Text to Speech using AT&T Natural Voices

I finally broke down and purchased the AT&T Natural Voices Mike and Crystal. The download was about 550mb each. One voice takes about 640mb of hard drive storage. I will have to say that these voices are almost like listening to a real person.

If you use the Text to Speech option in Weather Message, those voices, priced at $35.00 are a great deal. I wish I had purchased them sooner.

You will find an off-site purchase link at:

http://www.wxmesg.com/thirdparty.htm

Siren Controller - Live Test Successful

The live test of the Weather Message Siren Controller was completed today in Lee County Alabama. The software sent the DTMF commands to rotate a selected siren and it rotated. This test was unique in that it used the computer's sound card to generate the DTMF and the serial port to key the radio.

Tom Moore, WX4TM, Lee County EMWIN Coordinator called me this morning to deliver the good news. Frank McLemore, N4TKT, with Communication Electronic Services adjusted the sound levels on the computer interface. Once the deviation was set properly the individual siren controllers responded.

The software can generate DTMF, two-tone, and group call tones using the sound card. This added feature gives users a mix of different signaling capability. All of the signaling methods can be used to activate different devices all at the same time.

The software continues to support external encoders to meet the requirements of different users. They tested the Motron TC1/MX with success. The Motron TC1/MX is an external DTMF encoder.

Map Blinking

I constantly get requests to add the ability to blink counties on the map. I ran some experiments today and had success in blinking a color. The only problem was that it blinked that color no matter where it appeared.

It took 17 milliseconds on my 3.4 ghz pentium 4. While it is computing the image, nothing else can happen. That does not seem to bad, but for users with slower machines it could be a problem.

Siren Controller

The first off-line test of the Weather Message Siren Controller was completed today in Lee County Alabama. The Weather Message Siren Controller has the ability to activate sirens based on polygon warnings. It can activate individual sirens or groups of sirens based on their geographical relationship to the polygon.

The first test was a success. The software selected the correct sirens to activate based on the received polygon. It also selected and sent the correct activation codes that control the sound that the sirens produce.

The sirens in Lee County can be activated using DTMF codes. An interface was developed to communicate with the Motron Electronics TC1/MX, http://www.motron.com/ , DTMF controller. The DTMF controller interfaces to a VHF or UHF radio for communication with the sirens. The software can also interface with the Zetron Model 15P, http://www.zetron.com/, multi-format encoder.

I will be going to Lee County later this week to participate in the first on-line (on-the-air) test. Tom Moore, Lee County EMA's EMWIN Coordinator, encouraged me to develop this application.

This first version will be enhanced with additional capability. I will be adding a number of additional features that will make the siren controller a first class application.

Satellite Dish Pointing

I have been asked a number of times about satellite dish pointing. This website has all of the satellites listed and uses google maps to produce accurate pointing information for your location.

http://www.dishpointer.com/

Status

I am past due in making a post to the blog. The month of June went right by without a post. That was almost the case for July.

This summer has been really busy. Due to lightning damage at my amateur radio (ham radio) repeater site, I have spent alot of time repairing equipment. I am still waiting for equipment (5 weeks now) that has been sent back to the manufacturer for repair.

On a personal note, my grandmother's health has not been good this summer. She is 90 years young. I have had to spend some time at the hospital. She is home now, but she continues to be very fragile.

For the past 4 weeks, I have been in a funeral home every week to visit with my employees that have lost parents or grandparents. I have another one next week. This alone has made the summer a tough one.

On a lighter note, I spent some time today adding some new subject variables. You can now insert the product identifier, issued time in UTC and expiration time in UTC into the email or fax subject line.

I have a bunch of emails printed to review. I will be working those down over the next week. You users have good ideas and I will be working on those as time permits.

Weather Message version 3.5 will be released in the next 2 to 6 weeks. I want to run it a little longer before the public release.

WxScheduler - Variables not replacing

If you encounter a problem with WxScheduler Version 3.0 through 3.4 not replacing the variables, make sure that you use the same text casing that appears in the F1 help. The previous and current versions will not replace the variable if the text casing is not an exact match.

I have made changes in the next beta to address this problem. You should be able to use any text casing.

SSMPT - stunnel - Peer suddenly disconnected

I have a user that tried to use stunnel version 4.27 with the email provider smtp.mtco.com. stunnel would report "Peer suddenly disconnected". When I installed version 4.20 on their computer, stunnel would work properly with their email provider.

Apparently something changed that caused stunnel to not work properly with this email provider. Version 4.27 works ok with gmail, but fails with the users provider. A quick scan of the stunnel change log did not reveal the problem.

If you have a problem, you might want to download an older version of stunnel.

Email TLS (ssl) Support

Over the past couple of years, I have had a few users ask about using SSL (TLS) for emails. Since the cost of providing that capability is around $750.00, I have not included it in Weather Message.

I did write a document that described how to setup Weather Message to use Stunnel to provide the SSL capability. Stunnel is a freeware application that creates a secure tunnel for sending emails to a SSL server. This approach does work with Gmail, however, users have to follow the directions carefully.

I got 4 emails last week from users that need the SSL capability. I am investigating this capability again. Microsoft does have a built-in capability to send emails to a server that uses TLS. The only draw back is that the Microsoft method does not provide any debugging information. It either works or fails.

I am looking into adding support for this built-in smtp client. The challenge now is switching between the existing code (no ssl) and the new code. I prefer the existing solution for non-ssl emails because it provides good debugging information.

Web Server Access / Blocking Foreign Countries

For the past week I have been monitoring a number of attempts to break into the server that hosts the Weather Message website. The hackers tripped the account lock out mechanism in windows several times.

I have been adding a range of ip addresses to the router's firewall in order to completely block their access to the server. So far all of the ip addresses have originated in China.

If any one has trouble accessing the webserver, please let me know. I am trying not to block any US ip addresses.

emwin.net

I have been watching the emwin domain names for a long time. emwin.net finally expired and I was able to purchase it yesterday at normal web registration rates. Right now http://www.emwin.net will point to the Weather Message website.

I may construct an EMWIN information site that features Weather Message software. That will take some time. Right now there are changes to be made in Weather Message. I'll be coming back to this in the near future.

Weather Message Beta Status

I am still holding the next beta for a few final changes. I have the new Emwin ingest program ready. I am working on changes for the web legend for WxMap. I hope to drop something on the web this week.

