Catfood Software Blog

NPR Station Finder for Windows Mobile

2010-01-09T15:59:00.000-08:00

Find NPR stations by ZIP code or from your current location if your device is equipped with a GPS.

Download NPR Station Finder

If you're using GPS the search will time out after 30 seconds if your location isn't found. Just press Search again until the GPS gets a fix. NPR Station Finder requires the .NET Compact Framework 2.0 Service Pack 2. You probably have this already (if not, you'll get an error at startup).

Winter Solstice 2009 in Catfood Earth

2009-12-21T09:27:00.000-08:00

It's the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere and the official start of winter. Happy Holidays!

Rendered using Catfood Earth.

Catfood Follower 1.10

2009-12-12T14:13:00.000-08:00

I've just released an update to Catfood Follower. Follower is a tool for Twitter users that allows you to find and remove friends who have stopped following you. It also allows you to automatically follow anyone who starts following you (but does not send automatic DMs).

Download Catfood Follower

Follower 1.10 is much better at handling Twitter API limits. Rather than failing to update it will wait until the current limits expire and then keep going. It will work much better for people with many accounts, friends, or followers. 1.10 also uses the new cursor method for paging through lists which is more reliable.

There's also a new window that shows progress when automatically processing rules:

This is now the default when running Follower.exe with no command line argument. If you prefer the old behavior run Follower.exe /silent and the update will run without any notification.

It's also now possible to cancel Follower, either from the test window or when running automatically (as long as you're not using the /silent switch).

Catfood Earth 3.00

2009-12-07T08:47:00.001-08:00

Catfood Earth 3.00 is now available for download.

Catfood Earth updates your Desktop wallpaper to show a satellite image of the Earth's surface combined with many optional layers of information. Layers include cloud cover, the extent of daylight and nightime, time zones and earthquakes. The result is a beautiful and continually changing background for your computer.

Earth is an update to Catfood Desktate. Existing Desktate customers can upgrade to Earth at no cost. If you're new to Earth download the free 7 day trial or purchase Earth for $19.95 from the Catfood Store.

New themes make it easy to configure Earth with the recommended settings for a number of views. The Natural theme approximates Earth from space. Time Zones color codes countries and regions and updates throughout the year as daylight savings rules change around the world. Earthquakes shows quake data from the USGS.

Once you've selected a theme you can fully customize each layer, including colors, text size, image sources and transparency.

I'd like to thank all the beta testers who provided feedback and encouragement over the past few months. People use Earth for lots of different reasons and the flexibility in 3.00 is due to learning more about this from both long time Desktate customers and new Earth users.

Catfood Earth supports Windows XP, Vista and 7. Download Earth to get started.

Catfood Earth Animations

2009-12-06T09:09:00.000-08:00

Two videos created using Catfood Earth Beta.

The first shows time zone changes in 2009. You'll see various countries and regions changing zone as they enter and leave daylight savings time. The animation compresses an entire year into a few seconds:

The second is an update to Seasons, a video created in Catfood Desktate. It shows the extent of daylight and nighttime over the course of a year. You can also see snow and ice cover and vegetation growing and dying back - barely noticeable in Catfood Earth but dramatic in the animation:

The videos were created by rendering a sequence of frames in Catfood Earth. I then used ImageToAVI to create an animation from the frames and uploaded to YouTube. The render frames feature will be available in the full release of Catfood Earth 3.00.

Political Borders and Places in Catfood Earth Beta

2009-12-03T16:03:00.000-08:00

I've added the final two layers to the Catfood Earth beta - Political Borders and Places. The Places layer now includes time zones and has the option to display the current local time for each location.

There's also a new Themes tab that allows you to configure Catfood Earth for common display modes in a single click. The current themes are: Natural (daylight, nighttime and clouds), Time Zones (color coded countries and political borders) and Earthquakes.

Catfood Earth is pretty close now. There's a bit of tidying left to do and a few more minor features to add. Download Catfood Earth Beta from the original blog post.

Catfood Software on Facebook and Twitter

2009-11-28T18:01:00.000-08:00

I recently created a fan page for Catfood Software on Facebook. The page includes videos and photos of new work in progress so if you're a Facebook user check it out:

Catfood Software has also been on Twitter for a while. This is a great way to get notified when new webcams have been added to WebCamSaver as well as blog posts and other news:

Hope to see you on Facebook or Twitter soon.

Time Zones in Catfood Earth Beta

2009-11-24T11:01:00.000-08:00

The latest update to Catfood Earth includes a sophisticated time zone layer:

Catfood Desktate supports simple time zones by (optionally) displaying 24 clocks across the top of the image. In Catfood Earth I wanted to add a layer with greater accuracy.

The new layer adds color to show the current time around the world. By default the colors are added to each country in the image with color codes clocks that show the current time in each zone. You can also add color to the rest of the map as well. Click the image above for a more detailed view.

