Messages

46

Local Forecast / Re: Recent playlists?

« on: October 22, 2017, 06:12:24 PM »

I haven't watched TWC much over the last few years, but I received an email from someone asking for a current playlist. He mentioned Dave Koz, so I assume that he's referring to the days when TWC plays jazz songs from their CDs. Does anyone have a list of the songs they play?

A quick search yielded the following:

The first CD:
  1. Mildred's Attraction - Joyce Cooling
  2. Shakin Up The Shack - Dave Koz
  3. Bab Bad Simba - Paprika Soul
  4. Viaduct - Four 80 East
  5. Santa Monica Triangle - Jeff Lorber
  6. Ocean View - Pieces Of A Dream
  7. Windows - Chick Corea
  8. Simple Pleasure - Jeanne Ricks
  9. Holding Hands - Ryan Farish
  10. Wait A Minute - Mark Krumowski
  11. Sidewayz - Najee
  12. The Gift - 3rd Force

The second CD:
  1. Brave New World - Russ Freeman
  2. Pacific Coast Highway - Jeff Lorber
  3. Wade In the Water - Ramsey Lewis Trio
  4. Friday's Child - Bradley Joseph
  5. La Salsa En Mi - Bernie Williams
  6. Cast Your Fate To the Wind - David Benoit
  7. Breakfast At Igor's - Spyro Gyra
  8. Lydian - Norman Brown
  9. Restless Heart - Chris Geith
  10. Rainbow Seeker - Joe Sample
  11. Now's the Time - Charlie Parker Quartet
  12. Big Country - Eric Marienthal

and the Christmas CD:
1 Christmastime Is Here (Instrumental) by Vince Guaraldi Trio
2 Jingle Bells (Instrumental) by Dave McKenna
3 The Christmas Song by Dexter Gordon
4 Winter Wonderland (Live) by Chet Baker
5 Santa Claus Is Coming To Town (Live) by Bill Evans
6 Greensleeves by Coleman Hawkins
7 White Christmas by Bobby Timmons
8 O Come All Ye Faithful (Instrumental) by Chris Potter
9 I'll Be Home For Christmas by Gene Harris
10 God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen by Marian McPartland
11 Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas by Scott Hamilton

47

Beta Testing/Issues Discussion / Re: Oct 4 2017 - Former Member Beta Testing Begins

« on: October 04, 2017, 04:11:03 PM »

I'd love to volunteer, but I deleted my Discord account not that long ago. Will that be needed to become a beta tester? I can make a new one if I have to.

This shouldn't be an issue.. I welcome you to follow up with me via PM message to get set up.

48

Beta Testing/Issues Discussion / Oct 4 2017 - Former Member Beta Testing Begins

« on: October 04, 2017, 12:57:54 PM »

Hi Folks,
I think I have gotten the application to a point where it can stand well on its own two feet, but I need some individuals to test.

The requirements are:
1. You must be a former Emulator user that understands how the program works.
2. Can run it over the period of several days
3. Provide feedback of its operation, bugs, etc..

I have set up an official "Discord Chat" to facilitate live discussion of Beta testing: https://discord.gg/fJWYb4T

49

News and Updates / Re: Weatherscan has been on hiatus, but is coming back!

« on: October 04, 2017, 12:52:03 PM »

Today I would like to switch gears over to Beta testing of the Emulator. Jump over to the Beta forum for more information..

https://twctodayforums.com/forums/beta-testingissues-discussion/

50

News and Updates / Re: Weatherscan has been on hiatus, but is coming back!

« on: October 02, 2017, 10:32:11 PM »

Also, more updates for today..

-Added in the client 'preferences' application the ability to visually edit the music playlist. (This is the small desktop applet previously used to set your ID, for those who are familiar.)

-Created a 'Custom' Local Forecast theme, which will allow the user to add 640x480 JPEG backdrop images to be used. The benefit of this special package, it will automatically add the special middle overlay. The user will not need to have any special photo editing tools, except to supply the image. The emulator will do the rest!