MSN Messenger/Yahoo ???

Some time ago I downloaded a component that would allow Weather Message Server to send text products to your MSN contacts. I never did anything with the component. I just thought it was interesting.

I understand that the NWS office in Birmingham is now using "chat" to inform their media representatives about pending weather conditions. That has renewed my interest in sending information by MSN messenger.

If you have an interest, drop me an email.

WxEmwin - Status

I believe WxEmwin (the new Emwin ingest program) is ready for prime time. I and two other users have been running it now for several weeks. The other two users have been using the new software demodulator provided by the NWS. So far things have been stable.

The install program has been updated so I should be ready to release it along with a bunch of other changes/fixes this weekend.

Our Snow for 2009

This weekend was interesting to say the least. On Saturday we had thunderstorms and tornados. On Sunday we had snow. Here is a picture of the snow from my kitchen window.

I did get some work done on the software over the weekend. I think I am about ready to release a beta this week.

EMWIN 2 - NWS Software Demodulator

I have been distracted for the past week. I borrowed one of the new Werner EMWIN 2 satellite receive systems. This system uses a software based receiver to decode the 19.2 EMWIN data stream.

After working with the demodulator, I discovered that it did not give the end user any status information. After hours of research I discovered that the demodulator dll did have the ability, but it would be up to the software developer to enable such capability.

I spent this week writing a c++ windows service wrapper around the dll. This new program replaces the default software demodulator service. It now outputs status information on UDP port 18000. This status information can now be displayed an logged in WxEmwin.

I have two users testing the new WxEmwin program, along with the software demodulator. After getting their results, I will post a beta on the website.

WxMap - Upload Dynamic Map Legend

I am making changes to WxMap to support creating a dynamic map legend. This map legend would be uploaded to a website at the same time as the map image.


I have asked some users that have inquired about this feature to send me comments.

x64 - Registry Permissions

Just when I thought that I had all of the necessary changes for x64 operating system support addressed, a new one was discovered. It appears that the 3.4 Weather Message installer does not give the 'Weather Message Net' registry entry proper permissions. This registry key should be set to Everyone with full access.

The failure to assign the correct permissions was not my fault, but a fault in the installer. I have made changes for the next release that will use the Microsoft regini utility to change the permission on x64 systems. I reported the issue to the installer developer.

If someone is installing Weather Message on a x64 system, let me know and I'll get you a revised installer.

WxEmwin - New EMWIN ingest program

I have been working for the past week or so on a new EMWIN ingest program. WxEmwin is the name of this new program. It incorporates the functions of WxSerial and WxByte into one program. It also gets a third ingest option using the EMWIN Software based demodulator.

All three ingest engines can be operating at the same time. This was some major work, but should be worth the effort. It helps to clean up the system try as two programs have been combined into one. It also helps the EMWIN Software Demodulator users. They had been using WxByte and had no backup capability. The new program restores that functionality for Demod users.

The new program has some new things and some missing things. Right off the bat users will notice that the internet rotating icon is no longer present. If that is a must have option, I will look at adding it back. I will try to get this in a beta over the weekend. I still have to change all of the programs to use this new program. The installer must be configured to detail with it also.

WxLocal - 3.5 - Creates a web weather graphic

WxLocal version 3.5 can now create a weather graphic for publishing locally or on the web. Here is an example of the graphic.


Users can define the colors that are used for the graphic.

Weather Message 3.4 Released

Weather Message 3.4 has been released. This version contains a number of enhancements, along with bug fixes and optimizations. See the release notes for the changes.

Weather Message 3.4 Beta 9

I have posted Weather Message 3.4 Beta 9. This should be the last beta before 3.4 is released. If nothing comes up, 3.4 will be released before the end of the year.

Web based user alert sign-up

I have received several emails over the years asking about a user manager. Some users have also asked about adding the ability to allow users to sign up for alerts using a web based interface. These requests are almost ready.

I have completed most of the work for web based user initiated alert sign-up and maintenance. This web application runs under Window's using IIS (internet information services). It allows a user to sign up for an account and then subscribe to alerts.
It has an advanced and simple mode. In the advanced mode, the user can enter the product and WFO identifiers. In the simple mode, you select which products can be selected. It is fully configurable.

An interface program is provided to retrieve the user settings and update Weather Message automatically. This web application can be located on a remote computer with weather message operating on a local machine. They are not required to be on the same computer.

I have setup a sample website at http://www.wxmesg.com/wxmesguser You can sign up for an account and play with the application. You will not receive any weather alerts. This is only a demonstration link.

If you are interested in this application, let me know and I can set you up as an administrator. There are additional setup options that are not visible to the standard user.

This web based application will have the ability to generate a message for processing by Weather Message. This will allow agencies to easily create a local message for processing by Weather Message.

The work on this application will allow me to build a windows client user manager. I will be working on that addition over the holiday.

Text to Speech options in 3.4 Beta 8

I have completed a round of changes for Weather Message 3.4 beta 8 that will allow the clients to use the text-to-speech processor in XP and Vista. The alarm settings in the clients will now allow you to select Read Short or Read Text.

The Read Short message will read brief information about the received product. The Read Text will read the entire message.

You need a good quality voice to use these options.

Weather Message 3.4 Beta 7 Changes

Weather Message 3.4 Beta 7 will fully support Microsoft 64 bit operating systems. I thought all of this worked in the past, but that was not the case. Just looking back at the blog will reveal the kind of issues involved.

I believe I have addressed all of the issues. I have compiled the programs to run as 32 bit applications on 32 bit operating system and 64 bit applications on 64 bit operating systems. There are only two programs that will run as 32 bit applications on 64 bit computer due to dependencies. I don't think that will cause anyone a problem.

I had to make quite a few changes in the installer to address the differences in the 64 bit and 32 bit registry. There were also some changes to the native image generation routines to use the 64 bit Microsoft.Net framework.

While I was testing it appears that I found a bug in the installer. It did not appear to be testing for the .Net framework and installing it properly. I had two users report a problem - that should now be corrected.

Existing 64 bit user Warning
I will be uploading these betas on Sunday. If you are presently using Weather Message on a 64 bit computer, you may have to enter your registration code and some settings after this update. I recommend that you export your registry settings using Weather Message Server Setup's File, Export Registry option before installing the beta. If you run into a problem, drop me an email and I will restore your settings.

