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Weather Service Becoming More Tech Friendly
awgy writes "The National Weather Service recently began offering XML/RSS feeds of their
alerts,
observations, and
forecasts. Now the Tulsa, OK
Forecast Office is experimenting with
offering forecast files
for Google Earth. It looks like the
National Weather Service is quickly becoming one of the most geek-friendly
government agencies."
I love the FireFox weather-thing, but I've heard that AccuWeather isn't all that Accu. Besides, don't they just get their data from the gov't and process it?
Blar.
I look forward to the creative uses that are sure to come from this...
Now, if they could just offer real time radar feeds, I'd be happy.
Jerry
it's great that all these sites are offerering feeds this way. I find it's the best way to get "good" information quicker.
Don't forget everyone, this is the same weather service our friends at Accuweather and like minded companys are trying to get to stop their innovation.
I pay for them to gather the weather, why should I have to pay accuweather to give it to me in a more readable format.
I'll let the guys/girls that gathered it in the first place make it purdy!
Error: Sig not found.
It even gives you a radar image. Works well in bars and cars especially.
http://mobile.srh.weather.gov/
I was under the impression that most of us never go outside. Why the hell would we need to know what the weather's like? ;-)
Mood: Sunny.
Can't wait until the fall harvest season arrives; all this grain makes me feel hot and a trim will be great!
I hate those new sat photos they released yesterday. They make me look fat.
I wonder what Mars is doing. We were, like, so totally close during perihelion, but then he drifted away. Men.
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
This was long before XML, so they invented their own format called METAR, no more difficult than, say, email. It was standard, and they have made it public for decades.
"Becoming one of the most geek-friendly government agencies"? They always have been!
--
Evan
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
I read the thing, but i can't find the URL for the feed. /I know I am not the brightest, but please help?
Script for weatherbug data... http://www.hotscripts.com/Detailed/45726.html
They use Linux! I've visited our NWS here in Maine, and a large % of their desktop computers run Linux, not to mention how they use Linux clusters to process weather data, etc. Now that's geek-friendly!
but they need to also use it on Europe. It;s always late.
Java Oracle Linux Enthusiast
....and that is, not a lot of he US is "wired" appropriately to receive this kind of service. Though dial-up is good enough for rural America, I doubt anyone can simply dial in just to get information on the service through google maps!
Current conditions and forecasts are also available via WAP in WML format. This is the killer app IMHO: complete weather information on your phone.
r bor%2C%20mi
(Requires browser that can handle WML.)
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/wml/wap_zc.php?zc=ann%20a
org.slashdot.post.SignatureNotFoundException: ewg
Weather Service Becoming More Tech Friendly
Something new from Sirius Cybernetics? Hi There!
Besides, don't they just get their data from the gov't and process it?
Basically yes, which is why they have been lobbying so hard recently to get the national weather service to stop giving out all this user friendly data. It hurts their business model.
Finkployd
My father worked for the NWS (retired now). The whole department is nothing but geeks. I had to go to his office after school every day. I learned BASIC on a mainframe ("here this'll keep you busy."). I got to use some touch-screen computer that was networked with a bunch of computers at a Michigan college (I don't think it used Arpanet but it may have). I played a graphical MUD type thing that looked like Wizardry eventually would but I could interact with other players. It pretty much rocked.
Recently a Senator (Rick Santorum, R-PA )introduced a bill prohibiting federal meteorologists from competing with companies such as AccuWeather and The Weather Channel. Now we can get this information for free. When this kind of bill gets passed we need to pay to get weather information.
Let's not forget about Santorum's bill that would basically force the NWS to remove all of these advancements so that the paid weather services can make a profit. The taxpayers have already paid for the collection and processing of weather information and his bill would make the availability of the paid-for information in question. Don't just take my word for it, read this. Or, just google on "santorum weather bill".
I for one welcome our new weather reporting overlords!
Reason #32767 not to use VB6: Integers are 2 bytes... Think about it!
Indeed. They appear to have successfully Bought my senator
What's a sig?
I'm still waiting for hurricane overlays for google earth. That would really be neat.
