Davis Instruments Weather Station …
Have you ever wanted to have your own weather reporter by your side? Well, now you can have it just the way you want it!
Davis Instruments has a product for you that reports:
| | Wind speed and direction
Temperature and humidity outside and inside
Wind chill
Daily, monthly and yearly rainfall
Sky conditions
Phase of the moon
Sunrise and sunset
Time of day
Month/year
Barometric pressure
Weather forecast
|
There are two components: one is outside with the various sensors needed to measure and report; the other is a data station inside which receives the information and displays it in a meaningful fashion. The reporting function depends on the version of weather station you have: wireless or wired. The version I tested is wireless. You can move the data station around pretty much wherever you want; it can be wall-mounted, even.
As a pilot, knowing about the current and forecast weather is of utmost importance. You might think that all you have to do is look at the sky to tell what the current weather is. While you can tell a lot that way, there’s more to it than that, because some of the information needed to forecast weather cannot be determined visually, or not well.
Humidity and wind speed and direction are important indicators of future severe weather. High humidity combined with strong winds foretell of thunderstorms or, possibly tornados. When the wind is coming from an unusual direction, that identifies certain adverse weather conditions. The types of clouds, too, tell us a lot about the coming weather.
The Davis Weather Station helps with all these indications. I’m not sure how an instrument like this can tell cloud cover, but it does! It can also make a remarkably accurate weather forecast. The manual says the forecast is based on barometric pressure and trend, wind speed and direction, rainfall, temperature, humidity, lat/long and time of year. Wow!
All the measurements can be expressed in various units of measure. Pressure can be shown in inches of mercury (the one we’re used to seeing), millimeters of mercury or millibars. Temperature can show as Fahrenheit or Centigrade, and so on.
What’s really neat is that any of the measured variables can be graphed over the day, month or year, depending on the variable. A small graph on the data station shows the recorded measurements for the selected item. You can scroll through the graph to get the numerical values. There’s also a Hi/Lo button for display of that info.
The outside unit can be mounted just about anywhere – in your backyard, on the roof, next door or even in a remote location with a repeater station. The mounting kit includes a very stable tripod mounting kit that can be fastened securely to whatever it sits on.
The rain measurement device is interesting. It’s called a tipping bucket. There are two small cups mounted on an axis that works like a teeter-totter. When a cup has accumulated .01 of liquid, the weight causes the cup to tip, which drops the water out and brings up the other cup. This continues as long as the rain continues. The speed of tipping gives a rate of precipitation. I don’t know what would happen during a heavy rainstorm. It would seem that the cups would be overwhelmed by the water.
I enjoyed testing this system. In Tucson, we haven’t had much rain, but there have been a couple of measurable ones; they have totaled about ¾ of an inch in the month or so that I’ve been testing the unit. It was fortunate to have some rain to measure, because the ¾ of an inch is really the total since about last November!
It was most interesting to follow the temperature variations during the day as well as the humidity. Here in Tucson, we have rather large temperature variations and the humidity is much lower than in the Midwest.
The prices of the Davis Instruments Weather Station vary with its features. The least expensive is about $500. While that may seem expensive, remember that this unit will last you many years and provides information you cannot get anywhere else, at least cheaply and easily.
The warranty is one year on parts and workmanship. I was impressed with the quality of parts when I assembled them. The unit came with a very detailed manual for assembly, which is really needed. I could not have put things together properly without it! What’s better is that the manual is understandable.
I highly recommend this product. It’s fun to have its information at your fingertips!
Weather Station by Davis Instruments www.davisnet.com
And Then There Were None …
Perhaps you’ve read this story about nine people stranded on an island estate. You bring the guests to the island, but you cannot return, since your boat has been damaged and has sunk. You and the nine get to know one another, have a meal and settle in to the various rooms. Since you are an unexpected guest, you have no room.
Soon the host, through a recording, explains that each and every one of the guests has committed a crime in the past. As such, each deserves to die, and they do, one by one. Agatha Christie wrote the story from which this game was produced. She has conjured up some mysterious ways for people to die – poisoning, bludgeoning, heart attack, drowning and more! The progress of the game coincides with the famous poem, Ten Little Indians (which is changed for the game to Sailor Boys), as people are killed off.
It’s more or less up to you to figure who the killer is and in the process stay alive. The actual killer is unknown until the very last part of the game, although you suspect several of the guests at various times.
The game has you exploring the island and the mansion for clues, and interviewing the guests for information. The interviewing is easily done, but moving about the island is tedious. There are pathways throughout the island and you can either walk along them or run. Remembering where things are on the island is difficult. I was tempted to make a map to help me, but I didn’t start soon enough, so I would up going along many more paths than should have been necessary.
The game (and book) covers a weekend. The island has terrible weather, rain being an almost constant companion when outside. The hardest part is the nighttime, though. The game reduces the lighting, as you would expect, but that makes it very difficult to see where you are and where you need to go, when outside. Inside, too, is a problem at night. In parts of the story you have a flashlight, but cannot use it elsewhere.
The interior scenes of the mansion are quite beautiful, and the outside is well done, too. The characters, however, are somewhat wooden. The movements are artificial and talking makes you think of those movies that are dubbed in Japanese, where the mouth moves differently than the words being spoken!
I can’t imagine anyone completing this game without a walk-through text. There are many steps that must be taken in just the right order for the game to proceed. This game is unusual, though, in that there are few puzzles to be solved. The Adventure Company games usually have quite a few puzzles, some quite difficult.
Agatha Christy was a prolific writer, penning 79 novels and short stories over a 50 year period. In addition, she wrote over a dozen plays. Many of these stories are well known, especially her detective character, Hercule Poirot. Miss Jane Marple was almost as well known.
The game uses the mouse almost exclusively for movement. The cursor changes from time to time to indicate things you can do, such as taking an object for your inventory or examining an object. It also identifies with whom you can interact.
The game may be saved as often as you want, which is helpful. There are many cut-scenes which you wouldn’t want to have to listen to more than once. Also, after you have completed a series of tasks, moving over the island, you will want to save your progress. It’s helpful, too, to go back to a save point if you don’t do the proper sequence of steps, or miss a step.
The music is moody and helps to sustain the helpless feeling of the guests. It gets a bit tiresome after a while, though.
And Then There Were None by The Adventure Company www.adventurecompanygames.com
Requires WIN 98 or better, 850 MHz P3, 256 MB RAM, 32 MB RAM video card, 1.5 GB hard drive space
ESRB Rating T (Teen) for mild violence
