Hugh Newbury wrote:

?Gothic? I agree.

It does just about everything, I'll give it that. But its interface
isn't to my taste. Does it still display Beaufort numbers based on the
latest gust reading?

Mine does have a number of shortcomings, though, I'll admit that.

Possibly it only runs on Micro$oft Windoze, like the others. I run Linux
whenever poss. But it looks nice.

Yes, XP and Vista (and server derivatives) only. I'm about to embark on
a complete re-write that might just end up running on Linux and Mac OS X
too.


I hadn't heard of yours. WDisplay is mentioned, with a URL, on John
Dann's helpful site. Do you think John would also mention yours?

John seems to name three "leading third-party packages". I can't claim
to be one of those.

I'm just starting a new weather website. It's not yet complete, but I'm
updating a "Current" page already. Have a look at:

www.evershot-weather.org/wx.html

But please be kind about the incomplete remainder of the site.

Looks fine to me.
--
Steve Loft
Sanday, Orkney. 5m ASL. http://sanday.org.uk/weather
Free weather station softwa http://sandaysoft.com/
uk.sci.weather FAQs/glossary/etc: http://weatherfaqs.org.uk/

Steve Loft wrote:

It does just about everything, I'll give it that. But its interface
isn't to my taste. Does it still display Beaufort numbers based on the
latest gust reading?

WDisplay has the following tags:

Beaufort wind force number
Current Beaufort wind speed
10 minute average speed, in bft number
Beaufort scale in text (ie Fresh Breeze)
Beaufort scale in text (ie Fresh Breeze) based on 10 minute average

These are WD's own descriptions of their tags. Not clear to me if these
are gusts where they are not stated to be average. But presumably ...

Hugh

--

Hugh Newbury

Running Linux Suse 10.1 in deepest Dorset

Hugh Newbury wrote:
WDisplay has the following tags:

Beaufort wind force number
Current Beaufort wind speed
10 minute average speed, in bft number
Beaufort scale in text (ie Fresh Breeze)
Beaufort scale in text (ie Fresh Breeze) based on 10 minute average

These are WD's own descriptions of their tags. Not clear to me if these
are gusts where they are not stated to be average. But presumably ...

I can't work out what those tags mean. How can you apply the Beaufort
scale to something that isn't based on an average?

When I had a look at it - some time ago, admittedly - there was an
option to make the wind display gauge on the main screen show the wind
speed as a Beaufort number. If you turned it on, the number displayed
varied with each reading from the station i.e. it appeared to be
applying it to the latest 'gust'. I reported this in the support forum,
but I don't think I was able to make myself understood.
--
Steve Loft
Sanday, Orkney. 5m ASL. http://sanday.org.uk/weather
Free weather station softwa http://sandaysoft.com/
uk.sci.weather FAQs/glossary/etc: http://weatherfaqs.org.uk/

Steve Loft wrote:

How can you apply the Beaufort
scale to something that isn't based on an average?

Pass.

Hugh

--

Hugh Newbury

Running Linux Suse 10.1 in deepest Dorset

On Sat, 28 Jun 2008 13:17:35 GMT, Steve Loft
wrote:

I can't work out what those tags mean. How can you apply the Beaufort
scale to something that isn't based on an average?


I think that's the triumph of 'the customer is always right' over
technical accuracy. In other words, if one of the main drivers of your
software development is to add features without due regard for their
accuracy either that a user requests as a good idea or that they may
have seen - possibly inaccurately implemented - in another package
then that's the consequence. Another similar symptom is the provision
of a (calculated) cloudbase height based purely on surface temperature
and RH. It may look pretty as an iconic presentation - and of course
that's what sells it - but is likely to be wrong more often than it's
right.

John Dann
www.weatherstations.co.uk

John Dann wrote:

then that's the consequence. Another similar symptom is the provision
of a (calculated) cloudbase height based purely on surface temperature
and RH. It may look pretty as an iconic presentation - and of course
that's what sells it - but is likely to be wrong more often than it's
right.

I have to admit I added that to a recent version of my software, but I
wasn't completely comfortable with it. And it only appears (optionally)
on web pages, not on the PC display or anywhere in the recorded data.
--
Steve Loft
Sanday, Orkney. 5m ASL. http://sanday.org.uk/weather
Free weather station softwa http://sandaysoft.com/
uk.sci.weather FAQs/glossary/etc: http://weatherfaqs.org.uk/

Steve Loft wrote:

But mine's free. And it doesn't look like... No, I'll stop there.

Mine does have a number of shortcomings, though, I'll admit that.

I've just downloaded and installed your software Steve.
I must say I'm very impressed. I'll evaluate it a little longer and it
could become my first choice.

At present I use Freewxi.

--
Am I the only Gareth Slee?
http://garethslee.com

Gareth Slee wrote:

At present I use Freewxi.

Excellent software, in my opinion.
--
Steve Loft
Sanday, Orkney. 5m ASL. http://sanday.org.uk/weather
Free weather station softwa http://sandaysoft.com/
uk.sci.weather FAQs/glossary/etc: http://weatherfaqs.org.uk/

On Sat, 28 Jun 2008 11:07:22 +0100, Hugh Newbury
wrote:

I hadn't heard of yours. WDisplay is mentioned, with a URL, on John
Dann's helpful site. Do you think John would also mention yours?


We used to have a more comprehensive review/critique of available
software for AWS systems on the weatherstations website a couple of
years back. But the number of different packages available for
downlaod started to increase quite markedly and has continued to do
so. Also, the sheer number and range of features in some of the more
comprehsive packages such as WD (and added to further by related 3rd
party packages such as WD Live) has continued to grow.

As a result, trying to write a reasonably balanced but comprehensive
critique of all the various software offerings started to become a
very time-consuming and technically tricky task. So I took the
decision to pull most of this information off the website rather than
leave incomplete and often out-of-date - and therefore potentially
misleading - content up there. All that remains at present is a
mention of the most popular programs plus a few illustrations of the
range of the features that they can provide.

I'd certainly still like to restore a more comprehensive listing along
with some detailed descriptions etc to the site. If anyone is
interested in sharing some of the workload in doing this then please
feel free to contact me offline (we might be able to arrange some
modest quid pro quo), but please be aware that it's not a trivial
undertaking - especially in keeping any listings of feature-sets
properly up-to-date and potentially in covering AWS software for
different operating systems. But if there is a viable collaborative
way to recreate a new set of software lisitngs and critiques then I'm
happy to make this as comprehensive as possible.

And, finally, since someone mentioned the eg 09-09 station day, maybe
I can also mention that this is also a feature of the Weatherlink
Reporter software which prepares monthly reports from the database
files created by the Weatherlink software. Unfortuantely, WLR is still
in perpetual beta at present, but hopefully I'll make time to issue
the first 'proper' release in the next month or two.

John Dann
www.weatherstations.co.uk