One Other Thought
During all of my research on 64 bit systems, I discovered several things that had not occurred to me. One was that 64 bit programs will use more memory than 32 bit programs. That occurs naturally because memory pointers in 64 bit systems are twice the size of 32 bit pointers. The advantage of 64 bit systems is the ability to address a large amount of memory. If you have a 64 bit system, make sure you have plenty of memory installed.

x64 to x86 Symbolic Registry Link

After 16 hours of research and testing, I discovered that a symbolic link can be created between two registry keys. This helps to solve the issue with having some x64 and x32 bit programs that need to share the same registry keys.

A symbolic link can be created between HKLM\Software\Weather Message Net and HKLM\Software\WOW6432Node\Weather Message Net

This symbolic link means that x64 programs will see the settings in "WOW6432Node" and x86 programs will see the settings in the regular key.

This is a great find is was not too difficult to implement. I now need to update the installers with the code necessary to create the link. (The code is now written and tested. I just need to update the installers.)

Once the installer is working, I can go back and recompile the programs as x64 or x86 as appropriate and they will work properly on a x64 system. This will allow the x64 programs to run as native x64 applications.

Running as a 64 bit application

This year I have worked with three different users that have 64 bit windows operating systems. In the end, I have had to change most of the programs back to 32 bit applications to make everything work properly.

64 bit Windows operating system maintains two independent registry locations for 32 bit and 64 bit applications. Because of that, the programs that ran in 64 bit mode wrote to one location, while the 32 bit wrote to another area. Neither could see what the other one wrote. That makes it difficult when the setup program is 64 bit and the server is 32 bit.

The last beta on the website sets most of the programs back to 32 bit (x86) mode. This was necessary to get everything working for these users and allow me time to investigate further.

Some of the programs could not run in 64 bit mode because they needed to use some dlls or ocx files that are 32 bit. I worked for the past several days removing some of these dependencies. This work also made some of the programs run faster, as the new code used is .Net code and runs faster.

There are only three programs now that must run in 32 bit mode; WxMcli (message client), WxMap (WxMapNet runs in 64 bit mode), and WxRadar. The other 21 programs could run in 64 bit mode. Notice that I said could. WxRadar does use some of the common registry settings, so it remains a hold out.

I am working now to see what I can do to make WxRadar access the 64 bit registry. The 32 bit dependency cannot be removed at this time. The image viewer used in WxMcli and WxRadar uses one 32 bit dll that has not been updated by my viewer vendor.

I have a 64 bit windows server 2008 available now for testing, so I hope to have a beta available soon that will allow the core programs to run as native 64 bit applications.

64-bit Registry Issue

I have been working with a user that has a 64-bit operating system. Weather Message Server will not register properly due to the way that the registry is handled for 32-bit and 64-bit applications. Some of the Weather Message programs will run as 64-bit applications, while others need to run as 32-bit applications.

I am currently working with the user to resolve this problem. I now have a local 64-bit Windows Server 2008 that I can use for testing. I hope to have this issue resolved soon.

---

Update:

Weather Message 3.4 Beta 6 has been posted with changes to address this issue.

WxMap now supports SWOMCD - Mesoscale Discussion

The next beta of Weather Message will have the ability to plot the SWOMCD - Mesoscale Discussion on WxMap.

Map Refreshes

When the Map requests a refresh, the server sends the data back in alphabetical order. This was simply the result of using the directory order. I have changed the routine to sort the list by creation date so that it will be sent back in the order that is was received.

This corrects an issue where SVS products were sent back before their corresponding TOR products. I still have some work to do to optimize the routine changes.

Status

I have completed the changes to add basic text to speech operation in the message client. I hope to add this to capability to the map. I will try to get an update out over the weekend.

I have some work to do in WxMap and WxLoader to address an issue with common vtec event tracking numbers. I am working with a user that identified a problem.

Work is continuing on the web based user weather alert sign up application. I now have a basic web frame working developed. I am now ready to start working on the details for the sign up application.

Text to Speech

I have gotten interested in Text to Speech after reviewing a sample application provided by Microsoft. The Sam voice that is installed with XP is very poor. You can try out the voice by going to the control panel and clicking on Speech.

Microsoft released two additional voices that are much better. You can download them from this link http://www.text-speech.com/voices/Sp5TTIntXP.msi After they are installed, you will find Mike and Mary available in the speech control panel. These two are much better than the default SAM voice.

I understand that Vista has a new speech voice named Anna. I tried her on one of the office computers and she sounds pretty good.

There are several commercial TTS (text to speech) engine providers. Cepstral has good voices. You can demo them at http://www.cepstral.com/demos/ Their voices are around $30.00.

Nextup has demos of the AT&T voices at http://www.nextup.com/attnv.html The AT&T voices cost $35.00.

I am now working on adding TTS support in the Message Client and will then move to the map. Instead of having dedicated wave files, it would be nice if it could simplay say "A tornado warning as been issued for Tallapoosa County until 10:30 PM". The map would have the bonus to saying expiration messages.

It would also be very simple to add the capability to read a message in the text window. I was playing with this earlier tonight and it works well using the Mike voice. I was surprised how well it could say some county names.

Weather Message 3.4 Beta 3

Weather Message 3.4 Beta 3 has been posted to the web. This update contains a number of changes to WxLoader. It now features independent tabs for AWIPS products and VTEC products. It also has the ability to select individual counties for a task.

This release will also attempt to load the Microsoft.Net Framework version 3.5. Although the 3.5 framework is not required at this time, there may be some features in the next beta that require the 3.5 framework. I thought I would go ahead and add that requirement in this beta to see if there are any problems getting it installed.

The 3.5 framework contains an number of enhancements that improve the performance of 2.0 framework programs. I do recommend that it be installed, regardless of the program requirements.

Red Book Graphics

I have been working on a red book graphic decoder. Here is an example of the convection outlook. It has a long way to go - plotting this on a map will be a challenge.

Goes Image Decoder

I added the ability to decode goes images in WxPort some time back. I have been playing with overlaying the images with the state outlines. Here is an example showing my progress.


A lot of work remains before this can go into production.

A new webserver is installed

I have spent the last two days installing a new webserver for my office. This server hosts the Weather Message website. The new server is a Dell Power Edge 2900 with two 3.0 ghz Xeon quad core processors and 4GB of memory. It has two 160GB drives mirrored, two 500GB drives mirrored and one 1000GB drive.

