UWA Wireless Weather Page

[Josh Shirley]

I think some of you know that I am looking into setting up a wireless phone web page that we could access current conditions.

As I am researching this I have noticed many different versions of the available software/formats. Each phone uses a sligthly different version. So if I know what kind of phones everyone is using I will be able to set this up better.

I have a few questions for those that would like to use this service:

Who wants this service?
Who currently uses wireless web services?
What type of phone do you use? Ie. Blackberry Pearl, Samsung Piece of Junk 1.2, try to give me the model/version number.
What wireless phone service do you use? ie Sprint, Verizon, T-mobile
Lastly, what type of features do you want on the service? ie, bird island wind meter is must otherwise I just might start kiteboarding.

If you could kindly email me this survey, I just might comply to your requests. Otherwise the service will be catered to my phone.

joshua_shirley@hotmail.com

[Marty Lowe]

-NO-
because,
I currently use verison wireless internet on Palm Treo.
All my internet web sites on the phone.
And use iwindsurf to get text messages when the wind starts to blow, for,
Rush, Provo, Evanston.
Oregon,
Texas,
etc.

-Marty

not saying it wont be helpful for some,
depends on the cost.

[Josh Shirley]

I think I can do this for free.

marty:

how well do iwindsurf alerts work?

This brings me to another thought. Ask iwindsurf/ikitesurf to update their weather info for our weather sites and each member pays for that service.

I have noticed that iwindsurf doesn't have most of the local weather info we need.

Just wondering if you think that is worth the cost for Utah? (I know Texas and the Gorge are a different story.)

[MikE mAy]

i think i get everything i need on my wireless internet phone as well, however a quick wireless page would be nice. maybe i just need to get more organized though. it sucks to download two pages to get to the weather info i need.

p.s. stuck in downtown houston. anyone have any quick info on whether i could burn an afternoon of the conference off and find some kite gear and ride? marty- you mentioned texas. maybe you have some info? how far is corpus christi? san padre? can you kite in galveston?

[Marty Lowe]

how well do iwindsurf alerts work?

Just wondering if you think that is worth the cost for Utah?

I think they are great.
49 days kiting in Utah so far, in '07
Mostly because I leave when I get an "alert"
You can set minimum, direction, time, day.
It's like a pager, with control.

$8.95 per month is what I pay,
pretty good value in my book.

I have noticed that iwindsurf doesn't have most of the local weather info we need.

What sites do you need?

Pennys, Provo, Grantsville Reservoir, Evanton, Bermster.
Pineview (weber canyon power plant)
are already there.

It's very useful for current wind, and
I like the "Wind FlowViz FX" and the "Pressure/Isobar FX" features

I'll e-mail Mat at iwindsurf, the link for Deer Creek Dam.
Maybe the I-15 meter by Willard Bay
What else?
I got lazy when it was brought up before.

I used the wap/wireless web, options on my old phone,
before I had the internet phone.

I'm no salesman for iwindsurf, it just works for me,
I've used it from the old days of the pager that we would rent in the Gorge/Hawaii.



-Marty

This brings me to another thought. Ask iwindsurf/ikitesurf to update their weather info for our weather sites and each member pays for that service.

Please clarify....

[stokes]

Marty I am interested in the 'pager' system you have set up. What phones will work for that service (I have verizon)? How long will it take to set me up?

Stokes

[Marty Lowe]

Marty I am interested in the 'pager' system you have set up. What phones will work for that service (I have verizon)? How long will it take to set me up?

Stokes

It's from iwindsurf

http://www.iwindsurf.com/services.iws

-Marty

[Josh Shirley]

This is kind of what I thought. More people are using the better phones on the market. Blackberry, Sidekick, Treos, Smartphones. Then the other half don't use internet enabled phones.

Some phones use .wml and the more advanced ones use .wml and .html.
So if most everyone is using .html enabled phones I could make a watered down version of the weather page.
Something that anyone with a .html ready phone could access. At least faster than scrolling through multiple pages on the regular site.

Something like
http://www.utahwindriders.com/Wireless/wireless.htm
http://www.utahwindriders.com/Wireless/wireless.wml (not up yet)

Just tell me what you would like added on. Quick no images, out on the road stuff, like current conditions.

[Mark Johnson]

I like the idea of a quick links page. I use verision. I can go to web pages but it is hard to read them unless they are formatted for the small screen.
It would also be cool if we could add our phones text address to our web forum and get new posts or at least Craig's daily post. Or a link to where people could post where they plan to ride that day.

[RickHeninger]

Thought I'd chime in on this... I think that it's a great thought... I love being able to get a simple run down on the wind and Craig's post on my PDA... However, those like Marty are pretty much set up...

Maybe we can set it up so that if you TEXT message a certain # it'll send the abbreviated wind report for those who only have text messaging... Just an idea...

A couple of years ago I looked into getting a phone line that people could call into to listen to a series of 5 different recordings... It was a phone line that had a choice of 5 different voice mail boxes... For example a greeting would say, "Hello Utah Windriders! Press 1 for Utah Lake, Press 2 for Deer Crick, Press 3 for Rush Lake, Press 4 for Grantsvile, Press 5 for Willard Bay or Pineview" Then in each one of those options we'd have the ability to listen to the messages... and/or leave a message for a live windreport... Give the time of the message, conditions, number of people at the site... My buddy at Qwest had it all but set up. Perks, you could call from anywhere to hear the live reports, not feel like you're bothering the guy at the site who wants to RIDE! It was relatively inexpensive (less than an actual phone line)...

The drawbacks are that we'd have to moderate it... People would end up accidentally deleting other's messages... Would people actually leave live wind reports... I know some would... But it's a possibility...

[Josh Shirley]

I would like to include craig's forecast into the summary page.
That is some of the more complex programming I am working on.

Hopefully the summary page would look something like this:

http://www.utahwindriders.com/WAPProposal.html

[Marty Lowe]

Josh,
It looks great,
I hate to be a stick in the mud, but,
When I started communicating with Mat at iwindsurf a couple of years ago about the fact that because Pennys was not on the list, that iwindsurf in Utah was worthless. Below is his response...
There should not be any issues with MESOWEST, just something to be aware of. I'd just hate to see you go to all the work, and have MESOWEST tell you you can't do it. As long as it is a free service, it should be fine.
All the updated info they have now, comes from the NOAA version of the current conditions that I found for iwindsurf. I just made sure the IRL didn't start out with http://www.met.utah.edu, and started with http://newweb.wrh.noaa.gov

similar to this site

http://newweb.wrh.noaa.gov/mesowest/get ... PVU&num=48


> --- Matt Corey <mcorey@weatherflow.com> wrote:
>
> > Marty,
> >
> > My appologies for not getting back to you sooner.
> > Spent the morning
> > researching Utah and what is going on. We were
> > collecting data from
> > Mesowest for about 2 years then they said we were
> > overtaxing their servers
> > and shut us off. Unfortunately I can't find the
> > sites you are requesting at
> > any other sources or we would go there and collect
> > it. We can grab data
> > from RAWS stations so if any of these look useful
> > let me know and I can add
> > them in:
> >
> > http://raws.boi.noaa.gov/rawsobs.html
> >
> >
> > Meanwhile, I have applied for a business license
> > with Mesowest in hopes that
> > they might see reason and allow us to access their
> > data again.
> >
> > Thanks for your help,
> >
> > Matt
> >
> >
> > Matt Corey
> > Meteorologist, etc.
> > Weatherflow, Inc.
> > http://www.weatherflow.com
> > MCorey@weatherflow.com

-Marty

[Josh Shirley]

"as long as it is a free service it should be fine."

Yeah I looked into the rules and it didn't seem like we would be breaking any of them.

As far as being a stick in the mud, your not. The reason I posted this is to open up discussion. I would like to foresee problems, get input from members, and listen to both the good and bad.

I have thought about just re-uping my iwindsurf account. They do a great job. But, I feel that one of the goals and purposes of the association is to get more people kiting and windsurfing without hassle.

If we can set up a free service for the members, and they don't need to pay $10 a month for that then let's do it.
If I find out, from this discussion, that the interest members are already using iwindsurf and I am creating a duplicate service, then I will stop pursueing this and save my time.

I really hope you don't think I am offended, because I'm not.

[Marty Lowe]

I really hope you don't think I am offended, because I'm not.

Great...

I also want to clarify that I am not trying to push iwindsurf.
It just works for me. IMHO



-Marty

[MikE mAy]

Josh-

i love your page. my phone may not be set up correctly, but i have to log back into UWA each time i change the post i'm looking at on my PDA. it seems that it dosent' keep the authentication or something. just something frustrating i keep getting i'm not sure if anybody else gets it or not. i'd like to put in a vote for a summary page somethign like josh has created.