Westendorf.US

Just not this site. In the past few weeks I’ve taken on several new computer and internet projects. For websites, I’ve completely redone how TVDMAJobs.com works. It’s now a wiki to provide for an easier way for me and site visitors to update out-of-date links. I’ve also started a new job called the TV Streaming Wiki. Its purpose is to provide links to streaming video and audio from TV stations. The main focus is on wall-to-wall severe weather coverage, but breaking news can also be included.

At the day care center, I’ve taught myself how to setup a domain controller and administer computers through active directory. I had a bit of experience with active directory during my time at extension, but starting from scratch was a pretty new experience. I was doing good and was on track to make changes this weekend (I only started reading and teaching myself last week), but I screwed up and accidentally deleted all my previous accounts on the server Monday afternoon. So 14 hours later I’m finally back home and now all the computers are on a domain. This will definitely make my life easier as I can now use group policies to change how the computers are setup and also allow the users to change their own passwords… SWEET!

So, as you can tell, it’s been a fairly busy past couple weeks. June 9th I’ll be heading home and to Oelwein for Nate Oldenburger’s wedding. I’ll take my camera so I can hopefully get some good pics, plus it will just be nice to see friends from school again that I haven’t seen in years.

Posted in Technology/Computers

Visitors to the site have probably always noticed the Meebo Me box usually says I’m offline. That’s because I need to keep a browser window open and sitting at Meebo’s website. Well, I’ve finally found another way to stay online. So… feel free to send me a message now when you see me online. The only real problem is that it doesn’t tell me what name you’ve entered in the box, so don’t forget to tell me who you are.

Posted in Technology/Computers

For the new storm season I finally got my APRS tracker up and working again. This means all my stalkers can once again follow on my travels around town or even up and back from my trip to home this weekend. Java is required for this new map to work, but it should refresh itself. You can always find the link in the left sidebar called Track Ryan. Also, I’ll be leaving the live radar up for the weekend since there is a chance of light precipitation on Tuesday. Have a Happy Easter everyone.

Posted in Technology/Computers

I’ve added another new feature for the website… Live radar! Well, almost live anyway. If there is ever a threat for some active weather I will fire up the radar program and post them to this page. The page is set to automatically refresh the image when a new scan comes in. If you want to check if the radar is updating, look at the time stamp on the bottom right of the image. The time is in UTC, but you can still figure out the minutes to see how old the image is. Sometimes, images may be up to 10 minutes delayed. And, just so you don’t have to read this post every time or bookmark the page, there is now a link to the live radar along the left side of this page.

Posted in Technology/Computers

Monday through Friday is Severe Weather Awareness Week in Iowa. Monday’s focus is NOAA All Hazards Radio. Want an incredibly easy way to keep your family safe? Get a weather radio. Actually, scratch that… get a weather radio, and use it! Just out of curiosity on Saturday I checked out the weather radio that the day care center had. It was plugged in, but the battery backup was dead which means sometime in the past the radio probably had lost its programming information so it wasn’t even receiving a signal. A simple way to make sure that doesn’t happen is to change your weather radio batteries and smoke/CO₂ detector batteries when you change your clocks forwards and backwards for Daylight Saving Time.

And, just for you, the readers of my website, if you have a weather radio and have no idea how to use or program it, I’ll help you! Yep, that’s right… for an unlimited time only, if you ask for help on programming your weather radio I’ll help you get it setup right.

Also, since this is severe weather awareness week, there will be a tornado drill on Wednesday morning. So, if you’ve ever wanted to sign up for my SMS text alerts service for your county, now is the time to let me know. I’ll get it setup in time for the drill on Wednesday morning and you’ll get a chance to see what the text messages look like. The only requirement is that your cell phone must have an email address associated with it. If you don’t know what it is, that’s alright… I’ll probably just send messages to @teleflip.com. It works, but it may delay life-saving messages precious minutes that you may not have during an emergency situation.

Posted in Technology/Computers

I discovered another reason to be annoyed by Internet Explorer tonight. Apparently anyone visiting my webpage using IE and a screen less than 1280×1024 have a redrawing problem with the center page. Well, that just sucks. So, back to the pseudo drawing board. I’ll poke around a bit tonight to see if I can find in the CSS where it’s freaking out IE. Otherwise, I’ll be looking at another new site redesign….great….

Posted in Technology/Computers

I finally got a setup worthy of trying to timelapse last night. I wanted to make a movie of the snow storm today. Well, two things happened. 1.) The snow won’t start until later this morning, and 2.) the camera battery died last night at 7:30pm anyway.

Either way, and without further ado, I present the first timelapse. Needless to say the next purchase I make will be a power pack for my camera.

BTW, I’m not exactly sure why the movie doesn’t always play for the full length. I’m going to work on finding a different player.

Posted in Technology/Computers