AEC TECH NEWS: Pinpoint author Greg Milner to keynote Carlson User Conference

Maysville, Ky. — The first time a Global Positioning System signal was received was in 1977. Now GPS is ubiquitous. In the introduction to his 2016 book Pinpoint — How GPS is changing technology, culture, and our minds, Greg Milner writes, “Nearly every spot on earth has a line of sight to at least four GPS satellites at all times.”

How we got there, who and what were the instigators, and how it has changed warfare, land surveying, navigating, and our lives are just some of the things covered in Pinpoint that Milner will be discussing as he presents as the keynote speaker at the Carlson User Conference banquet on Thursday evening, May 4. Each attendee at the event will also receive a complimentary copy of Pinpoint.

The Carlson User Conference – From Field to the Finish Line — will be held from May 3-5 in the Carlson Software home town of Maysville, Ky. The conference will include an opening plenary session on May 3 to be followed by a welcome reception and concert at Maysville’s historic Washington Opera House, and will feature two full days of classes at select sites around the town. Thursday night’s banquet will be held on the River Queen river boat during a short cruise on the Ohio River.

Milner, who resides in Brooklyn, N.Y., is also the author of Perfecting Sound Forever and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. In his book, Milner explains how GPS, which was developed and is still run by the U.S. military, almost didn’t happen. In fact, those in the land surveying industry were among the first to see the potential of GPS and employ it in a non-military manner.

In his presentation, Milner is planning to describe what GPS really is and try to list all of the aspects of life on earth, including the surveying industry, that it now touches. “It has become an essential part of the modern world,” he says.

Carlson Software expects its users, many of whom use GPS for accurate and precise data collection and machine control, will find the history, its extended usage, and the potential for vulnerability of the GPS system in both Milner’s presentation and his book interesting and enlightening.

For more information about the Carlson User Conference, visit www.carlsonsw.com/uc17.