Ironflight

Ironflight

VAF Moderator / Line Boy
Mentor
Is there anyone out there saddled with one of these accursed Blackberries that has found a quick and easy link to get Terminal Forecasts and METARS without typing in outrageous URL's and waiting for tens of minutes? I must be using this wrong...I know how to get a web site, but what I am looking for is a simple, text-based site that doesn't try to download endless graphics - just type in an identifier, and get the raw report.

I know there are LOTS of true computer geeks on here!

Paul
 
Outstanding!

OK, so Dan's a genious! :)

(I always use his enroute wind thingy on the computer - didn't realize the site worked so well on the BB)

Paul
(All set for an early morning departure to Minnesota - first long trip in the -8!)
 
Dan's METARs and TAFs via IM work great as well. Now he just needs to add an email interface. Maybe send a message to <airport identifier>@rvproject.com and get an email response with the TAF and METAR. Great for us blackberry users.
 
Internet fools I think ruined it

ptrotter said:
Dan's METARs and TAFs via IM work great as well. Now he just needs to add an email interface. Maybe send a message to <airport identifier>@rvproject.com and get an email response with the TAF and METAR. Great for us blackberry users.
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I believe Dan had that feature but took it off because of spam or other attacks, Dan are you there? George
 
gmcjetpilot said:
I believe Dan had that feature but took it off because of spam or other attacks, Dan are you there? George
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So I'm not crazy! I coulda swore I used that before but then I couldn't find it on his site. Too bad jerk spammers ruin things for the rest of us, huh?
 
I used to support email for METARs and TAFs. Due to abuse I took that service down.

It is now back up...under NEW email addresses, and as long as it doesn't get abused I will leave it up. As soon as I see any abuse it's coming right back down.

[email protected] - put airport id(s) in the subject, optionally with the word "decode" in the subject

[email protected] - ditto
 
Spam Filter

dan said:
I used to support email for METARs and TAFs. Due to abuse I took that service down.

It is now back up...under NEW email addresses, and as long as it doesn't get abused I will leave it up. As soon as I see any abuse it's coming right back down.

[email protected] - put airport id(s) in the subject, optionally with the word "decode" in the subject

[email protected] - ditto
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Dan,

How about adding another keyword to the subject line, such as your N number, that would validate bonofide users? All incoming without keyword validation could be rejected as spam. Maybe not bullet proof but it might help.
 
Lol, Dan it seems that your FREE service is going to become as critical to the infrastructure of the air traffic system as the EFSS. Goodness knows no one wants to call them anymore :) "Welcome to the Lockheed-Martin EFSS, please wait while we pull our head out of our ***"
 
CFI1513840 said:
How about adding another keyword to the subject line, such as your N number, that would validate bonofide users? All incoming without keyword validation could be rejected as spam. Maybe not bullet proof but it might help.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion, but that wouldn't address the types of DOS attacks I was getting. I don't want to overcomplicate this.

To be honest, I don't even want the email interface supported anymore. Anybody who has email likely has WEB or WAP or IM. Email will be going away at some point. This is a stop gap.
 
osxuser said:
Lol, Dan it seems that your FREE service is going to become as critical to the infrastructure of the air traffic system as the EFSS. Goodness knows no one wants to call them anymore :) "Welcome to the Lockheed-Martin EFSS, please wait while we pull our head out of our ***"
Click to expand...

More like, "Welcome to the Lockheed-Martin EFSS. For CreditCard, press 1... Debit, press 2... Check, press 3....."

We'll see how long it takes for this to become a reality.
 
w1curtis said:
I noticed when you choose decode, it decodes all airports to Pacific (PST/PDT) time. Just a thought but would you consider decode to the local time zone for reporting station? For us non-PST/PDT folks:)
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Yet another reason to use WEB for your interface (the WEB stuff does support time zone localization). Trust me, all of our "wireless devices" are converging on ubiquitous web support.

Guys, I could work on these weather tools all darn day, making them work exactly how everybody wants them to. Too bad it wouldn't pay my bills. The weather services I provide are 100% free. I did put up a "Contribute" link where people can send in voluntary contributions of arbitrary amounts, to help with server and internet costs and what not. People have been very generous. But "don't quit your day job" still applies in earnest. ;)
 
Ok, I spent a few hours today and added the concept of "email based persistent sessions." Ignore this terminology if you're not a software developer. The end result is that now you can send email to either [email protected] or [email protected] like usual, but if you include "tz=..." in the subject line you can set your preferred time zone.

Here is an example of what I'm talking about:

Subject: tz=eastern mht decoded
(will set the time zone to Eastern and will return MHT's decoded METAR)

Subject: mht decoded
(will return MHT's decoded METAR, and will use your previous time zone setting of Eastern)

Subject: tz=
(will "reset" the time zone to the default)

Values for "tz=..." include eastern, central, mountain, pacific, hawaii, alaska, utc, zulu, etc.

This is BETA so I can't make any promises, but it should work.
 
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