We wanted to follow-up on our previous posting on our upgrade and customer service experiences with Mindjet and the Mindmanager planning software. Following our previous posts, we contacted customer service via the web to tell them about our experience. We quickly received responses from customer service letting us know that they would issue a courtesey upgrade for the newest version of Mindmanager. We also received a message from one of Mindjet’s customer advocacy representatives following up our issues:

We take our relationships with our customers as the utmost priority and I deeply apologize on behalf of the Mindjet team for your negative incident. With new product introductions, there will be special situations which we will consider on a case-by-case basis, such as yours. We are grateful to have such passionate customers who care
enough to let us know when they are pleased and more importantly to let us know when they are not. You have provided us with valuable feedback and we hope that you will give us a chance to improve and earn back your trust.

In this era of limited customer service, we appreciate Mindjet’s efforts to satisfy our concerns with their upgrade process for Mindmanager and quickly respond to our concerns.

One of the pieces of planning software we use frequently to brainstorm and plan out projects is Mindmanger (see our 2005 post here). Recently in September, we upgraded our software to the current version 7.  A couple of months later in November we got a notice that new version 8 had been released. Rather than pay again for a new upgrade only 2 months after the initial purchase we called up Mindjet product support number to see if we could upgrade to the newest version. The support representative tersely informed us that we had missed the cutoff for a courtesy upgrade by a couple of weeks. We don’t begrudge software companies for trying to generate revenue and keep their products current, especially a small company like Mindjet. It would have been nice if they informed purchasers that a new release was imminent to avoid upgrade fatigue. On the service side, because they are a small company, they should display more flexibility in working with companies like ours who are loyal users and want the new features provided in the software upgrades. Instead, because of their lack of service, this is one software product we will no longer upgrade.

Our 2009 Calendar is now mailing out. This year’s version features images of the beautiful vistas, landscapes and plants of Utah’s national parks.

As always, if you would like a free copy of the calendar, email us your name and address and we will send one out to you.

California has implemented its new 2007 building code based on the 2006 International Building Code. The full set of the code is available in hardcopy from reference publishers, but previously was not available online through an official outlet such as the California Building Standards Commision. An open government advocacy website public.resource.org has scanned an uploaded copies of the full code that are available for download in .pdf.

The website argues that under 2002 Federal Appeals Court Decision that posting the code information online does not qualify as copyright infringement because once the code is enacted as law it becomes part of the public domain and does not qualify for copyright protections.

Publishers and code writing bodies argue that in order to produce building codes they incur costs that need to be offset and funded by the sale of code information. The open government proponents counter that increased access to the code and other open source legal information benefits society, and improves adherance and knowledge of building code standards.

There was an editorial in the Marin IJ from Marin Municipal Water District’s general manager recently about the districts plans for water conservation. Like all water districts in the state, the needs and demands on the water supply are becoming more pronounced.

In about one in 10 years, the district would ask customers
to voluntarily reduce water use by 10 percent. In the most severe drought years, MMWD would require customers to reduce water use by 25 percent. In spite of these reductions in drought years, MMWD still would not have sufficient water to meet customers’ needs. To close this gap, customers would have to reduce water use in all years, reducing 10 percent immediately. Demand reductions would have to increase to 20 percent in 2025 because population growth in Novato and Petaluma will have first call on supplies from the Russian River aqueduct.

Conservation is obviously the main tool the water district has at its disposal to manage the water supply. This needs to be combined with increased reclaimed water efforts and could be supplemented be a future desalination plant the district has been exploring. In any scenario, it seems that water supply will be a major future issue in the county and a general issue in the landscape industry.

There was an interesting article in today’s SF Chronicle about water restrictions and golf courses in the East Bay. One course profiled is trying to drill wells to supplement its water needs. Continued drought conditions, water restrictions in the Sacramento Delta, and Southern California water demand are going to make these issues and difficulties more and more commonplace.

While driving by Sears Point Raceway (Infinion) recently in Sonoma, I noticed large flocks of sheep grazing the grass and weeds on the edges of the racetrack property. Turns out there is a free range sheep grazing service Wooly Weeders, which provides the sheep to control weeds for vineyards and other large properties. Apparently, the sheep can be more efficient and more ecologically effective in removing surplus weeds and grass. A simple and old fashion innovation for the problems of mowing large areas.

For More:
Article on Sheep Grazing in Vineyards from the Chronicle

Smart irrigation controllers that automatically adjust based on plant water needs and weather patterns are becoming more and more common in landscaping of all scales. The Chronicle had a good overview in today’s paper about the role of climate-based controllers and some different manufacturers. Definitely worth a look; in the current drought conditions, water districts are going to start mandating these controllers be installed for new and existing landscapes.

One of our Tiburon garden installations has been featured in July’s Marin Magazine. The project featured a roof top garden, with green roof installed over a new pool house. The pool house was integrated into the project hillside to give seamless views of the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco.

The owner of the project wanted a garden that would replicate her garden before construction of the pool house. She also wanted a design that would give instant impact.

The project was done in coordination with Caletti Jungsten Construction and was designed by Pedersen Associates Landscape Architecture. O’Connell Landscape did the landscape installation and second phase design and installation.

Green roof with lawn, plantings and view of the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco

Contractor trucks and equipment consume a fair amount of fuel. While our expenditures on fuel aren’t as dramatic as some industries in the transportation sector, we still notice the difference on our truck fleet especially. The cost of diesel for example, has jumped almost a dollar in the past couple of months, to an astonishing price of over $5.00 per gallon in California.