User Defined Product File

The next beta release of Weather Message will add a user defined Product file.  In the current release, users that want to change the descriptions of products manually change Product.dat.  If they have user defined products, they update this file with their specific information.

The Weather Message Program Update installer asks the user if they want to install a revised Product.dat.  If this question is answered Yes, the installer overwrites the user's Product.dat.  In most cases that is not a problem.  For those users that are manually maintaining their Product.dat, it is a big problem.  The user can always restore the Product.dat file from the backup folder.  They however will not get the updated product file.

In the next beta, users that want to modify the product.dat file should update ProductUser.dat instead.  All additions and changes will be added or overwrite those in Product.dat.  This will allow users to easily add and change products without losing the ability to receive an updated Product.dat file.

This capability will allow me to easily define user specific products for the siren controller application.  I will not have to worry that the next update will wipe out my settings.

Thanks for the suggestion Todd.

Senate, House, Noaa, FCC Contacts

Regarding FCC ET Docket No. 10-123:  If you do not know your senator or representative's contact information, you can use the following links.

Representative
https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

Senator
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Noaa Administrator

Dr. Jane Lubchenco

Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and NOAA Administrator
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

1401 Constitution Avenue, NW
Room 5128
Washington, DC 20230
jane.lubchenco@noaa.gov

National Weather Service Administrator

Dr. Jack Hayes

Assistant Administrator for Weather Services and Director, National Weather Service
National Weather Service
1325 East West Highway
Silver Spring, MD 20910
jack.hayes@noaa.gov

Department of Commerce Secretary
 
Secretary Gary Locke

United States Department of Commerce
1401 Constitution Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20230


FCC Filing

http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/ecfs/

EMWIN Satellite Transmission Threatened

On June 4, 2010 the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology "Requests Information on use of 1675 – 1710 MHz Band", ET Docket No. 10-123.  They are requesting information on the current users of this frequency spectrum.  The EMWIN Satellite data stream uses 1690.725 Mhz and 1692.7 Mhz. 

This release seeks to reallocate this frequency spectrum for "broad band" internet.  This action would completely destroy EMWIN and LRIT services. Users have until June 28, 2010 to comment on this request.  See FCC Release for more information.

I plan on posting a reply and writing to NOAA and my congressmen.  Now is the time for action - all EMWIN users, both satellite and internet based, should object to any reallocation.

I will be updating the blog on this as I learn more.

Support for WinFax Pro retired in 3.7 release

Support for WinFax Pro will be removed from Weather Message version 3.7.  WinFax Pro is no longer being sold by Symantec.  According to wikipedia, "Symantec discontinued sales and support of WinFax PRO on June 30, 2006."

Users that need support for WinFax Pro can continue to use version 3.6.

AT&T Natural Voices on 64 bit Windows 7

It took some time to figure out how to get the AT&T Natural Voices to work on Windows 7 64 bit.  Apparently the control panel applet for selecting the default voice only works with 64 bit voices (Anna). 

In order to change the 32 voices, you have to run:
             %windir%\SysWOW64\speech\SpeechUX\sapi.cpl

This is the 32 bit control panel applet.  I need to keep reminding myself to look at the 32 bit control panels when I cannot get something to work.

Dell T1500

I am in the process of changing out my old Dell 8400 3.4ghz Windows XP system with a new Dell T1500 i7 2.8 ghz Windows 7 64bit system.  I already have spent about 6 hours reloading all of the software.  I am still not finished.

There are some software applications that I have not been able to get to run on Windows 7 64 bit.  For the most part everything else seems to work. 

I will say that this is a nice computer.