Messages

1

Everything Else TWC / Re: The Late Weather Underground API vs. Simulators

« on: October 10, 2020, 09:59:48 PM »

It's on GitHub -- if there's a will, there is a way. There is enough out there to revive the alerts and radar, and from the looks of it, the repository hasn't been maintained in a short while. If you want this working timely, better get cracking on fixing it yourself, and without any prior coding experience it'll prove to be difficult for the faint of heart. Read up on JavaScript. Look at any weather alert source online. Get your radar source from somewhere (i.e. RainViewer).

2

Local Forecast / Re: Are there any tips on retrieving a (first-generation) IntelliStar unit?

« on: July 12, 2020, 09:16:05 PM »

Unfortunately the eBay alerts for new items will be the death of you if it's a sole point of getting one of these things, or anything of this rarity and vintage. It's mostly a waiting game. I'm still on my only one from 2017, and the units that came after on eBay have been out of my budget.

You could look at recycling centers in your area since cable headends tend to follow that policy, but I wouldn't expect units to end up there the moment you get into one, it would be a major pain in the ass to check every now and then for one thing. Patience is key.

You're more lucky to find analog STARs like the Weather Star Jr or 4000, keep your eye out for one.

3

Contributions / Re: 'WeatherScan' like app now in beta preview

« on: January 07, 2020, 02:50:07 PM »

Thanks for the kind words, everyone!  I really appreciate you taking the time to check it out.  Here are my thoughts on a couple of things mentioned:

• We do use NWS data.  Fortunately, we have been able to build out the servers to ingest and store it so we are not very reliant on the NWS servers themselves which tend to have capacity issues during severe weather.
  
• The location choosing has been something we've gone back and forth on.  The reason it offers that second selection with all those locations is that in some areas of the country the zip code encompasses a *huge* area.  We're hoping to be more specific than that.  We want it to be local to you - whether you live in a tiny town or a big city.
  
• For those of you looking for Smooth Jazz - Once the app is up and running press the left arrow key on your keyboard or Fire TV remote.  It will open a menu.  You'll see an option there to change the music to smooth jazz.
  
• That ticker at the bottom has almost been the death of me.  We're using a video game engine to get the graphics to the point they are.  Getting that crawler running smoothly has caused us to evaluate half a dozen different engines.  You wouldn't think so but it turns out a smooth crawling ticker is incredibly difficult.  The one we have isn't perfect, but it's as close as we've been able to get.

I'll be sure to keep this group updated as we make changes and might even run a couple of polls asking for what we should be adding next.

Thanks again everyone for the kind words.  If you think of things we should add please don't hesitate to let me know.

Take care!
Scott

Thanks for the update, Scott. Just wanted to address a couple of things from my previous post that seem unclear.

- As indicated in my edit, crawl runs smoothly on mobile now. For those of you experiencing the same issue, Low Power Mode was on in iOS. Turn that off, things should be gravy. At least it's fine on my end, that should be of some comfort to you.

- I'm well aware of the smooth jazz (which is a great addition!) That remark was really targeted toward TWC as they opt for production music, and while it's good, it can get repetitive.

Looking forward to more updates.

4

Contributions / Re: 'WeatherScan' like app now in beta preview

« on: January 07, 2020, 01:52:37 PM »

Just dropped in to say that this is tremendous work, your hard work hasn't gone unnoticed. I, too, am disappointed with the direction of The Weather Channel as of late and run my own IntelliStar 1 system to make it a bit more bearable during longform programming and that jazz (speaking of jazz, where is that?)

Speaking about the ivuWeather project, it does its job very well! It using NWS data is a huge plus as it's precise as it can get IMO. People rely on the Internet these days (mostly apps on phones) and not television to get their weather, so it's right in that neighborhood.

No complaints at all on desktop -- on mobile the crawl below does judder, but I don't expect optimal performance on that front.

Awesome work on this, I'm going to keep tabs on the project and see how it progresses.

EDIT: Low Power Mode was on my iPhone at the time of testing -- it throttles the CPU/SoC therefore the juddering crawl. It's all good now.

5

General Discussion / Re: Charles Abel-Lear 1980-2019

« on: November 09, 2019, 04:09:31 PM »

It is truly sad to hear of his passing -- I never even had a chance to talk to him personally and it would have been a tremendous privilege to do so. I extend my sincerest condolences to his family and his friends, as it goes. May his legacy carry on in future generations to come.