/ 229555.html
Didn't I hear something just recently though about the national weather service trying to cut off access to the free information because they said there were enough free or advertizing subsidized services out here already? ahh yes heres some information on it http://www.livejournal.com/community/weathernerds
The bill can be read here
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:s786:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/cixel
It is probably the only US government agency that I would ever consider working for.
"Teleporting Rodents with D-Cell Battery Displacement" theory -- IgnoramusMaximus (692000)
This entire RSS-everything is getting old very quickly. I find it to be much more work to have RSS than just going to the sites that I want to visit. I wonder if slashdot can interview the RSS creators and ask them how they feel about this.
-----
Divini Rae Gallery (Not safe for work--no nudity)
You need to be able to plan for outages. For me that involves lots of beer.
Blar.
It looks like the National Weather Service is quickly becoming one of the most geek-friendly government agencies.
That's because they are geeks.
It is the Army Surplus store business model. Buy things for pennies on the dollar from the US gov't, and then sell it back at a big profit to the people whose taxes paid for the items in the first place.
For those of us who have jobs and don't depend on the gov't for food stamps and welfare, services like the Weather Service and Postal Service are the face of government for many. Not only would packaging the Weather Service data be a better service to the taxpayers who fund it, it would also give one of the faces of gov't a more positive look.
And All I Ask is a Tall Ship And a Star to Steer Her By
A couple of weeks ago I attended a SkyWarn class and noticed that the NOAA trainer was using FireFox on their NOAA issued laptop.
The parent alludes to it, but basically private weather companies (many in PA) are trying to shut off government competetion. Because weather.gov is so good and ad free, people prefer to use it. The privates have reacted by making there sites cleaner, but its still not as good. To stop government form releasing weather data the companies are pushing a bill in the senate sponsored by rep santorum (google news search for accuweather and santorum
one story:
this is one of many stories about this.
Basically because our tax dollars pay for the weather service we should be able to get this information. Interesting to note the in the UK the BBC is running into similar problems (its government sponsored as well)
Now we can get false, useless information faster and easier!
I think my horoscope is usually more accurate (and specific) than my local weather forecast.
The EFF is also asking for help on this one.
*sigh* I can't wait for election day!
"Teleporting Rodents with D-Cell Battery Displacement" theory -- IgnoramusMaximus (692000)
I had read earlier this year about companies trying to take down the NWS, See this Brought to you by Scumbag Santorum and his posse of dirtbags. Their plan was to lock out NOAA and NWS so business interests could take over the nitch.
Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23
When I think of the behavior of today's civil rights organizations, I often think of the March of Dimes. In 1938, President Roosevelt helped found the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis to fight polio, an epidemic that crippled thousands of Americans. The name March of Dimes was coined by Eddie Cantor in his fundraising effort asking every American to contribute a dime.
Since 1970, polio has been eradicated in the U.S., but the March of Dimes lives on, and they're asking for more than dimes. When they accomplish their mission, most organizations don't fold the tent; they simply change their agenda. The March of Dimes now raises money to fight against birth defects, premature birth and other infant health problems.
We'd probably deem them stupid if they continued their battle against polio in America. Why? Because polio has been eradicated.
What about civil rights organizations? Last week, Jesse Jackson's Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, the National Urban League, and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference organized a march in Atlanta to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The Bush administration and House Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner have already said they intend to support full reauthorization of its provisions set to expire in 2007.
Speakers at the march used some of the most vile rhetoric in their criticism of black conservatives and the Bush administration. Harry Belafonte explained to reporter Marc Morano, of Cybercast News Service, in obvious reference to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former Secretary of State Colin Powell, "[If] a black is a tyrant, he is first and foremost a tyrant, then he incidentally is black. Bush is a tyrant and if he gathers around him black tyrants, they all have to be treated as they are being treated," adding, "Hitler had a lot of Jews high up in the hierarchy of the Third Reich. Color does not necessarily denote quality, content or value."
Comedian Dick Gregory opined, "They [black conservatives] have a right to exist, but why would I want to walk around with a swastika on my shirt after the way Hitler done messed it [the swastika symbol] up?"