This machine is something to behold. This is the second 2900 that we have purchased. It is running a number of web applications along with Weather Message Server. Horsepower should not be a problem now.

I am still migrating some of the applications, so that has taken up alot of my time. This configuration should last a number of years. (I suspect we will need another T1 before this machine is underpowered.)

Group2Call Instructions Posted

I have updated the Group2Call instruction document. This document shows the steps needed to use the Group2Call Email to Voice broadcast service. You will find the document at http://www.wxmesg.com/documents/group2call.pdf

They offer several services and plans. You also have the option to use their free service that is supported by ads.

Werner Labs - EMWIN Receivers

Werner Labs is now shipping the next generation EMWIN receivers. I have posted their contact information on the Weather Message website. You will find them at http://www.wernerlabsinc.com

They have a nice information sheet about EMWIN and their receiver. I posted it at http://www.wxmesg.com/documents/WernerPamphlet.pdf

I have already exchanged emails with one of their users that is using Weather Message.

Email Subject Override

I have completed the changes necessary to allow users to override the default subject line in emails and faxes. This feature will be useful for those that are using the ad support group2call email service. Group2Call email service requires that the email subject line contain commands that direct the Group2Call service.

If you are not using Group2Call, you can use it to add a better subject line. Something like "Attention: $Subject$". The program will place the word attention followed by the original product description on the subject line.

I am testing this feature now. It will be available in the next beta release.

WxMap - Non-Vtec products

WxMap now has full support for Non-Vtec products. You can setup non-vtec products under other closes and the description will be displayed in the product grid. The description will also be used in the legend if the item is selected to be shown in the legend.

These changes also allow the "hover over" county function to display the product description instead of just the awips identifier. This will make event identification easier for users that are not weather experts.

Summer happenings

This has really been one busy and exciting summer for me. I live in the rural area of Tallapoosa County, Alabama. Because of that I have had well water for most of my life. A recent water expansion project by the local water authority brought "city" water by my home. I am now glad to say that I have "city" water.

For those of you that have never had to deal with a water well - be grateful. My well was 205 feet deep and had big issues with iron content. Everything here at my house has been stained red since I built the house. I can say that the pump would always stop at the time that you needed it the most. When that happened, pulling out 205 feet of pipe was a task to say the least.

To add to the excitment, my youngest sister was pregnant with twins. The babies showed up this past Monday 15 weeks early. At the moment Jacob and Cody are doing ok at UAB "Childrens Hospital". One was 1 pound 9 ounces and the other 1 pound and 12 ounces. Please pray for my new nephews. My sister had been in the hospital for two weeks prior confined to the bed. UAB is about a two hours drive from here, so will be supporting the gas companies for the next several months.

With all of the above and the time needed to keep up with the grass and some bushhogging, I have been busy. I still have a number of changes in the works. More good things will follow.

WxPDA - SM (Smart Phone Edition)

I am now testing a version of WxPDA for the Smart Phone. This has taken some effort since the Smart Phone does not have a touch screen. All of the options have to be made into menus or something that can be selected with the up/down, left/right, and enter keys.



More to follow as testing progresses.

Getting your time settings

I still get a couple of emails from users regarding time issues when we transition our clocks for daylight savings. Users continue to run into problems with the changes to the starting and stopping dates for daylight savings time. The following VB script has been very helpful in resolving issues. I found this script on the Internet.

On Error Resume Next
strComputer = "."
Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:" _ &
"{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2")

Set colItems = objWMIService.ExecQuery("Select * from Win32_TimeZone")
For Each objItem in colItems
Wscript.Echo "Bias: " & objItem.Bias
Wscript.Echo "Caption: " & objItem.Caption
Wscript.Echo "Daylight Bias: " &
objItem.DaylightBias
Wscript.Echo "Daylight Day: " &
objItem.DaylightDay
Wscript.Echo "Daylight Day of Week: " &
objItem.DaylightDayOfWeek
Wscript.Echo "Daylight Hour: " &
objItem.DaylightHour
Wscript.Echo "Daylight Millisecond: " &
objItem.DaylightMillisecond
Wscript.Echo "Daylight Minute: " &
objItem.DaylightMinute
Wscript.Echo "Daylight Month: " &
objItem.DaylightMonth
Wscript.Echo "Daylight Name: " &
objItem.DaylightName
Wscript.Echo "Daylight Second:
" & objItem.DaylightSecond
Wscript.Echo "Daylight Year: " &
objItem.DaylightYear
Wscript.Echo "Description: " &
objItem.Description
Wscript.Echo "Setting ID: " &
objItem.SettingID
Wscript.Echo "Standard Bias: " &
objItem.StandardBias
Wscript.Echo "Standard Day: " &
objItem.StandardDay
Wscript.Echo "Standard Day of Week: " &
objItem.StandardDayOfWeek
Wscript.Echo "Standard Hour: " &
objItem.StandardHour
Wscript.Echo "Standard Millisecond: " &
objItem.StandardMillisecond
Wscript.Echo "Standard Minute: " &
objItem.StandardMinute
Wscript.Echo "Standard Month: " &
objItem.StandardMonth
Wscript.Echo "Standard Name: " &
objItem.StandardName
Wscript.Echo "Standard Second: " &
objItem.StandardSecond
Wscript.Echo "Standard Year: " &
objItem.StandardYear
Wscript.EchoNext

You can save this to time.vbs and run it on your computer with the command "cscript time.vbs"

Queuing Sounds

A user recently asked about sounds interrupting the currently playing sound. That does occur in the Message and Map clients. If the play once option is selected, the program may start a second sound before the first one has completed. This is due to the fact that the program does not know when the first sound completes.

I will look into adding an option to queue the sounds in the order that they are generated.

Weather Message 3.3 Refreshed

I have refreshed the Weather Message 3.3 public release with a revised WxMap. A user identified a problem in WxMap that caused it to crash. WxMap would report an object not set error if the Refresh Map option was clicked when the zone map had not been loaded/installed.

By default, the zone map is not installed. Because of this, it was necessary to correct the public 3.3 release.

Weather Message 3.3 Released

I have spent most of the afternoon getting 3.3 ready and posted on the website. I will start looking at changes for version 3.4 later in the week.

HTC 6800 Smart Phone

The company that I work for during the day has provided me with a HTC 6800 Smart Phone. This PDA / Phone has windows mobile 6 installed. I have been using the WxPda application to monitor the weather.

