Changes Coming to Weather Underground API

Posted on
Wed Jun 13, 2018 9:14 am
RogueProeliator offline
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Re: Changes Coming to Weather Underground API

Perry did it already, though I admit I've never used it.

Oh cool, thanks for pointing that out, I'll take a look. But imma need Dave to go ahead and make it easy to plot the forecasts on purdy graph. Because, well, he makes it easy. :-)

Posted on
Wed Jun 13, 2018 2:56 pm
mat offline
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Re: Changes Coming to Weather Underground API

Dave,

Frustrating news, but just a word of thanks from me and the family. You have been providing weather every morning to us for a good few years.

Cheers

Mat

Late 2018 mini 10.14

Posted on
Wed Jun 13, 2018 3:41 pm
DaveL17 offline
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Re: Changes Coming to Weather Underground API

RogueProeliator wrote:
But imma need Dave to go ahead and make it easy to plot the forecasts on purdy graph. Because, well, he makes it easy. :-)

Already cipherin' this one. I think the answer may be a slightly different version of the weather chart devices which allow the data to be pulled from any device state or variable value.

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Posted on
Wed Jun 13, 2018 3:42 pm
DaveL17 offline
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Re: Changes Coming to Weather Underground API

mat wrote:
Dave,

Frustrating news, but just a word of thanks from me and the family. You have been providing weather every morning to us for a good few years.

Cheers

Mat

Thanks Mat. Glad to hear that you got good value out of the plugin.

Cheers!
Dave

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Posted on
Wed Jun 13, 2018 5:22 pm
Colorado4Wheeler offline
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Re: Changes Coming to Weather Underground API

The unfortunate reality is that probably 99% of the PWS contributors don't know this is happening and don't care because they have their data. They probably don't go to the forums enough to be "in the know" about a protest so in the end you might get 5-10% of PWS owners who might protest, a mighty number to be sure but not enough to either disrupt WU or bring attention to the cause. The people this new rule alienates are mostly the people who "leech" the WU data and resell it (plenty of those out there) and the bystanders are those like Dave that never monetized the data and for whom the benefactors of the data get genuine use without abuse of the information.

This calculated risk is probably that they will reduce the leech load by 95%, alienate maybe 2-5% of the people who are not leeching and monetize those that require the service in order to stay in business. Consider that WeatherSnoop has the ability to tie into WU data, but when you consider that WeatherSnoop is a paid software then they are sort of monetizing free-to-them data, now they will have to pay for that data. Now WeatherSnoop is mostly about your own PWS but the mere fact that they open the ability to use WU as a source instead means they essentially monetize WU. I don't have a PWS and use WeatherSnoop exclusively as a gateway to WU and I paid them for that service.

Don't get me wrong, I think this sucks and that they should have the ability to grant certain use cases free access (like this plugin for instance) because it's such a low user base and doesn't tax their servers nor make money off of its data, however in the long haul we have to remember that nothing good is really free - it might start that way but it cannot stay that way and remain a viable business option. I can cite dozens of companies that started free and monetized. Remember when VMWare was free and open source? Now look at them.

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Posted on
Wed Jun 13, 2018 5:40 pm
Colorado4Wheeler offline
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Re: Changes Coming to Weather Underground API

Excellent point that from a research prospective they limit their data.

Of course we don't know what we don't know. Maybe there are so many free developer API's that it is sacrificing the stability or accuracy of the information. It could be a simple cash grab but I cannot imagine it's that much cash to get at.

With all of Google's bandwidth you have to ask why did they limit access to the maps API? I have to imagine that they got what they wanted, so many people used and shared information on that service that Google got to where they figured "we have enough info now, why waste resources supporting free users and leeches?". Who knows.

Just remember that when there is a vacuum that something will fill it. I was reading that Craigslist recently closed their entire personals section because of government rulings that might make them liable for anything that happened to someone who answered one and got hurt and they were the biggest personals ad company in the world. This created a massive vacuum and from what I've read there have been two or three "little guys" that stepped up to the plate and are now overwhelmed with users wanting to utilize their site. I believe the same will happen here. This will shake out and we'll find that Dark Sky or someone else becomes prolific and the de-facto standard for free weather reporting, at least in the short term.

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Posted on
Wed Jun 13, 2018 6:29 pm
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Re: Changes Coming to Weather Underground API

Colorado4Wheeler wrote:
in the long haul we have to remember that nothing good is really free


I have to point out that the open source model, where lots of people contribute often times for the benefit of their business but also for other's benefit as well, is free and a lot of it is quite good. Data may be different (thought there are also open source data licenses and sources), but as a blanket statement it's not really true.

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Posted on
Wed Jun 13, 2018 8:25 pm
RogueProeliator offline
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Re: Changes Coming to Weather Underground API

With all of Google's bandwidth you have to ask why did they limit access to the maps API? I have to imagine that they got what they wanted, so many people used and shared information on that service that Google got to where they figured "we have enough info now, why waste resources supporting free users and leeches?". Who knows.

To be fair, at least Google is allowing you to use $200/month free still -- WUnderground is flat out pulling the rug out from under everyone. I'll probably create a billing account on Google using one of those stupid pre-paid Visa cards that I get from "mail-in" rebates. That way I really just can't be charged even if I have a billing account. I wish I could do the same with WUnderground...

