wide by variable-height sections needed. Users must enter fractions as decimal points, which one app reviewer thought preposterous. n9/11 MemorialNational
In a difficult economy where new design projects are still hard to land, many firms are adding in as many services as possible to the list of client deliverables. The idea is to charge a higher fee while offering more than your competition's pricepoint.How to make that happen? Designing entirely on a computer screen certainly helps; changes, whether from the construction site or due to changing client needs, flow through the project naturally to the as-builts. In the months ahead, I’ll be talking about some of the ways that’s done during construction, with the latest portable equipment.But in this case,
Preliminary data sampling from a prototype system that blends observations, weather forecasts and combined water models with decision support tools to predict storm flood heights in coastal areas shows that, during the passage of Hurricane Irene, the system made highly accurate predictions in the sampled locations.
Anoto Technologies Anoto Technologies' infrared digital pen records the movements it makes on any of several thousand printable patterns. Anoto Technologies After trying their options, contractors supporting federal responders in a recent disaster mission say infrared digital pens are the most useful tool for rapidly collecting and distributing massive amounts of damage-assessment data.“Using the pen has cut the time it takes to collect and distribute our field data by 85%,” says William Spiking, a geographic information systems specialist for Tetra Tech Inc., Pasadena, Calif. Spiking manages a team that provides technical assistance to the Federal Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund Technical
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