New Weather Application Needs Testing And Feedback

Java? I hate Java.. it’s such a PITA. And I was ready to install this in my Xubuntu setup and try it out. Let me know if they decide to port it to C/C++, Python or some other sane language.

Janet: Generally would agree with you on the java front, however I would say that for that this beta, it runs well.

That said, going gtk/python might be cool, too. Always worth asking them. :)

I have, and always will, love me some python. Its my first scripting love :)

However given that you’ve helped me out willingly in the past, I figure its only right I should test this for you :)

Chris: Thanks man!

Hm.. Installed it, but not opening. Strange.

Chris: Do you have Java installed?

Chris: If not, I just installed it by going to this site and let Firefox in Gutsy do it for you. :)
http://www.radicalplay.com/madness/game.html

Once there, just choose start game and it will prompt to install Java.

I am using Mandriva Linux 2008. I have Java 1.4.2_15 installed. Installed the tempest package. Started the app, and it runs OK, but locks up when I try to change the location from Germantown, MD. to my home town. Am I missing something? Should there be a configuration file, and if so where is it? There is a tempest.log file in my home directory, but it is zero bytes in length …

Ernie: What kind of system are you running with? CPU, i386?, RAM, etc.
Also, could you run this in a terminal and then paste the output here in the comments section? Thanks! :)
Just type tempest into the terminal to run it for some verbose output.

My apologies. I know better than to not include that information. It was late when I posted the feedback, and I simply got lazy.

I am using an old Compaq Presario with an AMD K6-2 350Mhz CPU, 256MB RAM, an old nVidia NV11 GeForce2 MX400 PCI video card with 64MB RAM, an ES1988 Alegro-1 sound card (integrated on the Mainboard), and a Samsung SV2044D 20GB IDE HD.

I run Mandriva Linux 2008.0 with the KDE desktop environment, kernel-desktop586-2.6.22.9-1mdv, and a 2.7GB swap partition.

The terminal output you request follows:

Exception in thread “Thread-0″ java.lang.IndexOutOfBoundsException: Index: 0, Si ze: 0
at java.util.ArrayList.RangeCheck(ArrayList.java:547)
at java.util.ArrayList.get(ArrayList.java:322)
at com.aws.java.bug.pointer.ui.controls.ChangeLocationPanel.getStations( ChangeLocationPanel.java:380)
at com.aws.java.bug.pointer.ui.controls.ChangeLocationPanel.widgetSelect ed(ChangeLocationPanel.java:395)
at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.TypedListener.handleEvent(TypedListener.java: 227)
at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.EventTable.sendEvent(EventTable.java:66)
at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Widget.sendEvent(Widget.java:1097)
at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Display.runDeferredEvents(Display.java:3256)
at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Display.readAndDispatch(Display.java:2923)
at com.aws.java.bug.pointer.UIServiceImpl$DispatchThread.run(UIServiceIm pl.java:427)
at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Synchronizer.syncExec(Synchronizer.java:152)
at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Display.syncExec(Display.java:3812)
at com.aws.java.bug.pointer.UIServiceImpl.run(UIServiceImpl.java:279)
at com.aws.java.bug.GeekBug$LoadThread.run(GeekBug.java:299)

Hope this helps,

To get this locked up, I click the ‘Change Location’ icon on the toolbar (top), enter ‘Toledo, Ohio ‘ then either press the key or click the ‘Search’ button.

Sorry, left and right arrows must be special characters which need an escape sequence (e.g.: html tags must be allowed here). I should have realized this and avoided their use. Perhaps my problem is more than laziness. The above should have been:

To get this locked up, I click the ‘Change Location’ icon on the toolbar (top), enter ‘Toledo, Ohio [zip code]‘ then either press the ENTER key or click the ‘Search’ button.

Ernie: Thanks so much for the bug report, really appreciated. :)
I am getting this to the devs so we can get this figured out.

On another thought, have you tried running the newest version of java? This may produce different results?

I have java sun-1.6.0 (a set of Mandriva rpm packages) installed. This should be Sun’s java-1.6.0 if I understand correctly. I have j2re-1,4,2 installed so Konqueror will be able to use java (it only supports Netscape 4 plugins last time I checked). Firefox is my primary WEB browser, and java in Konqueror is not a deal breaker for me, so if you think having both versions installed could be introducing some conflict, I will happily remove the older one.

Ernie: It might be worth it, as I do seem to remember having issues with two versions running, back in DVArchive days for my old ReplayTV box.

I cannot promise that this will fix anything of course, but it may solve the issue - certainly worth trying I suspect. ;)

Ernie: If you want the older version back, you can reinstall from here:
http://java.sun.com/products/archive/ Thanks! :)

Hey Matt, btw, I can only assume you use jabber… if you do, get ahold of me at some point, at my gtalk account (check teh comments)

Chris: Added ya to my Jabbin client (Jabber/Gtalk). Working now, but I’ll look for later. ;) http://www.jabbin.com/int/
You should check it out, you can call Gtalk users with a headset.

Redhat EL5 working good with zero installation problems. Just what I needed for KDE — the temp in the System Tray. Good to see some well-done Linux software, instead of the usual garbage written by non-programmers.