My plan has unlimited internet access so this will allow me to experiment with additional weather related applications. (I sure would like a program to download radar to the pda)

Version 3.3 Status

I think I am about ready to release version 3.3. I will try to post the last beta this week. I have been fixing some issues in the retransmission software and that has held up this beta.

Emwin Low Priority Backlog

A user reported that some products seemed to be arriving late. I checked and confirmed that some low priority products were being delayed for about 50 minutes. A quick note to the EMWIN operators at NWS HQ confirmed that this was the case.

At the beginning of the month there are a number of one time products that are low priority. They cause all low priority products to backup. They have made some additional adjustments to help with this situation.

Local User Settings

Microsoft is now encouraging developers to store program settings on a per user basis. This has alot to do with changes in Windows Vista. Presently Weather Message has one set of settings for the entire program. This is not much of an issue for the server as those settings are global. It is more of a issue for the clients.

The client program settings apply to all users (Message Client and Map Client). This includes the position on the screen. If multiple people use the same computer, they cannot configure the clients for their own preferences. This applies to a single computer or a terminal services connection.

The original thought was to make it easy for the administrators. You set up the program and no changes are required by the user. A simple ini file can be copied from computer to computer with the client settings. I will note that in some installations it is not desirable to have users making changes.

Regardless, I am considering the possibilities here.

WxScheduler

A user was trying to create a schedule item that would process a file on the 1st Tuesday of each month. I thought the program would already do that, but the Week of Month required that the Tuesday occur on that week. Some months do not have a Tuesday on the first week of the month. Well may of the first weeks of a month do not have all of the days.

I have changed the scheduler so that it will check to see if the user has specified a week of month and a day of week. If they are both entered, the program will see this as a request for the Xth occurance of the specified day of week for a month.

This should fix the users problem and provide some new capability.

Weather Message 3.3 Beta 7

Weather Message 3.3 Beta 7 has been uploaded to the beta website. This release has changes to address User Account Control compatibility with Windows Vista. I have not had a chance to test these changes on a Vista computer, will do so this week.

Group2Call Free Voice Messaging

Group2Call is now providing free voice messaging with ad support. If you use this service, each voice message will have a short ad at the end of the message. If you are interested in this service send an email to Alan at info@group2call.com.

Regular Expression Support

I have completed the changes to add support for Regular Expressions in the text match and text exclude routines. Users now have an option to indicate if the expression entered in the Match or Exclude field is a regular expression.

The current matching mechanism is very efficient. It however does not allow for multiple match criteria or complex matching expressions. These can be accomplished with regular expressions. Regular expressions should only be used when needed since they require considerably more cpu cycles than the default matching mechanism.

Here is an example regular expression: (.BMX.)(.MOB.)(.HUN.)

This means match .BMX. or .MOB. or .HUN. in the received message.

Winter Weather Simplification - Open Letter to NWS

To: ELLIOTT.JACKS@NOAA.GOV

Sirs,

I am writing in regards the Proposed Winter Weather Simplification changes. I do not want to see the NWS adopt these changes. The NWS has spent a great deal of time and money to implement VTEC. Vendors and users have also gone to a great deal of effort to use VTEC. This change will put us back where we were before VTEC was implemented.

VTEC has allowed users of NWS products to provide automatic notifications based on the type of weather coded in the VTEC line. This change would make the Winter Storm product generic again for some weather types. If this change is approved we would have a generic “winter weather” coding, with the details in the text. Decoding the text is a problem that was fixed with VTEC. We again will be stuck with the difficult task of trying to determine what kind of “winter weather” is associated with the product.

Many of us have welcomed VTEC because it provides a reliable standardized way to represent the actual weather conditions being issued. Moving from specific weather phenomena to generic phenomena is taking a step backwards.

I respectfully request that this change not be implemented.

Best Regards,

Danny Lloyd
Weather Message

Weather Message 3.3 Beta 6

I have posted Weather Message 3.3 Beta 6. This release contains several bug fixes and some enhancements to the WxPort program.

I am looking at releasing version 3.3 due to several bug fixes in the program. I will evaluate it over the next week and decide a release date.

Note: Beta 6 changes the image communication data stream to the Message Client. Clients will have to be updated to Beta 6 in order to continue to receive images.

Weather Brains

Weather Message will have an advertisement on the Weather Brains webcast. The advertisement will run from February 4th through March 10th. Weather Message will be mentioned at the beginning and end of the webcast. Vist the Weather Brains webpage at http://www.weatherbrains.com/

I have been friends with some of the Weather Brains guys for years because of our interest in amateur radio: James Spann, WO4W; Brian Peters, WD4EPR; and David Black KB4KCH. When I started writing weather related software, they encouraged my endeavor.

If you are interested in weather, you might want to check out their weekly webcast. I am sure you will find their discussions interesting.

EMWIN Installation

While I was taking pictures, I went ahead and took pictures of the EMWIN dish. This is a Zephyrus system using the WX-13m receiver. The dish is side mounted to my free-standing tower.

NoaaPort Installation

Here are some pictures of my NoaaPort installation. The pictures show a 10 foot dish that I picked up for free. I am using a Norsat 8515 500 Khz. 15° Professional LNB with a Chaparral feedhorn. The receiver is a Novra S75.

WxPort

I have made several changes to WxPort, the NoaaPort ingest program. It can now ingest all 4 NWS datastreams. I have also identified several problems that have not been discovered by other users.

I have a test program that will decode the gini data (satellite images). I will be refining it further.

I will try to post some images of my installation tomorrow.

Weather Message Beta 5

I am in the process of uploading Weather Message Beta 5. I am also refreshing all of the other applications. No big changes - check the release notes for the details.

NoaaPort

I have been interested in the NoaaPort data stream since I wrote WxPort. I decided to go ahead and build a NoaaPort system.

I spent the last couple of days installing a used 10 foot dish. After the dish was installed and aligned, I connected my new Novra S75 DVB-S receiver. I am now receiving all 4 NoaaPort channels. I can tell you there there is more data than anyone could possibly review.

I will be reviewing the image and radar data to see how I can use it for future upgrades to Weather Message and WxPort.

2007 Year End Comments

It is hard to believe that Weather Message is now six years old. For an application that started out as a paging add-in for other EMWIN applications, it has turned into so much more. I credit the success of Weather Message to you the end users. Your suggestions and ideas have driven my development efforts.