I have to point out that the open source model, where lots of people contribute often times for the benefit of their business but also for other's benefit as well, is free and a lot of it is quite good. Data may be different (thought there are also open source data licenses and sources), but as a blanket statement it's not really true.

I love Open Source and often you are indeed correct, but I generally find the commercial alternatives are better -- at least for the tools I use. I sometimes still see the Open Source option as a better value in that I don't care about the extra features/stability/whatever, but in my (admittedly small) area of use, the commercial apps usually win. (And before anyone jumps at me, I DO know there are times and options out there where OS is better. I'm just speaking of my particular generality/experience...)

Posted on
Wed Jun 13, 2018 8:33 pm
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Re: Changes Coming to Weather Underground API

I was simply commenting, not intending to get into a debate and start something. It seems that lately just about any general post I make here starts getting criticized and debated. :roll:

I’ll stick to answering questions about my plugins.

Dave, sorry WU is has gone the way it has, we’ll miss your fantastic plugin and your ongoing hard work in maintaining it.

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Posted on
Thu Jun 14, 2018 2:31 am
durosity offline
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Re: Changes Coming to Weather Underground API

Colorado4Wheeler wrote:
I was simply commenting, not intending to get into a debate and start something. It seems that lately just about any general post I make here starts getting criticized and debated. :roll:

I’ll stick to answering questions about my plugins.

Dave, sorry WU is has gone the way it has, we’ll miss your fantastic plugin and your ongoing hard work in maintaining it.


I debate the fact you’re only going to be answering questions about your own plugins. (Also don’t do that.. you have very interesting and intelligent input to give on all sorts of topics!.. actually what am I saying? Stop wasting your time on comments about the weather.. you’re not British.. go make a Tado plugin instead! )


And yeah.. it’s a real shame Dave. Hey since you’re going to have all that free time on your hands how about some new plugins? We really need one for that IoT air freshener that came out a couple of years ago!


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Computer says no.

Posted on
Thu Jun 14, 2018 5:38 am
DaveL17 offline
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Re: Changes Coming to Weather Underground API

Colorado4Wheeler wrote:
I was simply commenting, not intending to get into a debate and start something. It seems that lately just about any general post I make here starts getting criticized and debated. :roll:

I’ll stick to answering questions about my plugins.

Don't do that. We should have an open discussion about things. As long as it doesn't get personal, I think the debate is a healthy thing. Now if we start talking religion or politics, my fondness of debate wanes. :D

Dave, sorry WU is has gone the way it has, we’ll miss your fantastic plugin and your ongoing hard work in maintaining it.

Hey, thanks. I'm not going anywhere. Once I get caught up pulling irons from fires, I'll be looking at alternatives. I love having detailed weather as a part of my setup and that's not going to change anytime soon.

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Posted on
Thu Jun 14, 2018 5:50 am
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Re: Changes Coming to Weather Underground API

durosity wrote:
And yeah.. it’s a real shame Dave. Hey since you’re going to have all that free time on your hands how about some new plugins? We really need one for that IoT air freshener that came out a couple of years ago!

Many thanks brother.

I have some ideas for the Air Freshener Plugin. When it comes out, pay no attention to the following line of code. It's completely fine.

Code: Select all
indigo.server.sendmail(email="dave@email.com", subject="Very Important Email", body=really_important_data_that_is_absolutely_not_a_virtual_currency)

When it's available, I'd appreciate it if you'd run the Air Freshener Plugin on all your Indigo servers.

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Posted on
Thu Jun 14, 2018 5:53 am
durosity offline
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Changes Coming to Weather Underground API

DaveL17 wrote:
Now if we start talking religion or politics, my fondness of debate wanes.


When I become world ruler all religion and politics will be banned, so I assume I have your support... brother.

Computer says no.

Posted on
Thu Jun 14, 2018 6:14 am
mclass offline
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Re: Changes Coming to Weather Underground API

I too have been using this plugin for some time, thanks Dave!

I have also been using an iOS app called YR - a product of the Norwegian Meterological Institute (http://www.met.no/en).

Despite being located in Australia (about as far from Norway as you can get!) I have found their forecasts and data good,

I have had a sniff around and they offer a series of free API’s that may be of value should someone be clever enough to write a plugin!

however, doesn’t solve the PWS issue - unless you’re in Norway!

mclass


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Posted on
Thu Jun 14, 2018 8:10 am
jay (support) offline
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Re: Changes Coming to Weather Underground API

DaveL17 wrote:
Colorado4Wheeler wrote:
I was simply commenting, not intending to get into a debate and start something. It seems that lately just about any general post I make here starts getting criticized and debated.

Don't do that. We should have an open discussion about things. As long as it doesn't get personal, I think the debate is a healthy thing. Now if we start talking religion or politics, my fondness of debate wanes. :D


Agreed - one of the things that makes our forums such a great place is the variety of opinions on things. It benefits the entire community to see a variety of viewpoints. The more information you have the more informed your decisions will be.

As for my specific comment, I was attempting to point out that without free open source projects Indigo would likely not exist today. Not just because of all the 3rd party plugins themselves, but also because we use a variety of them in Indigo itself. For instance: Indigo wouldn't have Python support (in fact Python itself is open source), plugins, a web server (and by extension Indigo Touch), Z-Wave support, among other things. So, while Indigo itself isn't an open source product, it really wouldn't exist without open source.

Jay (Indigo Support)
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