ink_polaroid
Sysop
Reged: 01/01/05
Posts: 1868
Loc: SF Bay Area, CA
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A rather grandiose title, I know. And bits and pieces of it have been posted before in various forms. But it's a little more complete than anything else I've seen, so I hope it's of use to someone.
Open up the folder and you get:
- "live" maps (usually no longer than an hour old) for most of the world showing current conditions and forecasts
- infra red satellite views for mainland U.S.
- placemarks and live overlays for the NEXRAD national doppler radar system, organised by state
Amazing what can be accomplished with a high boredom threshold, a little visual basic wizardry, and a week's insomnia.
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ink_polaroid
Sysop
Reged: 01/01/05
Posts: 1868
Loc: SF Bay Area, CA
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Probably bad form to reply to my own post, but I should have added that if anyone wants to take this as a starting point and improve upon it, go right ahead.
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blt
Cartographer
Reged: 01/25/03
Posts: 634
Loc: Santa Cruz, Ca
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Awesome job Inkster. The overlays even have the right projection! Nice to see what a little boredom can produce.
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Wingnut326
Tourist
Reged: 01/05/04
Posts: 83
Loc: Mercer Island, WA
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 awesome overlays ink, covers so many places it's mindblowing, must have take tons of time
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esterrett
Master Guide
Reged: 02/27/03
Posts: 2108
Loc: Orlando, FL
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Great concept, but there seems to be a problem with the NEXRAD images, at least with 103 of them. (that's how many "Could not load image..." error messages that needed to be cleared.) 
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"We have to offer up scary scenarios, make simplified, dramatic statements, and make little mention of any doubts we may have. Each of us has to decide what the right balance is between being effective and being honest." - Stephen Schneider (leading advocate of the global warming theory), Discover magazine, Oct 1989.
"Nobody is interested in solutions if they don't think there's a problem. Given that starting point, I believe it is appropriate to have an over-representation of factual presentations on how dangerous (global warming) is, as a predicate for opening up the audience to listen to what the solutions are..." -former Vice President Al Gore, Grist Magazine, May 9, 2006
Learn the reality behind global warming..
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ink_polaroid
Sysop
Reged: 01/01/05
Posts: 1868
Loc: SF Bay Area, CA
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My fault. I should have added some caveats.
The Overlay Images subfolder contains 162 overlays. And since Keyhole does not allow more than one overlay to be active at a time, do *not* try to check the box either next to the group folder or any State folder. You have to expand the folders and activate the overlays one at a time.
I've noticed that while the positional accuracy is pretty good overall, the viewpoint is a little wonky in some NEXRAD cases. I generated most of the code from some very crufty visual basic scripts, so I'll fix this pretty soon and post an update.
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Hill
Master Guide
Reged: 10/31/04
Posts: 8577
Loc: Los Angeles
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I meant to congratulate you some time ago on this. It is working really well. I've been using it to track a thunderstorm cell that has been perched over me for about the last hour. It has dumped 2-3 inches per hour - sometimes the rate is far higher. Lots of lightning and thunder - unusually frequent for this part of the world. Look for the mudslide/debris flow stories from this part of the country soon. Web page showing hourly rainfall.
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Translate text
"Eternity is a very long time, especially towards the end" Stephen Hawking (quoting Woody Allen) 
"There are all kinds of interesting questions that come from a knowledge of science, which only adds to the excitement and mystery and awe of a flower." Richard Feynman
Iraq war and occupation costs
Edited by Hill (02/18/05 03:04 PM)
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cudailike
Tourist
Reged: 03/28/05
Posts: 37
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this would be a wonderful program, if only it worked! there are many overlays that dont work. they are:
Under Current Conditions:
Canada Current Conditions
Carribean Current Conditions
Central America Current Conditions
Central Asia Current Conditions
Europe Current Conditions
Indonesia Current Conditions
Japan Currrent Conditions
Korea Current Conditions
Russia Current Conditions
Middle East Current Conditions
Scandinavia Current Conditions
South America Current Conditions
South Pacific Current Conditions
Under Forecast Maps:
None works
Nexrad doppler
Overlay:None works
Location Placemarks: All works
Infared: None works
~Chris
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The Earthers guide to the universe
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Hill
Master Guide
Reged: 10/31/04
Posts: 8577
Loc: Los Angeles
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Welcome cudalike. The thing about overlays is that the budget Keyhole, which almost all of us have, only supports one overlay at a time. You can't just check the parent folder. You have to open the folders within it, find the one you want and then check the box. I've just tried many of them and they all seem to work, which is good because I really like this folder.