I spent all of 2006 rewriting the Weather Message applications. Users started testing version 3.0 at the end of 2006. It was officially released in March 2007. Versions 3.1 and 3.2 were released this year with a number of major enhancements.

I am still working down my list of change requests. The list has gotten smaller, but there is still alot of work to be completed. Look for more of these in version 3.3.

I thank you for your continued support. My hope for you, your families and the agencies and communities you serve is a great and prosperous New Year.

December Note

December has been a busy month for me personally. I have been extremely busy with my "day job". New responsibilities and other concerns have required my full attention.

With a couple of days off for the holidays, I will be making some additional changes. Look for them sometime Christmas evening. I am off now to make my rounds and visit family.

Merry Christmas to all.

Windows Vista - UAC

Windows Vista's new UAC (User Account Control) may be redirecting the registry and c:\program files\wxmesgnet access to a virtual directory. I have not received a problem report yet, but it would cause an issue if two different users log into the same computer. They would have independent program settings.

The rerouting of the registry and program files directory is a result of virtualization by the UAC changes for 32 bit applications. Microsoft no longer allows standard users to access c:\program files\(application name) any longer. They has have removed the ability to access HKey_LocalMachine\Software for standard users.

Basically Microsoft does not want developers to store application configuration data in c:\program files\(application name) any longer. The same goes for the registry location HKey_LocalMachine\Software.

Virtulization occurs for applications that do not have an embedded manifest. An embedded manifest identifies the type of access that the application needs. The manifest can request administrator access or invoker access. At the present time Weather Message does not contain an embedded manifest.

With the new VS2008 development environment, I can easily embed the manifest. I am concerned that turning on the manifest will result in users losing their existing settings. I will be testing this further before enabling the manifest.

Weather Message 3.3 Beta 2 Released

I just posted Weather Message 3.3 Beta 2 on the web. The two big changes are the way that passwords are handled and the addition of multiple state selection. If you run into any issues, please let me know.

Weather Message Beta 3.3 beta 2

I will be releasing Weather Message 3.3 Beta 2 over the weekend. Here are some of the changes.

1) WxLoader has several new options that effect the short message format. This closes a number of user requests.

2) Weather Message Setup will now allow users to select multiple states for one alarm. This request has been outstanding for some time.

These changes were quite involved and took alot of time.

.Net Framework 3.5 - No support for Windows 2000

The Microsoft .Net Framework version 3.5 does not contain support for Windows 2000. It appears that Microsoft is dropping support for that operating system as they release their new technologies. I already knew that version 3.0 did not include Windows 2000. I had hoped it would be included in 3.5. They are supporting XP, Vista, and Windows 2003.

This makes it difficult on the developers that want to take advantage of the features. The Microsoft developers have given me the ability to support the 2.0 framework using their new development environment. That is a big plus. This allows me to take advantage of the new productivity features.

This however does mean that support for Windows 2000 will end in the near future. It looks like Microsoft's decision is to get developers to encourage their users to purchase their newer operating systems.

I have a windows 2000 laptop that works great. I hate to discard it, but as some one famous said "time waits for no man". I guess I will have to get something newer also.

Visual Studio 2008 - Framework 3.5

On Monday, Microsoft announced the release of Visual Studio 2008 along with the Microsoft .Net framework version 3.5. I currently use Visual Studio 2005 as my development environment.

Microsoft says that the move to 2008 should be relatively simple from a developers perspective. The original move from Visual Studio 6 was a year long project. I have read that I should not have to make any changes in the software to take advantage of the new developement environment.

I am looking for the DVD to arrive soon. When it arrives I will be testing this new environment and framework for Weather Message. If everything looks good, I will release the next version using the new environment. This will require users to download and install the 3.5 framework. It should be available from windows update soon --- if you want to get a head start.

Passwords

I have had a number of discussions with users about password security. The next Weather Message beta will contain changes that address these concerns. The passwords that are stored in the setup files and registry will now be obfuscated. Obfuscated basically means that they are not stored in clear text and cannot be read.

I tried to change all of the screens that show passwords so that they will mask the password. If I missed any, please let me know.

The ftp debug file will no longer show a clear text password. If you see any in other debug files, please let me know.

Files now stored with UTC time suffix

Starting with version 3.3, Weather Message will be storing files in the WxText and WxGraph directories with the UTC time instead of local time. This change will prevent problems when the time changes between standard and daylight savings.

I am still testing these changes. Several programs had to be changed to know that the time is stored as UTC.

TCV Product Change from C coding to Z coding

The Tropical Cyclone Watch/Warning (TCV) product is now being issued using zone (Z) encoding. Weather Message version 2.10, 3.0, 3.1 and 3.2 lists this product as FIPS or county (C) coded.

In order to properly alarm this product, the Weather Message versions listed above need to be reconfigured. To manually reconfigure Weather Message, edit the "WxCtype.dat" file in the c:\program files\WxMesg or c:\program files\WxMesgNet directory. Remove the line that contains TCV.

You can optionally download an updated WxCtype.dat file from the Weather Message additional downloads page at http://www.wxmesg.com/misdownloads.htm. Scroll down to Updated FIPS product file. If you have alarms setup for TCV, you will need to double check them. After this change you will need to reselect "All Counties" or the individual counties based on your requirements.

Apparently when the product moved from experimental to operational, the NWS decided to change the UGC coding.

Geographical Warnings

Tom and I have been discussing Geographical Warnings. These are warnings based on your location. Weather Message now has the capability to send emails and pages based on a fixed latitude / longitude falling inside or near a polygon.

A really neat application would be to have your gps equipped phone know when it is getting near or inside a watch or warning. Is that possible? Yes and it is not too difficult.

It would require one of two approaches.

1) Run an application on the smartphone that would send the current gps position to a weather server. The server would then search the active watch and warning products to see if the position is near or inside one of the watch and warnings. The application would then alert the user. I am thinking that it would have to send that position once per minute.

2) Run an application on the smartphone that would receive a SMS/email message that contains the polygon information. The application would then check the current position against the polygon and issue an alert. The information would only need to be sent once. It would be the applications responsibility to keep the active watch / warnings in memory and check once per minute to see if the phone was in a warned area.

With smart devices (phones and pda's) this application could work. Some major players in technology have been talking about this for sometime. They even want to put this in cars...

