homeweather.net - or How to fix the broken National Weather Service

So more than half of the National Weather Service's weather sensing devices are broken. Since the current government is always looking to privatize government functions like it's handing tax dollars over to corporate interests, why not take the giveaway and citizenize it. How about an "Open Source Distributed Weather Sensor Net".

Ingredients Required:
(1) Collect data from home weather sensors using open Source - Several already exist: wx200d, onewire, wx2000.
(2) A website where the data is submitted, standards and current sensor results are published.
(3) A distributed client model for the collectors.

Here's how it would work.
(A) A standard submission format would be published by the homeweather.net site. The format would include in addition to sensor data, the location data via GPS or zip+4 code if the sensor did not provide it, and the version of the format being submitted to allow for lesser collectors or grandfathering.
(B) The data collection programs would be modified to allow for submission of the sensor & location data to the homeweather.net site.
(C) The ability of the sensor operator to modify the submission guidelines - e.g. only when I manually initiate it, on a schedule, or at intervals requested by the homeweather.net servers.
(D) Each submission ID (by sensor) would allow for the entry of an email address. Then emails could be sent to the provided address on the schedule and/or event priority that they pick.
(E) The website would freely display the current conditions at any site by entering a zip code or GPS coordinates. If you're not logged in with a submission ID, then you would see ads.
(F) Submission IDs could log into the submission site to download all the information they have submitted within a specified time period (storage will be a big issue). When a user is logged in with a submission ID then they bypass all ads.

Benefits:
1. The number of sensors that could be brought online would probably dwarf any amount the government could fund.
2. The submitters would receive special alerts and therefore gain more value from the system.
3. Non submitters would have access to the site to view current readings and perhaps past readings for a specific zip code.
4. It could be the beginning of a grass roots weather forecasting system - by the people for the people.

Obstacles:
1. The storage space required once this thing gets rolling.
2. The hosting fees due to the expected traffic once this site is slashdotted.
3. Lobbyists who will try to make this illegal by getting clueless Congressman to pass a stupid bill and once again try to squelch free association and free speech!

So what do you think about this idea?
[spam comments will be deleted]

Tags: distributed computing |

How to show more than 5 places in File/Open & File/Save in Windows.

(aka A workaround for the 5 place limit in the Places bar).

You can customize the Places Bar (left pane) in all File/Open-File/Save.as bars per this tip on windowsxp.mvps.org. Only one catch you are limited to 5 places (even when it appears as if 6 will fit). There is a workaround. Follow the tip on http://windowsxp.mvps.org/PlacesBar.htm to modify the places bar, however as your fifth choice (Item5 or Place4), use MyFavorites. Then come back here to see what to do next.

MyFavorites is the location where links can go. Links are nothing more than shortcuts: This includes the customary links to web pages (aka URLS) but also includes shortcuts to: (a) network locations, (b) other windows special folders, and (c) folders on your local drive(s).

The simplest method to adding these other locations to your Favorites is to open up Windows Explorer, go to the menu View/Explorer Bar/Favorites. Now navigate to the location you want to show up in Favorites for open/save. Click on Add button in the left pane Favorites panel. Then OK.

If you find you have too many Favorites listed, then create Folders in your Favorites. Drag or cut/paste the links into the Folders you created inside your Favorites. The simplest method is to use the Organize button in the left pane when you have Favorites displayed in Windows Explorer (menu View/Explorer.../Favorites).

If you prefer not to work inside the Organize Favorites box, you can also open two Windows Explorer windows. Navigate in the first Windows Explorer to C:\Documents and Settings\\Favorites. For the second Windows Explorer, navigate to the locations you want as shortcuts. Ensure the Folders left pane is displayed. Now you can simply right click on the icon of the Folder you want a shortcut for and drag it to Favorites - then choose "Create Shortcuts Here" (click on image to see full size).
Notice that I added all the usual 'places' to My Favorites (Desktop, My Documents, My Computer, My Network Places, Recent Documents). I did that by right clicking on the icon in the left pane and dragging it into the right pane - the Create Shortcuts Here. For some I had to rename the shortcut (select shortcut, press F2).

For ease of finding places, I moved all the shortcuts to drives on the network or my local machine inside a folder I created called "OtherPlaces".

One caveat -- You should avoid creating shortcuts in your Favorites/Links folder for drives/folders. Why? Because the Links folder is displayed directly from Internet Explorer (or exported to another browser - Firefox!). Tip you can also organize Favorites/Links with folders.

Now you can see what my File/Open or File/Save dialogue window looks like (click on image to see full size):
If you'll notice I added All Users Desktop, and other places. The folders for these are at C:\Documents and Settings\All Users. I simply right clicked, dragged to Favorites, chose "Create Shortcuts Here" and then renamed them (select, F2).





As you can see I created a folder called "OtherPlaces" inside my Favorites. It looks like this (click on image to see full size):


Also note how my shortcuts are named. I used F2 to edit each shortcut to remove "Shortcut to" prefix and any trailing information from Network places and the like to keep the names small. I also Added the location at the end of each of my shortcut names so I could distinguish between same named folders at different locations.

So now I finally have a File/Open & File/Save dialogue window that saves me having to navigate to the many locations I have files. This is a real time saver. It also helps keep me organized, since I can see where I saved my files previously. Hmm, maybe I'll try adding History to this to see if that's useful.....

For those of you who want to save time and skip the steps described in the linked page - copy and paste the stuff between the --'s below into Notepad and save with a .reg extension and then right click and Merge it. You'll still have to do the Favorites editing described in my post:

-- contents of regfile between --
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\comdlg32\Placesbar]
"Place0"="Desktop"
"Place1"="MyDocuments"
"Place2"="MyComputer"
"Place3"="MyNetworkPlaces"
"Place4"="MyFavorites"
-- contents of regfile between --

:)

.:end:.