Java is the best language today (no it’s not a scripting language) for portability. They open-sourced it, and it has about 100,000 classes to use (really). Why would anyone use Python or Perl for a WeatherBug applet? The problem with Linux is all the clueless dweebs out there.

Allen: I like your style. No fluff, just a solid product, please. :)

Any suggestions you have will definitely not fall on deaf ears here. You comments were really great to hear, thanks! ;)

***Latest release is out, it has the following fixes included:
- Settings and log files are now put in the /home directory
- Tempest is now packaged with log4j
- Autostarting the app via KDE’s autostart folder and Sessions in GNOME should work better, too. Have at it!
http://linux.weatherbug.com

My system is AMD Sempron-64 2800+ with 512 megs ram integrated VIA video WD 80 gig HD Dual booting windows Xp and Fedora 8 Test 3 with Java icetea.
My problem is that when I try to change location to my home town weather bug locks up. It works fine for Germantown, Md. I’d relly like to get this working because I use weather bug when in Windows. I’m using Tempest 0.5.2-1.

Dan: Thanks for the bug report. You mentioned that you are for sure, using the latest version? 5.2.1? I am sending this to our developers right now.

Dan: Our developer has been alerted and is checking it out right now - stay tuned here for an update.

Matt
I forgot to mention that I’m using the Gnome Desktop and when I try to change location the weather bug program freezes up and I have to use the force kill applet to close it. When moving the pointer between the icons at the top to change features the program does not want to change text without moving the pointer off weather bug and then back on. Hopes this helps.

Dan: Thanks for that, the key I suspect is Java icetea. The devs have it, hoping to get something figured out asap.

Matt,

I got the new tempest version. The bad news is that it still locks up when I try to change location using the GUI dialog box. The good news is that now I can edit the configuration file ~/.tempest/settings!

Since tempest works correctly after I edit the configuration file, if no one else reports this issue (or if any other reports are from Mandriva users), I will presume the issue is more with Mandriva’s Linux implementation than with tempest.

I edited four values. “home” and “ZCode” control the location for which tempest reports the weather. “tempcolor” and “tempbgcolor” control the foreground and background colors for the temperature display in the kicker dock.

record key=”home”:
Default value = “AWSHQ|AWS Headquarters|Germantown|MD|20876|0|0″
The information in this value is displayed at the bottom of the tempest desktop window and contains seven fields separated with pipe characters. If I got it right, the fields contain (in order) “Station call letters (not displayed)|Station Name|City|State|ZipCode|Not Determined (not displayed)|Not Determined (not displayed)”
You can use the NWS search page at http://www.nws.noaa.gov/tg/siteloc.shtml to find the station call letters for the Weather station nearest your location.
The Station Name, City, State and ZipCode fields are self explanatory.
I did not edit the last two fields in this value.

record key=”tempcolor”:
Default value is “0,0,0″ (black).
This value controls the foreground color for the temperature display in the dock and consists of three fields separated with a comma character, representing Red, Green, and Blue respectively. Valid values for each field range from 0 to 255.

record key=”tempbgcolor”:
Default value is “255,255,255″ (white).
This value controls the background color for the temperature display in the dock and consists of three fields separated with a comma character, representing Red, Green, and Blue respectively. Valid values for each field range from 0 to 255.

record key=”ZCode”:
Default value is “Z5701″.
If I have it right, this value is Weather Bugs location identifier. To get your location’s Weather Bug identifier, go to http://weather.weatherbug.com, enter your zip code in the ‘Get Weather on the WEB’ box (press the ENTER key). The ZCode you need will be displayed in the location bar at the end of the resulting URL.

I am now a happy WeatherBug user.

I have installed it here on Fawn, no trouble, even changing the location. Version 0.5.2

Ernie and everyone else: I am taking everyone’s feedback today and putting into a presentation for bug fixes and new feature idea later today. If there are any other things you would like to see added, just add it to this thread below. Thanks everyone! ;)

The current temperature in the kicker dock is useful, but the ability to add another ‘icon’ with the current weather conditions (sun, cloud, rain, fog, snow, etc.) would be even more useful.

Installed/ reinstalled, does not run. Java is in place. No icon in systray, no menu listing. Installed with no problems, other than the lack of running. On Gutsy w/ gnome.

Reja: Do me a favor if you could, run the following a terminal and paste back the results.

tempest

in another terminal , then do

java -version

Update: We are out of beta. Remove the Tempest application and install the new, 1.0 version of WeatherBug for Linux. Stable, less resources and more features!
http://www.lockergnome.com/insideweatherbug/2008/05/09/weatherbug-for-linux-is-live/

[...] Considering the great success I had with asking Lockergnome readers to help me review a new beta Linux application I had a hand in “getting out there” into the wilds of beta testing, it only made sense [...]

[...] After months of work and beta testing on a multitude of Linux distributions, WeatherBug is proud to redefine the way we retrieve weather data on the Linux platform. Initially launched on Linspire’s CNR.com website, WeatherBug for Linux is the aftermath of the success seen with the previous beta application, WeatherBug Tempest. [...]