So can it be done on a Weather Message budget? I believe a low cost server solution is possible. All it would take is a user that wants this capability, a phone that supports Windows Mobile and a calling plan that allowed for unlimited SMS or reasonable internet access.

WxPda - Version 3.0 - Beta 2

I had a chance today to install WxPda on a Pocket Pc 2003 computer. I quickly discovered that there was a problem with vga screens. I have corrected that problem and uploaded a fresh beta.

WxPda - Version 3.0

I have upgraded WxPda to Microsoft's Compact Framework 2.0. This upgrade also adds support for Windows Mobile 5. I am changing the program version to 3.0 to match the current Weather Message Net major release number.

I have run some very limited tests. I do not know if it will install on Pocket PC 2003 or Smart Phones. If you give it a try, please let me know your results.

I switched the display on my windows mobile 5 device to landscape and the software now looks correct. You can now use landscape on a windows mobile 5 without problems.

Weather Message 3.2 Released

Weather Message V3.2 has been released. You can download the update at
http://www.wxmesg.com/downloadsnet.htm . For information on what has changed in this release, please read the release notes.

There are over 56 changes in this release. Here are some highlights.

Highlights -

* Weather Message Server can now run as a Windows service.

* Support for storm based warnings. You can now alarm by latitude longitude.

* WxMap now supports painting polygons.

* WxMap has all colors located in one tab. You can now select the items that appear in the map legend.

* WxMap supports the NWS Zone and Marine layers. To use this feature you must download the latest map layers.

* See the release notes for a complete list of changes.

Thanks for all of your suggestions, bug reports and assistance with the software. Work will begin on version 3.3.

Suggestions for 3.3

- Multiple state support in one alarm.

- User manager.

WxDataSave, WxLocal and the Retransmission applications have been respectively released along with Weather Message 3.2. If you are using any of these applications, they must be upgraded at the same time you upgrade Weather Message.

Birmingham NWS Weather School

I will be making a one hour presentation on EMWIN and Weather Message at the Birmingham NWS's Weather School October 16, 2007. The Birmingham NWS is a long time supporter of EMWIN.

They have incorporated information about EMWIN into their annual Weather School. Because of this, they will not be holding an EMWIN workshop this year. If you are interested in attending an EMWIN workshop, I suggest you contact your local WCM and ask them to sponsor a class.

Weather Message 3.2 Beta 9

I am getting prepared to upload Weather Message 3.2 Beta 9. I have made a number of internal changes in the programs. I discovered that all of the programs contained some code associated with creating windows that was not needed.

This extra code was a result of the original conversion. I knew it was there, but did not realize the magnitude it had on the application. After removing the extra code from Weather Message Server Setup, the size of the "exe" was reduced by 30,000 bytes. I made the same changes in all of the applications - about 10 hours worth of work. This should help all of the programs load little faster and reduce the size of the installed application.

I have added a third option map layer to WxMap. This layer can be user defined or populated with the new rivers layer. I will be updating the map layers download to include an option rivers layer.

If the test reports on this beta are favorable, I will look at releasing beta 9 as the offical 3.2 release.

Look for the update later this evening.

Weather Message Webserver Crash

The computer that contains the Weather Message website crashed this afternoon. The website is hosted on the computer that contains several other websites. I have been working to get this computer back working all afternoon and into the late night.

I am in the process of updating the website with the latest content. I hope it is back to normal by noon Tuesday.

Update 10/2/2007 - I believe the webserver is back to normal operation now....

WxMap - Polygon Styles

After much discussion with one of my beta testers, I have renamed one of the polygon styles and added an additional style.

The Outline style has been renamed Area. Area paints the double lines around the warned area. The new style is named Outline. This style paints only an outline in the color of the alarm. It causes the program to not paint the county. Here are a couple of examples.

The image above shows an example of a severe thunderstorm and flash flood warning with no other watches or warnings active.

This image shows a severe thunderstorm along with a thunderstorm watch.

Blogging - One year has passed

I started this blog one year ago. It is hard to believe that one year has passed by so quickly. I did not think that I would be able to find items to post when I got started. I spend alot of time working on Weather Message, so I was not sure if I could keep the blog updated.

To the number of people that follow my development progress here -- thanks for taking the time to read this blog. This blog has received 5,793 hits since it was first started. Not alot, but then again, EMWIN and Weather Message are well kept secrets. Hopefully not for long - please keep spreading the word.

WxMap Polygons Release

I should be releasing a new beta this evening that contains the polygon changes to WxMap. Here is a preview of the two styles of polygons supported in WxMap.


This style is called pattern. The pattern is the color associated with the alarm color.



This style is called outline. The polygon is painted with an outline that is the color associated with the alarm color.

WxMap - Polygon Support

I have started changing WxMap to support storm based polygons. Here is snap shot of some polygons drawn on the map. There will need to be a number of options added to determine how they are drawn.

WxControl - Service Controller

Based on user requests I have made a couple of changes relating to WxControl.

1) The program now be setup to connect to two different servers. It will only connect to one at a time.

2) The Weather Message full install will have an option to only install WxControl. For those that want to only install WxControl, this option will meet that requirement.

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From the initial reports that I have received, WxControl works great on a local network. It however does not work across an Internet connection. Due to the mechanism used, I have not been able to resolve this issue. More testing should reveal the nature of the problem.

Weather Radio Recall

On August 29, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), in cooperation with Oregon Scientifc, announced a voluntary recall of four models of Oregon Scientific Weather Radios. Details are provided on the CPSC Website

WxControl - Remote Operation

If you are wanting to run WxControl remotely and cannot get it to connect to Weather Message Server, the following information may be helpful.

1) If you get an error 5 Access Denied, you have a security / authentication problem. See if you can create the same user name and password on both computers. The next Weather Message beta will reduce the security requirements for the server. That may also address the problem.

2) Windows XP SP2 and Windows Server 2003's firewall may disable remote access to named pipes. Try opening port 445. Here is a Microsoft article that discusses SQL Server, but the information applies to opening port 445. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/839269

3) See if named pipe security has been enabled - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925890

If you have to use one of these means to obtain access, let me know what you did and I will see about automating the procedure.

Danny

Service Controller now available

I have completed the initial work on the Weather Message Server Service Controller. This application will allow you to monitor Weather Message Server when it is running as a service. It will also allow you to monitor a remote Weather Message Server even if it is not running as a service. I am sure there will be requests for refinements, however, it fulfills the basic need to monitor the server.

