Comments on: Weather, Weather, Everywhere: Asterisk Weather Forecasts at the Touch of a Button for Any U.S. City

By: 8020

8020 — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 06:11:46 +0000

Damn, Canadian version works like a charm! Cheers!

[WM: Smokin’!]

By: Kim Callis

Kim Callis — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 12:41:18 +0000

Ward,
Could you give a pointer on how to add an airport? I am missing LAX and would like to add it.

[WM: Crank up phpMyAdmin (http://YourServersIPaddress/maint/phpMyAdmin/) and choose the Airports database and the usairports table in the left frame. Click the Search tab in the right frame and enter 529 for the dialcode (Los Angeles is actually in the database along with most of the other U.S. airports). You’ll see that an asterisk is shown in the main field for Jacksonville. Edit that record and delete the asterisk. Then edit the Los Angeles record and insert an asterisk in the main field. Then dial 611 and enter L-A-X (529) for the airport code and voila.]

By: Ian

Ian — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 10:23:44 +0000

I think we are all loving these data to voice apps but what about a real challenge?

Voice recognition instead of pressing buttons on the handset?

We use Teleyapper to broadcast to mobiles; problem is it’s almost impossible to detect if the phone was answered or the networks voice systems stepped in but voice recognition could be a way.

On the forums there is some fuzzy voice recognition work but nothing serious or am I looking in the wrong place.

Keep up the good work.

Regards,
Ian

[WM: Great idea. And you’re looking in the right place. We just haven’t found an open source voice recognition system that works reliably yet. But soon, I’m sure.]

By: Michael Ruge

Michael Ruge — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 08:58:18 +0000

Any chance you could add Spokane, Washington (GEG) to the list?

Thank you!

By: Andrew Hill

Andrew Hill — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 21:46:32 +0000

Any chance of how to configure the weather for other places in the world besides the states….I know there are a lot of you, but people outside of the good ol’ U.S of A also use asterisk/trixbox you know!

By: Frank

Frank — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 16:26:44 +0000

I still can’t get weather for SaaTac (SEA/732). Works for other cities though. Any ideas what the problem might be?

[WM: Yeah. Something is wrong with the NWS site information for Seattle/Tacoma for current conditions. If you’ve loaded the database and test app, you’ll note that the current conditions report returns all NULLs, but the Forecast At A Glance and 7-Day Forecast both work fine. The price we pay for free, I guess.]

By: Rafael Cortes

Rafael Cortes — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 01:23:39 +0000

Hey Ward… How did the move go? Also what happened to the site a couple days ago?
Anyway just writing to ask if you have any plans to port all the great goodies you provide us with to the new Trixbox (http://www.trixbox.org). Thanks again for all your help!

[WM: Move went great. Still knee-deep in boxes. Yes, everything will be ported to TrixBox. As for a couple days ago, I’ll save that for a future column.]

By: Jack

Jack — Wed, 24 May 2006 19:58:47 +0000

I just submitted a comment under Putting Real Names Back in CallerID: 3 Quick Perl Solutions for the Asterisk PBX in which I show how to make the routine work under FreePBX 2.1.0 (in case you have upgraded). In addition I have also modified the calleridname.agi routine itself to do some additional types of lookups (including Canadian numbers, for those who wanted that) and in some cases to work a bit faster.

By: Jack

Jack — Mon, 22 May 2006 17:51:32 +0000

I just came across a way to restore access to some of the "missing" Asterisk@Home pages after you’ve upgraded FreePBX to version 2.1.0 – I posted abut it in my blog, here:

http://michigantelephone.mi.org/blog/2006/05/restoring-asteriskhome-modules-lost.html

Just remember, I didn’t write the shell script, so the only thing I can tell you is it worked for me!

By: Amy Carlisle

Amy Carlisle — Sun, 21 May 2006 16:20:34 +0000

Take a peek at http://www.cfdynamics.com/cfdynamics/zipbase/index.cfm

Quoting from the website:

This database is provided free to anyone who wants it with the request that anyone who benefits from it please drop me a quick email and let me know how you’re using it. Also, if you wish to contribute to this project or improve upon the database that is also welcome…

Database Fields: ZIP, LATITUDE, LONGITUDE, CITY, STATE, COUNTY, ZIP_CLASS

[WM: Thanks, Amy. The file looks almost perfect. I’ll put it on my TO-DO list for Part III. Zip codes will be a good addition.]

By: Murray Crane

Murray Crane — Sun, 21 May 2006 09:56:09 +0000

Zipcode??? I say use the ICAO code and that way us non-North American viewers can get in on the act. I already have the weather script reading out the observation for my local airport (EGKB) but having that observation decoded sensibly would make life easier on my housemate.

