[opendtv] Re: The Weather and do these people have NO shame?

  • From: Kon Wilms <kon@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Wed, 27 Apr 2005 11:04:52 -0700

On Wed, 2005-04-27 at 10:20 -0700, Dale Kelly wrote:
> Do you actually believe that services such as Accuweather and TWC
> could provide viable product lacking the weather data supplied by
> the several government agencies and derived from their multibillion
> dollar network of sensors, including the many satellites with varying
> capabilities? If someone must pay for this information, lets begin with
> Accuweather and TWC.

Did you bother to read my reply, or should I copy/paste it again? I
don't support what they are doing, but people like you are foaming at
the mouth saying they do nothing but repackage NWS data and have no
other source of data when in fact that is untrue.

And no, if we don't have to pay for it, then Accuweather shouldn't have
to pay for it either. They can charge whatever they want - doesn't mean
I *have* to use it. Its what we call a free market, remember? However,
if I am paying for NWS data as a taxpayer, then I fully expect to get
it, and commercial interests attempting to close this so they can
greedily extract more money from me shouldn't be allowed to do so.

Here's a list I pulled from opensecrets.org, showing soft money
contributions from Accuweather to the senator pushing this bill (some
are not relevant). Must be nice to get between $250 and $2000 every
couple of months for over 5 years. This makes me sick. I wonder if the
last one on the list ('homemaker') is any relation!

Santorum, Rick
MYERS, A ROSS
WORCESTER,PA 19490
ALLAN A MYERS 
2/8/1999
$1,000
Santorum, Rick

Santorum, Rick
MYERS, BARRY LEE DR
STATE COLLEGE,PA 16801
ACCU WEATHER 
8/31/2004
$250

Santorum, Rick
MYERS, BARRY LEE MRS
STATE COLLEGE,PA 16801
ACCU WEATHER 
8/31/2004
$250

Santorum, Rick
MYERS, CHARLES J
PITTSBURGH,PA 15241
RETIRED 
8/12/1999
$200

Santorum, Rick
MYERS, JOEL
STATE COLLEGE,PA 16801
6/30/2000
($300)
Santorum, Rick

MYERS, JOEL N
STATE COLLEGE,PA 16801
ACCU WEATHER 
9/10/1999
$1,000

Santorum, Rick
MYERS, JOEL N
STATE COLLEGE,PA 16801
ACCU WEATHER 
8/18/1999
$250

Santorum, Rick
MYERS, JOEL N
STATE COLLEGE,PA 16801
ACCU WEATHER 
9/10/1999
($700)

Santorum, Rick
MYERS, JOEL N DR
STATE COLLEGE,PA 16801
ACCU WEATHER 
12/31/2003
$1,750

Santorum, Rick
MYERS, JOEL N DR
STATE COLLEGE,PA 16801
ACCU WEATHER 
5/16/2000
$1,000

Santorum, Rick
MYERS, JOEL N DR
STATE COLLEGE,PA 16801
ACCU WEATHER 
6/7/2000
$300

Santorum, Rick
MYERS, JOEL N DR
STATE COLLEGE,PA 16801
ACCU WEATHER 
10/9/2003
$250

Santorum, Rick
MYERS, JOEL N DR
STATE COLLEGE,PA 16801
ACCU WEATHER 
12/31/2003
$250

Santorum, Rick
MYERS, JOSEPH
PHILADELPHIA,PA 19106
7/26/2000
$250

Santorum, Rick
MYERS, PEGGY
STATE COLLEGE,PA 16801
HOMEMAKER 
9/10/1999
$700


> Also, in this discussion, we've failed to identify the major client and
> a major justification for the US government's investment in it's vast
> world wide weather gathering capability. This information is mission
> *critical* to the military.

The military isn't a client, it is a partner. The Defense Meteorological
Satellite Program's satellites merged into NOAA operations in 1998.

But you fail to mention the fact that there are NWS services offered
over satellite for which the military has little interest (like EMWIN).
Also, I hope you don't honestly believe that the military relies on
10ft/pixel satellite imaging for mission critical operations. They have
separate networks for that, with *no* civilian access.

People like Accuweather repackage and beautify feeds like EMWIN. You may
have software to parse 3000 text files in a directory, or you may want
to hit a website with a bitmap summarizing those 3000 text files.

> A similar discussion could be about private use of the GPS
> satellite system, which is also critical military hardware and is widely
> commercialized. Should a government licensing fee be charged for
> it's commercial use?  Perhaps that might be more profitable than
> auctioning our devaluing broadcast spectrum.

The military uses their own frequencies on the Navstar satellites. In
the event of some sort of threat the civilian frequencies can be
disabled. So this one isn't as cut and dry as a 'everyone gets the same
data, lets charge for it' scenario.

Cheers
Kon


 
 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways:

- Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at 
FreeLists.org 

- By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word 
unsubscribe in the subject line.

Other related posts: