[kw-pm] weather

[simon-kwpm at uc.org]

I fall in that weather boat too, ever since I had this cool idea...

At some point as a child, my father suggested that a better way to
forecast the weather would be to use small cell-based measurements --
each cell could communicate with it's neighbour cells, and make it's
predictions. As time passed, the cells could use history, rather than
fancy mathematical models to predict the weather.

When he'd asked someone in the business about his idea, they'd said that
yes, it was a very good idea -- but that they'd already invested millions
in weather satellites and couldn't switch now. I wonder what the case is
these days...

While I was living in waterloo, way back in the year 2000, I wrote an
extension to UCD SNMP (now net-snmp) for World Without Wire to allow it
to get the signal/noise ratios from wireless cards. Well, these devices
were being put on towers all over southern ontario, and had heaps of
extra computing power.

I was like "OMG, this is the PERFECT platform for environment conditions
monitoring!!!" You would be able to poll the towers for their current
weather conditions and their forecasts -- temperature, humidity, light
levels, wind speed and direction, maybe even UV, greenhouse gasses. It
would be fantastic.

Alas, they didn't see a market for the data...

But it would be a dream come true to implement this.

Does anyone else think this would be a fantastic idea? Would Environment
Canada, or any other organizations be interested in buying the data?

Anyone written a business plan before? I know people that would fund a
good plan...

re,
Simon

On Wed, 23 Jun 2004, Rebecca Anstett wrote:

> Working at EC was amazing. I loved it, despite the fact that I wasn't so
> keen on the technology. The first time I worked there was in 1999 and I was
> working on the weather site (http://weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/) - lots of perl.
> The second time was Sept-Feb of this year, and it was completely a
> ColdFusion gig (ugh). Lots of ColdFusion. (I was managing the migration of
> their Intranet)  Following this, I took a *real gem* - migrating a buttload
> of ASP to ColdFusion. This is something that just should not have happened!
> I think the main reason I've enjoyed my employment stints with EC so much is
> that I have a perhapsobscene fascination with weather!
>
> ~Rebecca <http://www.rebecca-anstett.com/>
>
>
> >What was working at Environment Canada like?
> >
> >One of my dream jobs would be working on weather forecasting using
> >distributed computing.
> >
> >re,
> >Simon
> >
> >On Tue, 22 Jun 2004, Rebecca Anstett wrote:
> >
> > > Now I feel completely horrid. He lives in TO and is going to come
> >*here*. I
> > > live here and, well, I've never been to a meeting.. *hangs head* I
> >suppose
> > > it's fitting that I'm on the php train now... I don't deserve perl ;p
> > >
> > > ~Rebecca <http://www.rebecca-anstett.com/>
> > >
> > >
> > > >From: lloyd carr <dcarr at sdf.lonestar.org>
> > > >To: simon-kwpm at uc.org
> > > >CC: kw-pm at mail.pm.org
> > > >Subject: Re: [kw-pm] another intro.
> > > >Date: Tue, 22 Jun 2004 22:24:08 +0000 (UTC)
> > > >
> > > >Welcome Simon.
> > > >You live in Toronto, but you are going to drive to Waterloo to attend
> >our
> > > >meetings, because ... Don't get me wrong your most welcome to come to
> >our
> > > >meetings, but I seem to be missing something ;-)
> > > >
> > > >On Tue, 22 Jun 2004 simon-kwpm at uc.org wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > Date: Tue, 22 Jun 2004 13:21:12 -0400 (EDT)
> > > > > From: simon-kwpm at uc.org
> > > > > To: kw-pm at mail.pm.org
> > > > > Subject: [kw-pm] another intro.
> > > > >
> > > > > Hi, my name is Simon Ditner, I'm new here as well.
> > > > >
> > > > > I used to live in Waterloo, but moved to Toronto for a more
> >lucrative
> > > > > job; I suspect that I was -the- cheapest programmer in K/W. I keep
> > > > > missing to.pm due to schedule conflicts / topics I'm not interested
> >in,
> > > > > so I'm hoping to make it out to k/w for your talks.
> > > > >
> > > > > I currently build network management tools, and various web tools in
> > > > > Sprint Canada's IP network group to entertain myself. I've found
> >myself
> > > > > in a strange position here. My core work is so simple (maintaining
> >unix
> > > > > services that don't really crash) that I essentially have nothing to
> >do.
> > > > >
> > > > > Outside of work, I'm developing a module for rendering Treemaps
> > > > > (http://orange.uc.org/read/Treemaps). Eric Maki and I made great
> >strides
> > > > > last year, and I finally released it into CPAN at YAPC::NA after Nat
> >got
> > > > > all excited about them in #yapc last week.
> > > > >
> > > > > I'd be happy to do a talk on them, and their applications. Though,
> >I'm
> > > > > rather terse, so it might be a short talk.
> > > > >
> > > > > re,
> > > > > Simon
> > > > > _______________________________________________
> > > > > kw-pm mailing list
> > > > > kw-pm at mail.pm.org
> > > > > http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/kw-pm
> > > > >
> > > >
> > > >dcarr at sdf.lonestar.org
> > > >SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org
> > > >_______________________________________________
> > > >kw-pm mailing list
> > > >kw-pm at mail.pm.org
> > > >http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/kw-pm
> > >
> > >
> > >
>
>
>