Software
Review of: |
My
husband is a great fan of the Weather Channel. In fact, next to watching
the grass grow and running calculations on tax spreadsheets, it is probably
his favorite past time. That he would discover a way to get the weather
report on his computer was inevitable. Thus, we became Weather Bug users.
I say "We" because you don't need to be in front of the computer to benefit (?) from it's presence. If your computer is on, Weather Bug is loaded and you'll know it at the other end of the house. Weather Bug chirps like an agitated cricket whenever a newsworthy weather situation exists. Like for example, two clouds overhead, or a stiff breeze. Weather Bug alerts us so often that I find myself trying to remember where my son keeps his baseball bat. Another downside of Weather Bug is that it loads when you start up your computer and it takes a long time to load. If you go into your Startup menu (Start / Settings / Taskbar & Start Menu) and try to remove programs from the Start Menu tab, you won't find it. It can be removed from startup by running MSConfig from the command line (Start / Run, then type msconfig), clicking the Startup tab, and in the Startup tab, un-checking "Tray Temperature." Now that you have been forewarned, I'll note that Weather Bug has some compelling features. The annoying chirp, for example, does warn you when a potentially dangerous weather condition exists. Weather Bug displays the current temperature in your system tray (bottom right of the Windows screen). Clicking the temperature brings up the Weather Bug screen. Through the main Weather Bug screen, you can view the current weather report and the forecast. A panel of menu options allows you to view weather alerts here and in various parts of the country. Clicking InstaCam displays a camera someplace outside where, presumably, you can view the weather. These views change regularly. Right now, the view of the sidewalk on the river doesn't really tell me much about the weather outside. But then if I had a windowless office, it might be handy. The Radar option displays a map of Texas with a moving radar representation of weather systems moving this way. The Forecast button displays the weather forecast for the coming week. The National option allows you to enter or select a city, state and zip code for which to view a weather report. Cool Links offers further weather (and non-weather related) information,
including links to pollen counts and further forecasts, the Hurricane Net,
lightening alerts and even Weather Trivia.
K. Joyce McDonald |