Moreover, Gregory explained, "So why would I want to call myself a conservative after the way them white racists thugs have used that word to hide behind? They call themselves new Republicans." Complementing Gregory's remarks, Jesse Jackson rhymed, "Race baiters and discriminators may go underground, but they never move out of town."
There were less intemperate speakers at the march, such as House of Representatives members Nancy Pelosi, Charles Rangel, John Conyers, Barbara Lee and Maxine Waters. Their remarks consisted of attacks on the president and vice president, accusing them of stealing the 2000 and 2004 elections, wrongly invading Iraq and a poor civil rights record.
Like the March of Dimes' victory against polio in the U.S., civil rights organizations can claim victory as well. At one time, black Americans did not enjoy the same constitutional guarantees as other Americans. Now we do. Because the civil rights struggle is over and won doesn't mean that all problems have vanished within the black community. A 70 percent illegitimacy rate, 65 percent of black children raised in female-headed households, high crime rates and fraudulent education are devastating problems, but they're not civil rights problems. Furthermore, their solutions do not lie in civil rights strategies.
Civil rights organizations' expenditure of resources and continued focus on racial discrimination is just as intelligent as it would be for the March of Dimes to continue to expend resources fighting polio in the U.S. Like the March of Dimes, civil rights organizations should revise their agenda and take on the big, non-civil rights problems that make socioeconomic progress impossible for a large segment of the black community.
Ah yes, yet another reason to hate Santorum. God I hope he loses to Casey in 2006.
I find him to be a misogynist, a homophobe, and a hatemonger.
Otherwise you're stuck with the every-5-minute feeds.
Want to find out more? Google for WSR-88D
-- ac at work
http://www.mopoke.co.uk/weather/
Scraping of BBC Weather, but it works!
My Linux - (L)ove (I)s (N)ever (U)tterly eXPensive
Don't forget about HamWeather -- it's been around for years and is still one of the best weather-related suites for web developers, it's cheap, and it's available in a variety of languages.
Actually I developed a love/hate relationship with the Firefox weather extension.
You see, it took priorty and stopped me from navigating web pages, etc. So I uninstalled it.
Buying an individual senator is dirt cheap really...
For a small company though, buying enough senators to get the legislation you want is too expensive (which is why almost all legislation is dictated by large companies).
Or has the term "geek" lost all of it's value and come to mean anyone who knows how to double-click GoogleEarth.exe and follow a graphical wizard? -- podz
that a$$hole santorum does not get his wish to shut down the data feeds from the national weather service. It is imperitive that in a democracy, that the electorate know the STUPID bills that senators try to get through in the name of sucking up to a rich donor, in this case it is a for hire weather service in pennsylvania
You're not supposed to read the article before posting! Are you new here?
Saying that the NWS isn't or wasn't geek friendly is like saying that the pope isn't religious. The NWS has always made advanced data available, and sometimes the software necessary to use it. I think it's more likely that the "geek" community is catching up to the NWS, not the other way 'round.
Agreed. This is covered by FOIA and any law that would restrict this would contradict FOIA rules. I may be wrong, but I think even Top Secret military information is eventually released to the public when it's no longer a risk to our security or our troops which could be 10 years....20 years...40 years or forever...like atomic bomb designs that are 40-50 years old are likely still Top Secret.
Weather information is too important to have to pay for it. Accuweather before the internet was the only way TV stations who did not hire meteorologists could do the weather. In fact, I remember a time ago where the local station just paid for the Accuweather folks to record the forecast. Now they may still pay for the weather but it's usually read by a jock or a paid meteorologist. I wonder what the meteorologists who work for Accuweather think about their own companies stance?? In any case, I am ALL FOR RSS feeds for weaher warnings. It's a excellent way to dissemenate the information. I just hope they have a big enough pipe and let us hit it every 5 minutes or less. Of course that little file isn't much, but when half the web is hitting the feed, bandwidth could get a little out of hand.
Gorkman
Here's what I told him. Here's where I told it to him.
