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.

Posts | No Comments »

I have transferred all of the websites I host, including w8jkc.com to a new server. This server should be faster and will allow me to reassign the old server to other duties.

Posts | No Comments »

I am a member of several online technology communities, email lists, chatrooms, and other places where computer geeks and tech enthusiasts debate on the best hardware, software, and many other items.

My pick for the best web browser is and has always been Mozilla Firefox. Why? Because it\’s completely open source, free, and it\’s extendibility.
Anyone can create an add-on for Firefox using a publicly available SDK and documentation. Now the question is what add-ons do I have in my Firefox?

I use the following add-ons and am always checking out new ones. I recommend you check these out, you never know how much easier it could make doing even what you consider the simplest task.

• Ad Block Plus (ABP) – This removes most if not all advertisements from pages, blocks pop-ups and pop-unders, and even items that you choose that are not advertisements. Free subscriptions to common advertisement URL lists are also optionally included.
• Bookmark Backup – This creates a daily backup of your bookmarks and if you choose, other settings in Firefox. Great for syncing between two or more computers, such as work and home, or laptop and desktop.
• Google Gears – Not just for Firefox, allows websites that have added the Gears scripts to save common files to your computer for faster load times when you visit the site again. A Gears enabled site will prompt you to allow it.
• Grease Monkey – Cool add-on that allows user created \”scripts\” to be used to change the way a page is displayed while its loading. Some user scripts include automatically switching back to the \”old\” Facebook layout, instead of loading the \”new\” one.
• Tab Mix Plus – More of a customisation than an add-on it allows you to choose how pages are displayed and loaded in tabs.
• Twitty Tunes – Allows you to \”tweet\” which page your viewing, a short description. Also allows you to \”tweet\” which song you are currently listening to in compatible players.
• IE Tab – Nice add-on because it allows you to use the Internet Explorer program to load pages inside of a FireFox window or tab. Great for older webpages that don\’t work right in FireFox.
• Shareaholic – Allows you to send pages to many Social Networking and Bookmark sites such as Digg, Delicious, Facebook, Myspace, along with many others from a simple button on your navigation toolbar.
• Open IT Online – Allows you to view documents and files without installing additional software using sites such as Google Docs, Google Apps, Zoho Viewer, Snipshot, Pixlr, Picnik and others.
• DownThemAll! – A Download manager that has even faster downloading capabilites than the built in downloads window in FireFox. Great for downloading large files, and documents.

If you use different add-ons, and would like to recommend them to other people, leave a comment below, or email me justin@w8jkc.com

Posts | No Comments »

Here are 12 websites you should know about and bookmark for Canton City and Stark County, Ohio.
This list appears in random, non-specific order.

• Stark County Convention and Visitors Bureau – Visit Canton Stark
• Pro Football Hall of Fame and Festival – HOF and HOF Fest
• Stark County Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) – WD8AYE
• Canton Amateur Radio Club (CARC) – W8AL
• Quad County REACT – QCR
• ScanAmerica.Us – Stark County
• Akron / Canton Airport – CAK
• 19 Action News – WOIO
• Stark County WeatherSCW
• Canton Repository – CantonRep
• Stark County Government – Stark
• Canton City – Canton
  

To get your website included in the next list, please comment below with a link or email me justin@w8jkc.com
Note: Your comment may not appear when you submit it due to spam filters, but I will still be able to see it and approve it. Please do not submit it more than once. To be considered, site must have content relevant to the Canton or Stark County area.

Posts | No Comments »

I am now officially releasing WX-JS, a free project that allows you to add dynamic Weather Alerts to your website through a simple javascript code.

This project coincides with my WX-IMG project, and uses the same data from an RSS feed over at weather.gov, which is updated about every 5 minutes.

Currently, these scripts grab the feed from weather.gov everytime the script is accessed, and the more people who use these projects, the more bandwidth it will use from my ISP, and to weather.gov

The next version of these projects will include a 5 minute server side cache of the data from the weather.gov feed, and will tell the browser to cache the image or data for same expire time as the feed cache.

This will allow more people to use my script, with less server load on my end, along with bandwidth to me and to weather.gov

To use my WX-JS script: Visit this page for instructions.
To use my WX-IMG script: Visit this page for instructions.

Current Users of my WX projects:

http://www.wd8aye.net

http://www.myspace.com/tricountyrescue

http://www.myspace.com/cstechnical

http://www.kd8gpm.com

Posts | No Comments »

I have just completed the setup of an new URL (http://www.w8jkc.com) for my blog!
Redundancy for search-engines and old bookmarks and links will be available till Jan. 1st 2009.

Please update your links/bookmarks before then as http://www.w8jkc.com will stop working on that date.

Posts | No Comments »

I talked to AT&T today regarding some long distance charges on my bill, and they offered me an upgrade to my current DSL connection from 3 MB Downstream to this: Downstream Speed: Up to 6.0 Mbps
Upstream Speed: Up to 768 Kbps for just a few dollars more than I was paying before.

Users to this site, and other ones that I host should notice an increase in speed and transfer rates.

Posts | No Comments »