September 1, 2003 Archives

I found a very cool applet called Weathergraph. The idea is to chart a graph of temperature, windchill/heat index, and wind on 4 graphs; daily, weekly, monthly and yearly. Because of a graphing database tool call RRD, the database stays the same size even as the graphs ingest more data.

If it were only this easy.

The program required installing a Perl (Perl is an interpereted computer language heavily used in web applications) module call Geo::Metar and RRD Tool. So I won't become a pain in the butt to my webhost, I decided to install these myself... local to my site. I bet if I knew Perl or even Bash scripting this would have been easier.

Perl modules don't want to be installed locally, and when they are... they cry.

There's a concept in Linux (which is what geofffox.com runs on) called 'superuser' or su. I don't have that privilege on this server. That means there are lots of things I can't do. Many of those would make all of this easier.

I got it done, but please don't ask me to retrace my steps. I have no idea!

Immediately, I realized I didn't care as much about windchill/heat index as I did in dew point. No problem. Just rewrite the program.

Again, I don't know Perl. But, I've come to the conclusion that most computer languages are very similar, and with the help of a few books, I think I figured it out.

Unfortunately, every time a graph was plotted, the dew point and temperature were the same. No good.

Back to the program. If you've never seen what computer programs look like, here's a small sample:

I'm still not 100% sure (because once this program gets running it takes a significant amount of time before it will actually plot a graph) but it seems like the problem was in the windchill/heat index routines. I had turned all mentions of windchill/heat index into dew point, but didn't realize the program still wanted to apply the rules of windchill/heat index to the dew point. And tonight, there is no windchill or heat index.

I pulled that section of code from the program.

This may be way beyond me. Who knows? I am nothing more than a 53 year old 'script kiddie.'

When the graphs go 'live', I'll post an announcement. I expect to have one for each 'official' weather station in connecticut and maybe a few others. Each graph will cost me 233 Kbytes of my limited space.

This is a very small website. I get very few hits... and that's fine, for now.

Part of the challenge of a website is growing your hits, and I try to do that. I look at logs that tell me what's being viewed, and how people got here. There is knowledge to be gotten from those logs.

For instance, I have learned one of the best way to get traffic is to misspell words!

It's true and here's why. Google, which drives lots of traffic on the net, decides which page to list first by a complex formula that rates websites on (among other things) their popularity with other websites. So, who links to you is important.

For a while, the page on my site that was drawing the most referrals from search engines had to do with a show Helaine and I saw, featuring Carrot Top. In the normal scheme of things, that wouldn't be so. But, I had spelled Carrot, "Carrott."

So, instead of competing against all the big websites, I had a corner on the very esoteric group of misspelled Carrot Top searches.

I have since corrected that spelling, and the spelling of movabltype.org (where you'll find the blogging software I use). My hits will be down, but my English teachers will be happier.

On the Internet, spelling counts.

Poor Ivy is still at the hospital. I went over around 7:00 PM tonight. Everyone was busy, and treatment was taking place in proximity to Ivy, so I was asked to come back.

Fine. Enough time to run over and try and help my friend Harold, who had crashed Windows 98 while installing the latest DirectX. I couldn't help.

I got to Ivy about 8:00 PM. It was a good visit. Ivy came out wearing one of those cones they put over dog's heads so they won't touch sutures or IV tubes. She wasn't panting. Her breathing seemed normal. This is a very good sign.

Ivy ate 1.5 pieces of American Cheese before turning away. That's her norm when she's full.

She has heart troubles. The ultrasound tonight showed that... and it had been expected earlier. But, more than likely, medication will control her problems.

We will all be happier when Ivy returns. Maybe tomorrow.