VANCOUVER ISLAND WINDTALK

The format of the webcam page has been changed. Here are some of the changes:

- the webcam zoom controls are now only available to users that are logged in AND who are part of a BWD user group. To become part of the group you either had to donate $ to the website, or be a regular contributor (i.e. use the sailing log and/or forum). I think this is fair. The zoom controls are a perk and available to the users who are adding something to the site. I added about 60 people to the group so far. If you think you have been left off then please email me (you might not be a forum member yet). Thanks again to all of the people that donate their time and $ to the site.

- for those that have access to the zoom controls, thanks to Russian Guy, they are now available for one user at a time. You will have 2 minutes to use the controls, after which they are passed onto the next waiting person. You can gain access 1 minute after a session if no-one is waiting. Cookies must be enabled for this to work (you must accept cookies from bigwavedave.ca). This, along with limiting the zoom to a smaller group, should eliminate the "zoom rage".

- You can now see the last 10 images by clicking on the live webcam image, then clicking again to go back to the live image.

- There is a new hourly time lapse animation.

- The webcam pages now open without a popup. Some people may not like this but I think it looks cleaner.

- Tides and useful links are shown on the bottom of each of the webcam pages.

- You can now sponsor a webcam. You can put your logo on a webcam page for a monthly fee and this will help to pay off the webcam and also pay the monthly internet costs. Email (dave@bigwavedave.ca) and ask how.

That's it for now. Please post if you have problems or questions. Oh, and a new webcam should be online by the end of March (at a new and exciting location).

thanks
dave

cheers bwd and krew!

the tide graph is a nice touch as well

Hey Superstar i'm backkkkkkk!!!!!!

Wow, Dave, Ruskie and Co., continued improvement, soon any moron can figure you the makings of a great sailing day, tide table right there, forecast page, time lapse webpix. You are taking the art out of sailing day forecasting, dood, stop it!! I'm just now starting to figure it out....

Nice work all Anyone wanna sponsor a webcam with me? We could call ourselves the "work less, sail more" team and cam, ha Ideas abound.

Very cool, this site just keeps getting better and better. Thanks BWD and co!

Thanks for the comments everyone. Please post if you have any zoom problems - I'd like to know if it works ok for people too.

KUS wrote:Issues: outsiders without log in can access zoom from homepage as can I. When logged in, I get N/A on the webcam pages once I select a particular cam

Kus>The homepage links have been removed now and the old webcam popups are now redirected to the new pages...(so no more "outsiders"). When you go to a webcam page (http://www.bigwavedave.ca/webcams.php?cam=1), I default to not showing the zoom buttons. You have to hit the link "Click HERE to get zoom control" next to the buttons. I did this, otherwise everytime you loaded the page it would check for zoom availability even if you didn't need it. You probably only want to zoom a few times and not everytime you check the page. When you click the link it should load a page that checks to see if the zoom is available...does this work? If not, what does the message say?
thanks for testing,
dave

yep, works just fine

KUS wrote:yep, works just fine

Excellent thanks for letting me know. Also let me know if its a pain to hit the link to check for zoom control. I can always make it check once you load the page, but I figured people only zoom some of the times?

The other minor change is that there is no delay now between button presses. The old version had you wait one minute until you hit a button, but now you can hit them faster. But don't hit them too fast and remember - the camera zooms very fast but it takes up to 1 minute to show the new image (with 30sec refreshes). So no need to hit "++" several times since once is enough, but you can hit "+" several times to zoom in using several small few steps.
dave

Hey BWD, that is fantastic. I love the new format! It rocks!!

The new daily time lapse(every hour) looks great to see change too!
Nice work!!

So nice I'm gonna donate $$$ right NOW!!

YOU RULE DOOD!!

ps. maybe you should get some BIG GEAR..?? 6.0m maybe..??(SMILES!)

Great improvement to the cam pages Dave...How about adding http://www.bigwavedave.ca/RecentData/Pr ... recent.htm to the Cook & Gordo's cam...& http://www.weatheroffice.pyr.ec.gc.ca/m ... ope_e.html to the I-view & C.B. cams ???

jimmy lewis wrote:Great improvement to the cam pages Dave...How about adding http://www.bigwavedave.ca/RecentData/Pr ... recent.htm to the Cook & Gordo's cam...& http://www.weatheroffice.pyr.ec.gc.ca/m ... ope_e.html to the I-view & C.B. cams ???

Good idea, thanks...done.
dave

Those are excellent additions to the web cam pages....these things are really looking good!! Hey Marv, fantastic suggestion!! You're pretty smart for a ferry-dood! They really should make you Capt. Weather!!

Nice! I just looked through most of yesterday's Cook thumbnails - seems like the amount of zooming way in/out is way down, and the super wide angle zoom I thought had been disabled til I saw some late afternoon. I like the tide graph there too!

I've only just gotten the chance to check out the new format, WoW!
Awsome! Cool! I love all of the information you can gather in just moments.
It has been fun, interesting and exciting to watch this site grow change and get better with each addition.
Thanks again BWD, and all else involved.