| Hurricaned |
| (Verified CFHC User) |
| Tue Jun 16 2009 07:27 PM |
Why isn't FLHurricane on Twitter yet?
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FLHurricane should get on Twitter. This would be especially helpful during real hurricane events to keep folks in the know. Historically, when there was hurricane activity affecting Central Florida, the traffic brought the site to a standstill. This would be a great way of getting news out.
It's also very, very easy to pump blog posts (which the main news of this is) into Twitter, there are services that already do that; so essentially, I'm saying this would be no work and yet provide an additional communication avenue for FLHurricane.
Please consider it!
| Unregistered User |
| (Unregistered) |
| Tue Jun 16 2009 09:46 PM |
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Re: Why isn't FLHurricane on Twitter yet?
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And what is twitter..?
MikeC
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| (Admin) |
| Wed Jun 17 2009 03:28 AM |
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Re: Why isn't FLHurricane on Twitter yet?
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Probably not for a while, there is a large backlog of fixes and new features already on my list (not to mention general upgrades, some of the source code dates back to 1995 on here, and the web has changed a lot since then), and I've been working through a lot of them so far this year. Parts are getting upgraded, mostly in the back end. The RSS feeds need to be revisited and that's probably when I'd add something like that.
The biggest set of new features involves more automation of data (especially as it regards to invests), annotated imagery, and better control over invest data and image mirroring.
A few things holding me up, some of the code is not compatible with php5. I spent a lot of time mirroring the code in another language, but it was taking too much time so I decided to go back to improving the original code base. There is a lot behind the automated portions of the site that complicate things. Most 3rd party libraries and code I've looked at just doesn't work well with what the data needs.
| MichaelA |
| (Weather Analyst) |
| Wed Jun 17 2009 02:37 PM |
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Re: Why isn't FLHurricane on Twitter yet?
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Making the Main Page an RSS feed might work. I see there is a feed for current storms which, apparently, is not active until there is a storm.
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MikeC
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| (Admin) |
| Wed Jun 17 2009 02:46 PM |
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Re: Why isn't FLHurricane on Twitter yet?
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There are 3 of them right now, but the RDF format isn't liked by IE, so it's on the list to redo at some point. One strictly for active storms, one strictly for news updates, and another for blog updates. It's all listed in the RSS/XML News Page.
The line of text on the top left along with the article is what would be published to something like twitter if it were. (Same idea).
Once the RSS is redone and the rest of the Web Services get finished it'll be trivial to add to the others. Parts of them are done already, but are only used internally right now.
Most of the work this year has been refactoring a lot of the original code so that I can move parts of it to a new platform slowly. Ie, rewriting sections to be a lot more object oriented and using services. The visible benefit is better handling of the image servers, and much much better manipulation of animated plots and storm info. Invest tracking is better too, but it's going to get a lot better hopefully by the end of the season. Interactive Imagery and Satellites Photos are coming too, geared to discussions.
The site also is trying to stay friendly to low bandwidth people as well, because during storms it may be your only option. Another thing being worked on is a really good mobile phone model geared for that. (Oh I need to know what the heck is going on relative to me... Is the goal. The geared to you part is the most important.)
| MichaelA |
| (Weather Analyst) |
| Wed Jun 17 2009 09:06 PM |
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Re: Why isn't FLHurricane on Twitter yet?
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Added to my news reader. Thanks! I'll be looking forward to the updates when they are posted.
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MikeC
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| (Admin) |
| Sun Jun 21 2009 12:33 PM |
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Re: Why isn't FLHurricane on Twitter yet?
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Created stubs for these, they aren't fully hooked up to this site yet, but will be over the next few days.
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Flhurricanecom/91063554398?ref=mf
Twitter: http://twitter.com/cfhc
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MikeC
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| (Admin) |
| Mon Jun 22 2009 12:26 AM |
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Re: Why isn't FLHurricane on Twitter yet?
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Note the facebook link has changed from earlier today, the old one is no longer active.
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MikeC
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| (Admin) |
| Mon Jun 22 2009 02:26 PM |
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Re: Why isn't FLHurricane on Twitter yet?
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Information provided through these will be storm position updates, notification of new news articles and Blogs, and the top line of the page, when updated.
| jeangfl |
| (Verified CFHC User) |
| Wed Jun 24 2009 11:56 AM |
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Re: Why isn't FLHurricane on Twitter yet?
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Hi All, Mike C - Just shared Fl Hurricane link w/ local newscaster on twitter. Will add Facebook and Twitter links. Thanks for all you do. Jean G