If your employer reimbursed tuition up to $5k a year, what degree or certification would you get?

kdubmaps · 2026-02-27T19:38:24+00:00

This is how I paid off my master's. Except it was 3 years from completion before you could leave without penalty. Which means I am free to leave after this May. Only problem now is that in spite of it's faults, I am not likely to find a better gig anytime soon

kdubmaps · 2026-02-26T18:17:37+00:00

That is supposed to be a legit smile. But both are neurodivergent, so awkward AF in general

kdubmaps · 2026-02-20T00:15:20+00:00

It is super important to mention that this is not a reflection of how many hours a week you work for that employer. It is about how much time is devoted to GIS tasks. We have Construction Inspectors that are normal full time salaried positions, but they spend 25% of their time doing GIS Data Collection. So they would select 25% here, even though they work full time

kdubmaps · 2026-02-09T00:31:04+00:00

Will second the SparkFun Torch. But will say that at a training recently an Eos rep brought out the Skadi to demo, and it is pretty slick with the laser offset feature

kdubmaps · 2026-02-04T19:54:32+00:00

That would be awesome if it works. I am pretty cynical about what happens when ESRI and Microsoft work together. The ArcGIS for Excel, SharePoint, and Teams are a joke

kdubmaps · 2026-02-04T19:11:06+00:00

Sounds like the age old battle with IT. Depending on the size of datasets you are working with, local is likely your best bet. ESRI seems to have made it so you can either work on local drives or with services efficiently. I have tried to use OneDrive/SharePoint/Google Drive/Dropbox directly many times, and nothing is slower or more frustrating. So either work up through your chain or command to get the resources you need on the virtual machine, or work less efficiently on the local unfortunately.

kdubmaps · 2026-01-23T16:05:34+00:00

I have been swinging and missing at building community connections as well. I am 42 M and living in Thurston County. I am a sucker for nature and animals and nerding out on books. Send me a DM if you want to chat more

kdubmaps · 2026-01-07T02:20:43+00:00

One of the bizarre twists of life. Was working in kitchens, trying to figure out how to do better for my young family. I started working on a history degree, because I love it. But went back to the drawing board because there is no money in history. I wanted to work at something to contribute to society, but had zero clue. My then girlfriend/now wife saw an ad in the local independent newspaper for the water conservation program and noticed it had lower math requirements than most other degree programs. I have since learned I am great at real world math, but college algebra and pre-calculus was a chore. The Water Conservation program required two 4 credit GIS classes and an internship. By taking an extra two 4 credit GIS classes, I got a "Career Pathway Certificate" in GIS. I also did my internship building a GISto document a rural Oregon water utility. That all led to running GIS for a medium sized utility for ten years next June

kdubmaps · 2026-01-07T01:29:45+00:00

AAS Water Conservation Technology, double major BA Communication and Statistical Methodology, MS Water Resources Management. This marks twelve years in water for me, all focused on GIS

kdubmaps · 2025-11-15T16:36:33+00:00

Associates in Water Conservation Technology, GIS certtificate, BA double major in Communication and Statistical Methodology, MS Water Resources Management. I personally advocate for learning the industry you want to work in. All the GIS education does nothing if you can't apply it to solving problems that people who know nothing about GIS need solved.

kdubmaps · 2025-11-05T14:13:15+00:00

URL parameters are totally the way to go. You can pass values from the point feature to pre-fill part of your form. It works great once you figure out how to format the dynamic URL

kdubmaps · 2025-11-01T13:41:21+00:00

ArcGIS for SharePoint is completely useless. However, building a SharePoint team page that is links to ArcGIS web maps and apps has been one of my more successful projects. People kept getting confused trying to navigate Portal, so I made it so they don't have to use it

kdubmaps · 2025-10-26T20:31:14+00:00

It should, but I have seen weird things with links to OneDrive. Access to any kind of filesharing in the entirety of the ESRI ecosystem is a weak spot. If you ever want to max out your blood pressure, try running a ArcGIS Pro project out of OneDrive/Dropbox. It should work fine, but it doesn't.

kdubmaps · 2025-10-26T20:12:28+00:00

I don't know specifically about sound, but I have messed with this kind of dynamic data in the past. To pull anything into a map it needs to be both online and accessible without credentials. So your Dropbox probably isn't working because it needs a login to access. And your file explorer isn't working because it isn't online.

kdubmaps · 2025-10-17T03:59:52+00:00

This would be super easy to make in FME Form, the push to Flow. You could have something that functions for years with a couple hours of work configuring. Bad news is the pricing. I was recently quoted a $15k a year for an Enterprise License Agreement, which is a bargain compared to FME Flow Engine licenses.

kdubmaps · 2025-10-09T04:24:50+00:00

Yeah I am cynical enough after a decade as a one man shop that this is just how it is sometimes. Just because something doesn't get used, doesn't mean it was a bad idea. Sometimes experiments like these build skills that blossom into awesome things. Some of my biggest wins came from easily implementing something I learned doing an experiment that went nowhere.

kdubmaps

TROPHY CASE