51

News and Updates / Re: Weatherscan has been on hiatus, but is coming back!

« on: October 02, 2017, 10:25:18 PM »

Thanks for letting me know. I've been good with Photoshop before, but unfortunately for the original official desert backgrounds, it's hard for me to airbrush those unwanted text and icons from these photos (especially for that first one which has an ad crawl overlapping the original Current Conditions background image and since this was likely recorded in SLP mode on VHS with some dirty video heads and possibly from an RF hookup from the cable box).

The bulletin one on the other hand, was from TWCClassics and also in higher quality (likely from a DVD recording recorded from an S-Video hookup on the cable box and in SP mode). It's possible that the layout on the bulletin feature could be changed to make it look more like the real thing. I'm also curious to see what website these loyalty-free pictures originated from.

The picture I am working with are sourced from the Pexels website. As things change over time, I will think about re-designing the look and feel of the Bulletin frame.

52

News and Updates / Re: Weatherscan has been on hiatus, but is coming back!

« on: September 30, 2017, 04:21:03 PM »

Nice collection of new themes! I like those pictures too. A couple of other questions to ask:

1. I know the Halloween theme was unofficial to the real WeatherScan XL back in 2000-03 since it didn't even mention in the official manual, but will they'll still be other holiday-related themes (like Christmas, Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, etc.)?

2. Will the original backgrounds from the official neighborhood and city themes that were taken from the actual screen captures of the real WeatherScan XL will still be there?

Also, just out of curiosity from what I found on YouTube from fellow user LocalForecast (and also previously here on TWCClassics/Today) for the real WeatherScan XL, these were some of the official dessert theme backgrounds.

This last picture by the way was the real severe weather bulletin message feature that looked a lot different than the one the simulator had.

1. Other themes can be created, these are the ones that I created up to this point. Since I already created the templates, I just need the (royalty-free) photography to use with them.
2. They are still included, but labeled as Legacy in the configuration interface.
3. The Desert theme from the video is too grainy to recover any usable backdrop. I created a new one.
4. Severe Bulletin slide can be changed, however in practice it works differently in my Emulator than the way the TWC Weatherscan displayed these.

53

News and Updates / Re: Weatherscan has been on hiatus, but is coming back!

« on: September 30, 2017, 03:45:42 PM »

Updates.. Two maps have been added to the Airport package to show ConUS airport delays and impacts. Still testing the Alert bulletin crawl, which seems to be behaving quite well. New Themes!! Among the classic "Neighborhood", "UrbanCity" and Halloween (has been touched-up), the following new ones have been added: Desert, Forest, Halloween, Mountains, and UrbanCity.

Please refer to the attached image to see what this looks like!!!

54

News and Updates / Re: Weatherscan has been on hiatus, but is coming back!

« on: September 21, 2017, 10:13:29 PM »

That's cool to hear! I've even noticed that from your latest stream during Hurricane Maria. Just out of curiosity, does the severe weather crawl kind of uses the same source code like what the WeatherSTAR 4000 v3 simulator uses?

I was not apart of the design process of the 4000 simulator, so I can't speak for the process performed on that end.. I originate the bulletin crawls from the NWS EMWIN (Emergency Manager's Weather Information Network) data feed. As the messages come in, I process them so they may be retrieved by the Emulator. It is in theory that the Emulator will pick up these messages within a minute of their dispatch, and will be displayed on the crawl line.

Looks great Brian!

Question about the crawl: does it still require a separate program, or is it built into the emulator?

Thank you! Back in pilot testing in 2008, this was a separate program, this is now integrated into the emulator.

55

News and Updates / Re: Weatherscan has been on hiatus, but is coming back!

« on: September 19, 2017, 07:49:38 PM »

Hey folks! Update since the last time I posted, I have been able to bring the Bulletin Crawl into full operation inside the Emulator. The principle of how it works is extremely basic:

On the server end, when a message is received from the NWS, we update a file specific to the WFO of your local office who issued the message.