By: Mike

Mike — Sat, 20 May 2006 18:24:48 +0000

Ward,

You are kickin butt with these great applications! I would like to add something to a "wish list" if possible…and that would be an application where someone could call in and locate the cheapest gas in a given zip code. Maybe open up the database to volunteers so as to keep the gasoline prices and locations updated.

Thanks a ton for the great applications!

Mike C.

By: Jack

Jack — Sat, 20 May 2006 17:34:38 +0000

Two comments: First, I hope that after you get settled in your new location, you will consider showing us non-geeks how to add or use better voices. The best voices I have heard so far are the Cepstral voices but unfortunately they are not free (although they can be used in a demo mode without registration, but I think something is added to the speech to nag you into registration). Anyway, whether using Festival or Flite, we need better voices, but we also need a step-by-step method to install them under Asterisk@Home. Now, on a completely different note, you have probably heard that Skype is allowing outgoing calls to the U.S. and Canada for free until the end of the year. Unfortunately Skype uses a proprietary protocol not supported by Asterisk. But I was wondering if it might be possible to use the Skype to SIP Adapter software at http://www.nch.com.au/skypetosip/index.html (perhaps with a SIP softphone of some kind) to create a gateway that Asterisk could use to place free outgoing calls via Skype. I have never personally used Skype (I hate using any type of "softphone" with a passion) but if there was a way to route outgoing calls from Asterisk to Skype for free, especially for home users, that might be of some interest to your readers. Of course I really wish someone would develop a way to do this natively (within Asterisk itself) but apparently even the existence of a bounty hasn't yet been sufficient to induce someone to develop that. Supposedly there is a project under development but at this point that is vaporware. But we can always hope! [WM: Found this recent VoipPhreak article on Cepstral that you may want to take a look at.]

By: Amy Carlisle

Amy Carlisle — Fri, 19 May 2006 20:09:14 +0000

Actually, what would be nifty would be to include the latitude and longitude for each airport in the database. It would then be a simple matter to cross-reference the latitude and longitude for a given Zipcode, and find the weather for all airport locations within an arbitrary (prompted) distance. For example, I could enter ‘16066’ and get the weather forecast from both Pittsburgh, PA (30 miles) and Youngstown, OH (60 miles).

[WM: The original database actually had the latitude and longitude data, but it didn’t have the zip codes. If someone can point us to a MySQL database that cross-references the two, then I’ll be glad to put it on the wish list. I just don’t want to spend my days entering zip codes for the entire country.]

By: mike myers

mike myers — Fri, 19 May 2006 17:53:34 +0000

How about using Zip code instead of airport code? No need to do a letter to number conversion of the need to know the airport codes, and data is readily available down at the zip code level. All numeric input is a win too.

Thanks,
Mike

[WM: Let’s get the next one out the door. Then we’ll talk about enhancements.]

By: Randy Powell

Randy Powell — Thu, 18 May 2006 16:46:11 +0000

Another great article. Do you know if the new-and-improved AAH productline will have A2billing latest version, or another such billing solution in it?

[WM: No clue on that one. Sorry.]

By: Rafael Cortes

Rafael Cortes — Thu, 18 May 2006 15:41:05 +0000

Another Great Hit from Ward Mundy!!! I'll have to wait to version 2 for this version does not support any airport weather in Puerto Rico. Anyway I am going to start flirting with this code and the V2 Preview given here to see if I can get any more ideas of what to do with Flite TTS. Thanks again Ward! PS Any ideas on how to integrate a code like this (to get MySQL data and read it) and the Teleyapper (as for to get the teleyapper to read some info from the DB)? [WM: Sorry but I left Puerto Rico out of the original Airports database although I've fixed it now. So either download the zipped file again or add an entry like this to your original copy. The "United States" addition to the city is required because of the parsing algorithm. My apologies.]


nome: Luiz Munoz International Airport
iata: SJU
citta: San Juan, Puerto Rico, United States
dialcode: 758
main: *

By: Kaleb Kunzler

Kaleb Kunzler — Thu, 18 May 2006 14:07:21 +0000

What a great project, I can hardly wait for part 2. As always, you rock Ward. Myself, I think it would be be better to use zipcode rather that airport code, just like 1-800-555-tell (Tell-Me). Or an even more interesting idea, have it look up your caller-ID and use the NPA-NXX to give you a weather forecast for your area (of course that is USA only) and a menu to then get one for another area if you wish. I will have much to play with in this one.

[WM: The NPA-NXX idea sounds great. I actually have the database with 142,000+ records so I’ll put that on the TO-DO list … after the move.]