What won't be immediately obvious is that the layer is updated when a country changes time zone, i.e. switching to or from daylight savings. Whenever this happens the layer is updated so that the color coding remains accurate throughout the year.

Making the new time zone layer involved a lot of data. I'm indebted to Eric Muller for his time zone shapefile, the tz database and the zoneinfo project. In the course of processing the data I wrote and released an open source library for parsing ERSI Shapefiles.

This is still a work in progress, especially the default color scheme. Please give the time zone layer a try and provide me with feedback - preferably in comments below, alternatively send me a email.

Download Catfood Earth Beta from the original blog post. Remember that I'm still giving away free licenses if you provide feedback on the beta.

Improved Earthquake Display in Catfood Earth Beta

2009-10-25T16:32:00.000-07:00

I've just improved the way that Catfood Earth displays earthquakes:

The biggest change is that you can choose to display a description for each quake. The description includes the magnitude, location, date and time.

There is also now a transparency range so that recent quakes are highlighted and then fade over time. The start and end of the range is fully configurable.

Lastly you can now set a minimum magnitude so that the display isn't cluttered with numerous minor quakes.

Download the update from Catfood Earth Beta and leave a comment to let me know what you think.

Autumnal Equinox 2009 in Catfood Desktate

2009-09-22T13:18:00.000-07:00

The Autumnal Equinox for 2009 was at 21:18 GMT today. The image below captures the equinox in Catfood Desktate:

It's the start of Autumn/Fall in the northern hemisphere, Spring for the southern.

With a fair wind I'll post the Winter ~~Equinox~~ Solstice using Catfood Earth, which will replace Desktate.

US Weather Radar in Catfood Earth Beta

2009-09-13T14:17:00.000-07:00

The Catfood Earth Beta now supports displaying weather radar images from over 160 sites around the Unites States. Just select the site closest to you and choose from Reflectivity, 1 Hour Precipitation, Storm Total Precipitation, Velocity, Storm Relative Motion and Long Range Reflectivity images.

The screen shot below shows 1 Hour Precipitation for San Francisco:

I'm currently offering a free license to anyone who provides feedback on the beta. See the Catfood Earth Beta for full details.

Catfood Tracker 1.30

2009-09-07T10:18:00.000-07:00

Tracker generates Google Earth KML files from GPS equipped Windows Mobile devices. You can also use the KML files in Google Maps.

1.30 adds a few commonly requested options to Tracker.

Sample Interval - you can now configure how frequently Tracker records a position sample, from once a second to as long as you like. The default is twenty seconds.

GPS Power - if you're recording samples infrequently you can choose to power down the GPS between readings. The default is to keep the GPS powered up and in most cases this means that location samples will be more accurate.

Store elevation in KML - it's now possible to log your altitude above sea level to the KML file. The default is to not record elevation. Google Earth will automatically fit the KML track to it's internal elevation and in most cases this is what you want. If you're a pilot recording a flight then set this option to show the GPS altitude rather than fitting the track to Google Earth's data.

Download Tracker 1.30 from the original Tracker post, or on your Windows Mobile device from http://www.catfood.net/m/.

Earthquakes in Catfood Earth

2009-07-12T15:56:00.000-07:00

I just released a small update to the Catfood Earth Beta adding a layer for earthquakes.

The layer uses the USGS feed for earthquakes over magnitude 2.5 in the past day.

Catfood Earth displays an accented circle over the epicenter of the earthquake. The size of the circle is proportional to the magnitude. You can customize the fill and accent colors. It's also possible to show earthquakes from the past hour up to the past 24 hours.

Webcam Updates Moving

2009-07-11T16:14:00.001-07:00

Starting early tomorrow morning the list of new webcams added each week will be posted to the new Webcam Updates Blog. I've made this change so that this blog can focus on product related news and updates. If you'd like to know whenever new webcams are added to the WebCamSaver database you can subscribe to the update feed.

Catfood Earth 3.00 Beta and Free License Offer

2009-07-05T16:08:00.000-07:00

(Updated 2009-12-06: Catfood Earth released today!)

Catfood Earth is the new name for Catfood Desktate. Desktate made sense for the first few versions but the product has expanded over the years and now makes your desktop wallpaper into an Earth simulator. The image below is from the beta release today (click for a larger version):

Version 3 is now in beta. If you send me feedback during the beta then I'll send you a free registration key. Let me know what you like or don't like, report a bug or request a new feature.

Download Catfood Earth 3.00 Beta

If you have Catfood Desktate installed then I'd recommend uninstalling it before you install the Catfood Earth beta.

I'll update this post as new beta releases become available and when the final version releases. I received a lot of feedback for the WebCamSaver 3 beta so I'm really looking forward to hearing what you think about the new Catfood Earth.