I'm opposed to your introduction of S.786, the "National Weather Service Duties Act of 2005." Why don't you just label it the "AccuWeather Protection Act of 2005" and get it over with?
The National Weather Service provides accurate, up to date gathering of data and presents forecasts of weather at taxpayers' expense. To prohibit them from disseminating this through public access, and constrain them to "data portals designed for volume access by commercial providers" (Section 2(c)(2)) does a grave disservice to the taxpayers of Pennsylvania and the country in general. What you have done is nothing less than ensure that commercial weather reporting agencies have a taxpayer-funded data source that taxpayers are prohibited from enjoying.
Rest assured I will be monitoring the progress of this bill through the Senate and the House.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens.
Seeing bad movies only encourages them. Watch responsibly
The weather reports YOU! I just couldn't stop myself.
Pessimists.net - as if life wasn't depressing enough.
And if the bill passes it will be 100% the fault of government. Remember who holds the keys.
It's even more than just private individuals now using the NWS data. My employer was paying tens of thousands of dollars a year for Accuweather forecast data that they FTPd to us daily. When the NWS started offering downloads of their GRIB US forecast files, we cancelled the Accuweather service and started using the GRIBs.
The funny thing is that it wasn't really a financially driven decision for us. We wanted the forecast information for every zipcode whereas Accuweather forced us to request the addition of new forecast zipcodes one by one from their sales rep. The sales rep would then insist on finding out what new customer of ours was using the data, and the sales rep would then contact +our+ customer to try to sell them additional weather services. We are not in the weather service business and it was very, very annoying.
... they are not using RSS 3.0.
If you don't fail at least 90 percent of the time, you're not aiming high enough. (Alan Kay)
One of the original homes for geeks is the National Weather Service. There's gagetry galore and tons of science. I'm glad the folks at the NWS are taking advantage of newer web technologies.
In fact, the NWS is one of the few government functions I feel is worthy of my tax dollars. This function is too much of a public good to be left in the hands of for profit companies.
"Insanity is doing the same thing over again expecting a different result."
Santorum's original statement outlining his proposal
Statement from Santorum's office addressing criticism of the proposed legislation
Slashdot discussion of the proposal
You know they are geeks (in a good way!) because the forcast icons for 'Windy' are wind power generators. I think it's cool anyways.
Rick "Man on Dog" Santorum (R-PA) has introduced a bill in Congress to prohibit the National Weather Service from offering any free data. The NWS already subsidizes the commercial weather services by publishing weather data below cost - the corporations just repackage and sell it, with pretty visualizations. Now Santorum wants to take all the public data that US citizens own, and privatize it so only big corporations will be able to be in the weather game. Which means not only individual forecasts will be prohibitive, but teams of distributed processing won't be able to model climate change with real data.
--
make install -not war
I find him to be a misogynist, a homophobe, and a hatemonger.
Hence why so many of the religious nuts are able to sympathize with him.
I'm a meteorologist (or a meaty urologist - I can never remember). It's tough to believe there is any scientific discipline better suited for computer manipulation than the weather. For years, even before the advent of today's high speed computing, data was collected in a very systematic way, making it easier to compile and compare. Because I know there are so many reading this with the ability to advance the art, let me point you to a few data sources. Each of the files at this site contains all the world's weather observations for a since hour. Here's how to translate that. Here's forecast info from the GFS model, a time series for single points covering a full week's weather. Here's the same for the shorter range NAM model. The Weather Service even developed this free "Swiss Army Knife" program to read them called BUFKIT. BUFKIT has saved my sorry butt on more than one occasion. Here are MOS forecasts (dynamic model forecasts 'massaged' to take into account local climatology). The NWS is just scratching the surface, but it's getting better all the time. I look at my relationship with NWS as a partnership, not a competition.
Because weather.gov is so good and ad free, people prefer to use it.
:-).
