The Daily Parker

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Really cool Weather Now release

Thursday, 17 October 2024 20:28:53 CDT David-Braverman General, Personal, Weather, Work (2)

I've just pushed Weather Now v5.0.9057, which has some of the coolest shit I've built into the app, ever. Introducing: maps and charts!

At my real job, I did an evaluation of charting tools for the app we're developing, and determined that Syncfusion had the best balance between ease and power. Boy, does it ever. I managed to get a community license for Inner Drive Technology and spent the last few days playing with it.

There are also a couple of bug fixes, and one change to cut down on all the screen-scrapers that have been hitting me (you have to register to get archival data).

I invite all Daily Parker readers to check out the new features, and please give me feedback. I think it may need some usability fixes, and I still have a lot of work to do on personalization—particularly around people selecting their preferred measurement systems.

Still, I'm jazzed at how quickly all the features came together, and how easy Syncfusion's tools are. I hope y'all enjoy the new toys.

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Comments (2) -

  • Yak

    10/21/2024 3:07:05 AM +00:00 |

    I have to create a freaking Microsoft account to customize my use of WX-NOW? Nope, not happening. I do have some requests, though. What is "density altitude" and why does it display a negative number? I'm pretty sure Griffiss airfield (formerly Griffiss Air Force Base) isn't 351m below sea level. Also, could you please add some kind of description instead of the cryptic"Visual Meteorological Conditions"? Sure, I can look that up, but you could also build a better brief description based on whatever code you're getting back from NOAA. Something as simple as "Pilots may rely on visual observations, not just instruments" or something to that effect. Thank you.

  • The Daily Parker

    10/28/2024 3:34:10 PM +00:00 |

    Yes, Microsoft accounts for now, because the authentication package works out of the box. I'm trying to get Google and Facebook accounts working but it's a lower priority. As for definitions, good idea, I will add that to the site. But I really want to emphasize that it's a demonstration site for software, not an official channel for pilots. For now, "density altitude" is essentially a measure of air density, which affects airplane performance. So a density altitude of 0 means the air density is the same as it would be at sea level with an altimeter reading of 29.92 in. Hg—i.e., standard atmosphere. Cold air is denser than warm air, and field elevation affects air density, so the density altitude shown on a current weather report shows you that airplanes will perform as if the atmospheric pressure is standard but the airfield is at a different altitude.

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