(Updated 2009-07-12 to 3.00.0277: Now includes an earthquakes layer showing magnitude 2.5 or greater earthquakes over up to the last 24 hours.)

(Updated 2009-09-13 to 3.00.0329: Added US weather radar, fixed problems with updating on Windows XP.)

(Updated 2009-09-27 to 3.00.0349: Fixed a Julian date calculation bug that caused the render date to be incorrect. Added 7 day trial logic.)

(Updated 2009-10-25 to 3.00.0417: Improved earthquake layer - control transparency range, minimum magnitude to display and optional description including local date and time for the quake.)

(Updated 2009-11-24 to 3.00.0511: Added time zone layer. XP support is still flaky - this will be improved soon.)

(Updated 2009-12-03 to 3.00.0654: Added political borders and places layers. Improved XP support. Added Themes to set defaults for common configurations.)

(Updated 2009-12-06 to 3.00.0713: Out of beta!)

Webcam Updates

2009-07-05T07:26:00.000-07:00

Catfood WebCamSaver added the following new locations today:

Tucson, Arizona, USA
Tucson, Arizona, USA
Tucson, Arizona, USA
Wenatchee, Washington, USA

If you use Catfood WebCamSaver these webcams will be added in your next automatic update. They'll also go into rotation in our Google and Vista webcam gadgets. Enjoy!

Webcam Updates

2009-06-28T07:49:00.000-07:00

Catfood WebCamSaver added the following new locations today:

Cappelle Sul Tavo, Abruzzi, Italy
Clearwater, Florida, USA
Newton, Kansas, USA

If you use Catfood WebCamSaver these webcams will be added in your next automatic update. They'll also go into rotation in our Google and Vista webcam gadgets. Enjoy!

Summer Solstice 2009 in Catfood Desktate

2009-06-21T09:18:00.000-07:00

Summer Solstice (or Winter if you're in the southern hemisphere) rendered in Catfood Desktate:

Click the image for a larger version.

Webcam Updates

2009-06-21T07:11:00.000-07:00

Catfood WebCamSaver added the following new locations today:

Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

If you use Catfood WebCamSaver these webcams will be added in your next automatic update. They'll also go into rotation in our Google and Vista webcam gadgets. Enjoy!

Webcam Updates

2009-06-14T07:45:00.000-07:00

Catfood WebCamSaver added the following new locations today:

Elche, Comunidad Valenciana, Spain
Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
Las Palmas, Canarias, Spain
Portland, Oregon, USA
USA
USA
Utica, New York, USA

If you use Catfood WebCamSaver these webcams will be added in your next automatic update. They'll also go into rotation in our Google and Vista webcam gadgets. Enjoy!

Webcam Updates

2009-06-07T07:09:00.000-07:00

Catfood WebCamSaver added the following new locations today:

Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Tokyo, Japan
Wichita, Kansas, USA

If you use Catfood WebCamSaver these webcams will be added in your next automatic update. They'll also go into rotation in our Google and Vista webcam gadgets. Enjoy!

Webcam Updates

2009-05-31T06:47:00.001-07:00

Catfood WebCamSaver added the following new locations today:

Saint Petersburg, Florida, USA
Utica, New York, USA
Utica, New York, USA

If you use Catfood WebCamSaver these webcams will be added in your next automatic update. They'll also go into rotation in our Google and Vista webcam gadgets. Enjoy!

Play Battleships by Text Message

2009-05-25T11:14:00.000-07:00

Catfood TextShips is a simple play by text message version of battleships for Windows Mobile 6 (both smartphone and professional). There is no single player version so you'll need an opponent with a Windows Mobile phone to play. You'll also want an unlimited text message plan as one game could potentially send hundreds of text messages.

Download TextShips

TextShips requires the .NET Compact Framework 2.0 SP2 - if the game won't start on your phone you probably need to download and install this.

After installing if you receive text messages starting with "CFBS" click Menu -> Settings and enable reading your SMS inbox. TextShips tries to intercept text messages automatically but this fails on a some devices. If you need to switch this setting on then I'd recommend exiting TextShips (Menu -> Exit) when you're not actively playing.

I've added a mobile download page at http://www.catfood.net/m - bookmark this on your phone to check for TextShips updates and to download other Windows Mobile products from Catfood Software.

You can get help with Text Ships using by sending me email.

Webcam Updates

2009-05-24T06:52:00.000-07:00

Catfood WebCamSaver added the following new locations today:

Tottori, Japan

If you use Catfood WebCamSaver these webcams will be added in your next automatic update. They'll also go into rotation in our Google and Vista webcam gadgets. Enjoy!

Webcam Updates

2009-05-17T06:48:00.001-07:00

Catfood WebCamSaver added the following new locations today:

Tampa, Florida, USA

If you use Catfood WebCamSaver these webcams will be added in your next automatic update. They'll also go into rotation in our Google and Vista webcam gadgets. Enjoy!