Same here in Canada. The govermental weather site is the most visited website of Canada (about 18 millions hits per day IIRC). http://weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/
For-profit organizations try to offer value-added products, but it's crippled with ads. And what many clients do not know, they (example http://meteomedia.com/) basicly simply repackage and reinterpret the data the government sells them (I work for the Canadian Meteorological Centre
Animoog.org
Have you read the bill by Santorum? Please don't answer "yes", because the answer is "no", or the answer should be "I can't read". The bill is simply an extension of existing policy, and is completely harmless...unless you are Chicken Little. Does anyone think that the government should actively compete with the private sector? Of course not. So what is wrong with taking existing policy (which is just that for NWS), and actually codifying it with the force of law?
Friends help you move. Real friends help you move bodies.
Never forget: 2 + 2 = 5 for extremely large values of 2.
Will the provide the data for use in Worldwind, or any other app? Presumably being the work of the US Government, it's free of copyright, so could it be imported into Worldwind anyway?
The NWS should be abolished. I'm sure bob_robertson will agree with me when I say that the private sector can do these things and better. I am sick of the G-D Damned government wasting money that they have taken from me at gunpoint. Going by the constitution, there should be no municipal anything. As a matter of fact, the government should only be about 1% of what it is today.
_____________________________________________
A Vote against a Libertarian candidate is
a vote to abolish the Constitution itself
Remember kids: Rick Santorum is a c*ck gobbler!
Coding with assembly is like playing with Legos. Coding an application in assembly is like building a car with Legos.
To those who don't know. Rick Santorum (bought and sold by accuweather which is a Pennsylvania corp) is proposing a bill that would kill free NWS information in favor of paid for info from greedy corporations like Accuweather. Since the NWS provides the bulk of Accuweather's infornation, we would essentially be paying a tax on this information and then paying accuweather to present it to us. It is almost like letting companies charge tolls on public roads that were built with public tax dollars. Pretty great huh?
For those of you who realize what a douchebag Rick Santorum is, I bring you the following link:
http://www.spreadingsantorum.com/
Also, here is a link about his proposed bill to the No Child Left behind act forcing educators to talk about "Intelligent" design. (Oh the irony!)
Santorum Amendment
Here is a link to the wikipedia arcticle about the comments he made that started the whole gay controversy.
Santorum Controversy
Enjoy.
You know, if more young people voted in America, it would be my hope that scumbags such as Santorum wouldn't see the light of day. Campaign donations need to be the first to go. What the bill that santorum is introducing would do is cut the public off from something that it pays for and something that Accuweather uses. Do you think accuweather has their own satellites up there? We don't need accuweather. We NEED the NWS.
zosxavius photography
People just keep overlooking the better, World Wind. Sure, no high res outside the US (yet) but how about almost realtime Radar and forcast data? (Press F5 to get latest image)
Radar Image from WW
If the data is out there, it can be formatted and brought in. And now that NWS has this.. I shall be making an add-on for WW now.
Just don't go to the first Google link for Senator Santorum! :)
The truth about Scientology, Xenu, and you: Operation Clambake
weather services have been into serious high tech for a while and they are public oriented so its hardly surprising they'd glom onto leading edge tech to disseminate their results
...but im quite partial to sites that pull info from all the local weather monitoring stations, like public schools. TV stations do this for detailed local forcasts. Weather.gov doesnt seem to be doing this, i could only find info on the biggest city close to me, not the actual city i live in. wunderground.com is my favorite & it works well on my phone too.
Don't ya hate it when the correct spelling of your favorite screen name is taken?
"It is the Army Surplus store business model. Buy things for pennies on the dollar from the US gov't, and then sell it back at a big profit to the people whose taxes paid for the items in the first place."
Which oddly enough, resembles the eBay model. Let's complain about that instead.
BTW You're *assuming* (in true "/." fashion) that there's no "value-add" in this whole picture. Those maps you buy that show all the best places to eat are "value-adds" even though you may have paid for the raw GIS data. The only issue the public needs to worry about is reasonable access to the data (within limits) that they paid for. Nothing more, nothing less.
The funny thing is that I'd never heard of NOAA's website until the Santorum bill. It's mercifully ad-free and complete, and now it's the only place I go. And it's pronounced "Noah", how cool is that?
