AccuWeather, Todays meeting 2009/07/16

[sgtevmckay]

@ GhostMatrix-Sama

Thank you my friend.
It was brought to me a few weeks ago from a friend that Rainmeter was a"game for the young" and "when are going to grow up".

I thank you and all of you that are in their 30's, 40's, 50's, and older for proving this wrong.

Too me Rainmeter has become more than just a tool for home, I envision a tool for the IT Admin work place, and we are not far off base.
The fact that we can skin and customize is a secondary, if not a nice bonux, option.

I make no apologies for enjoying the tools I work with.
If what we do here is being childish, then may we never grow up

Also know that that friend is now also a Raineer, and will be a part of the community eventually.
This individual is a CIO at the Los Alamos national Labs, here in New Mexico.
Any one who knows there history, will know the significance of Los Alamos, NM

Oh and I am Cancer, Moon Rising, June 27, and Born in the same year Neil Armstrong made first steps on the moon.

[sgtevmckay]

The AccuWeather information is now available to all skinners here:
http://forum.rainmeter.net/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=452

[GhostMatrix]

Two words that I don't need any translation for is "Carte Blanche", and I like those two words!
You can bet that I will!
So you will be able to send them their Rainy Droplet file, so they can upload it on their AccuWeather products download page if they want to ...

GM

The default AccuWeather Droplet (using our AccuWeather RSS feed)

But I will continue to create this droplet (parsing the web pages)
http://forum.rainmeter.net/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=224


I was thinking about what kind of design I will do for it, since everybody use his own wallpaper & visual style, then I come with this idea...

An Ipod with the AccuWeather droplet who will be the flagship feature for it, it could come in different colors to easily match the desktop theme of the user.
And the user will have the possibility to put his own backgrounds for the iPod.
The iPod menu with all the little buttons make me think that I could use the iPod to put the other default droplets, and the ones coming from the "Overlord" sidebar who have became a nursery for the droplets, so the user will have all the default droplets for references in one iPod!

Preview 1 : Open (Accuweather) then if you click the button at the bottom you will have the menu appear (not done yet) / on the menu if you click the weather button for an example, the iPod will flip on his side to have the weather forecast appear and have more option choices ! (not done yet)
Preview 2 : Locked (closed)
Preview 3 : Locked (closed) with a different background








Well that said I will enter soon in an upgrading & maintenance time ...

got to upgrade to new version for The Gimp, Blender, 7zip, IcoFX ...

and perform a defrag before the installation of Kubuntu 9.04!


GM

[jsmorley]

Looking good GM!

[GhostMatrix]

You love to browse the web with your iPod, then the droplet will launch ...
:P
GM

[jsmorley]

While I think GM's AccuWeather "iPod" skin is very cool, I think we need to come up with something a bit less complicated, more "minimalistic" in appearance while looking nice, and far easier for someone just starting out to customize for their own needs if we are going to put out a "starter kit / default skin" for the AccuWeather feed. Maybe we can feature both. I was thinking of a "kit" that includes:

1) The information from AccuWeather. The documentation, the AccuWeather logo images, the AccuWeather weather icons, the links etc.

2) The information / skin I put together that shows how to get EVERY element from the feed. This would be more of a reference tool than a skin anyone in their right mind would actually run.

3) A minimalistic skin which could easily be modified to fit in with other skins without huge amounts of work. So if folks are running Enigma or Dark Rainmeter or one of the other "themes" out there they can quickly and easily change this skin to fit. We need to be kind to new users as well as experienced Rainiers...

4) GM's "iPod" skin to showcase the kinds of "really cool" things which can be done with the feed. There could be others we could include over time in this category. Maybe Dragonmage would like to do something to fit in his "Sputnik" theme...

Just a thought. Then perhaps set up a website (here or on mine) where we can do something nice which explains what we are doing with AccuWeather, images of the various skins, download links for the information and the skins etc... I was thinking a website rather than just a "topic" here, as finding stuff on the forums can be a challenge and the "static" information we want to get to the users can get lost in long threads with questions and answers. Both have their place of course, we want a "topic" here dedicated to the AccuWeather feed so we can help each other, but there also needs to be a "reference" that is easy to use. A Wiki might be best for that, so it's easy for anyone to edit, add information etc. I can certainly put up the Wiki software on my site and we can use that if needed. I guess there are some limitations on what we can do on rainmeter.net.

[dragonmage]

I agree a more simplistic version should be the default. Yes, I'll definitely be working it into the Sputnik configs.

[sgtevmckay]

Ok, folks

I just got off the phone with Mr. Sylvie and 2 other "Shirts", and did my best to pitch for the Metric Measure changes.
Essentially, I had to justify why these changes should be made, and to what interest the changes would have an effect.

I explained the international demographic, and the use of the metric system outside the US.
I explained that a lot of what is done in the US is a little odd compared to the rest of the world, but that an attempt to integrate appropriately is key, and should be considered seriously, especially from an international stand point.
I explained that if they wish for more international business, then they will have to make necessary adjustments to accommodate the international community.

I do not know why they made me jump through the hoops, as they explained that they are aware of international measures, and the basic commonality, and that this has been a consideration for some time !?!!
I do not even know if they just wanted to hear it from someone outside of their collective !?!!

Either way a waste of an hour to get to the point

The final word is:
Mr. Sylvie will be getting together with the tech team and reviewing what they are currently posting (?)

At this time, I am unsure how to translate the response.

So once again we are in a standby mode.

At least I got a really receptive response. They wanted to hear what I had to say

Just an update for all of us waiting