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Translate text
"Eternity is a very long time, especially towards the end" Stephen Hawking (quoting Woody Allen)
"There are all kinds of interesting questions that come from a knowledge of science, which only adds to the excitement and mystery and awe of a flower." Richard Feynman
Iraq war and occupation costs
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Stargazer
Tourist
Reged: 02/26/05
Posts: 5
Loc: The Lone Star State
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This is a great piece of work! If you were bored I can't imagine what your creative talents are when your not. Keep up the good work!
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Stargazer
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ink_polaroid
Sysop
Reged: 01/01/05
Posts: 1868
Loc: SF Bay Area, CA
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Quote:
I've just tried many of them and they all seem to work
The source I'm using is a little glitchy sometimes, but until we get .gif support in Keyhole (*AHEM*), it'll have to do.
(Thanks for the backup there, Hill.)
(I *will* get around to tweaking the viewpoint on some of those NEXRAD images, promise. I'm working on something else at the moment which, all modesty aside, will kick ass ... just as soon as I can iron out the bugs.)
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MBStudios
Tourist
Reged: 04/14/05
Posts: 18
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I cant wait till we do get gif control but the thought came to me while going through these and by the way I love them thanx for the work.
My thought was sort of based on the play function. Couldnt it be possible to load a series of overlays like a loop into one folder then simply start on the first one and hit play ???
I know its crude but, its a thought. Perhaps not well thought out but the spirit of the idea is good
Mark
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ink_polaroid
Sysop
Reged: 01/01/05
Posts: 1868
Loc: SF Bay Area, CA
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Quote:
My thought was sort of based on the play function. Couldnt it be possible to load a series of overlays like a loop into one folder then simply start on the first one and hit play ???
It would be nice, yes, but unfortunately it's not that simple. There are two immediate stumbling blocks:
Firstly: for those of us with the el cheapo LT/NV version of Keyhole (and that's most of us), it's only possible to view one overlay at a time.
Secondly: Pro users can switch on multiple overlays. And while this is nice for flying from place to place on autopilot (tracking the path of a hurricane, for example), what I think you're getting at is the ability to view a timelapse movie of, say, the last half-hour's rainfall over the Bay Area. This means viewing the same patch of ground, so simply switching on all your overlays is going to create a nasty Picasso effect.
There is a solution, though. With various scripting doohickies, it's possible to feed dynamic image URLs to Keyhole. Check the attachment if you'd like to see a timelapse of my local NEXRAD doppler radar over the last half hour.
(You may have to double-click the folder to force Keyhole to fly to the location. There are five images, changing every ten seconds.)
I'm working on expanding this. But ... I'm a hundred pages into a hundred books, y'know?
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MBStudios
Tourist
Reged: 04/14/05
Posts: 18
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Hey that was cool. You say its changing every 10 seconds. This could be awesome if the time between changes was much smaller.
Hey, not knocking it at all this at least gives the progression.
Think your on track.
Oh well, someday, cant help but think a update will come along and we can have gif control. I suppose with this we would simply convert the images into one gif and let it play and when nexrad updates so will the gif image. That would be a real problem solver I think.
Mark
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Blue_eye_in_sky
Tourist
Reged: 04/14/05
Posts: 8
Loc: Saskatchewan, Canada
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A little suggestion... Can Canadian temperatures please be in Celsius for the next version? Other than that, great job!
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Enkidu_ak
Tourist
Reged: 09/12/05
Posts: 3
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Greetings! I am quite interested in experimenting with your weather center folder, but I seem to be having some difficulty with it. I have read the thread and made sure that the particular overlay that I chose to view at that time was the only one active. When I activate it, I get a red box presumably over the area where the image would be displayed that informs me that the overlay is loading. Unfortunately, it never actually loads. If you or anyone else could offer some insight on this, I would appreciate it. Thanks,
Enkidu
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Michael_M
Tourist
Reged: 05/11/05
Posts: 8
Loc: Dripping Springs TX USA
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I'm late joining this thread, but I just downloaded your placemark and clicked it on--and wow! The world lit up. I have the GE+ version that allows all the overlays to load, and they did. It's quite a piece of work for just being bored. I hope to stumble upon your other kick-ass project one of these days.
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LMix
First Post
Reged: 02/01/06
Posts: 1
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Am I blind, or is there no USA coverage for the Current Conditions?
I see US coverage for Forecasts, NEXRAD, and Infrared - but not Current Conditions.
If I'm not being blind, could this be added, please?
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Gerardo64
World Explorer
Reged: 09/07/05
Posts: 1217
Loc: Argentina
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Hi Ink
Great job!!
I want to ask you something, it is possible to link an image with the temp. info in Cº degrees for South America? (Current & Forecast)
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 Clic Aquí.
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averageazn
Tourist
Reged: 12/01/05
Posts: 3
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This is AWESOME! Thanks! 
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