This gets another request off my list that has been there for some time. Version 3.2 contains a number of good enhancements that have required quite some time to implement. After some clean up work, I will be making other changes.

Service Controller

Since releasing a version of Weather Message that runs as a service, several customers have asked what happened to the user interface. Well when an application runs as a service, most of the time you lose the user interface because the application is running in the background. Most software packages provide another application that can be used to monitor the background service.

I have spent the last week studying interprocess communications. I have decided to use named pipes since they appear to be quite efficient. Named pipes are basically memory files that can be shared across process boundaries. I need a way for a 'controller' application to talk to the server and get the screen updates. Named pipes should do this well.

The 2.0 framework does not have built-in support for named pipes, so it was necessary to write all of the code to communciate with named pipes. Support for named pipes will be in the Microsoft 3.5 Framework. That Framework however will not work on Windows 2000 computers. The 3.0 Framework does support a mechanism that I could have used, it also does not support Windows 2000.

I completed the routines today and the tests look good. I should be able to create the WxController application sometime this week. It will be a small application. The big change will be updating Weather Message Server so that it will send data to the connected controller application.

One good point is that named pipes can be used across a network. So it will be possible to run WxController on a remote computer to monitor the server. I will say that this is only recommended on fast networks. If the primary goal was to monitor remotely, then using tcp/ip sockets would be a better approach.

Fire Zones

I have taken the time to add fire zones to the County_Z.dat file. These zones are used for fire weather products. After adding the zones, I have mixed emotions about including it in the regular distribution.

There are some duplicate county names that may confuse users that do not know the difference between the forecast and fire zones. I added "FZ" before the names so that I could tell the difference.

I will include County_FZ_Z.dat with my normal distribution. If someone wants the fire zones, they can simply replace the stock County_Z.dat with County_FZ_Z.dat.

Note: Fire Zones are generally used in the Northwestern states.

Weather Message Server - Service Support

Weather Message Server now has an option to run as a Windows Service. There have been a number of requests for this ability.

The current version of Weather Message requires you to login before Weather Message will be started. The ability to run as a Windows Service alleviates the need to login. As soon as the computer boots, Weather Message will be started.

I still have a number of tests to run, but my initial tests have been successful. There are some additional enhancements that need to be made. Basically an interface needs to be written that will communicate with the Weather Message Server service.

SSL Support for SMTP Instructions

I have posted a document on the Miscellaneous downloads page that describes the steps necessary to setup Weather Message for a secure smtp connection. The example I used is for gmail.

Here is the direct link Secure SMTP Setup

Changes in file access routines

I have changed the file access routines, that read or write products, to use file streams. File streams are more efficient than the commands that were previously used. Changing the file access routines was the last thing pending from the original software conversion from 2 to 3.

While changing these routines, I discovered that WxByte and WxIngest were creating the tracking file twice when the first block of a product was received. I eliminited one of those. That will reduce the number of writes to the harddrive.

I also made changes in Weather Message server that will reduce the number of times that it accesses a new product. It was checking the size of the file, then reading the file. This has now been incorporated into one file access.

Although the programs seem to run efficiently like they are now, these changes will make them more efficient and ready for the faster data stream.

SSL Support with 3rd Party Application

Several users have expressed a desire to have SSL/TLS support for SMTP in Weather Message. The cost of this upgrade from my tcp/ip vendor has been too costly for the small number of users needing this capability.

After alot of research, I discovered a free application that will create a secure tunnel to the smtp server. Stunnel is a universal SSL wrapper. I have tested it tonight with my ISP and it works fine. I also tested it with gmail with success. I will publish setup information on the WxMesg group about this application.

You will find information on Stunnel at http://www.stunnel.org/

Polygons on WxMap

I am experimenting with placing polygons on WxMap. One of the problems is dealing with the color of the polygon?

This picture is not very clear, but the polygon is green. In WxMap is it clear and distinct.

Weather Message Version 3.2 Beta 1 Released

I am in the process of uploading Weather Message Version 3.2 beta 1 to the website.

If you will be using the new polygon alarm, I would recommend that you set it up as a second alarm and leave your original alarm. It should be tested before replacing your original alarm.

If you will be using the new zone and marine layers, you will need to download the new layers. See the release notes.

County and Marine Zones added to WxMap

WxMap now supports the County Zone and Marine Zone layers. This has been a feature requested for some time.

County zones, in some cases, are different from the County Fips area. The Fips area represents the actual county outline. The Zones area may be for part of a county or extend into multiple counties.

The Marine zones cover the coastal waters and the Great Lakes.

Polygon Alarms Completed

I have completed the changes to enable polygon alarms. You can now enter a latitude, longitude and radius for each alarm. The software will require the incoming message to have LAT...LON information.

If the message has this information, the software will determine if your latitude and longitude are inside the polygon. If not, it will then get the distance your latitude and longitude are from the nearest edge of the polygon. If it is within the radius you specified, the alarm will trip.

This feature will require careful testing. It will also require users to have a good understanding of polygon warnings. This capability requires that the incoming messages be properly coded.

Polygon Alarms - What is my latitude / longitude

As I have moved forward with polygon alarms, I needed a method to get the latitude / longitude for an address. As it turns out there are several public sources for this information. They however do not allow integration with an application without paying a monthly cost.

Due to those restrictions, I created a public webpage that will allow users to get their latitude and longitude. I selected Google Maps for the provider. The webpage can be accessed from the Weather Message home page or directly at http://www.wxmesg.com/geomap/wxgeomap.htm

I will try to put a link in the setup program to take users to this webpage.

Map Layers

I am in the process of integrating the NWS Zone and Marine layers into WxMap. My initial tests have been promissing. They do require some additional memory due to the size of the layers. I should be working on the internal processing logic over the next couple of days. I hope there will be a beta by the weekend.

I have updated the Weather Message .Net download page with the latest map files. The install includes two new options: Map Base - County Zones and Map Base - Marine. These will have to be installed before any of the new zone changes will work. If you install all of the layers, you will install approximately 54 megabytes of map data.

Polygon Status

I have completed the code necessary to determine if a point is inside a polygon. Also the code necessary to determine the distance in miles of a point in relation to a polygon.

This paves the way to start changes that will allow for an alarm based on a latitude / longitude. This was some involved code.