On the client end, every minute, the Emulator will poll the server to check the latest message from your WFO. At that point, if the file is new, the Emulator will challenge that message with your Zone or County code. If your Zone or County is found to be inside this message, it will present the emulator with this text, and ONLY the text pertaining to your Zone or County. Once this has been received by the Emulator, it will then scroll across the bottom of the screen for a pre-determined length of time. (At this moment, it is set for 10 minutes but I may change this to 15.)

Currently, I am testing this to make sure it works properly. Through testing, I have fixed a few bugs along the way, but this system appears to be working.

At the present moment, I am hosting a YouTube Live running the Emulator over Puerto Rico, and if there is a Bulletin issued, you will see it crawl across the bottom of the screen. Tune in at http://youtube.com/cc17926 ..

56

News and Updates / Re: Weatherscan has been on hiatus, but is coming back!

« on: September 12, 2017, 10:21:57 PM »

Since my last update, I have been able to curate a reliable Traffic data source and write all the supporting scripts to bring this data to the emulator in near real time.

In addition to Traffic, I have also fixed the Airport package which includes Airport Delay and Observation information for 29 major airports across the Continental US.

Up to this point, I feel as though I have been able to repair all of the packages that became broken over the last several years, but unfortunately I cannot stop here.

A major loophole which I have experimented with in the past was the Bulletin Crawl, but was unable to find an efficient way to make this work for most users of the Emulator. In my quest to make this work properly, I have successfully pre-staged a server back-end processor which is able to collect (in real time) the weather bulletin information from the NWS, format it in a favorable way, and to allow the emulator to pick up this data within the same minute and present it while the data is still valid. As this is in an operational concept stage, some coding is needed to make this work full circle.

57

News and Updates / Re: Weatherscan has been on hiatus, but is coming back!

« on: September 12, 2017, 10:03:30 PM »

I'm also a new member as well. I think I used to have an account with this site, but I don't know what happened to it... ah well, but anyway, all this information seems wonderful and intresting. I hoping that soon I can get a CINE account along with the weatherscan emulator. Does anyone know when a public or even a beta release is set to be scheduled? This stuff is really intresting.

Stay tuned because I will announce it as soon as I have the program working 100%

Is There Going To Be An Estimated Release Date?

Yes, But You Will Need to Keep Checking For New Updates.

58

Weatherscan Discussion / Re: 2003-2005 Clips

« on: September 12, 2017, 10:01:25 PM »

I do not have any video clips, however I have audio clips from the short lived IS Weatherscan in this playlist ..

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4D201642C68FB604

59

News and Updates / Re: Weatherscan has been on hiatus, but is coming back!

« on: September 01, 2017, 08:00:59 AM »

Thanks for steaming your WeatherScan XL simulator. I've been enjoying your WeatherScan XL streams during Hurricane/Tropical Storm Harvey (including the NOAA Weather Radio streams). Just one quick question, is the new version still in development? Since last year or so, I've recently had trouble getting my WeatherScan XL simulator to work (I already had a cine account).

Thanks for tuning in! I am glad it was able to provide useful information in regards to the Hurricane affected area.

The application is still in development.  I have been making many bug fixes along the way, and adding new features and improvements. As of recent, I have added a new original package called "Local Window Weather" which can display an image from an internet-enabled camera, and plenty of CINE website fixes.

60

News and Updates / Re: Weatherscan has been on hiatus, but is coming back!

« on: August 27, 2017, 01:00:37 PM »

Anything Going On?

Following Harvey.. watch my live stream of Weatherscan Local on my YouTube Channel.

New member here. The Weather Channel started my interest in weather. I'm now a proud Meteorologist. Right now, job hunting. I have a question now, what is the overall goal of the old weatherscan project? I love the music on it though!

The objective (for the most part has been accomplished) to create a presentation engine to emulate the Weatherscan Local product by The Weather Channel circa ~2000-2003. For comparison, there are some videos on YouTube which showcase the original product, if you are interested in comparing the differences to this project.

hi cc17926 , may i get a cine account when cine is all working ok?

Absolutely! Stay tuned!

BTW, Emulator looks great!

Thank you!