Blue Onion Software

Several of you have reported that Simply Weather is stuck on Tuesday. Indeed it is and it’s because Google’s Weather Service is broken at the moment. Here’s what I get when I search for the current weather conditions in Google Search (“Weather 48176”)

As you can see, the forecast and current conditions are two days old. Hopefully, Google will fix it soon.

One of the best and easiest speed improvements you can make to your Internet connection is to use OpenDNS.com. I’ve blogged about this incredible (and free) service before but a recent announcement makes it even better.

SmartCache, OpenDNS's proprietary DNS caching technology finds and locates the last known good IP address for Web sites that are experiencing difficulty, making Web sites that are down for the rest of the Internet load for OpenDNS users.

And the announcement? Everyone gets SmartCache, whether you're among the 1,500 Deluxe and Enterprise subscribers or the millions of users of the free service. Everyone is invited to log into their account and turn it on.

If you’re unfamiliar with OpenDNS or even what a DNS is, I encourage you to set aside your doubts/fear and visit the OpenDNS Web site. There you’ll find explanations of the the service, what it does and why it’s better. If it’s a bit too technical for your liking, find your favorite geek and have them set it up for you. It’s really worth the effort, promise.

Once you have OpenDNS setup, go to the advanced settings and enable SmartCache.

It takes about 3 minutes to propagate the settings to their world wide network. Now your enjoying faster, safer Internet access. Cool!

Tens of thousands of you have downloaded my Simply Weather gadget. It’s time now for a the sequel, Simply Weather the web site.

SimplyWeather.net gives you the current conditions and forecast in a simple, no-nonsense, easy to consume format. You’re in and out in seconds and no one gets hurt :).

Seriously, how many Weather web sites obscure the actual weather information to promote sponsors? It’s like “Mostly advertising with a chance of weather” (I made that up all on my own).

I’ll be adding more features in the coming weeks but Simply Weather will always be first and foremost about the weather.

http://SimplyWeather.net

Programming Computers

ZipStorer - A Pure C# Class to Store Files in Zip - Small C# class to store and extract uncompressed and deflated files in new or existing Zip files, without any external library. Check out my SimpleZip as an even more lightweight (and less featured) alternative.

Windows 7 Training Kit for Developers – Comes complete with 2 packages of Kool-Aid.

CLR Team Blog : Improvements to Interop Marshaling in V4: IL Stubs Everywhere - Faster interop marshaling: the more complex the signature the greater the speed-up.

Text Effects in Silverlight - It's So Simple - SvLite Effects library providers text effect control to create text animations in Silverlight. The control is easy to use and can be configured in multiple ways to create different text animations.

Expression Trees, Take Two – Introducing System.Linq.Expressions v4.0 - NET 4.0 introduces statement trees as an extension to the existing expression tree API.

Daniel Cazzulino's Blog : Linq to Mocks is finally born - . What the next version of Moq (early beta readily available now) allows you to express in a very declarative way essentially is: “from the universe of mocks, get me those that behave like this.”

Using your Personal Computer

Windows 7: How low can you go? - Do you really need a computer with the minimum specs as outlined by Microsoft?

You must obey: Unwritten laws of technology - PC World – Humor.

Science and the Environment

BBC - Earth News - Giant 'meat-eating' plant found - The plant is among the largest of all carnivorous plant species and produces spectacular traps as large as other species which catch not only insects, but also rodents as large as rats.

Chevy Volt to pull 230 mpg in city | Green Tech - GM is confident that the combined highway and city mileage for the Chevy Volt, due to go on sale in late 2010, will be in the triple digits. Expressed in electrical terms, the performance will be 25 kilowatt-hours for 100 miles.

Scientists Launch The First Standard Graphical Notation For Biology - Visual language should make it easier to exchange complex information, so that biological models are depicted more accurately, consistently, and in a more readily understandable way.

On the Web

Why Apple and Google Rule - A webcomic by Eric Burke that is sad but true. I posted this one outside my cube at work.

Microsoft’s SharePoint Thrives in the Recession - Bits Blog - SharePoint broke the $1 billion revenue mark last year and continued to rise past that total this year, making it the hottest selling server-side product ever for the company.

Coding Horror: COBOL: Everywhere and Nowhere - Most impressive perhaps, is that 200 times as many COBOL transactions take place each day than Google searches - a figure which puts the influence of Web 2.0 into stark perspective.

HootSuite Organizes Your Twitter Activity in Your Browser - Social Networking - You can also have HootSuite schedule a tweet to be sent later and automatically send tweets from your blog feed.

RockMelt 101: A Quick Guide to the Mysterious Browser - PC World - Have you met RockMelt? Neither have most people, it seems -- but the Web is definitely a-buzzin' with word of the mysterious new browser.

Stuff I just Dig

Toolmonger » Blog Archive » Conductive Epoxy - Soldering isn’t your only option for an electrically conductive connection. MG Chemicals sells one alternative — the two-part silver conductive epoxy.

Orbis Scooter Concept Shrinks Your Segway | Popular Science - As much as there is to like about the Segway, it’s not the most practical option out there – it’s bulky and expensive. The Orbis Urban Mobility Vehicle, on the other hand, could do a lot to make scooting a smidge more plausible. The Orbis’ polycarboate-and-aluminum body weighs 25 pounds to the Segway’s 105. The scooter rides around 13mph on its one wheel.

Guitar Legend And Innovator Les Paul Dies : NPR – I remember endless hours of jamming in my friend’s basement with his “Star Burst” finish Les Paul guitar.

16-Megapixel Infrared Satellite Camera Can Monitor An Entire Continent In a Single Shot | Popular Science - Now, while that may sound very 1984 to the tin-foil hat crowd, the sensor is primarily designed for missile detection and guidance.

Pick of the Week

bxAutoZip – If you use Outlook (or in my case you are forced to use Outlook, yuch!), this extension will automatically convert your attachments into a zip file. Very handy.