The radar pictures are a little less pretty but it certainly beats not being able to find the damned weather forecast on weather.com.
...and SKYWARN folks have known for quite awhile that weather people, 'specially NWS, are some of the biggest geeks and geek-friend people around. =)
Experimental ADDS http://weather.aero/ also just opened a data service for text products using XML, CSV and other formats. Currently METARs are available, but the next release will have PIREPs and TAFs as well with AIR/SIGMETs soon after.
There's a significant number of Mets that also sling a little code on their off-hours. Naturally, they like to code new weather data manipulation and presentation applications.
They are also Open-Source friendly. The computer we use down there runs Fedora Core 3 and Firefox (at my insistence, and it was fine with them). Their AWIPS workstations run Red Hat Linux and feature 3 flat-panel montors. They are the coolest things, these AWIPS workstations. (If memory serves, the acronym means "Advanced Weather Information Presentation System").
But there are two truly remarkable things about the people that work there that I have noticed. First, they are about the smartest group of people that I have ever worked with.
Second, they truly have a dedication to protect and serve the public. That might sound corny to some, but not to me. They take pride in trying to warn the public of impending severe weather, and are genuinely concerned about the public's safety.
And while they cannot publicly comment on issues such as the misguided Senator Santorum's attempt to make them work for large corporations, I can almost guarantee that they aren't happy about it (based on a few private conversations I've had with some of the staff).
I have a deep respect for these people and do hope that Santorum's attempt to screw the public does not pass.
How does it stop you navigating web pages? It just sits there at the top of the screen, out of the way.
"...because the data could be misused by those who don't understand it."
lol...have you ever been to weather.gov? Because if someone has a problem with entering in their zip and seeing temperature and precip predictions then they sure as fuck aren't gonna understand AccuWeather (wich is the EXACT SAME THING). Seriously, an idiot can understand it.
As for Canadian weather data...I would guess that they suck at predicting weather just like we do. What fucking difference does it make to someone in the U.S.?
Any man who afflicts the human race with ideas must be prepared to see them misunderstood. -- H. L. Mencken
Corporate competition is a good thing. Restricting data to just corporations is what is not a good thing. Accuweather usually nails forecasts pretty well, and presents it better than the National Weather Service does. The Weather Channel happens to have talking heads on TV, even though their forecasts aren't always right. It's the site to go to for mom and dad. It took me a few months to get around the NWS site, as good as it is.
I'm getting the impression that the higher-modded posts want companies like Accuweather to just "go away". That would be a bad thing. I can't help but think the competition has helped our forecasts to this very day.
-Rob
Biblical fiscal responsibility
Actually, I've been there for many years. There are certainly a large number of dedicated smart people doing great work. There are pockets of people who are forward thinking and innovative. Unfortunately, there are also a whole bunch of people who don't have a clue and spend their time bickering and playing politics. Sorry, I must remain anonymous, but the stories I could tell....
Here is the link to the actual bill: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:s786: . The gist is that Sen. Santorum wants to prevent the NWS from distributing data which could be provided by a commercial service.
The bill also calls out prohibitions on persons making use of weather data which may efffect a market before an official warning or notice is issued by the NWS. Great - just what we need - all weather warnings will now need to be reviewed by government counsel before issue.
One, the NWS predates AccuWeather, both in general and in terms of Web presence. So in this case it's the private sector competing against the government, not the reverse; AccuWeather is the newcomer. Are you suggesting that if some guy wants to provide a service which the government already performs, the government should simply stop providing that service so the guy can have a monopoly? Businesses have no inherent right to success in a capitalist system; they (ideally) earn their success by being better than the alternatives. AccuWeather is not trying to keep the government from starting a new service; it's trying to force the government to dismantle a service which existed long before they did. Whether the government ought to be providing that service in the first place may be a matter of debate, but it's beyond the scope of this question.
Two, others have already pointed out that AccuWeather does surprisingly little work of its own. It takes data collected at taxpayer expense, repackages it, and sells it. Certainly AccuWeather has the right to try doing this if they want, but what right to they have to say that the government shouldn't provide that same data to anyone else it wants? AccuWeather is not paying for this data; there is no contractual relationship between them and the government. If they want a contract, that's fine, but they should pay for it in that case; after all, one-sided contracts aren't valid.
