Hmm, last century's technology...
And it doesn't rock, oh no, not at all.
Basically, they have me looking at seismic data, acquired with ancient, obsolete software, which no-one uses anymore. It's acquired on Windows 95 platform and the computer I'm on has NT! Yippeee!
Not.
So, here's the rub: I normally get to use something called CODA, which I tend to moan about a lot. What happens is that they tow a piece of kit, with a beacon on it. That beacon gets tracked by a transponder, on the ship and is positioned, relative to a GPS receiver. With me so far? We go from Point A to Point B and know where we are, all the time. There are fixes, with written information, every 50m, so if it really goes tits-up, I can print it and draw everything by hand... With CODA, I can play the data back and digitise interesting features - each digitised point can be related to a precise position in the real world (well, we won't get into projections of the earth's surface and UTM Zones...). I can see everything I've done, correct any mistakes and export an ASCII file of points, which can be put on a chart.
But here's the other rub:
They only have one CODA machine, which is being used by someone else. They're too fish-arsed to lease\buy another.
So, they used Elics to acquire the data, on the old steam computer. CODA can't read Elics data, at least, not this obsolete version... The old Windows 95 acquisition machine can convert it, but it can't cope with 0.7 gig CDs... It also can't talk to my NT piece of crap. ... ... ... So, even though it COULD convert them to .xtf, it can't, if you see what I mean. And that means that I can't use the CODA converter to convert the .seg-y files to .seg files to .xtf iles, which I can play into CODA and convert to .cod files? Oh, there is a format converter on my PC, but it doesn't work. And guess what? Yup, Triton-Elics no longer exist, so there's no tech support!
Alle ist klar? Nein! ? What do you mean, "Nein!"
Anyway, all I can do is do "Print Screen" and paste examples into Word. Then, I have to paste them into Power Point (so that the draughtsman's Microstation can read them.
Sounds simple, I hear you cry. Hmm, it sort of is, but..... I have no real positioning information and that is cack, really cack, when we're supposed to be accurate to within 1m. I have readout, but it only relates to the newes vertical line, as the data scrolls across the screen. So, when I find a feature, I have to guesstimate where it is, (Point A to Point B) using the Km value... And then write a load of information about what it is. Oh yes, the primary positioning ia always a bit bollocks, so we always have to insert processed navigation-positioning info, otherwise it's in the wrong place.
There is a company, which has offerred to convert the files, but it'll take days and - kerching!
I'm really not happy about having my name associated with this!
Anyway, it's not really difficult or anything, just boring and time consuming. And I don't want to be associated with it!
Basically, they have me looking at seismic data, acquired with ancient, obsolete software, which no-one uses anymore. It's acquired on Windows 95 platform and the computer I'm on has NT! Yippeee!
Not.
So, here's the rub: I normally get to use something called CODA, which I tend to moan about a lot. What happens is that they tow a piece of kit, with a beacon on it. That beacon gets tracked by a transponder, on the ship and is positioned, relative to a GPS receiver. With me so far? We go from Point A to Point B and know where we are, all the time. There are fixes, with written information, every 50m, so if it really goes tits-up, I can print it and draw everything by hand... With CODA, I can play the data back and digitise interesting features - each digitised point can be related to a precise position in the real world (well, we won't get into projections of the earth's surface and UTM Zones...). I can see everything I've done, correct any mistakes and export an ASCII file of points, which can be put on a chart.
But here's the other rub:
They only have one CODA machine, which is being used by someone else. They're too fish-arsed to lease\buy another.
So, they used Elics to acquire the data, on the old steam computer. CODA can't read Elics data, at least, not this obsolete version... The old Windows 95 acquisition machine can convert it, but it can't cope with 0.7 gig CDs... It also can't talk to my NT piece of crap. ... ... ... So, even though it COULD convert them to .xtf, it can't, if you see what I mean. And that means that I can't use the CODA converter to convert the .seg-y files to .seg files to .xtf iles, which I can play into CODA and convert to .cod files? Oh, there is a format converter on my PC, but it doesn't work. And guess what? Yup, Triton-Elics no longer exist, so there's no tech support!
Alle ist klar? Nein! ? What do you mean, "Nein!"
Anyway, all I can do is do "Print Screen" and paste examples into Word. Then, I have to paste them into Power Point (so that the draughtsman's Microstation can read them.
Sounds simple, I hear you cry. Hmm, it sort of is, but..... I have no real positioning information and that is cack, really cack, when we're supposed to be accurate to within 1m. I have readout, but it only relates to the newes vertical line, as the data scrolls across the screen. So, when I find a feature, I have to guesstimate where it is, (Point A to Point B) using the Km value... And then write a load of information about what it is. Oh yes, the primary positioning ia always a bit bollocks, so we always have to insert processed navigation-positioning info, otherwise it's in the wrong place.
There is a company, which has offerred to convert the files, but it'll take days and - kerching!
I'm really not happy about having my name associated with this!
Anyway, it's not really difficult or anything, just boring and time consuming. And I don't want to be associated with it!