technology

Weather & Information Images (WX-IMG)

Sunday, December 27th, 2009
by W8JKC

I have updated my WX-IMG products and have included the WWV image in this release.
To add these images to your site please see http://www.w8jkc.com/copythis.php?q=1
You are free to add them to your website, Facebook, MySpace or similar profile, including web signatures.

Also included in this release is my simple email address spam blocking image script. It is very simple to add to any page, but requires basic knowledge of HTTP URL structures. However it is explained completely on the page linked above.

I have changed the methodology behind the Weather Spotter Image too, it used to refresh the data every time the image was accessed or loaded, which means every time somebody viewed a page that had that image in it, the information would be retrieved again. This works great, however now that more people are using that image I am using way too much bandwidth and I am sure the NWS and NOAA did not appreciate me requesting the information so many times. This is especially true because they usually only update the information once every 24 hours (around 6am). I have changed this to only request and update every 7 hours, which means 3 updates per day. Currently the update times are (EDT) 0700, 01400, and 2300hrs each day. I believe this is the most effective use, because we have had some afternoon and some evening storms.

If you have any questions or concerns you may email me at:
or you may simply leave a comment below.

How to find your new job on the internet

Tuesday, April 14th, 2009
by W8JKC

With the way the economy, stock markets, the way they are right now; many people are unemployed and looking for a new job.

But how do you use your computer and the internet to find that new job? Yes there are places such as Monster, Craigslist, and others.

Here\’s a little fact, many companies post \”secret\” openings to their own website, days or even weeks before putting them on others.
What are the chances that you would actually look at that companies site, before they posted the job to other sites? Slim to none.

So know that you know where to look, what is the easiest way to find these company websites in your area? Thats where special \”job search engines\” come in. These websites are extremely customized search engines that only crawl the web for specific words such as opening, position, and others including locations.

Here are a few job search engines to help you find only hiring companies websites:

http://www.simplyhired.com
http://www.linkup.com
http://www.indeed.com
http://www.dice.com (Technology Jobs Only)
http://www.usajobs.gov (Government Jobs)

Do you know of any other \”job search engines\” or other ways to find jobs? Feel free to submit them below. Have any questions or comments? Submit them below too, or email me justin@helin_w8jkc.com

Discovery Project Earth

Saturday, September 13th, 2008
by W8JKC

While I am a big fan and supporter of eliminating the need for fossil fuels, and making the environment \”green\”, some of the technologies they are testing may bring harm to existing ones in use everyday.

For example, the segment about using microwaves to transmit electrical energy from space to earth.

This may be cool, but what are the cons of using such technology? (Which they don\’t tell you either because they don\’t know themselves, or they don\’t want you to know.)

What will happen when this technology is actually tested under its conditions as proposed, to transmit electricity from Solar Panels in space to receivers on earth?

What will happen to existing communications in the other radio bands, such as Aircraft in the VHF band (120Mhz), Public Safety in the VHF and UHF bands (150 and 450 and 800 Mhz).

Will this existing technology completely be wiped out from the microwaves being transmitted on 2.4 Ghz?

These are some things the researchers, developers, and eventually the FCC needs to consider before it is completely implemented.

If you remember anything about the BPL (Broadband over PowerLine) incidents, where it was found that many of the technologies used for it caused harmful interference to many existing radio users, you will see my point.

In the episode it seemed that there were still way too many problems for it to be used anywhere within the next 30 years.

Even Cell-Phones use radio waves, on the 900Mhz band. Will your phone all of a sudden stop working?

Let me know your thoughts on this subject, please comment below or email me.