He came a long way from doing this stuff as a hobby, then to turn it into a promising career in graphics, per his anniversary video. His attention to detail was incredible, and even when the product looked great, he still was involved in that pursuit of perfection, not afraid of improving. He also brought the past into the now, a stark contrast to our modern, fast-paced reality. Everything he did was masterful, and without losing sight of the weather going on around us.

In closing -- Chazz's passing will deprive us of his talent and positive spirit, as well as his passion about weather that we all share. His monumental contributions to this tight-knit community will never be lost on us.

6

Announcements / Re: Status on the WeatherSTAR III Project (September 3, 2018)

« on: August 29, 2019, 11:38:51 PM »

I'm not dead yet... just have been busy with school. Took a summer semester so development had been deferred.

Will provide updates when they are available.

7

General Discussion / Re: The Front Porch

« on: August 09, 2019, 04:46:52 PM »

Hey all,

It used to be so that I lurked here often in its heyday, never offering what I had to say. But it's nice to see the forums seeing some sort of activity, even if like this.

Indeed, I watch TWC from time to time during its live national programming, but certainly not as much as I used to.

8

Announcements / Status on the WeatherSTAR III Project (September 3, 2018)

« on: September 03, 2018, 09:09:01 PM »

Hello all,

First off, I hope everyone had a good Labor Day. I've been quite pleased with the reception of the simulator as of recently, and the interest in it. Back in August, I've experimented with the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) graphics framework, something that was beyond me until I've started to dabble with it, and from there evolution of the product and my knowledge in WPF came at an exponential rate. After innumerable late nights working on it, and with the moral support I've received from friends wanting to see this become a finished product, it has gotten to a point where it looks very polished in even less than a month. Unfortunately, development of the simulator is on a hiatus as I have some academic obligations to fulfill throughout the semester. On the flip side of the coin, I would be able to resume progress in the winter, and in the late spring when there are no classes on my end, and it's been proven before that I can get much done in a small timeframe, and I am willing to prove that again.

Until then, I've some news to share about the latest iteration of what's going on behind the scenes. Here are some new additions to the simulator:

National Mode



National Mode is a feature that works best with software like Open Broadcaster Software (OBS). This opens a window of opportunity to let you use a chroma key filter on the simulator window over a video feed of your choice. It's basically your personal STAR. From there, you can:

• Toggle the Lower Display Line on or off
• Run a forecast
• Show the Station ID

cc17926 has a video demonstrating this feature, as a matter of fact he had provided this suggestion to me personally and I took the time to implement it, and I believe it's quite remarkable what you can do with National Mode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XS2FitNtquI

Extended Forecast



The iconic Extended Forecast is a recent addition to the simulator. Using the State Tabular Forecast issued by your Weather Forecast Office (WFO), you can choose a city that you can use from a list for that product, it's simple as that.

What to work on next

The Almanac is in the works, and most, if not all data, will derive from your Weather Forecast Office's Climatology report. This includes the normal temperatures, sunrise and sunset data, so on and so forth.

National Mode is still being perfected at the moment.

Predefined flavors and custom flavors will be a feature to behold in the future. The current builds nonetheless, on principle, have a way of changing around flavors on the development side, so they're technically modular, and that capability will be fully realized in the future.

Additional thoughts

As it stands, the WeatherSTAR III Simulator is still under closed alpha development, it is being tested with a select group of people and is subject to a beta release sometime in the future.

Thanks to Brian who runs the site, I have a medium where I can post release notes as soon as features are implemented or fixed. Here you'll see changelogs and other fun stuff as soon as they come, to get you an updated look on what's to come, and what's now here.

I look forward to fulfilling bug requests, feature requests, and let you all in the know of the things to come. Until next time.

9

General Discussion / Re: High Speed Internet Question

« on: May 16, 2017, 10:15:29 AM »

I live in the area and I switched to AT&T U-Verse GigaPower (its gigabit tier) about a year ago. So far so good, much better than Comcast, and about a little less than what the former was charging us for setting up three receivers for TV, and its internet. No data cap or anything from them, it's quite good. 600 Mbps upload/download symmetrically given if I'm wired, or 300 Mbps up/down after overhead on 5 GHz wireless.

Though $50 for 100 Mbps is actually not that bad. Good luck.

10

General Weather Chat / Re: What's the weather in your area?

« on: November 14, 2009, 08:00:20 PM »

Clear
50F