3 Good Sources to Track Hurricane Season
Last Updated on Sunday, 24 July 2011 09:59 Written by Alan Friday, 5 August 2011 07:00
With the Atlantic and Pacific hurricane season getting into full-swing, and expected to produce an above average number of storms, this is a good time to look at ways to keep track of tropical weather. If you live in an area where tropical weather can become a factor, then you definitely need to keep up-to-date on the latest developments. That’s why today I wanted to point everyone towards some good sources of news and information about tropical storms.
The Weather Channel’s Tropical Update Center
The Weather Channel, one of the most watched and trusted TV channels, as well a trusted web site, has an excellent page that shows news for both the Atlantic and Pacific basins. The news gives updates of the development of systems, strength of existing systems, and news of their movement. The map also can be switched between such options as Advisories, IR Satellite, storm track, projected path, satellite images of different areas of both oceans (as well the Gulf and Caribbean), and more.
NOAA’s National Hurricane Center
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, better known as NOAA, run the National Hurricane Center. The NHC is responsible for all reporting and investigating of tropical developments – AKA the ones who fly the planes into the storms to get readings. They are also responsible for issuing all watches and warnings.
Their website offers maps of outlooks, active storms, and marine forecasts. There also other maps available depending on the current situation. In addition, they offer season summaries, reports, and tracking charts.
Yes, Google Earth. They have actually added weather information to keep users informed. According to Google “You can also keep track of the current tropical storms through Google Earth, where we’ve made tropical storms part of the “default-on” Earth experience (just make sure “Places” is checked in the left Layers panel).”
They no get you stot only cover the US with Atlantic and Pacific information, but also several other areas where such weather exits, like the Indian Ocean and Tasman Sea.
“In Google Earth, you’ll find information on a storm’s intensity, heading, as well as the latest news and advisory information. Where available, we also provide links to download the historical and forecasted storm positions as a KML file. Be sure to turn on the “Clouds” layer under the “Weather” menu in the left Layers panel to visualize the magnitude of each storm.”
There are three good places started, but I am sure many more exist. If you have, please share it in the comments below.
Dropbox Adds Support for 4 More Languages
Last Updated on Monday, 18 April 2011 08:34 Written by Alan Monday, 18 April 2011 08:34
Dropbox claims a usage base of over 175 countries, but now they are finally adding native language support for a few of them. They announced today the addition of French, Japanese, German and Spanish. They have also added a translation feedback system to allow users to help out with this transition. According to Dropbox’s Dan Wheeler “Your input helps us make sure that Dropbox is perfect for your language. Big thanks to everyone on the forums for already sending us tons of great corrections — it’s made a huge difference! We hope you enjoy.”
Dropbox has become a go-to app around here. We use if for almost anything – even my wife distributes school lessons for her students to download. The best part is the more you use it the more free space you are given. Whenever people log into your account to access files or sign up for an account of their own then you re given credit. More available languages means even more opportunity.
If you would like to read more about how they are doing the thranslation then you can read about it over on the Dropbox Tech Blog.
Convert Word Files To PDF With doc2pdf
Last Updated on Sunday, 27 March 2011 10:06 Written by Alan Sunday, 3 April 2011 06:00
Thanks to an upcoming project I have recently had the need to convert Word documents I created into PDF files. Since I already spend more than I care to mention on computer equipment and software I really didn’t want to shell out the nearly $300 for a copy of Adobe Acrobat. So, I went searching for more economical alternatives to convert these files. There is no shortage of free online tools and I am planning to try out a few different ones, but the first one I decided to test was doc2pdf.
doc2pdf is both a free online Word to PDF converter as well as a paid desktop app. Since I love free (and I am sure you do also) I am only trying the free version.
To get started I navigate to the doc2pdf website and scrolled to the bottom of the page and clicked in the Convert this document box and then browsed to my file.
In the To box make sure Portable Document Format is selected and then click Convert document. A box will open that prompts you to make some selections. You can open the PDF with your default PDF reader, open it online with Docs Online, Zoho, Google Docs, or Vuzit, or you can save the file.
The conversion was almost instant – although, the document I tested was only one page with very little text. It opened in my default PDF program, Foxit Reader, which allowed me to view it and also gives me the option to save it locally.
This app could not have been simpler or faster so it is definitely in the running for my product of choice in this category. However, I still plan to test out a few other free converters I ran across in my recent search. For now, though, this is one you can’t go wrong using.
