Merry Christmas Brian thread

Ok - bear with me on this…

First off let me say; I don’t like Christmas - all commercialized and all - we don’t do much for Christmas at my home - just being thankful.

Then I think who I am thankful for - and one person I think of is Brian Hamilton.
Then I think…do they even celebrate Christmas in New Zealand? This is summer in New Zealand isn’t it?

So…I feel the need to say some thanks for the Christmas season, and I want to say some thanks to Brian.

Brian and I are on the total opposite sides of the world - just think about it.

Since I’ve been involved with WD (only since August this year), I am constantly amazed by Brian’s involvement with his software and his involvement and support.

I’ve had my local weather up on my site for a couple months now, and I have quite a few people ask me “how do you do that?”
And I start telling them about the dairy farmer from New Zealand who does this.
[intentional pause]
“Do you mean that this guy does this on the side as a hobby/”
Well, I don’t know much about Brian, but I do know this: Brian is into this WD thing so much - I’m sure his wife and kids say “Dad - what are you doing on that computer all the time?”

I can count many times when I first started with WD and first came to this forum. I asked some simple questions (not so simple then), and Brian himself answered directly. Over the next couple months, I saw that he does the same for any of us. Wow [intention pause], the author is here everyday to help us all work his software.

Then, comes the updates. In three months, there were 55 updates to the program. Some were for some obvious bugs, but more were for user requests. Think about it - what other software author will respond to a request, and implement it to his program within the next 24 hours?

I had a co-worker ask me about my weather site today. I happened to have my laptop at work with a “client version” on it - I asked Brian about doing that in another thread - so I have the main screen pulled up, and he asks “how do you do that?” I first went on about the “farmer in New Zealand”, then started through the various screens. I said that I am “only touching the surface” of the program. I am learning as I go.

I guess that is what I like so much about WD - there is no way that I will ever say “I know how it all works”. I learn something every time I look at my screen. I also learn something every time I get on this forum. Thank you Chris for providing this for us to exchange our ideas and/or problems. I frequent many forums on a daily basis. I can honestly say this is one of the best. Chris, the “moderator” never needs to say “hey, you can’ do that”.

OK, I’m rambling on now - but a couple things to think about…
When you are on this forum, look: we are from all around the world - think about it.

Back to my subject line…
In a time of thanks in the US - I have something to say…

Thank you Brian for you obvious love of WD, and being so patient with us who are learning with you.

Well said ‘Snowman’.

Up here in Kiwi land we celebrate Christmas with BBQ’s and picnics (but listen to music about ‘White Christmas’s’ and the like) We do have a NZ xmas song though.
Anyway - Brian, and all the team, well done again for a great year to th weather WD people. We thank you very much. :reindeer:

Philip

Yeah Merry Christmas Brian and thanks for all your hard work in the tough year you have had.

All the best for 2005.

I am working at Christmas and New Year so the festive season doesn’t really mean anything to me this year. I will be sleeping most of Christmas Day :frowning:

Yep, Brian, Chris, and Julian, what a dream team. Happy Holidays guys!

Ahh - what I tried to say but with not so many words…

good thing about xmas down under is its also school holiday time, and summer, so it makes for a good holiday period
(but summer here does not really start until after xmas often)
thanks for the thanks guys!!

I fifth (I think), the sentiment.

Thanks for the hard work…

Brian and team, I reiterate what has been said. Thanks and best wishes for Christmas and a wonderful 2005.

Ditto all the above. Very best wishes Brian and thanks for all the help in the past year. :smiley:

Thanks for the kind words. :smiley:
And although it’s somewhat early may I wish everyone on this forum a great Christmas and New Year.

Julian

:BIG: :roll:

Likewise from me to all the team. You folks certainly know the meaning of the word ‘support’. Which goes for the forum as a whole as well. The advice given so freely here is certainly invaluable.

                                             :grouphuuug:

Even though I have only been on this forum for a little while I love it already
It is a very friendly forum & I hope to get to know everyone a little better during the new year
Thanks to those who do the hard work so we can have a great place to chat etc
I wish you all a very Merry Christmas & a happy & prosperous New Year

Also from here - thanks for the good work all the time and that great patience with all our wishes.

I wish a merry and peaceful cristmas! :slight_smile:

Roman

Definately echo that, if only all software came with such support. This time last year I knew very little about weather display and was happily plodding along with my little graphs from the software that came along with my AWS. Then someone recommended this program and whoosh a while new world was opened and my weather station had so much hidden potential that I hadn’t even discovered. Have to say a big thank-you to Brian and the rest of the team for all the time and effort they’ve put into making this a program, I always recommend now to anyone that ask’s, and of course the other members here too who have always helped me with things I’ve been stuck on…
A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

Happy Holiday to you,

Merry Christmas to all! Here in Canada we’re starting into our winter. Yesterday we had a couple of inches of snow, but today it was followed by an inch or so of rain! So much for skiing and snowmobiling #-o.

Brian, as I read through this thread I thought of 2 things; first, that you have assembled a great following here. They (including me) are all thankful for your support. And secondly, on another board they have a map of the users who have “submitted” their location. It’s really interesting to see where your fellow-users are located. Maybe a thought to implement a map here. (an aside, when my son was travelling to Greece on a school trip, I quickly was able to find a WD site to see the weather - how neat is that?)

Many thanks!..Jeff

I thought of doing that some time ago, but couldn’t find any web based software to do it. I’m sure I’ve seen something that can display a zoomable map of the world with locations from a database plotted on it. If someone can point me at something that can do this I’ll have a go at setting it up.

By the way…Happy Christmas to everyone…especially Brian for his continued hard work with WD.

There are big $ systems to do that but you could look at GRASS http://grass.itc.it/ which is open source or try something like “open source GIS” in google.

I’m trying to avoid the big $$$ systems! We use one at work, so I know how big $$$ can be.

I’ve seen GRASS before, but it’s more of a toolset (of 350+ programs) that you can use to do lots of clever things. I think it would need a lot of effort (and a much better understanding of GIS concepts) to make it work.

I felt sure I’d seen a ready built system a year or so ago that had a zoomable world map that plotted points (from a database) where you could click on the plotted point to link to something else, e.g. a web page. Maybe I was day dreaming?