The NWS has always been holding back because of commerical competition. For example, you cannot get historical data from them and even try getting yesterday's hourly weather conditions. Those are services they could easily provide, but because they are mostly used for commerical purposes, they don't provide them. Even the radar images they provide are not filtered for noise.
It refreshes every few minutes, and when it refreshes, Firefox slows to a crawl.
NWS has been allowed to do more under new policy issued by NOAA last December. However, under pressure, NOAA is now proposing slight changes to the policy. NOAA is accepting comments until Nov 1.
Just what this change means is difficult to understand since it depends on how you define NOAA's mission, or how the Dept of Commerce and NOAA leadership at the time of any specific issues define the misssion.
Information Week had a very nice article the other week that explained the issues.
*** SUPERWOOSH ***
I agree he is bought and sold by Accuweather and other regional contributors who crafted this pile of trash as of a bill. On the other hand, please show me a legislator (R or D) who isn't. They all pander to business interests - they just pander to different ones than maybe you support. Where do you think buffoons like Ted kennedy get their cash? Hint - it's not joe public contributions.
I also get tired of the 'greedy' corporation statement. Yes, there are some greedy corporations, and accuweather may very well be one of them, but what you fail to realize is that there are many, many others that have contributed vast amounts of technology and wealth to the world - through innovation, and creation of jobs. Without 'greedy' corporations, you wouldn't be able to spread your beloved opinion on places like Slashdot - as they would not exist.
Oh, and all 'young' people do not think like you, so don't get this looney idea the the nations youth will come out in force and vote for nutty liberal politicos either.
So, yeah, as an experienced amateur meteorologist, I love the NWS, and have no use for in-Accuweather (which is a lousy forecast company to begin with), and I hate the bill - recognizing that the contributing Senator probably did not write it, doesn't understand it, and got a forward contribution for submitting it. And, the Democrats differ exactly how???
It does not matter what you do, it's wrong.
For starters, it'll be in metric, as well as in english and French, automatically putting on a 24 wait period for suspicious data.
Although college kids in bordering States will likely be found importing it anyway, as it'll show whether the roads are clear for some under-21 drinking during the winter.
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
You combine xplanet rendering to your root window with a batch of scripts that grab your favorite data and overlay.
I personally do volcanoes, earthquakes over a certain magnitude, and tropical cyclone activity which are pretty standard. I've embellished a bit with a specular map so you can see the sun reflecting off the ocean, but that's it.
http://mikehardy.net/xplanet_desktop.jpg
Total eye candy, highly worth it.
I can hook anyone with the package of config files I use (so you don't have to tweak it so hard out of the gate) if there's interest.
I saw Santorum get interviewed on one of the Sunday morning news/talk shows not too long ago. The interviewer turned him into a blithering idiot, stammering, and barely able to finish a sentence whenever his stance on whatever topic being discussed was challenged. It was rather breathtaking how he was totally unable to defend his positions. If I'd seen his performance before an election I know I would have been casting a vote for one of his opponents. Luckily, I live in Illinois where our politicians have exchanged competence and ethics for eloquence and charm. They may be crooks but they're often pleasant to listen to.
CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
How exactly is that flamebait? He is trying to block public access to publically funded information so his precious campaign contributors can make a profit at the expense of taxpayers.
Coding with assembly is like playing with Legos. Coding an application in assembly is like building a car with Legos.
...some of the weather companies (there are probably a few dozen around the country - not just in PA), will shed people or themselves.
I'm, not so sure the government should be in the weather business, but it's a side effect of aviation, NASA, etc. So we'll have to live with it. What can the weather companies offer beyond what the government can offer. The private weather market will have to rethink itself. I'm sure there will be room for a few companies to re-package the data in a friendlier form, but the industry employment will drop like a rock. Some percentage of the people working in the industry can find new employment working for companies that will use the data. The rest will be doing something else.