Free App: Frost Alert

[Crundy]

Gah. I need to start storing the data XML files to check them retrospectively.
Where are you?

[zazen999]

Right, time to start styling it a bit.
What do you all think of this logo?



Edit: The missus didn't like that one and suggested this:

i like the bottom one but the top one looks 'colder' - if you get my drift [no pun intended]....

[Crundy]

OK, I've changed the app to store the XML files so I can look back and diagnose problems.

So everyone: If you see your local news reporting lower temperatures than your alert, but you do not get an alert, could you please take a quick note of the forecast days and temperatures, and then if you do get a frost please let me know here and I can look up the problem.

It will be either:
1) Incorrect data or general forecast variance
2) Server issues (emails not sent)
3) User's mail servers blocking the alert emails

If it's (1) then there isn't much I can do, if it's (2) then I'll of course fix it as soon as I can, and if it's (3) then I'll try and write some guidelines about checking spam boxes and adding addresses to whitelists.

[Crundy]

i like the bottom one but the top one looks 'colder' - if you get my drift [no pun intended]....

Yeah, one is a bit more cartoony and one is a bit more formal.

[zazen999]

Bottom one looks more professional.....

[Crundy]

Bottom one looks more professional.....

Yes, the wife got quite annoyed that I was asking for an opinion. The latter it is!

Also, looking at: BBC - Weather Centre - Features - Understanding Weather - Frost
I learnt a few things:

Meteorologists measure standard temperatures (the ones you see on forecasts) at a height of around 1.5 metres above ground. So if the forecaster says "a low of 3 degrees tonight" they mean the temperature at about shoulder height.

So if the forecast is above 4 then there could still be a ground frost, but not an air frost.

Air frost
When the temperature in the Stephenson screen reaches zero, there is said to be an 'air frost'. Even with an air frost, the ground can sometimes stay above freezing. This often happens in early autumn, when the soil still retains some of its Summer heat. Normally though the temperature at ground level will be significantly colder!

Ground frost
Sometimes the air temperature at night dips to 3 or 4 degrees, but the forecaster still warns of a 'ground frost' and the need to de-ice your car in the morning. This is because the ground can reach freezing while the air temperature remains above.

Hoar frost
The white crystals seen on the grass on a cold morning are neither a ground nor an air frost. This is a 'hoar frost', which forms when the air cools and water condenses onto the grass.

So presumably air frosts are the most harmful to gardeners, because the foliage will suffer, but ground frosts are less likely to cause problems because although the earth is frosted, it is also acting as a 'fleece' for the plant roots?

I think I need to add detailed info about how to interpret the data on the site based on the time of year etc.

[RobP]

Hi, appreciate I'm a bit late here, but tried the link and the website didn't seem to exist. Is anyone still using this, does anyone know if its moved etc?

Was a bit frosty this morning and was down to a couple of degrees even in the gh.

[Davyburns]

Hi, appreciate I'm a bit late here, but tried the link and the website didn't seem to exist. Is anyone still using this, does anyone know if its moved etc?

Was a bit frosty this morning and was down to a couple of degrees even in the gh.

I'm a bit like you - cant get the link to work. It seemed to be popular Last May, but then nothing, which leads me to believe its defunct.

Shame, it seems like a good idea.

[Crundy]

Hello,
I took the site down as it was costing too much to host and wasn't paying for itself through the ad links. I still have the source code and so I can dump it on any Windows Server environment with .NET 3.5 and SQL Express installed if anyone has a dedicated server (or even an EC2 server) which I can nick a bit of space on?

[chris]

What sort of usage did it see? (bandwidth wise)

[Crundy]

Bandwidth was very low. The only traffic to the site itself was people setting up profiles. The main issues were the number crunching once per day, which took about 10-20 minutes, and sending out all the alert emails.

I could fire up a micro EC2 instance, but even that costs 3c/h, so to run 24/7 it would cost $263 a year, and I don't have any other apps that need to run under .NET so it's too expensive for me to set it up just for the one app.

I'd want to keep it as a free app, of course I could charge £1 per profile per year to pay for the hosting, but that would massively reduce the usage and I hate writing pay-to-use apps. I'm a freeware guy myself.

[Crundy]

Alternatively I could run it on my Media Center PC, which is on all the time, but uptime wouldn't guaranteed, and if it failed to send a warning email to even one person then it would cause problems. I might ask the big cheese at work if I can host it on one of his servers.

[chris]

I've a spare .net server I'm not doing much with- just for my own development, but if people wanted it garunteed to be online in a year, it'd prob be better hosted elsewhere... As my .net sites are slowing down .... Or convert it to php - I've a rack a linux servers available... Less hassle to maintain!

[Crundy]

OK, I'll see if I can get it hosted elsewhere.

[Davyburns]

Is there a possibility of turning it into an iPhone app? that would be really good, and give a broader user base